Wet Tyrant Contest feat. Patrick Wyman
It's the free one!
For this week’s free one, we’re joined by Patrick Wyman (@Patrick_Wyman) of the Tides of History and Pursuit of Dadliness podcasts to discuss the strange nature of Britain’s elites, how they vary from those of the United States (and of the Venetian Republic, for that matter), and why America is in many ways governed by big guys in polo shirts who own car dealerships and attended Arizona State.
Check out Tides of History here! https://wondery.com/shows/tides-of-history/
Comments (16)
wort wort wort
Big Hari Seldon vibes from this episode.
Fun fact: there’s no evidence barter was ever a real thing as opposing to something Adam Smith hallucinated out of whole cloth.
yeah I forgot where I was reading it but there's mounting evidence that even norse middle ages fishermen off the coast of iceland and canada were basically using paper money to trade. I know I was riffing the other day about the alleged history of financial instruments but fiat money is probably just way older than we pretend it is
Patrick Wyman leading a seminar of gibbering goons is my favorite podcast vibe
something I notice about American politics is that Republicans are still rhetorically very anti-government spending but it basically has none of the vitriol of even 10 years ago. There's no Steve Forbes flat tax style candidates running - at most you have guys like Burgum who reach for even Romney style fiscal conservatism.
It's amazing what getting corporate territorial taxation can do to a man. (They killed Herman Cain because the 9-9-9 plan was too much of a threat.)
Really great episode, but I wonder if you could have taken the conclusions further. As you said, "new blood" is not necessarily a good thing, it only means the system has found a way to reproduce itself. The interests new American local and national elites represent are increasingly monopolistic segments of technology capital and rising nativist elements. My sense from Nico's Poulantzas' work is that this process is how fascism takes power, as fascism is just a rearrangement of hegemonic blocs that favors a combination between a rising segment of capital and a surging conservative current in the petit bourgeoisie, which is what we see in America. I'd love to hear the pod's thoughts on fascism as political theory, either on a main episode or Left on Read. Franz Neumann's Behemoth is excellent on this, as well as Nicos Poulantzas' Fascism and Dictatorship. Corey Robin also has a lot to say about the conservative psyche, as does Dylan Riley.
Great episode! In the USA there is no bigger fluffer of the "petty elite" than Dave Ramsey, always trying to tie them to the "meritocracy of capitalism," when in reality there simply filling an inevitable need for middle management of "new markets."
My first Free One as a patron, banished to the content lagoon 🏊🏽♀️
Lagoon
THE LAGOON
WE LOVE IT! WYMAN ALL DA TIMIN'! Would love if you could get him on to talk about the wave of modern "grimdark" low-fantasy novels that tend to be critiquing our modern culture and society. Been having some fun listening to Joe Abercrombie's First Law series and would appreciate some learned opinions on the works. Cheers
Riley, the word "comptroller" is pronounced just like "controller" (no idea why)
In my experience it’s pronounced “comtroller” the P is silent
Fuck yes boys