Aufhebunga Bunga

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.

On the left outflanked.   We continue our discussion with Douglas Lain, formerly of Zer0 Books and now of Diet Soap Media. Has the left been overtaken by events - yet again? And we propose a typology of a left divided between progressives, populists and Marxists – progressives who are authoritarian, populists who are opportunists, and Marxists who are lonely.   Hey listener - why not tell us how you see Bunga and the world? Fill out our listener survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NN6SPD9   Links: Diet Soap Media: Patreon | YouTube OK Bunger! The Problem of Generations 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: Diet Soap Media: Patreon | YouTube OK Bunger! The Problem of Generations

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: Has the Backlash to Progressivism Come to Chile?, Lili Loofbourow, Slate In Rare Show of Weakness, Modi Bows to India’s Farmers, Various, NYT Violence in Belgium and Netherlands as Covid protests erupt across Europe, Jon Henley, The Guardian Other relevant episodes /93/ Hot Chile and Other Neoliberal Failures ft. Pablo Pryluka /198/ Universal India ft. Achin Vanaik  

On modernity's contradictions.   In this month's Reading Club, we discuss the introduction to Marshall Berman's marvellous All That Is Solid Melts Into Air.   This is an excerpt. For the full episode, subscribe for $10/mo at patreon.com/bungacast   Can we revive, as Berman intends, the truly dialectical, 19th century attitude to modernity? What value is there in talking about "modernity" rather than “capitalism”? And how to we recognise possibilities for transcending today's impasses, where the question of "modernity" isn't even on the table?   The final Reading Club of 2021 will be on Eva Illouz's Cold Intimacies.

On the Jacobin & YouGov survey of the US working class.   A study (pdf) carried out by YouGov on behalf of Jacobin magazine and the Center for Working-Class Politics has learned that "working-class voters prefer progressive candidates who focus primarily on bread-and-butter economic issues, and who frame those issues in universal terms." What can we learn from the study, beyond the obvious? What are its limitations, who is it for, and what does the survey say about those who commissioned it?   Plus: does it make sense to frame your politics as 'anti-woke'?   Reading: Jacobin executive summary Full report (pdf)

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: /141/ Oh Lebanon, What Now? ft. Rima Majed /198/ Universal India ft. Achin Vanaik –– Buy our book: The End of the End of History Subscribe to the podcast: patreon.com/Bungacast  

On rising wages after the pandemic.   Workers are quitting their jobs and not going back. Restricted supply is seeing wages go up. Does this signal a new militancy, or are workers just deciding to make do with less? How has the pandemic shaped people's outlooks?   Articles: Wages are surging across the rich world, The Economist The Revolt of the American Worker, Paul Krugman, NYT US Workers Are in a Militant Mood, Alex N. Press, Jacobin   The full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

On the global energy crisis.    Nuclear energy advocate Emmet Penney (@nukebarbarian) joins us to discuss the growing energy crunch in Europe, the US and beyond. Nuclear power is opposed by an unholy alliance of environmentalists and neoliberals - yet it seems the best solution for providing plentiful, reliable, and clean energy. As a demand, it seems an open goal for the left - so why are so many resistant?   Part 2 is available here for patreon subscribers.    Links & Readings: Nuclear Barbarian - pro-nuclear podcast & newsletter ex.haust - Emmet's other, co-hosted pod Undeveloping America, Emmet Penney, The American Conservative Political Life in the Lottery of Babylon, Emmet Penney, The American Conservative How we happened to sell off our electricity, James Meek, LRB  A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations, Robert Bryce, Public Affairs (book)

This month we discuss GM Tamas' essay "Telling the Truth About Class" published in the Socialist Register. Is Tamas' division between Marxist and Rousseauian socialism useful? Does it help us to understand the Left today? And is Tamas right that "authentic proletarian revolution... has never occurred in its anti-capitalist purity anywhere"?   Reading Clubs are for patrons $10+, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast   Additional readings: Why the left must abandon the myth of British decline, David Edgerton, New Statesman Ellen Meiksins Wood on the Nairn-Anderson thesis and the Bourgeois paradigm, Verso Books blog

Responding to your questions, comments & criticisms.   It's a big mailbag this time round, including plenty on Covid (lockdowns, vaccines, etc), incels and dating culture, breaking out of neoliberalism's clutches, and much much more. –– Bungacast will be live in New York on 19 November. Come see Alex Hochuli in conversation with Adam Tooze & Amber A'Lee Frost. Tickets at Eventbrite –– 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: Paul Taylor, former director, Pew Research Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University Helen Andrews, senior editor at The American Conservative Clive Martin, journalist who has written for VICE Magazine Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow Jennifer Silva, assistant professor in sociologist, Indiana University Original music by: Jonny Mundey Add

The fourth in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.   In this episode, 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: Maren Thom, film scholar Alexei Yurchak, professor of anthropology at Berkeley  Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow Arash Azizi, historian of Iran at New York University Felix Krawatzek, political scientist at the Centre for East European and International Studies in Berlin Original music by: Jonny Mundey   Additional music: Kit Kruger / Freakin' Freefall / courtesy of epidemicsound.com  

The third in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.   This is an excerpt. For the full 1h40min episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast   In this episode, 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: Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University Helen Andrews, senior editor at The American Conservative Josh Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow Jeffrey Alexander, professor of sociology at Yale University Holger Nehring, chair in contemporary European history at the University of Stirling Kristin Ross, professor emeritus of comparative literature at New York University Original music by: Jonny Mundey   Additiona

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: Will it Be Enough?, Wolfgang Streeck, Sidecar “Order” Prevails in Berlin, Gregor Baszak, The Bellows Things Can’t Go on Like This for the German Left, Alexander Brentler, Jacobin

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: Niall Whelahan, Chancellor’s Fellow in History, Strathclyde University Original music by: Jonny Mundey Additional music: Leimoti / Don't Leave It Here / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com Leimoti / The Small Things / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com Philip Ayers / Trapped in a Maze / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com Walt Adams / Dark Tavern / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com Other Clips: Black 47 Trailer © 2018 - WildCard Distribution Arracht Trailer © 2019 - Break Out Pictures The Sun Also Rises © 2019 - 20th Century Fox Mr Lloyd George Speaks To The Nation (1931) British Pathé   Fo

This month's Reading Club is on Mike McNair's "Intersectionalism, the highest stage of western Stalinism?" from the journal Critique (pdf attached on Patreon).   How convincing is his genealogy in which he traces intersectionalism back to the 1930s Popular Front and 1960s soft Maoism? What function does intersectionalism play on the Left - and for the ruling class? And is McNair right that intersectionalism is self-defeating on its own terms? Or is it self-perpetuating?   Bungacast's monthly Reading Clubs are for subscribers $10+ Sign up 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: Felix Krawatzek, political scientist at the Centre for East European and International Studies in Berlin Jennie Bristow, sociologist at Canterbury Christ Church University Joshua Glenn, semiotician, author, and publisher of HiLoBrow 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 the long history of involuntary celibates.   Alex Gendler talks to us about his essay in American Affairs, "The New Superfluous Men". With growing global concern about incels and increasing anti-terrorism focus on the supposed risks posed by lonely, angry men, we discuss why this discussion has emerged today and why it's gone global.    Why do our societies seem no longer to find use for young men? Do they benefit from patriarchy? And how does this all relate to class?   The full episode is available to subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast