Bungacast Bungacast

On the disaster of the culture wars.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Regular contributor Catherine Liu is back on to talk about her essay in Damage, issue 2, "Professional Populists in the Culture Wars". We discuss:

What were the original 'culture wars' and how are they different to today?


Why are the "academic populists" more elitist than anyone?


Was there a need in the 1980s to "disrupt" the humanities?


Why does conservatism now need to wear "populist" clothes?


How should we defend the "canon"?


What is the "Catherine Liu Foundation for Attacking Badness"?

Links:

Professional Populists in the Culture Wars, Catherine Liu, Damage


/246/ Why Isn't There Revolution? ft. Vivek Chibber


/67/ Legacies of Postmodernism ft. Catherine Liu


Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature, Janice Radway 

On the late Dmitri Furman's account of post-Soviet Russia.
Patreon Exclusive: for the Reading Club, join for $12/mo and get access to ALL Bungacast content, incl. 4 exclusive, original episodes a month
We continue our discussions along this year's themes (rise and fall of nations; Russia past and present) by tackling Imitation Democracy: The Development of Russia's Post-Soviet Political System.

Why has there been a revival in interest in the late Soviet and early post-Soviet period? And in the global 1990s in general?


What does it really mean to be without-alternative?


Why didn't democracy take hold in Russia? And why did it become an "imitation democracy" and not something else?


How was Yeltsin a disaster? And what was Putin's appeal?


Does 'Putinism' actually exist? Is it interesting or novel in any way?


What happened after Furman's death and Russia's turn to "violent parody of the West"?

Readings:

Imitation Democracy: The Development of Russia's Post-Soviet Political System, Dmitri Furman, Verso


Imitation Democracies: The Post-Soviet Penumbra, Dmitri Furman, New Left Review (pdf)


Imitation Democracy: Perry Anderson writes about Dmitri Furman’s analysis of Russia’s post-communism, Perry Anderson, London Review of Books

Listening Links:

/114/ Reading Club: The Light That Failed - on the end of the "Age of Imitation"


/270/ Russia vs the West ft. Richard Sakwa - on the endgame to war in Ukraine; and /271/ Russia vs the West (2) ft. Richard Sakwa - on the post-Soviet landscape


/410/ Reading Club: Deutscher's Stalin - On Isaac Deutscher's classic Stalin: A Political Biography


/421/ Who Are the Wrong Ukrainians? ft. Volodymyr Ishchenko - on post-Soviet Ukraine, from Maidan to war

 
Music: Éva Csepregi, "O.K. Gorbacsov", Hungaroton , WEA, High Fashion Music, Dureco

On your questions & criticisms about fertility, culture war, and more.
[Patreon Exclusive]
In our monthly mailbag episode we take points from the discussion on patreon, including on futuristic music, holocaust movies, german populism, whether culture war can be global, and the link between modernisation, productivity and birth rates.
 
 

On France's surprise parliamentary election.
The left-wing 'New Popular Front' came a surprise first, for now putting a halt to expectations that the far-right Rassemblement National would soon enter government. We talk to political scientist and commentator Charles Devellennes, and ask:

What was Macron's gamble in calling this early election? 


Is becoming Prime Minister actually a bad thing for your future prospects?


Is the Left actually 'far left' and the Right 'far right'? Is Le Pen a fascist?


Did the Left actually save Macron? Why not an alliance between Left and Right against the centre?


Will France opt for the undemocratic 'Italian Solution' and appoint an unelected technocrat?


Can Macron's party and his style of rule survive Macron eventually being out of office?


Does the uncertainty mean France is back to the postwar 4th Republic? Is this continuity? Something new?

Links:
The Macron Régime: The Ideology of the New Right in France, Charles Devellennes

On Labour's landslide and sandcastle majority.
We unpick what happened in the UK's general election, discussing:

How did Labour get such a large majority with so little enthusiasm for them?


Is the UK now a multiparty democracy, and will there be demands for serious electoral reform?


What accounts for low turnout and the fragmentation of the vote (Reform, Greens, Independents, etc)?


What is Keir Starmer's electoral base and how will he govern? What is their electoral programme?


Is Nigel Farage's reform the real opposition now? 


Is the Brexit period now definitely over? Will there be a move to rejoin the EU?

Links:

The McSweeney Project, Tom McTague, UnHerd


Debasing Citizenship, Peter Ramsay, TNS


Data on the nationalist right + driving to work in the UK and French train stations

Ukraine, from Maidan to war.
[For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast]
Berlin-based Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko joins us to talk about his new book, Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War and his dissection of the war and the underlying political crisis in Ukraine. We discuss:

class conflict in Ukraine as a legacy of the collapse of the USSR and the stagnation of the Brezhnev regime in the 1970s. 


The role of the Ukrainian professional classes in the conflict and oversize influence of relatively small neo-Nazi and far-right movements 


The meaning of ‘Soviet Ukrainians’ today and whether a neo-Soviet revival is happening among youth across the post-Soviet landscape 


The difference between neo-Soviet revival and Eastern bloc ‘Ostalgie’


The concept of de-modernisation


The vicious post-Soviet cycle of passive revolutions and corrupt oligarchic regimes

Links: 

Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War, Volodymyr Ishchenko


The crisis of Soviet Ukraine, Volodymyr Ishchenko, UnHerd


The class conflict behind Russia’s war, Volodymyr Ishchenko, Lefteast


Russia’s War on Ukraine Has Already Changed the World, interview w/ Volodymyr Ishchenko, Jacobin


As Ukraine Expands Military Draft, Some Men Go Into Hiding, NYT