#49 Roger Hallam on Extinction Rebellion
Added 2019-05-26 18:10:54 +0000 UTCExtinction Rebellion co-founder Roger Hallam joins me to discuss the organisational model of XR and how it's succeeded in mobilising so many people to take part in direct action. We also chatted about the booklet Roger has written on the strategy of XR - Common Sense for the 21st Century: Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate Breakdown and Social Collapse. And we also discussed the criticism XR has come in for regarding it's tactics of mass arrest and a perceived failure to properly engage with communities of colour.
Comments
Thanks :) very glad to hear you've been enjoying the show.
Politics Theory Other
2019-06-05 10:43:56 +0000 UTCNo worries, Alex. I look forward to the article and the future episodes. Thanks for producing such a consistently thought provoking show!
2012_Olympic_Font
2019-06-05 10:19:03 +0000 UTCThanks for this, I think that's all very fair comment. I'm generally wary of making the show about my views too much, but I see what you mean in the case of this episode. I had been working on an article on Hallam's booklet and on the interview itself - though I can't promise that will see the light of day. However, I do have an interview coming up on the Green New Deal and the guest in question is writing on XR from a standpoint that I'm sympathetic too and so perhaps that my do in terms of fleshing out my position somewhat. thanks again for listening!
Politics Theory Other
2019-06-05 10:13:39 +0000 UTCHi Alex, I know that this would break the usual format of the show, but I was wondering if you might do a follow up episode (even a short one) where you give more of your thoughts about this conversation. Your introduction was a useful frame, but your interviews usually have a more cohesive feel. This one raised a lot of issues that didn’t received an adequate response (maybe just my impression). I don’t mean this as a criticism at all, I think this episode was very interesting (as are all the episodes) but I would love to hear more of your thoughts about the ideas being presented here — especially with regards to liberalism v “the left” and the “anti-empiricism” of left strategy/thought.
2012_Olympic_Font
2019-06-05 08:19:14 +0000 UTCI've never heard someone make such a fool of themselves. "The radical left is so ineffective because it is anti-empirical - it is decided beforehand what's right and what's wrong, and it doesn't really want to look at social science." Wow, what a complete dismissal of the vast (non-empirical) enlightenment legacy not to say the history of class struggle. "XR is research based, right?!" Yes, all politics is research based - research is a very broad term! "Its 2 years", oh my God, 2 years he says, "of detailed study of the nuances of social movement theory and non-linear acts of civil disobedience - so its not a surprise that we've been successful..." Oh yes, very successful. I can feel the earth cooling as I type. "It's a challenge for you guys - out there," that would be me - the listener - who is trying desperately to see past some out-of-control aggressive bravado in order to ascertain whether any sensible arguments are being made. I couldn't really detect any on this occasion (oh, yes, Roger the entire global elite crumbled after 9/11 didn't they... that's all we need - a few hundred deaths and the whole civilisational order gets turned on its head) but I will try to give his pamphlet a go once I've got over what a patronising git he is. We "[who] never read any books on nonlinear dynamics and network theory... you're reading the wrong literature, guys!" despair for Roger Hallam. Notwithstanding his masterful display in building alliances and finding allies, he appears not have heard of CCRU, Mark Fisher, and cybernetics? Nor even world systems theory? Does he think his cherished "non-linear" chaos theory has only influenced his (obviously myopic) liberal 'social science' research programmes? What an arrogant man. I was broadly supportive of XR until hearing this interview, hoping desperately that XR would not peter out without achieving much, as so many social movements do. With this guy in charge - hubris doesn't cover it - I now despair that its inevitable. 2 years of detailed study! Wow.
Abra K
2019-05-27 14:05:54 +0000 UTC
