Bungacast

Latest Episodes:

UNLOCKED /183/ Acid Bunga Bunga ft. Mike Watson May 02, 2021

Show notes

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 ones became conservative, which might not? Running order:

(00:04:15) - Interview with Mike Watson
(01:02:00) - 'Afterparty' discussion on what a counter-culture might look like today

Readings:

Can the Left Learn to Meme? , Mike Watson, Zero Books
The Acid Left, YouTube channel
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin (pdf)

/189/ Pink Tide Paradoxes ft. Fabio Luis Apr 27, 2021

Show notes

On Latin America's progressive wave and its discontents.

A new book on Latin America argues that 'pink tide' governments tried to treat the symptoms of neoliberal capitalism while allowing the underlying situation to worse. We talk to the author, Fabio Luis, about cases across the region, including the election in Ecuador and Venezuela's disaster, to Bolivia's coup and Argentina's "path of least resistance". How important is regional integration and what does an alternative socialist vision entail? And we ponder a sad question: is the dream of development and modernisation over?

Readings:

Power and Impotence: A History of South America Under Progressivism (1998-2016), Fabio Luis Barbosa dos Santos, Haymarket
/93/ Hot Chile and Other Neoliberal Failures ft. Pablo Pryluka Bungacast

UNLOCKED /179/ The Hobbyist Left ft. David Swift Apr 25, 2021

Show notes

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 hobbyism, and how he thinks the Left might change for the better.
Readings:

A Left For Itself, David Swift, Zer0 Books
How the Left lost all purpose, James Bloodworth, Unherd
How not to be a white anti-racist, David Swift, Unherd

Excerpt: /188/ The Huge Package State pt. 2 ft. Anton Jäger Apr 20, 2021

Show notes

On the end of the End of History and neo-feudalism.

This episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

In a continuation of our discussion on the emerging transfer state, we ask whether the end of neoliberalism entails the end of the 'End of History'. What are the determinate features of the End of History that we are leaving behind? Which are still with us?

Also, what to make of arguments that our future is neo- or techno-feudal? Do these terms make any sense? Or is it better to think of two alternate futures: Japanisation or Brazilianisation?

The End of the End of History, Bungacast, Zer0 Books
Neofeudalism: The End of Capitalism?, Jodi Dean, LA Review of Books
Neo-feudalism in California, Joel Kotkin, American Affairs

/187/ The Huge Package State ft. Anton Jäger Apr 20, 2021

Show notes

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 welfare'? Also comparisons with cash transfers or lack thereof in the UK, Brazil and Belgium.
Plus Anton talks us through recent Belgian history and why its immobilism and bureaucracy has actually prevented a full-on neoliberal assault.

[Part 2 available at patreon.com/bungacast]

Readings:

“Welfare without the welfare state”: the death of the postwar welfarist consensus, Anton Jäger & Daniel Zamora, New Statesman
Joe Biden Is a Transformational President, David Brooks, NYT

/186/ Aufhebonus Bonus ft. Lee Jones Apr 13, 2021

Show notes

On Covid state failure + responses to listeners. The full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast 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 coronavirus and state failure (from 45:30). We look in depth at what went wrong in Western state responses to the pandemic, why they didn't follow their own plans, and compare this to South Korea's relative success. Readings:

How the pandemic has exposed Britain’s failed ‘regulatory state’, Lee Jones, Daily Telegraph
COVID-19 and the failure of the neoliberal regulatory state, Lee Jones and Shahar Hameiri, Review of International Political Economy

/185/ Discipline-Flourishing Democracy ft. Lee Jones Apr 06, 2021

Show notes

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 civilian rule.

Then, from 40mins, we discuss how the UK failed in dealing with the pandemic, and how this applies across the West. Lee's recent work looks at the neoliberal "regulatory state" and its incapacities, so we compare the UK's failure with Korea's relative success.

Readings:

Preliminary thoughts on the Myanmar “coup”, Lee Jones, Medium
Responding to the Myanmar coup, Crisis Group
How the Civil Disobedience Movement can win, Aye Min Thant and Yan Aung, Frontier
How the pandemic has exposed Britain’s failed ‘regulatory state’, Lee Jones, Daily Telegraph
COVID-19 and the failure of the neoliberal regulatory state (pdf), Lee Jones and Shahar Hameiri, Review of International Political Economy

Excerpt: /184/ Reading Club: The European Coup Apr 02, 2021

Show notes

We discuss the first of Perry Anderson's new essays on Europe published in the London Review of Books, which focuses on Luuk van Middelaar - described as the EU's first organic intellectual. We discuss what that means, as well as the role of the "coup" in forming the EU.
Reading Club episodes are for subscribers $10+. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

Excerpt: /183/ Acid Bunga Bunga ft. Mike Watson Mar 30, 2021

Show notes

On memes and the counter-culture. This is a sample. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast 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 ones became conservative, which one might not? Running order:

(00:04:15) - Interview with Mike Watson
(01:02:00) - 'Afterparty' discussion on what a counter-culture might look like today

Readings:

Can the Left Learn to Meme? , Mike Watson, Zero Books
The Acid Left, YouTube channel
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin (pdf)

Excerpt: /182/ Three Articles: Sporno-Vaxxo-Techno-Populism Mar 23, 2021

Show notes

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. This episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast Readings:

The rise of the technopopulists, Chris Bickerton, New Statesman (pdf attached)
Accelerating Decay, Wolfgang Streeck, Sidecar - NRL blog
Everyone is beautiful and no one is horny, RS Benedict, BloodKnife

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