Thursday, June 4, 2015

A Conversation With Dr. Henry Giroux About Neoliberalism, Race, Justice, and the Culture of Cruelty

Dr. Henry Giroux is the guest on this week's edition of the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show.

He is the author of numerous books such as the recent The Culture of Organized Forgetting.

He is also an essential voice in this time of trouble, neoliberalism, austerity, and cruelty.

Dr. Giroux has been a great guide for my work here on WARN and ChaunceyDeVega.com.

I am Padawan. He is Master Yoda. Our conversation is instructive, open, and honest because of that fact.

In this episode, I also share my thoughts on religious fundamentalism, Christian fundies, sexual guilt, and the Duggar molestation scandal.

Do I hold back? Never. No mercy. They do not deserve it.

We are now in the fourth day of our twice a year fundraiser. Brother Henry is the opening salvo in a great series of guests for the podcast.

The kind folks who support WARN have gotten us to 20 percent or so of our fundraising goal. Once that destination is reached, I will pull the begging bowl back in, returning to business as usual.

Your kind donations are essential, needed, and necessary. As you will hear in my great conversation with Henry Giroux, we go where we may, and do lots of truth-telling. I do not advertise here on ChaunceyDeVega.com for a reason--I want to be free to tell the truth. Period. He and I do that here for 60 plus minutes.

In this episode of the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show, Henry and I discuss neoliberalism, race, justice, capitalism, police thuggery, and the culture of disposability and cruelty.

Dr. Giroux and I also vibe around public pedagogy, teaching, life, and share some war stories about the political space that is the classroom.

I would like to thank all of the good folks who have donated during the fundraising drive, and who chip in on a monthly basis, to support ChaunceyDeVega.com and my various other online projects.

Your support means a great deal to me. If you can, and are able, please do throw some change into the collective begging bowl that can be found on the right-hand side of the screen under the Paypal link.

This episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show with Henry Giroux can be listened to below or "watched" on the official Youtube channel for chaunceydevega.com

The Chauncey DeVega Show can also be followed on Itunes and listened to via Stitcher on your smart phone or like device.

8 comments:

joe manning said...

I think most experts in the field would not technically classify Josh Duggar as a pedophile because the sexual acts in question occurred between young siblings which is not uncommon. Pedophilia applies only to adults. The Duggar parents are the culpable offenders for not teaching and monitoring their children as to appropriate sexual interest.

Henry Giroux is correct that the war on teachers, students and education serves to extinguish critical thinking; "everything is in place to turn people into barbarians." A case in point is the "open carry" law just passed in Texas which allows students to pack heat on campus. Its function is to scare teachers and thereby stifle academic freedom. Its enough to make Machiavelli blush.

chauncey devega said...

Pederast? They are such self-righteous phony hypocrites. A wonderful example of the Christian Right in the U.S.


Talk about a real reality show. I would pay to see that one--but much of it would be illegal to watch.

James Scaminaci III, PhD said...

Giroux: "you are dangerous"

James Scaminaci III, PhD said...

Giroux's comment that we have to bring together all the identity and separate movements with a comprehensive view of politics is so fundamentally important. Here in Pensacola, I see and have been told of various good progressive organizations existing in their own silos, with leaders unwilling to work together because of personal issues or organizational frictions. Even at the local level, we don't have a comprehensive view of politics. We don't have a common narrative that can unite us in terms of vision, purpose, and action. Giroux, as others, hits the issue. Jason M Williams mentioned the same difficulty of pulling all together in Baltimore. On the other hand, the right-wing can unite the fundamentalist Christian, the charismatic Christian, the Tea Party, and the Klan in one broad movement with a common narrative (New World Order), common purpose (building the Kingdom), and common action plan--demonize, deny rights, and exploit--the rest of us.

chauncey devega said...

Giroux was very very generous. Always nice to talk to someone's work you admire. Even more so when they give you a nice complement.

joe manning said...

Points taken. The theocratic state is the Handmaid's tale with all its institutional perversions.
wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid's_Tale

But young teens who engage in inappropriate sex acts shouldn't be deemed lifetime pedophiles or pederasts.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty

And any parent who approves of having 19 kids and counting needs to have his/her head examined.

joe manning said...

The left has historically been fragmented as you point out, lacking a cognitively oriented unified theory (my words). The right has the advantage of coalescing around anti-theoretical amorphous emotional appeals.

Stanley Rogouski said...

Giroux's interview with Piya Chattopadhyay (the one he mentions in the podcast) is excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgxJJFFYpF4