Why Work Doesn’t Work
The idea that we work because we want to, not because we need to, is a pernicious one that labor journalist Sarah Jaffe dissects in Work Won’t Love You Back.
Economics
Culture/Economics/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Love in the Time of Coronavirus/SAVE/ IGNORE: popular
COVID-19 and Our Purgatory of Consumerism
Our pandemic quarantine has become the sublime enactment of Baudrillard's theory of consumption – that modern consumption, with its myth of individual liberty and choice, is in fact 'de-socialising'.
Balanced on the Thin Edge of Democracy, Can We See the Tipping Point?
The Trump-bolstered radical right are akin to fourth-century Christian fanatics who -- in the space of a single generation -- transformed the Roman empire from a state of broadly tolerant religious plurality to one of violence and societal destruction.
Automation and the Future of Work (excerpt)
In Automation and the Future of Work, Aaron Benanav uncovers the structural economic trends that will shape our working lives far into the future. In this excerpt, courtesy of Verso Books, he considers what's on our minds these days, "What if everyone suddenly had access to enough healthcare, education, and welfare to reach their full potential?"
Plattetopia: The Prefabrication of Utopia in East Berlin
With the fall of the Berlin Wall came the licence to take a wrecking ball to its nightmare of repression. But there began the unwritten violence of Die Wende, the peaceful revolution that hides the Oedipal violence of one order killing another.
Democratizing Our Data: A Manifesto (excerpt)
Just as big tech leads world in data for profit, the US government can produce data for the public good, sans the bureaucracy. This excerpt of Julia Lane's Democratizing Our Data: A Manifesto will whet your appetite for disruptive change in data management, which is critical for democracy's survival.
Breaching Closure in Pasolini’s ‘Teorema’
Pier Paolo Pasolini's classic drama, Teorema, grapples with the parable -- the manner of knowing that which always remains just beyond our grasp.
Seeds of Colonial Capitalism in Kelly Reichardt’s ‘First Cow’
In her excellent film, First Cow, Kelly Reichardt explores the effects of colonial land theft and capitalism through the medium of food.
Books/Culture/Economics/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Internet/Love in the Time of Coronavirus/Media/Politics/SAVE/ IGNORE: popular/Science
Life Isn’t Binary and Neither Is the Coronavirus Pandemic
Non-binary thinking offers new routes for adapting to life with COVID-19.
Pandemic from the Janitor’s Point of View
Timothy Sheard's murder mystery One Foot in the Grave explores pandemic in a hospital from the point of view of the lowliest, aka "essential", staff.
‘Capital in the 21st Century’: Pie for the Rich, Crumbs for the People
Justin Pemberton's film version of Thomas Piketty's landmark book on the dangers of today's yawning income inequality, Capital in the 21st Century, is more TED Talk than documentary, but it's a handy summary nonetheless.
Is ‘The Alienist’ a Critique of Capitalism or a Pro-Neoliberal Narrative?
Author Caleb Carr's The Alienist explores the 19th century psychiatric debate between free will and determinism. TNT's nearly identical adaptation of the novel, however, comes up with a completely different conclusion.
