This month, we will have four special episodes hosted by our correspondent,Jeffrey Esptein. Today, he will talk author Jackson Winter about the 2001 edition of the Karl Polyani book, “The Great Transformation” Jackson is co-writer and editor for PEGS Institute, which is a project to demystify and explain some commonly misunderstood realities of the modern world.
The Great Transformation is the centuries-long history of how our current rentier capitalism came to be, and what preceded it. It reveals that much of what we believe to be inevitable and unchangeable, or natural about our society is, in fact, a deliberate choice. Those who most benefit from this system (the rentiers, those who collect rent) would like nothing more than for the rest of us (those who pay rent) to believe this system and their unending greed to be natural, inevitable, unchangeable and, indeed, best for everyone.
This is part 1 of 4 of
Audio chapters
8:20 - Jackson introduces himself
10:13 - Journey to the book and other reading
12:59 - First impressions
17:12 - Interview postponed
17:52 - Speenhamland
20:38 - Unemployed versus unemployable
26:43 - Speenhamland’s place in history
31:11 - Threaten starvation – tame even the strongest beast (natural)
32:46 - The problem is not the Industrial Revolution but self-gain (greed, hedonism)
34:19 - "Anti-government"
40:14 - Commodification
43:23 - George W. Bush, Satanic mill
44:06 - Commodification of labor
47:49 - Every level commodities the level below (venting their frustrations)
51:39 - Cultural hegemony, the Queen of England
54:19 - Death to the few versus death to the many
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What's Wrong with the World? - Part 1 with Jackson Winter