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Cost: Pay-what-you-can. If you are unable to pay at this time, you are warmly invited to attend at no cost. For those of you able to pitch in for expenses, please consider making a donation of $10 or more. You can “buy” multiple $10s by entering the corresponding number into the box. For example, 6 = $60, etc. Below.
The recent federal emergency stimulus package demonstrates that what politicians often claim is impossible is sometimes necessary: debts that cannot be paid will not be paid. The question is, who will be bailed out, and why? Why is the most important priority of the US government the 4 trillion dollar price of bailing out Wall Street? Is the financial economy really necessary, or is it a parasite destroying the conditions of life on this planet? The Debt Collective ( https://debtcollective.org/) and other organizing efforts are already challenging the legitimacy of the debt-based economy, and in view of the current crisis, calls for rent strikes and even a general strike may join with debt strikes to challenge the basis of economic power.
Join Richard Robbins, Devin Singh, and Joshua Ramey online for an investigation into the history of debt politics, the relation of debt to money itself, and a discussion of how to undo the moral, ideological, and even religious attachments most people have to paying their debts.
Discussants: Richard Robbins ( https://www.plattsburgh.edu/academics/schools/arts-sciences/anthropology/faculty/robbins-richard.html) is the Chair of Anthropology at SUNY-Plattsburgh and the co-author, among many other works, of Debt as Power ( https://www.oapen.org/view?docId=614091.xhtml).
Devin Singh ( https://faculty-directory.dartmouth.edu/devin-singh) is Associate Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College, and the author of Divine Currency: The Theological Power of Money in the West (https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=25422).
Joshua Ramey ( https://www.haverford.edu/users/jramey) is Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights at Haverford College. He is the author of Politics of Divination: Neoliberal Endgame and the Religion of Contingency ( https://www.rowmaninternational.com/book/politics_of_divination/3-156-c10d5ea3-3149-479b-87bf-03db7e5a7b2f) and is currently working on a book entitled For the Remains: Undoing Economic Sovereignty.
Online time: Saturday, April 11, 10 a.m. (EST- Eastern Time Zone). A Zoom link will be available after registration.
Cost: Pay-what-you-can. If you are unable to pay at this time, you are warmly invited to attend at no cost. For those of you able to pitch in for expenses, please consider making a donation of $10 or more. You can “buy” multiple $10s by entering the corresponding number into the box. For example, 6 = $60, etc. Below.