Christopher Hedges - Media Matters

Americans warning their countrymen for losing connection with reality and thus rushing towards disaster, is something we hear in this podcast as well as the previous podcast I reviewed. This time I listened to Media Matters which, incidentally, in its previous episode with Glenn Greenwald, who warned about the decay of journalism and its controlling role for democracy, is no less in style. Beware of getting too gloomy.

This broadcast of Media Matters had Christoper Hedges as a guest. Hedges is worried about the decay of literacy in US society. His point is that the big problem is not analphebetism per se, but rather the culture that has replaced the written one. There has always been an elite in culture that was informed and educated and as such steered culture and policy. When this was a culture of the written word, it had values such as giving sources, checking sources, making investigation and so on.

This literate culture has been replaced by a visual culture and in this culture it is the spectacle that reigns. In that culture there is no value for checking sources and making thorough investigations and consequently, this new culture is one of dreams. Hedges warns that Americans, also the elite, is losing their connection with reality and lack the means of catching up. This in a world with threats of climate change and continuous dwindling of US supremacy, militarily, economically and culturally, is ultimately suicidal. he paints a picture of America happily consuming its way into oblivion, without even noticing it.

More Media Matters:
Glenn Greenwald,
Naomi Klein,
Noam Chomsky,
Juan Cole,
The Crisis.

Jackson Lears - Open Source

The podcast Open Source with Christopher Lydon gives a critical view on current affairs. Lydon interviews guests on their specialized subjects. The frequency of the editions (more than once a week) make it impossible for me to keep a close track of the show, but I will skim the subject and occasionally listen in.

This time around I listened to a fascinating interview with Jackson Lears, who tries to make a point about a fundamental weakness in American foreign policy. The basic paradox to begin with is that American ideology is against empire and Americans persist in view their country not as an empire. The foreign policy however, has been that of an empire ever since the beginning of the twentieth century. Lears add to this an almost Freudian point with the example of president Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt, he claims , had an idea that was inspired by his Presbyterian background of personal elation. Lears claims that the American culture is full of this strive to improve oneself. And on the collective level Roosevelt thought of war as elating for the nation.

Lears warns that this idea has taken a strong hold on the American psyche, especially under Bush, but with Obama has not gone away. He pleads for less of this idealism and more realistic pragmatism in foreign policy.

The next podcast I am going to review is not about foreign policy, but is also warning the American Psyche for itself and its tendency to lose track of reality. Stay posted.

More Open Source:
Two communities in one region,
We want Obama,
The end of Hegemony,
Go for a walk with Open Source.

Pegoud, Grimm - Veertien Achttien

Op indrukwekkende wijze gaat Tom Tacken voort met zijn serie over de Eerste Wereldoorlog, Veertien Achttien. Het niveau blijft onveranderd hoog. Elke week een biografie van een van de spelers in de oorlog, waarbij elke biografie een zeker aspect van de oorlog in het bijzonder voor het voetlicht brengt. Beluister de meest recente bijdragen over Adolphe Pegoud en Robert Grimm.

Elke podcast duurt ongeveer een kwartier en de grote kracht van Tacken is dat hij dat kwartier vult met een zorgvuldig gecomponeerd verhaal. Als geen ander weet hij de aandacht vast te houden en met enkele zinnen de kwesties te typeren. Als ik al ooit kritiek op de podcast heb gehad, dan is het dat Tacken een zekere voorliefde voor versimpeling heeft en maar al te graag de podcast giet in de vorm van een mooi zwart-wit perspectief van goed en kwaad, daders en slachtoffers. Het formaat dicteert dit echter en de narratieve kracht maakt het meer dan goed.

Voor wie er geen genoeg van kan krijgen, is het mogelijk om de uitzendingen op CD te bestellen en als toegift krijgt men dan ook de teksten toegestuurd (Volger Veertien Achttien). Kijkend naar de teksten, dringt zich de eis op: zo'n goede podcast met kant en klare scripts moet vertaald kunnen worden naar het Engels. Wie zal Tom Tacken daarbij helpen?

Meer Veertien Achttien:
Emmeline Pankhurst,
Lord Kitchener,
Walther Rathenau,
Komitas Vardapet,
John Condon.