Bungacast

Excerpt: /221/ Reading Club: Truth About Class

This month we discuss GM Tamas' essay "Telling the Truth About Class" published in the Socialist Register. Is Tamas' division between Marxist and Rousseauian socialism useful? Does it help us to understand the Left today? And is Tamas right that "authentic proletarian revolution... has never occurred in its anti-capitalist purity anywhere"?

 

Reading Clubs are for patrons $10+, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

 

Additional readings:

• Why the left must abandon the myth of British decline, David Edgerton, New Statesman
• Ellen Meiksins Wood on the Nairn-Anderson thesis and the Bourgeois paradigm, Verso Books blog

Excerpt: /220/ Aufhebonus Bonus

Responding to your questions, comments & criticisms.

 

It's a big mailbag this time round, including plenty on Covid (lockdowns, vaccines, etc), incels and dating culture, breaking out of neoliberalism's clutches, and much much more.

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Bungacast will be live in New York on 19 November. Come see Alex Hochuli in conversation with Adam Tooze & Amber A'Lee Frost. Tickets at Eventbrite

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

Excerpt: OK Bunger! The Problem of Generations, pt. 5

The fifth and final part of a series on generational consciousness and conflict.

This is an excerpt. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

In this episode, we examine the Millennials and Generation Z. Uniquely, generation war today seems to be a conflict over resources more than over values. Is there any basis for this, and what do Millennials actually want? With generational and class conflict seemingly bound together today, we analyse 'Generation Left' and 'Millennial Socialism'. And we ask what the effect of the pandemic may be on the creation of a Gen Z consciousness.

Guests include:

• Paul Taylor, former director, Pew Research
• Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University
• Helen Andrews, senior editor at The American Conservative
• Clive Martin, journalist who has written for VICE Magazine
• Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow
• Jennifer Silva, assistant professor in sociologist, Indiana University

Original music by: Jonny Mundey

Additional music:

• Cacti / I Will Be Waiting / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
• Filthy the Kid / Vampire / courtesy of epidemicsound.com

OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, pt. 4

The fourth in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.

 

In this episode, we examine Generation X – the generation of the End of History. How was this generation overshadowed by the Boomer's failures? In the Eastern Bloc, the fall of Soviet regimes was a traumatic moment – how did this shape consciousness? And how did the Iranian Revolution – and subsequent war – shape the political perspectives of Iranians?

 

Guests include:

• Maren Thom, film scholar
• Alexei Yurchak, professor of anthropology at Berkeley 
• Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University
• Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow
• Arash Azizi, historian of Iran at New York University
• Felix Krawatzek, political scientist at the Centre for East European and International Studies in Berlin

Original music by: Jonny Mundey

 

Additional music:

• Kit Kruger / Freakin' Freefall / courtesy of epidemicsound.com

 

Excerpt: OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, pt. 3

The third in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.

 

This is an excerpt. For the full 1h40min episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

 

In this episode, we examine the Baby Boomers – myth and reality. The revolt of the '60s has been misunderstood in many dimensions. Was it betrayed or did it always express capitalist ideology? Were the Boomers the ones who really did the 1960s anyway? And what world have the Boomers created as they passed through life – and institutions?

 

Guests include:

• Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University
• Helen Andrews, senior editor at The American Conservative
• Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow
• Jeffrey Alexander, professor of sociology at Yale University
• Holger Nehring, chair in contemporary European history at the University of Stirling
• Kristin Ross, professor emeritus of comparative literature at New York University

Original music by: Jonny Mundey

 

Additional music:

• Medité / A Change in My Heart / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
• Ondolut / Blumen / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
• Elliott Holmes / Bull Chase / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
• Kick Castle / Kick Down / courtesy of epidemicsound.com
• T. Morri / Nuthin' but Nuts / courtesy of epidemicsound.com

Other Clips:

• American Pastoral Trailer © 2016 - Lionsgate
• Mai 1968 © France 3 Paris Ile-de-France
• Imitation de Daniel Cohn-Bendit © C'est Canteloup
• Baader Meinhof Complex © 2008