Henry Giroux, Paulo Freire, free-market fundamentalism and Hannah Arendt's "dark times"

The forces of free-market fundamentalism are on the march ushering in a terrifying horizon of what Hannah Arendt once called “dark times.” 

Across the globe, the tension between democratic values and market fundamentalism has reached a breaking point. The social contract is under assault, neo-Nazism is on the rise, right wing populism is propelling extremist political candidates and social movements into the forefront of political life, anti-immigrant sentiment is now wrapped in the poisonous logic of nationalism and exceptionalism, racism has become a mark of celebrated audacity, and a politics of disposability comes dangerously close to its endgame of extermination for those considered excess. 

Under such circumstances, it becomes frightfully clear that the conditions for totalitarianism and state violence are still with us smothering critical thought, social responsibility, the ethical imagination, and politics itself.

This if frightening stuff.  It follows in the footsteps of Paolo Freire.  Freire came to notability with the publication of his most famous work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. To read more of this Henry Giroux article, please go to CounterPunch.