Four Essays on the Revolutionary Subject

I’ve got a new pamphlet coming out with Everyday Analysis called Four Essays on the Revolutionary Subject. It’s available for pre-order for £6 (roughly $7), and will ship internationally. If you order it, you get both an ebook and a print copy. The essays are meditations on this impasse we are in, where there is widespread, deep dissatisfaction with liberal democratic political institutions but an absence of inspiring alternatives. This produces many people who criticize our politics and desire change, but few who are genuinely revolutionary. There is fierce criticism, but a lack of meaningful political action, and this leaves us in a poor position to make effective political demands. I explore implications for institutions, like the universities and the army. I also think about citizenship. As our citizens become less able to meaningfully act, it becomes easier to blame them for the state of the country. They cannot deliver change, much less defend themselves against these charges. The pamphlet is available here:

https://everyday-analysis.sellfy.store/p/four-essays/

I’ve done a number of podcasts in connection with the release of my first book, The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy: The Way is Shut. I don’t generally bother my blog followers about podcasts, because readers and listeners are only sometimes the same people. But, seeing as I’m announcing new written work, I include a list of recent appearances below. Most of these episodes will be available wherever you listen to podcasts (iTunes, Spotify, Player FM, etc.):

Bungacast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeMzEp7BPBE

Diet Soap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OobuZB1BLX4

New Books Network: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI6WcaG0nIE

Platypus Says: https://soundcloud.com/platypus-affiliated-society/ep61

The Lack: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-way-is-shut/id1561070699?i=1000615902614

Current Affairs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlSLUsrzJM8

Bad Faith: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-348-whos-98753296?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_fan&utm_content=join_link

ArtiFact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OobuZB1BLX4

Philosophy of Art and Science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ8R6_buY2o

Cyber Dandy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4STm87X4KM

Reviving Virtue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2L2g5olcZ0

Dain Fitzgerald: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDAk1266b0A & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MD06A4_Gj4

Varn Vlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIj7urKRKSM

Theory Underground: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj5AlkVMyug

We Don’t Need to Increase Military Spending By $54 Billion

It’s been announced that President Trump will seek to increase military spending by $54 billion, taking this money out of the budgets of other federal departments (the specific programs these departments would cut has not yet been decided). This is a significant amount of money–it’s enough to build the Trump wall twice over, and it’s nearly three times the size of the NASA budget. It’s nearly enough to pay for tuition-free college, which costs $70 billion. The cuts are still in the proposal stage–congress must pass a budget which incorporates these changes before they would become law. Nevertheless, it’s worth taking a moment to emphasize just how unnecessary and wasteful this is.

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How to Think About the Michael Flynn Scandal

A few people have asked my opinion on the Michael Flynn scandal. As I understand it, anonymous sources from within the intelligence community have leaked to the press that Flynn, President Trump’s National Security Adviser, was in contact with the Russian government prior to Trump’s inauguration and lied about his connections. Further leaks claim that Trump knew about this, and that other members of his team were also in contact with Russia. Flynn has resigned. If there was contact, this contact would be illegal under the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from conducting US foreign policy. Violators of the Logan Act can go to prison for three years. Many Democrats want to use the Logan Act to go after the Trump administration, while the Trump administration prefers to emphasize the illegality of the leaks:

The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by "intelligence" like candy. Very un-American!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2017

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The Left Cannot Defeat the Right Through Violence and Suppression

In radical left wing circles, there’s this notion going around that the right can be intimidated into going away, through no-platforming and physical violence. “Bash the fash,” they say. “Make racists afraid again.” “Any time, any place, punch a Nazi in the face.” In the past I’ve argued that this kind of censorship turns right nationalists into martyrs and generates public sympathy for them. But today I want to make another, related point–the left is structurally physically weaker than the right and cannot prevail by force.

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Obama’s Legacy: The Evidence Beyond the Punditry

As President Obama’s term draws to a close, every political writer under the sun is offering a hot take on how he’ll be remembered. These can be fun to read, but they don’t tell you very much about what really happened while Barack Obama was president. So today I’d like to look at some of the evidence and data we have on this president. Let’s see how he stacks up next to past presidents and America’s friends and rivals.

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