Link to an interview with Wayne Au conducted by Janine Jackson:
Bonus link: The New Prophets of Capital Review
Links
Matthew Stewart – The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy
Link to an article by Matthew Stewart:
“The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy”
It is worth noting that the discussion of “tax expenditures” in this article is confused, as explained by economists in the MMT school of thought.
Bonus Links: Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs, The Theory of the Leisure Class, Democracy and Education, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, The Trouble With Diversity, The Social Structures of the Economy, “Extreme Cities,” …And the Poor Get Prison, “The Myth of Populism,” “Social Service or Social Change?,” “The Revolt of the Salaried Bourgeoisie”
John Steppling – The Dying Light
Link to an article by John Steppling:
Bonus link: “The Wisdom of Serpents” (see also “Sorry, Bernie, We Need Radical Change”)
David Walsh – The Guardian’s Marina Hyde Accuses Actress Susan Sarandon of Being Trump’s “Asset”
Link to an article by David Walsh:
“The Guardian’s Marina Hyde Accuses Actress Susan Sarandon of Being Trump’s ‘Asset’”
Benjamin Fong – Inventing the Weekend
Link to an article by Benjamin Fong:
One quibble with this article: reference to “a cultural trajectory that would eventually bring us the three-minute pop song” seems off, when taking into account the history of music recording technology recounted in Michael Denning’s book Noise Uprising.
Angie Schmitt – Self-Driving Cars Are Coming
Link to an article by Angie Schmitt:
“Self-Driving Cars Are Coming. Will They Serve Profit or the Public?”
Don Fitz – Birth of the Cuban Polyclinic
Link to an article by Don Fitz:
“Birth of the Cuban Polyclinic”
Bonus links: Cuban Health Care: The ongoing Revolution and “Dossier No. 25: People’s Polyclinics: The Initiative of the Telugu Communist Movement”
Vijay Prashad – Mexico Elected a Left-Wing President
Hiram Lee – Everything is Love? Beyoncé and Jay-Z Flaunt Their Wealth
Link to Hiram Lee’s review of the album by The Carters Everything Is Love (2018):
“Everything is Love? Beyoncé and Jay-Z Flaunt Their Wealth”
Bonus links: Beyoncé Review and “How Boots Riley Infiltrated Hollywood”
Kalundi Serumaga – On Reinventing Europe: An Open Letter to Mr George Soros
Link to an article/letter by Kalundi Serumaga:
“On Reinventing Europe: An Open Letter to Mr George Soros”
This pieces raises many excellent points. But it is also worth pointing out some questionable aspects of its theoretical framework and recommendations. First, while the article characterizes the essence of Europe as Bonapartism, it does so by applying philosophical standards that originated in Europe, or at least drew from European precedents. While it may well be fair to call the current hegemonic ideology of Europe (and elsewhere) Bonapartist, to treat all of Europe as monolithic and without counter-currents seems rather reductionist. Second, the “tasks for EU civil society” include “2. Find out what your countries truly owe, and make them pay it back” This is basically both a politics of victimhood and an expression of ressentiment. Frantz Fanon once wrote, “The colonized man is an envious man.” That seems accurate in this context, but as a statement of limitation of vision. The last chapter of Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks explicitly rejected Serumaga’s approach, and that is a big part of why Fanon is a stronger theoretical reference point than what is expressed in Serumaga’s article. Lastly, the article concludes by saying, “It is time for the North to (once again, after Ancient Egypt) learn from the South.” This is a dubious offhand assertion of identity politics, yet again in the service of the valorization of victimhood status and ressentiment. It is problematic mainly because, in a cynical way, “[w]e thus enter a cruel world of brutal power games masked as a noble struggle of victims against oppression.”