Cody Cook's Blog, page 12
March 6, 2022
A Review of The Unabomber Manifesto by Ted Kaczynski
Kaczynski argues that the modern technological society satisfies the basic needs and goals of survival. Free market enthusiasts concur, seeing this as one of its great achievements. But Kaczynski sees this as a problem to be fixed and not the solution to hunger and disease that it appears to be.
Why? Because pursuing the goal of survival–hunting, foraging, fighting bears, what have you–makes humans feel fulfilled. When that goal is met for us we are left to pursue surrogate goals that are artificial and less fulfilling (perhaps goals like writing anarcho-primitivist manifestos and sending pipe bombs to strangers?). To quote Ted, it is “demeaning to fulfill one’s need for the power process through surrogate activities or through identification with an organization rather than through pursuit of real goals.”
In addition to feeling less fulfilled, we also feel less free. The fact that our primary desires are met for us upon the condition that we obey and become properly socialized means that control of our lives is placed into the hands of others–bosses, technocrats, and other organizers of society. In other words, individuals have less control over their own lives in a highly organized technological society but depend upon others. For Kaczynski, freedom is the “opportunity to go through the power process” without control or manipulation.
Kaczynski’s solution is to destroy the technological society–all of the things that require specialized knowledge and a division of labor–and go back to pre-industrial society, where humans can go through the “power process” to meet their natural goals and thus be more fulfilled. He’s a bit like Wendell Berry meets Friedrich Nietzsche, with a dash of Karl Marx thrown in.
But why stop at our previous social development? Why not go back further, to hunter gatherer societies, ape clans, sea dwellers, or amoebas? Many of us thrive in the technological society that might not have in earlier stages of human development. Maybe some people genuinely like to understand how computers work, to study viruses, or to read the Church Fathers as valuable activities for their own sake and are not all miserably attending to “surrogate activities”–this is one of the beautiful things about the division of labor, isn’t it? That I can focus on what I do well, you can focus on what you do well, and we are both doubly enriched for it through trade.
That being said, there’s nothing wrong with asking if we may be reaching our limits in some areas. Humans are adaptable, though not infinitely so. Perhaps, for instance, living our lives on social media for the “likes” could be stretching our elastic-like flexibility to the point of breaking. Maybe our dependence on the supply chain, as we’ve learned post-COVID, can begin to be a liability if too many links in that chain break and we aren’t able to take care of ourselves. And maybe our dependence on the financial system is likewise a double-edged sword, as efforts to freeze the assets of Canadian trucker protestors and ordinary Russians in the early months of 2022 also have shown us.
Maybe we should, as John Prine suggested in his song “Spanish Pipedream,” blow up our TVs and build homes in the country.
But we definitely shouldn’t blow up other people.
March 5, 2022
My new book, What Belongs to Caesar?, is now available!
For more information, visit www.cantus-firmus.com/caesar
Music: Dark Flashes by Shane Ivers – https://www.silvermansound.com
March 2, 2022
PODCAST: No King But Christ: a conversation with author Alexandre Christoyannopoulos about Christian Anarchism
Get his book Christian Anarchism
Audio:
http://cantus-firmus.com/Audio/20220301-Christoyannopoulos.mp3
Music:
F E E F I F O by Failed Kingdoms. Available here: https://soundcloud.com/failedk
February 17, 2022
PODCAST: Living a Good Life Without the State: The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism w/ author Kristopher Borer
Kristopher Borer was my guest to discuss his book The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism, which is a fascinating, fun, and engaging thought experiment about building a free and voluntary society on a deserted island and how those lessons could be transferred to a larger scale society.
Along the way we also talked about how capitalism has gotten a bum rap, how to move toward an anarcho-capitalist society, and how he turned dry economic and political theory into a very readable and successful book.
Get The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism
Audio:
https://cantus-firmus.com/Audio/20220216-KrisBorer.mp3
Music:
F E E F I F O by Failed Kingdoms. Available here: https://soundcloud.com/failedk
Other books discussed in the episode:
The Anarchist Handbook, edited by Michael Malice
Human Action by Ludwig Von Mises
What Belongs to Caesar by Me!, Cody Cook
February 6, 2022
PODCAST: I Didn’t Sign No Social Contract – A conversation with author Andrew Kern about the legitimacy of the state
Andrew Kern is the author of the book The Myth of the Social Contract: Refuting Common Arguments for Government Authority. We talked about why the idea that we all agree to be ruled by government doesn’t hold up, whether a voluntary society could really work, and how his anarchist views intersect with his Christian faith.
Andrew’s book – The Myth of the Social Contract
Audio:
https://www.cantus-firmus.com/Audio/20220206-AndrewKern.mp3
Music:
F E E F I F O by Failed Kingdoms. Available here: https://soundcloud.com/failedk
PODCAST: I Didn’t Sign No Social Contract – A conversation with Andrew Kern about the legitimacy of the state
Andrew Kern is the author of the book The Myth of the Social Contract: Refuting Common Arguments for Government Authority. We talked about why the idea that we all agree to be ruled by government doesn’t hold up, whether a voluntary society could really work, and how his anarchist views intersect with his Christian faith.
Andrew’s book – The Myth of the Social Contract
Audio:
https://www.cantus-firmus.com/Audio/20220206-AndrewKern.mp3
Music:
F E E F I F O by Failed Kingdoms. Available here: https://soundcloud.com/failedk
December 31, 2021
PODCAST: Too Good to Be False w/ author Tom Gilson
I had the privilege of speaking with Tom Gilson–Christian apologist, senior editor at the news and commentary website The Stream, and author of numerous books including the recent Too Good to be False: How Jesus’ Incomparable Character Reveals His Reality.
We spoke about the case he made in his new book for why the story of Jesus as presented in the Gospels can’t be properly explained by appealing to legendary accretions, why we still need apologetics (defenses of the faith), and how there’s been a shift in the reasons why skeptics object to Christianity.
Tom can be found at thinkingchristian.net and more information about his Cincinnati Dayton Apologetics fellowship can be found at www.apologeticsfellowship.org
Audio:
https://cantus-firmus.com/Audio/20211231-TomGilson.mp3
December 8, 2021
The Mad Ones: The Birth of Love
I was recently a guest on The Mad Ones where we talked about Jesus’ incarnation and how it was a reversal of a strange Old Testament event that you probably don’t hear about in church.
MP3 download:
https://wearethemadones.com/audio/tmo_0120.mp3
October 15, 2021
The Mad Ones: Piercing the Darkness: A Walk Through The Unseen Realm
I was recently a guest on The Mad Ones where we talked about angels, demons, and the unseen realm. I had lots of fun discussing the nephilim, territorial spirits, and other weird things in the Bible that you probably haven’t heard about in church.
August 18, 2021
PODCAST: Libertarian Christians on the Afghanistan Withdrawal (w/ John Dangelo the Anti-War War Vet)
The Anti-War War Vet John Dangelo was my guest to talk about his experience in Afghanistan and his thoughts now as a Christian anarchist on the United States’ occupation and withdrawal. We discussed whether this occupation was the right thing to do, the ethical obligations that the U.S. does or doesn’t have to the Afghan people, and what the creation of a new Taliban state after the fall of the U.S. backed puppet government tells us about how states form and whether any state can be called “legitimate.”
Audio:
https://cantus-firmus.com/Audio/20210817-AfghanistanWithdrawal.mp3
Music:
F E E F I F O by Failed Kingdoms. Available here: https://soundcloud.com/failedk
