Woke Capital
Added 2021-07-31 17:32:59 +0000 UTCMatt and Sam discuss "Woke Capital," the revival of James Burnham's critique of managerialism, and how right-wing populists learned to stop worrying (about liberty) and love the state.
Further Reading:
Sam Adler-Bell, "Conservatives and capitalists are getting a divorce — and it's going to get really, really ugly" Insider, Jul 19, 2021.
Julius Krein, "James Burnham’s Managerial Elite," American Affairs, Feb 9, 2017
Ross Douthat, "What the Right's Intellectuals Did Wrong," New York Times, Oct 26, 2016.
Saurabh Sharma, Nick Solheim, and Jake Mercier, "We Must Build An Elite For This American Moment," The American Conservative. Feb 24, 2021.
Laura K. Field, "What the Hell Happened to the Claremont Institute?" The Bulwark, Jul 13, 2021
Comments
That's pretty good. Brooks gets a lot of hate from the young socialist Left, deservedly, but he seems generally right with his diagnosis. Although there's a lot of unmaterialist nonsense mixed in, you can leave that aside and still take away a vivid picture of real developments in the superstructure of contemporary capitalism
Lojban Chauvinist
2024-01-09 03:59:16 +0000 UTC*Grammar PMC, internal alien prescriptivist voice*-- "I" is nominative, "me" is objective, so "Sam and I do this podcast" and "This podcast is done by Sam and me." "It's Sam and I" is technically correct, but "It's Sam and me" (as with Mario) sounds more colloquial and *non-prescriptivist voice* is perfectly fine.
Thomas Arnold
2021-08-12 15:07:15 +0000 UTCjust started working in the administrative state (california unemployment department) so i feel very struck by the material effects of this evolution up until now. when these systems become so complicated, there’s a lot more potential for an individual employee to make a real difference at one point or another as to whether someone can access resources—my mom and i, who discuss disability insurance frequently, describe this as the opportunity afforded by talking to a Real Human Being instead of navigating a website or a set of forms. as these were subsequently intentionally captured by conservative actors over the past 50 years, though, it’s actually possible to see up close how “discipline” has been slowly ingrained into the legal/regulatory structure by public-private security and technology contracts (arbitrary flagging of millions of accounts as potentially fraudulent by a Reuters-owned AI, a Verizon call center that can’t hold more than 2500 people in the queue) even as the call center employees themselves all seem oriented towards progressive sensibilities (which i guess speaks to the inherent failure of the project of reconciling liberalism with traditionalism)
allison brown
2021-08-04 01:03:02 +0000 UTCAnother great podcast. Looking forward to listening to it a second time.
Keith T.
2021-08-03 19:17:10 +0000 UTCGreat stuff. Love hearing about Burnham and other intellectuals that influenced the conservative movement in the US early on. One I'd love to hear you guys dedicate some time to is R. J. Rushdoony and Christian Reconstructionism, and it's intersections with conservatism, libertarianism, and other right wing ideologies in the US. Another interesting topic idea would be the race realists like Richard Lynn, Charles Murray, Jared Taylor, and all those other creeps affiliated with The Pioneer Fund and Mankind Quarterly. Keep up the great work!
bdyeates
2021-08-03 16:44:04 +0000 UTCExcellent stuff. I posted this in reply to your tweet of this episode too, but wanted to make sure ppl see and (attempt) to read David Brooks’ extended foray into this debate, among other culture war topics https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/09/blame-the-bobos-creative-class/619492/
#1 Isaiah Evans Fan
2021-08-02 20:45:59 +0000 UTCIts honestly whiplash-inducing to have this all come after a decade+ of libertarian nonsense about corporate freedom which itself came AFTER the 'if you dont like it, get out' neocons. Corporate america deciding to shed conservative values (and I agree with you its not really true) should get trumpcons the same words thrown back at them they "believed" just yesterday.
qpc
2021-08-02 15:46:38 +0000 UTCOMG. I appreciate your efforts here so much, I finally defiled my cache and downloaded something form The Bulwark. (And let more viagra and military gear ads appear in my browser☹️
edward ripple
2021-08-01 15:01:12 +0000 UTCReally enjoyed this discussion and the article. Sam’s point that there’s no electoral college for capital is a great illustration of the right’s crisis of demographics and helps explain their anti-democratic turn. Capital isn’t particularly democratic either, but they are banking on future demographics. For the populist right to imagine themselves as a Silent Majority suffering under a conspiratorial elite usurper culture isn’t only backward-looking, but a projection and an inversion of reality. Republican state legislatures are a caricature of a conspiratorial elite working to silence a political majority, not to even get started on CEO Mike Lindell. The point isn’t that it’s hypocrisy, but that they see this and know exactly what they’re up to. Admittedly, campaigning to end corporate moralizing while running a long con to infiltrate those corporate structures (presumably to moralize from them) does suggest that they’ve forgotten whether they’re selling the KoolAid or drinking it. But that sort of bumbling strategy can obscure a more disturbing reality that they’ve given themselves license to impose power both politically and culturally as an elite minority. The fusionist understanding of capital as a necessary evil is still in full effect on the right, but they appear to be shifting emphasis from necessary to evil. There’s an ironic significance that Steve Bannon crusades against The Managerial Class as if he wasn’t a perfect exemplar himself.
R M
2021-08-01 14:46:40 +0000 UTCIn terms of 'squaring the circle' (simultaneously believing in the goodness of everyday folk and the necessity of an elite), I think a faction of conservative intellectuals see the masses less as pigs to be kicked, but as horses to be tamed. An example would be Patrick Deneen who talks about the 'inclinations' and 'instincts' of the working class toward conservativism. Instincts and inclinations, but not thoughts. "The instinctive conservatism on the working class," Deneen says, "needs protection and support by those who govern the main institutions of society. " Without some kind of social guidance, the masses will stray from their original desires. That horse will jump the fence. (Chesterton, an idol in Deneen's circles, called orthodoxy the "equilibrium of a man behind madly rushing horses.")
David B Hearne
2021-08-01 11:02:50 +0000 UTC
