July was a busy month for me on the podcast circuit. Here are the links and brief summary of our conversation topics. Some really good conversations here with introductions to upcoming content here.
I've been so frustrated watching this play out in realtime. Every politician on the stage, left right or otherwise: jabber jabber jabber.
Nobody: Normal working people can't afford to buy a house anymore because of FED policy and here's my plan to fix it.
It's like the problem doesn't exist. Completely taboo to even mention it on both sides of the aisle and every mainstream media outlet. Quite a lot of non-mainstream ones as well. Biggest political issue for everybody from genX on down, and we're gonna just pretend it's not a thing, nobody's ever heard of it, and if you can't buy a house that's probably just you, and maybe you should get a better job or something.
OK one more from me (provoked by your first discussion with JB) and enough
I don't know whether you agree, but arguments over 'genealogy of woke' (I hate not merely the thing but also the word itself) that were HOTHOTHOT a month or so ago seem to me to miss the point. I say this not because I think inquiry should be suppressed, though I do believe that the wholesale rejektors of the J*wish influence hypothesis are obviously wrong in degree and wish they could at least appear to pander a bit less both to J*ws and to anti-Christians. I say it because the debate under-emphasises the *purpose* of 'woke', which I am starting to think is to flatten out the kinks and enable the smooth functioning of the managerial apparatus.
This might seem an absurd thing to believe. Overpromotion and incorporation at the managerial level of incompetents of all kinds leads to planes falling out of the sky and so on. But those things, in the mind of the managerial blob, are second-order effects which can be further managed (perhaps Ellul would agree with this idk). What matters to the managers is smooth first-order functioning of the system, and to accomplish it exceptionally talented--and, crucially, exceptionally innovative, therefore often disruptive--individuals must be excluded, at least from (approximately) middle management and lower. This is (almost verging on) enough to explain to me why white men are the target of 'woke'.
So maybe 'woke' is not in origin a question of laicist trends in Christianity or J*wish or POC hatred of Europeans but fundamentally and originally a device of managerialism. Despite whatever patterns one might be able to identify in various texts or history itself, 'woke' as we experience it today can't in seriousness be satisfactorily traced to the Talmud, Calvin's Geneva, the Frankfurt School, Vatican II (and still less Soviet Russia) or whatever.
Anyway I'm thinking aloud, as it were. I could well be wrong in whole or in part.
A lot of what happens with wokeness is an extension of the the meritocracy. The meritocracy was implemented to breakdown structures of inherited weal to and power and is based on the idea that the elites are no better than us. We deserve a shot too. The criteria used to break down the old hierarchy was ability and hard work. They developed a technical system of evaluation (IQ/SAT). The same basic idea is now being applied, except now the criteria have changed to “marginalized” groups. But the same goal is being sought, the breakdown of hierarchy and the instantiation of equality. Both are liberalism at work.
A rich fund of linx; many thanx
EDIT: excellent summary of Ellul's works; is it on your stack?
The one linked to here is on TruthScript. I have pieces on all those works on my Substack, some from a while back now.
Aha thanx will check
Ellul just went on my reading list.
I've been so frustrated watching this play out in realtime. Every politician on the stage, left right or otherwise: jabber jabber jabber.
Nobody: Normal working people can't afford to buy a house anymore because of FED policy and here's my plan to fix it.
It's like the problem doesn't exist. Completely taboo to even mention it on both sides of the aisle and every mainstream media outlet. Quite a lot of non-mainstream ones as well. Biggest political issue for everybody from genX on down, and we're gonna just pretend it's not a thing, nobody's ever heard of it, and if you can't buy a house that's probably just you, and maybe you should get a better job or something.
OK one more from me (provoked by your first discussion with JB) and enough
I don't know whether you agree, but arguments over 'genealogy of woke' (I hate not merely the thing but also the word itself) that were HOTHOTHOT a month or so ago seem to me to miss the point. I say this not because I think inquiry should be suppressed, though I do believe that the wholesale rejektors of the J*wish influence hypothesis are obviously wrong in degree and wish they could at least appear to pander a bit less both to J*ws and to anti-Christians. I say it because the debate under-emphasises the *purpose* of 'woke', which I am starting to think is to flatten out the kinks and enable the smooth functioning of the managerial apparatus.
This might seem an absurd thing to believe. Overpromotion and incorporation at the managerial level of incompetents of all kinds leads to planes falling out of the sky and so on. But those things, in the mind of the managerial blob, are second-order effects which can be further managed (perhaps Ellul would agree with this idk). What matters to the managers is smooth first-order functioning of the system, and to accomplish it exceptionally talented--and, crucially, exceptionally innovative, therefore often disruptive--individuals must be excluded, at least from (approximately) middle management and lower. This is (almost verging on) enough to explain to me why white men are the target of 'woke'.
So maybe 'woke' is not in origin a question of laicist trends in Christianity or J*wish or POC hatred of Europeans but fundamentally and originally a device of managerialism. Despite whatever patterns one might be able to identify in various texts or history itself, 'woke' as we experience it today can't in seriousness be satisfactorily traced to the Talmud, Calvin's Geneva, the Frankfurt School, Vatican II (and still less Soviet Russia) or whatever.
Anyway I'm thinking aloud, as it were. I could well be wrong in whole or in part.
A lot of what happens with wokeness is an extension of the the meritocracy. The meritocracy was implemented to breakdown structures of inherited weal to and power and is based on the idea that the elites are no better than us. We deserve a shot too. The criteria used to break down the old hierarchy was ability and hard work. They developed a technical system of evaluation (IQ/SAT). The same basic idea is now being applied, except now the criteria have changed to “marginalized” groups. But the same goal is being sought, the breakdown of hierarchy and the instantiation of equality. Both are liberalism at work.