400 avsnitt • Längd: 40 min • Veckovis: Tisdag
The global politics podcast at the end of the End of History. Politics is back but it’s stranger than ever: join us as we chart a course beyond the age of ’bunga bunga’. Interviews, long-form discussions, docu-series.
The podcast Bungacast is created by Bungacast. The podcast and the artwork on this page are embedded on this page using the public podcast feed (RSS).
On revolution, epic poetry, John Milton, and freedom.
George and contributing editor Alex Gourevitch talk to Orlando Reade, who teaches English at Northeastern University London. We discuss Orlando’s new book What In Me Is Dark: The Revolutionary Life of Paradise Lost and the history of readings of John Milton’s great epic poem.
Is Paradise Lost a poem about darkness?
What does a poem written in the seventeenth century have to tell us about the age of Trump and the contemporary Right?
What can we learn about freedom today from the rebellious Satan in the poem? Or the disobedient Eve?
What did Malcolm X get from the poem and why is Jordan Peterson so hot on epic poetry?
Links:
What In Me Is Dark: The Revolutionary Life of Paradise Lost, Orlando Reade, Penguin
John Milton’s Paradise Lost Mourned a Revolution Betrayed, Orlando Reade, Jacobin
Why Is the Right Obsessed With Epic Poetry?, Orlando Reade, The Nation
On Erdogan's World and the revolt against it.
[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
Historian Djene Bajalan joins George and Alex to review the past month – ceasefires in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, winning and losing US patronage, Trump's inconsistent strategy and leaks, and the gold rush. We then turn to a country exemplary of the contradictions of the end of the End of History: Türkiye. And finish by answering your questions and comments on internationalism, free speech, Die Linke, anti-immigration, and domination.
What's driving the protests and how do they compare to past revolts against Erdogan?
What is the meaning of charges – corruption & terrorism – against Istanbul mayor and potential opposition leader İmamoğlu?
Who is the opposition?
What has sustained Erdogan's rule – repression, conservatism, modernisation, growth?
Why is Erdogan one of the winners of the past 20 years, and how is he a world-historic figure?
Links:
Erdoğan's new world order, Lily Lynch, UnHerd
/339/ Erdogone? People vs Nation in Turkey ft. Alp Kayserilioglu
Kultur Kampf TR, Selim Koru, Substack
On critical theory and autonomy.
[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
Jensen Suther, a junior fellow at Harvard working in philosophy and literature, talks to Alex H and contributing editor Alex Gourevitch about art, culture, and socialism. He also offers a riposte to previous guest Anna Kornbluh's discussion of immediacy, and its cultural forms such as autoficition.
What does Suther think Kornbluh gets wrong – and right – in her critique of contemporary culture?
How autonomous is art from society and the economy?
To what extent can we tie cultural forms to deep changes in the economy?
What is the right response to the historical defeat of the working class? What does it mean for critical theory?
What is the difference between immanent critique and critique from the outside – and how dow this relate to freedom?
And what does it matter if you read Hegel right?
Links:
The Theory of Immediacy or the Immediacy of Theory?, Jensen Suther, Nonsite.org
/473/ Make Alienation Great Again ft. Todd McGowan (features a different response to the question about critical theory after the defeat of the working class)
Jensen's thread on X on capitalist totality and the end of the working class
Jensen's thread on X on the return to Hegel, against economic determinism
On class formation, fragmentation, pessimism and optimism.
George and contributing editor Leigh Phillips talk to Dan Evans, a writer and academic based in South Wales. We discuss his piece in the New Socialist, ‘Is the Working Class Back?’ and themes emerging from it.
How important are definitions of class?
If the working class remains weak and fragmented, and its politics increasingly chaotic, what is to be done?
How does Gabriel Winant's pessimism about the industrial working class compare to Evans'?
What are the class contradictions of the contemporary Left?
Who is the real oppositional class today? Should we be more positive about the petite bourgeoisie?
Links:
Is the Working Class Back?, Dan Evans, New Socialist
A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie, Dan Evans, Repeater Books
/349/ The PMC & Their Politics ft. Dan Evans & Catherine Liu
On cities and the politics of development.
[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
Ben Bradlow, assistant professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton, talks to Alex about his book Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg.
If our future is urban – and it is – why is it different to what we imagined?
Are Johannesburg and São Paulo representative of what is going on in cities?
How did democratic promise and neoliberal disappointment go together in the 1990s, through to today?
What has been the role of social movements (e.g. for housing) in transforming cities and municipal government?
Is the radical right in the global North and South fundamentally different? What is the urban dimension?
What does China's lead in industries like electric vehicles mean for countries like Brazil?
Is industrial upgrading possible under post-neoliberalism?
Links:
Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg, Benjamin Bradlow, Princeton UP
A processual framework for understanding the rise of the populist right: the case of Brazil (2013–2018), Tomás Gold and Benjamin Bradlow, Social Forces
Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation, Peter Evans, Princeton UP
On Embracing Alienation.
Todd McGowan is back on the pod, talking to George and Alex about his book, Embracing Alienation: Why We Shouldn't Try To Find Ourselves.
Why is alienation good actually? What does it give us?
How is alienation related to subjectivity and freedom?
What is the problem with anti-alienation politics of Left and Right?
What happened to the 1960s concern with alienation, where did it go?
Why is an embrace of the public realm, against therapy culture, the right response?
What is the task of critical theory today?
Links:
On Trumpworld: Vance in Munich; Musk in South Africa.
[This contains only the interview on South Africa – for the full episode subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
Alex, George and Ryan Zickgraf round up events in Germany: first the elections, then US Vice-President JD Vance's speech to the Munich Security Conference where he called out Western elites' hypocrisy on liberalism and democracy.
Then Alex speaks to Will Shoki, editor at Africa Is A Country, about what Musk wants from South Africa, why the global radical right has fixated on land reform in South Africa, and what is really at stake for South Africans.
We round out by taking your questions and comments – and by welcoming in carnival by discussing drinking & socialising, and its anti-social enemies.
Running Order
00:03:10 – German elections
00:08:20 – Vance's Munich speech
00:26:00 – Will Shoki on South African politics
01:04:55 – Musk and the global radical right
01:13:20 – Letters to the Editors
01:23:10 – Carnival and social drinking
Links:
Trump’s Tool: The Limits of Bannon’s Postmodern Nationalism, Alex Gourevitch, The Northern Star
Make Afrikaners great again! National populism, democracy and the new white minority politics in post- apartheid South Africa, Danelle van Zyl-Hermann, Ethnic and Racial Studies
Why Trump loves corrupt Democrats, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd
The Case for Social Drinking, Ryan Zickgraf, Jacobin
The Hangover and Life as a Commodity, George Hoare, Damage
Segregation Is Still Alive in Mardi Gras’s Birthplace, Ryan Zickgraf, Jacobin
On Gramsci in the 21st century.
Sociologist Nathan Sperber and our own George Hoare talk to Alex H and Lee Jones about the new edition to their book, An Introduction to Antonio Gramsci: His Life, Thought and Legacy, which includes a new chapter on Gramsci's relevance to contemporary politics and events and a new section on Gramsci's influence on the New Right. We discuss:
How does this book differ from other introductions to Gramsci?
What is wrong with the post-Marxist, post-colonial or culturalist version of Gramsci?
What are Gramsci's top 3 insights into politics?
How has Gramsci been taken up by the political Right?
How has Gramsci been used and abused by the Left? What to make of the post-Marxist radical democracy of Laclau and Mouffe ("left-populism")?
Why is the concept of the "national-popular" that Gramsci takes from the Jacobins so important to rediscover?
This episode, originally published in June 2024 only for subscribers, is crucial backdrop to this Sunday's (23 Feb 2025) snap elections in Germany.
For more like this, join us at patreon.com/bungacast
On German political derangement.
Independent researcher and writer Gregor Baszak joins us to talk about German centrism being squeezed under pressure from both left and right — Sahra Wagenknecht and the AFD. Meanwhile the German economy is getting squeezed between the US and Russia, and NATO pressures Germany to up its defence spending.
Is German public life remilitarising?
What are the prospects for Sahra Wagenknecht’s new ‘left-conservative’ politics?
What was the original political vision behind the Nordstream 2 pipeline?
Why are Marine Le Pen and Giorgia Meloni trying to carve the AFD out of pan-European national-populist cooperation?
Where does Germany now stand in relation to the Ukraine War?
Links:
On the world under Trump, and British responses.
Tim Pendry, author of the Unstable Times substack, as well as an international affairs consultant, talks to Alex H and Lee Jones about the world under Trump II, the massive shifts underway, and his own policy work with the Workers Party of Britain.
How has intra-bourgeois struggle shaped the past decades in politics?
What is "American imperial nationalism (MAGA)" plus a "real-estate negotiation style"?
Who are the winners & losers of a "rational" return to classical great-power, sphere-of-influence politics?
Why are the UK's tensions and problems an extreme version of what may soon apply to any ostensible American ally?
What is the Workers Party of Britain's pitch and strategy?
Are the bulk of British people really "left on economics, right on culture", and how does the WPB try to appeal to workers?
What are the practical challenges of building and organising a new party?
Links:
Manifesto – Britain Deserves Better, Workers Party of Britain
The Foundations of the Liberal Polycrisis, Unstable Times, Tim Pendry
Taking Trump Seriously, Unstable Times, Tim Pendry
Trumpism and Geo-Politics, Unstable Times, Tim Pendry
On European decline and inertia.
[For full episode: patreon.com/bungacast]
Anton Jäger is back, talking to Alex and George about Belgium's new right-wing government, American hyperpolitics, and the lack of a European future.
The radical right has prevailed in Belgium, despite having factors that should impede this, like higher union density, lower inequality and so on. Why?
Why is the US particularly 'hyperpolitical'?
Are those who say hyperpolitics is over correct?
Why is Europe now a pale imitation of authoritarians in the East and the unbridled capitalism to its West?
Is it Europe's capitalists – not its workers or pensioners – who are in need of strict market discipline?
Links:
Things Are Terrible in Europe, and They’re Only Going to Get Worse, Anton Jäger, NYT
Goodbye, ‘Resistance.’ The Era of Hyperpolitics Is Over, Ross Barkan, NYT
My Country Shows What Europe Has Become, Anton Jäger, NYT
Hyperpolitics in America, Anton Jäger, New Left Review
Is Trump 2 the End of ‘Neoliberal Order Breakdown Syndrome’?, Lee Jones, The North Star
On David Harvey's The Condition of Postmodernity (1989).
[Patreon Exclusive - subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
We focus in particular on Part III: The Experience of Space and Time – and reflect on the general themes of this section. The central question is:
How do we rescue a sense of ‘place’ – in a political, forward-looking and future-oriented way – after the age of globalisation?
The age of globalisation generated and emphasised placelessness. But if oppositional struggles need to start from a definite place, where is that?
And how do they not get restricted by that same sense of place – that is, not becoming particular, nostalgic or backward-looking?
And if walls are now being put up, halting globalisation, then does this provide a more propitious scenario for struggle?
On Syria, the fall of Assad, and nationalism in the Middle-East.
Historian Djene Bajalan talks to Alex about a major rearrangement in the Levant. We discuss:
Who are Syria's new rulers HTS, and what is their vision – if any?
Did geopolitics really determine the fall of Assad and the Ba'ath Party?
How HTS's victory is so profoundly different from Islamism in Iran 1979
Why 2025 finally closes the book on the Arab Spring – and on secular Arab nationalism
Were the Kurds wrong to rely on US protection?
And in the full episode we continue by discussing...
Is Turkey the big winner of the decade?
What the Left gets wrong on nationalism
Civic versus ethnic nationalism, revisited
What was democratic, liberal and revolutionary about nationalism – and whether it can be again
How conservatives recuperate left-wing ideas, which were always conservative from the start
Links:
Djene's writing at Jacobin
On disinformation, NATO vs Russia, terrorism + more.
[Full episode for subscribers only. Go to patreon.com/bungacast]
We look back at a turbulent last month or so with the help of guest and "disinformation bot" Tara McCormack. We put it all in the context of Trump's return, post-neoliberalism and deglobalisation.
00:13:52 – Jacob Siegel talks to Alex about Meta's policy U-turn on censorship and what it means for the public-private partnership on digital surveillance.
00:50:11 – How will European powers react to the US's relative withdrawal of its protection? Will France, Britain and Germany double-down on the Ukraine war?
01:06:21 – Why is Luigi Mangione not understood as 'terrorism' while the Magdeburg Christmas market attack is? What drives terrorism and is that even the right term to understand explosive anomie?
01:15:24 – Letters to the Editors: on the global radical right, and Trump's foreign policy
Links:
To the Finland Station, Branko Milanovic, Substack
Trumpism & Geopolitics, Tim Pendry, Substack
Class Patricide, Dustin Guastella, Damage
On the martial law crisis in South Korea.
For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast
Jamie Doucette, who researches contemporary political economy and Korea's development at the University of Manchester, talks to Alex and George about December 2024's coup attempt and the past 50 years in the Republic of Korea.
Why is South Korea western capitalism's best propaganda tool?
Did Yoon Suk Yeol want to institute a dictatorship? Did he want to militarise all of society, or only politics?
How "unreconstructed" is the South Korean right? Do they dream of dicatorship?
What was the Park Chung-hee regime of the 60s and 70s like? What is authoritarian developmentalism?
Why did S. Korea democratise? Did the workers win it or did elites concede it?
What is the post-developmental state, how neoliberal is ROK, and what does the left-right spectrum look like now?
What was the Candlelight movement of 2016?
Links:
On Trump's foreign policy, the 2nd time round.
Historian and podcaster Daniel Bessner joins Alex Hochuli and contributing editor Lee Jones to ask how this era of rot and decay will proceed under Trump II, from Ukraine to China and beyond. We discuss:
Will we see "America First transactionalism"?
Does Trump have a capable cadre to bend the state to his will?
What will Trump’s relationship be to the deep state?
How important are generational splits in attitudes to the US empire?
Will there be a peace deal in Ukraine? Where does that leave 'Atlanticism'?
Is confrontation with China baked in?
Is the Middle East the key to world peace?
Links:
Empire’s Critic: The Worlds of Noam Chomsky, Daniel Bessner, The Nation
American Prestige podcast
EU blows hot and cold over Trump, Benoît Bréville, Le Monde diplomatique
America First, Russia, & Ukraine, Lt. General (Ret.) Keith Kellogg, Fred Fleitz, AFPI
On The Fall of Public Man.
We continue working through the 2024/25 syllabus and the first theme, The Future of Place. We ask is politics possible without a sense of place. Here we discuss chapter 13, "Community becomes uncivilised", and deal with listener questions.
How does the changed relationship between public and private impact notions of community and of place?
How does the maintenance of impersonal relations signify 'civility'?
Is impersonality really the summation of all the worst evils of industrial capitalism?
What is wrong with yearning for community, or specifically “love of the ghetto, especially the middle-class ghetto”
How does "fratricide" become "logical" when people use intimate relations as a basis for social relations? Why is fratricide "system-maintaining"?
Links:
2024/25 Bungacast Syllabus (with links to readings)
Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence, Christina B. Hanhardt
The Making of a New Political Subject, George Hoare, Café americain
On President Jimmy Carter's responsibility for neoliberalism.
Writer and historian Tim Barker talks to Alex Hochuli and contributing editor Alex Gourevitch about the former president's life and legacy.
What do people get wrong about Carter? Was Carter, not Reagan, the start of neoliberalism?
How is Carter's much-admired 'decency' of a piece with his neoliberalism?
What is 'austerity' and how does it relate to questions of public and private, vice and virtue?
What was the alternative to the neoliberal pivot in the late 1970s?
How did the appointment of Fed chairman Volcker change the entire world?
Did Carter set the script for the Democrats, of being 'noble losers' (but actually on the side of the winners)?
Links:
Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024, Tim Barker, Origins of Our Time
On neoliberalism and the Cold War: /276/ Broken Promises ft. Fritz Bartel
Other biographical/obituary episodes:
On radical conservatism and global order.
Professor Michael C. Williams talks to George and Alex about his co-authored World of the Right and how the radical right has gone global. We discuss:
Does academia takes the Right as seriously as it should?
What's the difference between the radical right and the far right, the new right, national conservatives, or fascists?
How is the right 'global' – not just through international conferences but by being "co-constituted by its relation to the global"?
Why is the radical right focused on the global liberal managerial elite? What does it get right and what does it get wrong about this stratum?
How did the radical right come to take Gramsci seriously?
Is the radical right just parasitic on the breakdown of liberal universalism?
What does this analysis of the radical right say about the Left – is it the force that protects the status quo of the liberal international order?
Links:
World of the Right: Radical Conservatism and Global Order, Michael C. Williams et al., Cambridge UP
/351/ Eating the Left’s Lunch? ft. Cecilia Lero & Tamás Gerőcs
On Conclave.
In our final episode of the year, we debate Edgar Berger's new film about a Papal election, featuring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci as Cardinals and Isabella Rossellini as a nun.
Is the film about an alien, abstruse process – the conclave – or is it about something familiar and earthly? Is the film about the sacred or the profane? About temporal or holy power?
What does it say about process and neutrality, in times of lawfare and contested elections?
Why is there so much film and TV about the Pope? What is it that appeals today about Papal authority?
The film features a good liberal, a corrupt moderate, a nasty reactionary, a tainted idpol candiate (a homophobic African) – do these politics matter? Why so crude?
Is it mere Oscar bait?
On Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity
[For access, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast/membership]
We continue working through the 2024/25 syllabus with the first theme, The Future of Place, asking, is politics possible without a sense of place. We discuss Marc Augé's much-referenced 1992 work on 'non-places': airports, shopping malls, corporate hotels, motorways... We discuss:
Are non-places proliferating, and what would this mean for society and politics?
Are non-places the spatial accompaniment to post-politics, to the foreclosure of political contestation?
Is the distinction between non-places and places/spaces useful?
Is there anything to the notion of a hyper- or super-modernity?
Is Augé too deterministic? Does he miss how non-places can be places for culture or politics?
Links:
2024/25 Bungacast Syllabus (with links to readings)
On immediacy, representation, and anti-politics.
Anna Kornbluh, professor of English and author of Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late Capitalism talks to Alex about the cultural, political, and economic changes she refers to as 'immediacy'. We discuss:
Is 'immediacy' just a vibe, or is vibe itself non-mediated?
How does anti-representation in film, TV and books relate to anti-representation in politics?
And can we relate culture immediacy to the 'material base'?
How do Fleabag, Uncut Gems, and the turn to memoirs and autofiction exemplify immediacy?
Why does self-disclosure fit so well with the data economy?
In what way is contemporary anti-theory nihilistic and apologetic?
How does the style of immediacy relate to Frederic Jameson's understanding of postmodernism?
Is the desire to put everything private on show a response to alienation?
And is the professionalisation of 'theory' a problem or solution?
Links:
Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late Capitalism, Anna Kornbluh, Verso
Has culture become pure vibe?, Anna Kornbluh, Spike Art Magazine
The Theory of Immediacy or the Immediacy of Theory?, Jensen Suther, Nonsite
Embracing Alienation: Why We Shouldn't Try to Find Ourselves, Todd McGowan, Repeater
On your questions, comments & criticisms.
We're back with a final letters to the editor episode of 2024 in which we discuss:
the universalisation of 'anti-fascism' as a kind of politics
whether there are any actual 'family abolitionists' out there
humanitarian intervention in Palestine
the hard and less hard facts of US imperial decline
the legitimacy of 'existential' politics
whether anti-corruption politics are good, actually
and why Phil loves Hillary
On Taiwan, semiconductors, and war.
[Full episode for subscribers only]
James Lin, Assistant Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington at Seattle, talks to Phil about Taiwanese politics and the country's place in the world, in terms of the global economy and Sino-American geopolitical rivalry. We talk about Taiwanese history and politics, from Japanese occupation and colonisation across the Cold War, to the present day, including:
Taiwanese politics in the shadow of the geopolitical crisis
The paradox of political divergence and economic convergence between China and Taiwan since the 1980s
How did Taiwan corner the market for manufacturing computer chips?
How successful is the ongoing US reshoring of chip production?
Will there be a Marco Rubio/Elon Musk divide on China in the Trump White House?
How might a war over Taiwan play out?
Links:
In the Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan, James Lin, UC Press
What Works in Taiwan Doesn’t Always in Arizona, a Chipmaking Giant Learns, John Liu, NY Times
Will Trump take the Musk path or the Rubio path on Taiwan?, Lev Nachman, Nikkei Asia
On Mothers and the institution of the family.
We're happy to bring you the recording of the launch event for the third issue of Damage magazine, with whom we're partnered. George and Alex were present for the event as part of a sequence of recordings on the future of place that will be released as a docu-series in the New Year.
For now, here is regular contributor Catherine Liu and friend of the pod Dustin Guastella debating the family to a packed-out bookstore at Moma's PS1 in Queens, NY.
On the End of History and Europe.
[For full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
LSE professor Mike Wilkinson talks to Phil and Alex about how the history of European integration fits with constitutional theories and ideas of sovereignty. We discuss:
In what way are the conspiracy theories about the EU true?
What are the origins of European integration in the inter-war crisis?
How did European integration tie into the history of ideas and development of 20th century legal history?
How far does European integration overlap with counter-revolutionary theories and ideas?
And who is the Last European?
Links:
Authoritarian Liberalism and the Transformation of Modern Europe, Michael Wilkinson
Political Constitutionalism in Europe Revisited, Michael Wilkinson, Journal of Law and Society
The Rise and Fall of World Constitutionalism, Michael Wilkinson, Verfassungsblog
On the maelstrom of the metropolis.
[Full episode only available to subscribers. Join at patreon.com/bungacast]
We kick of the 2024/25 syllabus with the first theme, The Future of Place, asking, is politics possible without a sense of place. We discuss Georg Simmel's short essay "Metropolis and Mental Life" and Marshall Berman's All That Is Solid Melts into Air (chapter 5, on New York).
How does Simmel relate the metropolitan condition to a historical passage from the 18th century to the 19th?
Is city life intellectual and blasé, versus small town emotionality?
Is narcissism built into modernity? Is there an aristocratic individualist revolt in evidence today?
Do we need places to hang out in before we can do political organising?
Are we nostalgic for top-down modernisation?
Readings:
All That Is Solid Melts into Air (chapter 5, on New York)
On the military decline of the American empire.
The Swedish writer Malcom Kyeyune talks to Phil about what happens to the evil empire when the stormtroopers can’t shoot straight and the empire isn’t producing enough star destroyers. They discuss:
What happens to international politics in a world of new geopolitical rivalries?
How does American industrial decline affect US military capacity and strength?
Why is America unable to produce enough ships?
Why is the US unable to do conscription anymore?
Who would win in a showdown between China and America?
Links:
America will have to dodge the draft, Malcom Kyeyune, UnHerd
The Houthis now rule the Red Sea, Malcom Kyeyune, UnHerd
The West can no longer make war, Malcom Kyeyune, New Statesman
The American Empire’s Burning Peripheries, Malcom Kyeyune, Compact
/240/ Populist Interventions: Örebro Party ft. Malcolm Kyeyune | Bungacast
Facing war in the Middle East and Ukraine, the US looks feeble. But is it just an act?, Adam Tooze, The Guardian
On pro-family politics, and the US election and labour.
[Patreon Exclusive - in association with Damage magazine]
Dustin Guastella talks to Phil and Alex about what the election of Trump will mean for US labour organisations. We then move on to Dustin's proposal for progressive pro-family policies.
What actually is "the family" today?
Social democrats are proud of policies but wary of encouraging family growth. Why?
What would pro-family policies look like, what would they do, and what might their negative effects be?
Is the family not a pillar for the reproduction of authoritarian norms?
How do we explain the fertility crisis in global terms?
How do we confront the growing marketisation of everything?
Links:
Damage issue #3 - MOTHERS - Bungacast subscribers get free access
On Trump's return and the end of the End of History (still!)
Historian and Jacobin contributing editor Matt Karp joins us to extract the true meaning of the US election. We discuss:
How Trump's victory explodes so many Democrat assumptions about demography and identity
How this election re-writes the past ten years' history
Whether Trump still retains an anti-political or anti-establishment charge
If the Democrats are preponderant in leading sectors of the knowledge economy, is this a political rejection of its assumptions?
How to place this election in the sweep of the global anti-incumbency wave
What the relationship is between inflation, labour and legitimacy
Links:
Power Lines, Matt Karp, Harper's
It’s Happening Again, Matt Karp, Jacobin
Democrats join 2024’s graveyard of incumbents, John Burn-Murdoch, FT
/447/ Brunch Back Better ft. Ryan Zickgraf & Amber A'Lee Frost
On your questions, comments, criticisms.
It's our letter to the episode show where we have a chance to answer you, the listener. We discuss:
Has Bungacast gone eco-austerian?
Are Marx and Freud in conflict?
Is abortion about healthcare or about freedom?
Why has the left abandoned liberty?
Did we underestimate Israel’s existential fears?
And what’s so “complex” about the Arab-Israeli conflict anyway?
Links:
Direct link to the syllabus PDF
Our substack newsletter
On Georgia's pivotal elections and its post-Soviet history.
[Full episode only for patrons]
Hans Gutbrod, who has been working in the Caucasus region since 1999 and now teaches at Ilia State University in Tblisi, talks to Alex about Georgia's choice between the EU and Russia. We discuss:
Who is Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose wealth is equal to 1/4 of GDP?
What is the ruling Georgian Dream's pitch to voters, and how has it turned 'rightward'?
Did Georgia witness the end of history, or merely the de-development of the post-Soviet years?
How has civil society become dominated by NGOs, and is this a problem?
Can Georgia flourish in a multipolar world, acting as an entrepôt between East and West?
Links:
In Georgia, a National Election Is a Geopolitical Struggle, Bryan Gigantino, Jacobin
Telling Time the New Way: 17 Years of Reform, Hans Gutbrod, Civil Georgia
Macbeth in the Caucasus: Omnipotence and Loneliness - Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream, Hans Gutbrod (PDF)
On the US election, messaging and learning stupid lessons.
[Full episode only at Patreon]
We welcome Amber A'Lee Frost (California via Indiana and New York) and Ryan Zickgraf (Pennsylvania via Illinois and Georgia) to preview the US election. We discuss:
Why the campaigns have been so focused on micro-targeting demographics
Whether Russians or Brits are illegitimately swinging the election
How the Democrats have gone back to being smug
Why it feels like Pennsylvania is the only state voting (and not even there!)
Whether the US is going back to a pre-2016 period
How each side will react if they lose
Damage Magazine will hold a launch of its third print issue, "Mothers," in NYC on 23 November at 4-6pm at MoMA’s PS 1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Queens 11101. Catherine Liu will be in conversation with Dustin Guastella on the question of the family.
Links:
The Battleground State that Isn't, Ryan Zickgraf, Compact
The Gospel According to Elon Musk, Ryan Zickgraf, Compact
To win, Harris should talk more about working-class needs and less about Trump, Dustin Guastella, The Guardian
Obviousness, Scorn, and Losing Ground, Benjamin Fife, Damage
On egg-freezing, 'having it all', and neoliberal liberty.
We welcome Damage editor and practicing psychologist Amber Trotter on to talk about "Frozen Freedom", Amber's piece on artificial reproductive technology and different kinds of freedom. Alex and George ask her about:
How empowering is female emancipation from biological limitations and compulsions?
Can women now "have it all"?
Do men feel the contradictions of this type of freedom too?
Is a proliferation of individual choice making us all neurotic?
The childhood fantasy of adulthood is of omnipotence – where did it come from?
What is the relationship between commitment, responsibility, collectivity, the individual, and freedom?
Links:
"Frozen Freedom", Amber Trotter – Damage issue #3
/440/ Dear Tradmother, Why Are You Sad? ft. Amber A'Lee Frost
/235/ Reading Club: Freedom – on mortality & freedom
Anti-Social Socialism Club, Dustin Guastella, Damage
Damage issue #3 launch event in NYC: Saturday 23 November, MoMA PS 1 Bookstore
On the left-wing case for freedom.
Regular contributor Alex Gourevitch is back on to talk about how the Democrats are approaching the US presidential election. Alex talks us through an influential and widely-read article that he wrote in 2020 with Corey Robin on how the left needed to reclaim freedom as its own.
We discuss:
Why is the left suddenly talking about freedom?
When did it abandon freedom in favour of human rights, welfare, or identity?
What are the consequences of leaving "freedom" to the libertarians and oligarchs?
How would one critique what the Democrats are doing today from this perspective?
Plus: we hear about Alex’s debate with Tyler Cowen on whether capitalism is defensible.
Links:
Gaining freedom by escaping the unfreedom of the workplace - PNHP
Freedom Now, Alex Gourevitch & Corey Robin, Polity: Vol 52, No 3
The US presidential race will be fought over competing definitions of ‘freedom’, Eric Foner, The Guardian
The Story of American Freedom, Eric Foner
On Israel's invasion of Lebanon and beyond.
Karl Sharro (Lebanese-Iraqi architect and satirist @KarlreMarks) and Iranian writer and historian Arash Azizi join us to discuss war in the Middle East. We ask:
Is Israel finally waging the great war that will rid it of all enemies?
Does Israel have any real plan? What motivates its actions in Gaza and Lebanon?
What is the impact on Hezbollah of losing its leadership layers?
How will Iran respond and what is the balance between moderates and hardliners there?
If Hezbollah is severely weakened, what happens to the Lebanese state?
What should we make of the global culture war around Israel, Palestine and the rest
Links
Lebanon in the heart of the storm, Akram Belkaïd, Monde Diplo
Israel is not ‘saving western civilisation’. Nor is Hamas leading ‘the resistance’, Kenan Malik, The Guardian
Iran Is Not Ready for War With Israel, Arash Azizi, The Atlantic
On Nations & Nationalism since 1870.
We start by dealing with your questions regarding last month's RC, on Stalin, Zhukhov and WWII.
Then we read and discuss Eric Hobsbawm's classic work in which he emphasises that nations are exclusively modern constructions. We discuss:
How succulent Hobsbawm's account is
Whether he was wrong about globalisation eclipsing nationalism – and why he argued this
Whether the revolutionary-democratic aspects of nationalism can be rescued from its later ethnic-particularist elements
What the relationship is between citizenship, patriotism and nationalism
How nationalism intersected with revolution - and fascism
And whether the nation is any more solid an exit from our political vacuum than whatever other postmodern BS
Links:
Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality, Eric Hobsbawm
Some reflections on 'The Break-up of Britain', Eric Hobsbawm, New Left Review (pdf)
On France's permacrisis.
[Patreon Exclusive]
French sociologist Nathan Sperber talks to George and Alex about his new essay in the New Left Review, "The French Crisis: Organic or Conjunctural". We catch up with what has happened in France since Macron gambled and called impromptu elections in the summer. We discuss:
Why does France always seem to be more in crisis than its neighbours?
How has France ended up with hollow "leaderist" parties?
Is Macron a true neoliberal or a reactive emergency politician?
Did the left-wing France Insoumise miss its shot?
How inevitable is a Le Pen government, and will it be co-opted by the French bureaucracy?
What's the difference between an organic and a conjunctural crisis – and which one is France in?
Readings:
On liberal takes on the end of the End of History.
We start by discussing Yasha Mounk's dismissal of an end to the End of History. Does he underestimate liberal democracy's inability to legitimise itself anymore? Is the talk of populism a way of deflecting from liberalism's undoing?
We then deal with your comments and questions [for patrons only, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
On tradwives, influencers, and boys.
Amber is back on the pod, talking to Alex and George about her forthcoming piece on neo-traditionalism and women, in Damage issue 3, which will be on Mothers. We discuss:
What are the models of 'tradwives' out there?
If homemakers make homes, do tradwives make content?
Does the tradwife phenomenon speak to sense of exhaustion with being a neoliberal girlboss?
When does internet crap start being real? Do influencers actually influence?
What is the political upshot of all this?
On "eco-modernism".
Ted Nordhaus, co-founder and executive director of the Breakthrough Institute, talks to Leigh and Alex the 20th anniversary of "The Death of Environmentalism" and the 10th anniversary of "The Ecomodernist Manifesto". We discuss:
The fundamental philosophical differences between "building-out" and "restraint".
Whether industrial policy like the Inflation Reduction Act is in line with the ecomodern approach
Why environmentalism differs in the US versus Western Europe
Why modernisation gets lost in discussions on the environment
What techno-optimism and what techno-fixes are
What the Abundance Agenda is
Links:
The Death of Environmentalism, Breakthrough Institute
On the US culture wars, then and now.
Historian Andrew Hartman, author of A War for the Soul of America, talks to Alex about how US Americans have been sorted into cultural camps over the past fifty years. We discuss:
Who started it? And who perpetuates it?
What is the "culture" in the culture war? And is it a war, or a series of skirmishes?
Is there something particularly American about culture wars?
The culture wars have followed the breakup of liberalism – so, what comes next?
Do culture wars necessarily presuppose identity politics?
Links:
A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, Andrew Hartman, UC Press
The Culture Wars are Dead, Andrew Hartman, The Baffler
On disinformation, misinformation and the popular will.
Holly Jean Buck, Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo, joins us to talk about her recent pieces arguing that the climate movement's focus on disinformation is misguided. We discuss:
What is disinformation and misinformation in the climate context?
Are there parallels to be drawn with anti-disinfo campaigns on vaccines during the pandemic?
How is the deterioration in trust in elites and scientific institutions to be responded to?
What do Holly's focus groups tell her about popular views on climate politics?
Does the return to industrial policy mean we should focus on "people who know how to make and run stuff"?
And what is solar radiation management, carbon capture and storage, carbon dioxide removal, and related technologies?
Links:
Obsessing Over Climate Disinformation Is a Wrong Turn, Holly Jean Buck, Jacobin
A Climate Disinformation Focus Takes Us the Wrong Way, Holly Jean Buck, Jacobin
Of Course "Misinformation" Isn’t the Cause of Climate Change, Alex Tremblath, Breakthrough Institute
Books:
After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair, and Restoration, Holly Jean Buck, Verso
Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero is Not Enough, Holly Jean Buck, Verso
On corruption, charisma, populism & assassination in Slovakia.
Slovak sociologist Dominik Zelinksy joins us to discuss Slovakia's positioning between East and West. We discuss:
Why was Prime Minister Robert Fico a target of an assassination attempt?
Whether Fico – not a zany outsider but a competent insider – is a "populist"
Why Slovaks are not so anti-Russian, and why they are sceptical of NATO
How has anti-corruption politics played a role
What is "charismatic mimicry" and why have Western leaders aped Ukraine's Zelenskyy?
Links:
Slovakia's election: "more than a fight between democracy and autocracy", Dominik Zelinsky, LeftEast
Assassination Attempt Prompts Soul-Searching in Slovakia, Jakub Bokes, Jacobin
Slovakia’s Election Result Is About Declining Living Standards, Not Just Ukraine, Jakub Bokes, Jacobin
Charismatic Mimicry: Innovation and Imitation in the Case of Volodymyr Zelensky, Paul Joosse & Dominik Zelinsky, Sociological Theory. Thread on Twitter/X about the article
On the electricity grid and the institutions involved.
[Episode originally released only to subscribers on 20 June 2024. Join us at patreon.com/bungacast]
Fred Stafford, a STEM professional, a writer on energy and power, and an editor at Damage, talks to Alex and regular contributor Leigh Phillips about the utility of utilities and his recent essay in the second print issue of Damage, "Deinstitutionalized"./
What actually is a utility: is it a question of ownership, structure, purpose..?
How did the 70s energy crisis, neoliberal economics, and environmentalism create a perfect storm that broke up regulated utilities?
How does the regulatory regime on energy in the US actually work?
Why have environmentalists been so keen to line up with neoliberal deregulation and to attack utilities – in Europe as well as the US?
Why should the left think about a restoration of the investor-owned utility model, and not just jump straight to public ownership?
Links:
The Utility of Utilities, Fred Stafford & Matt Huber, Damage
Big Public Power from the Atom, Matt Huber & Fred Stafford, Damage
Power Loss: The Origins of Deregulation and Restructuring in the American Electric Utility System, Richard F Hirsch
On Geoffrey Roberts’ 2013 biography of Field Marshal Zhukov.
Who was the Soviet general and architect of Soviet victory on the Eastern Front during the Second World War? We discuss:
What does Zhukov’s life tell us about modern warfare?
What can we learn about the life and fate of the Soviet regime?
How should we view the Ukraine war and renewed geopolitical rivalry between the West and Russia today?
What are the popular perceptions and folk memories of world war?
Links:
Stalin's General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov, Geoffrey Roberts
Saving Private Ivan, Mike Davis, The Guardian
Negotiate Now, or Capitulate Later: Ten Incentives for Ukraine to Make Peace with Russia, Geoffrey Roberts, Brave New Europe
Putin’s Trump Card: Ukrainian Membership of NATO, Geoffrey Roberts, Brave New Europe
‘Now or Never’: The Immediate Origins of Putin’s Preventative War on Ukraine, Geoffrey Roberts, Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
On the NGO-isation of the state.
Researchers and writers Matthew Thompson and Jonny Gordon-Farleigh join us to discuss their recent Damage article with George Hoare.
Civil society was once occupied by popular forces that could function as a bulwark against both capitalist marketization and state authoritarianism. Today, it has been colonized by the NGO, which, in turn, colonizes our hollowed-out politics. We ask:
What are 'private NGOs', and what are quangos?
How has 'projectification' taken over?
What does the NGOisation of society mean? How does this kill public accountability?
What are concrete examples of this process?
What comes next? Any possibility for resurrecting things like Working Men’s Clubs?
Links:
Bodiless Bodies: The Rise of Para-Institutions, George, Matt & Jonny, Damage
Reconstructing Public Housing: Liverpool’s hidden history of collective alternatives, Matthew Thompson
The NGOization of the West, George Hoare, Café american
On your questions & criticisms.
We respond with comments on episodes 420 to 432 and various other points you wanted to us to discuss. In this episode:
Does our politics lack self-critique?
When did the breakdown of the UK's political system begin?
How hegemonic is "settler" discourse?
Will there be a coup in France?
Do we need more analysis of the PMC?
How did victimhood become a means for the expression of political demands?
Links:
The Making of a New Political Subject, George Hoare, Café americain
Vulnerability as Ideology, Peter Ramsay, The Northern Star
On Naomi Klein & Naomi Wolf and "political diagonalism"
Episode in association with Damage magazine. Patreon Exclusive.
Ben Burgis talks to Alex and George about his review in Damage of Naomi Klein's Doppelgangers. We discuss:
Whether Naomi Klein is representative of the average left-wing position this century
What Klein's trajectory and that of Naomi Wolf tell us about contemporary politics
What is "pipiking" – Philip Roth's term for making everything a farce?
What role do conspiracy theories play for the Right today? For the Left?
What's wrong with the idea of "settlers" and "indigenous", and how does it play out with regard to Jews and to Native Americans?
Are we right to hold up “proper left” and “proper right” as ideals to which the ideological confusion of our times should return?
Links:
Left Identitarianism Is Also A Mirror World, Ben Burgis, Damage
What comes after wokeness?, Alex Hochuli, Substack
The Making of a New Political Subject, George Hoare, Café american
On the structure of the Chinese state and its external relations.
[Patreon Exclusive: for the full episode, go to patreon.com/bungacast]
We welcome back Lee Jones and Shahar Hameiri to reflect on the outcome of the recent plenum of the Chinese Communist Party and to ask who, if anyone beyond Xi Jinping, is calling the shots.
How will the CCP respond to the US election?
Why is China not a monolithic, integrated state in the way some think?
How important is the the Sino-Russian alliance? Does it matter more to Russia or to China?
What happened to "wolf-warrior diplomacy"? Is it still a thing?
What's going on economically with the property bubble, and with Chinese manufacturing over-capacity?
Should we be worried about WWIII over Taiwan or the South China Sea?
Links:
China’s plenum must offer action not rote slogans, Financial Times
Views of China and Xi Jinping in 35 countries, Pew Research Centre
Fractured China: How State Transformation is Shaping China’s Rise, Lee Jones & Shahar Hameiri
On the tourist city, the tourist industry, and its critics.
Renowned Italian journalist Marco d'Eramo joins us to talk about his wide-ranging inquiry into the age of tourism, The World in a Selfie. We also discuss how migration is the obverse of tourism, and take a look at Marco's most recent book, Masters, on the neoliberal revolution from above.
Why is hating tourists the main characteristic of being a tourist? Why is the tourist/traveller dichotomy a false one?
What is the threshold for a city becoming a place that exists primarily for tourists?
How should we understand tourism economically, and why is the tourist city a mono-industry?
Is the "authentic" travel experience ever possible?
Why do critiques of tourism so often slide into snobbery or outright class contempt?
How is the city changing under the impact not just of "over-tourism" but rising rents, exclusions, and remote working?
Links:
The World in a Selfie: An Inquiry into the Tourist Age, Marco d'Eramo, Verso
Masters: The Invisible War of the Powerful Against Their Subjects, Marco d'Eramo, Wiley
Barbed Wire, Marco D'Eramo, Sidecar
The cost of Europe’s backlash against tourists, Barney Jopson, Financial Times
On Julien Benda's famous 1927 work.
We continue on the theme of 'Intellectuals and the Public' by discussing the often cited by little read The Treason of the Clerks. We ask:
If Benda was responding to the intellectuals' role in the Dreyfus Affair and WWI, was he already a man out of his time?
What are intellectuals' proper role in society? Can they be abstract universalist moralists?
Benda laments the end of humanism – can we endorse this lament, even if things are too far gone now?
Is Benda a centrist dad, urging us all not to get too passionate or engaged?
How do Benda’s ideas related to Gramsci’s notion of the traditional versus the organic intellectual?
If Benda was critical of the 'realism' of his day – as opposed to the detached ethics of pre-20th century intellectuals – how might we use Benda to critique the cynicism of today?
Readings:
Treason of the Intellectuals, Mark Lilla, Tablet (from preface to new edition)
The Treason of the Intellectuals, Niall Ferguson, The Free Press
Julien Benda’s political Europe and the treason of intellectuals, Davide Caddedu
Edward Said on imperialist hypocrisy on Kosova: The treason of the intellectuals, Green Left
On JD Vance, Hillbilly Elegy, and arresting decline.
[For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast]
We discuss the Netflix adaptation of vice-presidential nominee JD Vance's memoir – and the memoir itself – and what it tells us about the direction of US politics, Trump, and MAGA. We ask:
What is Ryan's own anti-hillbilly elegy, drawn from his experience in Central Illinois?
How far does the character in the film correspond with Vance’s public persona today?
How do we account for Vance’s political pivot – at least in rhetoric – from “lift yourself up by your bootstraps” meritocracy to pro-labour nationalism?
What will happen to rural/small-town US American life?
Plus: Is reading books gay? Is a "hillbilly" just Hillary + Bill? And what is a horseshoe sandwich?
Links:
The State of Illinois is Killing My Family, Ryan Zickgraf, Jacobin
An anti-Hillbilly Elegy, Ryan Zickgraf, The Third Rail (Substack)
Hillbilly Elegy Doesn’t Reflect the Appalachia I Know, Cassie Chambers Armstrong, The Atlantic
Why the Left Gets J.D. Vance Wrong, Zaid Jilani, Compact
On emotional capitalism + Israeli politics.
Renowned sociologist Eva Illouz joins us to talk about her recent book on the emotions of populism, and her work on the sociology of emotions in general. We discuss:
Why have emotions become such a collective obsession?
Where can you buy emotional commodities? What are influencers really selling?
What emotions accompany victim culture?
How is identity and victimhood linked in a way that allow us never to forgive or forget?
Plus:
How has Netanyahu failed even on his own terms?
How has Israeli populism channelled fear, disgust, resentment, and love?
Why have Eva's views on the progressive left changed?
Readings & Links:
The Emotional Life of Populism: How Fear, Disgust, Resentment, and Love Undermine Democracy, Eva Illouz
Emotion Sickness: The Politics of Feelings, Bungacast series
Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism, Eva Illouz
/232/ Reading Club: Cold, Hard / Warm, Soft - on Eva's 'Cold Intimacies'
The Global Left Needs to Renounce Judith Butler, Eva Illouz, Ha'aretz
Israel Is Facing Existential Threats From Inside and Out. There's One Solution, Eva Illouz, Ha'aretz
Subscribe: patreon.com/BungaCast
Follow us:
On the disaster of the culture wars.
Regular contributor Catherine Liu is back on to talk about her essay in Damage, issue 2, "Professional Populists in the Culture Wars". We discuss:
What were the original 'culture wars' and how are they different to today?
Why are the "academic populists" more elitist than anyone?
Was there a need in the 1980s to "disrupt" the humanities?
Why does conservatism now need to wear "populist" clothes?
How should we defend the "canon"?
What is the "Catherine Liu Foundation for Attacking Badness"?
Links:
On the late Dmitri Furman's account of post-Soviet Russia.
Patreon Exclusive: for the Reading Club, join for $12/mo and get access to ALL Bungacast content, incl. 4 exclusive, original episodes a month
We continue our discussions along this year's themes (rise and fall of nations; Russia past and present) by tackling Imitation Democracy: The Development of Russia's Post-Soviet Political System.
Why has there been a revival in interest in the late Soviet and early post-Soviet period? And in the global 1990s in general?
What does it really mean to be without-alternative?
Why didn't democracy take hold in Russia? And why did it become an "imitation democracy" and not something else?
How was Yeltsin a disaster? And what was Putin's appeal?
Does 'Putinism' actually exist? Is it interesting or novel in any way?
What happened after Furman's death and Russia's turn to "violent parody of the West"?
Readings:
Imitation Democracy: The Development of Russia's Post-Soviet Political System, Dmitri Furman, Verso
Imitation Democracies: The Post-Soviet Penumbra, Dmitri Furman, New Left Review (pdf)
Imitation Democracy: Perry Anderson writes about Dmitri Furman’s analysis of Russia’s post-communism, Perry Anderson, London Review of Books
Listening Links:
/114/ Reading Club: The Light That Failed - on the end of the "Age of Imitation"
/270/ Russia vs the West ft. Richard Sakwa - on the endgame to war in Ukraine; and /271/ Russia vs the West (2) ft. Richard Sakwa - on the post-Soviet landscape
/410/ Reading Club: Deutscher's Stalin - On Isaac Deutscher's classic Stalin: A Political Biography
/421/ Who Are the Wrong Ukrainians? ft. Volodymyr Ishchenko - on post-Soviet Ukraine, from Maidan to war
Music: Éva Csepregi, "O.K. Gorbacsov", Hungaroton , WEA, High Fashion Music, Dureco
On your questions & criticisms about fertility, culture war, and more.
In our monthly mailbag episode we take points from the discussion on patreon, including on futuristic music, holocaust movies, german populism, whether culture war can be global, and the link between modernisation, productivity and birth rates.
On France's surprise parliamentary election.
The left-wing 'New Popular Front' came a surprise first, for now putting a halt to expectations that the far-right Rassemblement National would soon enter government. We talk to political scientist and commentator Charles Devellennes, and ask:
What was Macron's gamble in calling this early election?
Is becoming Prime Minister actually a bad thing for your future prospects?
Is the Left actually 'far left' and the Right 'far right'? Is Le Pen a fascist?
Did the Left actually save Macron? Why not an alliance between Left and Right against the centre?
Will France opt for the undemocratic 'Italian Solution' and appoint an unelected technocrat?
Can Macron's party and his style of rule survive Macron eventually being out of office?
Does the uncertainty mean France is back to the postwar 4th Republic? Is this continuity? Something new?
Links:
The Macron Régime: The Ideology of the New Right in France, Charles Devellennes
On Labour's landslide and sandcastle majority.
We unpick what happened in the UK's general election, discussing:
How did Labour get such a large majority with so little enthusiasm for them?
Is the UK now a multiparty democracy, and will there be demands for serious electoral reform?
What accounts for low turnout and the fragmentation of the vote (Reform, Greens, Independents, etc)?
What is Keir Starmer's electoral base and how will he govern? What is their electoral programme?
Is Nigel Farage's reform the real opposition now?
Is the Brexit period now definitely over? Will there be a move to rejoin the EU?
Links:
The McSweeney Project, Tom McTague, UnHerd
Debasing Citizenship, Peter Ramsay, TNS
Data on the nationalist right + driving to work in the UK and French train stations
Ukraine, from Maidan to war.
[For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast]
Berlin-based Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko joins us to talk about his new book, Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War and his dissection of the war and the underlying political crisis in Ukraine. We discuss:
class conflict in Ukraine as a legacy of the collapse of the USSR and the stagnation of the Brezhnev regime in the 1970s.
The role of the Ukrainian professional classes in the conflict and oversize influence of relatively small neo-Nazi and far-right movements
The meaning of ‘Soviet Ukrainians’ today and whether a neo-Soviet revival is happening among youth across the post-Soviet landscape
The difference between neo-Soviet revival and Eastern bloc ‘Ostalgie’
The concept of de-modernisation
The vicious post-Soviet cycle of passive revolutions and corrupt oligarchic regimes
Links:
Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War, Volodymyr Ishchenko
The crisis of Soviet Ukraine, Volodymyr Ishchenko, UnHerd
The class conflict behind Russia’s war, Volodymyr Ishchenko, Lefteast
Russia’s War on Ukraine Has Already Changed the World, interview w/ Volodymyr Ishchenko, Jacobin
As Ukraine Expands Military Draft, Some Men Go Into Hiding, NYT
On baby bust, feminism and male resentment.
Alex and regular contributor Leigh Phillips call up Korean sociologist Hyeyoung Woo, director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Portland State University, to talk about demography, family and gender in the Republic of Korea.
How urgent is the national debate on fertility?
What policy measures have been introduced to reverse the decline?
How is work organised and how do long hours contribute to the lack of family formation?
What has been the impact of feminist movements in Korea?
Is there a male backlash against feminism underway?
Why is there such a huge gender gap in voting behaviour among the young?
Links:
The Real Reason South Koreans Aren’t Having Babies, Anna Louie Sussman, The Atlantic
Foreign maids and no military service: South Korea criticised over ideas to boost birthrate, The Guardian
South Korea's incel election, S. Nathan Park, UnHerd
This demographic catastrophe will hit us all, Peter Franklin, UnHerd
Korean Families Yesterday and Today, eds. Hyunjoon Park & Hyeyoung Woo
On the electricity grid and the institutions involved.
Fred Stafford, a STEM professional, a writer on energy and power, and an editor at Damage, talks to Alex and regular contributor Leigh Phillips about the utility of utilities and his recent essay in the second print issue of Damage, "Deinstitutionalized"./
What actually is a utility: is it a question of ownership, structure, purpose..?
How did the 70s energy crisis, neoliberal economics, and environmentalism create a perfect storm that broke up regulated utilities?
How does the regulatory regime on energy in the US actually work?
Why have environmentalists been so keen to line up with neoliberal deregulation and to attack utilities – in Europe as well as the US?
Why should the left think about a restoration of the investor-owned utility model, and not just jump straight to public ownership?
Links:
The Utility of Utilities, Fred Stafford & Matt Huber, Damage
Big Public Power from the Atom, Matt Huber & Fred Stafford, Damage
Power Loss: The Origins of Deregulation and Restructuring in the American Electric Utility System, Richard F Hirsch
On German political derangement.
Independent researcher and writer Gregor Baszak joins us to talk about German centrism being squeezed under pressure from both left and right — Sahra Wagenknecht and the AFD. Meanwhile the German economy is getting squeezed between the US and Russia, and NATO pressures Germany to up its defence spending.
Is German public life remilitarising?
What are the prospects for Sahra Wagenknecht’s new ‘left-conservative’ politics?
What was the original political vision behind the Nordstream 2 pipeline?
Why are Marine Le Pen and Giorgia Meloni trying to carve the AFD out of pan-European national-populist cooperation?
Where does Germany now stand in relation to the Ukraine War?
Links:
On the one-year anniversary of the death of our evil patron saint, Silvio Berlusconi, we are re-releasing our audio obituary. 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:
Music:
On India's election and a blow for the BJP.
Esteemed writer and social activist Achin Vanaik is back on Bungacast to unpick India's monumental, seven-week-long electoral process in which over 600m people took part.
How did the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP lose its majority?
Is there really a cult of personality around Modi?
How does the BJP differ in important ways from Western 'national conservatives'?
Does the BJP losing seats reflect a loss of support for Hindutva ideology?
Modi claims India will reach developed economy status by 2047. Is this true?
How bad are problems of under- and un-employment, especially for the youth?
What is the nature of India's "crony oligarchy"?
How does the National Population Register threaten to divest people of citizenship?
How does the BJP see Israel as an example for itself?
Links:
In State Repression and Its Justification, India and Israel Have Much in Common, Achin Vanaik, The Wire
Narendra Modi Is Preparing New Attacks on Democratic Rights, Achin Vanaik, Jacobin
How do ideas of victimhood relate to the material reality of international politics?
What really are the aims of the protesters and how likely are they to achieve them?
Are we cynical in our approach or conclusions?
How do the protests relate to populism and the end of the End of History?
What is the proper basis of nationhood?
How do these protests relate to the millennial Left?
Vulnerability as Ideology, Peter Ramsay, Northern Star
The victimological imagination, Matthew B. Crawford, Substack
On MORENA and Claudia Sheinbaum's huge victory.
Mexico has elected its first woman president, tasked with extending the hugely popular AMLO'S legacy. What are her prospects and challenges? We ask:
What was the effect of NAFTA on Mexico, and particularly manufacturing?
How is US-China competition playing out in Mexico?
Why did Trump and leftist AMLO get along? What about Scheinbaum and Trump?
How does the politics of migration play out in Mexico?
How come there is no hardline Mexican right, especially given the problems of crime and drug trafficking?
Can other countries follow MORENA's example of centre-left success?
Links:
Mexico’s Political Revolution, Juan David Rojas, Compact
AMLO and Mexico’s Fourth Transformation, Juan David Rojas, American Affairs
Lessons of the AMLO-Trump Bromance, Juan David Rojas, Compact
How does the film fit in the pantheon of Holocaust films? Is it a Holocaust film?
How well does it deal with its obvious subject matter: the banality of evil?
Is the film neutral and detached or preachy, condescending, moralising?
What to make of the commentary around the film, including director Jonathan Glazer's statements? How does it relate to Israel/Palestine?
What to make of present-day Auschwitz? Should it be preserved?
Links:
Is talk about popular music stuck between the poles of “rockism” and “poptimism”?
How did Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder invent "electronic dance music"?
Why is "future music" good? What are its pitfalls?
How did Daft Punk run out of futurity?
Why is Auto-Tune actually not the worst invention?
How are genres like trap technically exciting but thematically glum?
Is there any way of bringing the future back?
What kind of film is this: a dystopian fantasy, a war movie, a road movie?
Why the focus on the media? Does the film celebrate or satirise journalists?
Does Garland’s dystopia tell us anything about the landscape of US politics today?
Why is political polarisation between liberals and populists seen in terms of civil war?
What would a civil war look like in geopolitical terms, along the lines Garland suggests?
What side would you choose?
Deutscher's work in historical context
Stalin’s parents' experience as serfs and the significance of his boyhood education in an Orthodox seminary
How the oppression of the Russian Empire and the promises of Soviet industrialisation shaped young Stalin's lifecourse
Whether, compared to other Bolshevik leaders, Stalin would have succeeded anytime, anywhere
Was Stalin honest in his commitment to the revolution? Was Trotsky right that Stalin was just a cynic?
How did Stalin compare to the other leaders at Yalta, such as the aristocratic Churchill?
How do we compare Stalin to Cromwell or Napoleon?
And what's behind cheeky internet Stalinism today?
Message of the Non-Jewish Jew, Isaac Deutscher, Marxists.org
On Orwell: 1984 - The Mysticism of Cruelty, Isaac Deutscher, Marxists.org
I must start completely alone: Gonzalo Pozo on Isaac Deutscher’s wartime years in London, LRB
Is the police repression and associated censorship (the anti-semitism bill) a reflection of the fact the content of the protest unsettles the establishment? Why?
Why is the Left breaking with Biden and the Dems over this and not before?
How do these student protests compare to BLM? And how do they compare to those of the late 60s and Vietnam?
What should those in Western countries do in response to Israel’s war?
Is the Palestinian struggle dead?
What are the risks of regional war? And does Israel's assault on Gaza presage a new era of warfare?
The Triumph of American Idealism, Alex Hochuli, Damage
Like it or not, the politics of war is upon us, David Jamieson, Conter
Express Train to Nowhere: Class and the Crisis of the Modern Jewish Soul, Samuel Biagetti, American Affairs
Is this How We Can STOP Genocide Joe?, Doug Lain interviews Dr. Elektra Kostopoulos & Dave Fox, Sublation Media
The Left Cannot Make Use of the Gaza War, Benjamin Studebaker, Sublation Media
Meet the new Left, who think Hamas are good and that Swastikas are woke, Ryan Zickgraf, Telegraph
Their Fight, Not Ours, Alex Gourevitch, The Northern Star
Why did their grandparents/great-grandparents become Mensheviks?
How did one half of the family leave the USSR and the other half remain?
What was life like in exile in Berlin before the Nazis took power? And how did the family know to flee?
What was distinctive about fascism and the terroristic assault on democracy?
How was the escape from Paris just like the film Casablanca?
What happened to those who remained in the Soviet Union and how did one member meet death via torture?
What is the legacy of Menshevism – and what is the relationship between socialism and democracy?
Links:
Who Lived, Who Died? My Family's Struggle with Stalin and Hitler, Peter Gourevitch, Dio Press
Full episode for subscribers only. Go to patreon.com/bungacast. Members who sign up for $7/mo get 4 original paywalled episodes a month and a free subscription to Damage magazine.
How have American cities developed such problems?
What are the pros and cons of the 'Portuguese Model' of drug decriminalization?
What is the problem with harm reduction, and how does it connect to notions of 'bare life'?
How are insecurity and precarity changing people's political demands and expectations?
Is there something to be learned from the Christian tradition? Should we all be reading Alasdair MacIntyre?
How do we build a politics of human flourishing?
If cultural production is already monopolistic, can it be democratically planned?
Should we problematise "mental health"?
Is love a dangerous political emotion?
What happens if you leave the left?
How do we kill the ghosts of the 20th century?
Is a generational analysis of left-populism wrong?
How do we get beyond a world of media and images?
NatCon: are centrists the real threat to free speech?, Alex Hochuli, UnHerd
What role do the institutions of the public sphere and the media have in producing, sustaining or undermining this culture?
How does Habermas' account contrast with B. Anderson on print capitalism?
Is 'deliberative' democracy a trap? Who sets the rules of deliberation?
Is a good media structure a 'constitutional imperative'?
How do interests fit into Habermas' model? Do we need to leave our interests at the door?
Links:
How much is being gay tied to being modern? And conversely, how much of globalized culture is itself "gay"?
Do you need to be middle class to be gay?
Why did neoliberalism provide more sexual freedom than corporatism in Mexico?
How was Mexico ahead of the US in introducing ‘progressive neoliberalism’?
Is now a time of freedom, or should we think of it differently?
Bungacast is expanding, with new regular contributors, partnership with Damage magazine and more. Read about it here or see the video.
Links:If we are disengaging from politics, what is the associated feeling - resentment or resignation?
Why are our times "hypermodern" – and why is this exhausting?
What can the examples of the 'great resignation', 15-minute cities, and postliberalism all tell us about the ways people are withdrawing from modernity?
Why do we need to decelerate to save modernity?
How might we gain control of time?
From ADHD to Let Me Be: Taking Control of Time, Alex Hochuli, Damage
For part two, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
Links: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:
FROM THE VAULT: PHIL'S PICK (2)
The third in our Neoliberal Breakdown series. In which we discuss the late Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism, 10 years on. Does his analysis still hold? The mood music of the time - the age of 'TINA' and the end of history - was acutely described by Fisher. But did it only really describe Britain? And has the world now entered a new period?
Readings:
Capitalist Realism http://www.zero-books.net/books/capitalist-realism
'Exiting the Vampire Castle' https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/mark-fisher/exiting-vampire-castle
Mark Fisher's k-punk blog https://k-punk.org/
Cover image: 📸 Stephanie Jung
FROM THE VAULT: GEORGE'S PICK (1)
On “culture”. We discuss who produces culture and who consumes it – and what those inequalities reveal about culture today. Also, we ask what’s the ploblem with culture anyway and end up defending “low culture” from Red Hot Chili Peppers (well, sorta) to food guys. Reading: Culture is Bad for You, Orian Brook, Dave O'Brien and Mark Taylor, Manchester UPFROM THE VAULT: GEORGE'S PICK (2)
On the unexpected origins of neoliberalism. We talk to Quinn Slobodian, author of Globalists, about how neoliberals look back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the League of Nations. Why does neoliberalism talk about freedom, but promote order? Is neoliberalism about more or less state - or is it about what kind of state?
Plus why the genuine neoliberals didn’t care about the Cold War and how Murray Rothbard laid the ground for Trump.
Readings:
Subscribe for access to the Synthesis Session, where the guys discuss the broader implications: patreon.com/bungacast
FROM THE VAULT: ALEX'S PICK (1)
In which we lay the liberal establishment down on the shrink's sofa. It's a systematic analysis of liberal derangement: of the inability to accept, explain, or respond to the breakdown of the current order. Why can't the liberal establishment accept that the 2008 crisis would eventually have political consequences? Why can't liberals explain why they keep losing? Why can't they offer anything but more of the same?
Symptoms:
FROM THE VAULT: PHIL'S PICK (1)
On British decline.
Much ink has been spilled over the Britain’s fate since the end of its empire. Could it be that decline has been overstated? And what will happen to Britain as it leaves the European Union? We discuss how the history of the Industrial Revolution and Cold War militarism still shapes British politics today, as David Edgerton joins us to talk about the his latest book, 'The Rise and Fall of the British Nation'.
Readings:
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:
Subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
Links:
Readings:
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:
Music:
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?
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:
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.
For access to the Reading Club, join for $10/mo at patreon.com/bungacast
Readings:
On family abolition.
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
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
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:
Other recent articles and interviews:
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:
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:
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:
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 [email protected]
Readings & resources:
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
On your questions & criticisms.
Is the Left dead? Did the turn to culture really kill it? Or is the nostalgia for the post-war Left the real problem?
We also debate what the function of imperialism in Africa is; the 'pro-worker' conservatives in the US; surveillance of app workers; what economic growth is for; and whether to f**k models.
On Inhuman Power.
[Unlocked episode from Bungacast 'Reading Club', originally released 6 December 2022]
Contemporary capitalism is possessed by the Artificial Intelligence (AI) question – one of the few areas today in which capitalists still seem to have ambition. Why is this so, and is there something about AI that gets to the nub of what capitalism is, as a mode of production?
Is capitalism without humanity anything more than a dystopian Skynet nightmare? And would the creation of a surplus humanity still be capitalism? Would it be techno-feudal, or something else?
Reading:
Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Atle Mikkola Kjøsen and James Steinhoff, Pluto Books
On cracked-up capitalism.
Historian of ideas Quinn Slobodian joins us again, this time to discuss his latest book, Crack-up Capitalism – the vision of a global capitalism with its constituent nation-states perforated by ‘zones’ shorn of any national oversight or democratic accountability. We talk through these archetypal zones encompassing deregulation, investment and sweatshop labour, ranging from the glittering city scapes of Hong Kong, Singapore and Canary Wharf to forgotten zones such as Ciskei in apartheid South Africa as well as the gated communities of California and bit-coin paradise Honduras.
We also talk about archetypal crack-up capitalists such as Peter Thiel, William Rees-Mogg and Milton Friedman’s offspring. How did crack-up capitalism feature in the Tory vision of Brexit? Plus, why is Dominic Cummings the one true Singaporean, and why do crack-up capitalists love medieval LARPing?
For part two, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
Readings:
Crack-up Capitalism video trailer, Twitter
On Martin Hägglund's This Life.
We continue on the theme of freedom. In this episode, we look at what Martin Hägglund describes as 'spiritual freedom', which can ultimately be seen as a question of what we do with our time. Across the two chapters in question, Hägglund ties together his philosophical vision rooted in the notion of mortality and temporal life, with a social critique that draws on Hegel and Marx. He does this by centring the question of time, the only truly scarce resource.
How can we negotiate anxiety-inducing freedom today? Where do our 'existential identities' come from, and does Hägglund put too much emphasis on identity? And is Buddhist karma a system analogous to the market?
For local Reading Clubs, email [email protected]
Readings & resources:
On depicting dystopia.
Acclaimed cartoonists, writers and artists Matt Bors and Ben Clarkson join us for something a little different: to talk about their new comic book, Justice Warriors. Set in a grotesquely unequal world, a police procedural (of sorts) encounters an astrology-based social movement seeking justice.
We talk about how dystopian fiction often serves to manufacture consent and about how fiction can confront us with images of social decline. We also debate free will and determinism in a world that presents few opportunities, social justice warriors and politics that perpetuate the present, and why there is no 'pure' people set against the elite.
Links:
On geopolitical competition over Africa.
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:
On the left's understanding of freedom.
We continue our talk with Steve Hall and Simon Winlow, social scientists in the northeast of England, about their new book, The Death of the Left: Why We Must Begin From the Beginning Again.
This is followed by the After Party, where we debate the extent to which Thatcher 'sold' freedom and what the left's understanding of liberty is.
To gain access to episodes like this that normally remain paywalled, subscribe to our patreon: patreon.com/bungacast
Part 1 is here: https://bungacast.podbean.com/e/318-the-dead-left-ft-steve-hall-simon-winlow/
Links:
On Martin Hägglund's This Life.
[Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive]
We begin the 2023 Reading Club with the theme of FREEDOM. In this episode, we examine Martin Hägglund's arguments for secular faith presented in the first half of his book. Is Hagglund right in arguing that much of religious belief, especially in relation to morality, is actually motivated by secular faith?
Hägglund's enemy is not so much religion as the "Stoic" attempt to withdraw and detach from the temporal world. Instead we should be engaged and committed to the persons and projects we care about in this life. But does Hägglund underestimate alienation? Is his approach overly demanding?
And what about disenchantment? How would we go about re-enchanting the secular world?
For local Reading Clubs, email [email protected]
Readings:
On the mainstreaming of racial thinking.
We welcome back author and broadcaster Kenan Malik to talk about his new book, Not So Black and White. The book presents a historical account of how racial thinking has accompanied the spread of notions of equality and common humanity. How is it that many supposed humanitarians in the past were often racists?
And how have we reached a point where today, many liberals and supposed anti-racists sustain racial thinking? How have notions of global whiteness/blackness come to dominate the discourse?
We also discuss the 'post-liberal' critics of wokeness and their shortcomings, and whether the far right is gaining from the reification of race.
Want more? Subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
Links:On aesthetic criticism & performance.
The hosts of a new podcast on film, Performance Anxiety, join us to talk about how a focus on performance can break through endless squabbles over wokeness and representation in film.
We also discuss our best and worst films of 2022.
Part two of this episode is at patreon.com/bungacast
Links:
On the achievement of democracy and the 'impartial' state.
We speak to sociologist Dylan Riley about his new book Microverses, a series of aphorisms on social theory and politics.
The rational-legal state seems to be under threat by politicians who have no sense of the division between public and private – patrimonialists like Donald Trump, or Silvio Berlusconi. What are we to make of this attack on the notion of office?
Anti-corruption politics is often the response, but what happens when the left positions itself as the defender of the 'impartial' bourgeois state – rather than its overthrower? And was democratic capitalism the achievement of a militant working class – or a concession made after the working class had already been disciplined by fascism and war?
The second half of the interview, and our After-Party, is available at patreon.com/bungacast
Readings:
Is there a new 'transformative' class?
[Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive]
We close of the 2022 Reading Club, and the final section on 'Neo-Feudalism', by discussing how class is changing. Through readings by Guy Standing and Ruy Braga, we ask if the precariat are the new serfs in a supposed feudal-ish social formation.
It's clear the old Fordist arrangements have broken down, so what does the working class look like today? Is it still a class in the old sense? Braga argues we are witnessing 'class struggle without class'. But why then do the precariat's revolts only target state political authority, and not property relations?
Readings:
On 'degrowth communism'.
Why the rage for degrowth now? With deindustrialisation, energy rationing and severe pressure on standards of living, it looks increasingly like degrowth is official policy.
Yet its advocates, drawing from the work of radicals like Mike Davis, John Bellamy Foster, Jason Hickel, and Kohei Saito, would argue that ecological Marxism or degrowth communism is wholly different from stagnant capitalism. How much continuity is there between much older generations of socialists and the contemporary left?
Readings:
On your questions & criticisms.
We debate what kind of work 'shared-labour socialism' would involve in a complex society, and what role 'dispossession' or 'expropriation' has in the contemporary economy. Plus: strategies on Ukraine – backing independence, guerilla warfare, and what an 'anti-NATO' stance actually looks like; and whether the forces exist for exiting the EU.
Fill out our 2022 Listener Survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XNLTVLB
On "techno-feudalism".
In the Bungacast Reading Club for patrons, we've been discussing various works on "neo-feudalism" - a thesis that tries to explain capitalist stagnation and inequality by arguing that we are moving beyond capitalism – toward something worse.
In this free episode, we discuss one of the most thoroughgoing critiques of this thesis: Evgeny Morozov's "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason".
Why has this thesis becomes so popular today, across the political spectrum? What is the economic and political logic of feudalism, and how do current trends supposedly indicate a resurgence of these logics? Why have Marxists, who draw such a clear line between feudalism and capitalism, believe that politically-driven expropriation is replacing exploitation?
And how do Big Tech companies make money - purely through rent, or do they produce commodities?
To join the Reading Club, sign up for $10 at patreon.com/bungacast
Readings:
A special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.
Previously released in 2021 only to subscribers at patreon.com/bungacast, a year on we're releasing the whole series to everyone.
Part 1:
We look at the current, vexed discourse around generations, and analyse competing theories on how to understand generational cleavages.
Guests include:
Part 2:
We look at the emergence of ‘youth’ as political concept in the age following the French Revolution, and its shifting meanings. How important was generational consciousness in the Young Italy movement and its imitators in the 19th century, and how should we understand the so-called ‘Lost Generation’ of 1914?
Guests include:
Part 3:
We examine the Baby Boomers – myth and reality. The revolt of the ’60s has been misunderstood in many dimensions. Was it betrayed or did it always express capitalist ideology? Were the Boomers the ones who really did the 1960s anyway? And what world have the Boomers created as they passed through life – and institutions?
Guests include:Part 4:
We examine Generation X – the generation of the End of History. How was this generation overshadowed by the Boomer’s failures? In the Eastern Bloc, the fall of Soviet regimes was a traumatic moment – how did this shape consciousness? And how did the Iranian Revolution – and subsequent war – shape the political perspectives of Iranians? Guests include:Part 5:
We examine the Millennials and Generation Z. Uniquely, generation war today seems to be a conflict over resources more than over values. Is there any basis for this, and what do Millennials actually want? With generational and class conflict seemingly bound together today, we analyse ‘Generation Left’ and ‘Millennial Socialism’. And we ask what the effect of the pandemic may be on the creation of a Gen Z consciousness.
Guests include:
Original music by: Jonny Mundey
Additional music:
Other Clips:
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:
Next month: Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Atle Mikkola Kjøsen and James Steinhoff, Pluto Books
On nuclear exterminism.
To commemorate our 300th episode, we discuss how the world is closer to a nuclear conflict than at any point since the Cold War. After decades of inconsequential 'permawar' (at least inside the Western bubble), the proxy war in Ukraine between NATO and Russia is suddenly very consequential indeed.
How does our situation differ from that of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis? Why might it be more unpredictable? Does today's very different ideological configuration make war more or less likely?
Before that, we reflect on five and half years of Bungacast, how the world has changed over the period, and pick out some of our favourite episode from the past half-decade.
The main discussion begins at 23mins.
Readings:
Listenings:
On shared-labour socialism.
Political theorist Alex Gourevitch talks to us about his critique of post-work thought, and how it presupposes the very labour it seeks to free us from. We start of by distinguishing post-work socialism (e.g. Fully Automated Luxury Communism) from various propositions for a Universal Basic Income, and discuss why these ideas are popular today.
We then dedicate much of the time to debating Gourevitch's alternative proposal for "shared-labour socialism". What counts as necessary labour – and who is going to do it? How has globalisation changed people's perspectives on what necessary labour is? And will we be producing more under socialism?
Part 2 is here: patreon.com/posts/73765804
Readings:
Listenings:
On corruption & anti-corruption.
When Bolsonaro won in 2018, he rode a wave of anti-corruption sentiment. Now he's doled out billions in pork via a secret budget, but this doesn't seem to bother his supporters. What happened?
Benjamin Fogel, who studies the history of corruption in Brazil, comes on to discuss how a moralistic account of corruption has fortified the far right. How has corruption been used as a political weapon in the past, and how has it shifted from right to left and back again?
How are scandals made rather than born? And what would an anti-corruption politics that is emancipatory look like – rather than the predominant technocratic or moralistic form today?
Readings:
On Brazil's containment of the crisis.
We talk to members of the Unbridled Possibility Collective (Fabio Luis B. Santos | Thais Pavez | Daniel Cunha) about their intervention, trying to look beyond this week's election in Brazil.
What does establishment support for Lula this time round represent? Is Lula guilty of "unrealistic pragmatism"? How will Brazil react to a potential coup attempt by Bolsonaro?
And we look at the deeper social and structural context: what are the features of the Brazilian "war of all against all"? How does Bolsonaro accelerate these tendencies?
We conclude by looking at the possibility of a new 'Pink Wave' in Latin America and examining the state of the Brazilian left.
Readings:
On the Brothers of Italy.
We talk to Mattia Salvia, former Rolling Stone Italia politics editor and author of Interregno, about Italy's election last weekend in the context of a Europe in crisis. The big question to start: is Meloni a fascist - and will her government be fascist?
With very low turnout, it seems like the working class has deserted politics, with 5 Star being the last gasp of proletarian participation. Does Meloni try to appeal to this constituency at all? Her low-tax anti-welfare policies don't seem like it.
And what of Meloni's pro-NATO politics? And what does this mean for the EU - will a FdI-ruled Italy weaken the union, or strengthen it?
Readings:
In Italian:
On your questions and criticisms.
We discuss the Chinese Dream, speculation and horizontal politics, foreign fighters and spies, Dune, and killing Phil.
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
Just a short announcement about what's coming up, while we're off on summer holidays.
Subscribe to the podcast to support us and get two new, original, paywalled episodes a month ($5/mo). For $10/mo you also get access to the Reading Club. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
On Rojava and Ukraine.
We talk to Stefan Bertram-Lee, former volunteer fighter for the the YPG in Rojava, about whom a Hollywood movie is being made. We ask him about the type of person who volunteers, and how this compares to those who have gone to Ukraine. How does this stop you "being a teenage nihilist"? And who would win in a fight: ISIS, Azov or the YPG?
Part two of this episode is available at: https://www.patreon.com/posts/70597308
Reading:
On our financialised world.
We talk to Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou about his new book, Speculative Communities. How has speculation become the very practice around which modern societies coalesce? And how does speculation actually give voice to the waning legitimacy of neoliberalism?
Do dating apps, Tik Tok and other social media give birth to 'speculative communities'? And is populism a speculation on the future, a leap into the unknown?
On the climate emergency.
We are specially unlocking this episode of our monthly Reading Club – the concluding episode of the first half of the 2022 syllabus (download it here). If you'd like full access to all of the Reading Club, go to patreon.com/bungacast
We discuss Andreas Malm's Climate, Corona, Chronic Emergency and Adam Tooze's review essay, "Ecological Leninism". How convincing is Malm's call for Soviet war communism as a model for responding to climate change?
We also approach these readings in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the knock-on consequences for energy politics. And what should we make of Tooze's contrast of social democratic time-frames with the eco-Leninist one?
On your questions & criticisms.
We discuss the link between Covid and war in Ukraine and return to the question of who exactly is the ruling class. Plus: inflation, what actually happened in the 1990s, contemporary art, and the politics of abortion.
On abortion.
After the US Supreme Court ruling, where does this leave women in the US? Political theorist Alex Gourevitch joins us to discuss Roe v Wade, and how the fact it rooted abortion in a right to privacy was problematic.
How can we ground the right to abortion in an argument for freedom in general? And is the US really faced with a rising tide of reaction, as liberals claim? Are same-sex marriage and contraception imperilled by the decision.
Reading:
If the End of History was characterised by post-politics, and the 'populist decade' of the 2010s dominated by anti-politics, then how should we understand more recent phenomena? Are the following of a qualitatively different nature to anti-politics, namely: the intensification of culture wars, growing polarisation that does not always align neatly with class, of increasingly hysterical and personalised politics, and of the competition between escalating emergency politics?
To commemorate the publication of the German edition of The End of the End of History, co-author Alex Hochuli was in conversation with historian of political thought, Anton Jäger at the Monacensia in Munich.
[Live events in Germany: Berlin / Munich]
On emergency politics today.
We talk to Geoff Shullenberger about competing emergency politics, left and right. Should politics be enjoyable and provide a frisson of transgression, or not? Is bare life all that's on offer? And is declaring the predominance of 'emergency politics' itself an emergency a problem?
Readings:
On your comments & criticisms.
We tackle ideological realignments over the use of history; conspiracy theorising; a game-show called The Last True Marxist; whether we've had any progress over the last 50 years; and much more.
On liberals' embrace of the past and history wars.
We talk to Matthew Karp about his essay, "History As End: 1619, 1776, and the politics of the past". It seems as if there's an ideological inversion going on, where liberals see history in terms of original sin and cycles of injustice, or at best, want to relitigate the past in order to fight battles of the present. Meanwhile conservatives have abandoned the past. What does this say about current attitudes to capital-h History and making the future?
Readings:
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 [email protected]
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.
On the fusion of technocracy & populism.
Carlo Invernizzi Accetti talks to us about his book, Technopopulism, co-authored with Chris Bickerton. This is the "new logic of democratic politics". How are all politicians today effectively technocratic and populist at the same time? How does this distinguish our age from a more ideological age in the past? And what can be done to make politics ideological again?
Part 2, which includes the rest of the interview, and the After Party where Alex, George and Phil debate why politics are toxic today, is available here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/64729183/
Readings:
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:
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:
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 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:
On dovish conservatives, Trumpist coup-mongers and Canadian truckers.
- - -
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
- - -
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:
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:
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:
On Thursday 9 November, George Hoare and Alex Hochuli took part in a conversation with Catherine Liu about their recent books – The End of the End of History and Virtue Hoarders, respectively. The focus was on the social and political role of the Professional-Managerial Class in historical context.
The webinar was hosted and presented by the UCI Humanities Center, as part of their Ideas with Impact series and we're reposting the conversation as a podcast here.
This is an excerpt. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast.
On branding and the left.
Douglas Lain, until recently publisher of Zer0 Books and now of Diet Soap Media, joins us to talk about what happened with Zer0. Mainly, we discuss the left at the End of History, revisit No Logo and the anti-branding stance, and compare Gen X and Millennial lefts - is it just a continual story of decline?
Links:
On people power on three continents.
We discuss Chile's landmark elections, the first after the uprising of 2019-20, which see a face-off between left and far-right; Modi's repeal of controversial laws that provoked a huge mobilisation of farmers in India last year; and protests and riots against new lockdowns and vaccine mandates across Europe.
Articles:
Other relevant episodes
On sectarianism & identitarianism.
Karl Sharro (@KarlreMarks) is back on Bunga to talk to us about his essay "The Retreat from Universalism in the Middle East and the World".
Lebanon has been used as a model for other Middle Eastern countries, even though its confessional system is a disaster. But Lebanese-style sectarianism isn't a form of 'feudal' backwardness – in fact it represents a precursor of the multicultural and identitarian politics in the West.
Who are the enemies of universalism today, East and West? And what sort of political projects are capable of rejuvenating secular universalism?
See also:
––
Buy our book: The End of the End of History
Subscribe to the podcast: patreon.com/Bungacast
The full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
The fifth and final part of a series on generational consciousness and conflict.
This is an excerpt. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
In this episode, we examine the Millennials and Generation Z. Uniquely, generation war today seems to be a conflict over resources more than over values. Is there any basis for this, and what do Millennials actually want? With generational and class conflict seemingly bound together today, we analyse 'Generation Left' and 'Millennial Socialism'. And we ask what the effect of the pandemic may be on the creation of a Gen Z consciousness.
Guests include:
Original music by: Jonny Mundey
Additional music:
On German's elections – and the costs of stability.
Wolfgang Streeck is back on the podcast to round-up Germany's elections last Sunday (26 September). What's behind the emphasis on continuity and competence? Is Germany stuck in the 2000s?
We also discuss the importation of US-style culture wars into Germany, the country's role in the Eurozone, and strategic relations with France.
The second part of the conversation – where we debate the end of neoliberalism and capitalist crisis – is over at patreon.com/bungacast.
Readings:
The second in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.
In this episode, we look at the emergence of 'youth' as political concept in the age following the French Revolution, and its shifting meanings. How important was generational consciousness in the Young Italy movement and its imitators in the 19th century, and how should we understand the so-called 'Lost Generation' of 1914?
Guests include:
Original music by: Jonny Mundey
Additional music:
Other Clips:
For access to all Aufhebunga Bunga content, including the entirety of this series, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
On Germany's election this week.
Merkel has led Germany since 2005, outlasting any number of politicians across the West. What accounts for her longevity? How has such a non-ideological, post-political figure lasted so long?
Germany is finally leaving her motherly embrace. But why is continuity on the cards, despite the many global crises Germany has passed through?
The first in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.
In this episode, we look at the current, vexed discourse around generations, and analyse competing theories on how to understand generational cleavages.
Guests include:
Original music by: Jonny Mundey
Additional music:
Peter Kuli / OK Boomer / courtesy of Elektra Entertainment Group, Inc.
Liru / For the Floor / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
For access to all Aufhebunga Bunga content, including the entirety of this series, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
On Covid and the end of the end of history.
Adam Tooze joins us to discuss his new book, Shutdown. In 2020 everything changed... so that everything might remain the same.
What were the reasons behind the global shutdown? Was it a result of over-protection, a policy of repression, or the result of structural tensions? Has China been the winner of the pandemic? How have central banks been victims of their own success? And does this represent the end of neoliberalism?
The latter part of the interview continues over on patreon.com/bungacast
On lockdowns, education, and the left.
California middle-school teacher and social critic Alex Gutentag (@galexybrane) joins us to talk about the depredations of lockdown in California and the wider world.
How has lockdown affected different segments of society, and how damaging have school closures been on education? Why has the professional middle class been so in favour of widespread restrictions – and how did the left go from backing Medicare 4 All to cheering on lockdowns in the space of a few months?
Readings:
What comes after neoliberalism - the protective state?
We talk to Paolo Gerbaudo about his new book, The Great Recoil, in which Paolo argues we are now turning inwards – globalisation is no longer a sea of opportunity and instead fear dominates. How convincing is his notion of an emerging 'protective state', and do either the left or right variants of it really promise us much at all?
Part two of the interview is available for subscribers only. Sign up and listen at patreon.com/bungacast
Links:
Full episode for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
What country best captures 20th and 21st century history?
For our 200th episode special, we posed the question: "If you had to study the history of only one country from 1900-2020, and thereby understand the history of the whole world, which would you pick?"
You voted on the ten submissions and now we invited the top 3 back on the pod to discuss in more depth: Dominik Leusder on Germany; David Broder on Italy; and David Adler on India.
Then Phil and Alex choose a winner (it's a "managed democracy").
Buy our book! Links to retailers
On Chinese investment, Swiss democracy, and fleeing from Afghanistan.
In this Three Articles, we discuss flight or departure in various ways: China opening the gates for its huge savings to spill onto world markets; Switzerland leaving (or remaining outside) the EU; and the US's sudden departure from Afghanistan, without telling anyone.
'Three Articles' episodes are normally for subscribers only - but this one's free. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast for regular access.
London book launch/bunga party: Register here
Articles:
In our latest 3A, we discuss "the clerisy" and how it relates to the PMC; how the EU is doing forever war just as much as the US; and the hyper-commodification of football.
The full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
Articles:
We discuss Michael Lind's The New Class War.
Lind identifies new lines in the class war, between working class and managerial overclass, between those in the "heartlands" and those in the "hubs". How convincing is this account? What is his critique of technocratic managerialism and its symptom, populism? How convincing - and realistic - is his solution of "democratic pluralism"? And is this only achievable as a result of a new cold war with China?
Reading Clubs are for higher-tier subscribers only. Sign up for $10/mo for full access: patreon.com/bungacast
On world history, 1900-2020.
For our 200th episode special, we pose the question: "If you had to study the history of only one country from 1900-2020, and thereby understand the history of the whole world, which would you pick?"
We invited 10 contributors to each pitch one country, whose particularities capture the universal sweep of world history from the start of the 20th century till now.
Vote for which you think is best, and we'll have the top 3 back on to discuss in more depth: Link to voting page
Running order:
Buy our book! Links to retailers
Come to our London book launch! Event link
On secularism, nationalism and identity politics.
India is held up as a model developing country: liberal, democratic, multicultural. Renowned Indian writer and activist Achin Vanaik joins us to examine how India has turned away from universalism and secularism.
How did Gandhi, Nehru and the Congress as a whole lay the seeds for today's Hindu chauvinism? What are the consequences of defining secularism as merely 'tolerance'? And how has caste come to function a bit like identity politics in relation to the state?
Readings:
In the lead-up to our 200th episode later this month, we're exceptionally re-releasing our 100th episode special this week.
On the 30 years since 1989.
For our 100th episode, we invited our favourite guests to reflect on the question: “What one event, personal or political, most captures for you the past thirty years, since 1989?”
Are we still living in the death throes of the 20th century, or is something new emerging?
Guests:
We discuss the third and final in the series of Perry Anderson essays on the EU in the London Review of Books, "The Breakaway", and wonder if the EU can - despite its crises - just carry on indefinitely.
Reading Clubs are for monthly subscribers $10+. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
On China, economic reform, and the future.
While Russia famously succumbed to destructive neoliberal "shock therapy", China managed to avoid it. How and why? Isabella Weber, author of How China Escaped Shock Therapy, tells us about China's opting for gradual reform instead.
What did reform mean for understandings of socialism? Do communists make the best capitalists? And is the pursuit of growth and development at any cost China's own version of the End of History?
On global insurrection and identity politics.
This episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
We discuss an essay by the ultra-left collective 'Endnotes' that deals with the same political questions as we do, but comes up with different answers. Are the fragmented and ephemeral movements that have taken to the streets in France, Chile and the US, for example, the future of politics? Anti-political rejections of the establishment seem radical, but can they overcome their own negativity? And are identity politics the necessary form that re-politicisation has taken? Readings: Essay discussedOn liberal idealism and imperial overreach.
Why did the winners of the Cold War turn 'revisionist', undermining their own order? How has utopianism come to dominate the discipline of IR, such that we have lost the means to critique power?
We discuss Philip's recent book, The New Twenty Years’ Crisis 1999-2019: A Critique of International Relations, which is both a revisiting of EH Carr's international relations classic The Twenty Years' Crisis as well as an account of the contemporary crisis of the liberal international order.
Reading:
The New Twenty Years’ Crisis 1999-2019: A Critique of International Relations, Philip Cunliffe, McGill-Queen's UP
We discuss the second of Perry Anderson's three LRB essays on the making and unmaking of the EU: "Ever Closer Union?"
Our monthly Reading Club is for patrons $10+. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
On class reductionism, commodity fetishism, and value theory.
To discuss Covid, the state as 'PMC leviathan', and the politics of value theory, we’re joined by philosopher Elena Louisa Lange, who also explains why class reductionism is not a theoretical position or a mere mistake, but a social reality. We also address the value of 'going back to school', take on the new Leftist 'holy trinity' of class-race-gender, and hear from Elena why we need to theorise the world before we change it.
Readings:
On Latin America's progressive wave and its discontents.
A new book on Latin America argues that 'pink tide' governments tried to treat the symptoms of neoliberal capitalism while allowing the underlying situation to worse. We talk to the author, Fabio Luis, about cases across the region, including the election in Ecuador and Venezuela's disaster, to Bolivia's coup and Argentina's "path of least resistance". How important is regional integration and what does an alternative socialist vision entail? And we ponder a sad question: is the dream of development and modernisation over?
Readings:
On the end of the End of History and neo-feudalism.
This episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
In a continuation of our discussion on the emerging transfer state, we ask whether the end of neoliberalism entails the end of the 'End of History'. What are the determinate features of the End of History that we are leaving behind? Which are still with us?
Also, what to make of arguments that our future is neo- or techno-feudal? Do these terms make any sense? Or is it better to think of two alternate futures: Japanisation or Brazilianisation?
On cash welfarism and state investment. Plus regionalism in Belgium & the UK.
Anton Jäger is back on the pod to discuss the emerging 'transfer state'. We examine Biden's massive trillion-dollar spending plans and ask if this means we're leaving neoliberalism. What are the limitations to the 'cashification of welfare'? Also comparisons with cash transfers or lack thereof in the UK, Brazil and Belgium.
Plus Anton talks us through recent Belgian history and why its immobilism and bureaucracy has actually prevented a full-on neoliberal assault.
[Part 2 available at patreon.com/bungacast]
Readings:
On the uprising in Myanmar, plus Covid state failure.
Southeast Asia scholar (and Bunga recidivist) Lee Jones joins us to talk about the coup in Myanmar (and why the word “coup” can be misleading), and explains the nature of the forces opposing the military, in the context of the country’s recent transition to civilian rule.
Then, from 40mins, we discuss how the UK failed in dealing with the pandemic, and how this applies across the West. Lee's recent work looks at the neoliberal "regulatory state" and its incapacities, so we compare the UK's failure with Korea's relative success.
Readings:
We discuss the first of Perry Anderson's new essays on Europe published in the London Review of Books, which focuses on Luuk van Middelaar - described as the EU's first organic intellectual. We discuss what that means, as well as the role of the "coup" in forming the EU.
Reading Club episodes are for subscribers $10+. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
On the socialist case for Scottish independence.
David Jamieson and Cat Boyd, writers and hosts of Conter, the Scottish anti-capitalist website and podcast, join us to to talk about the prospects for Scottish independence in advance of the Scottish parliamentary elections in May. Would an independent Scotland within the EU be a contradiction in term? How would an independent Scotland fare - and what would it mean for the "national question" across Europe? And what's up with the factional strife among Scottish nationalists?
Readings:
On gay liberation and sexual politics.
After big advances over the past decades, we can now ask, did the gays win? And if so, so what? Mark Simpson in the UK and River Page in Florida join us to discuss whether something was lost in that victory.
We ponder whether gay politics was the original identity politics and what happens when a narrow focus on equality triumphs over liberation. Do sexual liberation politics have any future? Plus: how Blairism was the biggest drag act of all.
Readings:
We've exceptionally unlocked one of our recent Reading Clubs. For access to all the monthly Reading Clubs - as well as our ~2 patreon episodes a month - subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast for $10.
––
On Richard Tuck's The Left Case for Brexit, a book composed of essays written throughout the Brexit process, providing a diary of Brexit of sorts, as well as political and historical arguments around sovereignty.
We also take the opportunity to debate its global implications - what are the possibilities for popular sovereignty in a globalised world?
On the final deal and its implications, see: The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement: Minimum Brexit
We discuss Gilles Deleuze's short essay, Postscript on the Societies of Control and ask whether his understanding, according to which society has changed from one where discipline is exercised in institutions to one where control is implemented across society, holds water.
The monthly Bungacast Reading Club is for patrons $10+. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
On American breakdown.
Editor of Damage Magazine, Benjamin Fong, joins us to talk about the lack of shared narratives in contemporary America. We discuss QAnon and conspiracy theories, Biden's authoritarian liberalism, and "pro-worker" conservatives.
We also interrogate the use of psychological analyses of politics and reaffirm the value of psychoanalysis, in a preview of a more detailed forthcoming discussion on our patreon.
Readings:
This is a sample. Reading Clubs are for patrons $10+. Sign up now at patreon.com/bungacast
This month we discuss a book by leading German sociologist and public intellectual, Wolfgang Streeck. Critical Encounters is a compilation of book reviews, discussing neoliberal ideas, politics and economy.
We start off by discussing the value of reading books in today's noisy, social media-filled, locked-down climate, as well as what makes a good book review. Then we address five themes: the coming of post-industrial society; popular misconceptions about neoliberalism; German hegemony in Europe; Cosmopolitan delusions; and the future of capitalism.
Our interview with Wolfgang Streeck from November 2020 can be found here.
On the Biden administration and Trumpist reaction.
We discuss the riot at the US Capitol and why it was not a (failed) coup attempt. How serious was the event, and what next for Trumpist reaction - will it lead to a split in the Republican Party?
Our guests - journalist Amber Frost and political science academic Daniel Bessner - help us preview what the Biden administration has in store for the US. With Democratic control of both houses, it should be able to pass legislation - but does it have any substantial plans to do so? In foreign policy, we can expect more foreign adventurism and at home, an ominous anti-domestic terrorism bill. Does the alliance of the Democrats with an increasingly domineering Silicon Valley signal the coming-out moment of authoritarian liberalism?
Readings:
On the 'war communism' solution
As we enter the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic and its attendant turmoil, suffering and lockdown, inevitably the search for systemic causes and systemic responses grows more intense. Swedish ecologist and social theorist Andreas Malm joins us to discuss one possible response - a crisis communism modelled on the War Communism of early Soviet rule, as discussed in his new book ‘Corona, Climate Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty First Century.’ We discuss the nature of our contemporary crises, and how far the left needs its own distinctive form of emergency politics.
Readings:
On freedom, authority and responsibility.
Theorist Todd McGowan joins us to talk about the End of History, what Hegel can teach us about emancipation, and why Slavoj Zizek’s reinterpretation of Hegel is so important. If contradiction is the basis of modern politics, what is its link to freedom? And what is the connection between freedom and authority? Are stable sources of authority even possible in modernity? We also put some listener questions to Todd, as we learn that the Right, just as much as the Left, evades authority and is unwilling to take responsibility.
Readings:
This episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
We round off the year by previewing The End of the End of History and responding to your questions and criticisms, including Strasserism or left-conservatism, revolutionary memories, more on Covid and lockdowns, and other bits.
CLR James’s electrifying 1938 history of the 1791-1804 Haitian Revolution, The Black Jacobins, has long been a staple of many radicals’ libraries. But we now know a lot more about the life of the Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint L’Ouverture. How does this new knowledge impact our understanding of the Haitian Revolution, and on revolution in general? Sudhir Hazeeresingh, the author of a gripping new biography based on new archival research, ‘Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, talks with us about about revolutionary leadership and Atlantic history.
Reading:
This is a short sample. Full episode is available for subscribers at patreon.com/bungacast
We re-evaluate Christopher Lasch's hugely influential and prescient The Culture of Narcissism. What conjunctural factors led Lasch to his insights, and to what extent are those still present? Lasch wrote during the collapse of postwar Fordist-Keynesian model – is it the collapse of neoliberalism today that makes the book so evocative? And if narcissism has only increased, does the book suggest any political ways-out?
On censorship, platform capitalism and the Left.
We talk to Douglas Lain of Zer0 Books about YouTube taking down their video as a result of the algorithm flagging its content – and what this means for free speech.
Then, this month's Three Articles on war, conspiracy theory, and Covid (patrons only - sign up at patreon.com/bungacast)
Links for part 1:
Part 2: Three Articles
Game writer & designer Jonas Kyratzes joins us to talk about the art of games, the culture of gaming, the gamification of society, and the identity politics of gamer culture. How far has Jonas’ own philosophy influenced his writing for games, such as “The Talos Principle”? We also talk politics in both Greece, focusing on Syriza failure. Plus, could Bunga co-host Philip Cunliffe’s book ‘Lenin Lives!’ ever be made into a game?
Readings:
On Germany, the hegemon of Europe.
We are joined by leading German public intellectual Wolfgang Streeck to discuss the role of Germany at the end of the End of History. How is it and the EU faring under the assault of Covid-19? We cover Germany’s economic miracles - postwar and post-2008 -, Merkel’s tactical brilliance and strategic ignorance, and how France retains more of a sense of history.
Also: why democracy sometimes needs an AK47.
Readings:
On the US election, a huge turnout and the end of Trump.
We survey the results of the presidential and legislative elections, peer through the exit polls and discuss some counterintuitive facts: Florida goes Trump but opts for a $15 minimum wage; California goes Biden while Uber gets its way; Trump did protectionism but it didn't help him win the Rustbelt; the Republicans win over more Latinos – but do Latinos even exist?
And the big questions: Will Biden and the Democrats have any authority now that they don't have anti-Trumpism to drive them? Is a Biden administration to be a Silicon Valley dictatorship? And will the GOP be Trumpism without Trump?
Readings:
Full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
In this latest Three Articles, we discuss cosmopolitanism, the end of austerity (maybe?) and social control in the pandemic.
Readings:
This is a sample. For full access, go to patreon.com/bungacast
This month we discuss Todd McGowan's Emancipation After Hegel: Achieving a Contradictory Revolution - an introduction to, defence and radical re-interpretation of Hegel emphasising the importance of contradiction to thought and being. We try to tease out the political consequences of the book, focusing on authority, freedom, and identity.
Internationalism used to be a defining characteristic of the Left. Globalism is a defining characteristic of neoliberal capitalism. Both seem to be characteristic of Islamist jihadism. How did Islamist reaction become globalised? How far does Islamist globalism connect to radical legacies of Third Worldism, internationalism and radical solidarity? Political anthropologist Darryl Li, author of The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity joins us to discuss the transnational history of jihad over the last 30 years.
Reading:
The Universal Enemy - Book Forum, The Immanent Frame, Various Authors
On the Covid election.
Trump has made himself deeply unpopular while the Democrats have tried to demobilise the electorate. What, if anything, are the two parties selling? Are they coherent entities? And what is likely to happen? Plus: we discuss a potential political realignment in process and what foreign policy would look like under a Biden presidency.Full episode for subscribers only. Go to patreon.com/bungacast
We start off by discussing the beheading of a French teacher for having shown his pupils the Mohammed cartoons in a class on free speech. Then we discuss your points, questions and criticisms from September and October (on class politics, antifa, Covid, unemployment and more). Finally, 25 minutes of bonus content from our chat with Sontag biographer Benjamin Moser on the 1619 Project, identity politics, literature, and cosmopolitanism and empire.
For the rest of the original episode with Moser, that's number 147: Podbean / Patreon
Full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
On the Covid election.
Trump has made himself deeply unpopular while the Democrats have tried to demobilise the electorate. What, if anything, are the two parties selling? Are they coherent entities? And what is likely to happen? Plus: we discuss a potential political realignment in process and what foreign policy would look like under a Biden presidency.On the country of the future.
Italy has stagnated for 30 years, becoming a neoliberal gerontocracy with crumbling infrastructure (sound familiar?). Worse, it's a country without a Left. How did the populist right come to triumph? What is the relationship between high emigration and hostility to immigration? And how were the seeds sown 30 years ago with the collapse of the First Republic, Europeanisation, and Berlusconi's rise? Is there now a possibility of 'Italexit'?
Readings:
First They Took Rome: How the Populist Right Conquered Italy, David Broder, Verso
On class.
Class as an idea and an identity is now supposedly redundant. It’s been replaced by conflicts between generations and transcended by more up-to-date identities linking people together through common experiences of victimhood and inequality, rather than along lines related to production or power. Or is it? We discuss these questions with Ben Tippett, author of Split: Class Divides Uncovered to find out whether class still has any place in society and theory (spoiler: it does).
Reading:
Episode for patrons $10+. Subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
This month we discuss Polish economist Michal Kalecki's landmark essay, "Political Aspects of Full Employment". This follows on from our recent free episode, 'It's Not Robots, It's Capitalism' (ep 149) focusing on unemployment.
Kalecki anticipated both the Keynesian postwar settlement as well as its undoing, and the neoliberalism that followed. We focus on how Kalecki introduces the question of political authority into economics.
For reference, the next five Reading Clubs have already been announced: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41524278
On Iran at the End of History.
When the US assassinated Iran's 'shadow commander', Qassem Soleimani, everyone thought WW3 would break out. What happened instead? We talk to the author of a new book on Soleimani about the "local boy who made it", and look at how Soleimani masterminded Iran's interventions all over the region.
We also discuss how the Iranian Revolution represented a degradation of universalism, as it marginalised secular nationalism, socialism and communism. Would the Shia-Sunni conflict, with Iran as leader of the Shia faction, therefore be yet another step away from universalism? And what role did the US play in fomenting sectarian conflict?
Readings:
On unemployment.
The Covid crisis has led to millions out of work - but the situation was none too rosy before, either. Post-crisis recoveries seem increasingly 'jobless', while the overall labour force participation rate keeps falling as people drop out entirely.
We interview to Liz Pancotti of Employ America for a picture of what's driving US unemployment.
Then we talk to Aaron Benanav about his new book and learn that it's not robots who are stealing jobs, but rather capitalism's own stagnation. Why are both radical Keynesian ideas and UBI proposals no real solution? And, finally, what is the working class to do in a world with depressed demand for labour?
Running order:
Readings:
On modernism and its end.
We're joined by 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner Benjamin Moser to discuss the tensions between hating your national culture and wanting to leave it behind, and the effacement of national culture by postmodern homogenisation.
We talk about his biography of Susan Sontag, plus a range of other questions: Brazil, USA, literature, architecture, sex, imperialism, Freud, the image and representation, and contemporary wokeness.
Moser's Books:
This is an excerpt. For the full episode, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
On class.
Class as an idea and an identity is now supposedly redundant. It’s been replaced by conflicts between generations and transcended by more up-to-date identities linking people together through common experiences of victimhood and inequality, rather than along lines related to production or power. Or is it? We discuss these questions with Ben Tippett, author of Split: Class Divides Uncovered to find out whether class still has any place in society and theory (spoiler: it does).
Reading:
On political decline and realignment.
The editor of American Affairs joins us to discuss the decay of conservatism and we ask whether this decay doesn't apply to other parts of the political spectrum too. Is today's 'class struggle' really just between the upper-middle class and the elite? And we discuss the 'late-Soviet' USA - the sense of decline embodied in the gerontocracy of the ruling class.
Readings:
On US foreign policy.
Following on from our episode on the political-economy of dollar hegemony (no. 139), we turn to look at how the dollar underpins American empire. Is 'permawar' a product of structural factors, rather than merely the result of poor policy decisions? And how is this related to the global financial architecture?
We also discuss how the current period fits into US history, how US foreign policy might evolve over the next four years, and what a left-wing alternative foreign policy might look like.
Readings:
On Lebanon's crisis.
We call up Rima Majed in Beirut to talk us through the aftermath of the enormous explosion and ensuing protests. How has Lebanon's history since the civil war created such a profound, multi-layered crisis? We cover the desperate economic situation and the October 2019 revolt, before going deep on the politics of sectarianism, the regional scenario impacting Lebanon, the legacy of the Arab Spring, and the risks of foreign intervention.
Running Order:
–> For donations & help for local organisations other than the Red Cross: Google Doc
Readings (all Rima Majed):
On dollar hegemony.
Dutch disease has long been seen as the curse of resource-rich economies in which a currency appreciates and jobs are lost overseas. But what if the greenback is having the same effects on the US economy, the largest in the world? Many historians and economists have studied the global effects of having the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. But what is the effect on the US economy itself? The authors of an influential essay on this question join us to talk about the feedback effects of dollar hegemony.
Readings:
On British decline.
Much ink has been spilled over the Britain’s fate since the end of its empire. Could it be that decline has been overstated? And what will happen to Britain as it leaves the European Union? We discuss how the history of the Industrial Revolution and Cold War militarism still shapes British politics today, as David Edgerton joins us to talk about the his latest book, 'The Rise and Fall of the British Nation'.
Readings:
Singapore is held up as a free-market utopia: rich, orderly and clean. But the reality is quite different. Why does Singapore exert such a magnetism for neoliberals, when its reality strays from orthodox prescriptions? What and who made this model 'global city', and how does its communist and anti-colonial past lead to its hyper-capitalist present?
This is a sample. For the full episode, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
The three of us discuss some of the themes that emerged from our interview with Krithika Varagur (ep.133) - the entanglement of the US state with Islamism, the Americanisation of the Middle East, and especially the Gulf States, and Wahhabism as religious justification for the Saudi state project.
On Saudi religious proselytism.
Saudi Arabia has actively sought to export Salafism. How has it done this - and what have been its effects, in countries like Indonesia, Nigeria and Kosovo? Why was fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s such a formative experience for jihadists? And why has appeal of secularism faded?
Readings:
Aleksandar Vučić's coalition won the recent (21 June) Serbian parliamentary elections amidst a mass boycott. We talk to Balkanist editor Lily Lynch about what Vučić represents - violent ultranationalist or technocratic centrist? We also take time to discuss geopolitical rivalries over Kosovo.
Plus: cigar socialism, Yugoboomers and the enduring appeal of Balkan orientalism. According to Julian Assange, the future always comes to Serbia first - what does this mean?
Intro clip: Vučić's very creepy virtual rally | Outro clip: The Big Z
Readings:
This episode is for patrons $10 and up. Please sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
On the Ehrenreich's re-evaluation of the Professional-Managerial Class.
We discuss Barbara and John Ehrenreich's "Death of a Yuppy Dream". Also attached are the Ehrenreichs' analyses from the late 70s, also referenced in the discussion.
Thanks again for all your questions!
On the left case for freedom.
We talk to Corey Robin about how the left has sacrificed the realm of freedom to the right. And why the Left's weakness is also the Right's. Plus, why is it clear that Trump is not a fascist? And insight into the BLM protests in NYC and responses to the pandemic.
Reading:
On culturally conservative critics of capitalism.
Neoliberalism’s fragmentary and atomising tendencies have gone too far. In response, some right-wingers have turned against the market. At the same time, there’s a (marginal) tendency on the left turning against cultural liberalism. Are we witnessing a major political realignment underway? What is the substance of these "culturally conservative" critiques, and do they offer anything new, beyond what people like Christopher Lasch advanced decades ago?
Readings:
This is a sample. For the full episode go to patreon.com/bungacast
Bonus content (always the best stuff) from our interview with Angela and Michael (episode 126).
Why did Bernie Sanders fail?
In the third in an occasional series on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Angela Nagle and Michael Tracey about their analysis of Bernie Sanders' campaign. We put to bed some bad arguments as to why Bernie didn't win the nomination, and examine some better ones: was the campaign was too establishment-friendly? too "left"? too middle-class? too anti-nationalist?... or are structural factors to blame instead?
And we ponder the end of the union of Old and New Lefts, of cultural liberalism and socialism. And the most worrying of all: was Bernie just a blip?
Reading:
In the second in an occasional series of episodes on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Nicholas Kiersey, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign in Texas and host of the Fully Automated podcast. What were things like on the campaign trail, and what went wrong for Bernie? Will Biden go the distance, and are there more shenanigans in store?
Readings:
On The Jakarta Method.
We're joined by Vincent Bevins to discuss his new book on the 1965-66 mass killings in Indonesia, Cold War anti-communism, and the destruction it wrought around the world. The mid-60s proved pivotal, with US-backed coups in Indonesia and Brazil setting the template. What was their effect on the Left worldwide? How did it alter developmental trajectories across the Third World? What lessons can we take from these historical experiences?
Running Order:
On whether new tech can help build decentralised socialism.
Reading Club episodes are for $10+ patrons. Sign up: patreon.com/bungacast
We discuss Evgeny Morozov's New Left Review essay, Digital Socialism? The Calculation Debate in the Age of Big Data. A useful companion to this (mentioned by George in the episode) is a lecture given by Morozov, that can be found at the bottom of this page.
Thanks for all the questions, they are addressed in the last third of the episode.
On freedom in coronavirus times.
John McAfee joins us to address the lockdown, privacy and armed insurrection. Plus: why he prefers Fidel to Che, and how it came to be that his US presidential campaign HQ is in Havana, Cuba.
Subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast
In the first of an occasional series of episodes on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Nick Frayn, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign in New England. How have things gone on the campaign trail? What is next for the Democratic primaries delayed by the corona outbreak? Can Bernie regain ground in the primaries against Joe Biden? How will the corona crisis impact the Democratic primaries?
Readings:
This is a sample. The full episode is available by subscribing at patreon.com/bungacast
Singapore is held up as a free-market utopia: rich, orderly and clean. But the reality is quite different. Why does Singapore exert such a magnetism for neoliberals, when its reality strays from orthodox prescriptions? What and who made this model 'global city', and how does its communist and anti-colonial past lead to its hyper-capitalist present?
This episode is for our $10 and up patrons. Go to patreon.com/bungacast for access.
On the end of the Age of Imitation.
We discuss Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes' The Light That Failed: A Reckoning and their arguments for why liberal democracy stopped being the model to follow - in Eastern Europe, Russia and even the USA.
Thanks for all the questions, they are addressed in the last third of the episode.
On global cities.
Global cities flaunt themselves to global capital and are shaped by it. They are self-conscious and eager to transmit 'globalness'. But why? And how has the city under globalisation been reshaped? What is the role of money and power - not to mention sex and culture? And does the sameyness of global cities now mean that medium and small cities are where we should be looking for cultural and political change?
Subscribe to our patreon for original episodes: patreon.com/bungacast
On political conflict over the next decade
This is a subscriber-only show. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
We debate what ideological contestation is going to look like in the next 2/5/10 years. Will liberalism adopt Silicon Valley solutionism? Does the centre-right become fully nationalist? And the far right have a future if that happens? And where does the left go next?
In this latest Three Articles, we discuss American democracy and those who pretend to save it or undermine it.
Sign up for access to the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast
Readings:
On Applied Ballardianism.
Is it J.G. Ballard's world? Bunga talks Ballard with Simon Sellars, author of a new book on the great British sci-fi novelist J.G. Ballard. Urban decay, social breakdown, consumerism as social control and the Interzone.
Opening passage is taken from Ballard's 2000 novel 'Super-Cannes'.
Reading:
Applied Ballardianism, Simon Sellars, Urbanomic
Subscribe: patreon.com/BungaCast
On pandemics, panics, and China.
The 2019 Novel Coronavirus is yet another new epidemic to appear on the scene this century. What accounts for their increasing frequency, and who decides if an epidemic is classed as a pandemic? More importantly, what governs that choice? The WHO and the whole intergovernmental management of health has 'securitised' these questions. Are they privileging the free flow of capital over public health? And what of China's draconian response and lockdown of Wuhan - is it effective? And who will bear the blame if things go wrong? Might Coronavirus become a threat to Xi Jingping and the Chinese regime?
Readings:
Guests' books:
Mark Honigsbaum: The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris
Lee Jones (& Shahar Hameiri): Governing Borderless Threats: Non-Traditional Security and the Politics of State Transformation
Running order:
On Ireland's elections.
With Sinn Fein riding high in the polls, are we looking at an upset? Is this a populist upsurge in Ireland, finally, more than a decade after the start of the crisis? We discuss what Ireland's 'end of history' was like and how the 'Celtic Tiger' economy sustained it; and look at how the country was the EU's "model prisoner" of austerity. Are there new stirrings? And what are the prospects for unification?
Readings:
This is a sample. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/BungaCast
On ecofascism.
Both the shooters in the Christchurch and El Paso massacres were declared 'ecofascists'. Now, a new governing coalition in Austria brings together Greens and the hard right in an unconventional union.
How does Malthusianism link the far right and ecology? What are the dangers of 'lifeboat politics', and how can the Left resist this logic? Is the Green New Deal a solution?
Readings:
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:
On drugs and mental health.
In part two, we chat about recreational drugs and mental states in a Hollywood bar with friends of the podcast, Amber A'Lee Frost and Alex Gendler. But mostly, we delve deeper into capitalism and depression with the 'States of Wellness' group at UC Irvine (Catherine Liu, Thomas Williams, Michael Mahoney, Benjamin Kruger-Robins).
#CaliBunga is a special multipart series on the Californian Ideology: the seemingly paradoxical hybrid of New Left and New Right ideas - the synthesis of hippies with yuppies, all tied together with the promise that technology might liberate us.
Thanks to UC Irvine School of Humanities for sponsoring this series.
On how Labour lost.
Was it Brexit that did for Labour? In what sense? What now for the British Left - and for democracy?
Running order:
Readings:
Subscribe: patreon.com/BungaCast
On the 30 years since 1989.
For our 100th episode, we invited our favourite guests to reflect on the question: “What one event, personal or political, most captures for you the past thirty years, since 1989?”
Are we still living in the death throes of the 20th century, or is something new emerging?
Guests:
Subscribe: patreon.com/BungaCast
UK general election preview.
Go to patreon.com/BungaCast for the full episode
Is is really the Brexit election, if Labour doesn't want it to be? We survey the parties' positions, and promises, and ask some big what ifs. Could there be a major realignment in the offing? And we make some predictions - which you can hold us to account for later on...
On working class pain and politics.
We talk to Jennifer Silva about her most recent book, and working class Americans' experience of and perspectives on pain. We discuss racial, gender and class identities and sense of relative losses and gains. If the American Dream has been 'stolen', how can the working class dream again? What are the prospects for socialist politics when distrust of politics predominates?
On algorithms and politics.
Can we "blame the media" today for political outcomes? Who's responsible for The Discourse in a fragmented landscape? It seems like there's increasing polarisation today, driven by social media 'filter bubbles'. Are they real? Who's responsible?
Plus: we talk about the media portrayal of Jeremy Corbyn; culture wars vs class politics; Brazil's craziness; and why arguments and interaction matter.
Readings:
Rojava offered the hope that a progressive, multiethnic politics might be salvaged from the ashes of Syria’s civil war. Now the Turkish assault on northern Syria looks set to crush the Kurds and a radical experiment in the region.
We talk to two British volunteers in Rojava about the prospects that the political structures set up there might be saved.
Running order
Readings & Links:
Glossary:
In our second Reading Club, we discuss Eliane Glaser's Anti-Politics (Repeater, 2018) and take readers questions and contributions.
Readings:
For access to this and other bonus episodes, become a patron at patreon.com/bungacast
On Argentina's elections and Chile & Ecuador's revolts.
Macri's election was heralded by the right across the continent as the end to a sequence of centre-left governments in South America. Now only four years later, he is likely to be thrown out of office by the return of 'Kirchnerismo'. Next door, the supposedly "stable and growing" Chile is in flames as protests and riots challenge the conservative Piñera administration and the country's deep inequality. This follows on the heels of weeks of mobilisations in Ecuador against the ending of a fuel subsidy. What's going on and what does it all signify?
[Chile & Ecuador discussion starts at 46mins]
Readings:
On environmental protest politics. Extinction Rebellion and the Climate Strike have brought eco protest back to the front pages. But it all seems a bit of a flashback to the 2000s. We examine the protests' alarmism and post-political positioning. After inequality and class have been put on the agenda again, do these protests represent a step back? We also ask what might be done about climate change if we don't go along with these groups' interpretations and demands.
On the Hong Kong rebellion. Four months of protests is forcing a confrontation with the Hong Kong authorities and the Chinese state. The demands are for civil liberties and some more democracy - but what are the social conditions underlying the protests? How important is colonial nostalgia and Hong Konger chauvinism? How is this playing with mainland Chinese - and what will be the CCP's response?
Reading:
Become a patron of BungaCast at patreon.com/bungacast
On post-work. We discuss Anton's review of David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs and why it seems to have such appeal, even amongst elites. There is a crisis in the work ethic, but is it an error to counterpose work and leisure and simply opt for leisure? Is leisure even 'ours' anymore, or has it been fully colonised by capitalism? Ultimately, is the problem today more about bullshit in jobs, rather than bullshit jobs per se?
Readings:
For the full episode, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.