Episode · Behind the Bastards · 2026-10-10
Books mentioned on It Could Happen Here Weekly 253
All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file: The Decline and Fall of the International Workers Movement How To Print Your Own Money: The Case for Local Currencie
Mia Wong discussed The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber. Garrison Davis discussed Disposable Workers by Paul Osterman and others. James Stout discussed 1984 by George Orwell and The Stand by Stephen King.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Utopia of Rules
The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber explores the pervasive nature of bureaucracy, corporate management, and the deep relationship between power, eloquence, and structural violence.
Discussed“The bureaucratic welfare state, as the anthropologist David Greyber points out in his book, The Utopia of Rules, was perhaps first implemented by archons conservative Otto von Bismar as a very explicit way to buy off the working class.”
Where to get it
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Disposable Workers
Discussed“The New York bill is quote very innovative, said Paul Austerman, a professor ammeritus at MIT and the author of disposable workers, a new book on the transformation of employment. His own surveys of work arrangements indicate about 12% of US workers are contractors employed by intermediaries.”
Where to get it
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1984
George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984 presents a chilling vision of a totalitarian society characterized by perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and the systematic manipulation of historical truth and language.
Discussed“Yeah, there's this line in 1984, the party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final most essential command. No, he didn't. You buffoons. Yeah, people love to be wrong about George Orwell.”
Where to get it
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The Stand
The Stand by Stephen King is a post-apocalyptic horror epic that follows the remnants of humanity struggling to rebuild society after a lethal influenza strain wipes out most of the global population.
Discussed“Uh, and I I think this panic was an equal mix of PTSD from COVID and quite frankly the enduring popularity of Stephen King's best novel, The Stand. I bring up The Stand because I can't lie, I initially got a little worried because the way in which this started is exactly how the world ending plague and The Stand”
Where to get it
