Episode 19: Gramsci, the Political Party, and the Relevance of Machiavelli in the Modern Day

Theory is BACK! In this one, Alex leads Mark on a journey through the philosophy and practice of Anarcho-Syndicalism as told by Rudolf Rocker.

Mark and Alex investigate the first in a (non-continuous) series of socialist leaders from the 20th century and beyond. This week, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso!

Mark and Alex celebrate a year of theory by returning to the bearded chad that started it all. In this second installment of the Kropotkin Saga, the boys discuss the various ways in which mutual aid, rather than competition, has defined our social lives throughout history. Follow us on Twitter: @wereadtheorypod Subscribe to our Subreddit: r/wereadtheorypod Sources used in this episode: "Mutual Aid: a Factor of Evolution: by Petr Kropotkin

This time the boys don't just read theory, they roast it. Mark and Alex explore the need for material analysis, what it means for an ideology to be incoherent, and why many definitions of freedom are misleading. And what better ideology to examine for this purpose than Libertarianism?

Mark and Alex run through Errico Malatesta's cafe dialogues, in which based and breadpilled anarchism enjoyer crushes small-brained conservatives in the arena of ideas Follow us on Twitter: @wereadtheorypod Subscribe to our subreddit: r/wereadtheorypod Sources used in this episode: "At the Cafe" by Errico Malatesta https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/errico-malatesta-at-the-cafe

Mark and Alex embark on the perilous journey of attempting to talk about economics without boring everyone to death. In particular, the boys investigate Modern Monetary Theory, a radical and relatively new perspective on money and the state. Follow us on Twitter: @wereadtheorypod Subscribe to our subreddit: r/wereadtheorypod Sources used in this episode From the State Theory of Money to Modern Money Theory: An Alternative to Economic Orthodoxy, By L. Randall Wray http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_792.pdf Understanding the Economic Fallacies of the Intergenerational Debate, by Bill Mitchel and Warren Mosler http://billmitchell.org/publications/journals/J51_2006.pdf My Response to a German Critic, by Bill Mitchel Part 1: http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=38964 Part 2: http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=38992 Part 3: http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=39022 A Skeptic’s Guide to Modern Monetary Theory, By N. Gregory Mankiw https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mankiw/files/skeptics_guide_to_modern_monetary_theory.pdf

Mark and Alex take a look at Michael Parenti's "Blackshirts and Reds" Follow us on Twitter : @wereadtheorypod Reach out to us on Reddit: r/wereadtheorypod Sources Referenced in this episode: "Blackshirts and Reds" by Michael Parenti "How Journalists Covered the Rise of Mussolini and Hitler" by John Broich https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-journalists-covered-rise-mussolini-hitler-180961407/ "Confidence in Democracy and Capitalism Wanes in Former Soviet Union" from Pew Research https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2011/12/05/confidence-in-democracy-and-capitalism-wanes-in-former-soviet-union/

Mark and Alex cover Antonio Gramsci's advice for political parties and defend the legacy of Machiavelli Follow us on Twitter: @wereadtheorypod Come chat with us at r/wereadtheorypod Works referenced in this episode: All by Antonio Gramsci "Brief Notes on Machiavelli’s Politics" "Machiavelli and Marx" "Politics as an Autonomous Science" "Elements of Politics" "The Political Party" "Conceptions of the World and Practical Stances: Global and Partial" "Some Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Economism" "Prediction and Perspective" "Analysis of Situations: Relations of Force" "On Bureaucracy" "The Theorem of Fixed Proportions" "Number and Quality in Representative Systems of Government" "Continuity and Tradition" "Spontaneity and Conscious Leadership" "Against Byzantinism" "The Collective Worker" "Voluntarism and Social Masses"

Mark and Alex take a look at some of the ways in which our mainstream understanding of mental health fails to combat the legacy of colonialism and its effects on the mental health of Indigenous communities Follow us on Twitter: @wereadtheorypod Talk with us about the Episode at r/wereadtheorypod Sources discussed in this episode: "Patients' Diversity is Often Discounted" by Shankar Vedantam "The Wretched of the Earth" by Frantz Fanon "Challenging Hidden Assumptions: Colonial Norms as Determinants of Aboriginal Mental Health" by Sarah Nelson "Piblokto and European-Inuit Relations" by Lyle Dick

Mark and Alex follow Fanon through a decolonial dialectic Follow us on Twitter: @wereadtheorypod