Episode 23: David McKerracher & Michael Downs - Underground Theory
Two stars of the underground theory scene join us to discuss capitalist realism, universal basic income and more. PLUS! Audio from our live event
In the penultimate episode of Season 2, I welcomed two guests from the world of philosophy and critical theory. David McKerracher is the founder of Theory Underground, which exists as both an online lecture and seminar programme, and a thoroughly entertaining podcast.
David’s book TIMENERGY was recently reprinted with a foreword by none other than Slavoj Žižek, who also contributed to a collection of essays David recently published called Underground Theory. He joins us alongside his friend and frequent collaborator Michael Downs, author of the razor-sharp philosophy blog The Dangerous Maybe.
David and his TU colleagues came to Glasgow in May and joined us for a live podcast at the awesome Glasgow Zine Library. Read on for some philosophy and theory recommendations from Dave and Michael, and some exclusive audio from the event.
Strange Exiles X Theory Underground: Live from Glasgow Zine Library
In this section of the talk I had with Dave and the Theory Underground team, we discuss my new book The Darkest Timeline. I begin with a short reading, discussing the philosopher John Gray’s thoughts on ‘progress’ and what that means for our dystopian present, the prospect of revolution, and our emergent cyberhistory. Dave and the gang had some great questions about these themes and thoughts.
We go on to talk about Dave’s book Timenergy a little more, and unpack the utility of thinking about time and energy as ‘large, repeatable blocks’ of available human agency and capacity. More film, pictures and audio from the event will be coming soon from Strange Exiles, and on the TU YouTube channel.
Fellow Substacker (and incredible photographer and essayist) Neil Scott came along to the event, and took a few pictures (including the one above). Check out his post here and click subscribe!
Notes from Underground
Dave recommends some of the core texts and thinkers that influenced his theory of Timenergy. These names also cross over directly with some of the philosophers and topics that TU teach in their online courses.
Dave says:
Marx and Heidegger are the biggest influences. They helped me structure my thinking in terms of alienation, labour time, and labour power. That comes from Marx, and existential time is from Heidegger.
I read them against one another, because they both have so much to offer us in terms of ‘seeing’ our situation, and they are both super outside of one another's wheel houses in all the right ways.
Access a selection of Marx’s writings via the Gutenberg project. Next up is Martin Heidegger, whose Being and Time is on my to-read pile already. He’s much admired by Slavoj Žižek (or at least used to be!) and others.
Dave also recommends Emmanuel Levinas, a thinker I know very little about, but his Wikipedia page contextualises him as one of the great post-WW2 French philosophers, and a major theorist of alterity (study of the ‘Other’). I’m going to investigate him myself…
Next up is Theodor Adorno, the great social theorist of the Frankfurt School, whose Dialectics of Enlightenment and Minima Moralia are among his best-known works. Mike Watson, author, Revol Press founder and friend of the pod, wrote his own modern twist on the latter, Digital Moralia, this year (it’s available exclusively to Revol patrons). He discussed Adoro recently with YouTuber 1Dime, and you can even buy an awesome Adorno tote bag from him. Quality!
Finally Dave recommends Jacques Lacan, the great French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who revolutionised the world’s understanding of Sigmund Freud’s models of consciousness, experience and suffering. His major works are The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, the collected Écrits, and Feminine Sexuality, but he is perhaps just as well known through the analysis he has inspired by the likes of Žižek, Deleuze and Guattari and others.
Michael gave us some very specific recommendations, several of which are among my favourite works of philosophy and theory. Firstly, he too recommends Marx, specifically Capital, which is a perfect starting point for a newly-hatched left-winger, or indeed anyone who wants to understand capitalism - Marx is its greatest theorist. He also recommends Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason as a must-read (honestly, these guys made me feel a little under-read when it comes to core texts! This one’s also on my list…)
Žižek’s The Sublime Object of Ideology, the great Slovenian provocateur’s first and perhaps most important contribution to the field, is Michael’s next shout. Examining the operation of ideology in Immanuel Kant, Freud and Marx, it’s a dense text, but has been foundational in my own understanding of ideology. It also helped me understand how influential Žižek’s contribution to modern philosophy has been.
Next he recommends Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus, a groundbreaking work that is still much-beloved by leftwing theorists and activists, offering a new theoretical framework for understanding capitalism and mental illness. It’s a great book, but for me its eclipsed by Michael’s next recommendation - a classic volume by Jean Baudrillard, 1981’s Simulacra and Simulation. I drew extensively on Baudrillard in my book, and I think this is an essential text for understanding our hyper-mediated present (what Dave likes to call ‘cyberhistory’).
Change is coming…
The audio above is exclusive to Substack, and won’t appear on other streaming platforms. As we roll towards Season 3 (which officially begins with Episode 25), I’m going to bring all of the full-length episodes of Strange Exiles exclusively to Substack, for subscribers only.
You’ll still be able to access an extended preview of each new episode via Spotify and other services, but the full thing will only be available here! We’ll also have more additional, exclusive content this year and into 2025, so stay tuned.
If you’re reading this, it’s likely you’ve already subscribed. You’ll be able to listen on the Substack player or app, via the email version of this blog; and with a few clicks, subscribers can access full episodes via their favourite streaming service. We’ll also stay completely FREE to listen for all subscribers for the duration of Season 3. More news on this with the next episode. Have’t subscribed yet? Plug your email in below!
See you next time! Take care of each other.
-Bram, Glasgow, May 2024
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