Bungacast

UNLOCKED: /361/ A Nightmare on the Brains of the Living ft. Benjamin Studebaker

On US politics being stuck.

 

[This was originally a subscriber exclusive. Sign up now at patreon.com/bungacast]

 

We talk to political theorist Benjamin Studebaker about his new book, The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy: The Way is Shut. Studebaker holds that hope is a problem because it's used by professionals to keep people engaged in a system that simply doesn't deliver. Hence the culture wars and the focus on various 'vices'.

 

How are both left and right complicit in this situation? What's the solution? Are we dependent on oligarchs going rogue to shake the system? Do we need to hit rock bottom to rekindle our political imaginations?

Excerpt: /364/ The Eternal Sunshine of the Bourgeoisie

On satire of the bourgeoisie.

 

[Patreon Exclusive. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast]

 

We discuss Luis Buñuel's "deranged masterpiece" from 1972, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and debate the social ritual of dinner, and why the guests in the film never get to eat theirs.

 

How does this early 70s surrealist film – which in many ways set the template for cinematic satires of the bourgeoisie – compare to more recent portrayals such as The Menu or Triangle of Sadness? Ultimately, who are the bourgeoisie and do they still exist, in a world of distributed ownership and managerialism?

 

Readings:

• ‘A deranged masterpiece’: why you should watch The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Luke Buckmaster, The Guardian
• What Have the Bourgeoisie Done for us Lately?, Stephan Bertram-Lee, Sublation
• A Brief History of the Bourgeoisie, or We Are All Bourgeois Now, David Polansky, Strange Frequencies
• The Bourgeois(ie) as Concept and Reality, Immanuel Wallerstein, New Left Review

UNLOCKED: /351/ Eating the Left’s Lunch? ft. Cecilia Lero & Tamás Gerőcs

On the radical right in the global periphery.

 

[This was originally a Patreon Exclusive]

 

Erdogan, Modi, Orban, Bolsonaro, Duterte. Though the latter two are gone, the first three are still going strong, in government for a decade or more. What unites these figures? They’re all right wing and authoritarian, but also popular and anti-establishment.

 

How similar are these politicians to their analogues in the core of global capitalism? Might they even be seen to be forerunners of developments in the rich world? And to what extent are they able to resolve the crises of the end of the end of history?

 

In this episode, we talk to two of the editors of a new book, The Radical Right: Politics of Hate on the Margins of Global Capital.

 

Previous episodes on this theme:

• Turkey /339/ Erdogone? People vs Nation in Turkey ft. Alp Kayserilioglu
• Brazil: /299/ Micropower & Transcendence in Brazil (Bungazão 2022) ft. Miguel Lago
• Brazil: /292/ Bungazão 2022: Unrealistic Pragmatism, ft. Unbridled Possibility Collective
• India: /198/ Universal India ft. Achin Vanaik
• Hungary: /33/ Hungary's Illiberal Democracy ft. Tamas Gerocs
• Philippines: /52/ Duterte's Despotism ft. Nicole Curato

Excerpt: /363/ Outsourcing the State

On the politics of consultancy

 

[Patreon Exclusive. Sign up @ patreon.com/bungacast]

 

The past 40 years have seen a whole range of things the state used to do itself outsourced to third parties. Now there is a turn against these practices. But can the state actually get stuff done, or is it doomed for its prior reliance on consultants?

 

It's not just the left the criticises outsourcing - the right now does too. How do these positions differ? And how are these questions related to another critique – that of 'bullshit jobs'?

 

Readings & Links:

• In Clover, Laleh Khalili, LRB (attached)
• The Big Con — the case against consultancies (review of Mazzucatto & Collington), Diane Coyle, FT (attached)
• Letter: Groundless assertions about a trusted profession (response from a consultant), FT
• How PwC captured Australia, Shahar Hameiri, Unherd
• Consultancies Have Been the Handmaidens of Neoliberalism, Nathan Akehurst, Jacobin
• Radical Centrism: Uniting the Radical Left and the Radical Right, Ashwin Parameswaran, Macroresilience
• The limits of government outsourcing, Martin Bortz, Pursuit
• /267/ South Africa Mafia State ft. Benjamin Fogel

/362/ Life Doesn’t Have to Zuck ft. Cory Doctorow

On the internet being sh*t.

 

Tech critic, author and blogger Cory Doctorow joins us to talk about his new book, The Internet Con. He tells us his ONE SIMPLE TRICK to fix the internet: interoperability. Breaking down the tech giants' walled gardens is the first step to dethroning them. 

 

How does Big Tech depend on intellectual property to cement their monopolies? How can their grip be loosened? How do we make tech work for us?

 

In the After Party, the boys debate Doctorow's anti-monopolist arguments, and look at the wider ways tech is affecting everything from agriculture to services. We conclude by asking what the best way to guarantee freedom of expression is. 

 

Links:

• The Internet Con: How to seize the means of computation, Cory Doctorow, Verso 
• Pluralistic, Cory Doctorow's blog
• Big Tech and the Current Challenges Facing the Class Struggle, Tricontinental Institute

Excerpt: /361/ A Nightmare on the Brains of the Living ft. Benjamin Studebaker

On US politics being stuck.

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

We talk to political theorist Benjamin Studebaker about his new book, The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy: The Way is Shut. Studebaker holds that hope is a problem because it's used by professionals to keep people engaged in a system that simply doesn't deliver. Hence the culture wars and the focus on various 'vices'.

 

How are both left and right complicit in this situation? What's the solution? Are we dependent on oligarchs going rogue to shake the system? Do we need to hit rock bottom to rekindle our political imaginations?

Excerpt: /360/ Reading Club: Legitimacy (III)

On the 3rd and final part of Jurgen Habermas' Legitimation Crisis.

 

[Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive]

 

We wrap up this challenging book by debating some key points. Habermas already felt we lived in a post-truth society. How does his notion differ from the contemporary one concerned with misinformation? And is it possible to get beyond the notion of political authority grounded in (arbitrary) rules and laws – to an order rooted in truth and meaning?

 

Habermas also discusses his Frankfurt School colleagues and 'the end of the individual'. What does this mean? Is there any hope for free, rational, democratic politics?

 

Reading:

• Legitimation Crisis, Jurgen Habermas
• The Return of the Repressed, Wolfgang Streeck, NLR 104, March–April 2017

/359/ Apollo Gets High ft. Benjamin Fong

On the American drug binge.

 

Forget all the stereotypes – drug use is no longer confined to particular subcultures. US Americans are taking world-historic levels of drugs. Benjamin Fong tells us about his new book, Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge, which covers everything from morphine to mushrooms, SSRIs to speed, caffeine to cocaine. 

 

Ultimately, is all this drug-taking about reckless abandon, or about control?

 

For more, go to patreon.com/bungacast

 

Subscribe to Damage Magazine

 

Links:

• Building Big Things, Damage Magazine, Issue 1
• Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge, Benjamin Y. Fong, Verso
• Who Deserves Amphetamines, Benjamin Fong, The Point

/357/ Lucky, Meaty Nations ft. Shahar Hameiri & Tom Chodor

On Australian and New Zealand at the End of History.

 

Antipodean political scientists Shahar Hameiri and Tom Chodor join us to discuss the history and politics of Australia and New Zealand. If Australia is the “lucky country”, what about New Zealand? What explains the courses both countries took economically and politically over the twentieth century? And where do the two countries find themselves today - did they escape the end of the End of History?

 

Part 2: patreon.com/bungacast

 

Readings:

• Australian Labor’s hollow victory, Shahar Hameiri & Tom Chodor, UnHerd
• Jacinda Ardern still haunts New Zealand, Tom Chodor, UnHerd
• /136/ Banana Monarchy ft. David Edgerton

/356/ Land of the Unfree ft. Sohrab Ahmari

On everyday, private tyranny. 

 

 

Sohrab Ahmari, one of the editors of Compact Magazine, joins us to talk about his book, Tyranny, Inc. We discuss the sorts of private coercion that are found in the US workplace and marketplace, rather than originate with the state – and how relatively uncommon it is for a conservative like Ahmari to follow that line of critique. 

 

Also: the NY Post's scathing front covers, alliances between socialists and conservatives, the world of JG Ballard's Super Cannes, and critiquing the right from the right and the left from the left. 

 

Excerpt: /355/ F***ing and shooting are not the same

On film and left-wing terrorism.

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

We talk about Uli Edel’s 2008 film The Baader Meinhof Complex, which tells the story of the Red Army Faction in 1960s and 70s Germany. What sorts of myths do films create? Is the attempt to break down myths in fact a way of re-making those myths? Is a Red Army Faction response possible today - and what does terrorism at the End of the End of History look like?

 

We also discuss the image-sausage-grinder theory of film and reflect on six years of podcast urban guerilla activity.

Links:

• Episode on Berlusconi biopic, Loro: UNLOCKED /87/ Berluscoming  
• Symptom of the post-political – Terrorism in Contemporary German, British and Hollywood Cinema, Maren Thom (pdf)
• "The State I Am In", Christian Petzold (2000)

UNLOCKED /328/ The New Scramble for Africa

On geopolitical competition over Africa.

 

This episode was originally for subscribers only. To join, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

 

In light of the 'new Cold War', we look at what the US, Europe, Russia and China's respective "pitches" are to African countries – what are they selling? And we examine the factors that contribute to Africa's place in geopolitics today: Chinese hunger for raw materials, the global war on terror, the green energy transition, drug and people smuggling, and more.

 

If the original Scramble for Africa (1884-1914) was driven by an attempt to displace European class war onto another terrain, can we say anything analogous is happening today?

 

Links:

• /303/ The Failure of the French Forever War ft. Yvan Guichaoua
• /304/ The Failure of the French Forever War (2) ft. Yvan Guichaoua
• Russia in Africa, Financial Times series of articles
• Defending Our Sovereignty: US Military Bases in Africa and the Future of African Unity, Tricontinental Institute
• Italophone Somalia, Then and Now, Iman Mohamed, The Drift
• Emmanuel Macron must reset France’s Africa policy, Sylvie Kauffman (Le Monde editor), FT
• Debunking the Myth of ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’, Lee Jones & Shahar Hameiri, Chatham House
• Let’s talk about neo-colonialism in Africa, Mark Langan, LSE blog
• /267/ South Africa Mafia State ft. Benjamin Fogel

 

Excerpt: /354/ Reading Club: Legitimacy (II)

On Jürgen Habermas' Legitimation Crisis.

 

[Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive]

 

What made postwar capitalism 'organised'? And why did many believe it had overcome economic crisis?

 

In this second episode on Legitimacy, we go through part 2 of Habermas' book, where its main concerns reveal themselves. How does the role of the state in managing the economy transfer crises into the realm of politics and society? Bourgeois ideology seems pretty thin on its own and doesn't provide enough motivation, so what happens when traditionalism no longer holds sway? Is capitalism just hanging on by a thread: the thread of civic privatism?

 

Sign up for $10/mo for full access to the Reading Club: patreon.com/bungacast

 

Join a local Reading Club. Email info [at] bungacast.com

/353/ Bunga Sells Out ft. Jason Myles

On music, pop culture, and the politics of the spectacle.

 

Musician, host of This is Revolution and Sublation columnist, Jason Myles joins us to talk about how every podcast is a failed band, if pop music is dead, and whether the contemporary left is a lifestyle brand feeding into the all-encompassing politics of the spectacle. We also discuss the music of De La Soul and the role of what Jason calls “underclass ideology” in contemporary America. Finally, we reflect on selling out: it used to be a cardinal sin as recently as 25 years ago, but now, if you don't sell out, you're failing. Why?

 

Links:

• Stakes is High: Addicted to the Spectacle, Jason Myles, Sublation
• Is The Contemporary Left A Lifestyle Brand?, Jason Myles, Sublation
• Virtual Insanity: A Freak Show for Left Media, Jason Myles, Sublation

Excerpt: /352/ Cold War Marxism, East & West ft. Sean Sayers

On China, Russia, the US and UK.

Professor Emeritus and one of the founders of ‘Radical Philosophy’, Sean Sayers, joins us to talk about Marxist philosophy, how it’s developed and changed over the course of the twentieth century and into this one. We talk about Sean’s background and experience in the radical academy of the 1960s, and how the New Left fed through into the founding of ‘Radical Philosophy’, and more recently, the Marx and Philosophy Review of Books. Sean talks about what’s happened to academic philosophy, and what it might take to defend the humanities in the modern Western academy.

 

Sean also talks to us about the significance of Hegelian Marxism, the American red diaspora in the UK, his visit to China during the Cultural Revolution, the state of intellectual debate and dissent in China today under Xi Jinping, and how radical politics unfolded from the 1960s over to the new millennium. Plus, he talks about his personal connection to Sacco and Vanzetti, the two Italian-American anarchists executed in 1927.

 

Readings:

• Radical Philosophy turns 50, Jonathan Rée, Sean Sayers, Christopher J. Arthur, Kate Soper, Diana Coole, Stella Sandford
• Luigi Galleani: The Most Dangerous Anarchist in America (review), Ruth Kinna, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books
• Marx and Progress, Sean Sayers, International Critical Thought (pdf)