Our Old Friend the Blues
Added 2020-07-25 14:03:54 +0000 UTCThe Depressive Left strikes again: in an episode that's more fun than it sounds, Matt and Sam discuss the relationship between depression and politics, the concept of moral desert in liberal and conservative politics, and the struggle to build a society from the standpoint of human frailty, interdependence, and vulnerability. Enjoy!
Further Reading:
Matthew Sitman, "Muddling Through: A Depression Memoir Like No Other," Commonweal, July 14, 2020.
Johanna Hedva, "Sick Woman Theory," Mask Magazine, January 2016.
Gabriel Winant, "Coronavirus and Chronopolitics," n + 1, Spring 2020
And Listening:
Steve Earle, "My Old Friend the Blues" (1986)
Comments
Noticed this whole older section of the catalog I've never listened to. Glad to have pulled this one up, especially right now. Been dealing with identity theft and then my job tried to put me on completely different work and make me come in on weekends for no extra pay, so I left, and then I got came down with a respiratory bug 😂 I'm fortunate that my current state should be pretty temporary but all of this would have been so much easier with tighter community, with a union, and with universal healthcare.
genrepunk
2024-07-29 15:45:05 +0000 UTCThanks for listening so carefully, Sam!
Know Your Enemy
2020-10-28 21:22:35 +0000 UTCFinally read the essay. Put stars by a few quotations that make me think Matt’s going to be famous for generations. That said, the piece on depression is truly wonderful and I look back on my own experience and get lots of echoes. I too befriended a homeless intellectual, who pointed out that as a Catholic, I had the network that kept me from falling down terminally that many now on the street never had. Can’t find the guy now, but he introduced me to Thomas Sowell and was very conservative. For me, recognizing my own “catastrophism” is what kept me suffering for so long. It took my ex having an affair to get me to be angry and committed enough to change to escape the depression. Ugh. Thanks for this episode guys.
Chad Bailey
2020-10-22 17:46:30 +0000 UTCLoved this. As an ex-Catholic, I do frame my lefty-activism as a fight for "Public [Good] Health". By the grace of dumb luck, I have had more opportunities for good health. I really wish the public conversation would go further than this virus crisis, and Medicare for All [IMHO The very LEAST we can do]. The justice system, urban planning (housing /transpo), environmental regulations, racial justice, schools/childcare, food/ag, Labour... all the things can be framed as Public Health. This framing personally gives me a "moral north", that helps me make political decisions, and communicate across the aisle. I too want to get rid of this idea of the "undeserving". I find it so judgmental, and based on a sense of false scarcity. Thanks again, I'm now going to read the "Sick Woman Theory"... that struck a chord.
Sam Murphy
2020-10-12 21:28:46 +0000 UTCa) I think early on Hilton Kramer struck a lot of non-conservatives as being at least worth taking seriously as an art critic b) NC, like lots of conservative publications, occasionally ran stuff *about the arts* that was worth reading! Cf American Conservative, till their post-Trump editorial shakeup, ran quite good film and theatre reviews by Noah Millman and Tim Markotos; First Things still occasionally does good book reviews, although they're quickly alienating their best writers; Weekly Standard's book pages under Adam Keiper were often surprising; '60s National Review was absolutely stacked; etc. I find Hugh Kenner deeply off-putting when he talks about social matters, but I wouldn't even try to understand modernism in poetry without him.
Phil Christman
2020-07-30 13:34:05 +0000 UTCGuys - I enjoyed this episode and discussed it with my spouse and kids the other night over dinner. BUT, I've a bit of a bone to pick: George Scialabba. Now I've found both of your episodes about his work to be thought-provoking. So I trotted right out and bought a copy of ''What are Intellectuals Good For?" Maybe it's just that the book is too old, or that the columns in it were 15 or 20 years old by the time they were included in the book, but multiple positive references to Hilton Kramer and the New Criterion just left me feeling betrayed and annoyed. I mean, just what the fuck is up with that? Am I just missing the point here, or did Scialabba manage to work his way out from under the nascent curmudgeonism reflected therein?
pixlaw
2020-07-29 00:26:47 +0000 UTCthanks for this. very much agree. (-Sam)
Know Your Enemy
2020-07-27 03:24:23 +0000 UTCTo your important point that all of us are vulnerable: The anthropologist-cum-social worker Laura Lein explained in a lecture I heard decades ago that welfare in Europe and the U.S. was much the same at the beginning of the 20th century. Then World War I made it clear to Europeans that anyone could suffer calamity and hardship—not just undeserving people but perfectly moral citizens. So they instituted welfare programs that did not ask whether you qualified. Everyone qualified for help. Only the Great Depression came close to teaching Americans that lesson. FDR made some headway, although a fiendish compromise meant excluding blacks. World War II made the point that we’re all vulnerable even clearer to Europeans and they forged their admirable social welfare programs. We made some moves in that direction with the GI Bill. Then Reagan and Thatcher persuaded us that only losers needed help and we’ve let more and more of our fellows fall victim to poverty and despair. The only good news about the current cataclysm is that some people seem to be getting the message you stated so well: all of us need help at times, and we should be able to rely on our government to make that help available to everyone who needs it. Which is to say: all of us.
Ward Keeler
2020-07-26 20:06:53 +0000 UTCThank you, Catherine!!!!
Know Your Enemy
2020-07-25 20:00:49 +0000 UTCOne of the best episodes yet! You should publish this as a long-form article or a book. You are making critically important insights about why our human vulnerability and tendency to mess up (sin) should motivate us to enact public policies that facilitate our ability to provide care to each other. Up with compassionate awareness of our interdependence!
Catherine M Stanford
2020-07-25 18:29:35 +0000 UTCThis looks dope af. Thanks gents!
Joel
2020-07-25 17:08:10 +0000 UTC
