Documentary #16: The Myth of Freedom Under Capitalism

Upstream

Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.9 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2023

⏱️ 99 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Although its intellectual handmaidens love to insist otherwise — capitalism is not a system that truly embodies freedom. We all feel it, of course — that nagging sense that we lack any agency over the choices that shape our lives, the frustration we feel at our bosses, the tension we feel with our landlords, the sense that we're all just stuck in a rat race. We might lack the language to articulate it, or a framework within which to situate it, but we all know, deep down, that this ain't it — that there's something deeply wrong.

In this episode, we explore why this is — why, despite what we're constantly being told — that we currently live under the freest system ever — that we're not actually free — and why we're all imprisoned within capitalism.

We start with a brief history of how we got here, what different conceptions of freedom have meant historically — and how they can be applied to our current condition — and then we take a deep dive into the mechanisms this system uses to keep us all imprisoned, and, finally, how we can break free.

Featured Guests:

Matt Christman: Co-host of Chapo Trap House
Ayesha Khan: Infectious diseases scientist, germ doctor, grassroots organizer, writer, astrobiologist, and educator
Corey Mohler: Creator of Existential Comics
Jessica Gordon Nembhard: Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College of the City University of New York and author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice
David Bollier: Activist, Scholar, and blogger focused on the commons and author of The Commoner's Catalog for Changemaking: Tooks for the Transitions Ahead.

Music by Collections of Colonies of Bees, Peder, Mammoth Star, Do Make Say Think, and Chris Zabriskie,

Thank you to Bethan Mure for the cover art. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond.

You can read the full transcript of this episode here.

For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Before we get started on this episode, if you can, please go to Apple podcasts to rate,
0:05.4	subscribe, and leave us a review there. It really helps us get in front of more eyes and into more
0:10.8	ears. We don't have a marketing budget or anything like that for upstream, so we really do rely on
0:16.6	listeners like you to help grow our audience and spread the word. Also, upstream is a labor of love.
0:23.9	It's really important for us to keep our bi-weekly conversation series and our documentaries
0:29.4	free of charge and accessible to anybody who's interested, but it all takes a lot of time
0:35.0	in resources. If you can, if you're in a place where you can afford to do so and it's important
0:40.8	for you to keep this content free and sustainable, please consider going to upstreampodcast.org
0:47.2	forward slash support to make a one-time or recurring monthly donation. Thank you.
0:55.7	You're listening to upstream, upstream, upstream, a podcast of documentaries and conversations
1:22.4	that invites you to unlearn everything you've thought you knew about economics. I'm Robert
1:27.7	Reynolds, and I'm Dela Duncan. Join us as we journey upstream to the heart about economic system
1:34.4	and discover a cardinetsch stories of game-changing solutions based on connection, liberation, and
1:41.6	prosperity for all.
1:55.3	It was that same yearning for freedom that nearly 250 years ago gave birth to a special place
2:03.6	called America. I believe you won't keep political freedom unless you also have economic
2:10.4	freedom, which means that you must have a large part of free enterprise in your early economy.
2:16.7	Americans in many of our largest cities would have to work more than 100 hours a week at minimum
2:21.6	wage to afford the rent on a one-bedroom home, according to a new survey by the United Way.
2:26.7	America is freedom, freedom of enterprise, and freedom is special and rent. It's fragile.
2:35.1	It means production is man-free. In mankind's history, capitalism is the only system that answers
2:43.7	yet. So if you think about the top five issues Americans are concerned about homelessness would
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Upstream, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Upstream and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.