Episodes
Friday Nov 04, 2022
Excerpt: /301/ Reading Club: Neo-Feudalism
Friday Nov 04, 2022
Friday Nov 04, 2022
On Joel Kotkin's The Coming of Neo-Feudalism
We start off by discussing your points on the last RC, on conspiracy theory.
Then we delve into Kotkin's book, asking whether he has an adequate understanding of feudalism, and whether this is the right lens to understand transformations underway now. Is 'techno-feudalism' not just a downturn in 'systemic cycles of accumulation', related to the decline of the US empire? And what are Kotkin's politics and how do they relate to his analysis?
Thanks for all the questions received on this one, we discussed them as we went through the episode.
Reading:
- The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class, Joel Kotkin, Encounter Books
- Techno-Feudalism Is Taking Over, Yanis Varoufakis, Project-Syndicate
Next month: Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Atle Mikkola Kjøsen and James Steinhoff, Pluto Books
Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
Excerpt: /294/ Reading Club: Conspiracy Theory
Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
/286/ What Was Communism? ft. Branko Milanovic
Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
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Capitalism, Alone, Branko Milanovic, Harvard UP
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The Aloofness of Pax Sinica, Branko Milanovic, Global Policy Journal
Wednesday Aug 31, 2022
Excerpt: /283/ Reading Club: Trust & Mistrust
Wednesday Aug 31, 2022
Wednesday Aug 31, 2022
On Anthony Giddens' The Consequences of Modernity (ch.3)
In the second episode of the Cynical Ideology section of the 2022 Reading Club, we look at what trust is and why it has declined so precipitously in recent decades, especially in relation to institutions.
Is the opposite of trust mistrust, or is it existential angst? What's the link between the absence of trust and a sense of impending apocalypse? Is money or the market the only abstract entity we still trust? And what about the state?
Reading:
The Consequences of Modernity, Anthony Giddens (1990), ch. 3
Friday Jul 29, 2022
Excerpt: /278/ Reading Club: Cynicism & Ideology
Friday Jul 29, 2022
Friday Jul 29, 2022
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
Excerpt: /275/ Our Reply to Critics: Review of Reviews
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
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War at the End of History, Adam Tooze, Chartbook 109
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The End of the End of the End, Sam Kriss, First Things
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Book Review: The End of the End of History, Jason C. Mueller, Critical Sociology
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How long is the end of history?, Connor Harney, Platypus
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Beginning of the End, or End of the Beginning?, Park McDougald, American Affairs
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Book Review: The End of the End of History, Dan Taylor, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books
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Certainly the End of Something or Other, Joseph Keegin, The Bellow
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New Perspectives journal roundtable (forthcoming) on The End of the End of History: Daniel Zamora, Anton Jäger, Richard Sakwa, Nicholas Kiersey
Thursday May 26, 2022
Excerpt: /266/ Reading Club: Foucault & Biopolitics
Thursday May 26, 2022
Thursday May 26, 2022
Friday Apr 29, 2022
Excerpt: /260/ Reading Club: Fear II - Furedi
Friday Apr 29, 2022
Friday Apr 29, 2022
On Frank Furedi's How Fear Works.
Following on from last month's discussion of Corey Robin's Fear, we examine a differing attempt to demystify the politics and culture of fear.
To join a local Reading Club where you are, email info@bungacast.com
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
/258/ Conformist Rebellion ft. Elena Lange & Joshua Pickett-Depaolis
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
Over on Patreon you can hear the second part of the interview, plus our After Party debating the contemporary Left's connection to Marxism, the history of social democracy, and moral versus materialist critique.
Readings:
Thursday Apr 14, 2022
Excerpt: /255/ Reading Club: Fear I – Robin
Thursday Apr 14, 2022
Thursday Apr 14, 2022
On Corey Robin's Fear: The History of a Political Idea.
This is March's Reading Club, the third in the Emergency Politics section of the 2022 Syllabus.
Tuesday Mar 08, 2022
/246/ Why Isn’t There Revolution? ft. Vivek Chibber
Tuesday Mar 08, 2022
Tuesday Mar 08, 2022
On class & material self-interest.
We talk to Vivek Chibber about his new book, The Class Matrix: Social Theory After the Cultural Turn, which seeks to answer why capitalism has proven remarkably stable. Vivek explains why classical Marxism does not need 'ideological supplements' to explain why there hasn't been revolution; instead, structural class theory already provides the answers.
We go back to basics, looking at the role of interests, debate what the real role of ideology is (not 'false consciousness'), and look at why particularism, rather than the universal collectivism of class, now dominates.
Part two of the interview, plus the After Party, is available over at patreon.com/bungacast
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Excerpt: /245/ Reading Club: Emergency Politics II - Agamben
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Monday Mar 07, 2022
On Giorgio Agamben's State of Exception (2005).
How did a darling of the left during the War on Terror become a resource for the right during Covid? Is Agamben right to blur the boundary between fascism and liberal democracy? And if we are in a 'permanent state of exception', what is the right response?
And we discuss your questions.
The full episode is for $10+ subscribers. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
Other links:
- The Crisis of the Crisis: Is Covid politics the real emergency?, Geoff Shullenberger, The New Atlantis
Friday Jan 28, 2022
/238/ Reading Club: Emergency Politics I (Extended Excerpt)
Friday Jan 28, 2022
Friday Jan 28, 2022
On Carl Schmitt's Political Theology (1922).
We ask why people are scared of sovereignty – as opposed to state power per se, and analyse what is significant about the way in which Schmitt defines sovereignty. And what is the meaning of 'political theology'?
And we discuss your questions.
This is an extended excerpt of the first 30 mins of the episode. For the full thing, go to patreon.com/bungacast
Other links:
- The shibboleth of sovereignty, Martin Loughlin and Stephen Tierney, Modern Law Review, 2008 (pdf)
- The Fed policy error that should worry investors, John Hussman, FT
- The Death of the Central Bank Myth, Adam Tooze, Foreign Policy
Monday Dec 20, 2021
Excerpt: /232/ Reading Club: Cold, Hard / Warm, Soft
Monday Dec 20, 2021
Monday Dec 20, 2021
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Monday Nov 29, 2021
Excerpt: /227/ Reading Club: All That Is Solid
Monday Nov 29, 2021
Monday Nov 29, 2021