Kali Tribune

Tagged: Umberto Eco

1

Analysis / Podcast

Luminar Podcast: Michel Houellebecq’s Itch

Taming the KGB accents one more time, Deirdre hosts another Luminar Podcast with Mihai and me:

"on the way from David Icke to Michel Houellebecq we chat about consciousness, knowledge, ego, the dark night of the soul, smashing the idol of the self, ambition or lack thereof, what is meaningful work, the willing participation of the people in their own control, comparisons between Communism and the European Union, the rush among the masses towards progressiveness and cutting roots, Croatia, Romania and Ireland, the role of intellectuals, James Joyce's depiction of the odyssey in modernity and other writers like him, and finally onto Houellebecq's unscratchable itch."

17

Conspirology

Cult of Enlightenment and the Conspiracy Culture

The proverbial "conspiracy theorist" slur more often than not hits the mark. But does this exculpate the one throwing it about from further investigation? We think not. In this podcast we'll take a dip into history of conspiracy theories, beginning with Augustin Barruel, to offer an opinion why modern academics, journalists and pop intellectuals tend to lose their powers of discernment when conspiracy theories are on the menu. Also we lay out some historical facts about inception of antisemitic conspiracy theories, which are mistakenly conflated with original ideas of Barruel and his early fellow travelers, from the so called "Simonini letter" to "Protocols of Learned Elders of Zion". In this context we offer some updates on scholarship of the subject, which is reinvigorated by some recent works of historians of ideas.