Category: National Politics

New Review: Silent Coup by Provost & Kennard

January 17, 2025

Claire Provost and Matt Kennard are investigative journalists, and together they have produced a wide-ranging account of how governments, NGO’s and global corporations collude to extract wealth from taxpayers, workers and the poorest of the poor. The overall lesson of this book is that corporate governance has replaced liberal democratic government in the developed world, and in the developing world, colonial overlordship has given way to international corporate power.  … More New Review: Silent Coup by Provost & Kennard

Starting Monday Nov. 18: Gap in God’s Country Sessions–Sign up on Eventbrite or Patreon

November 16, 2024

For more information about this book and where to buy it, as well as information about a series of talks I’ll give on themes from the book, check out: https://pmaurin.org/2024/11/02/the-gap-in-gods-country-themes-discussion-with-laurie-johnson-coming-up/ … More Starting Monday Nov. 18: Gap in God’s Country Sessions–Sign up on Eventbrite or Patreon

About the Trump Victory

November 6, 2024

Donald Trump will be our president for the next four years. We are living through unprecedented times. It’s hard not to see this as a huge protest vote—with several sometimes competing things being protested. The effects of globalization. Job insecurity. Alienation from others and anxiety about the future. Anxiety about rapid and continuous cultural change. Anger over elite privilege. The list goes on. I doubt if Donald Trump is going to change anything in a direction that fixes those problems. The fact that Elon Musk loves him, and Jeff Bezos is willing to play ball with him by shutting down the Washington Post editorial board says that he’s ultimately very friendly to large corporations. The stock market is going up.  … More About the Trump Victory

The Gap in God’s Country: A Longer View On Our Culture Wars: Now in Paperback and Kindle

October 23, 2024

My latest book, The Gap in God’s Country: A Longer View on Our Culture Wars, published by Wipf & Stock/Cascade Books, was just published, and you can get it in paperback or electronic editions. I will be doing some live sessions through The Maurin Academy in November and December on themes from the book. I hope you get it now, and join us for these live sessions to discuss what’s going on in the US at a deeper “longer view” level. We need this discussion now more than ever. Here are the links you need to get the book and to get in on the sessions. … More The Gap in God’s Country: A Longer View On Our Culture Wars: Now in Paperback and Kindle

Retool for What? The Dark Side of Automation (Maurin Academy)

September 30, 2022

In this clip from Laurie Johnson’s presentation in the last session of the Maurin Academy’s Agricultural Biotechnology series, the problem of automation for people who need jobs the world over is discussed. The impact on ideological movements, especially right-wing nationalism, is featured in the last half of the clip. … More Retool for What? The Dark Side of Automation (Maurin Academy)

Baby Formula Shortage and Technocratic Evil

May 22, 2022

A lot of pain and dehumanizing damage in the world takes place due to “technical rationality,” which Hannah Arendt referred to as the “banality of evil.” Here I discuss the baby formula shortage as an example of how “wicked problems” are caused by layers and layers of failures that can be traced back to a lack of fundamental responsibility. In our world, no one is responsible except for the discrete part they play in the overall machine whose inhuman, abstract, and often “CYA” formulations govern their responses and behavior. The evil of non-being comes through in the inertia of organizations and the inaction and conformity of lots of people over long periods of time. … More Baby Formula Shortage and Technocratic Evil

Dustbowl Diatribes 2: The Spoils of Egypt

May 14, 2022

Subscribe directly to the Dustbowl Diatribes podcast on iTunes, Google Podcasts, and Audible. Literature mentioned in this podcast is listed below the description.

Spencer Hess and Laurie Johnson talk about the “Spoils of Egypt” concept from Christian theology, how it has operated in the past, and what is keeping people from using it now. In the past, Christian theologians have often “plundered” secular theology for its riches, taking what was useful and true in light of Christian revelation, and leaving what was not. … More Dustbowl Diatribes 2: The Spoils of Egypt

PMC Obscenity

April 3, 2022

Contributor Spencer Hess ends his series on Kaitlin B. Curtice’s Native, critiquing PMC smugness and inconsistency, concluding with a brief Marxian & Christian-Anarchist critique.

Works Cited:

Can the PMC Control Capitalism? (ft Catherine Liu (Diet Soap): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAQ1INh9MQw

Klein Vs. Klein (The New Inquiry): https://thenewinquiry.com/klein-vs-klein/

Too Many Karens! (Matt Christman): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJBV9eTFsIs … More PMC Obscenity