Bungacast

On energy, the material basis for all our politics?

Helen Thompson, podcaster and professor of political economy at Cambridge and author of Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century, joins us to talk about the geopolitics of oil, stretching from the 1956 Suez Crisis to the Fracking Revolution of today. How does US energy independence help explain shifting politics in Europe and the Middle East?

Plus, did the End of History stay afloat on a sea of cheap oil?  

Part 2 of the interview, plus our After Party, is here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/251-oil-disorder-64394535

Readings:

• Profits from fossil fuel energy power Russia's war machine, and Ukraine suffers, Helen Thompson, New Statesman
• What Is Fueling Our Century’s Global “Disorder”?, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, The Nation
• How Did Europe Get Hooked On Russian Energy?, Paul J. Davies, Bloomberg
  

On the Freedom Convoy, the indigenous question, and 'anti-socialist socialism'(?)

Sociologist and commentator Ashley Frawley is back on the pod to talk about the situation in Canada. With family members involved in the protests, we asked her what she made of the truckers and the way demands were framed as 'anti-socialist'.

We move on to debate how to understand popular resistance to 'social engineering' today, as well as the uses of 'emotionalism' to undermine political agency.

Readings & Links:

• How the truckers split indigenous Canada, Ashley Frawley, UnHerd
• Lecture: Emotion & Reason, Ashley Frawley, The Academy
• Semiotics of Happiness, Ashley Frawley, Bloomsbury, 2005

In which we respond to listener questions & criticisms.

A bumper episode, featuring plenty on Canadian truckers, Swedish populists, ideas of justice, hyperpolitics and much more. 

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

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

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 

On The End of the End of History

On 22 February 2022, at The People's Forum in Manhattan, Alex Hochuli and Adam Tooze were in conversation on the themes of the Bunga book and what comes next. The event was moderated by Christie Offenbacher (Damage Magazine).

Buy the book: linktr.ee/bungacast

On the German Greens' shady history.

 

Journalist Lily Lynch, editor of Balkanist, joins us to talk about her recent investigations into the Green Party, who are now back in power in Germany.

 

The 68ers attempted to combat authoritarianism and Nazi legacies through sexual liberation, building on the work of Wilhelm Reich. How did this lead some small groups associated with the Greens to advocate paedophilia – and even to accept former Nazis into their ranks?

 

Later the Greens would fully embrace war. We discuss how their emphasis on "maturity" and multilateral humanitarianism became the means through which they justified their new hawkish stance and adoption of NATO's cause.

 

Readings:

• Meet the German Green Party: From "Pedophile Rights" to Post-Pacifism, Lily Lynch (free)
• The German Green Party's Oldest Member Was a Known Pedophile Nazi Stormtrooper, Lily Lynch
• West Berlin Had a "Radical" All-Female Pedophile Commune with Links to the German Green Party, Lily Lynch
• How a Pacifist Party Gave War a Chance, Lily Lynch
• What's Become of the German Greens? Joachim Jachnow, NLR (2013)
• No End to Neoliberalism in Germany, Bernhard Pirkl, Damage (Dec 2021)

 

On class wars, new and old.

Michael Lind, Professor of Practice at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, joins us to talk about what it might take to restore working class power in Western states. He explains some of the arguments in his book The New Class War (2020) in greater depth, as well as discussing his intellectual debt to the ex-Trotskyist theorist turned Cold War conservative, James Burnham.

Plus, Michael talks about how his Texan background and upbringing shaped his outlook on industrialisation, national development and populism. 

Part two: https://www.patreon.com/posts/243-bureaucracy-62900197

Readings:

• America’s Asymmetric Civil War, Tablet Mag
• Why ending tenure is only the start, Tablet Mag
• The importance of James Burnham, Tablet Mag
• Bungacast Reading Club on The New Class War

On dovish conservatives, Trumpist coup-mongers and Canadian truckers.

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Live debate/book launch in NYC, Feb 22nd: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/live-debate-book-launch-the-end-of-the-end-of-history-tickets-261000468427

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We examine what arguments 'pro-worker conservatives' are making in an aim to rid the GOP of warmongers and what this says about their vision of politics. In that light we also look at the Trumpist wing and ask what they might have in common, if anything, with the former. And we debate the Canadian protests against vaccine mandates and the left's response to it so far. 

Three Articles:

• Hawks Are Standing in the Way of a New Republican Party, Sohrab Ahmari, Patrick Deneen, Gladden Pappin, NYT
• The second coming of Donald Trump, The Economist
• As Workers Resist, the Left Recoils, Edwin Aponte, The Bellows

 

The first in an occasional series on new initiatives. 

We speak to Malcolm Kyeyune of Sweden's Örebro Party about its origins, analysis and goals. Is a new working class politics to be found in direct opposition to the PMC or the 'transferiat'? How does this local party intend to scale up? What sort of issues are on its agenda? And how does it aim to go beyond the impasses of other populist initiatives?

 

On the critique of egalitarian ideology.

We talk to writer Ross Wolfe about his essay "Marxism Contra Justice". Given that struggles for justice have been central to all sorts of radical movements, why is it important to cleave Marxist politics away from this notion? How are contemporary notions of 'social justice' already degraded versions of earlier egalitarian ideology on the left? Is it possible to conceive of any popular working-class movement that doesn’t begin with people’s sense of indignation and desire for redress?

Links:

• Marxism Contra Justice, Ross Wolfe, Datacide
• The Charnel House, Ross Wolfe's blog

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
  
  

 

 

We take on Italy's election of a new president and what that tells us about permanent crisis, the EU and the curtailing of democracy; we ask how serious the risk of war in Ukraine actually is; and review a film we haven't seen.

 

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

 

3 Articles:

• As war looms larger, what are Russia’s military options in Ukraine?, The Economist 
• How the EU destroyed Italian democracy, Thomas Fazi & Paolo Cornetti, Unherd
• Boringly postmodern and an ideological fantasy, Slavoj Zizek, The Spectator 

Others:

• Chartbook #70 Draghi for President?, Adam Tooze, Substack
• How serious is Vladimir Putin about launching a major Ukraine offensive?, Max Seddon, FT 

On the German Greens' shady history.

 

Journalist Lily Lynch, editor of Balkanist, joins us to talk about her recent investigations into the Green Party, who are now back in power in Germany.

 

The 68ers attempted to combat authoritarianism and Nazi legacies through sexual liberation, building on the work of Wilhelm Reich. How did this lead some small groups associated with the Greens to advocate paedophilia – and even to accept former Nazis into their ranks?

 

Later the Greens would fully embrace war. We discuss how their emphasis on "maturity" and multilateral humanitarianism became the means through which they justified their new hawkish stance and adoption of NATO's cause.

 

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

 

Readings:

• Meet the German Green Party: From "Pedophile Rights" to Post-Pacifism, Lily Lynch (free)
• The German Green Party's Oldest Member Was a Known Pedophile Nazi Stormtrooper, Lily Lynch
• West Berlin Had a "Radical" All-Female Pedophile Commune with Links to the German Green Party, Lily Lynch
• How a Pacifist Party Gave War a Chance, Lily Lynch
• What's Become of the German Greens? Joachim Jachnow, NLR (2013)
• No End to Neoliberalism in Germany, Bernhard Pirkl, Damage (Dec 2021)

 

On our current attention-deficit and hyperpolitical disorder.

 

 

In our book, The End of the End of History, we discuss the move from post-politics to anti-politics; from consensus to rejection; from apathy to anger. In a new article, Anton Jäger argues we've now moved into a hyperpolitical age. Is everything being politicised...except the really important stuff?

 

We discuss some examples of hyperpolitics in Europe and North America and ask if what's going on is just a hot culture war, or something bigger. And what are the risks of an actual civil war in France or the US?

 

Reading:

• How the World Went from Post-Politics to Hyper-Politics, Anton Jäger, Tribune
• Introduction from The End of the End of History, Bungacast, Merion West
• Did the culture wars ever end?, Q&A with Andrew Hartman, Illinois State