Process
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Highlights
Time 0:02:42
1min Snip Transcript: Rivka Hanks can do no wrong period like tom hanks wow now i understand why you got banned that’s and i know i like so offensive and probably like believe me i wouldn’t i would never write that But i understand what i was coming from why i thought to write that sentence i gave myself so much ick i guess you just got banned for i don’t know being lame no that was a different account That was i don’t even know i don’t know that was because the last one of those was like that was like solid 2013 all right well enough about uh our tweets from 2013 what did you want to talk Frank About you had something you actually a listener uh oh yeah actually a listener had written in that you wanted to respond to will will wrote in oh no rivka fell for the capitalist propaganda Rivka Anarchy is not wanton destruction nor is it nihilism anarchy comes from the greek against hierarchy. Anarchy is mutual aid, poor people helping poor people. It is community defense. It is skill
Time 0:29:23
1min Snip Transcript: Zachary Marlow And and really have a ruthless anarchist critique of power that power itself is absurd you know i even think like the people the leftists calling themselves like oh we’re the we’re going To be the vanguard we’re going to take over and we’re going to run things. I think they’re absurd. I think they’re the same people going around clacking their coconuts saying, we are going to lead you without understanding the true nature of power. And so this film mercilessly critiques all authority in all ways from God being an insecure little ingrate to the king being just continually not taken seriously. And this film does really that. I’m going to get back, keep going back to the scene because it’s the best scene in movie history, I think, of the anarchist peasants, where there is at least one scene. I think every movie that attempts to be like political should have one scene where they actually describe like in bold face font, the politics of the film. And in this film, they’re talking about anarcho-syndicalism. There’s multiple jokes about anarcho-syndicalism, which is a confusing word to a lot of people, but really I think is one of the most important verbiages of our time, that it’s this System of free associations of basically unions that come
Time 0:30:03
1min Snip Transcript: Zachary Marlow Anarchist peasants, where there is at least one scene. I think every movie that attempts to be like political should have one scene where they actually describe like in bold face font, the politics of the film. And in this film, they’re talking about anarcho-syndicalism. There’s multiple jokes about anarcho-syndicalism, which is a confusing word to a lot of people, but really I think is one of the most important verbiages of our time, that it’s this System of free associations of basically unions that come together and manage things in federations collectively together a central body controlling them. And this was Noam Chomsky’s philosophy. This is what he’s sort of pointed to as defined by Rudolf Rocker in, I think, the early 1900s. And this is a continually relevant political theory that we can maybe get into a little later. We can maybe get into some more riffs and jokes. But yeah, I wrote a ton of notes for this film because the Middle Ages itself is so important for understanding our current era because it’s the birthplace of capitalism. It’s the manure that capitalism sprouted out of like a nasty weed, that the enclosure of the commons really is the beginning of capitalism as we know it. Like there was
Time 0:31:04
1min Snip Transcript: Zachary Marlow It’s the manure that capitalism sprouted out of like a nasty weed, that the enclosure of the commons really is the beginning of capitalism as we know it. Like there was money before that, there were markets, there were authoritarian power structures, but there wasn’t this system of private ownership of the means of production until The commons were enclosed to force people into industrial factories. And this was right around the time of, of the colonial expeditions, bringing back hordes of silver, bringing the money economy into existence. And there’s, great scene in this film where they’re burning a witch. Hilarious fucking scene. The peasants are just so stupid. They’re really like Twitter commenters. They’re like the bootlickers who come on our videos and are like, well, without money, there’d be no incentive. Without somebody telling people what to do, things like… They’re not thinking at all. And they’re just in this mob mentality. And it’s a hilarious scene, but it actually shows something that’s really incredibly fascinating that I was listening to today. And this book, Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici outlines this. And it’s all about primitive accumulation, this early age of capitalism, and that the witches were not like,
Time 0:31:33
1min Snip Transcript: Zachary Marlow Bringing the money economy into existence. And there’s, great scene in this film where they’re burning a witch. Hilarious fucking scene. The peasants are just so stupid. They’re really like Twitter commenters. They’re like the bootlickers who come on our videos and are like, well, without money, there’d be no incentive. Without somebody telling people what to do, things like… They’re not thinking at all. And they’re just in this mob mentality. And it’s a hilarious scene, but it actually shows something that’s really incredibly fascinating that I was listening to today. And this book, Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici outlines this. And it’s all about primitive accumulation, this early age of capitalism, and that the witches were not like, it wasn’t a superstitious thing. Like even rationalists like Thomas Hobbes were pro witch hunt, which was like, somebody described it as like the first European unifying incident of like, all across Europe, they Were hunting down witches and killing them, because they were strong women in leadership positions or positions of authority and wisdom, real authority. And they knew they had a knowledge of bodily autonomy. They understood how to give abortions. And,
Time 0:36:26
1min Snip Transcript: Frank To we’ve got to start doing capitalism. But Zachary, I think you probably it sounds like you have an even more in-depth knowledge. Zachary Marlow Well, I want to talk about I want to talk about the commons because the commons weren’t just like the woods that people could go and live in and eat out of and hunt from. They were a means of sustaining themselves. And this was the foundation for a very powerful retaliation against power getting unchecked. Because, you know, you can always say, fuck you, Lord, I’m going to go off in the commons. I’m going to hunt and fish and swim and live in indigenous ways and live connected to land and live for subsistence and not for your profit or rents. But the commons is profoundly important right now. And it’s having really a resurgence as capitalism is rediscovering this little thing called feudalism. We are rediscovering this thing called the commons and these practices of commoning, that a commons is not just a water supply or a forest or some land or space that is managed communally. And for those who don’t know, Eleanor Ostrom was a great thinker and theorist. She won the Nobel Prize for basically debunking the tragedy of the commons, which is this pro-capitalist hokum that says
Time 0:37:07
1min Snip Transcript: Zachary Marlow Having really a resurgence as capitalism is rediscovering this little thing called feudalism. We are rediscovering this thing called the commons and these practices of commoning, that a commons is not just a water supply or a forest or some land or space that is managed communally. And for those who don’t know, Eleanor Ostrom was a great thinker and theorist. She won the Nobel Prize for basically debunking the tragedy of the commons, which is this pro-capitalist hokum that says that if the common lands are open, then people will trash them. Whereas, oh, there’s great incentive for me to turn it into a parking lot and then I’ll protect it forever because it’s my property, which is bullshit. Because you can dump sewage onto a piece of land that’s yours and make some money or save money doing that. You can turn it into a parking lot and extinct every bit of life on it and extract more money than you can making it into a, you know, a flourishing forest. But commoning is a prize is a extensive practice. I mean, it’s, it’s the foundation of human existence as a social being, as beings that don’t think in terms of ownership and privation and separation that, you know, festivals are commons Practices, you know, eating and gathering are commons
Time 0:41:08
1min Snip Transcript: Zachary Marlow Voice and talk like, just re-expose the stupidity of the whole situation. It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. Frank It’s utterly ridiculous what we’re living in or the idea that like the five most powerful and yet probably stupidest men in the country were given an order from god to go find some cup That’s going to what unify the entire country yeah it’s like that’s the level of absurdity we’re living in that’s like donald trump saying i’m the only one who can fix it that’s like billionaire Worship billionaire supremacy anyone who thinks that like elon musk is going to like somehow come up with the solution that fixes i don’t know what free speech like the way that we converse With one another the way that we communicate you’re right we are sadly in a new dark ages of time although we all have iphones so like really should we actually just shut the up and stop Complaining about everything? Zachary Marlow Well, the Scrying Stone is a magical implement that is making us all insane by the decrees of our lords. I wrote here in my notes that God, as a projection of our insecurity through history, God is what we can’t reconcile with ourselves, and we have to create a mythology around it. Capitalism takes for granted that humans are basically like nasty
Time 0:45:16
1min Snip Transcript: Zachary Marlow Exhort you to consider that now the time has come appointed to us by god in which ye may if ye will cast off the yoke of bondage and recover liberty it was john ball who was uh the diggers and The level levelers and these other groups of peasants a lot of them were like sort of a liberation theology kind of christian peasants and baptists that were sort of like basically like A change of the mode of production and the mode of of communication in the printing press around around this period to spread uh the ability for people to read the bible and be like hey Wait a minute uh it is easier for a rich man to go through for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven like that doesn’t really square With this whole feudalistic arrangement. And so there were a lot of movements of people, of peasants, rising up and reclaiming their power. And the foundation of that power is the commons. And I want to remind people again and again and again that us coming together and pooling our resources in a common pool of resources, and not in a chaotic way. I mean, I would say in an anarchic way, but not in a way that most people think of as anarchic. They think that means chaotic. But again, Ostrom laid out principles for governing the commons. And again, the
Time 0:46:18
1min Snip Transcript: Zachary Marlow People think of as anarchic. They think that means chaotic. But again, Ostrom laid out principles for governing the commons. And again, the running joke in this film is anarcho-syndicalism. And so in our time today, I couldn’t just make jokes about this other movie. I have to push my own radical ideological agenda and use the medium of film that we’re in right now, this particular kind of movie, to get people to question the world that they’re in and Imagine a better one. And it’s this realization that I think the authoritarian view of some big R, capital R revolution happening or some group coming to power and kicking the government out, I think is as Ridiculous as any of the other power structures we have today. I think we need to come together as working people, as people of less, as the peasants of this world and pool our resources and create communally governed structures, horizontal structures And build dual power. I mean, and that’s how they did it in the Soviet Union. The Soviet means workers’ council. The Soviet is a commons, is a commons, is a commonly governed organizational structure where the people came together and met their damn needs together and formed
Time 0:48:19
1min Snip Transcript: Rivka Yes yes yes thank you for all of that just listening and digesting all you’re saying and also as you’re talking about this it was making me think about because i too this was a movie from My childhood it was i really i really loved it i don’t think i realized how much it probably impacted me it was something that was always like on. It was just like part of the culture growing up. It was like one of those kids, kids. I thought of it as a kids movie because it was always just on for the kids. But what I really appreciated was I think the influence that it had. And so anyone with kids, I think it’s a great movie to show kids just on a young brain about like how valuable just critical thinking is just like the skill of critical thinking and i think That’s like it’s satire there’s so much jokes around it but it’s harnessed in this deep like you always have someone who’s pointing out some kind of critical thought like the the coconut Discourse at the top is so great because as you said they don’t they have the coconuts making the sound of the horse and they just want to get through the castle and they’re like what what Are those are those coconuts like where did those come from? Zachary Marlow You’ve got two halves of coconut, you’re banging them together. Yeah, yeah. Rivka And he’s just like, that couldn’t have happened that way. Like they just like paused to like consider the
Time 0:49:16
1min Snip Transcript: Rivka And they’re like what what are those are those coconuts like where did those come from? Zachary Marlow You’ve got two halves of coconut, you’re banging them together. Yeah, yeah. Rivka And he’s just like, that couldn’t have happened that way. Like they just like paused to like consider the like logic of these coconuts. And I think that brought so much, I think as a kid, I loved that. And I think was a huge part of like the education that I received. And I was lucky that I had a lot of adults, my parents especially, who encouraged that kind of critical thinking, like that particular kind of like so often we’re told don’t take the time To question things. Oh, you’re slowing. Don’t ask questions. You’re slowing things down. And I think it’s so, yeah, just culturally part of that. I mean, it’s intentional that we don’t want kids to think critically. I think it’s ingrained in some of the like really poor education of like, don’t think, just learn, repeat what we’re teaching you and don’t ask questions. And this film is all about like, we’re going to stop you in your journey and ask the most annoying questions till we like till the bitter end and it’s very funny but it’s such a good point Yeah it’s so valuable and especially for
Time 0:55:58
1min Snip Transcript: Frank You as a child, but I will admit, it was totally lost on me as a child. I didn’t even clock that scene whatsoever. Zachary Marlow I didn’t fully understand that scene, and I don’t think the words anarcho-syndicalism or autonomous commune or whatever stuck in me, but I think actually what what you’re saying that That it’s the it’s the critique of power it’s just the the way that you systematically through this movie ridicule legends kings you know gods you know all authority is just made the Butt of the joke and you know that’s that’s actually a really good point that like modern comedy like a lot of like our big comedy comedians who are like i’m an edgy comedian like i don’t Care but if i offend you they all punch down they’re all punching down at people who have less power than they do like trans people are really the ones oh yeah we should really take them Down oh yeah kids these these weak ass kids with their pronouns that’s really who the problem is when like something has been really miswired when like these silly oxford educated british Men were using the lowest comedy they could to absolutely piss off
Time 1:03:43
1min Snip Transcript: Zachary Marlow How could you expect me to live in your society and see you conscripting poor men down by the docks and not take up a sword and strike them down? You could no sooner expect to live in the kingdom of money and not get corrupt than to live in the bottom of a well and not get wet he’s just like money is the devil of devils it pits brothers Against each other and and had husbands against their wives and just destroys society oh here’s the the rousseau quote he says the first person who having enclosed the plot of land took It into his head to say this is mine oh wait i gotta do it in a funny accent the first person i can’t i can’t do it like that okay the first person who having enclosed the plot of land took him To his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society what crimes wars murders what miseries and horrors would the human race Have been spared had someone pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men do not listen to this imposter you are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth Belong to all and the earth to no one hell yeah very
Time 1:09:50
1min Snip Transcript: Zachary Marlow That was so funny and uh yeah the the other scenes that that really got me this time were the scene with Sir Galahad, and he’s in there with all the women. And it just really like I was probing for the meaning of like repression, that we have a repressive culture. We repress sexuality. And that basically is the source of all this dysfunction and all this, you know, deviance and perversion in our society, that we repress our true desires, that we have these religious Systems, these dogmas that have us resist our own most base and human and natural urges. And it’s just such an absurdity. I have one thing here that I think I could end on, which is I think the sort of true meaning of the Holy Grail. Another work of art that sort of resonated, rhymed with this. The reason I was drawn to this again and again and again is because of the sort of like mythopoetic resonance of the symbol of the Holy Grail of like the, this unattainable thing, this Unslakeable thirst, this, this thing you quest after. It’s like a cup, it’s, it’s empty except for what you fill it with. And, and I think about The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot, which profoundly changed my brain and how I interpret
Time 1:22:10
1min Snip Transcript: Frank It was in the middle ages because the middle ages was at least like nope this is how it fucking works this these are the conditions this is the class structure whereas today we are just Like so gaslit into believing like oh no this is actually the this is actually the best that we can do yeah i mean and in the middle ages they had literally hundreds of days off a year they Zachary Marlow Had hundreds of festivals they had all these common activities they had a lot more autonomy than a lot of people do today It’s a slept on period. And it’s a very interesting period. I was thinking earlier about the sort of credit relations. Before they hauled back masses of silver extracted out of the Americas and used all that slave labor to basically create the primitive accumulation of capitalism, it was a largely Moneyless system. I mean, people existed in a state of credit, of mutual credit, which is, we did a podcast with them on Moneyless Society about mutual credit with a whole panel of alternative currency Experts, where basically the old story is like the medieval town didn’t work on money or on barter. It worked on credit. That’s how most of human history operated, not in, I give you this and you give me that. It’s like,
Time 1:24:09
1min Snip Transcript: Frank I was like, what? What is Monty Python has to have to say about anything? And you came in, you were like, nope, here’s here’s my pitch. Here’s what it’s about. Here’s what’s going on. I was sold and hearing you speak about it, it completely illuminated so much. So thank you. Really cool. But before we let you go, the last thing we like to ask our guest is, is there something you do? I’m guessing you have a few things you do. But is there something that you do in your everyday life where you get the chance to practice your anti-capitalist values? This could be anything from like a daily practice to an organization you work with so is there anything you’d like to share with us i shoplifted a little uh pillow cover from walmart today Zachary Marlow That’s number numero uno that’s the bare minimum community service i could do to expropriate the stolen uh fruits of the land and bring them back into the comms especially from a place Like walmart no but seriously yeah i’m a a filmmaker i’ve been uh on a quest of my own to expose the capitalist system in an epic interconnected film series that’s uh brought me literally To like five continents at this point i’m oh wow you know in a sort of rift right now like trying to find funding connections and help to finish the film to go to the biggest sort of revolutionary Places in the world to go to rajaba and