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Excerpt: /345/ Who Is The New Elite? ft. Matt Goodwin Jun 06, 2023

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On power, values and class. [Patreon Exclusive] British professor Matt Goodwin joins us to talk about his recent new book Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics published earlier this year with Penguin. Matt has argued that a new elite has come to dominate public life, leading institutions and the cultural industries in Britain and across the wider Western world, and that they are fixated with issues that divide them from the larger public – to whom they are bitter and hostile. We talk about elites, old and new, as well as ideas about elites stemming back to Daniel Bell and Christopher Lasch, and how these elites are shaping the future of politics. Matt also gives us a breakdown of the most recent local elections from the UK, what has happened with the Scottish National Party since the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon, why Keir Starmer’s Labour party will likely win the next election, and why the Tories are - contrary to their ruthless reputation - failing to adapt to the new political landscape. Readings:

National Swing Man, the British electorate’s new-old tribe, Bagehot, The Economist
A decade of SNP one-party rule left Scotland in a state, Matthew Goodwin, The Times
Sunak’s Tories have lost the Red Wall – and are destined for oblivion, Matthew Goodwin, The Telegraph
The New Elite is in complete denial, Matthew Goodwin, spiked

/344/ Don’t Do The Work ft. Ben Hickman May 30, 2023

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On work stoppages and work-doings.

Ben Hickman, published poet and senior lecturer in English at the University of Kent, joins us to discuss his project on different understandings of work, or rather, The Work.

What is The Work and why is it so pernicious? Ben wrote a piece for Compact regarding how the American poet and radical professor Audre Lorde transformed the way we think about work. We talk through the differences between work and The Work, how it impacted radical activism, and how middle class work became all about self-exploration.

Ben talks through a new book project on work and how it is understood culturally through figures such as Jackson Pollock, among others. Plus, what is happening with industrial relations on UK campuses, and how has radical politics unfolded in the Labour Party over the last few years?

Reading:

Stop Doing The Work, Ben Hickman, Compact
“Atlantis Buried Outside”: Muriel Rukeyser, Myth, and the Crises of War, Ben Hickman, Criticism, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Fall 2015)

Excerpt: /343/ Reading Club: Freedom (4) May 29, 2023

Show notes

On Martin Hägglund's This Life.

We continue on the theme of freedom by discussing Martin Hägglund's case for 'democratic socialism'. In this episode, we leave the book itself to one side and attempt to "put the concepts to work".

We survey the many intelligent responses the book has generated and discuss what their strengths and weaknesses are.

Is 'secular faith' just a therapeutic ethos to do with caring about your loved ones?
What guarantees that we will use our free time appropriately? Why would we work freely for others?
How does Hägglund’s vision work on a global scale?
What kind of post-capitalist “state” does Hagglund actually propose?
Does Hägglund evade class struggle? Does he have any vision of agency?

For access to the Reading Club, join for $10/mo at patreon.com/bungacast
Readings:

Limited Time: On Martin Hägglund’s This Life, Robert Pippin – and response by Martin Hägglund (pdf)
Response 2: The Problem of Agency, Lea Ypi, The Philosopher
Socialism For Our Time: Freedom, Value, Transition, Conall Cash, Boundary2 (esp. Sections IV and V)
LA Review of Books symposium. Pieces by Walter Benn Michaels, Benjamin Kunkel, William Clare Roberts and three-part response by Hägglund: 1, 2, 3

Excerpt: /342/ Maybe Don’t Abolish the Family? w/ Amber A’Lee Frost May 23, 2023

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On family abolition.

[Patreon Exclusive]

Amber A'Lee Frost joins us to talk through recent radical proposals to do away with the family as an institution. Author Sophie Lewis claims that "ever since the capitalist victory over the long Sixties, the shout for abolition of the family has been buried beneath a strange kind of shame”, but that now it’s back. Why?

What problems does family abolition address? And how do contemporary accounts sit in relation to earlier radical proposals by the Old and New Lefts?

If "the family is doing a bad job at care" and "getting in the way of alternatives", what actually is the alternative? Wouldn't destroying the family merely make life worse for most, without putting anything better in its place? Readings:

Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation, Sophie Lewis, Verso
Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family, Sophie Lewis, Verso
Profile of Sophie Lewis in VICE
Haven in a Heartless World, Christopher Lasch
Vulnerability as Ideology, Peter Ramsay, The Northern Star
The Lockdown Left: socialists against society, Philip Cunliffe, spiked
Anti-Social Socialism Club, Dustin Guastella, Damage

/340/ How to Grow a Backbone ft. Russell Jacoby May 16, 2023

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On utopia and individualism.

Renowned intellectual historian and critic Russell Jacoby joins us to talk about his lifetime of left critique. We discuss his early criticisms of psychology in light of the advance of therapy culture over the past 50 years, before moving on to the question of utopianism.

Will the breakdown of the neoliberal era lead to new utopian thinking? Does enthusiasm for a universal basic income signal serious thinking about the nature of work? Or are we still in a world where only dystopian thinking is permitted?

The episode concludes by discussing how all the talk of diversity today obscures the reality of increasing homogeneity. What does this say about the individual? Is the way children are brought up today killing the capacity for imagination and making us all conformists?

Part two of the interview, and our After Party, is available at patreon.com/bungacast

Selected books by Jacoby:

Social Amnesia: A Critique of Contemporary Psychology (Beacon Press, 1975; Transaction, 1997)
The Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe (Basic Books, 1987; new edition with new Introduction, Basic Books 2000)
The End of Utopia: Politics and Culture in the Age of Apathy (Basic Books, 1999)
Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age (Columbia University Press, 2005)
On Diversity: The Eclipse of the Individual in a Global Era (Seven Stories Press, 2020)

Other recent articles and interviews:

D’une pensée critique sous emprise – Un entretien avec Russell Jacoby, Comptoir
A Climate of Fear, Russell Jacoby, Harper's
The Takeover, Russell Jacoby, Tablet

/339/ Erdogone? People vs Nation in Turkey ft. Alp Kayserilioglu May 10, 2023

Show notes

On Turkey's elections.

Alp Kayserilioglu joins us to talk about a crucial election. Erdogan’s rule is seriously threatened for the first time, with high inflation biting into living standards.

Who are the main candidates and do what they propose? Where does AKP draw its support from, and what has sustained its legitimacy? We discuss the supposed supposed culture war between conservative Islamic values and secular liberal ones. And ask how Erdogan has managed the economic crisis of the past few years.

We conclude with Alp trying to place Erdogan in longer historical context: 2023 marks 100 years of the Turkish Republic. Does Erdogan represent a radical break, or nationalist continuity?

Readings:

Turkey’s Statequake, Alp Kayserilioglu, Sidecar
Goodbye Erdoğan?, Alp Kayserilioglu, Sidecar
Alp's writing at Jacobin

/338/ The Energy Theory of Everything ft. Matt Huber May 09, 2023

Show notes

On who owns the power.

Matt Huber joins us to discuss his article, "Socialist Politics and the Electricity Grid", and how organised labour is central to a politics of plenty. What is the grid and who owns it? What are the limitations of a "100% renewables" approach?

On the politics of energy, the left is divided in a similar way to the ruling class. How do we move from a strategy of 'blocking' (preventing new infrastructure) to one of 'building'? And why does a movement to limit climate change need to focus on production, rather than consumption?
We conclude by discussing the conflict between struggles around "the end of the month" (living standards) and those around "the end of the world" (climate change).
Readings & Links:

Socialist Politics & the Electricity Grid, Matt Huber & Fred Stafford, Catalyst
Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, Matt Huber, Verso
On post-neoliberalism: /326/ What Did Capitalism Do Next?, Bungacast
On de-growth: /310/ Do You Want to De-Grow?, Bungacast
On green activism: /91/ Exhaustion Revealing ft. Leigh Phillips, Bungacast
Matt's Twitter thread on Kokei Saito's degrowth communism

/337/ Nigeria Rising Downwards ft. Sa’eed Husaini May 02, 2023

Show notes

On Nigeria's 'end of the end of history'.

Sa'eed Husaini from The Nigerian Scam podcast joins us to reflect on all things Nigeria: oil, debt, corruption and February's election. What was all that hype about the 'outsider' who wasn't much of an outsider? Has the country's populist moment passed?

More Nigerians are falling into poverty due to low economic growth, while the state is due to spend 96% of its income on debt service. How is this sustainable?
We also talk about oil and corruption: the 'resource curse' and the 'survival of the fattest'. And conclude on China's role in the country and Nigeria as a cultural powerhouse.

Links & Readings:

Buharism is dead, long live Buharism, Sa’eed Husaini, Africa is a Country
/61/ Making Plans for Naija ft. Sa'eed Husaini
The Nigerian Scam podcast
The Oil Thieves of Nigeria, James Barnett, New Lines
Survival of the Fattest, Paulo Collier, The American Interest

Excerpt: /336/ Reading Club: Freedom (3) Apr 27, 2023

Show notes

On Martin Hägglund's This Life.

[Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive]

We continue on the theme of freedom by discussing Martin Hägglund's case for 'democratic socialism'. Would we actually work under socialism, or do we need the threat of starvation or the promise of profit to motivate us? And what, if anything, is to structure all that free time we would gain?

Why is Hägglund's critique of religion – specifically the critique of 'political theology' – so central to his arguments? And how do we avoid the various temptations to retreat from passion, be it therapy-junk, new age buddhism, the goon cave, or post-politics?

For local Reading Clubs, email info@bungacast.com
Readings & resources:

This Life: Why Mortality Makes Us Free, Martin Hägglund, Profile Books ––Chapter 6 and Conclusion
On time, work, freedom and necessity: /298/ Working For Freedom ft. Alex Gourevitch
On Hegel and contradiction: /167/ The Kingdom of God Is on Main Street ft. Todd McGowan

Excerpt: /335/ AI & the End of the End of History Apr 25, 2023

Show notes

On history-ending technology. [Patreon Exclusive] The economist Tyler Cowen recently suggested that radical technological change today marks a turning point in history. Is he right, and how would we evaluate such a claim? Should we be sceptical about these big claims, especially given all the Silicon Valley-driven hype around AI? Or is 'radical agnosticism' the right stance? And what about calls to rein-in the development of artificial intelligence, especially when these calls come from Silicon Valley itself? Readings:

Existential risk, AI, and the inevitable turn in human history, Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
Is this the end of “The End of History”?, Robert Stark
The call for an AI halt disguises the real problems with tech, Jason Walsh, Tech Central
/306/ AI Capitalism: Inhuman Power (unlocked Bungacast Reading Club episode)

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