In keeping with the Christmas season, I've got a request for recommended music and reading on the theme of "Greed, Power and Privilege." Now this is a tricky one because these concepts are all so complex and different. Greed itself is an interesting concept, because it's a personal characteristic that's an actual sin, but it's also a not-too-secretly cherished value that's intrinsic to our social system. The idea of greed is not absent from Karl Marx's most important writing about capital where we meet a character named "Moneybags." We're living in a moment when people are holding up classic movie villains as heroes ( Mike Douglass as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street) and Ayn Rand is considered an actual philosopher. Before I give you a book list on greed, here's a song to get us in the mood:
Marx's Capital really is the best book for understanding Capitalism. If you're feeling ambitious, find a group of friends who will be dedicated to reading seriously, and start the chapter on commodities and plunge in. Since I know most people don't have time and are likely daunted by the sheer length of the books, this short introduction to Capital by Michael Heinrich gets praise from a lot of smart people, and will probably give you much of what you need to know.
For more general non-fiction and contemporary topical reads...I'm hard pressed for a short list. That said, are some suggestions:
Everyone writing on neoliberalism in cultural studies cites David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, I don't agree with everything in his analysis, but this is indeed a brief, and pretty readable explanation of the present economic situation, a good place to start.
Whenever I've seen him speak, I've enjoyed Richard D. Wolff. One of his more recent books is dubbed "very valuable" by Noam Chomsky. I haven't read it, but reviews make it look good. It's called Capitalism Hits the Fan
Bethany McLean, The Smartest Guys in the Room about Enron (remember them?) was also made into a fantastic documentary by the unstoppable Alex Gibney. It notably includes a great soundtrack featuring Tom Waits.
Matt Taibbi's The Great Divide with illustrations by Molly Crabapple has been on my to-read list since it came out.Taibbi's been writing scathing critiques of big banks in Rolling Stone magazine for years now, and this book has been super-popular.
Fiction: Greed is an enduring theme in literature, but I'm trying to think of things that come less immediately to mind (Dickens, Frank Norris).
Russel Banks, Continental Drift remains one of my all time favorite books, and if I were teaching a class on contemporary capitalism as represented in literature, this one would surely be on my list. This book, well...I won't say more.
For fans of dystopian literature, Max Barry's Jennifer Government is a darkly hilarious page-turner that reverses the libertarian logic of much of contemporary YA fiction.
Taking us back to the original neoliberal moment (1979) here's the Flying Lizards:
Marx's Capital really is the best book for understanding Capitalism. If you're feeling ambitious, find a group of friends who will be dedicated to reading seriously, and start the chapter on commodities and plunge in. Since I know most people don't have time and are likely daunted by the sheer length of the books, this short introduction to Capital by Michael Heinrich gets praise from a lot of smart people, and will probably give you much of what you need to know.
For more general non-fiction and contemporary topical reads...I'm hard pressed for a short list. That said, are some suggestions:
Everyone writing on neoliberalism in cultural studies cites David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, I don't agree with everything in his analysis, but this is indeed a brief, and pretty readable explanation of the present economic situation, a good place to start.
Whenever I've seen him speak, I've enjoyed Richard D. Wolff. One of his more recent books is dubbed "very valuable" by Noam Chomsky. I haven't read it, but reviews make it look good. It's called Capitalism Hits the Fan
Bethany McLean, The Smartest Guys in the Room about Enron (remember them?) was also made into a fantastic documentary by the unstoppable Alex Gibney. It notably includes a great soundtrack featuring Tom Waits.
Matt Taibbi's The Great Divide with illustrations by Molly Crabapple has been on my to-read list since it came out.Taibbi's been writing scathing critiques of big banks in Rolling Stone magazine for years now, and this book has been super-popular.
Fiction: Greed is an enduring theme in literature, but I'm trying to think of things that come less immediately to mind (Dickens, Frank Norris).
Russel Banks, Continental Drift remains one of my all time favorite books, and if I were teaching a class on contemporary capitalism as represented in literature, this one would surely be on my list. This book, well...I won't say more.
For fans of dystopian literature, Max Barry's Jennifer Government is a darkly hilarious page-turner that reverses the libertarian logic of much of contemporary YA fiction.
Taking us back to the original neoliberal moment (1979) here's the Flying Lizards:
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