Blog post

Jason Read and Jeremy Gilbert on Marx, Spinoza, Work, and Breaking Bad

Jason Read discusses his new book, The Double Shift: Spinoza and Marx on the Politics of Work.

28 March 2024

Jason Read and Jeremy Gilbert on Marx, Spinoza, Work, and Breaking Bad

 

Even as the rewards of work decline and its demands on us increase, many people double-down on their commitment to wage slavery—working harder, doing overtime, and learning to hustle. To paraphrase Spinoza, why do people fight to be exploited as if it were liberation?

Jason Read's new book - The Double Shift: Spinoza and Marx on the Politics of Work - turns to the intersection of Marx and Spinoza and examines contemporary ideologies and the modern phenomena of work—motivational meetings at Apple Stores, the culture of Silicon Valley, as well as film and television, from Office Space to Better Call Saul—to argue for the transformation of our collective imagination and attachment to work.

Here he is interviewed by Jeremy Gilbert, Professor of Cultural & Political Theory at the University of East London, and co-author (with Alex Williams) of Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (And How We Win it Back).

The Double Shift: Spinoza and Marx on the Politics of Work is out now.

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[book-strip index="1" style="buy"]

The Double Shift
Even as the rewards of work decline and its demands on us increase, many people double-down on their commitment to wage slavery—working harder, doing overtime, and learning to hustle. To paraphrase...
Hegemony Now
Today power is in the hands of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. How do we understand this transformation in power? And what can we do about it?We cannot change anything until we have a better unders...