Interregnum - The cruelties of self-help culture

In the second episode of Interregnum Richard Seymour discusses his
recent article, 'The cruelties of self-help culture'. We talked
about the magical thinking propagated by what Richard calls "the
success wing of self-help literature" and why its claim that
success depends almost solely on individual effort is so appealing.
We also talked about the history of self-help culture and the
significance of Samuel Smiles, the Victorian liberal reformer and
author of the 1859 book Self Help: Illustrations of Character and
Conduct. Finally we discussed Richard's plans to write a self-help
book from the left.