When ‘special measures’ become ordinary | openDemocracy
▻https://opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/david-beer/when-%E2%80%98special-measures%E2%80%99-become-ordinary
We might say that this is linked to the kind of ‘everyday neoliberalism’ to which Philip Mirowski has referred, which is to say that neoliberal ways of thinking permeate all aspects of social life. We are pushed into #competition by the systems of measurement that act upon us – either encouraging us or commanding us to join in. To compete is to be measured. As we compete to hone our bodies and to be perfect subjects, as we compete as customers for preferential treatment or to be well-known by convenient filtering algorithmic systems, and as we compete to be a good worker or to merely survive the workplace - we are being exposed to, and are engaging with, ordinary measures. These measures may not be special anymore, but this makes them all the more powerful as a presence in our lives.