It's not your imagination: everything is getting worse. And there's a reason why.

The film Henry Fonda for President is showing this Thursday, October 2 at Duke University. Please join us if you are in the area!

https://cinematicarts.duke.edu/screensociety/screenings/henry-fonda-president-alexander-horwath-2024

More than any other individual, Henry Fonda was a symbol for better, more leftist, more social democratic America, from The Grapes of Wrath to 12 Angry Men. He even played an English professor who faced cancellation for teaching anarchist literature!

Then in the 1960s, he was the literal father figure that New Left Hollywood figures Jane and Peter Fonda were rebelling against. And Henry let himself be used as a villain in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, playing the embodiment of rapacious American capitalism.

Alexander Horwath weaves together all these threads into his essay film Henry Fonda for President. As we live in a world haunted by 50 years of neoliberal decay, the America Fonda represented seems further away than ever, even as his films still crackle with righteous rage against injustice. Alex and I talk about all these issues and more - I hope you enjoy the conversation, and see the film when you have a chance!

According to conventional history, the last 12,000 years has seen the steady march of progress from primitive savagery to enlightened civilization.

In the age of Trump, Elon, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Putin, Xi, Orbán, Netanyahu, Erdoğan, and Khamenei, this story can't be true.

Luke Kemp joins me to offer another story, one in which mutual aid is what makes humans special - and what historians call "civilization" is actually the history of domination and coercion.

I cannot recommend the book more highly!

https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9780593321355

Happy 4th Anniversary to Everyday Anarchism!

For this year's anniversary episode, Ruth Kinna comes on to talk about a couple of Hollywood Westerns: Fort Apache (John Ford, 1948) and Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang, 1952).

Hollywood Westerns are about law and order, violence and vigilantism, community and individualism, savagery and civilization, and imperialism and resistance. They're perfect for illustrating political ideals - and that's just what Ruth and I do!

Look forward to an episode all about the activism and idealism of Henry Fonda with the director of Henry Fonda for President at some future date.

Thanks again to Ruth, but above all thanks to everyone for listening for the past four years!

In normal cinema, the goal of the director is to control the audience, to direct their gaze, to dictate their emotions.

What does it mean when directors make movies where the audience is allowed to decide what the film means to them?

Legendary filmmaker Paul Schrader (screenwriter of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull; director of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and First Reformed) , joins me to discuss his book Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer and the democratic nature of slow cinema.

Alyssa Battistoni joins me to discuss her new book Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature. Capitalist theory generally describes nature as a "free gift." If gifts are already free, why does capitalism have to claim that nature is a "free gift"? And why does capitalism keep declaring that nature is "worth" some billions or trillions of dollars? Alyssa and I discuss the tragic, yet comic, misunderstanding of nature by capitalism, and other ways to think about nature besides the economic.

Alex comes back on the podcast and we try to separate liberalism and anarchism, with some success! (I think the problem is that what Alex and I agree on is democratic socialism - so liberal socialism and anarchist socialism end up pretty close).

The business of basketball is our central example, so sorry if that part bores you to tears. Being bored by the business of basketball is more than reasonable.

I also reference this episode with Iain McKay frequently: https://www.everydayanarchism.com/episode-42-kropotkins-theory-of-revolution-with-iain-mckay/

Duke sucks.

Lyndal Roper joins me to discuss her book The Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants' War. 500 years ago, German peasants learned that Martin Luther had declared that they should be free. They agreed - and Europe was plunged into war.