On cash welfarism and state investment. Plus regionalism in Belgium & the UK.
Anton Jäger is back on the pod to discuss the emerging 'transfer state'. We examine Biden's massive trillion-dollar spending plans and ask if this means we're leaving neoliberalism. What are the limitations to the 'cashification of welfar...
2021-04-20 06:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
On Covid state failure + responses to listeners.
We start off by discussing listener points and criticisms – e.g. is PMC a useful category? Is a counterculture a terrible idea? Were we wrong on Deleuze? More on the lockdown debate... – before featuring the second part of our discussion with Lee Jones on the cor...
2021-04-13 06:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
On the uprising in Myanmar, plus Covid state failure.
Southeast Asia scholar (and Bunga recidivist) Lee Jones joins us to talk about the coup in Myanmar (and why the word “coup” can be misleading), and explains the nature of the forces opposing the military, in the context of the country’s recent transition to civ...
2021-04-06 06:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
On memes and the counter-culture.
Theorist and curator Mike Watson advances the argument for "acid leftism". What is this, and why do we need a new counter-culture? Is contemporary leftism lacking a utopian imaginary?
Plus: slow memes and fast memes; the democratisation of art and media; and generations: which one...
2021-03-30 06:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
In this latest Three Articles, we examine the rise of 'techno-populism', look at the EU's vaccine debacle, and question whether cinema - and popular culture in general - is being desexualised and pornified at the same time.
Readings:
As we're starting a new cycle of Reading Clubs, we've decided to give livestreaming them a go, so that you guys can follow along live and make points/ask questions as we go.
On Thursday 1 April we'll be discussing Perry Anderson's essay, 2021-03-19 18:53:41 +0000 UTC View Post
On the socialist case for Scottish independence.
David Jamieson and Cat Boyd, writers and hosts of Conter, the Scottish anti-capitalist website and podcast, join us to to talk about the prospects for Scottish independence in advance of the Scottish parliamentary elections in May. Would an independent Scotland within the...
2021-03-16 07:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
On gay liberation and sexual politics.
After big advances over the past decades, we can now ask, did the gays win? And if so, so what? Mark Simpson in the UK and River Page in Florida join us to discuss whether something was lost in that victory.
We ponder whether gay politics was the original identity politics an...
2021-03-09 07:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
How to address the political problems of leftwing parties today?
Liverpudlian historian David Swift argues that the problem is hobbyism - people for whom politics constitutes their identity rather than expressing their interest in social and political change. He joins us to take us through his arguments about hobb...
2021-03-02 07:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostGeorge responds to the discussion in February's Reading Club with some further thoughts on Deleuze's notion of "societies of control"
Subject to ever-greater technological tracking and surveillance while we pass thr...
2021-03-01 16:07:50 +0000 UTC View Post
We respond to your questions and comments from the past two months. Plus a continuation of our chat with Catherine Liu (from 55mins onwards) - on PMC unions, PMC child-rearing and the culture industry.
Readings:
On the Professional-Managerial Class.
Catherine Liu joins us to talk about the worst class in history (the PMC), and how and why they hoard all forms of secularised value. We discuss the development of the PMC as a class, figure out when it stopped being "heroic", and debate who the PMC'S leader might be.
...
Hi everyone, we've now defined our Reading Club list for the rest of 2021, so you get can planning and reading. The recordings happen at the end of each month, specific dates TBC.
It's a good mix of politics, society and culture, and all of the works are accessible. Plus the majority are essays or book chapters, so th...
Reminder that our next Reading Club will be recorded on 25 Feb, on Deleuze's (rather short!) "Postscript on the Societies of Control". The downloadable pdf can be found here https://www.patreon.com/posts/41524278
We'll also be announcing the...
On American breakdown.
Editor of Damage Magazine, Benjamin Fong, joins us to talk about the lack of shared narratives in contemporary America. We discuss QAnon and conspiracy theories, Biden's authoritarian liberalism, and "pro-worker" conservatives.
We also interrogate the use of psychological analyses of poli...
Our next Reading Club is being recorded this Friday (8pm GMT), on Richard Tuck's The Left Case for Brexit. Please do send us your questions/commen...
2021-01-27 17:46:25 +0000 UTC View Post
On Uber, class war among the rich, and its political consequences
Articles:
If liberal democracy has been dethroned, what next?
Francis Fukuyama famously declared the "end of history" in 1989. Has he been misunderstood? Should we understand the declaration in a geopolitical sense - liberal democracy triumphant - or in a more philosophical sense? We discuss what capital-H History means and what ...
2021-01-19 08:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
On the Biden administration and Trumpist reaction.
We discuss the riot at the US Capitol and why it was not a (failed) coup attempt. How serious was the event, and what next for Trumpist reaction - will it lead to a split in the Republican Party?
Our guests - journalist Amber Frost and political science academic D...
2021-01-12 08:01:04 +0000 UTC View Post
On the 'war communism' solution
As we enter the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic and its attendant turmoil, suffering and lockdown, inevitably the search for systemic causes and systemic responses grows more intense. Swedish ecologist and social theorist Andreas Malm joins us to discuss one possible response - a cr...
On freedom, authority and responsibility.
Theorist Todd McGowan joins us to talk about the End of History, what Hegel can teach us about emancipation, and why Slavoj Zizek’s reinterpretation of Hegel is so important. If contradiction is the basis of modern politics, what is its link to freedom? And what is the connect...
2020-12-21 15:47:44 +0000 UTC View PostOur "December" Reading Club is on Wolfgang Streeck's latest book, Critical Encounters. The episode will actually be recorded on 14 January, so plenty of time to read and get your questions in by then. Plus, as t...
2020-12-18 13:53:32 +0000 UTC View Post
We round off the year by previewing The End of the End of History and responding to your questions and criticisms, including Strasserism or left-conservatism, revolutionary memories, more on Covid and lockdowns, and other bits.
2020-12-15 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
On Toussaint L'Ouverture.
CLR James’s electrifying 1938 history of the 1791-1804 Haitian Revolution, The Black Jacobins, has long been a staple of many radicals’ libraries. But we now know a lot more about the life of the Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint L’Ouverture. How does this new knowledge impa...
2020-12-08 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
On censorship, platform capitalism and the Left.
We talk to Douglas Lain of Zer0 Books about YouTube taking down their video as a result of the algorithm flagging its content – and what this means for free speech.
Then, this month's Three Articles on war, conspiracy theory, and Covid (patrons only - sign up at ...
Info and links here: https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/our-books/end-end-history
2020-11-25 20:49:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Game writer & designer Jonas Kyratzes joins us to talk about the art of games, the culture of gaming, the gamification of society, and the identity politics of gamer culture. How far has Jonas’ own philosophy influenced his writing for games, such as “The Talos Principle”?
We also talk politics in Greece, fo...
On “culture”.
We discuss who produces culture and who consumes it – and what those inequalities reveal about culture today. Also, we ask what’s the ploblem with culture anyway and end up defending “low culture” from Red Hot Chili Peppers to food guys.
Reading:
Reminder that the next Reading Club will be on Christopher Lasch's The Culture of Narcissism. It will be recorded on 3 December, so please get your questions and points in by then. This is a book whose arguments will be familiar to many, even if you haven't read it y...
2020-11-16 21:49:42 +0000 UTC View Post
On Germany, the hegemon of Europe.
We are joined by leading German public intellectual Wolfgang Streeck to discuss the role of Germany at the end of the End of History. How is it and the EU faring under the assault of Covid-19? We cover Germany’s economic miracles - postwar and post-2008 -, Merkel’s tactical brillia...
2020-11-10 12:24:39 +0000 UTC View Post
