6/8 Gangster Capitalism Discussion Group 8:30 am PST

and a welcome to new subscribers!

I’m back from Wales and How the Light Gets in Festival. It was a good time. I’m jet lagged. I got the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute to say, “If that’s Leftism, then I’m a Leftist” during our debate about the crisis in the academy and after I had tried to define what was Leftism and how it was different from liberalism. I raised my arms in triumph and said, “I think I won.” The Brits really like debate and they don’t mind a rhetorical flourish. We Americans might have been horrified at my lack of humility.

For new subscribers, the paid level allows you to participate in monthly discussion groups. I’m working through a series of films and texts about Gangster Capitalism, which defines our era of politics. Trump’s self dealing, private equity’s pillaging of companies for assets, tech’s primitive accumulation of our inner lives, etc. characterize a cartelization of economy that I can we should emphasize when talking about the contemporary moment.

Here is a link to Michael Woodiwiss American Power and Organized Crime.

And his Gangster Capitalism

We also read Roberto Saviano’s Gomorrah and I highly recommend the TV series, Gomorrah as a reference point.

The great Robert Warshow’s “The Gangster as Tragic Hero” from The Immediate Experience has really influenced my thinking about these issues.

The meetings go for about 90 minutes. You certainly do not have to have done the readings. Zoom invite below the paywall.

When I have a minute, I will put up the entire syllabus of the class I taught a few years ago. It will take a minute to extract from Canvas!