Show Notes for Episode 1, Part 2

1. First Discussion

Reading runs from 0:45 until 2:41.

1.1 Economics is bullshit

In his books Debt and Dawn of Everything, David Graeber deconstructs the myth of barter, convincingly arguing that the origin of money did not come from the exchange of goods on a market but from the state’s need to efficiently feed a geographically distributed army, and he provides compelling examples of how humans have organized themselves throughout history without applying any of the assumed conventions of contemporary economics. [1, 2]

1.2 Andrewism stanning

In the video “Anti-Capitalism” is Capitalist, Andrew says the phrase “capitalism ain’t the only beast we battling”, I do not know if he took it somewhere else. In the video, Andrew makes a critique of passive anti-capitalism.

1.3 Intersectionality

We reference the term intersectionality, coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989

1.4 Non-discrete class analysis

We note that the typical leftist framework does not model different levels of complicity in class collaboration. For example, many nominally working class people own some small amount of shares of capitalist industries through retirement or banking. Some play with investment instruments such as the Robin Hood app, or rent rooms. We speculate that this could make it easier for the worker to identify with the capitalist than to take a stance of class solidarity. During the recording, we posted this idea as food for thought on Mastodon. We are interested in your thoughts on this.

References

Graeber, David (2011). Debt : The First 5,000 Years. Melville House. ISBN : 9781612190983. URL.
Graeber, David (2021). The Dawn of Everything : A New History of Humanity. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN : 9780374721107. URL.

2. Second Discussion

Reading runs from 14:42 until 20:51.

2.1 Desire paths

Here is the meme mentioned showcasing desire paths :

2.2 Economic Development in Latin America

In an address to the Conference on InterAmerican Student Projects (CIASP) in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 20, 1968, Ivan Illich is very clear about his view of US imposed development projects in Latin America. [3] Even projects that are sold to the US populace as ‘humanitarian’, such as the Peace Corps, exploits their resources and rebuilds their society so that it ultimately benefits Capitalist interests.

2.3 On Capitalist Commodity Fetish

Capitalism creates psychological needs for us. For more about this mechanism, see for example, the Adam Curtis documentary “Century of the Self”, which can be found on YouTube.

References

Illich, Ivan (Apr. 1968). To Hell with Good Intentions. CIASP.

Third Discussion

Reading runs from 32:42 until 34:45.

3.1 Antiwork

We question the idea that humans should be reduced to their output in productive labor. There are many ways in which humans labor that is not valued in our society. For example, the labor of maintenance, the labor of care giving, and to a large extent creative labor. People want to work, but they don’t want to work in subordination to others. See r/antiwork FAQ and library for more information on the antiwork movement.

3.2 On Cynicism and Anarchism

Cynics postulate that one should reject wealth, which is somewhat compatible with anti-consumerism common among anarchists, they were cosmopolitan - same as anarchists and they postulated to live a shameless life, which we can consider as similar to cultural liberation that is a big part of anarchism.

3.3 Challenges to Confronting the Current System

The failure of Marxist-Leninist states is that they ultimately became state capitalists as they tried to beat the capitalists at their own game. Anarchism takes a unified ends and means approach, which demands that principles are never compromised. Because anarchists don’t believe that you can exploit workers during the revolution to counter the counter-revolution the question is - how are they supposed to win against an opponent who is willing to be ruthless ?

Reader : Ana J.
Discussants : Shrek Requiem, Michael P.
Music : CatDog