Bungacast

Excerpt: /348/ Aufhebonus Bonus: June 2023

On your questions and criticisms.

 

Bumper edition of Aufhebonus Bonus where we discuss whether we're technologically determinist with regard to artificial intelligence; whether the left should be bulding stuff; why criticising wokeness is boring; work, retirement and time; more on family abolition; and everyone's favourite topic – the PMC/new elite, etc.

 

Event: The Professional-Managerial Class and their Politics, London, Wednesday 28 June, 7pm

Excerpt: /347/ Feminists Touch Grass w/ Amber A’Lee Frost

On reactionary feminism. 

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

We continue our discussions on contemporary feminism by looking at the diametric opposite of the atomistic vision presented by Sophie Lewis: the conservative, communitarian approach advanced by Mary Harrington.  

 

Harrington is critical of 'Progress Theology'. What does that mean, beyond rejecting new orthodoxies on gender – does that mean rejecting progress wholesale? If liberalism has reached a dead end, what intellectual supports should we draw upon? 

 

And if we join Harrington in rejecting the 'caring' state – the 'antiseptic cyborg devouring mother' – does that mean also defending 'care' against 'freedom', as she does? 

 

Readings:

• Feminism against Progress, Mary Harrington, Regenery 
• Reactionary Feminist, Mary Harrington, Substack
• /49/ Kids & Confessions ft. Amber A'Lee Frost
• /50/ On The Market ft. Anna Khachiyan

 

Silvio Berlusconi: An Oral History

RIP Silvio

 

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi died on 12 June 2023 at the age of 86. In this special episode, we say goodbye to the towering figure of the End of History, and explore how the contradictions he exemplified spoke to our age. 

 

Contributions in order of appearance:

• Mattia Salvia
• Alice Oliveri
• Nadia Urbinati 
• Carlo Invernizzi-Accetti
• Paolo Gerbaudo 
• Thomas Fazi 
• Pier Paolo Tamburelli 
• The Bungacast Boys: Alex, George, Phil

 

Music:

• Bunga theme tune: Nous Non Plus / Bunga Bunga / courtesy of Sugaroo
• Rune Dale / Tell You Something / courtesy of http://www.epidemicsound.com

UNLOCKED: /87/ Berluscoming

Silvio Berlusconi is no more. In mourning of our evil patron saint's passing, we're unlocking this previously paywalled episode in which we discuss a cinematic depiction of the big man.

Keep an eye out for more on Berlusca coming out from us in the next days!

———

We discuss Paolo Sorrentino's "Loro" (2018), a dreamlike cinematic depiction of Silvio Berlusconi. Does the film succeed in capturing Silvio, or does it glamourise him? What explains the appeal he had - and why was the left never able to properly dethrone him? What does it say about 2000s Italy, and its relevance to our times?

Excerpt: /345/ Who Is The New Elite? ft. Matt Goodwin

On power, values and class.

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

British professor Matt Goodwin joins us to talk about his recent new book Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics published earlier this year with Penguin. Matt has argued that a new elite has come to dominate public life, leading institutions and the cultural industries in Britain and across the wider Western world, and that they are fixated with issues that divide them from the larger public – to whom they are bitter and hostile.

 

We talk about elites, old and new, as well as ideas about elites stemming back to Daniel Bell and Christopher Lasch, and how these elites are shaping the future of politics.

 

Matt also gives us a breakdown of the most recent local elections from the UK, what has happened with the Scottish National Party since the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon, why Keir Starmer’s Labour party will likely win the next election, and why the Tories are - contrary to their ruthless reputation - failing to adapt to the new political landscape.

 

Readings:

• National Swing Man, the British electorate’s new-old tribe, Bagehot, The Economist
• A decade of SNP one-party rule left Scotland in a state, Matthew Goodwin, The Times
• Sunak’s Tories have lost the Red Wall – and are destined for oblivion, Matthew Goodwin, The Telegraph
• The New Elite is in complete denial, Matthew Goodwin, spiked

/344/ Don’t Do The Work ft. Ben Hickman

On work stoppages and work-doings.

Ben Hickman, published poet and senior lecturer in English at the University of Kent, joins us to discuss his project on different understandings of work, or rather, The Work. 

What is The Work and why is it so pernicious? Ben wrote a piece for Compact regarding how the American poet and radical professor Audre Lorde transformed the way we think about work. We talk through the differences between work and The Work, how it impacted radical activism, and how middle class work became all about self-exploration. 

Ben talks through a new book project on work and how it is understood culturally through figures such as Jackson Pollock, among others. Plus, what is happening with industrial relations on UK campuses, and how has radical politics unfolded in the Labour Party over the last few years? 

Reading:

• Stop Doing The Work, Ben Hickman, Compact
• “Atlantis Buried Outside”: Muriel Rukeyser, Myth, and the Crises of War, Ben Hickman, Criticism, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Fall 2015)

Excerpt: /343/ Reading Club: Freedom (4)

On Martin Hägglund's This Life.

We continue on the theme of freedom by discussing Martin Hägglund's case for 'democratic socialism'. In this episode, we leave the book itself to one side and attempt to "put the concepts to work". 

We survey the many intelligent responses the book has generated and discuss what their strengths and weaknesses are.  

• Is 'secular faith' just a therapeutic ethos to do with caring about your loved ones?
• What guarantees that we will use our free time appropriately? Why would we work freely for others?
• How does Hägglund’s vision work on a global scale?
• What kind of post-capitalist “state” does Hagglund actually propose?
• Does Hägglund evade class struggle? Does he have any vision of agency?

For access to the Reading Club, join for $10/mo at patreon.com/bungacast

Readings:

• Limited Time: On Martin Hägglund’s This Life, Robert Pippin – and response by Martin Hägglund (pdf)
• Response 2: The Problem of Agency, Lea Ypi, The Philosopher
• Socialism For Our Time: Freedom, Value, Transition, Conall Cash, Boundary2 (esp. Sections IV and V)
• LA Review of Books symposium. Pieces by Walter Benn Michaels, Benjamin Kunkel, William Clare Roberts and three-part response by Hägglund: 1, 2, 3

 

Excerpt: /342/ Maybe Don’t Abolish the Family? w/ Amber A’Lee Frost

On family abolition.

[Patreon Exclusive]

Amber A'Lee Frost joins us to talk through recent radical proposals to do away with the family as an institution. Author Sophie Lewis claims that "ever since the capitalist victory over the long Sixties, the shout for abolition of the family has been buried beneath a strange kind of shame”, but that now it’s back. Why?

What problems does family abolition address? And how do contemporary accounts sit in relation to earlier radical proposals by the Old and New Lefts?

If "the family is doing a bad job at care" and "getting in the way of alternatives", what actually is the alternative? Wouldn't destroying the family merely make life worse for most, without putting anything better in its place?

 

Readings:

• Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation, Sophie Lewis, Verso

• Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family, Sophie Lewis, Verso

• Profile of Sophie Lewis in VICE

• Haven in a Heartless World, Christopher Lasch

• Vulnerability as Ideology, Peter Ramsay, The Northern Star

• The Lockdown Left: socialists against society, Philip Cunliffe, spiked

• Anti-Social Socialism Club, Dustin Guastella, Damage

/340/ How to Grow a Backbone ft. Russell Jacoby

On utopia and individualism.

Renowned intellectual historian and critic Russell Jacoby joins us to talk about his lifetime of left critique. We discuss his early criticisms of psychology in light of the advance of therapy culture over the past 50 years, before moving on to the question of utopianism.

Will the breakdown of the neoliberal era lead to new utopian thinking? Does enthusiasm for a universal basic income signal serious thinking about the nature of work? Or are we still in a world where only dystopian thinking is permitted?

The episode concludes by discussing how all the talk of diversity today obscures the reality of increasing homogeneity. What does this say about the individual? Is the way children are brought up today killing the capacity for imagination and making us all conformists?

Part two of the interview, and our After Party, is available at patreon.com/bungacast 

 

Selected books by Jacoby:

• Social Amnesia: A Critique of Contemporary Psychology (Beacon Press, 1975; Transaction, 1997)
• The Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe (Basic Books, 1987; new edition with new Introduction, Basic Books 2000)
• The End of Utopia: Politics and Culture in the Age of Apathy (Basic Books, 1999)
• Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age (Columbia University Press, 2005)
• On Diversity: The Eclipse of the Individual in a Global Era (Seven Stories Press, 2020)

Other recent articles and interviews:

• D’une pensée critique sous emprise – Un entretien avec Russell Jacoby, Comptoir
• A Climate of Fear, Russell Jacoby, Harper's
• The Takeover, Russell Jacoby, Tablet

/339/ Erdogone? People vs Nation in Turkey ft. Alp Kayserilioglu

On Turkey's elections.

Alp Kayserilioglu joins us to talk about a crucial election. Erdogan’s rule is seriously threatened for the first time, with high inflation biting into living standards. 

Who are the main candidates and do what they propose? Where does AKP draw its support from, and what has sustained its legitimacy? We discuss the supposed supposed culture war between conservative Islamic values and secular liberal ones. And ask how Erdogan has managed the economic crisis of the past few years. 

We conclude with Alp trying to place Erdogan in longer historical context: 2023 marks 100 years of the Turkish Republic. Does Erdogan represent a radical break, or nationalist continuity?

Readings:

• Turkey’s Statequake, Alp Kayserilioglu, Sidecar
• Goodbye Erdoğan?, Alp Kayserilioglu, Sidecar
• Alp's writing at Jacobin 

 

/338/ The Energy Theory of Everything ft. Matt Huber

On who owns the power.

Matt Huber joins us to discuss his article, "Socialist Politics and the Electricity Grid", and how organised labour is central to a politics of plenty. What is the grid and who owns it? What are the limitations of a "100% renewables" approach? 

On the politics of energy, the left is divided in a similar way to the ruling class. How do we move from a strategy of 'blocking' (preventing new infrastructure) to one of 'building'? And why does a movement to limit climate change need to focus on production, rather than consumption?

We conclude by discussing the conflict between struggles around "the end of the month" (living standards) and those around "the end of the world" (climate change).

Readings & Links:

• Socialist Politics & the Electricity Grid, Matt Huber & Fred Stafford, Catalyst
• Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, Matt Huber, Verso
• On post-neoliberalism: /326/ What Did Capitalism Do Next?, Bungacast
• On de-growth: /310/ Do You Want to De-Grow?, Bungacast
• On green activism: /91/ Exhaustion Revealing ft. Leigh Phillips, Bungacast
• Matt's Twitter thread on Kokei Saito's degrowth communism 

 

/337/ Nigeria Rising Downwards ft. Sa’eed Husaini

On Nigeria's 'end of the end of history'.

Sa'eed Husaini from The Nigerian Scam podcast joins us to reflect on all things Nigeria: oil, debt, corruption and February's election. What was all that hype about the 'outsider' who wasn't much of an outsider? Has the country's populist moment passed?

More Nigerians are falling into poverty due to low economic growth, while the state is due to spend 96% of its income on debt service. How is this sustainable?

We also talk about oil and corruption: the 'resource curse' and the 'survival of the fattest'. And conclude on China's role in the country and Nigeria as a cultural powerhouse.

Links & Readings:

• Buharism is dead, long live Buharism, Sa’eed Husaini, Africa is a Country
• /61/ Making Plans for Naija ft. Sa'eed Husaini
• The Nigerian Scam podcast
• The Oil Thieves of Nigeria, James Barnett, New Lines
• Survival of the Fattest, Paulo Collier, The American Interest

 

Excerpt: /336/ Reading Club: Freedom (3)

On Martin Hägglund's This Life.

[Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive]

We continue on the theme of freedom by discussing Martin Hägglund's case for 'democratic socialism'. Would we actually work under socialism, or do we need the threat of starvation or the promise of profit to motivate us? And what, if anything, is to structure all that free time we would gain?

Why is Hägglund's critique of religion – specifically the critique of 'political theology' – so central to his arguments? And how do we avoid the various temptations to retreat from passion, be it therapy-junk, new age buddhism, the goon cave, or post-politics? 

For local Reading Clubs, email info@bungacast.com

Readings & resources:

• This Life: Why Mortality Makes Us Free, Martin Hägglund, Profile Books ––Chapter 6 and Conclusion
• On time, work, freedom and necessity: /298/ Working For Freedom ft. Alex Gourevitch
• On Hegel and contradiction: /167/ The Kingdom of God Is on Main Street ft. Todd McGowan

Excerpt: /335/ AI & the End of the End of History

On history-ending technology.

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

The economist Tyler Cowen recently suggested that radical technological change today marks a turning point in history. Is he right, and how would we evaluate such a claim?

 

Should we be sceptical about these big claims, especially given all the Silicon Valley-driven hype around AI? Or is 'radical agnosticism' the right stance?

 

And what about calls to rein-in the development of artificial intelligence, especially when these calls come from Silicon Valley itself?

 

Readings:

• Existential risk, AI, and the inevitable turn in human history, Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
• Is this the end of “The End of History”?, Robert Stark
• The call for an AI halt disguises the real problems with tech, Jason Walsh, Tech Central
• /306/ AI Capitalism: Inhuman Power (unlocked Bungacast Reading Club episode)

/334/ Cancellation is Cancelled ft. Norman Finkelstein

On the US cultural climate.

Renowned/notorious writer Norman Finkelstein joins us to discuss the themes of his latest and last book, I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get To It!

What unites the leading intellectual proponents of wokeness today, people like Ibram X Kendi or Kimberlé Crenshaw? How do they differ from anti-racist and liberationist heroes of the past? What continuities are there between today's cancel culture and the politics of the New Left? 

We discuss the definition of wokeness and ask whether we have already reached peak wokeness, and examine the emergence of anti-wokness.

Subscribe to the podcast: patreon.com/bungacast

Readings:

I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get To It!: Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom, Norman Finkelstein, Sublation