Episodes
Thursday Jan 31, 2019
/60/ Party Time, Online ft. Paolo Gerbaudo
Thursday Jan 31, 2019
Thursday Jan 31, 2019
On the rise of the 'digital party'. If politics has become distant from the people, what if a new model of party, leveraging platform technology, could bring the people closer to power? Paolo Gerbaudo talks to us about the various parties and movements innovating new organisational forms - 5 Star Movement, Podemos, the Pirate Parties. They bring in new members and more participation, but what if they also enshrine charismatic leadership? The digital party seems a step forward from the hollowed-out neoliberal parties of the past decades, but do they also reflect some negative tendencies of the tech economy?
Plus: Italy's M5S/Lega coalition, the sovereignty question, and Italians' contradictory attitudes to the EU.
Readings:
The Return of the Party, Paolo Gerbaudo, Jacobin
Ruling the Void, Peter Mair, NLR
Senso Comune organisation, Italy
The Experiment Interview on 5 Star Movement, Jacobin
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Thursday Jan 17, 2019
/59/ Übermenschen of Capital Pt. 3 ft. Leigh Phillips & Michal Rozworski
Thursday Jan 17, 2019
Thursday Jan 17, 2019
On democratic planning. Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski propose we look at Walmart and other giant corporations as sites of planning, not of markets -- and that this fact proves planning works. Rather than rely on markets and market actors to manage production and distribution, we should it ourselves. Do advances in computing mean that the old problems of planning have been overcome? Does planning lead to authoritarianism -- or does authoritarianism lead to bad planning? Can we overcome the age of Capitalist Übermenschen?
Readings:
- People's Republic of Walmart (Verso, March 2019)
- Planning the Good Anthropocene, Leigh & Michal in Jacobin
- Pt. III of Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Friedrich Engels
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Thursday Jan 10, 2019
/58/ Übermenschen of Capital Pt. 2 ft. Ishay Landa
Thursday Jan 10, 2019
Thursday Jan 10, 2019
On the links between economic liberalism and fascism. Ishay Landa talks to us about the "Apprentice's Sorcerer": how political liberalism enfranchises the masses, to the disgruntlement of economic liberals, who then have to turn to an authoritarian or fascist 'daddy' to save capitalism. What does the liberal divorce between economic and political liberalism tell us about the conflict between democracy and private property? How does the fascist "principle achievement" relate to today's fondness for entrepreneurial heroes? Also, a restatement of how the horseshoe theory is horeshit.
Readings:
- Fascism and the Masses, Ishay Landa
- The Apprentice's Sorcerer, Ishay Landa
- Our episode on Losurdo & liberalism's contradictions
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Bunga theme music: Jonny Mundey
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Thursday Jan 03, 2019
/57/ Übermenschen of Capital Pt. 1 ft. Alex Gourevitch
Thursday Jan 03, 2019
Thursday Jan 03, 2019
On the cult of the entrepreneur. Alex Gourevitch talks to us about the "special kinds of assholes we get in our economy" and the dangers of the heroic capitalist icon. How does the earlier ideal of meritocracy differ from entrepreneurship as an ethos? Does celebrating the special creative genius of the disruptor actually mean glorifying tyranny?
Plus: the right to strike, domination in the workplace, and campy Trump.
Readings:
- A Radical Defence of the Right to Strike, Alex Gourevitch
- From Slavery to the Cooperative Commonwealth, Alex Gourevitch
- Nietzsche's Marginal Children, Corey Robin
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Bunga theme music: Jonny Mundey
Bunga design: ramune.io