Recommendations – Matei Norbert Balan

In 1964 Bob Dylan released the now iconic album The Times They Are A-Changin’. Critics called the title track “the archetypal protest song” and commented that it transcends the political climate of the time in which Dylan wrote it. During the 60s, the Civil Rights Movement was at its peak. A few weeks after Dylan recorded the song, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The times were indeed a-changing, perhaps just as much as they are now. In the midst of the current Covid-19 pandemic, following Dylan’s lyrics, “Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen / And keep your eyes wide, the chance won’t come again (…)”, let’s take a look at what we can watch, read, and listen to right now to keep up with the fast-changing pace of the current times.

Copyright: Victor van Werkhooven / CC BY. Photo: Wikimedia Commons [photo cropped]

The neoliberal era is ending. What comes next?

Bregman takes a step back with this piece and takes a look at the bigger picture of the current events. In this picture, he sees not only the biggest crisis humanity has seen since the Second World War, but fertile ground for reform and new ideas. Usually, these words, ‘reform’ and ‘ideas’, are thrown around by politicians who don’t have much of a plan for the present, or for the future, but not here. For instance, basic income and wealth taxes are discussed here within a historical context that goes back almost 70 years. If we are to live in a better world after all of this, we must understand what we’re talking about when we’re talking about reforms and major cultural and economical changes.

The Plot Against America (the TV-series + the accompanying podcast)

Are you sick of fascists? Don’t be. In Hungary, Viktor Orbán has taken advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to allow himself to rule by decree, setting a dangerous precedent for the EU. In India, Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government has labeled its Muslim compatriots as internal enemies. So don’t be sick of the fascists, because the fascists are not going anywhere. The TV-series The Plot Against America, an adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel with the same name, puts a fictional-historical spin to our current fascism related problems. Set in an alternative timeline, where a populist and a ‘friend’ of Hitler’s wins the US presidential election of 1940, the series shows what ‘the good guy’ of the second world war could have looked and acted like. And, while you’re here, the accompanying podcast, hosted by the series’ creator, David Simon, is a must to listen to.

Portrait of Agamben on wall. Copyright: Thierry Ehrmann / CC BY 2.0. Photo: Flickr [photo cropped]

Giorgio Agamben’s “Medicine as Religion”

In this piece, written by Giorgio Agamben for Quodlibet and translated by Adam Kotsko, we have something that all societies in turmoil must have: a text that can be read by all the sides of the political spectrum and understood, and appropriated in just as many ways. Agamben considers the part of medicine that we have come to treat as a form of religion (just like Christianity and Capitalism) and pinpoints a few of its key characteristics. Some will read between the lines and see harsh criticism aimed towards those who would argue anything in the name of medicine and science, no matter how little they understand of the subject. Others will see a confirmation of their worst fears.

Copyright: The New York Times / Photo: The New York Times

The NYT “Rabbit Hole” podcast

In this ongoing podcast, the Times tech columnist Kevin Roose takes a closer look at what happens to those whose lives move almost entirely from offline to online. The main platform on which Roose is focusing is YouTube, and he manages to gather some of the most relevant and controversial stories surrounding it.

So far you can listen to interviews with Caleb, a young man who has experienced alt-right radicalization through the video streaming platform; Susan Wojcicki, the chief executive of YouTube; and PewDiePie, the Swedish gamer who became the alt-right’s “accidental emperor”, at least for a while.

Copyright: Yale University Press & Tarleton Gillespie / Photo: Amazon

Custodians of the Internet – Tarleton Gillespie

The beloved American writer Kurt Vonnegut once wrote that “another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance”. In this case, we could talk about the dream of building an internet that is both free for all (and everything) and safe for all (and everything), but without having to do too much legwork to achieve this. In this book, Gillespie analyzes some of the most important facets of the online platforms we use daily: content moderation and the intricate and complex decisions that shape our activity online. It’s a crucial read for anyone who wants to understand why the internet they’re experiencing is the way it is (and also why it could be so much better).

What are you reading, watching and listening to these days?

NY UKE, NY BINGE - #22