Works in Theory Theory Reader

Today’s episode is sort of different - instead of discussing a book, we look back on the past year of our show and discuss what we liked and where we’re headed. We’re going to take a short break to regroup and get ready for season two, but we’ll be back in 2022!
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“The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make and could just as easily make differently.” - David Graeber, The Utopia of Rules
Dedicated to the memory of David Graeber. Rest in power. 
Today's episode is a collaboration between Works in Theory and Coffee with Comrades to discuss David Graeber's What’s the Point If We Can’t Have Fun? (2014)
Thank you to Coffee with Comrades for having us on your show!
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Works in Theory & Coffee with Comrades are both proud members of the Channel Zero Network.

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Today's episode is a collaboration between Works in Theory and Left Shelf to discuss E. Lily Yu's The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees, a short fiction piece from 2011.
Thank you to Left Shelf for having us on their show!
You can also hear an audio version of the story here. (It’s really good!)
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Produced, edited, and transcribed by Allyson https://www.forestfreeter.com
Theme song by http://woulg.com/

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Ep 9 - Theory Bites 2: Youth Liberation & The First Prison
We’ve got another short Theory Bites! First we discuss Youth Liberation - (I)An-ok Ta Chai, 2004, and then First Prison - William Gillis, 2018
 
Case Closed / Detective Conan (video)
Flanders’ Parents (video)
Dead Poets Society Dad (video - was that last episode?)
Rutger Bregman Real Life Lord of the Flies (article)
Angelica’s Last Stand (paywalled video)
When schools become The Lord of the Rings (tweet)
 
https://www.worksintheorypodcast.com
 
Twitter: @workstheorypod
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Produced, edited, and transcribed by Allyson https://www.forestfreeter.com
Theme song by http://woulg.com/
Transcript:
Works in Theory
Theory Bites: Youth Liberation and The First Prison
Elysha: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to another Works In Theory - Theory Bites. I am Elysha here from Works In Theory Podcast, and I am here with Tom-
Tom: Tom!
Elysha: And Nate. 
Nate: I'm Nate. 
Elysha: Yes. I don't know why we wanted folks to say their own names, but I did. And they did it. And I love that. So thank you. 
Nate: Yeah.
Elysha: We're going to try and smush two articles together today for this one bite. So this is big bite or two small bites. Both of these articles came from the anarchist library dot org. Which is sort of a loosely moderated library, archive of different anarchist texts. And I wanted to mention that because they're a great resource. If you're interested in browsing around for yourself,
Tom: But you shouldn't have to, our podcast is all you need. So don't worry too much [00:01:00] about that.
Elysha: Yeah, but just, just so that, you know, the tool is out there, you don't need it. You don't need you. Didn't, it's fine. But like it's, anarchist library dot org, and I just really wanted to mention it for these two texts because, the authors of these, you may not have heard of in the same way that you've heard of Emma Goldman.
So we've got two pieces here. I'm really not sure what order we're going to do them in, but we've got one by William Gillis, which is called The First Prison and one by (I)An-ok Ta Chai, which is called Youth Liberation. 
Nate: So I say, let's start with the youth liberation piece. Both because it's written earlier it's from 2004 versus the other one is from 2018. And because it's a little shorter.
Tom: Yeah. So the the premise of this one, the kind of question that I think I took out of it was we treat adults as infallible and self-sufficient children are incapable. But like, is that true? And are we just conditioning children for subservience to the state capitalism, other forms of control? Or [00:02:00] should we treat them with mutual respect and treat it like any other issue, any other anarchist position?
And it's similar to the Goldman piece, but I think it's it's got some distinctions. For one thing, I think it's a little more extreme.
Nate: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. In fact, you keep saying children, but the author actually would prefer that we say kids.
Tom: Oh, you're right!
Nate: Yeah, they bring up the fact that children sort of has like a connotation of like "childish", of like, "less developed" you know, just like built right into it. And even though the piece is called Youth Liberation, they said youth tends to refer to teenagers, which is, you know, generally correct.
And so what they're talking about as a, gerontocracy like just an overall system of like hierarchy in which adults have domination over kids. 
Elysha: The piece kind of opens up, asking the question of: how are people in society treated? And you can tell a lot about society based on how they treat their children and they're elderly. And I feel like we're kind of at like, [00:03:00] an era of reckoning with that, at least around here, we had so much trouble with like care homes for elderly people through the pandemic and schools brought up their absolute array of challenges as well.
And you know, not all of those are specifically rooted in like how

We're trying something new this month! Today's episode is about youth liberation, and Elysha, Nate, and Tom discuss Emma Goldman's The Child and Its Enemies.
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Produced & edited by Allyson https://www.forestfreeter.com
Theme song by http://woulg.com/
Transcript:
Works in Theory - Theory Bites - The Child And Its Enemies
[00:00:00] ELYSHA: Hello, and welcome back to Works In Theory Podcast, we've got a new section that we're trying out on the show this week. We're calling  Theory Bites because it bites, but they're also small. We're going to be doing shorter essays and articles rather than entire books to try and give you a little bit more variety and us a little bit more variety in the show that we're putting on.
So, we're hoping that these theory bites can be enjoyed on their own or as part of a well-rounded meal with some of the longer Works In Theory episodes. As usual, I'm Elysha and I'm here with Nate and with Tom.
TOM: Hello!
ELYSHA: And today our first Theory Bite is on an essay by Emma Goldman called The Child And Its Enemies.
TOM: Yeah, this is written in 1906. And I thought it was really good. It had a lot of really just well-written like the language that Goldman uses. You can tell that Goldman writes, [00:01:00] right? It's not It's not a strictly, in service of getting a point across, but it's done really well.
NATE: Yeah, definitely. I don't know if it's just people wrote better back in like the 19th century or something, or if she's in particular a good writer, but yeah, it was really a joy to read. It makes me look forward to reading more Emma Goldman stuff. 
ELYSHA: I think there are plenty of writers who wouldn't be looked at with such praise by at least me from the early 1900s. So I think Emma Goldman is a great writer.  
NATE: So the piece again is called The Child And Its Enemies. This is going to be the first of a couple of pieces we're going to read on the general topic of youth liberation and very early on, she's got a quote that sort of like sums up her thesis in this she says: 
"Is the child to be considered as an individuality or as an object to be molded, according to the whims and fancies of those around This seems to me to be the most important question to be answered by parents and educators."
And so that's sort of, where she's going to be going with [00:02:00] this. The idea is she's obviously going to come down on the side that like children are human beings. They have, you know, their own intrinsic drives. They have their own personhood and autonomy and a lot of the institutions of our society, especially the school try to. Turn the child into an object don't they don't treat the child as a person, but as a commodity or again, an object. 
ELYSHA: And not just any object, but one who needs to fit within the restraints and respectability of that social era and society.
NATE: That's right. She says, 
"Every institution of our day, the family, the state, or moral codes sees in every strong, beautiful, uncompromising personality, a deadly enemy."
ELYSHA: Yeah, that's a powerful line for sure.  Bringing back the idea that education isn't benign. It's not just about teaching basic skills like reading or math or whatever else you [00:03:00] learn in school. It's a very critical piece of our like formation as young people  and our experiences in school. The way that these skills are presented, the way that like our aptitudes or whatever are measured or like the way that we're treated in school makes a big difference. Probably in how the rest of our life goes.
TOM: Yeah, there's a lot of you know, talk from people about children and their future. And like, this is when people are molded and when they're most like when people get their most I guess are instilled with ideas. Right? But we don't really talk about that we structure things in a way that  really put

Elysha, Nate and Tom discuss:
The Origin and Ideals of the Modern School: Chapter IX (Francisco Ferrer, 1913)
Francisco Ferrer and the Modern School (Emma Goldman, 1917)
Experience & Education (John Dewey, 1938)
Produced & edited by Allyson https://www.forestfreeter.com
Theme song by http://woulg.com/
Twitter: @workstheorypod
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Website: https://www.worksintheorypodcast.com

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