This week, I interview Prester Jane (@JanePrester on Twitter) to discuss her Narrativist Framework, which can be used to analyze the weaponized storytelling behind the Trump movement and many other forms of radicalization. From January 6th to Republican Narrativism since 1964, from conspiracy theories to Occupy Wall Street, we cover a range of topics relevant to our current political moment and open up into a consideration of what we need to do going forward. You can read more about Jane's analysis at PrestersPerspective.blogspot.com and on the breadnroses.net forum

Speaking Broadly

Prester Jane and the Narrativist Framework

On this week's show I discuss the "Stimulus check" policy which was enacted earlier this year. Senators Hawley and Sanders are trying to push through another round, but it looks bad. I discuss ideological, political, and economic implications of the policy and talk about the way I see forward, leaning into what I call the "personal service industry." Join me as I take on one of the most pressing issues of the day and open up into wider social and political analysis.

COVID-19 "Stimulus" Checks and Fear of the Future - Online Edit

On this show I debut The Alliance, my new utopian council where we are scheming world peace. Check out our Discord server at https://discord.gg/wSHRMqzQEx. I also talk about salient points Baudrillard brings into play, and context for the "postmodern" buzzword.

The Alliance, Baudrillard, and Postmodernism

This week I tackle the thorny problem of the left/right divide. I dive into political history from the Magna Carta and French Revolution to the World Wars and the subsequent total war which has made the left/right distinction obsolete. Even though these are concepts whose time was really the 19th century, we are still bogged down in left, right, socialist, capitalist; in reality, the coordinates of political struggle are quite different. Dive in as I begin an analysis on the Left/Right distinction, where it came from, and what we need to do to get around it.

Beyond Left and Right

On this show, I delve into the problem of narcissism, narrativism, and the messiah complex to show that our self-centeredness is part of the solution as well as part of the problem. In our hyper-individuated world, it's harder and harder to communicate with others, whether they're in other countries, other groups, or just other minds. The drive toward finding ourselves at the center of our own universes is part of a larger trend in cosmological revolutions. To successfully navigate these waters, we must allow ourselves our own terms, but also accept that other people live on theirs. The two practices which can help us make the most of this generalized messianism are initiation and hospitality.

Everyone is "The One:" Narcissism, Messiah Complex, Hospitality

I discuss the psychological phenomenon of projection, when we see things outside us that are really happening within. It opens up traumatic self-questioning, to which I compare the Lovecraftian figure of the Eldritch abomination. Both these themes figure in my discussion of Donald Trump as eldritch horror, forcing us to confront the changing and weirding times in which we live. All this opens us up to cosmological projection in the theory of the holographic universe, and the Hindu concepts of Lila and Maya. In these ways of thinking, the whole universe is a projection. "You're projecting" is never quite so simple...

Projections, Big and Small

On this week's program, I continue to engage with the ongoing conversations of Jordan Hall, John Vervaeke, and Gregg Henriques concerning cognitive science. This time, they emphasize the pernicious effects of equivocation in preventing clear discourse. I bring in an example from a recent Chomsky interview, where he clarifies that all political systems are forms of state capitalism. This helps us see that debates about socialism, capitalism, communism, and fascism are irrelevant, since they correspond to 19th/20th century situations we are now past. Finally, I reference the movie Arrival, and Jordan Hall again, to broach the topic of the Non-Zero-Sum, or Anti-Rivalrous, to get into the problem of turning our power tools of computational propaganda toward finding greater harmonies and space for development on our own terms, as opposed to the increasing paranoia we see now, which can only lead to terrorism.

State Capitalism and Poetic Singularity

On this show, I outline how much of today's politics can be sketched by the phrase "the personal is political," combined with Foucault's reversal of Clausewitz: "politics is the continuation of war by other means." What we have now is a renewed war of all against all, pursued through the transpolitics of identity. To flesh out this analysis, we delve into Transpersonal Psychology as an exploration of psychology beyond the individual, and Baudrillard's transpolitics as conflict beyond the social. In this spiritual emergency, the question is, what is emerging?

The Transpersonal Is Transpolitical

As anticipated, 2020 has turned out to be a year of radical upheaval. From the Covid-19 epidemic to economic tumult to the resurgence of #BlackLivesMatter and the controversy surrounding JK Rowling's posts about transgender people, nothing is being left unchanged. I delve into the murky waters brought to light by these rapid social upheavals, and cast what we've seen in 2020 so far as "the tip of the spear" when it comes to grappling with deep-seated veins of dehumanization in our society. I'm back to recording shows, and will supply some extra ones to help make up for the time I've missed (and evade the constraints of radio airwaves!).

#SocialRevolution2020: Status Report

I discuss COVID-19 in response to Hall's discussion of systems collapse and Zizek's recent articles on the virus as an opportunity for capitalism. I start to put these in context of Debord and Baudirllard's discussion of the fusion of state and corporations in the early 20th century post 1929, framing their analysis as arguing we are already Post-Capitalism. I frame this as COVID-19 shocking us into realizing that the public/private distinction has been overcome.

COVID-19: Commentary Inspired by Jordan Hall, Zizek, Debord, and Baudrillard

Part 2 of my interview with Dr. John Vervaeke. We discuss Romantic Poetry and elite psychology, articulating the problematics that accompany the Meaning Crisis in its political dimensions. In sum, we address issues related to the parts we must all play in generating the cognitive-affective conditions for a reciprocal opening and enriching among people and (psycho-)technology. Don't just solve problems: encounter the mystery.

Vervaeke 2: Elite Meaning-Making

In the second part of our interview, Dr. Vervaeke and I delve deeper into the societal function of "the elite," and the cognitive-affective economic reasons why a new golden age is easily within reach, even if the Meaning Crisis still leaves it out of our (optimal) grasp

Part 2: Cognitive-Affective Science and Social Change

Part 1 of my conversation with Dr. John Vervaeke of the University of Toronto. We discuss what Dr. Vervaeke calls the "meaning crisis," manifested in widespread despair and the sense of being stuck, and how Percy Shelley and Jean Baudrillard might harmonize with the content laid out in his "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis" series.

Cognitive(-Affective) Science and Social Change Part 1

On this episode I give a rundown of my recent activities and lay down a concept I coined in my recent essay "The Metonymy Economy" (up at www.SpeakingBroadlyShow.com) called cognitive-affective protectionism. From putting on headphones to entering a safe space, protecting ourselves from overstimulation is perhaps the defining challenge of our times.

Cognitive-Affective Protectionism

Shattered Glory (Instrumental) by Adam Wadley

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