Introducing “Flea Market”
A story of neoliberalism and the 2020 Presidential Debates
A story of neoliberalism and the 2020 Presidential Debates
| “Flea Market” is a short academic music project influenced by A.D. Carson’s first ever peer-reviewed rap album “I Used to Love to Dream”, released in 2020. Developed in Max Boykoff’s course, Climate Politics and Science-Policy, this project asserts that neoliberal ideals of corporate deregulation and privatization of public goods had a profound influence on the conversation on climate change at the 2020 presidential debates. In exploration of the themes and extent of neoliberal influence, the combination of sound bytes from the debates and written lyrics builds an argument that neoliberalism has normalized climate denial, worked tirelessly to convince individuals that consumerism and jobs are more important than personal and community health, and advocated for slow capitalist-centric market based solutions to social problems. The questions and responses from the participants of these debates: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Kristen Welker and Chris Wallace empower this argument and show the lack of recent progress revolutionizing the rhetoric surrounding climate change, a unique and wicked problem. | ||
| The title track of this project takes this idea of lack of progress and offers that the candidates and moderators too often pawn decade-old ideas and questions off secondhand to viewers much like a vendor at a flea market would. “Flea Market” challenges those who hold political power to reform the rhetoric of climate change in politics and prioritize the needs of communities and individuals in the face of the largest existential threat this country has faced in its short history. | ||
| Listen here on soundcloud | ||