Bungacast

Big news: Bungacast is getting bigger, better

Turbulent times, ideological confusion. Politics is back, but it's stranger than ever. All the more reason for unflinching critique of the current moment. That's why Bungacast is expanding.

Regular contributors are coming on-board: Catherine Liu, Amber Frost, Alex Gourevitch, and Leigh Phillips

 

We're partnering up with Damage Magazine

 

There'll be many more exclusive episodes – see patreon.com/bungacast

 

And a new Reading Club, with new themes!

/395/ A Coup From Within the Computer ft. Benjamin Studebaker (excerpt)

On media and the Millennial Left.

 

[Patreon Exclusive: for full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]

 

Continuing the retrospective on the millennial left's failures, we invite political theorist Benjamin Studebaker back on. We discuss:

• Was left-populism a media event? 
• Was the Millennial Left just a moment in internet history?
• Having bought into the internet's possibilities, can we abandon it?
• Does it make sense to speak of a "millennial" left? 
• Faced with so many dead ends, do we need to "go monastic"?

Links:

• The Millennial Left as a Moment in Internet History, Benjamin Studebaker
• Omelets with Eggshells: On the Failure of the Millennial Left, Alex Hochuli, American Affairs. Additional comments on Alex's Substack 

UNLOCKED /382/ Death of the Millennial Left ft. Chris Cutrone

On the missed opportunity of the 2010s.

 

Chris Cutrone of Platypus joins us to talk about his collection of essays, The Death of the Millennial Left. We discuss:

• Why define it as the "Millennial" Left?
• Was the anti-Stalinism of leaderless protests a good thing?
• Did the talk of "winning" from 2015 onwards represent maturity?
• Should the turn to a more public, statist capitalism make us more optimistic?
• How will the 'lawfare' used against Trump play out?

Links:

• The Millennial Left is dead, Chris Cutrone, Platypus
• The Death of the Millennial Left: Interventions 2006-2022, Chris Cutrone, Sublation

/393/ Emotion Sickness: The Politics of Feelings (I) ft. Nina Power

On the politics of emotions and emotionalism.

 

Philosopher Nina Power (an editor and columnist at Compact Magazine) kicks off this series by talking to us about anger, hate, and evil.

• Do we complain too little or too much? Should we be more repressed?
• Political passions were meant to be dead. Has anger overtaken apathy?
• Should we hate our enemies? Is that okay?
• Has contemporary society become hysterical?
• Why does everyone want to be a victim today? How does this relate to self-interest?
• Is evil a psychological concept?

For part two, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

Links:

• What Do Men Want?: Masculinity and Its Discontents, Nina Power, Penguin Books
• Nina's columns at Compact Magazine
• Political Ponerology, Andrew Lobaczewski, Red Pill Press (pdf)

/392/ The Biggest Country No One Talks About (II) ft. Michael Vann

On Indonesia's new president and the End of History.

 

For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast

 

Michael Vann, Indonesia expert and history professor at Sacramento State, joins us to talk through the election results.

• How did Prabowo go from wannabe fascist dictator to cuddly populist grandpa?
• Why is Jokowi "Indonesia's Obama"?
• What is Indonesia's Trump/Hunter Biden ticket?
• What's up with the $32bn new capital being built in Borneo?
• What is the Museum of Anticommunism, and how successfully has Indonesia's ruling class rewritten its history?
• Plus: why is metal so popular in Indonesia?

Links:

• Suharto’s Old Guard Is Still Calling the Shots in Indonesia, Michael Vann, Jacobin
• Shadow Puppets and Special Forces: Indonesia’s Fragile Democracy, Michael Vann, The Diplomat (on police v military clashes)
• Indonesia state apparatus is preparing to throw election to a notorious massacre general, Allan Nairn, The Intercept
• Prabowo's 'fashy' 2014 campaign video
• Prabowo's 'cuddly' 2024 persona
• /391/ The Biggest Country No One Talks About ft. Vedi Hadiz

Excerpt: /391/ Aufhebonus Bonus - Feb 2024

On our '1914 vibes'. And your questions & comments. 

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

We discuss the parallels between our age (the end of globalisation, the threat of war) with the end of the Belle Epoque in the early 20th century. What might Lenin have to teach us? 

 

We then turn to your questions and comments on:

• Palestinians as surplus population
• Peripheral countries as 'imitators'
• Whether Brexit has led to greater political accountability
• Why Ridley Scott sucks
• Why contemporary art sucks
• Bonapartism and techno-populism
• Romanticising dead workers - and old social-democrats
• Esoteric knowledge about how the world *really* works

Readings:

• Lenin's Lesson for Western Liberals, Philip Cunliffe, UnHerd
• Why the Tories Are Blowing Brexit, George Hoare, The Northern Star

 

 

/390/ The Biggest Country No One Talks About ft. Vedi Hadiz

On Indonesia: a country without a Left.

 

Foremost scholar of Indonesian politics and political economy, Vedi Hadiz of the University of Melbourne, joins us to talk through the country's politics in advance of the elections next week.

• What was the authoritarian order that followed the 1965 anti-communist massacres?
• How did the Asian financial crisis lead towards democratisation – and how did the old oligarchy manage to retain much of its power?
• How has Indonesia become "Islamified", and what is "Islamic populism"?
• How do class and ethnicity/religion interact in Indonesia? Who speaks for the "downtrodden"?
• Is the upcoming election a contestation between oligarchic populisms?

Links:

• /121/ Those Murdering Bastards ft. Vincent Bevins, Bungacast
• Marketing Morality in Indonesia's Democracy, Vedi Hadiz, East Asia Forum
• The demise of the left and the Islamisation of dissent in Indonesia, Vedi Hadiz, Melbourne Asia Review (video)
• Indonesia’s 2024 Presidential Election Could Be the Last Battle of the Titans, Carnegie Endowment
• The Act of Killing, dir. Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012

/388/ Betting on Bukele (I) ft. Nelson Rauda / Juan Rojas

On El Salvador and mass incarceration. 

 

Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's president, has just been re-elected on a landslide. His trademark policy is a state of emergency and the locking-up of tens of thousands of suspected gang members. He also made Bitcoin legal tender. What is 'Bukelismo', will it last, and will it spread? 

 

First, we talk to Nelson Rauda, an editor at investigative outlet El Faro about the mood in El Salvador, what the state of emergency has been like, who the main gangs are and whether Bukele has secretly been negotiating with them, and what opposition there is to Bukele's subversion of democracy and civil liberties. 

 

Then, Juan Rojas, Latin America columnist at Compact Magazine, joins us to discuss why such 'mano dura' (iron fist) policies have failed elsewhere but why they continue to appeal across the region – including among the poor and working class. 

 

For part two, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

 

Readings:

• El Salvador’s Bitcoin Paradise Is a Mirage, Nelson Rauda, NYT
• Behind Bukele's Revolution, Juan Rojas & Geoff Shullenberger, Compact
• On Security, Bukele and Petro Have a Problem in Common, Juan Rojas, Americas Quarterly
• In response to killings, El Salvador’s bitcoin president attacks civil liberties, Nelson Rauda, LA Times
• The Rise of Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's Authoritarian President, Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker
• Chaos in Ecuador, Guillaume Long, Sidecar/NLR
• ¡Viva la ‘eficracia’!, Martin Caparrós, El País

/387/ Get Fungal to Save Culture ft. Lias Saoudi (Fat White Family)

On how to respond to conformity.

 

Lias Saoudi, frontman of the British band Fat White Family, joins us to talk about rock, popular culture and contemporary unfreedom. We discuss:

• Why are the kids taking less drugs?
• Can we respond to our nihilistic times with nihilistic art?
• What is the nature of conformity today?
• How to challenge conformity without sneering at the masses?
• Is there a romantic revival going on? Why is Lias interested in Ivan Illich?
• If living cheaply in big cities is now very difficult for artists, will something new emerge from the provinces?

Links:

• Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family & the Miracle of Failure, Lias Saoudi & Adelle Stripe, White Rabbit Books
• Punk's spirit is broken, Lias Saoudi, UnHerd
• Is modern medicine making us sick?, Lias Saoudi, UnHerd
• Forthcoming album: Forgiveness Is Yours
• /353/ Bunga Sells Out ft. Jason Myles - on music and the spectacle
• /359/ Apollo Gets High ft. Benjamin Fong - on drugs in America

Excerpt: /386/ Reading Club: Globalisation (III & IV)

Double episode! On Giovanni Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing.

 

[Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive]

 

We wrap up the 2023 syllabus by taking on the second half of Arrighi's book, in which he analyses the over-reach and decline of the US empire, and whether China's rise and role in world affairs presents a different model, one that might be more peaceful. We discuss:

• How important was the neo-cons' Project for a New American Century?
• What were the long-term consequences of the Iraq invasion?
• What do we make of Arrighi's theoretical account of imperialism and the tension between territorial and capitalistic logics?
• Did the USA represent a "world state" after WWII, and how did it fail?
• What is the world-historic meaning of China’s development?
• Do we buy Arrighi’s attempt at a Smithean vision of inter-civilizational harmony?

Links:

• Adam Smith in Beijing:Lineages of the Twenty-First Century, Giovanni Arrighi
• /305/ Techno-Feudal Unreason - on 'political' capitalism and plunder
• /250/ Oil & Disorder ft. Helen Thompson - on imperialism, the world system and energy
• /195/ No Shock China ft. Isabella Weber - on China avoiding neoliberal shock-therapy

/384/ Millennial Rule ft. Amber A'Lee Frost

On Dirtbag and the Millennial Left.

 

Bungacast regular Amber A'Lee Frost is back to talk about her new book, Dirtbag — part memoir, part critical essays on millennial socialism. In this episode we discuss:

• Why "millennial"? Does it make sense to talk in generational terms?
• What are the left's "perversions" as Amber sees them?
• 'Occupy' was all leaderless, horizontalist crap. Why did Amber stick around?
• Bernie Sanders did not leave an organizational legacy – why?
• After the failure of left-populism, in US and Europe, was it all worth it?

At patreon.com/bungacast we continue discussing the problems of DSA, as well as look forward to the US election and ask whether there's a vibe-shift at Davos. 

Links:

• Dirtbag
• OK Bunger! The Problem of Generations (5-part Bungacast docu-series on generations)

 

/383/ Stare into the Abyss with Us ft. Juliano Fiori

On what comes after human rights.

 

Juliano Fiori, essayist and director of Alameda Institute, joins us to talk about catastrophism and organising around "the end". We discuss:

• What was humanitarianism, and why was it the "last utopia"?
• What does humanitarianism look like in an era of multipolarity?
• Does Western liberal democracy have any gas left in it? What should we defend?
• What politics are generated by the prevailing sense of anxiety and melancholia?
• If modernity is over, do we need to reject all progressivism?
• And how do we orient around catastrophe without falling into the trap of emergency politics?

Links:

• "Notes on our Melancholy Present" in Amidst the Debris: Humanitarianism and the End of Liberal Order, Juliano Fiori
• Towards a strategic catastrophism - a radicalism for catastrophic times, Juliano Fiori
• About Alameda

Excerpt: /382/ Death of the Millennial Left ft. Chris Cutrone

On the missed opportunity of the 2010s.

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

Chris Cutrone of Platypus joins us to talk about his collection of essays, The Death of the Millennial Left. We discuss:

• Why define it as the "Millennial" Left?
• Was the anti-Stalinism of leaderless protests a good thing?
• Did the talk of "winning" from 2015 onwards represent maturity?
• Should the turn to a more public, statist capitalism make us more optimistic?
• How will the 'lawfare' used against Trump play out?

Links:

• The Millennial Left is dead, Chris Cutrone, Platypus
• The Death of the Millennial Left: Interventions 2006-2022, Chris Cutrone, Sublation

UNLOCKED: /373/ Take a Stand: Be Neutral! ft. Lily Lynch

On NATO expansion and the end of neutrality

 

Previously a Patreon Exclusive. For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

 

Lily Lynch is back on the pod to talk about Northern and Eastern Europe and growing hawkishness. We discuss:

• Why did Sweden and Finland give up decades of neutrality - and why now?
• What happens with an enlarged alliance in light of the conflict in Ukraine?
• How does the current moment compare to the apogee of the Non-Aligned Movement?
• Why were the realists right?
• How is tech mythology helping to build 'digital nationalism'?
• Why is there beef over grain between Poland and Ukraine?
• And what the hell are the "skin suit of social democracy" and the "Waluigi of neutrality"?

Links:

• Joining the West, Lily Lynch, Sidecar
• The realists were right, Lily Lynch, New Statesman
• The EU’s great power delusions, Lily Lynch, New Statesman
• Guns, grain, and history, Lily Lynch, New Statesman
• Tech-Mythologies, Lily Lynch, Sidecar
• Imperfect Unity, Lily Lynch, Sidecar

[FROM THE VAULT] /104/ The Aristocracy of Finance ft. Alexander Zevin

FROM THE VAULT: ALEX'S PICK (2)

On The Economist and the contradictions of global liberalism.

Alexander Zevin joins us to discuss his work on the 176 year history of the magazine that has accompanied liberalism's global expansion. Has it just reflected the world or has it actually influenced politics? How has The Economist balanced democracy against the interests of finance and the needs of empire? And is the magazine suffering from N.O.B.S.? 

Subscribe: patreon.com/BungaCast

Running order:

• (06:02) Overview & early days
• (29:52) 19th century & empire
• (34:18) 20th century, esp 1930s and '40s
• (48:08) End of the Cold War and NOBS
• (01:02:19) Liberalism & its enemies