Former member of the Greek parliament and Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to explain how capitalism is dead and technofeudalism is here.
Chris and Yanis are among the most outstanding journalists I have followed for years. Their unwavering commitment to truth and journalistic excellence is truly remarkable. You both embody the true essence of a gentleman.
Thank you both so much. I've been struggling to follow the works of Mr. Varoufakis since he emerged on the world stage during the Greek crisis following the 2008 meltdown. Mr. Hedges, your mastering, or reading with laser-focused attention, the work being discussed, coupled with the skill you've developed over the many years of practicing journalism and the art of the interview, has enabled me to (to some extent) wrap my head around some of this stuff.
I have been waiting for a while now for these two guys to have a conversation together about anything at all. Haven't listened to it yet but it should be the perfect subject.
Well, it was as anticipated a great conversation. Mr. Hedges always asks the right questions, and Mr. Varoufakis has a great thesis here about Techno-feudalism. It makes a lot of sense.
Having read the excellent book, I still wanted to listen to this conversation because I understood most but not all of the book's technofeudal analysis. And with the rise of the billionaire (mostly Zionist) tech elite, compounded by the propensity of naive Americans to hero-worship them, I feel more like a serf in this society than I ever have. Having always felt enslaved by status quo thinking, I now have digital overseers to continually remind me of that fact. So many moments during my day when I want to take a hammer to them. One thing I refuse to do is use assistants like Siri or Alexa, which is to my mind an extra affirmation of my serfdom.
i'd been hoping for mr hedges to interview mr varoufakis for some time! dream come true!
i admire - and draw much courage from - your pertinent analyses of everything that needs fixing in our global northern world of unfathomable greed, disdain + indifference to their CON_sequences ...
Great report. the following formula is worth studying and mulling over:
"Chris Heges: ...How do we recapture our own autonomy and control over the economy?
Yanis Varoufakis
Through combining traditional collective action with cloud capital. We need to use the weapons, the tools of the enemy. We always did. The Marxist left was never about destroying the machines, it was always about taking over them..."
Of course included is the requisite doctrinaire leftist objection to what they all too easily dismiss as identity politics (or economics.) A tired theme made all the more aggravating when asserted by well-off white men who've never had to fight for recognition. Nor, for that matter, ever lifted a tool in their lives. I was a blue collar rank and file union activist for close to 30 years. I'm also BIPOC and LGBTQ. We're not ceding ourselves any more than Fanny Lou Hamer or Cesar Chavez did.
In a post-Einstein, post Heisenberg reality, the old Aristotelian either/or isn't enough. How about recognizing both/and?! Or many? A good example is the old style Populists and their farmer-labor coalition. Neither side was expected to give up what they were in the name of some higher authority. Nor expected to defer to their learned betters.
Notice also what's not included. What does freedom, or the form favored by right wingers, liberty, really mean? Not being oppressed, sure...but that's vague. Reality is with economics considered as the rational center of human life, you have all the freedom you can afford.
Again the error of the left hemisphere of the human brain, dominant since the Enlightenment. Whether left or right politically, it wants linearity, quantifiable bits, abstractions, certainty, and control. In contrast, the right hemisphere, which is about gestalt, flow, uniqueness, context, and possibility. It also processes through symbols and metaphors--and what is most important, seeks after meaning.
To put it somewhat in econ terms, here's part of the intro to economist Herman Daly's 1992 book Beyond Growth. Thinking like this got his economist's epaulets revoked. "All traditional religions are enemies of that same modern idolatry--that accidental man, through economic growth based on science and technology, is the true creator, and that the natural world is just a pile of instrumental, accidental stuff to be used up in the arbitrary projects of one purposeless species. If we cannot assert a more coherent cosmology than that, we might as well close the store and go fishing--at least while the fish last."
great and very helpful discussion. I don't find his book on Techno-Feudalism the easiest of reads but Chris's intensive read of the book and subsequent questions really helped
Chris and Yanis are among the most outstanding journalists I have followed for years. Their unwavering commitment to truth and journalistic excellence is truly remarkable. You both embody the true essence of a gentleman.
Thank you both so much. I've been struggling to follow the works of Mr. Varoufakis since he emerged on the world stage during the Greek crisis following the 2008 meltdown. Mr. Hedges, your mastering, or reading with laser-focused attention, the work being discussed, coupled with the skill you've developed over the many years of practicing journalism and the art of the interview, has enabled me to (to some extent) wrap my head around some of this stuff.
Cheers
I have been waiting for a while now for these two guys to have a conversation together about anything at all. Haven't listened to it yet but it should be the perfect subject.
Well, it was as anticipated a great conversation. Mr. Hedges always asks the right questions, and Mr. Varoufakis has a great thesis here about Techno-feudalism. It makes a lot of sense.
Having read the excellent book, I still wanted to listen to this conversation because I understood most but not all of the book's technofeudal analysis. And with the rise of the billionaire (mostly Zionist) tech elite, compounded by the propensity of naive Americans to hero-worship them, I feel more like a serf in this society than I ever have. Having always felt enslaved by status quo thinking, I now have digital overseers to continually remind me of that fact. So many moments during my day when I want to take a hammer to them. One thing I refuse to do is use assistants like Siri or Alexa, which is to my mind an extra affirmation of my serfdom.
thank you both!
i'd been hoping for mr hedges to interview mr varoufakis for some time! dream come true!
i admire - and draw much courage from - your pertinent analyses of everything that needs fixing in our global northern world of unfathomable greed, disdain + indifference to their CON_sequences ...
Great report. the following formula is worth studying and mulling over:
"Chris Heges: ...How do we recapture our own autonomy and control over the economy?
Yanis Varoufakis
Through combining traditional collective action with cloud capital. We need to use the weapons, the tools of the enemy. We always did. The Marxist left was never about destroying the machines, it was always about taking over them..."
Of course included is the requisite doctrinaire leftist objection to what they all too easily dismiss as identity politics (or economics.) A tired theme made all the more aggravating when asserted by well-off white men who've never had to fight for recognition. Nor, for that matter, ever lifted a tool in their lives. I was a blue collar rank and file union activist for close to 30 years. I'm also BIPOC and LGBTQ. We're not ceding ourselves any more than Fanny Lou Hamer or Cesar Chavez did.
In a post-Einstein, post Heisenberg reality, the old Aristotelian either/or isn't enough. How about recognizing both/and?! Or many? A good example is the old style Populists and their farmer-labor coalition. Neither side was expected to give up what they were in the name of some higher authority. Nor expected to defer to their learned betters.
Notice also what's not included. What does freedom, or the form favored by right wingers, liberty, really mean? Not being oppressed, sure...but that's vague. Reality is with economics considered as the rational center of human life, you have all the freedom you can afford.
Again the error of the left hemisphere of the human brain, dominant since the Enlightenment. Whether left or right politically, it wants linearity, quantifiable bits, abstractions, certainty, and control. In contrast, the right hemisphere, which is about gestalt, flow, uniqueness, context, and possibility. It also processes through symbols and metaphors--and what is most important, seeks after meaning.
To put it somewhat in econ terms, here's part of the intro to economist Herman Daly's 1992 book Beyond Growth. Thinking like this got his economist's epaulets revoked. "All traditional religions are enemies of that same modern idolatry--that accidental man, through economic growth based on science and technology, is the true creator, and that the natural world is just a pile of instrumental, accidental stuff to be used up in the arbitrary projects of one purposeless species. If we cannot assert a more coherent cosmology than that, we might as well close the store and go fishing--at least while the fish last."
Mind blown. Railing against the excesses of capitalism while capitalism ceases to exist.
Thank you! I have been following him for a while. Fantastic to see/hear you together in conversation.
omg.
.
THANK YOU, Gentlemen
for an horrific analysis of
Capitalism, Stage GONE
.
"... and what kind of conversations were you having
where you mentioned particular products or
companies that you may have bought
shares in, in the morning when
you went to work... "
.
every statement
a Commodity
for sales Or
blackmails
.
& we
bought
into this
Willingly tho
(mostly) blindly.
great and very helpful discussion. I don't find his book on Techno-Feudalism the easiest of reads but Chris's intensive read of the book and subsequent questions really helped
deserves to be read again & again, maybe we can be salvaged. There's still hope; find a passion besides money. DO GOOD!
Brilliantly insightful 👏