Everyday Anarchism

Shays' Rebellion was a nonviolent, popular movement designed to stop corrupt Massachusetts elites from lining their pockets at the expense of workers. It worked, and is thus a perfect example of "self-regulation" or, as we might put it, anarchy. Jefferson called it "anarchy" and also "honorable." So what was the result of this honorable anarchy? The US Constitution, which was designed to prevent such anarchic uprisings from ever happening again.

Dan Bullen joins me to discuss the rebellion (or regulation), its legacy, and its similarity to Occupy Wall Street. The lesson is: Join or Die. Or, as Dan puts it, "If we don't stand together, they're going to take all we have."

You can find Dan's book here: https://honorablerebellion.com/

Here's Jefferson on the anarchy of Shays Rebellion: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/105.html

David Thomson joins me to discuss his new book, A Sudden Flicker of Light. Although we both love movies, we've noticed that movies have distorted our way of seeing the world, changed our sense of reality, and most of all, turned politics into a fascist mass spectacle. After all, Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, and Mussolini all loved movies. Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin love putting themselves on screen. Totalitarianism and the cinema have always been linked, and politics is less democratic, and more cinematic, than ever.

Here's a link to the book: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9781668205730

Historian Benjamin Carp joins me to discuss The Boston Tea Party and how we should remember it today. We particularly discuss the tea party's place in revolutionary history, the radicalism embedded in the New England colonies, and whether or not labels like "direct action" or "civil disobedience" should be applied to it.

Christopher B. Zeichmann joins me to discuss his new book about ancient anarchism. We discuss the way the origins of the word anarchy, the way that democracy and anarchy have long been linked, and how to remember the radical communities that the historians of that time wanted to forget or attack.

Here's the link to the book: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9780745350394

Cory Doctorow joins me to discuss how capitalist ideology has made AI worse than useless, and if there's a way for us to make AI useful rather than malicious

https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9780374621568

In this episode of Radicalism in the American Revolution, Historian Mark Peterson joins me to discuss his new book The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution: A Thousand-Year History. We discuss the way the constitution emerged from a long British tradition, Thomas Jefferson's ironic place in American imperialism, and the new understanding of the constitution as a mere piece of paper which threatens to render it irrelevant.

Here's the link to the book: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9780691180014

The fastest, easiest way to anarchize your life is to buy food locally and cook it yourself (or grow it yourself). It won't create an anarchist society. But it's a great first step.

Mark Bittman and I discuss that first step, what might come after it, and what difference it'll make in today's episode. We also talk for a while about why processed food is poison and what that means for Ozempic-style drugs.

Before it became west of Islam, or China, or "the Orient," "The West" was simply the Western Roman Empire, and what it was east of was the Eastern Roman Empire. But the westerners wanted to be the true inheritors of the classical tradition, so they renamed it "western civilization," and made up reasons why the Eastern Roman Empire was actually something exotic and foreign and decadent and queer. They called it Byzantium.

That's the argument of Anthony Kaldellis' new book, Phantom Byzantium, and Anthony joins me to discuss those ideas and what they mean for our understanding of "the West" and the ideas about politics that European thinkers appropriate from Rome.

You can also listen to Anthony's first appearance on the podcast: https://www.everydayanarchism.com/the-roman-empire-lasted-because-its-rulers-were-in-a-constant-state-of-terror-anthony-kaldellis/

Anthony has his own wonderful podcast, Byzantium and Friends. I highly recommend it!

https://byzantiumandfriends.podbean.com/

This episode is a crossover with Peter Michael Bauer's Rewilding Podcast. Peter and I talk about rewilding, everyday anarchism, and the connections between rewilding and anarchy

We recorded this episode in support of Peter's new documentary film series on rewilding. It has successfully funded on kickstarter, but you can still back the project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/villagevideo/rewilding-101-a-survival-strategy-for-humanity

Luke Kemp rejoins me to discuss the second part of Goliath's Curse, "Imperial March and Fall." Luke and I start off talking about why empires and states are actually the same thing, and move from there to various ways that people justify imperial politics, what it's like to be anti-empire when surrounded by defenders of empire, and how we can try to get the machine of empire to stop.

Here's the link to buy the book: https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9780593321355

And here are Luke's previous appearances on the podcast:

https://www.everydayanarchism.com/166-goliaths-curse-luke-kemp/

https://www.everydayanarchism.com/146-james-c-scotts-two-cheers-for-anarchism-luke-kemp/

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/2c8105f0-611f-4545-b632-e868e5039840/