December 13, 2019

Ep. 264: How Neoliberalism Uses "Mindfulness" to Create Compliant and Weak People/The Politics of Limbic Capitalism, Pleasure, and Addiction

1 hour 9 minutes

There are two guests on this week’s very special December fundraising-month episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show.

Ronald E. Purser is a Professor of Management at San Francisco State University.

His new book is McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality. Purser is also the author of the widely-read essay at the Huffington Post,“Beyond McMindfulness”.

Purser explains how neoliberalism and its gangster capitalists use “mindfulness” as a way of creating a compliant, lonely and weak public that is not equipped for the collective action necessary to make a better and more humane society.

Purser also warns against accepting simple answers to complex problems about human nature and life – because those simple answers such as corporate-sponsored “mindfulness” and its panoply of self-help books and other products do nothing to substantively improve the human condition or to create a better life.

David T. Courtwright is presidential professor emeritus in the Department of History at the University of North Florida,

He is the author of numerous books including the new The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business.

Courtwright explains how capitalism is able to monetize human pleasure and desire through addictive products such as alcohol, tobacco, “vaping”, and other drugs which target the limbic system of the brain. He also cautions against moral panics and today’s dominant narratives about the “deaths of despair” and opioid addiction among the “white working class”.

And Courtwright also explores what the concept of “casino capitalism” suggests about American culture and life in the Neoliberal Age.

****If you learn from and enjoy The Chauncey DeVega Show please show some love by making a donation during the December fundraiser via the Paypal link at ChaunceyDeVega.com or through Patreon.

I do not run commercials or advertisements here on The Chauncey DeVega Show despite having received many offers to do so. Instead, The Chauncey DeVega Show relies upon your generosity and kindness during its two fundraisers each year. Your generosity and kindness allows the show to continue, stay commercial-free, and grow.

We are only at 20 percent of the fundraising goal for this December fundraiser. Please contribute if you have the means and ability and also enjoy and learn from The Chauncey DeVega Show and its great guests.****

On this week’s show, Chauncey DeVega explains how Trump the Great Leader uses toilet politics and popular culture such as the Avengers movies and Thanos “The Mad Titan” as weapons to defeat the Democrats by maintaining the loyalty of his cult members. Chauncey also reflects on how Trump’s toilet politics are connected to libertarianism and the great TV series King of the Hill. And Chauncey shares his thoughts about the new films Waves (which he loved) and Queen & Slim (which he did not).

WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME?

On Twitter:

https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega

My email:

[email protected]

Leave a voicemail for The Chauncey DeVega Show:

(262) 864-0154

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW?

Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com

Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow

Please subscribe to and follow my new podcast The Truth Report

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-report-with-chauncey-devega/id1465522298

http://thetruthreportwithchaunceydevega.libsyn.com/

Music at the end of this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show is by JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound. You can listen to some of their great music on Spotify.

...more

View all episodes

By Chauncey DeVega

4.7

243243 ratings