Cultural Detritus, Reviews, and Commentary
Link to an interview with Edgar Cabanas & Eva Illouz, conducted by David Broder, regarding their book Manufacturing Happy Citizens: How the Science and Industry of Happiness Control our Lives (2019):
Bonus link: “In the Name of Love” and “Žižek!” and “Why Be Happy When You Could Be Interesting?”
Link to an interview with Yanis Varoufakis conducted by David Broder:
“We Have Nothing to Lose but Our Debts”
Bonus links: “Syriza Let Us Down — But We Can Still End Austerity” and “Greece: a Chronology From January 25, 2015 to 2019” and “Yanis Varoufakis: ‘Syriza Was a Bigger Blow to the Left Than Thatcher'”
Link to an article by David Broder comparing Silvio Berlusconi to Donald Trump:
“Being Anti-Trump Isn’t Enough”
Bonus Quote:
“all the Leftists’ and liberal democrats’ worry about the danger of neo-Fascism lurking beneath Berlusconi’s victory is misplaced and, in a way, much too optimistic: Fascism is still a determinate political project, while in the case of Berlusconi, there is ultimately nothing lurking beneath, no secret ideological project, just the sheer assurance that things will function, that he will do better. In short, Berlusconi is post-politics at its purest. The ultimate sign of ‘post-politics’ in all Western countries is the growth of a managerial approach to government: government is reconceived as a managerial function, deprived of its properly political dimension.” Slavoj Žižek, Revolution at the Gates, p. 303.
Bonus links: “Donald Trump’s Travel Expenses in 10 Weeks Cost US Taxpayers as Much as Barack Obama Spent in Two Years” and “On the Differences of Comedy in the Time of Alt Right Transgression”