Varn Vlog: Stephan Hammel on Western Marxism and It's Illegitimate Children
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 เม.ย. 2023
- Stephan Hammel is a co-host of The Measures Taken ( podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... ). Stephan Hammel’s work is focused on developing a historical materialist framework for the study of music. His research encompasses the history of Marxist approaches to the subject-both “Western” and “Eastern” variants-as well as the role of music in the communist movement.
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Crew: Host: C. Derick Varn
Audio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )
Intro Music: Spaceship Revolution by Etienne Roussel (Grim Intro), Bitterlake (Political Intro), Bitter Lake (Strange Intro) Outro Music: Bitterlake
Intro and Outro Video Design: Djene Bajalan (Grim Intro, Political Intro, Outro), Bitterlake (Strange Intro) - บันเทิง
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It's always an education with Hammel. Excited to listen.
Remember seeing your guest on TIR. Sincerely grateful that I got a chance to engage with his manner of thought again.
Varn is my workout buddy. I love this channel.
Great video- Stephan Hammel is a consistently excellent guest. He's the best apologist (by which I mean explainer and representer to a potentially unsympathetic audience) for Eastern Bloc Marxism that I've heard. I wish there were more folks with his sense of humor and talent who represented those traditions (and not just the more annoying kinds of tankies.)
Also, totally agree re the right. They are all grifters who, some how, manage to make Democrats appear competent thoughtful politicians. Patrick Deneen, and Sohab Ahmari aside, it's hard to buy the idea that even their "intellectuals" have anything close to a coherent political program (let alone policies, beyond tax cuts and austerity- ie the economic program of the Clintonians and "swamp" they ostensibly wish to destroy.)
I'll say this much though, Italian fascists (failed left nationalists who were corrupt and cynical enough to ally with aristocrats and the Catholic Church and claim to be "revolutionary") and National Socialists (racists, antisemites, and right wing social democrats who did the same re capitalists in Germany.) You saw this in Spain too- the "Nationalist" coalition was never ideologically coherent and, aside from drumming up fear of the "left," didn't have much to offer the public aside from repression and peace (you saw this with how easily they shed the pretense of "economic corporatism" and autarky for free market capitalism in the 1960s.) Once they had state power, their ability to wield state resources for patronage and silence dissent was enough to solidify their authority, despite the gross ineptitude of most of their officials (and the mediocrity of their intellectuals.) I also agree re Ben and a lot of the left media. It's one thing to chase an audience (and there is a value to peeling off some who fall into MAGA communism, for example, out of ignorance.) It's another to develop an intellectual or discursive center to a potential movement. Doing the first, after a certain point, impedes the second.
Re the Democrats- they are going to shed their democratic veneer over time. They are empowering a specific chosen set of minority constituencies because its a way to garner legitimacy outside of mass democratic politics. It's an old, and cynical, reflex of politics- appeal to a form of "excellence" or "virtue" to justify authority that doesn't benefit most people. It's a way to grant meaning to suffering (ie "pain is unavoidable but the sacrifice is for a greater good.")
This was wonderful. I especially appreciate the Bruckner analogy haha
Pascal is partial to the Richard Wolff school of socialism he's pretty open about that, he also doesn't identify as a Marxist which is refreshing cuz most ppl who hold that position militantly defend the right to identify themselves as Marxists like its a medal of honor or something. Always great to hear Stephan.
I've always thought of coops ("always" dating from my left radicalisation) as transitional, many-directional wedges.
It's the second video with Stephan Hammel which I got to right after watching the first one, amazing duo! How can I find Hammel's work on music, I really wish to get into it.
I could talk about the death of leftward hedonism over the last 28 years for ages. It'd be mostly anecdotal, but I watched a huge influx of collegiate leftoids that traded their trad-conservative suburban/exurban upbringing for secular progressive labels, while still behaving like puritanical scolds ruin so much. I also think that the same tendency resulted in the moralizing rejection of political economy, and enshrinement of identity amongst radlibs, and leftoids. I see it all as the ultimate, conservative outcome of the cultural turn, writ large (largely enabled by social media).
Bruckner! Music nerds unite!
Anton Bruckner en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Bruckner
Actual material consequences of negative growth are kind of unthinkable. I can think "shrink/slow-down" but.. yeah.
Thank you for uploading and heading ("pinning" I think is the term?) your TH-cam channel with this educational discussion. The points made just after the point about negative growth are so important. We really are in a "sobering moment" and I tend to agree with you regarding the crises of profitability and that we are out of options, even War, to recoup/reset.
The right being in disarray is, in a phyrric sense, something to celebrate. Still dangerous tho.
thanks you two, great discussion. i wish you could break out, break down a bit more simple step style what are the appeals of MMT and its problems/limits (from a contemp marxist pov). just asking. cause it keeps coming up, and yet i keep feeling like it remains shrouded in a somewhat high flying ping pong talk, rather then digging into the central concepts, premises, some key developments and then also why and how it leaves a lot to be desired, how it has inherent impasses, etc. and why or not its simply pure idealism fantasy talk.
I should do something on it explicitly ;)
1:26:00 listening to this now, I think I ended up being right about being conservative wrt SVB not causing a cascade of banking failures.
Yes, you were. But why it didn't is interesting and its a policy choice that is being hidden.
The bit about “this is the most sex phobic time we can think of”, or however exactly y’all put it, is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, but I do have a question: when you say “sex phobic”, do you mean an aversion to sex generally (disinterest/fear of having it), or sex negativity (eg. highly judgmental/puritanical views on sex, lack of openness/understanding of the “messiness” of “sexuality”, etc), or all the above? When I heard that, my brain when to “all the above” (and then some), as what I’ve noticed is the lack of sex, or avoidance of it, but also a remarkable kind of sex negativity, *including amongst the left.*
I could probably write a short essay on this, bc the sex negativity is something that really bugs me, but also because I am currently a “volcel”, and have been for most of my 30s, and so I have a lot of personal experience with that aspect of it… Curious what your thoughts are, Varn, or Hammel, or anyone else who’s noticed this.
we mean all of the above but sex negativity doesn’t seem to be driving it
@@VarnVlog Thanks for that clarification! I didn’t think you meant the “sex negativity” is driving the other parts, I know where I am right now lol…
I definitely don’t think that either: obviously there’s complex material and cultural reasons, even if I don’t quite understand them, and don’t have confidence that my theories are anything more than complicated subjective projections.. It’s an interesting situation though.
I have a sense you would both see Fredric Jameson negatively in relation to your positive view of the radical demands of leftcoms. Is that sense right?
I am still unsure what is missing in the modern practice of polyamory.
Great fun. Let's do polyamory, hedonism and Marxism right.
Yeah ngl, i didn't understand a thing. But on a positive note, it motivated me to read more, because of how dumb i felt watching this.
Hope the Russian speaking Eastern Ukraine sees rebirth of socialism since NATO wants them destroyed and Russia may not hold on those territories