GK Chesterton on Capitalist Despair (Video)

February 28, 2021

In Chapters 2 and 3 of GK Chesterton’s The Outline of Sanity (1926) we get perhaps one of the first identifications of and arguments against capitalist realism, the idea that we can do no better. He also anticipates some aspects of neoliberal capitalism which we are all too familiar with today, particularly the idea that workers must simply sacrifice for the greater good rather than hope to really get ahead and be happy themselves. Chesterton lays the groundwork for his proposal of a third way economy of Distributism. … More GK Chesterton on Capitalist Despair (Video)

Introduction to G.K. Chesterton and Distributism

February 21, 2021

This video introduces you briefly to GK Chesterton and then discusses his definitions of Capitalism, Socialism and Distributism. I point out that Aristotle’s views on property in The Politics may be the origin of distributist thought, and give some background information that may help understand why Chesterton defines Capitalism and Communism as he does. Chesterton criticizes Capitalism for really being “Proletarianism” or a system of wage dependency. He criticizes Socialism for being dangerous because it places all resources and decisions into the hands of the state. Both of them concentrate property into a few hands, whereas Distributism calls for spreading property ownership more evenly. Spain’s Mondragon corporation is used as an example of contemporary distributism at work. … More Introduction to G.K. Chesterton and Distributism

Introduction to G.K. Chesterton and Distributism (Video)

February 21, 2021

This video introduces you briefly to GK Chesterton and then discusses his definitions of Capitalism, Socialism and Distributism. I point out that Aristotle’s views on property in The Politics may be the origin of distributist thought, and give some background information that may help understand why Chesterton defines Capitalism and Communism as he does. Chesterton criticizes Capitalism for really being “Proletarianism” or a system of wage dependency. He criticizes Socialism for being dangerous because it places all resources and decisions into the hands of the state. Both of them concentrate property into a few hands, whereas Distributism calls for spreading property ownership more evenly. Spain’s Mondragon corporation is used as an example of contemporary distributism at work. … More Introduction to G.K. Chesterton and Distributism (Video)

Human v. Pig: Disc. w/ Friends (Porkopolis 3-Audio)

February 13, 2021

Alex Blanchette’s Porkopolis is the source of this discussion among friends. We are all reading Blanchette’s book about the US pork production industry. Our conversation ranges from the limits and costs of ever-increasing efficiency in production, to squeezing pennies out of runts, to the endless quest for the uniform (and therefore efficiently processed) pig and the impact this has on the workers involved. We segue into a conversation about the reality and value of universalization/homogenization in both production and societies. Thinkers discussed include Karl Marx, Jacques Ellul, Eugene McCarraher, and Adorno and Horkheimer. … More Human v. Pig: Disc. w/ Friends (Porkopolis 3-Audio)

Human v. Pig: Disc. w/ Friends (Porkopolis 3) Ft. Marx, Ellul, McCarraher, Adorno & Horkheimer

February 13, 2021

Alex Blanchette’s Porkopolis is the source of this discussion among friends. We are all reading Blanchette’s book about the US pork production industry. Our conversation ranges from the limits and costs of ever-increasing efficiency in production, to squeezing pennies out of runts, to the endless quest for the uniform (and therefore efficiently processed) pig and the impact this has on the workers involved. We segue into a conversation about the reality and value of universalization/homogenization in both production and societies. Thinkers discussed include Karl Marx, Jacques Ellul, Eugene McCarraher, and Adorno and Horkheimer. … More Human v. Pig: Disc. w/ Friends (Porkopolis 3) Ft. Marx, Ellul, McCarraher, Adorno & Horkheimer

Somos Puercos: Human-Animal Melding in the Meat Production Business (Porkopolis 2-Audio)

February 6, 2021

Alex Blanchette’s recent book Porkopolis shows how human and animal lives become intertwined in a relationship of dependency that distorts both natures. How should we understand this type of production? What does it do to the people involved every step of the way with animals who no longer feed, procreate, give birth or die without humans intimately involved? Blanchette explores these questions from the vantage point of someone who did many aspects of the work and talked openly with people involved in many steps of the process. Do we treat the people involved as interchangeable, expendable and dependent as the industrial pigs they tend? What does that say about the food system we’ve created and which most of us rely upon and benefit from? … More Somos Puercos: Human-Animal Melding in the Meat Production Business (Porkopolis 2-Audio)

Somos Puercos: Human-Animal Melding in the Meat Production Business (Porkopolis 2-Video)

February 6, 2021

Alex Blanchette’s recent book Porkopolis shows how human and animal lives become intertwined in a relationship of dependency that distorts both natures. How should we understand this type of production? What does it do to the people involved every step of the way with animals who no longer feed, procreate, give birth or die without humans intimately involved? Blanchette explores these questions from the vantage point of someone who did many aspects of the work and talked openly with people involved in many steps of the process. Do we treat the people involved as interchangeable, expendable and dependent as the industrial pigs they tend? What does that say about the food system we’ve created and which most of us rely upon and benefit from? … More Somos Puercos: Human-Animal Melding in the Meat Production Business (Porkopolis 2-Video)

Porkopolis: The Human and Economic Tragedy of Manufactured Meat (1-Audio)

January 30, 2021

Alex Blanchette’s Porkopolis (2020, Duke University Press) has had more than the usual impact for a book that started out as a dissertation. Blanchette spent quite a bit of time embedding himself in the work of pork CAFO’s and processing facilities. As a result he has a book that goes beyond the usual animal or human welfare argument to expose the Taylorist/Fordist nature of pork production that yields cheap meat at the expense of dehumanizing workers and merging to the point of inextricability the manufactured pig and the manufacturing human. This video introduces who Blanchette is and some of the themes in the book. … More Porkopolis: The Human and Economic Tragedy of Manufactured Meat (1-Audio)

Porkopolis: The Human and Economic Tragedy of Manufactured Meat (1-Video)

January 30, 2021

Alex Blanchette’s Porkopolis (2020, Duke University Press) has had more than the usual impact for a book that started out as a dissertation. Blanchette spent quite a bit of time embedding himself in the work of pork CAFO’s and processing facilities. As a result he has a book that goes beyond the usual animal or human welfare argument to expose the Taylorist/Fordist nature of pork production that yields cheap meat at the expense of dehumanizing workers and merging to the point of inextricability the manufactured pig and the manufacturing human. This video introduces who Blanchette is and some of the themes in the book. … More Porkopolis: The Human and Economic Tragedy of Manufactured Meat (1-Video)

Getting Our * Back Under Control: Charles Taylor’s Cure for Fragmentation (Malaise 6-Audio)

January 23, 2021

In this concluding video on Charles Taylor’s The Malaise of Modernity I discuss Taylor’s critique of technical rationality (scientific, corporate, bureaucratic). Taylor does it in his characteristic style–technique/technology/technical rationality is not wholly good or bad. In order to get what we create back under control so that it serves us, we have to realize this and re-assert the primacy of politics (real politics) and political control. Taylor’s analysis speaks to our moment, in which we are too divided and our ideas too simplistic and negative, to engage in real political debate and discourse. How do we get back to a place of true democratic politics? Can we realize the moral impulse that Taylor argues initiated the Enlightenment promise in reason, science and technology (they long ago went off the rails), or are we doomed to be dominated by our own creations? … More Getting Our * Back Under Control: Charles Taylor’s Cure for Fragmentation (Malaise 6-Audio)