Zero Squared #182: Holding Onto Enlightenment Values?




Zero Squared show

Summary: C Derick Varn is the guest this week as we finally got around to discussing our differences on the topic of liberal values and the future of the enlightenment project. Specifically, we discussed Immanuel Kant’s essay “What is Enlightenment?” along with Theodor Adorno’s Negative Dialectics. It’s an interesting time. Some of you may know that I started podcasting back in 2009. I believe the first episode was an interview with my lovely wife Miriam about the sinking of the Titanic. At that moment I thought the topic was a good metaphor for our global economic situation. It’s a bit of a shock to realize that a decade has passed and to realize that the leftist politics that sprang from the 2008 crisis were inadequate. It seems to me that now is a good time to look back and see what we can learn about the overall trajectory of the left. A good time to look back and see where we’ve been. My plan is to introduce a new video series called The History of Commies sometime in 2019, but in order to create the time to do it I’ll need to increase the hours our video production team puts in. When we reach 600 patrons we’ll start production on this new series. Also, going forward, we’re introducing what I think of as the Chapo model for the podcast. Patreon supporters will get access to the Zero Books podcast and the Symptomatic Redness podcast every week while those listening for free will be able to listen to a full-length episode every other week. If you haven’t been wiped out by Christmas consider starting the new year by subscribing to Zero Books through Patreon.