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Jacobin Radio

The Dig: Our History Is the Future with Nick Estes

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.71.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2019

⏱️ 165 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dan's lengthy interview with Nick Estes on his remarkable book Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. The problem that settler colonialism was repeatedly trying to solve by unleashing such terrific violence — through massacres, by nearly eliminating the buffalo, in reservation confinement, in dominating the Missouri River — was not just indigenous people being in the way but also the existence of a larger relationship between indigenous people and the land, water, and animals. The history of resisting this capitalist and colonialist dispossession has endured through the Water Protectors' struggle at Standing Rock — which will, in retrospect, be remembered as a pivotal moment in the global struggle against climate catastrophe.

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com.

Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig.



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Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode of The Dig is brought to you by our supporters at Petrian.com and by Verso Books, which has loads of great left-wing titles, perfect for dig listeners like you.

0:14.0

One that you might like is future histories,

0:17.0

what Ada Lovelace, Tom Payne,

0:20.0

and the Paris Commune teach us about digital technology by Lizzie O'Shea.

0:25.0

When we talk about technology, we always talk about the future,

0:30.0

which makes it hard to figure out how to get there.

0:34.0

In future histories, Lizzy O'Shea argues that we need to stop looking forward and start looking backwards.

0:42.0

Weaving together histories of computing and social movements,

0:46.1

with modern theories of the mind, society, and self,

0:50.1

O'Shea constructs a usable past that can help us determine our digital future.

0:56.0

What, she asks, can the Paris Commune tell us about earlier experiments in sharing resources, like the Internet in common.

1:06.8

Can debates over digital access be guided by Tom Paine's theories of democratic economic redistribution?

1:13.0

And how is Elon Musk not a visionary,

1:17.0

but a throwback to Victorian-era utopians?

1:20.0

In engaging sparkling prose, O'Shea shows us how very human our understanding of technology is,

1:29.2

and what potential exists for struggle, for liberation, for art and poetry in our digital present.

1:37.0

Future histories is for all of us, makers, coders, hacktivists, Facebook users, self-styled Lettites, who find ourselves in a brave new world.

1:49.0

Future Histories, what Ada Lovelace, Tom Payne, and the Paris Commune teach us about digital technology.

1:57.0

By Lizzie O'Shea, out now from Verso Books. Welcome to the dig, a podcast from Jacobin magazine.

2:14.0

My name is Daniel Denver and I'm temporarily broadcasting from Santiago de Chile.

2:21.0

The liberal story is that we're a nation of immigrants. The indigenous story is that the

2:27.2

United States was founded as a nation of settler colonialists. For most of our history, maintaining overwhelming white settlement to ensure

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