The Neoliberal God (and other bureaucrats)
roman inquisition reduced to a bureaucratic body
Mark Fisher argues in Capitalist Realism that neoliberalism isn’t just about free markets—it thrives on bureaucratic expansion, especially through compliance, audits, and self-surveillance. The transformation of the Roman Inquisition into a bureaucratic institution mirrors this: once a direct enforcer of doctrine through trials and punishments, it became a paperwork-heavy body regulating theological disputes in a more procedural, technocratic way. Instead of inquisitors burning heretics, we get committees reviewing theological papers. Completely different method and not nearly as much influence, but the nature of control itself has remained.
The Catholic Church → Global Media Networks & PR Management
The Catholic Church historically had direct, violent control (Inquisitions, Crusades, forced conversions).
Today, its power is more bureaucratic and media-driven—handling scandals (e.g., sex abuse cases) through PR strategies, legal teams, and internal reviews rather than direct suppression of critics.
Instead of burning heretics, it now manages reputations and influences global politics via lobbying and diplomacy.
Colonial Administrations → IMF / World Bank / Development NGOs
Direct colonial rule ended, but control didn’t vanish—it shifted to economic and financial structures.
The IMF and World Bank enforce debt and austerity policies that keep former colonies in a state of dependency (often called “neocolonialism”), but through contracts, economic incentives, and political pressure rather than direct military occupation.
Similarly, Western-funded NGOs often regulate governance and economic policies in the Global South in ways that echo colonial paternalism, but under the guise of "development" and "human rights."
Billion Dollar Heroes
Within today’s market-driven society, the correlation between an individual’s financial status and the commercial success of their biographical works reveals fascinating insights into what our culture values and celebrates. An examination of biography sales data demonstrates a significant relationship between net worth and reader interest, creating a self-reinforcing cycle that elevates business titans to cultural hero status while relegating many substantive contributors to relative obscurity. The publishing industry demonstrates clear preferences for subjects with substantial wealth, particularly those in the business world. Biographies of billionaires consistently outperform those of equally or more societally impactful individuals in scientific, academic, or social justice realms. This disparity manifests not just in sales figures but in the sheer volume of works dedicated to wealthy business figures compared to their counterparts in other fields.
Warren Buffett, with a current (2025) net worth of approximately $150 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, represents perhaps the most striking example of how extreme wealth correlates with biographical interest. The publishing phenomenon surrounding Buffett is unprecedented for a non-political figure. There are currently 47 books in print that simply have Buffett’s name in the title, a distinction that is matched only by major political figures and the Dalai Lama. One of those books sold 700000 copies in the first week at $35 a copy — that is about twice as much as the average for a 200 pages paperback ($9.99-$18.99). If you sell billionaires as modern heroes, you might as well charge a premium.
The sales disparity between biographies of business figures and those of other significant contributors suggests that in our market-oriented society, billionaires have assumed the cultural position once occupied by religious figures, political leaders, and military heroes. Within a capitalist framework that measures value primarily through market performance, biography sales provide perhaps the clearest quantitative metric of cultural heroism. By this measure, today’s most celebrated figures are unquestionably those who have accumulated vast personal wealth, particularly through business innovation and financial acumen.