It was a pleasure to discuss my recent critique of Slavoj Zizek with Greg Wilpert, situating it in relation to my larger book project on the compatible left intelligentsia & its war on actually existing socialism.
“Slavoj Zizek: Capitalism’s Court Jester?,” ZNetwork, February 9, 2023.
Gracias a Tita Barahona por haber traducido mi artículo, “Foucault: The Faux Radical,” al español, y a Canarias semanal por haberlo publicado: “Michel Foucault: el falso radical“.
My response to Todd Cronan’s book, Red Aesthetics: Rodchenko, Brecht, Eisentstein, was just published in The Tank via Nonsite, along with several others.
Excerpt: “Indeed, art can draw on the full breadth of sense perception to engage with and remodel people’s lived experience, cultivate an accurate comprehension of the social totality, and ultimately bring them into a collective process of world making. Would Cronan agree with the suggestion that this very expansive understanding of an accurate depiction of reality—which includes a dialectically entwined relationship between perception, comprehension, and practice—is operative in red aesthetics? [read more]”
It was a real pleasure to speak with Carlos Garrido at Midwestern Marx about “Why Slavoj Žižek is Capitalism’s Court Jester.” We discuss the global theory industry; the intellectual labor aristocracy; commodified commie cosplay; a reanimated concept of social chauvinism; the political economy of knowledge production, distribution, and reception; the compositional theory of ideology; the professional managerial class stratum in the imperial core; gatekeepers who keep the theory game going; and more.
In my latest article, which is part of my book project on the Intellectual World War, I explain how Žižek rose to fame in the global theory industry by promoting pomo radlib theory against “the global solution-revolution” of “Marxism” (his words). He refers to communism as “maybe the worst catastrophe in the history of humanity” (sic). No wonder he’s the (capitalist) world’s most famous “Marxist”! He’s capitalism’s court jester: aping the figure of the Marxist-qua-antisocial-fanatic, he encourages disdain for the real-world project of socialism, while advancing his career by hawking the wares of Western consumer society & the global theory industry through his pop cultural mash-up.
I was honored to collaborate with Nick Stender on this translation of a previously untranslated interview with the great African revolutionary Thomas Sankara. This is part of a translation series that we are doing with Liberation School. Click here to see the others.
I was very honored to be invited on Canarias semanal to discuss one of my current book projects, The Intellectual World War, with Tita Barahona. Below you will find both the original version of the interview, where the questions are asked in Spanish and I respond in English, as well as the version dubbed in Spanish. I have also provided links to some of my more journalistic writings on the topic.
Tuve el gran honor de ser invitado en Canarias semanal para discutir uno de mis proyectos de libros actuales, La Guerra mundial intelectual, con Tita Barahona. A continuación encontrará tanto la versión original de la entrevista, donde las preguntas se hacen en español y yo respondo en inglés, como la versión doblada al español. También he proporcionado enlaces a algunos de mis escritos más periodísticos sobre el tema.
“The CIA & the Frankfurt School’s Anti-Communism.” Los Angeles Review of Books, “The Philosophical Salon” (June 27, 2022). This article was translated into Spanish (also here), Romanian, Turkish and French.
“Foucault, Anti-Communism & the Global Theory Industry: A Reply to Critics.” Los Angeles Review of Books, “The Philosophical Salon” (February 1, 2021). This article was translated into Turkish.
“Foucault: The Faux Radical.” Los Angeles Review of Books, “The Philosophical Salon” (October 12, 2020). This article was translated into Turkish.
“The CIA Reads French Theory: On the Intellectual Labor of Dismantling the Cultural Left.” Los Angeles Review of Books, “The Philosophical Salon” (February 27, 2017). This article was translated into Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, French, Persian, Greek & Kurdish.
I greatly enjoyed this conversation with The Cadre Journal. We began by discussing the two articles below and my book project on The Intellectual World War, but we then expanded the conversation to address larger issues regarding student radicalism, US imperialism, the rise of fascism, etc. Click here to listen to it on Spotify.
“The CIA & the Frankfurt School’s Anti-Communism.” Los Angeles Review of Books, “The Philosophical Salon” (June 27, 2022).
“Critical and Revolutionary Theory.” Domination and Emancipation: Remaking Critique. Ed. Daniel Benson. London: Roman & Littlefield International, 2021.
I was pleased to share an overview of my book project with the participants in the Critical Theory Workshop‘s 2022 Summer School in Paris and online. We discuss my intellectual and political development, elucidating what has led me from French theory and Frankfurt School critical theory to a historical materialist critique of the global theory industry.
Please consider joining us in Paris or online for the 15th edition of the Critical Theory Workshop’s Summer School (flyer below). Invited speakers include Derek Ford, Clara Lecadet, Helmut-Harry Loewen, Jennifer Ponce de León, Eli Portella Perreras, Salvador Rangel, myself, and more TBA. Click here for more info, including how to apply.
GABRIEL ROCKHILL 