Bungacast

Full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast   On Brexit negotiations and state aid; on pandemic policies and confirmation bias; and on Beethoven and access to high culture.   Readings: Of moonshots and bus subsidies: How state aid became a Brexit deal-breaker, The Economist (attached in patreon) Sweden’s Covid-19 experiment holds a worldwide warning, Wolfgang Münchau, FT (attached in patreon) Why are we racialising Beethoven, Ralph Leonard, Unherd Additional referenced pieces: Anders Tegnell and the Swedish Covid experiment, FT We Need a Radically Different Approach to the Pandemic and Our Economy as a Whole, Katherine Yik & Martin Kulldorff, Jacobin

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: Sontag: Her Life and Work Autoimperialismo Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector

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 It’s been replaced by conflicts between generations and transcended by more up-to-date identities linking people together through common experiences of victimhood and inequality,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: Split: What Love Island Tells Us About Culture & Class In Modern Britain, Ben Tippet, The Quietus (Excerpt from book) Split: Class Divides Uncovered, Ben Tippet, Pluto Press  

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: The Real Class War, Julius Krein, American Affairs America’s Unhealthy Gerontocracy, Julius Krein, American Affairs Conservatism Is A Collection Of Losers. It Doesn’t Have To Be. Julius Krein, The American Conservative

This episode is for patrons only. Subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast    We discuss a chapter taken from James Heartfield's "The 'Death of the Subject' Explained", which was recently republished in Damage Magazine as The New Social Movements Against the Old Left   Thanks for all your questions and points, we address them in the last third of the episode.

The full episode is for patrons only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast In this semi-regular slot, we respond to your comments and criticisms received over the past month or so.   Discussion features whether we're right about the "end of the End of History", social conservatism, policing in America, British declinism, the use and misuses of Islamism, and more.

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: To End Forever War, End the Dollar’s Global Dominance, David Adler & Daniel Bessner, TNR Trump’s America may be declining in global soft power—but US empire rolls on, Daniel Bessner, Prospect The coronavirus crisis is an opportunity to finally move past the post-WWII era, Daniel Bessner, Responsible Statecraft

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: Beirut explosion and protests - (07:04) Lebanese history 1990-today - (23:53) Economic crisis - (38:05) Sectarianism - (51:16) Regional scenario and foreign intervention - (01:04:54) International solidarity - (01:24:38) –> For donations & help for local organisations other than the Red Cross: Google Doc Readings (all Rima Majed): Lebanon’s ‘October Revolution’ must go on!, openDemocracy The Political (or Social) Economy of Sectarianism in Lebanon, Middle East Institute Financial Collapse, Revolution, and Pandemic: Where are the Unions?, LCPS Why the Lebanese support the same sectarian leaders, al Jazeera Lebanon's October Revolution: Hope in the Midst of Crisis, Princeton Understanding the October Uprisings in Iraq and Lebanon, Global Dialogue ISA  

The full episode is for patrons only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast In this latest Three Articles, we discuss the durability or otherwise of right-populism in the UK, US and Brazil. Reading: Conservatives’ grip on ‘red wall’ holding firm, Sebastian Payne, FT Lawmakers ‘Alarmed’ by Reports U.S. Envoy Told Brazil It Could Help Re-elect Trump, Ernesto Londoño, Manuela Andreoni and Letícia Casado, NYT “Imagine the damage a president could cause”: What would happen if Trump refused defeat?, Emily Tamkin, New Statesman

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: The Class Politics of the Dollar System, Yakov Feygin & Dominik Leusder, Phenomenal World Dollar and Empire, Herman Mark Schwartz, Phenomenal World