Aspen U: The Myth Of The Free Market
Presented by Audi
The Myth Of The Free Market: America's Most Tenacious And Destructive Idea
March 20, 2024 | Limelight Aspen, 6pm, doors open 5:00pm
In their bestselling book Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway revealed the origins of climate change denial. In their new book, The Big Myth, they unfold the truth about another disastrous dogma: the "magic of the marketplace." In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with "big government" and up with unfettered markets. By the 1970s, this propaganda was succeeding. Free market ideology would define the next half-century across Republican and Democratic administrations, giving us a housing crisis, the opioid scourge, climate destruction, and a baleful response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Join us for an intimate evening with Naomi as she helps us understand this history so that we can imagine a future where markets will serve, not stifle, democracy. Signed copies of Naomi's new book: The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loath Government and Love the Free Market, will be available for sale at the event. Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. A world-renowned geologist, historian and public speaker, she is a leading voice on the role of science in society and the reality of anthropogenic climate change.