Hacking State

In Western philosophy, we have yet to move beyond the life and death of Socrates. Though his time has long since passed, we would be remiss to think there’s nothing to be gained, or to be remembered, by returning to accounts of this legendary figure. Socrates, the gadfly of Athens. A man, held in such high esteem that he is revered even to this day, despite writing nothing down to be recorded for posterity, and otherwise lacking in the accouterments of worldly and material success. Not a conqueror of lands and peoples, but of minds, and maybe even souls.

Despite the persistence of his spirit, he was put to death by the city he sought to serve, mocked and derided, in his own time, by men and women less noble than himself. In my recent conversation with Michael Millerman, on the political philosopher Leo Strauss, we talked of the irresolvable tension between the philosopher and the city, between knowledge and custom, between truth and piety. Strauss, too, believed in returning to the Great Works, to begin anew our confrontation with the most fundamental questions. Questions surrounding the interplay among these forces are eternal and remain relevant for philosophers and in all places and all times. If the aim of this show is to move beyond mere entertainment or a frivolous notion of education, then in seeking a way forward for political theory, we ought to individually revisit these old questions, the forms in which answers of various kinds were bequeathed to us, and gradually begin to live out our presuppositions in practice. Philosophy, after all, is most fundamentally about doing, not just thinking.

So here, presented for you now, is an excerpt of Socrates’ parting words upon receiving the sentence of death from his Athenian jurors, followed by a brief analysis of this particular segment of Plato’s Apology, which I wrote for a senior seminar on the 4 Trials. The cited translation is from 4 Texts on Socrates by Thomas G. and Grace Starry West.

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

Cody Moser is an anthropologist and PhD candidate studying cultural evolution in the department of cognitive and information sciences at University of California Merced.

We talk about science and scientism, famed molecular biologist Rupert Sheldrake, his theory of Morphic Resonance, and what he calls the 10 tenets that make up the ideology of scientific materialism, asking whether evolution has a telos, how to reboot scientific exploration through patronage, tolerating cranks and free inquiry, and barriers to growth & innovation, not only in science, but in institutions more broadly.


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


Subscribe on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics
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

Jim Rutt is the former CEO of Network Solutions, and former chairman of the Santa Fe Institute for the study of complex systems sciences, as well as host of the Jim Rutt Show, an interview podcast series examining cutting-edge thinking in science and technology and the future of our economic, political and social systems and institutions.

Jim Rutt joins me to talk Game~B, an ambitious, decentralized civilization-level operating system for optimizing human flourishing.

We cover: the origins of Game~B, the financial drivers pushing us to extinction, technological hygiene in a world of information overload, the prospects for blockchain, DeFi, and federated trust, revivifying Kibbutz-style Dunbar-level communities, debt, competence-based leadership, liquid democracy, the tradeoffs of design vs. iteration, staving off predators in Game~B, forming strong social bonds irl, and parasitizing Game A.

You can find Jim Rutt at: https://www.jimruttshow.com/
The website for Game~B: https://www.game-b.org/
The Game~B wiki: https://www.gameb.wiki/
Pre-Game~B Emancipation Party: http://emancipationparty.org/

–

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

Website: https://agorapolitics.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/agora_politics

–

I’m Alex Murshak, Political Theorist

Subscribe to my channel for interviews & videos on political theory: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug

You can follow me on Twitter @amurshak: twitter.com/amurshak

—


Subscribe on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics
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

Richard Bartlett is an expert on decentralized organizations as well as cofounder of The Hum Team, Enspiral, & Loomio.

We talk about practical anarchism, the Occupy movement’s experiments in radical democracy, escaping domination and coercion, Patterns of Decentralization, debt, and the future of work.

You can follow Richard on Twitter: @richdecibels
You can follow me on Twitter: @amurshak

--

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


Subscribe on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics
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

John David Ebert is a cultural critic, poet, and author of over 20 books, including: Art After Metaphysics, The New Media Invasion, The Age of Catastrophe, and Dead Celebrities, Living Icons. We talk about mentorship, constructing a bespoke education, the Monomyth, the Night Sea Journey, ideology vs. myth, Spengler, civilizational life cycles, late stage American Imperialism, wether Western Civilization is doomed, hermeticism, radical subjectivity, Anima & Animus possession (Jung), tension between the sexes, civilizational immune systems, Schmitt’s Political Theology & the State of Exception, hyperreality, and living intellectual life outside academic institutions.

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

Matthew Pirkowski joins me to discuss crypto, money and the state, sovereignty and global arbitrage, multipolar traps, corporation and defection, information warfare, complexity catastrophe, time preferences, and fitness vs. truth.

You can follow Matt on Twitter: @MattPirkowski

If you enjoy this episode, please consider funding more conversations like these with our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/agorapolitics

--

You can follow Agora Politics on Twitter: @agora_politics
Follow Alex Murshak: @amurshak


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


Subscribe on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics
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

-- SUBSCRIBE ON PATREON FOR FULL EPISODE --

In Western philosophy, we have yet to move beyond the life and death of Socrates. Though his time has long since passed, we would be remiss to think there’s nothing to be gained, or to be remembered, by returning to accounts of this legendary figure. Socrates, the gadfly of Athens. A man, held in such high esteem that he is revered even to this day, despite writing nothing down to be recorded for posterity, and otherwise lacking in the accouterments of worldly and material success. Not a conqueror of lands and peoples, but of minds, and maybe even souls.

Despite the persistence of his spirit, he was put to death by the city he sought to serve, mocked and derided, in his own time, by men and women less noble than himself. In my recent conversation with Michael Millerman, on the political philosopher Leo Strauss, we talked of the irresolvable tension between the philosopher and the city, between knowledge and custom, between truth and piety. Strauss, too, believed in returning to the Great Works, to begin anew our confrontation with the most fundamental questions. Questions surrounding the interplay among these forces are eternal and remain relevant for philosophers and in all places and all times. If the aim of this show is to move beyond mere entertainment or a frivolous notion of education, then in seeking a way forward for political theory, we ought to individually revisit these old questions, the forms in which answers of various kinds were bequeathed to us, and gradually begin to live out our presuppositions in practice. Philosophy, after all, is most fundamentally about doing, not just thinking.

So here, presented for you now, is an excerpt of Socrates’ parting words upon receiving the sentence of death from his Athenian jurors, followed by a brief analysis of this particular segment of Plato’s Apology, which I wrote for a senior seminar on the 4 Trials. The cited translation is from 4 Texts on Socrates by Thomas G. and Grace Starry West

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

Political scientist Michael Millerman joins me to discuss the philosophy of Leo Strauss, esoteric writing, and Alexandr Dugin's 4th Political Theory.

We talk about Leo Strauss, the tension between the philosopher and the city, why some of the best intellectual work is happening outside academia, the crisis of rationalism, the value of returning to the great works, esoteric writing, the necessity of subtlety, grounding our conceptions of the good, Alexandr Dugin and the 4th Political Theory.

Michael Millerman received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto, lectures and tutors on matters of political philosophy, produced original English translations of Alexandr Dugin's books, and is the author of "Beginning with Heidegger: Strauss, Rorty, Derrida, Dugin and the Philosophical Constitution of the Political".

Check out Michael Millerman's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp19_tJlXTN8kXoHJx7mIXQ

Learn more about Michael Millerman's work: https://MichaelMillerman.ca

__


If you liked this interview and want to hear more, support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/agorapolitics

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

__


Follow us on:
Twitter: twitter.com/agora_politics
Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDjdhAe9Z7EatYg3OGLKug
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agor…cs/id1496531814
Soundcloud: @agora_politics
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5xfgHAlhswC…qASPWtxFnAqyLCbg

Wherever you find your podcasts.

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

Geoff Shullenberger is creator of the Outsider Theory blog and newly launched Outsider Theory podcast, as well as Senior Lecturer at New York University’s Expository Writing Program.

We talk about his Outsider Theory project, conspiracy & elite paranoia, our schizophrenizing media complex, Boudrillard and Hyperreality, scapegoating, Marcuse’s concept of Repressive Tolerance, and touching third rails of American politics.

You can learn more about the Outsider Theory project on Geoff's blog at: https://outsidertheory.com/

Follow Geoff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/daily_barbarian

—
If you liked this interview and want to hear more, support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/agorapolitics

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


Subscribe on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics
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

Raven Connolly hosts Socratic Speed-dating and sensemaking sessions at The Stoa. You can find out more about Raven’s work at TheStoa.ca and follow Raven on Twitter @spiral_virus.


We talk about the acceleration of trends in online dating and romance due to the pandemic, the institution of marriage and non-monogomy, influencer culture, mimesis, and sexual inequality, declining fertility in the West and technological substitutes for intimacy, the value of organized religion, the Bible in Western Culture, life around a common calendar, and the decision to choose to love.

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


Subscribe on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/agora_politics
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