Link to an interview with Noam Chomsky:
“A Conversation With Noam Chomsky on Organizing for a Next System”
Month: March 2016
Jo Freeman – The Tyranny of Structurelessness
Link to the classic essay by Jo Freeman:
“The Tyranny of Structurelessness”
This essay leads rather directly to the more generalized sociology of Pierre Bourdieu.
Michael Hudson – The Inversion of Classical Economics
Link to an interview of Michael Hudson by Chris Hedges:
“The Inversion of Classical Economics”
Bonus link: “Traumatized Worker Syndrome”
Boaventura de Sousa Santos – Brazil: Democracy on the Edge of Chaos and the Dangers of Legal Disorder
Jacob Levich – Obey the Cookie Monster
Link to an article by Jacob Levich:
Kathy Kiely – Author Thomas Frank Talks Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and His New Book, “Listen Liberal”
Link to an interview of Thomas Frank by Kathy Kiely:
“Author Thomas Frank Talks Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and His New Book, ‘Listen Liberal'”
Bonus links: “Thomas Frank on How Democrats Went From Being the ‘Party of the People’ to the Party of Rich Elites” and “How the Democrats Left the Door Wide Open for Donald Trump”
Tom Slee – The Sharing Economy’s Dirty Laundry
Link to an article by Tom Slee:
“The Sharing Economy’s Dirty Laundry”
Bonus links: “Raw Deals” and “Uber’s Consumer Democracy” and “Is Uber’s Business Model Screwing Its Workers?” and “NYC Taxi Driver Kills Himself at City Hall After Condemning Uber & Politicians for Financial Ruin” and “‘The Gig Economy’ Is the New Term for Serfdom” and “Meet ‘Sledgehammer Shannon,’ the Lawyer Who Is Uber’s Worst Nightmare” and “What’s Really New About the Gig Economy?” and “Uber’s Big Lie” and “Striking for the Future” and “Uber Takes a Hit in London” and “Amazon’s Last Mile” and “#DeleteUber for Good” (“Uber is … also about using its ‘tech’ branding to raise massive amounts of capital — so much that it could lose $5.2 billion just in the last quarter — to engage in a form of predatory pricing to drive traditional transport operators out of business and force regulators to remake existing laws in its favor. That fight is finally coming to a head.”) and Lehigh Valley Coal Co. v. Yensavage, 218 F. 547 (2d Cir. 1914), and “Why Courts Across the World Are Ruling That the Gig Economy Is Paving the Road to Serfdom”
Ryan Adams – 1989
Ryan Adams – 1989 Pax Am PAX-AM 057 (2015)
Ryan Adams covers Taylor Swift‘s entire album 1989. The basic sound here is the increasingly slick 1970s rock flavored alt country that Adams has favored on recent studio albums. That is fine, unto itself. But if there was anything to like about Swift’s original album it certainly wasn’t the douchebag narcissism and malevolent mythologizing that sustained its songwriting. So Adams keeps that part and jettisons the rest. It kind of would have been more interesting if Adams had written new lyrics and sung them over the same music as Swift’s album. But Adams tends not to have good ideas like that.
Andrew Smolski – Drug War Capitalism: An Interview with Dawn Paley
Link to an interview of Dawn Paley, author of Drug War Capitalism (2014), conducted by Andrew Smolski:
Sole – Live From Rome
Sole – Live From Rome anticon. ABR 0048 CD (2005)
Righteous indignation.
This is a much more overtly political album than Sole’s previous — and probably best — album Selling Live Water. It isn’t nearly as successful. Though there are good intentions everywhere on this disc, the music/beats aren’t always compelling. I saw Sole live touring on this album, and he had a live band with him. Frankly, many of the songs sounded better with the live band (the title “Live From Rome” alludes to the fall of the Roman Empire as a parallel to or hope for the fall of the American Empire; this is not a live recording). The thundering “Dumb This Down” is probably the best here, but “Cheap Entertainment” is sort of subtly infectious. Almost everything here is decent, but newcomers should start elsewhere.