Philosophy vs Work

In this episode, we're still on challenges to Utopia and getting back to Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternaitve? We're also taking our first little foray in Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze as far as Sovereign, Disciplinary, and Control Socities; some contemporary economic-political issues; and a tiny digression into the auto industry, religion, and ancient Rome.

Obligatory bibliography, or books (and articles) you may also want to check out:

Deleuze, Gilles. "Postscript on the Societies of Control." October. Vol. 59 (Winter, 1992), pp. 3-7. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/778828) (also here)
Fisher, Mark. 2009. Capitalist Realism : Is There No Alternative? Winchester, UK: Zero Books
Foucault, Michel. 1984. The Foucault Reader. Edited by Paul Rabinow. Vintage books edition. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Random House Inc.
Morris, Georgina. “Miners' strike 1984: Why UK miners walked out and how it ended.” https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-68244762

"Disciplinary societies and Societies of control" Course Compendium (github)
"It's Happening Again" Bravos Research (YouTube)

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Well, we lost, and it sucks, but maybe this isn't the worst possible outcome. In the aftermath of the recent US general election, I take a bit to examine some of the details, fact and fiction, in the election results, and in regards to the parties and candidates. More importantly, on the philosophy side, we take a look at anger and outrage, in defense of anger and outrage, hope, and through Stephane Hessel's Time for Outrage (2010) and and excerpt from Sara Ahmed's The Cultural Politics of Emotion (2014).

Obligatory bibliography, or books (and articles) you may also want to check out:

Ahmed, Sara. 2014. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Second edition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Hessel, Stéphane. 2010. Time for Outrage! . Translated by Marion Duvert. First North American edition. New York: Twelve.
Hessel, Stéphane. 2010. Time for Outrage! Narrated by Bob Walter: Hachette Audio, 2011. Spotify.

The Doctor's Speech | The Zygon Inversion | Doctor Who

References:
7 states vote to protect abortion rights, while efforts to expand access in Florida and South Dakota fail | CNN Politics
U.S. House Election Results 2018 - The New York Times
Federal Register :: Estimates of the Voting-Age Population for 2023

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Welcome to the first Halloween Special! In this episode, we're discussing horror movies and capitalism; specifically, The Blob ('58, '72, and '88), Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('56), and Mark Fisher's "Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?" We talk a little about horror and science fiction, gods and monsters, Red (and Pink) scare(s), the Blob as metaphor for late capitalism, and how horror movies reflect the mass anxieties of the time.

Obligatory bibliography, or books (and articles) you may also want to check out:

Fisher, Mark. 2009. Capitalist Realism : Is There No Alternative? Winchester, UK: Zero Books
Bukatman, Scott. 1993. Terminal Identity : The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction. Durham: Duke University Press
Frankfurter, David. 2018. Evil Incarnate : Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press

Aylesworth, Gary. “Postmodernism” https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/
Loock, K. (2012). The Return of the Pod People: Remaking Cultural Anxieties in Invasion of the Body Snatchers . https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137263353_7#citeas – Citing also: Mann, Katrina. “You’re Next!: Postwar Hegemony Besieged in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Cinema Journal 44.1 (Fall 2004): 49–68

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Well, hope you're in for a long one. This episode: Lee Edleman's No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive, as well as connections to Barthes and Benjamin, the myth of the Child and reproductive futurism, some psychoanalytic theory, existentialism and uncertainty, an examination and rebuttal to the recent Vice-Presidential debate, Tim Walz as America's Dad and JD Vance's utter commitment to myth-speech, and some historical econoimic data.

Obligatory bibliography, or books (and articles) you may also want to check out:

Lee Edelman, No Future (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005)

Related links:
https://youtu.be/NjTDLyKP2p0?si=P7e9nnqlCzLnKPnb
https://youtu.be/0Nr0FemmLK4?si=cm6-ZVjCir0-7yaZ

https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-thresholds.html
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?end=2004&locations=US&start=2000
https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v47n7/v47n7p24.pdf
https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/consumer-expenditures/2022/home.htm
https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/credit-cards/average-grocery-cost/
“Knot Theory” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_theory

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In this episode we start addressing some of the serious problems with utopian thinking and, especially, progressive narratives. We unpack a bit of Walter Benjamin's "Theses on the Philosophy of History," return to Barthes regarding myth, and bring a little Nietzsche and some Star Trek into the conversation as well.

Obligatory bibliography, or books (and articles) you may also want to check out:

Benjamin, Walter, and Hannah Arendt. 1968. Illuminations. New York: Schocken Books.
Bergson, Henri. 1911. Matter and Memory. . Translated by Nancy Margaret Paul and William Scott Palmer. [New York]: Digireads.com.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. 1910. The Gay Science. Dover ed. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications.

Overthink Podcast: Walter Benjamin on Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility: https://youtu.be/WqsyvK_2eYo?si=Mq4rJKmz0JhJjgKx

Theory and Philosophy: The Angel of History | Walter Benjamin: 
https://youtu.be/7iYszscVduI?si=sPkYF0tiiNsacOR6

Neil deGrasse Tyson on rejection from Jury Duty (the third time), short remix clip from Joe Rogan: https://youtube.com/shorts/yrCTrB-HSfQ?si=PZsMJF_lJI7qh64p 

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Today’s episode is a going to be little different from the usual style, a bit more blog and a bit less position paper, but don’t worry, we’re still going to get to some philosophy, specifically Nietzsche, in the latter half. We play catchup on what's been happening on my end as far as voiceover work and Dragoncon, then address the potential for Nietzsche to be read as a hopeful redemption narrative.

Obligatory bibliography, or books (and articles) you may also want to check out:

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Genealogy of Morals. “Guilt,” “Bad Conscience”.

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, and Duncan Large. Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. 

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, Thomas Common, Helen Zimmern, Horace Barnett Samuel, J. M. Kennedy, and Clifton Fadiman. The Philosophy of Nietzsche. New York: Modern library, 1954.

Not mentioned in this episode, but worth a read:
Deleuze, Gilles. 1983. Nietzsche and Philosophy. New York: Columbia University Press.

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In this episode: Kathi Week’s The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries. Now, to be fair, we’re not going to examine the whole book, not yet anyway. Today we’re going to be looking at utopianism as a philosophical and political project, teleology and nonteleological utopian thinking. We're also going to run a bit of a who's who and what's what with Plato and Aristotle, Karl Popper, Francis Fukuyama, and Ernst Bloch as well as the logic of Rationalism and Intelligent Design. Even Star Trek makes a brief appearance. Engage!

Obligatory bibliography, or books (and articles) you may also want to check out:

Weeks, Kathi. The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2011

Boldyrev, Ivan. “Ernst Bloch.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bloch/
Gorton, William. “Karl Popper: Political Philosophy” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/popp-pol/#SH1a

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We're back to our regular format this week and continuing our unpacking of Roland Barthes' Mythologies; specifically, signification, the mythologist, and the reader of myths, as well as laying the methodology for how we’re going to be looking at utopia as a philosophical or socio-political ‘strategy.’ We take a look at the signs "the Party of Lincoln" and "MAGA" and, having done so, I could really go for some of "the good French Wine" right about now.

Obligatory bibliography, or books (and articles) you may also want to check out:

Barthes, Roland. 2012. Mythologies 1st American ed. New York: Hill and Wang.

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Hey everyone, this week’s episode is going to be a bit different. Rather than the usual philosophical info-tainment, today we’re going to focus more on the work side of the equation. I recently had the opportunity to chat with an old friend, Amanda Cranford, the owner-operator of Dish, here in Charlotte, in the Plaza-Midwood neighborhood. We had a few drinks and discussed the restaurant industry, being a small business owner, and of course a bit about work-philosophy and ethics, as well as the role she had played in informing my MA research paper, Toward Meaningful Work. 

Please let me know your thoughts on this type of content, and any other thoughts you have about the show, in the comments.

A quick note for those of you that listen on headphones, this conversation was recorded on site at Dish. They were slow at the time, but they were open. I’ve mitigated as much as I can (at least, as much as I can and know how to, at this time) any really intrusive noise - plates, machine squeals, etc., but it’s not perfect. So, if you typically listen on headphones and/or at a high volume, maybe try this one down a notch. 

And with that, I present the first Philosophy vs Work Happy Hour.

Don't forget to check out Dish! (this episode was not sponsored)

https://eatatdish.com/
Instagram: @eatatdish

Also, I could not recall or find the details of the bakery I was thinking of, but if you're interested in co-ops, its a somewhat popular model for bakeries and grocery stores. City Bakery in Asheville is not a co-op, but it is a Family Owned small business. Publix is privately held by the Jenkins Family (family of founder George Jenkins, 20%) and its employees (80%). 

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Welcome to the next arc (next chapter?) of Philosophy vs Work! From here, we start unpacking Semiotics, Myth, and Utopia - starting with an unpacking of what is semiotics? - and the role utopias and utopian thought play in thinking about work, in how these utopias and work have been mythologized, and how these mythologized words shape how we think and even what we’re potentially capable of thinking.

In this episode: Roland Barthes' Mythologies, semiotics, myth as speech, professional/amateur wrestling, Lincoln, and Republicans.

*Note* This episode was written and recorded before the recent Trump rally shooting, and in no way condones either the actions of the shooter or the ensuing rhetoric of the far right. The intent to use "Lincoln" as an example of myth-speech was timed to line up with the RNC.

Recommended links:
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1860
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Kansas_Nebraska_Act.htm
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Democratic-Party
https://lincolnproject.us/
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1796t.asp

Obligatory bibliography, or books (and articles) you may also want to check out:

Amit E, Hoeflin C, Hamzah N, Fedorenko E. “An Asymmetrical Relationship Between Verbal and Visual Thinking: Converging Evidence from Behavior and fMRI.” Neuroimage. 2017 May 15. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5448978/
Barthes, Roland. 2012. Mythologies 1st American ed. New York: Hill and Wang.
Bolger, Eileen. “Naturalization Process in U.S.: Early History” https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/federal/naturalization-process-in-u-s-early-history
 The Barbary Treaties 1786-1816. “Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Signed at Tripoli November 4, 1796” Translated Joel Barlow, 1797.
“Visual thinking” Wikipedia. Silverman, Linda Kreger (2005), Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner, Maria J. Krabbe Foundation for Visual Thinking. 

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