A young man goes home to announce his exciting new political and philosophical ideas to his family, only for the family dinner to devolve into shouting, arguing, and eventually a duel? It's a very special Thanksgiving episode of Revolution and Ruin! Turgenev portrays a pre-revolutionary Russia, as nihilism and other ideas begin to circulate among the youth, causing friction and exasperation among their elders. Bazarov and Arkady try to test out their new ideological position, and learn whether or not one can be a young nihilist in love.

Shownotes and discussion:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Did women ruin the workplace? Is wokeness feminine? Is this credit card my friend? Is cancel culture Malthusian? etc etc. Yes, the political right will do anything it can to avoid talking about class, and their latest gambit is to blame women for destroying the institutions of our society with their..... feelings. And their gossip. Helen Andrews's THE GREAT FEMINIZATION essay is still making the rounds, so Jessa and Nico discuss which is worse: sexual assault or some young ladies making a TikTok in their workplace. Also whether Leah Libresco Sargeant's counter that wokeness isn't feminine so much as it is coming from a religious impulse holds up.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

PBS recently decided to schedule the documentary The Last 600 Yards, about American troops fighting in Fallujah, after having shelved it for over a decade for being too pro-military. Co-produced by Steve Bannon, its re-emergence, according to Semafor, is because Bannon wants to convince Trump and his cronies from invading Venezuela. But like all shows, films, and media that centers military or police experience, it ends up glorifying the boots on the ground. Jessa and Nico discuss the upcoming Call of Duty film, the one (white) man against the cartel action film, and just how bad the propaganda was during the War on Terror. (Rest under whatever conditions you created for millions in the Middle East, Dick Cheney.)

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Once an archetype has been constructed, it's really difficult to dismantle it. And one of the prevailing archetypes of the 20th century was that of the American Hero. From World War II to the genre of the Western, the idea of the Great American as someone principled but reluctant to intervene, with a complicated past but a good heart, and setting right a problem not of his own doing is firmly ingrained in our culture. But what is more worthwhile: tearing down the idea of "greatness" in a complicated figure like Abraham Lincoln or doing away with heroes altogether? Jessa and Nico discuss how difficult it is to critique an archetype and why propaganda works.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

In the new book Motherland, Julia Ioffe discusses how the Soviet feminist revolution was state sponsored. During and after 1917, the government mandated several rights that the women hadn't even gotten around really to demanding yet. The result was a kind of trickle down feminism, the opportunity and demand to be equal. It led to advances in women's careers in medicine and the sciences, but entrenched rather regressive gender roles in relationships and society. Because you can't dictate progress from above. Jessa and Nico discuss whether MeToo was another moment of Trickle Down Morality, and how a stupid movie like After the Hunt looks nuanced after such a stilted movement.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Nico's got that funny feeling again, that the program the United States ran in South America for decades has come home. We talk about the uncanny feeling that has taken over the United States and how it has manifested itself in films, from John Frankenheimer's Seven Days in May to Alan Pakula's Parallax View to Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another. When the mirror is reflected only distortion, where does one go?

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

In the industrial age, there was a widespread disruption of communities. Traditional methods of charity and redistribution of resources were undermined by the changing policies of the church, the military whims of the government severed trade routes and exchanges of money, and families were scattered as people looked for work. In Charlotte Bronte's Shirley, Caroline Helstone is trying to figure out what to do with her existence as she suffers the disappointment of being prevented from finding vocation. She and the other members of her community find themselves out of work, out of sorts, and in and out of respectable love, and try to make do with what is left over.

Join the book club at The Culture We Deserve.

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

In the creative economy, it is more profitable to be a dead creator than a living working writer. Or that is the lesson learned from the lawsuit the Michael Crichton estate filed against The Pitt. Crichton, who earned a quarter of a billion dollars for his contribution to the NBC show ER -- his contribution being a film script that was later adapted by someone else into a network pilot -- while the actual writers, actors, and crew made considerably less. Jessa and Nico talk about the writers who filed suit against AI, why Basquiat is in his most prolific era yet (37 years after his death), and the curse of the Frida Kahlo Barbie doll.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com