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BlomCast
The BlomCast looks at turning points in history, which have always fascinated me. My name is Philipp Blom, I am a historian and broadcaster and author of many books about the Enlightenment, the story of modernity and climate history. The climate catastrophe places us at the greatest historical turning point hin human history. What, if anything, can we learn from moments in the past in which a model of life seemed to change, or had to change, in which whole societies were transformed?
BlomCast
[28] Musa Al-Gharbi — Symbolic Capitalism and the Pitfalls of Moral Righteousness
"We Have Never Been Woke" is the title of Musa Al-Gharbi’s brilliantly polemic analysis of an educational and social elite that believes it has all the answers. He calls this professional class symbolic capitalists — people who make their living from manipulating the symbols of our societies, i.e. journalists, academics, creative professions, the media, NGOs, etc. The turning point here is the arrival of wokeness as the ultimate arbiter of truth, coupled with great moral rigidity and intolerance of other opinions. The reason for this, Musa suggests, may be elite overproduction, which means that too many qualified people are competing for two few jobs, and therefore have to develop not only professional, but also ideological points of distinction and advantage. Has symbolic capitalism taken over the public sphere?