THE DAWN OF EVERYTHING DEBATE ~ ft. Jeremy Johnson, Brendan Graham Dempsey and Layman Pascal

We discuss Brendan’s issues with strawmanning and developmental question, Jeremy’s take on stage theories and challenge to historical linearity, Models themselves vs how people hold them, Contextualizing the book via meta-analysis, Indigenous critiques of modernity and its critique, Escaping the confines of a narrow (modernist) lens, Fractalizing developmental maps, Decoupling development from modes of production, Complexifying the patterning, deeper dives into the book’s “strawmanning/shadowboxing”, interpretive styles and missing information, who was the book written for? And it being misconstrued, the “What is Politics” Youtube critique, emphasizing material conditions/structure vs agency/volition, stage theories infantilizing indigenous peoples and the preconditions for “development”, specific insights folks appreciated from the book, a deep dive into “schismogenesis”, competing perceptions of our ancestors, “returning” to previous states of affairs and the dangers of reactionary romanticisms, and Ryan’s M. Night Shyamalan “The Village” epistemic thought experiment.