Hacking State

Samo Burja is founder of Bismarck Analysis, a consulting firm that investigates the political and institutional landscape of society. He is also a research fellow at the LongNow Foundation, where he studies how institutions can endure for centuries and millennia, and a Senior Research Fellow in political science at the Foresight Institute where he advises on how institutions can shape the future of technology. Writer, speaker, and strategist.

We discuss his Great Founder Theory, his hypothesis that “a small number of institutions founded by exceptional individuals for the core of society”; as well as the requisite infrastructure for complex thought that Samo says has almost entirely disappeared, and the causes of Western nations' decline in state capacity.

Get full access to Hacking State at www.alexmurshak.com/subscribe

Gabriel successfully cofounded and sold one of the earliest Bitcoin exchanges in Canada. We talked about his decision and experience starting a cryptocurrency exchange, the limits to automated governance, decentralized statecraft, and ta smart contract constitution.

Agora Politics is dedicated to upgrading our outdated theories of politics. Doing so requires honest and forthright engagement with not only academics, intellectuals, entrepreneurs, twitter anons, and luminaries of all types who are tuning in to the zeitgeist and attempting to synthesize stories of the past, with knowledge of the present, and visions of the future.

Agora Politics is a podcast dedicated to making sense out of our outdated theories of politics.



Subscribe to my channel for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug

Follow Agora Politics on Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics/
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/amurshak/

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Subscribe on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agora-politics/id1496531814
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/agora_politics
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5xfgHAlhswC6PWlTZC5S58?si=fY-OxZqASPWtxFnAqyLCbg
Wherever you find your podcasts

Get full access to Hacking State at www.alexmurshak.com/subscribe

William Johnsen is former graduate chair and coordinator of undergraduate programs in the Department of English at Michigan State University, editor of “Contagion: The Journal of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion”, and general editor of "Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture” a book series through Michigan State University Press.

We talk about his work spreading the ideas of René Girard, imitation, mimesis & the internet, the role of the scapegoat, Girard’s radical interpretation of the crucifixion, his criticism of Nietzsche’s Slave Morality, his prescience in calling political correctness a new totalitarianism, the limits of imitative desire, & the paradox of differentiation.

Get full access to Hacking State at www.alexmurshak.com/subscribe

Anna Brodsky is cofounder of the Global Redesign Institute, a childcare activist, and advocate for Structural Satyagraha: the design and implementation of infrastructure which supports and rewards nonviolent behavior.

We talk about the meaning of structural satyagraha, American inventor Buckminster Fuller’s term Dymaxion, Project Cybersyn, and their lovechild, Dymaxyn, open source cities, education, childcare as the regulatory subsystem of the community, post-scarcity, open-access governance, and holistic approaches to the future of society.

Agora Politics is dedicated to upgrading our outdated theories of politics. Doing so requires honest and forthright engagement with not only academics, entrepreneurs, and intellectuals, but luminaries of all types who are tuning in to the zeitgeist and attempting to synthesize stories of the past, with knowledge of the present, and visions of the future.

Get full access to Hacking State at www.alexmurshak.com/subscribe

Nina Power is a cultural critic, social theorist, philosopher, author, and translator. Her upcoming book, “What Do Men Want” is forthcoming later this year.

Take the Illich course from Nina herself at https://Illichcourse.com
Use coupon code AGORA to get 30% off!

We discuss the works of Roman Catholic priest, theologian, philosopher, and social critic, Ivan Illich, covering some of his most famous works such as Deschooling Society, Medical Nemesis, & Tools for Conviviality, we also discuss learning networks, social media & the state, iatrogenic harm and the medical-industrial complex, sex, gender, and economic neutering, and Illich's conceptions of conviviality, austerity and eutrapelia.

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Agora Politics is a podcast dedicated to making sense out of our outdated theories of politics.

I’m Alex Murshak, political theorist.

Subscribe to my channel for videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug

Follow Agora Politics on Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics/
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/amurshak/

—




Subscribe on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agora-politics/id1496531814
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/agora_politics
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5xfgHAlhswC6PWlTZC5S58?si=fY-OxZqASPWtxFnAqyLCbg
Wherever you find your podcasts

Get full access to Hacking State at www.alexmurshak.com/subscribe

Alex Feinberg's work focuses on optimizing performance to get the best in health and business.

We cover:

- His journey through professional athletics, finance, tech, and fitness
- Understanding human nature for success in business and sports
- His investigations into conspiracy and the shadow world
- Hedging against inflation and rule by fiat
- Breaking out of systems that condition learned helplessness
- The importance of training as a closed feedback loop
- Pathologies of large institutions
- The political implications of entrepreneurship
- Strength as a precondition for freedom

You can follow Alex on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/alexfeinberg1


Agora Politics is a podcast dedicated to making sense out of our outdated theories of politics.



Subscribe to my channel for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/amurshak
Follow Agora Politics on Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics

—




Subscribe on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agora-politics/id1496531814
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/agora_politics
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5xfgHAlhswC6PWlTZC5S58?si=fY-OxZqASPWtxFnAqyLCbg
Wherever you find your podcasts

Get full access to Hacking State at www.alexmurshak.com/subscribe

I am joined by writer, horrorist, and anonymous internet denizen Zero HP Lovecraft.

We discuss anonymity and pseudonymity, peer-to-peer censorship, asymmetric cyberwarfare, the origins of Zero HP Lovecraft, horrific and utopian technological visions of the future, the dark side of technology, acceleration and human agency, his latest work “Don’t Make Me Think”, multi-sensory narrative experiences, cancellation, and The Zero HP NFT.

Read Zero HP Lovecraft
On Substack: https://zerohplovecraft.substack.com/
On Site: https://zerohplovecraft.wordpress.com/
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/0x49fa98

Agora Politics is dedicated to upgrading our outdated theories of politics. Doing so requires honest and forthright engagement with not only academics, entrepreneurs, and intellectuals, but luminaries of all types who are tuning in to the zeitgeist and attempting to synthesize stories of the past, with knowledge of the present, and visions of the future. Anons like Zero HP play a vital role in the ecology of the discourse by pushing the Overton Window up to, and in some cases, beyond its limits.


Agora Politics is a podcast dedicated to making sense out of our outdated theories of politics.

I’m Alex Murshak, political theorist.

Subscribe to us on Youtube for videos and interviews: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug

Follow Agora Politics on Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics/
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/amurshak/

—



Subscribe on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agora-politics/id1496531814
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/agora_politics
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5xfgHAlhswC6PWlTZC5S58?si=fY-OxZqASPWtxFnAqyLCbg
Wherever you find your podcasts

Get full access to Hacking State at www.alexmurshak.com/subscribe

I am joined by director of the metamodern think tank, Abstract-Org's Brent Cooper, for an exercise in constructive disagreement.

We come together from different perspectives to address leaky abstractions, The IDW, Critical Race Studies vs. Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, globalization & cosmopolitanism, Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), and thinking big in the face of endemic incrementalism.

Agora Politics is about upgrading our outdated theories of politics. To do so, we need to be willing to have challenging conversations that not only push us to our intellectual limits, but our interpersonal and ideological limits as well. None of us are born with a worldview out of whole cloth, it is shaped by our disposition, upbringing, and experiences. What we mustn’t forget, however, is that the choices we make will influence our perspective now, in the future, and how we interpret the past.

I’m Alex Murshak, political theorist.

Subscribe to my channel for videos and interviews: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug

Follow Agora Politics on Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics/
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/amurshak/

—




Subscribe on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agora-politics/id1496531814
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/agora_politics
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5xfgHAlhswC6PWlTZC5S58?si=fY-OxZqASPWtxFnAqyLCbg
Wherever you find your podcasts.

Get full access to Hacking State at www.alexmurshak.com/subscribe

Nicholas is writer, author, and creator of the Eclectic Spacewalk project.

We talk about the Overview Effect, the dangers of overarching narratives abstracting away from particulars, connection through storytelling, making the invisible visible, information flows, Open Source Everything, the 2nd psychedelic renaissance, and his hope for a moon base.

You can find more of Nicholas' writings and learn more about Eclectic Spacewalk on Substack & Medium, and follow him on twitter @Espacewalk.


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Agora Politics is a podcast dedicated to making sense out of our outdated theories of politics.

Follow Agora Politics on Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics/
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/amurshak/

—




Subscribe on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agora-politics/id1496531814
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/agora_politics
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5xfgHAlhswC6PWlTZC5S58?si=fY-OxZqASPWtxFnAqyLCbg
Wherever you get your podcasts!

Get full access to Hacking State at www.alexmurshak.com/subscribe

Heraclitus stands alone among the pre-socratic philosophers. Contradictory, riddlesome, and enigmatic, he remains one of the most influential, yet least well-understood figures in Western philosophy.

Born to a noble family in Ephesus, a city in Ionia, Greek Asia Minor, present day Turkey. Supposedly, he passed on a kingship, awarding it instead to his brother, to pursue a life as a roaming philosopher. He was self-taught. Heraclitus is not associated with any of the prominent schools of philosphy known to us from the time, and is regarded as an independent thinker and misanthrope, one who looked to break away from orthodoxies that pervaded his day. He drew influence from Anaxamander, Thales, and others; was critical of Pythagoras, and was most notably influential on Cratylus, who brought his philosophy to Athens, where Plato was introduced to it. Aristotle viewed Heraclitus as contradicting the Law of Noncontradiction, and regarded his unusual style of obscurantist, pithy, and ambiguous assertions as incoherent. Regardless, he proved influential not only to the Stoics, but also to nearly all of Western philosophy that followed.

Whenever you hear of the life of Heraclitus, they will say we don’t know much on the account of his life due to the sparse remaining fragments of his writings, and suspiciousness of the stories passed down from later writers, or sayings attributed, that may be imposed or fabricated altogether. Most of what we know comes from a single source, Diogenes Laertius and his Lives. In his lifetime, Heraclitus, produced but one book, which was stored in the great Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. and has since been lost in time. This work was supposedly tripartly divided into sections on cosmology, politics, and theology. The book was so inlfuential in its time, despite there being only one original copy available to whoever ventured to seek it out. It spawned a legion of followers, known as the Heraclitians, posthumonously. What remains of his life’s work comes down to us in fragments, 12 9, which constitute the perplexing, paradoxical, playful, somewhat sardonic philosophy of the Weeping Philosopher.

A sampling of the fragments will constitute our main subject today. In true Heraclitian fashion, I will expound upon selected fragments, and give but my interpretation of what might be meant. Some have decided, in other readings, to choose passages at random, employing random number generators for the task, a method which I find to be trivializing to both Heraclitus and the student of Heraclitus. The philosopher himself encouraged what we might recognize as Stoic virtues of courage, rectitude, and an overall antiplebian, even aristocratic orientation. Therefore it is prudent to exercise one’s capacity for discernment in selecting from his works; to do otherwise is to treat him not as a philosopher, but as an archaic curiosity, observed voyeuristically in the zoo of ancient ideas. Core Heraclitian principles: the unity of opposites, the theory of flux, the primordial flame in all things and which was there in the beginning, will make themselves known as we go along. It is worth noting, that a not insignificant portion of the meaning that would be passed down in writing, even discounting our lack of original volume, may be lost in translation, as many of his sayings and espousings involved semantic and rhetorical wordplay, but neither I, nor most of you, read Ancient Greek. If you find my interpretations wanting, I’d encourage you to posit your own. There are only 130 fragments, most of which are quite brief, so those of you looking to see for yourself what Heraclitus was all about, can easily work through them in under an hour to gain familiarity, and even seek out additional translations/footnotes/and interpretations, to complement the ones provided here. In keeping cognizant of the principle of flux, I expect my own understandings to change going forward. After all, you can’t cross the same fragment twice.

Get full access to Hacking State at www.alexmurshak.com/subscribe