LAUNCH: Embracing Alienation with Todd McGowan 

Todd may have to up his background game! Although, it is fun trying to discern which books are on the shelf, pride of place.

Great discussion! I'm curious about the claim about the public never being oppressive. I'm thinking about how Fred Moten and Stefano Harney make use of what they call the Undercommons in their work on Black Studies and Fugitive Planning to escape the pattern of communities trying to universalize themselves as THE public, and to instead emphasize the possibilities for participatory practices of fugitive planning "study" as an Undercommon Nomadology of embracing alienation together

To the point about the statement “I am the king” containing its own alienation: the name “Sargon” (ruler of the first historical empire) literally means “the legitimate king” in Akkadian. Not surprising since he actually usurped his predecessor lol.

We are all alienated, but have we ever been otherwise?

You feel alienated from the part of professor? Which part? You seem to embrace the intellectual aspect of it, but what about the teaching aspect?