026: How to Erode Capitalism in the 21st Century

The Future Is A Mixtape

On this episode, Jesse and Matt dive into Erik Olin Wright’s posthumous work on imagining practical utopias, entitled How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century, which was published in the fall of 2019—just six months after the author’s untimely death from cancer. Our co-hosts will talk about Erik Olin Wright’s place in keeping the candle of socialism burning during its most bleak period: from Ronald Reagan’s Mourning in AmeriKKKa—at the onset of the 1980s—to the dawn of the new millennium, when the “Battle in Seattle” signified the reformation of the Left, creating the contours for the wild new imaginings of Occupy Wall Street and the liberation struggles of a new century. Matt & Jesse will also converse briefly about Wright’s highly collaborative Real Utopias Project (published by Verso Books) and his magnum opus, Envisioning Real Utopias (2010), the massive and daunting size of which moved the Marxist Sociologist to create a tighter, leaner version that would be of practical use to activists and organizers the world over. Questions to be formed and answered during the conversation: What are the merits of the author’s claims? What are the weaknesses of this very important book? And finally, what are the truly transcendent aspects of Wright’s ideas that deserve placement as key tracks for our mixtape of the future? As Antonio Gramsci famously said, dreamers and fighters for a better world must carry forth with a “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.” Less well known is Wright’s gentle retort that to survive the 21st century, we will also need “a bit more optimism of the intellect” too.

Comprehensive Show Notes Can Be Found at thefutureisamixtape.com

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