Is the arrow of history one of progress, where things just keep getting more bureaucratic and more complex, or is there another story that we could tell about the past? This week we’re cracking open David Graeber and David Wengrow’s Dawn of Everything, which argues that the arrow of progress is flat out WRONG. Instead of there being a single story of history that requires us to live these enfeebled, isolated, matrixy lives, there is a whole world of possibility out there for what a society *could* look like, but they’ve been keeping it from you! Or have they? We enter into this exploration with some skepticism (at least Nastia does), because it’s possible that there are other competing systems that litter history, but surely there’s something meaningful about the fact that they’ve all been subsumed into the monetized beast that is the modern capitalist technotopia (or dystopia, the designation of which is inversely dependent on how much paid vacation leave you get and directly dependent to how much time you spend deboning chickens on the Perdue production line). Whatever the case may be, we are listening, Davids - because any change starts with an idea, and this book is full of ‘em.
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(00:00) Go!
(00:07:28) Modern Historical Narratives of the Arc of Progress
(00:17:18) The Davids' Alternative Interpretations of History
(00:23:40) Indigenous Critique of European Hierarchies
(00:33:08) Legacy of Roman Conquest and European Conflict
(00:47:40) Indigenous vs. Western Social Organization
(00:55:00) Militarism and Freedom
(01:03:24) The Arrow of Progress and Future Implications
(01:12:21) Economic Bailouts and Banking
(01:18:22) Indigenous Influence and New Ideas
(01:25:24) Government and Society
(01:35:09) Exploration of Alternative Societies
(01:46:05) Vision for a Future Beyond Traditional Structures
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PODCAST INFO: Anastasia completed her PhD studying bioelectricity at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting, reading, and guiding backcountry excursions. Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities.
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The DemystifySci Podcast