Auxiliary Statements

Today's the day folks! Jack and Dan make their best effort to explain why the podcast has the title it does; what is an auxiliary statement? The boys dive deep into some philosophy of science and do their upmost to stay vaguely afloat as they wrestle with the ultimate question, what is scientific investigation and how is it done (and more importantly, not done)? Theory is nothing without practice! Pretty rich coming from a theory podcast I hear you exclaim. Reading: The 'Corroboration' of Theories by Hilary Putnam.

Wow Auxiliary Statements in your feed on a TUESDAY?! For the first episode of our mid-week mini-episode series (known henceforth as Adjunct Statements), Jack takes a dive into the greatest book ever written...State and Rev-, uh, I mean The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien. Why the hell is this in my commie podcast feed you ask? Not sure, but Jack does his best to explain what use this big ol' book could be to socialists, nerds and freaks today. Reading: "The Ainulindalë" from The Silmarillion (1977), by JRR Tolkien. Cover Art: Melkor Weaves Opposing Music by Ted Nasmith.

Well would you look at that. Dan and Jack have made it to 10 episodes. We couldn't be more proud of our boys, could we folks? This week they take a look back at everything they've read so far in an attempt to draw parallels and maybe a conclusion or two. But after 10 lovely episodes, only one thing is for sure - Louis Althusser was and remains to this day, an anarchist icon. Happy holidays from the Auxiliary Statements family. Hope you're all staying safe. If you're like us, today is just another cold day in December that has no pagan overtones to speak of. Perhaps it should be that way every year? Reading: WE TOOK THE WEEK OFF, BABY

On this week's show Jack and Dan continue their expedition to America's testcase state in all things deplorable and dastardly; California! Come listen to how a motley band of hippies, armed with sci-fi novels and utopian dreams, came to define the dystopian reality of the nascent computer age. Our hosts learn how things went so disastrously wrong and are forced to consider just how attached they they are to their “wetware”. Reading: The Californian Ideology by Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron (1995)

God damn I miss Ronald Reagan. That's the mood as the lads take a look at the rise of The New Right - the political movement that decided to once and for all end the legacy of the New Deal and replace it with something much stupider. In this episode, Dan and Jack will examine all the freaks, opportunists, chuds, racists, homophobes, war-hawks, fundamentalists and worst of all CALIFORNIANS that brought about Ronald Reagan's presidency. So strap in, buckos, because this one's a history lesson. Reading: "The New Right's Road to Power," from Prisoners of the American Dream by Mike Davis (1987).

This week Jack and Dan are led down the garden path into the wonderful world of IDEOLOGY. With Althusser as a guide the boys try to grapple with the pervasive nature of the old foe capitalism and continue to seek an answer to the vexing question, “Why no revolution?”. Never before has ignorance been used as such an effective tool of criticism. Reading: Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses by Louis Althusser (1970)

The boys just couldn't keep away...Dan and Jack are back with chapter III and chapter IV section I of that Marxist classic - Marxism and Politics. This week they talk some more about class consciousness and what the hell that has to do with ideology. And what the hell is ideology. And what the hell are we. And do we even exist. They also get heated about Rob Manfred and talk a bit of baseball baby, that greatest of all sports. Reading: Marxism and Politics by Ralph Miliband (1977), Chapter III: The Defence of the Old Order I and Chapter IV, Section I: The Defence of the Old Order II.

This week it's revealed that fantasy may mean a little TOO much to Jack and Dan as they try very hard to have a conversation about its utopian potential as well as its tendency to promote the status quo. If nothing else, both of our co-hosts are proven to be nothing more than massive, irredeemable, disgusting, sticky nerds. Reading: Why Fantasy Matters Too Much (2009) by Jack Zipes, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Summer, 2009, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 77-91.

Things aren't looking good for the peasants this week as Dan & Jack finish up Ellen Meiksins Wood's "The Origin of Capitalism" by taking an in depth look at that foggy little island on the edge of the world - Great Britain. Also in this week's episode, Dan is outed as a "crazy cat person." Reading: The Origin of Capitalism (1999) by Ellen Meiksins Wood, Part II: The Origin of Capitalism, Part III: Agrarian Capitalism and Beyond, and Conclusion.

Dan & Jack look back at feudalism, look now at capitalism, and maybe even....forward to socialism? The lads take a stab at defining capitalism and understanding how we got here in this barnburner of an episode. As a bonus, Jack gets the author's name wrong every time he tries to say it. We also got Corbyn suspended :( Reading: The Origin of Capitalism (1999) by Ellen Meiksins Wood, Introduction and Part I: Histories of the Transition.