The Pete Quiñones Show - Episode 1264: Continental Philosophy and Its Origins - Pt. 14 - Werner Sombart w/ Thomas777

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

69 MinutesPG-13Thomas777 is a revisionist historian and a fiction writer.Thomas continues a series on the subject of Continental Philosophy, which focuses on history, culture, and society. In this episode Thomas talks about Werner Sombart.Thomas' SubstackRadio Free Chicago - T777 and J BurdenThomas777 MerchandiseThomas' Book "Steelstorm Pt. 1"Thomas' Book "Steelstorm Pt. 2"Thomas on TwitterThomas' CashApp - $7homas777Pete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

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So head on over to the Pekignonez Show.com. You'll see all the ways that you can support me there. And I just want to thank everyone. It's because of you that I can put out the amount of material that I do. I can do what I'm doing with Dr. Johnson on 200 years together and everything else. The things that Thomas and I are doing together on continental philosophy, it's all because of you. And yeah, I mean, I'll never be able to thank you enough. So thank you.

The Pekingona Show.com. Everything's there. I want to welcome everyone back to the Pekignana show. Thomas, how are you doing today? I'm doing well. Thanks for hosting me. Of course. I'm going to talk about one of

one of my favorite writers today, so go ahead. I want to talk about Werner Sombart because Werner Sombart's an important theorist in his own right, and he's been a lot more impactful than people think. Even Paul Johnson, who's as normie as can be normie coded, I mean, don't mean wrong,

because he's written some pretty good books. You know, I cite the history of Christianity, not infrequently. He's two kind of similar books or a history of the American people. which if you notice, he wrote that as a director of rebuttal to Howard is in this nonsense. And you wrote a book of History of Christianity. The latter is better than the former, but the former is not bad.

And especially on early American history, 16th century to around the world between the States, it's pretty solid. But he, of all people, cites Sombard. obviously does so qualifiably and I'll get into what I mean by that as we progress in this discussion but my point is Sombard he's yes he's rather esoteric owing to the school of

academic culture from where he emerged but you know he's there's a very wide spectrum of intellectual endeavor where he's

he's He had a very impactful, you know, legacy. And the term late capitalism, specifically, but even capitalism entering into the conceptual and verbal lexicon, they very much know if you read Das Kapital, I mean, Marx obviously talks about capitalist structures, by capitalism as a kind of complete sociological phenomenon that very much knows to sambar and we'll get into why that is in any event a lot of the subs are asking me in part incidental discussion on substack chat about competing

socialism or you know what the discursive environment was that Marxism conquered, as it were, because there was a very active, you know, discourse on the subject matter of socialism that really characterized European social thought. I'd argue probably from around the time of Edmund Burke until, you know, really until Marx and Engels became, active and disseminating their theories through mass dissemination of published material and not just within you know university cloisters and things like that but so people wanted to you know talk about that kind of stuff and verner sombart i think verner sombard and george serrell if you're talking about if you're talking about the the new right as it existed in europe you know the the concerted and then the fascists and the national socialists and myriad iterations of radical rights thought from the turn of the 20th century onward you know so at George Sorrell and Bernard Saumbart their impact can't be overstated and Sondbart and Sondbart generally like I just said I mean I think Sorrell is important as an enduring significant

but that's somewhat esoteric and that's somewhat ideologically coded in favor of certain conceptual sympathies sombar yeah somber definitely has a i want to go as far as the right is definitely conservative i mean is in the tradition of ficta you know he was he was right wing in a sentence but there's a general relevance to political theory and most significantly political economy because Sondbert accomplished something that Marx did and he was a competent economist as well as being an adept sociologist and Marx was not competent in economics intrinsic to Marxism is a repudiation of conventional praxis which in and of itself isn't that doesn't defeat its validity but it can't be said to be an economic science and there's a scientific scientific

aspect of economics. I don't put any great stock in economic modeling. I don't think that is a complete, I don't think it creates a complete conceptual picture. I don't think the data yielded therein describes the totality of economic reality and the ontology, ontological aspects there in, but there is a place for it. You know, I mean the point last time, and I'm sure people will say mean things about me on account of it that Marxist economists almost remind me of Amnesians and they're almost religious fervor about this idea that economic modeling is is is you know doesn't yield anything and not just that it's it's almost immoral to resort to it because the data yields corrupts you know conclusions that both camps begin with and then

proceed from which in itself is you know any any anything that purports to be an economic science but that begins with the conclusion isn't any such thing but Bernard Sombard was primarily known for two seminal texts one was why is there no socialism in the United States the other one is the Jews and modern capitalism the latter is quite controversial for I think reasons that are self-evidence okay Uri Sliskin cited that directly and indirectly quite a bit in the Jewish century. He essentially agrees with the core thesis that capitalism, and again, Sombart was instrumental in coining capitalism as a conceptual signifier. So he was talking about a discrete worldview, not just a way of doing business.

and Sombard was a contemporary of Max Weber and obviously Max Weber he attributed he's a lot of what made America successfully attributed to Calvinism and the sociological aspects of it that tended to favor

the creation of wealth and a sort of active engagement by people who in more traditional societies would be viewed as commoners and not particularly prone to wealth creation. You know, Weber made a big deal about that. Well, Sombard's book, The Jews of Modern Capitalism, that he wrote that as an intended counterpart

to Max Weber's book on Calvinism and Prots and Ethics. And I want to mostly focus on his book on the United States, but briefly. Air Grid, operator of Ireland's electricity grid, is powering up the Northwest. We're planning to upgrade the electricity grid in your area and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November. Have your say, online or in person.

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Book now at giddlestorhouse.com. Get the facts be drink aware, visit drink aware. Saabert basically says that Jews were hostile to the guild system and they were hostile to fixed capital in lieu of fluid capital in large part for political and social reasons. You know, because the guild system and the feudal system, it wasn't just that Jews excelled at finance aspects of national economics such that, you know, there were. national economies in the middle ages and early modern period you know instinctively they had this antipathy to other modalities of economic life because that to them that was axiomatically associated with people who who despise them and oppressed them this wasn't even totally conscious like somers not saying there was some rabbinic council that said see we we've got to do

away with the leather workers guild because they're dirty goals. I mean, I'm sure some people thought that way, but, you know, intrinsic to the Jewish world of social existence was this antipathy, you know, and one of the reasons syndicalism took root in Europe, I think, it was an attempt to repair the social fabric that people were ripped out of by the collapse of the interdependence that characterized feudalism, you know, and that's one of the reasons why even left-wing syndicalists were almost unfalingly anti-Jewish. You know, it's not some accidents, and it's not just because everybody's prejudiced irrationally or something. You know, the, anything, any kind of labor, any kind of mobilized labor concern that, especially that which tends towards fixed capital, and the idea of a self-regulating, kind of craft guild extrapolated to modern production means, that especially,

tends to be just anti-Jewish. You don't really have a counterpart for that in America, but, you know, it's different than, you know, and this tracks even, too, even in places, even in places like Hungary or like Romania, where Jews didn't just have power in the nascent revolutionary movement. on the side you know on on the on the on the kind of side of the

we're talking out the ranks of political soldier you know like like the check in the soviet union you know in places like hungary and david irving makes his point of a uprising from inception throughout you know there there really was a jewish cadre that kind of controlled the communist movement there and despite their uh proletarian sensibilities they were hostile to traditional labor organizational modalities. Like, make no mistake. They wanted to replace it with something else. And being, at beginning class warfare is not the same thing.

You know, just to be clear. But like I said, I don't want to deep dive into that book right now. But moving on, the way to understand Sombard, this also relates to Marx because, you know, like I said, a minute ago, and like I had the point, emphasized as we've discussed marks you've got to understand where marx was coming from you know not just in terms of his prejudices based on his own heritage and things that were intrinsic to his worldview but marx didn't devise this idea of integrating sociology and political theory and economics into this unitary body of of theoretical research that's that was the way the

Germans did things in their traditional academy. This is kind of what succeeded scholasticism. And that's one of the reasons why the traditional university system, I mean, it's traditional to us. It's what it came about really in the early modern period in Europe. But what we think of as high academia, that's basically a German innovation, or it's a German, it's a German kind of conceptual structure.

The Gottengen School of History, that's essentially the foundation of historicism. Okay. It was the University of Gottengen. That's where, that was the original center of history as an academic discipline. You know, and not just something that was kind of the domain, a churchman, and, you know, people who were documenting, you know, the guys in the

employee of political authorities who were documenting military events and things. You know, history has a discreet domain of academic inquiry and, you know, philosophically rigorous academic endeavor that really came from the Gothenian culture. You know, and it was one of the newest universities in Europe. It was founded in the 1730s, which seems ancient to us, but again, most of the, most of the, most iconic universities, like, literally came out of the medieval Catholic Church. You know, that's one of the reason it's a joke when these half-ass kind of new age. atheists, like the church, they would say the church

as if there's some monolith that there's no such thing as sectarian identities. But, you know, the church is anti-intellectual. It's like, well, actually, like, what you know is intellectualism comes from the church, you stupid fuck. But

the, you know, the people in this kind of new university structure, they wanted to combine critical methods that were, you know, very much privileged under the scientific revolution. They wanted to combine that kind of methodology with traditional philosophical historians and the way they did things, you know, like Voltaire and Edward Given specifically.

You know, but they also, they were, they were the ones who were responsible for first devising a scientific basis for historical research. The difference is obviously the Angle-Saxon way was to crowd out all other modes of analysis and inquiry in favor the scientific method. And that's a mistake, according to the traditional European view, as well as that, you know, most other places. But as we taught out before. I mean, if we're talking about the intellectual tradition anywhere, we're talking about something derivative of the Western tradition, so I don't think I need to elaborately explicate what I mean by that. But the German approach to economics, academic economics, as well as to public administration,

and that held sway through the Third Reich, was this historical school of economics that combined historicism, anthropology, you know, understandings of the contingencies of political structures and economic development

to race and ethnos and historical experience. The idea of economics being this discrete departmentalized science. That didn't exist in Europe proper until the 50s. And you'll notice Joseph Schumpeter very much came out of this school. Okay. And I maintain the pushbag is going to be people saying,

well, how can you criticize the Austrian school and hold out people like Schumperer? All he was with some speculative social. No, he wasn't. Read business cycles. One of the strengths of it is that it's incredibly rigorous in its application of the scientific method to economic data. It's an incredibly difficult read. It will take you years to get through both values. I'm not kidding. The issue with Schumpeter, though, is that he was also a historicist. Okay, and that's the point I'm getting at. It's not one of the other. That's also why I object, honestly, I mean, just for the sake of intelligibility and the tagline of this series we're doing is continental philosophy. That's the way you have to discuss things.

Continental versus analytic. And analytic is basically a stand-in for angle-saxon or angle-sphere philosophy, which is essentially the philosophy of mathematics or formal logic. It's not one or the other. Okay. Or rather, the way I think of it is analytic philosophy. There's an intrinsic prejudice in analytic philosophy to non-empirical methods, but the converse isn't true. Airgrid, operator of Ireland's electricity grid, is powering up the northwest. We're planning to upgrade the electricity grid in your area, and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November. Have your say online or in person. So together we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community. Find out more at

airgrid.com. I.E. 4.S. Northwest. Employers. Rewarding your staff? Why choose between a shop voucher or a spend anywhere card when with options card you can have both. With options card, your team gets the best of both worlds. They can spend with with Ireland's favourite retailers or choose a spend anywhere card. It's simple to buy and easy to manage. There are no hidden fees, it's easy to use and totally flexible. They can even re-gift or donate to a good cause. Make your awards more rewarding.

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My goodness, it's Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at giddlestorhouse.com. Get the facts be drinkaware, visit drinkaware.com. The German school economics doesn't somehow disdain empirical methods. Even Marx didn't. It's just that his conclusions couldn't be borne out by those methods. And he began with a conclusion because any political partisan does that.

You know, and if your partisan commitment is inseparable from your view of the ontological aspects of economics, you're repudiating your own postulates, if you subjected to, you subjected to, you. an empirical scrutiny in lieu of a philosophical analysis or would pass us for one. Interestingly, the German historical school attracted a lot of American students. We studied over there, particularly after Max Weber came to prominence. okay, you know, and here's another example of a German historical school economist having a huge impact. You know, and you see this even, that's one of the ironies too of these progressives and these new dealers who in part were aping anglophone sensibilities. and, you know, when the English establishment lost its mind and decided to target everything Teutonic as their enemy.

And also, of course, you know, there's the Semitic influence that I don't think needs to be stated. But everything about American administration, American national economics, the public education system, the U.S. military is essentially filched from Germany. And even to this day, well, I mean, it's interesting, isn't it, that the U.S. Army in the late Cold War, they fully adopted mission-oriented tactics and sort of literally wearing stahl helms. You know, and then all go to Americans send their kids to kindergarten. I mean, yet, you know, and Frederick List essentially presented their roadmap for what became Gilded Age economics. yet, you know, the same people who were implementing these reforms were reeling against German militarism and Teutonic barbarism and racism, which we call cognitive dissonance writ large.

But, you know, the historical school, again, it's not just the sister discipline of historicism. They're one and the same. Its emphases are simply discreetly oriented towards economics. You know, the German Historical School held that the key source of knowledge about human actions and economic matters was culture specific. because all human activity at scale, and particularly that of a political nature, is culture-specific and historically contingent. So it's impossible to generalize over space and time

about economic activity qua economics. Now, mind you, people like Schumpeter and like Sambart and even like Marx, they favored long views. in terms of their data sets, but that's a different thing, because you're talking about a discrete culture or nation or the political configuration or constellation of nationalities, you know, engaging in economics in the historically contingent capacity

that discrete populations do, you know, within the parameters of their politics, that's a different thing. That's different than declaring that there's absolute economic imperatives that transcend, you know, temporal limitations and epochs and races and cultures. You know, you can say that all humans have economics, which is true. Whether you're talking about some Zandi tribe in sub-Saharan Africa, or whether you're talking about, you know, Japan and Zenith in the 80s, there is something called. economics just like there's something called political behavior but that's where universal criteria and characteristics end so that's that's why the German school or the historical school rejected the universal validity of economic theorems and it favored a historically empirical approach you know what is the experience of this in the Asian

of these people, of this population, just as one would, in determining the prime symbols that the feature most prominently in the symbolic psychology of a culture in question and how that informs political and social values and things. That's the way to understand it.

Their methodology drew very strong influence from Leopold von Rank who in the mind of some he's considered the father of historicism I'd say Ficta is but that's academic

I don't mean that in a punning way I mean it's literally like an academic controversy um Von Rank wasn't he wasn't an economist but he insisted on source-based analysis, you know, and a direct testimony and things of this nature,

and the little artifacts of the culture in question controlling for certain variables, you know, of a temporal nature and other things, in order to identify any given society's approach to economic activity and behavior. And also, I mean, another aspect of this is there's sectarian or religious orientation, okay? I mean, things like this. You know, how they view authority, all this kind of stuff. And not accidentally or not incidentally, you know, people recognize that methodology is the kind of thing that I employ and that I learn from people like, uh, David Irving and Norman Davies you know revisionism is something of a return to form and tried and tested ways methodologically speaking so yeah you can think of you can think of

Leopoldon rank as as the father of source-based history and incident the seminar teaching method, which is different than what people call the Socratic method. And for those the subs are in law school, you're not actually practicing the Socratic method and what you're doing in law school. That's just like what they like to call it. And it's a pretext for your law professors to try and embarrass you and put you on the spot. Maybe with the ubiquity of data devices, they can't do that anymore. But that seminar method of a university lecture, that, That's the German way of doing things.

And specifically, it came out of the German historical school. And Van Rank, building on the Göttingen Schools Conventions, he established this ongoing historical seminar, where he emphasized original source documents, you know, primary sources, narrative history, and in understanding the role of economics in the state system, which again was a paramount interest of his, because he wasn't an economist. You know, at base, he was a historicist and a political theory guy. You know, he said, okay, what's the narrative history of this people in question?

How do they interact in the international system in their epoch? And what's their impression of their role within? those systems and this was so impactful on the continent in the UK and even in American Ancadine he was ennobled thus the Vonnon in his name he wasn't born to aristocratic pedigree arguably and this comes up a lot in Paul Gauphreid's stuff Van Rack was probably the single biggest influence on 19th century historiographical studies. Everything was basically in dialogue with his methodology or directly abiding it. And I realize this is a long introduction.

This is essential to understand Sombart, but also Marx. And essentially every school of socialism, including the first. Frankfurt school which kind of misguided as they were there was a logical if flawed progression whereby pure economics was almost totally eschewed from their analysis of revolutionary praxis and what would be effective in the era. And that's fundamentally what they were concerned with. They weren't trying to arrive at fundamental truths about the human condition based on rigorous anthropological

inquiry and comparative analysis, obviously. And we'll get to that too, if that wouldn't bore the subs to death. But. Air Grid. operator of Ireland's electricity grid is powering up the Northwest. We're planning to upgrade the electricity grid in your area and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November. Have your say, online or in person.

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Christmas nights at gravity. This Christmas, enjoy a truly unique night out at the Gravity Bar. Savour festive bites from Big Fan Bell, expertly crafted seasonal cocktails and dance the night away with DJs from love tempo. Brett take infuse, amazing atmosphere,

incredible food and drink. My goodness, it's Christmas. At the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at giddlestorhouse.com. Get the facts be drinkaware, visit drinkaware.comware.com.e. Sambart, the man. Interestingly, Sombart, I believe he's the only economist that Julius Evela wrote about extensively and sought out for correspondence, which is interesting.

Evela, despite his reputation as a mystic, which was not misplaced, one of the reasons why he praised sombart is because he considered him to have an understanding of the emphasis in research methodology that were significant to the traditional school but he his analytical methods removed from the deformations and conceptual biases of materialist sociology specifically the Marxist Leninist type according to Evel economic life

is composed not just the material quantities and physical processes and biological organisms but there's a spiritual or if you prefer an idealist an abstract conception

of it that's essential that culminates in a symbolic psychological overly. There is such a thing as an economic spirit. And this is value centric.

That's what Weber is getting at. And his discussion of Calvinism is a sociological imperative and an anthropological phenomena and an animating principle that not just characterizes,

but renders possible an entire mode of economic life. You know, and obviously Sombard's book on the Jews and modern capitalism emphasizes that, but so does Sambard's book on America. And Adolf Hitler very much agreed with Sombard's diagnosis, which was very unflattering to Europeans, almost punitive.

and I made the point, I believe, in one of our previous discussions, when we were talking specifically about the Brendan Sims historical biography of Hitler, you know, Hitler made the point that Europeans were deteriorating and that a lot of the best European racial stock in his estimation had ended up in America and that psychologically, in many ways, Americans were more robust and the Americans of that era you know an America born in the frontier and racial warfare and all manner of creative destruction you know they were unwilling to be servile in a way that Europeans a big condition to be and even physically a fascinating data point in the battle of the Hurdgen for it.

You know, and among other things, that was the cost of defeat ever issued to the U.S. Army. American soldiers and German soldiers with similar wounds caused by similar identical caliber weapons. Americans tended to survive something like two to one compared to their German enemies because physically they were just more robust. They just had more fat and muscle on them. It was harder to break them by shooting them. And that's not a minor thing. You know, and part of the National Socialist imperative, you know, I made the point, Hitler wasn't going around saying Europe is the master race.

The Germans are, Europeans are. Quite the contrary. He was saying, we need to become that way because we are losing. And, you know, from the 30 years' war onward, Europe suffered a series of punctuated catastrophes that if weren't remedied would lead to the death of Europe as a civilization. You know, and Sombart echoed a lot of that, or Hitler echoing a lot of what Sombart observed. And like I said, there's data points to shore this up. I mean, additionally, too, the, you know, contained the bulk of the world's remaining natural resources and that's

that's true still and that that changes things too just on its own terms but the racial stock or the element that constitutes the majority or at least the driving engine of economic and productive life they've got to be able not just extract those resources but convert them to be utilized or render those things into value added manufacturers, obviously. And the ability of Americans to do that at scale itself in a prima facie way was demonstrative of the concern. It was a concern, but also it was, like I said, rather pramacially. of American mentioned material contra that in Germany, which is really interesting.

But the, I realize that was tangential, but I think it's, I think it's important, not just demonstrative, but the, you know, and again, I'll wrap up this Ebola discussion in a minute, but I think it's significant on its own terms, but also to demonstrate what wasn't as important about Sombard to the rightest intellectual canon. The immediate and instinctive purposes of production processes are somewhat secondary to what animates pursuit of the capitalization, literally, of those processes and of those processes and of those raw materials. Laving in this way

is an objective in itself to great races and cultures. And increasingly, you know, in the 20th century where potentialities were truly becoming

what there to fore that seemed impossible. You know, this this was especially poignant and relevant. It's not prosperity arrives because superior races that's the

bounty of their laborers. That's not the reason why they do labor. This is a better way to think about it. And despite people think people like Sambard weren't anti-money or anti-wealth or something or they weren't hair-share to view the American

way is being inherently corrupting. There is obviously serious problems with America even back then, and some would acknowledge that, but you know, again, great wealth is the bounty of great and imaginative labors.

And also, wealth makes all other things possible. You know, the idea is a surplus, not so you can hoard things and be greedy and indulge yourself. It's because it frees up man collectively for high cultural activities. Air grid, operator of Ireland's electricity grid, is powering up the Northwest. We're planning to upgrade the electricity grid in your area,

and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November. Have your say, online or in person, so together we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community. Find out more at airgrid. at airgrid.e.4 slash northwest. Employers, rewarding your staff?

Why choose between a shop voucher or a spend anywhere card when with options card, you can have both. With options card, your team gets the best of both worlds. They can spend with Ireland's favorite retailers or choose a spend anywhere card. It's simple to buy and easy to manage. There are no hidden fees.

It's easy to use. totally flexible. They can even re-gift or donate to a good cause. Make your awards more rewarding. Visit optionscar.I.E. Today. On the many nights of Christmas the Guinness Storehouse brings to thee Christmas nights at gravity.

This Christmas, enjoy a truly unique night out at the Gravity Bar. Savour festive bites from Big Fan Bell, expertly crafted seasonal cocktails and dance the night away with DJs from love tempo. Brett take infuse, amazing atmosphere, incredible

food and drink. My goodness, it's Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at giddlestorhouse.com. Get the facts be drinkaware, visit drinkaware.com. Or for, you know, things that are transcendent and truly great. You know, whether it's the conquest of space or whether it's, you know, making great works of art, or whether it's improving the human conditions, towards physical and spiritual and intellectual and intellectual excellence or whether it's creating instantaneous and global networks of communication you know like we have now people take for granted how remarkable these things are I don't sound corny but like I was thinking today every time I buy groceries at Target

I realize people don't like Target, not really either, but I'm on a budget because I'm kind of a poor writer. And they've got the cheapest produce and stuff. But it's, I've got a giant tub of coffee beans in my kitchen. I got fresh fruit from like three different continents. I got a case of bottled water I can grab whatever I want. I got a carton of cigarettes. I got the kind of chewing gum I like. I live better than I.

a great condid. You know, and I'm like, I'm some poor guy who writes stuff. That is truly incredible. And I don't think people realize that. You know, in my pocket, I've got what's nominally a phone. But I can talk to anybody anywhere on the planet, except maybe the Amazonian Basin or Antarctica. You know, and being just some random guy

who can do that and have all that stuff. that's completely insane even even in the 1950s it was a luxury to have decent coffee in a lot of Europe you know what I mean think about that

and yeah I mean too much of a good thing can make people complacent but it's it's incredible the that these kinds of things were devised

and can yield what they do I mean obviously that's an expiration date, you know, and that needs to be taken seriously too, but I don't think people realize how remarkable this is and the amount of research and man hours and labor required to generate these modern conveniences. I really don't. I mean, I know they don't because I hear the way people talk. You know, it's as if this stuff literally just falls out of the sky or something. But, uh, You know, and that itself is a Faustian imperative. You know, that's why there's something misguided. I remember, I think this was years back, but this sentiment is repeated, or at least it's conveyed in slightly different, you know, metaphors or language.

When that movie, Fatherland came out, it's based on the Robert Harris book. You know, it's about a third-right victory, and the movie slash book opens in 1964 where the Reich is preparing for Hitler's 75th birthday

and President Joe Kennedy who in this counterfactual timeline becomes president. It's his big state visit to Berlin because this cold war is going on between America and the Reich since the Reich won the war. And there's a really

it's a combination of matte paintings or matte paintings and early CGI that renders this futuristic Berlin and some reviewers said yeah there's the perverse collision of this racism and this reverence for the past but with this dystopian futurism it doesn't make any sense I'm like no it absolutely makes sense if you don't understand the future of sensibility of national socialism you don't understand national socialism it's not reactionary that's the whole point The whole point was we're not trying to turn the clock back.

We're not trying to go back to the time of the Peasant's War. We're not trying to make our people ignorance that they're not worldly and thus are our childlike and their morals. Nothing like that. You know, it was in a, it is about overcoming what there to four had been the realities of, of cast even in higher races. You know, like Younger said, the concept of the anarch, that was a concept taken very serious of a national socialism.

The new national socialist man, he's neither a master nor a slave. He's a self-contained god man almost. You know, it would be he's not a slave because he couldn't be a slave. He's not a master in the traditional sense because of in his racial community, there are no slaves.

You know, the only formal equality can exist between, you know, a race of Anarchs. And that's important. And incidentally, that's the kind of equality people like Sorrell or Sambart we're talking about. You know, of course, there is a... you do need slave labor to build something like the thousand-year Reich that was envisioned, but those slaves are drawn from your vanquished enemies outside of the race, you know, and the race, including all of Europe. And that's a very brutal proposition.

But, you know, I used to point out to this lady that I was tight with, I used to take her, she was nice on a kind of museum campus with me a lot, like when we were in law school, and she really liked the Egypt exhibit at the Field Museum. They've got a whole, they've got a permanent Egypt exhibit, like incredible stuff. And one of the exhibits, they've got a pyramid stone. You know, it's like 7,000 pounds. and it's on these skids on this on this thick plexiglass

thing and there's sand there to cut the friction and there's a chain and like kids climb on it and stuff but they invite you to try to pull it to get a sense of of the sheer weight of this thing you know and

she was always saying me to task for once she perceived as like really callous things that say about historical processes and I'm like look you know I'm like you know she'd been to Egypt and and been to like the Valley of Kings and stuff and like you know it was it was slave labor and it was strong men who were breaking themselves hauling these giant stones you know to build those pyramids I'm like where do you think they came from you think robots built them you know I was trying not to be too mean about it but the degree

to which all high culture is literally built on the backs, the once strong backs, you know, broken by the weight of their burdens of slaves, you know, millions of them. The historical process is an endless march of slaves. Their backs stooped by these giant stones and things, you know. And that's not something people should shy away from. Except it's anything about Salvard's personal background. he was born to wealth. His father was a liberal politician in the 1848 sense.

And to be clear, a lot of a lot of, I mean, there was a lot of the 1848 revolutionaries with the descendants of Jacob in the real sense, but a lot of them also were very Catholic and were very concerned with equity between the classes and things. And the sense of they had sympathy for liberalizing tendencies. This wasn't a Jacobin type sensibility, you know, to be clear.

I'm not saying they were right, but these distinctions are important. Airgrid, operator of Ireland's electricity grid, is powering up the Northwest. We're planning to upgrade the electricity grid in your area, and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November. Have your say, online or in person. So together we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community. Find out more at airgrid.i.4.4. Northwest.

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He's a son of a wealthy industrialist and a state owner and, like I said, politician, Anton Ludwig Sombart. He initially studied law. economics. He received his PhD from Berlin, mostly in the direction of Edolf Wagner. Edel Wagner was kind of the other Wagner, and there was no relation between him, as far as I know, and I've looked into it, and the Wagner family, you know.

But Edel Wagner, to this day, you crack an economics textbook or take a class in political account. your teacher and or your text will refer to Wagner's law, also known as the law of increasing state activity. And Wagner's law postulates that the public expenditure in any modern state axiomatically increases as national income rises. and there's no exception to this date to this rule. It's closely tied to industrialization, but that's not the dispositive cause. It basically predicts that the development of an industrial economy

will always lead to an increased share of public expenditure in GNP and that welfare states always develop, from free market capitalist paradigms, because once the budget comes up for vote, which really is all we're talking about in a late capitalist state ruled by a managerial system, or somebody like Sombard, what it called a parliamentary system, the body politic will always vote for entitlements.

You know, and even, it's not even a question. And there might be entire political cultures built out of people saying we need to cut entitlements. But as they're saying that, they're remaining an office based on the distribution of entitlements. So it's almost this conscious irony or this kind of polite fiction. You know, and I mean, you see that here, you know, I mean, writ large. Like, how are the Republicans some small government party? you know they uh i mean that's it's it's it's not even standing on ceremony it's just it's there's nothing um there's nothing there's nothing there's just uh it's it's it's not even performative because there's not

even there's not there's not there's not perfunctory cuts to the uh permanent bureaucracy and the entitlement structure i don't think it's an accident um i'm not some like Elon Musk fanboy. I've had some serious I don't think he's a good guy at all. However, it's not an accident that when Doge became, appeared to, you know, have some actual momentum

at least with regards entrenched interest groups outside of the deep state, suddenly suddenly Musk became this bad guy. You know, and it's not that that wasn't just Trump's decision. Trump's something of a

cipher, you know? I mean, I realize this is a tangential thing, but that's that's not an accident. Then it's not you know, it's not it's not because Musk be a liability by saying politically incorrect things or something. I mean, if that was the case, Trump would fire RFK2

immediately. You know, it's what I said it was. You know, and again, I'm not saying Musk is some good guy or something, but he was correct in some of his sentiments. And Doge was something, I mean, the way he went about it was stupid and the branding was stupid, but the sentiment was correct. But that's a non-starter. Because Musk is literally autistic.

He doesn't understand why that's not going to work. They can't come from some policy perspective. They can't come from the Oval Office. You can cut taxes, but that's a different thing. And that's always popular, even if there's not a real impact in terms of the percentage of a GNP that's dedicated to public revenue. but in any event fleshing further out Wagner's law

concomitant obviously with this increased share that outlays occupies occupy a GNP the public sector and the share it occupies and the national economy grows continually

and ultimately this becomes unsustainable you know and so sociologically, this increase in state expenditure, it derives, according to Wagner's law, from three sources, which, although long term, this slays the golden goose short term, it's in relative short term, I mean, I don't mean in terms of weeks or years, we're finding decades, but really the only way the modern state, the late capitalist state,

can sustain itself as through these state expenditures that fund social activities, the state, you know, social engineering and welfare state outlays, administrative and protective actions, you know, mostly relating to the aforementioned activities and three direct welfare functions, you know, old age pensions, you know, things of this nature, like the public health bureaucracy you know um and this is you know vaguen't will point is this is why it's a non-starter to not treat all economic analysis as a study of political economy you know because all economic decision-making even a nominally lays a fair uh regime you know you you know, decisions are made based on socio-political realities with a body politic demands

or what's going to vote for itself. You know, there's economic imperatives where there's going to some outlays are necessary, you know, some market hostile outlies are necessary, you know, outlays are necessary, you know, of a science and technological nature, of a military nature. you know, you don't, you don't build SDI for the hell of it. You know, you do it when you're in a strategic paradigm that is totally zero sum, that if it resolves in war, there's going to be 80 million people dead. And, you know, that as human decision makers are increasingly being sidelined, there's a very real possibility that, you know, a nuclear war is going to happen

when there's not even any direct intent to make it happen. That's just one example. Okay. So you find yourself having to dump, you know, $800 billion in the SDI because the alternative is, you know, possibly the death of your entire country for practical purposes, you know. And finally, there's physical contingencies that need to be. be planned for like whether you're talking about natural disaster or whether you're talking about you know the state having to service loans that uh it it took on to cover contingencies or real

crises that emerged you know and the sum of government debt and attendant interest grows you know servicing this debt expenditure requires physical processes and energies to do so you know and that's

you know again there's no way to neutralize that or to mitigate that people claim the empirical evidence has been mixed um there's this broad those broad-based empirical study

undertaken to try and prove a refute Wagner's law was by these two guys named Alan T. Peacock, which is an awesome name, and Jack Wiseman, that tends to prove the truth of the matter asserted. And from 1891 to 1955 in the American situation and in the United Kingdom, they found that Wagner's law, it pretty much described public expenditure to a T. Okay. You'll find

especially stuff from the 90s and beyond that claims this is, you know, socialist economics and shit. But again, I've never seen a persuasive

study that was as thorough and was complete in terms of the variables coded as the Peacock and Wiseman study. So if somebody has one, I'd love to take a look at it, but I don't think you have one. But I guess we're coming up in the hour, man. I'm sorry if I was due ScatterShop.

There's a lot I wanted to get out to sort of lay the foundation. And I realized I almost didn't say anything on this book. And that was like my whole intention was a question. cover this book. I promise next time I will cover this correctly. And we'll devote like half of it to dealing with this and then we'll deal with George Sorrell and maybe even say a word about Vablint and stuff. But I promise I'll move on from this foundational stuff. But like I said, I think it was essential. I'm saying the subject matter. You know what I mean? Yeah. A couple things.

Sambart, you initially talked about Jews in modern capitalism. One, that book wasn't always controversial. I mean, the first person who translated into English was a Talmudic scholar. Yeah, it's not particularly, it's not punitive against Jews. It doesn't say, oh, Jews are these bad people when they're doing these bad things. I mean, like I said, Yuri Slisking cites it extensively. I mean, that's the reality.

If you don't accept that, if you don't accept that there's conceptual prejudices built into Jewish political life, I don't want to tell you. There is every population is like that. You know, I mean, not like them, but I mean that that's the reality is that there's, you know, conceptual prejudices

born of historical experiences. Go ahead, I'm sorry. Well, yeah, another question I had is the original, the German title is De Juden Das Wierchhaftersleben, which translated literally means the Jews and the economic life. Yeah. Yeah. That translate, the way that's translated approximately is late capitalism. Why that is, I don't know.

German's a tough language. I can read it passively, but there's nuances not just of enunciation and stuff, of a conceptual nature. I mean, I go like this. Geist. Geist literally means ghost, spirit.

But zeitgeist, we're not talking about an age spirit or a world spirit. That's something we're talking about something like American Indians are into or something. Like that doesn't, I mean, this is one example, but presumably if you're talking about the modern life in a German, particularly in a German academic sense, you're talking about the way people live, you're talking about the way they think, you're talking about the technological features of the lives they live, you're talking about the way the government is configured, you're talking about what's important to people.

it encompasses all these things. So in the context of it, English is very literal language. English isn't really versatile. There's 10 words for every noun. But it's also very literal. But in context, if you say in German, for example, the attitude of Jews towards the modern life.

You're not talking about how Jewish people like washing machines and the internet. You're talking about a whole orientation towards this entire constellation of things that characterize modernity, you know, including late capitalism, which is a somber concept. You know, that's the best way to explain it. I'm far from fluent. I'm semi-fluent in reading it. Excellent.

All right. Well, we'll pick up, start talking about the book the next episode on why there is no socialism. in the United States. And, you just... No, I'm just kidding. It's so ridiculous that we've been socially engineered to think, to hear socialism and think it's just one thing and not ask questions of, oh, why were people who obviously weren't socialist calling themselves, you know, like Marxian, the Marxian conception of socialist, why

Why weren't they active, you know, why, why did Adolf Hitler take power and actually privatize some public works? Yeah. No, and why did, like, I mean, one of the Air Hardin Milch, he founded Luftanzah. I mean, among a, Eric Miltz is a fascinating dude. I mean, not just because of his weird background, which was just interesting. But he wasn't just a military prodigy, but he was, he was basically the world. first airline CEO, you know, and it's like airline CEOs aren't guys who are into state socialism, as we know.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Not even close. Yeah. Do plugs real quick on this. Yeah, man. My substack and that's that's the best place to find me. And also unlike platforms like X, which I despise, I actually stand by substack.

I think they're a great platform. but that's where you can find really good things it's real thomas seven seven seven substack.com I've got a website it's number seven HMAS seven seven seven com all my social media and my Instagram can be accessed from those two places as well as my YouTube which I'm gonna try and do more stuff on I've been reluctant because I think they're gonna try and ban me if I get too comfortable there but um my My homie, Jay Burton, and my friend Derek, the guy, what are you messing the scabs guy? They've been following their example on some content stuff, and they both really like YouTube.

But anyway, my social media is at Thomas Sear-777. That's my government name. It's T-H-O-M-A-S-C-Y-R-777. And that's it. All right. Thank you. Until the next time. appreciate it. Yeah, man.

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Have your say, online, or in person. So together we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community. Find out more at Airgrid.I.E. 4.S. Northwest. This Black Friday, game, stream, and go full speed with one gig, Sky broadband. And watch unmissable shows like all her fault on Sky.

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and broadband sold separately. Terms apply for more infoise, sky.8.a slash speeds.