The old forms of the Left are moribund and the new forms are stupid. We're making a podcast that discusses the need to organize a Dialectical Pessimism and develop a salvage project capable of sparking a new workers' movement for socialism. A clean, honest, and unsentimental melancholy is required; we are cultivating one and would like to share it with you. “The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned. I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.” -- Antonio Gramsci
Trailer · Fri, April 04, 2025
Rare Earths Deal, War Footing in the Pacific, Coalition of the... Willing?, Ceasefire Breaches, Le Pen Convicted, Trump is Pissed off at Putin, NYT Says Ukrainians are Stupid Losers, Russian Offensive Isn't Stalling After All... Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S7 E10 · Wed, April 02, 2025
This week Chris talks to Jason and Matthew about their new podcast: Unbreakable Union. This ambitious project will span six seasons with roughly one decade being covered per season. Check out our episode then listen to the podcast below or on your preferred podcatcher. It should be showing up everywhere in the next few days. https://www.buzzsprout.com/2462690 Also, come join our Patreon and get access to our discord! Click below: Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, March 31, 2025
Signalgate, Yemen, Ceasefire Failures, Russian Advances, and Ukrainian Flailing. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, March 26, 2025
Ok, finally we get around to answering questions about religion and parenting... also some other stuff. Just go listen. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S7 E9 · Mon, March 24, 2025
The boys (featuring the return of Mir) kick back on the slaughter-bench to discuss Hegel's philosophy of history by discussing Terry Pinkard's article "The Spirit of History." The Spirit of History by Terry Pinkard https://aeon.co/essays/what-is-history-nobody-gave-a-deeper-answer-than-hegel Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, March 24, 2025
Regrettable Geopolitics - 03/23/2025 (Israel Turns the Genocide Machine Back On, Yemen/Iran, Kursk, Other Ukraine Things, and Cease-Fire Talks) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, March 19, 2025
Finally, the long-awaited second Q&A episode. We talk USSR, religion, parenting, and all sort of other stuff... but some of it will have to wait until Q&A #3, which will be soon. Enjoy! Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S7 E8 · Mon, March 17, 2025
This week Chris and Jason read and discussed a paper Chris wrote for a strategic studies project about neo-Nazi terror networks and their links to far-right militias in Ukraine. The influx of foreign fighters to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion of 2022 has outpaced US intel and law enforcement agencies' ability to monitor potential radicals going to and coming from Ukraine. Far-right extremists have been drawn to the conflict in Ukraine since 2014 due to affiliated organizations that belong to a web of loosely related violent neo-fascist organizations. Several affiliated extremists have been apprehended planning terror attacks and other acts of violence. Amos, Howard, and Harriet Salem. 2014. “Ukraine Clashes: Dozens Dead after Odessa Building Fire.” The Guardian. May 2, 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/ukraine-dead-odessa-building-fire. “Atomwaffen Division (AWD)/ National Socialist Order (NSO) | ADL.” 2020. Www.adl.org. April 29, 2020. https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/atomwaffen-division-awd-national-socialist-order-nso. Belew, Kathleen. 2018. Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Department of Homeland Security: US Customs and Border Protection. 2022. “Intelligence Note: United States Citizens Joining the Fight for Ukraine.” Department of Justice: Office of Public Affairs. 2023. “Office of Public Affairs | Proud Boys Leader Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison for Seditious Conspiracy and Other Charges Related to U.S. Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice.” Www.justice.gov. September 5, 2023. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/proud-boys-leader-sentenced-22-years-prison-seditious-conspiracy-and-other-charges-related. Goldman, Adam. 2020. “Man Suspected of Planning Attack on Missouri Hospital Is Killed, Officials Say.” The New York Times , March 25, 2020, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/us/politics/coronavirus-fbi-shooting.html. “James Mason.” 2019. Southern Poverty Law Center. 2019. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/james-mason. Johnston, David Cay. 2002. “William Pierce, 69, Neo-Nazi Leader, Dies.” The New York Times , July 24, 2002, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/24/us/william-pierce-69-neo-nazi-leader-dies.html. Kacper, Rekawek. 2022. Foreign Fighters in Ukraine: The Brown–Red Cocktail . New York: Routledge. Kheel, Rebecca. 2018. “Congress Bans Arms to Ukraine Militia Linked to Neo-Nazis.” The Hill. March 27, 2018. https://thehill.com/policy/defense/380483-congress-bans-arms-to-controversial-ukrainian-militia-linked-to-neo-nazis/. Kriner, Matthew, and Jon Lewis. 2021. “Pride & Prejudice: The Violent Evolution of the Proud Boys.” Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. July 9, 2021. https://ctc.westpoint.edu/pride-prejudice-the-violent-evo
Trailer · Wed, March 12, 2025
Another lightly edited casual conversation about geopolitics. We do a whirlwind summary of the stuff that has happened since last week and land back on the subject of Ukraine for most of the program. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S7 E7 · Tue, March 11, 2025
The boys and Varn Vlog are back again, talking about "Decadence Theory" and how it differs from "crisis theory" and "breakdown theory." We discuss Samir Amin's third-worldist (and not very Marxist) take on decadence theory. Revolution or Decadence- Samir Amin https://monthlyreview.org/2018/05/01/revolution-or-decadence/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, March 03, 2025
Welcome to a new series that we are trying out for Patrons. This is a lightly edited casual conversation between Jason and Chris about Geopolitics. We aren't really preparing for these by doing a lot of research and we certainly aren't doing much editing. We are going to try to do these semi-regularly and hopefully we can figure out how to do video versions as well. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S7 E6 · Mon, February 24, 2025
This week we discussed the thought of one of 20th-century Marxism's socialist opponents, Tomáš Masaryk. Masaryk was reviled by Czech communists until they appropriated him and he was an opponent of capitalism until the champions of capitalism did the same. He was a social democrat with an ethical and Christian-humanist vision of socialism that inspired the Prague Spring but was later coopted by the opponents of the working class and human liberation. A State without Suicide https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/state-without-suicide Betts, R. R. “Masaryk’s Philosophy of History.” The Slavonic and East European Review 26, no. 66 (1947): 30–43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4203912. Kohak, Erazim. “T. G. Masaryk’s Revision of Marxism.” Journal of the History of Ideas 25, no. 4 (1964): 519–42. https://doi.org/10.2307/2708184. Kovác, Dusan. "World Revolution — Tomás Garrigue Masaryk and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" Human Affairs 1, no. 1 (1991): 22-29. https://doi.org/10.1515/humaff-1991-010105 Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, and Karel Čapek. Talks with T.G. Masaryk . Catbird Press, 1995. Winters, Stanley B, Robert B Pynsent, and Harry Hanak. T.G. Masaryk (1850-1937).: Thinker and Critic . Palgrave Macmillan , 1989. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, February 19, 2025
So, you think you had some judgments? TOO BAD THEY ARE ALL REFUTED! This week Jason and Andrew watched and discussed Guy Debord's follow up to his Society of the Spectacle film, which is essentially a clapback at his haters. As any good Regrettable discussion goes, the film was the anchor, but the topics ranged far and wide. Enjoy! Refutation of All the Judgements, Pro or Con, Thus Far Rendered on the Film “The Society of the Spectacle" (1975) https://www.ubu.com/film/debord_refutation.html Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S7 E5 · Tue, February 11, 2025
This week we read and discussed an article by Richard Seymour that explores Marxism's relationship with materialism and idealism. Seymour argues that the Hegelian inheritance within Marxism forces it in the direction of an idealism which is essential for a successful revolutionary politics. Duel and duality, or, degrowth and dialectics https://www.patreon.com/posts/81735357?pr=true&fbclid=IwAR2ftGQudDJQhykIW4rv_3F34xqP8RGHZdyZyb4JsGQgxzQ7qxvRNI9BP7k Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, February 06, 2025
The gang tackles Chapter 5 of Bauer's analysis of the concept of the nation. Read Along With Us: https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S7 E4 · Mon, January 27, 2025
This week we delve into what is sort of a pre-history of the American Socialist movement. Though the populist movement undeniably kept its Jeffersonian character, it was the first (arguably only) significant challenge to the dominance of the two major capitalist parties in the US. Much of the energy and the spirit of American populism flowed into and colored the burgeoning American workers' movement. From Populism to Socialism and Back https://jacobin.com/2019/08/populism-socialism-daniel-de-leon-eugene-debs American Populism, 1876-1896 https://digital.lib.niu.edu/illinois/gildedage/populism Populist Party Platform July 4, 1892 https://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1876-1900/populist-party-platform-july-4-1892.php Cantrell, Gregg, and D. Scott Barton. “Texas Populists and the Failure of Biracial Politics.” The Journal of Southern History 55, no. 4 (1989): 659–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/2209044. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, January 22, 2025
The boys and Varn Vlog are back again, talking about "Decadence Theory" and how it differs from "crisis theory" and "breakdown theory." We discuss Samir Amin's Third-Worldist (and not very Marxist) take on decadence theory. Revolution or Decadence- Samir Amin https://monthlyreview.org/2018/05/01/revolution-or-decadence/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, January 16, 2025
The gang tackles Chapter 4 of Bauer's analysis of the concept of the nation... Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S7 E3 · Thu, January 09, 2025
This week we entered the archives and poured through the codices and scrolls containing the wisdom of past episodes to give you this curated trash can of Ideology. We highlighted some themes from the past six years of podcasting that we thought were worth underscoring and how our ideas may have changed... Our Underlying Philosophy of Dialectical Pessimism S1/Ep5: Pessimism of the Intellect, Pessimism of the Will S1/Ep26: The Proper Amount of Bumming People Out S4/Ep7: Death of The Left S5/Ep21: Pessimism is an Optimism: Revisiting Pessimism Making Sense of Our Past S1/Ep27: Children of the Counterrevolution S3/Ep12: The Enlightenment is Dead, Long Live the Enlightenment S3/Ep22: The Unfulfilled Potential of the Republic S4/Ep3: The Tragedy of American Socialism Rethinking What It Means To “Be” Revolutionary S1/Ep18: The Right to the City S2/Ep8: We Would Prefer Not To S5/Ep15: The Legacy of William Morris S6/Ep15: The Antifascism of Fools A Willingness to Abandon Our Older Trajectory S4/Ep20: Labor Theory of Apocalypse S6/Ep5: One Plus One Is Three S6/Ep16: The Boys Figure Out Which Marxist Tendency is Correct S6/Ep19: To Front or Not to Front The Major Obstacles/Challenges We Face S3/Ep5: Happiness Industry Socialism S3/Ep17: Everything Is Recuperated S5/Ep9: You're Not Making Liberals Socialist... S5/Ep19: The Dialectic of Degrowth Our Deep Skepticism/Hostility Toward Techno-Solutions S1/Ep31: The Future Has Been Canceled S2/Ep2: Partially Automated Regular Communism S2/Ep5: Socialism Without Sacrifice... S4/Ep4: No Ethical Technical Innovation Under Capitalism Looking Ahead S4/Ep11: Marxism in Dialogue With Christianity S5/Ep12: The Dialectic of Apotheosis S5/Ep16: Bathing in the Warm Stream S6/Ep22: Real Grouchy Old Man Hours Regrettable Reading List: The Red Jacobins: Thermidor & The Russian Revolution in 1921 Party As Articulator The Tragedy of the Worker Revolution: An Intellectual History Left Wing Melancholia Excremental Happiness: From Neurotic Hedonism to Dialectical Pessimism <
Trailer · Thu, January 02, 2025
This is an old episode of our friend Andrew's podcast that was recorded a few years ago. The podcast is now defunct, but we thought y'all deserved to hear it. In this episode Jason and Andrew watched and discussed Guy Debord's 1974 film version of The Society of the Spectacle. Enjoy and Happy New Year. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S7 E2 · Thu, December 26, 2024
We are joined again by our official France correspondent, Matthew. Matthew is a veteran of American Trot sectarian organizing and the labor movement who lives in France and is more intimately involved in the happenings than we are. We discuss the failure of the popular front, the ham-fisted triumph of Macron, and the death throes of the French political system. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, December 19, 2024
Soldiering on and finishing Chapter 3 of Bauer's excellent Marxist analysis of the nation. Read along with us: https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Fri, December 13, 2024
This week, we read and discussed Eley and Blackbourn's indispensable discussion of the Sonderweg, or special path, of German history. It is often said that Germany's path to the Holocaust begins with the failure of the bourgeois revolution to take hold. This book posits a top-down Bonapartist "revolution" led by Otto von Bismarck which thoroughly bourgeoisified German society from the top to the bottom. Blackbourn, David, and Geoff Eley, The Peculiarities of German History: Bourgeois Society and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Oxford, 1984; Oxford Academic, 3 Oct. 2011) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S7 E1 · Wed, December 04, 2024
Kicking off Year VII, Chris and Ben are joined by Daniel Saunders to discuss Herbert McCabe's Class Struggle and Christian Love. The intention was also to cover pieces by Dennis Turner and Terry Eagleton but time got away from them, so Daniel will have to return again... Herbert McCabe: The Class Struggle and Christian Love https://www.christiansocialism.com/2020/05/14/herbert-mccabe-class-struggle-capitalism-marxism-christianity/ More of Daniel: Ideology, Fetishism, Apophaticism: Marxist Criticism & Christianity https://www.buzzsprout.com/220523/episodes/14978167-ideology-fetishism-apophaticism-marxist-criticism-and-christianity-with-daniel-saunders Ideology, Fetishism, Apophaticism: Marxist Criticism and Christianity: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/nbfr.12642 And Here: https://daniel-saunders.com/ Mentioned Materials: The Slant Manifesto https://archive.org/details/SlantManifestoCatholicsAndTheLeft The New Blackfriars Journal https://www.bfriars.ox.ac.uk/study/new-blackfriars-journal/ Science Impregnated With History: Marxism and Reason (With Chris Manno) https://www.buzzsprout.com/220523/episodes/4672121-science-impregnated-with-history-marxism-and-reason-with-chris-manno.mp3?download=true Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E27 · Thu, November 28, 2024
The long-awaited part two of our year six in review episode. We kick it off with a little geopolitical discussion but get around to discussing our personal lives and the podcast. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E26 · Wed, November 20, 2024
We are back at it again talking decadence theory with Varn. This week, we dig into Samir Amin's piece from Monthly Review. We discussed the following materials: Morley, Neville. "Decadence as a Theory of History." New Literary History, Vol. 35, No. 4, Forms and/of Decadence (Autumn, 2004), pp.573-585 Decadence: The Theory of Decline or the Decline of Theory? https://libcom.org/library/decadence-aufheben-2 Revolution or Decadence? https://monthlyreview.org/2018/05/01/revolution-or-decadence/ Check out Varn Vlog Here https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E25 · Wed, November 13, 2024
As we wrap up another year of podcasting, we offer our expert opinions on everything that sucks about the world. Stay tuned for part II. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Fri, November 08, 2024
The long march through the text continues as the gang tackles chapter three. Read along here: https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E24 · Mon, November 04, 2024
This is part two of a discussion based on a paper Chris wrote about the concept of "German Socialism" from which groups like the NSDAP, the National Bolsheviks, Conservative Revolutionaries, and Black Front draw the basis for their ideologies. Mosse, George Lachmann. The Crisis of German Ideology . 1964. Reprint, New York: Schocken, 1981. King, John. “Writing and Rewriting the First World War: Ernst Jünger and the Crisis of the Conservative Imagination, 1914-25.” St. John’s College, 1999. Kedar, Asaf. “National Socialism Before Nazism: Friedrich Naumann and Theodor Fritsch, 1890-1914,” PhD diss., (University of California, Berkeley, 2010). Krebs, Gerhard. “Moeller van Den Bruck: Inventor of the ‘Third Reich.’” American Political Science Review 35, no. 6 (December 1941), 1088-1089. Stachura, Peter D. Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism (RLE Nazi Germany & Holocaust) . Routledge, 2014. Stern, Fritz. The Politics of Cultural Despair : A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology . 1961. Reprint, Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1974. Tourlamain, Guy. Völkisch” Writers and National Socialism : A Study of Right-Wing Political Culture in Germany, 1890-1960 . Oxford Et Autres: Peter Lang, 2014. Waite, Robert G L. Vanguard of Nazism : The Free Corps Movement in Postwar Germany 1918-1923 . New York: W.W. Norton, 1969. Ward, James J. “Pipe Dreams or Revolutionary Politics? The Group of Social Revolutionary Nationalists in the Weimar Republic.” Journal of Contemporary History 15, no. 3 (July 1980): 513–32. Woods, Roger. The Conservative Revolution in the Weimar Republic . Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : New York: Macmillan Press ; St. Martin’s Press, 1996, 62. Ley, Robert. 1920. “The Program of the NSDAP.” The 25 Points 1920: An Early Nazi Program , February. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/25points.asp. Paetel, Karl O. The National Bolshevist Manifesto . 1933. Reprint, Coppell Tx: Red Flame Press, 2021. Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow . Translated by Eden and Ceder Paul. 1932. Reprint, London: Jonathan Cape, 1940. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Sun, November 03, 2024
The boys dive in to Dugin's thoughts on civilization, colonialism, and imperialism. Don't worry, there are literally no digressions and the guys stay on point the whole time. Check out the full episode here: https://www.patreon.com/c/theregrettablecentury Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts Check out Antifada here: https://www.patreon.com/theantifada Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E23 · Wed, October 30, 2024
First of all, if you are listening to a version with bad audio, don't worry, I reuploaded a version with good audio and you can probably just refresh your podcasting app to get the newer version. This is a discussion based on a paper Chris wrote about the concept of "German Socialism" from which groups like the NSDAP, the National Bolsheviks, Conservative Revolutionaries, and Black Front draw the basis for their ideologies. Mosse, George Lachmann. The Crisis of German Ideology . 1964. Reprint, New York: Schocken, 1981. King, John. “Writing and Rewriting the First World War: Ernst Jünger and the Crisis of the Conservative Imagination, 1914-25.” St. John’s College, 1999. Kedar, Asaf. “National Socialism Before Nazism: Friedrich Naumann and Theodor Fritsch, 1890-1914,” PhD diss., (University of California, Berkeley, 2010). Krebs, Gerhard. “Moeller van Den Bruck: Inventor of the ‘Third Reich.’” American Political Science Review 35, no. 6 (December 1941), 1088-1089. Stachura, Peter D. Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism (RLE Nazi Germany & Holocaust) . Routledge, 2014. Stern, Fritz. The Politics of Cultural Despair : A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology . 1961. Reprint, Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1974. Tourlamain, Guy. Völkisch” Writers and National Socialism : A Study of Right-Wing Political Culture in Germany, 1890-1960 . Oxford Et Autres: Peter Lang, 2014. Waite, Robert G L. Vanguard of Nazism : The Free Corps Movement in Postwar Germany 1918-1923 . New York: W.W. Norton, 1969. Ward, James J. “Pipe Dreams or Revolutionary Politics? The Group of Social Revolutionary Nationalists in the Weimar Republic.” Journal of Contemporary History 15, no. 3 (July 1980): 513–32. Woods, Roger. The Conservative Revolution in the Weimar Republic . Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : New York: Macmillan Press ; St. Martin’s Press, 1996, 62. Ley, Robert. 1920. “The Program of the NSDAP.” The 25 Points 1920: An Early Nazi Program , February. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/25points.asp. Paetel, Karl O. The National Bolshevist Manifesto . 1933. Reprint, Coppell Tx: Red Flame Press, 2021. Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow . Translated by Eden and Ceder Paul. 1932. Reprint, London: Jonathan Cape, 1940. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Fri, October 25, 2024
In what turns out to be an offshoot of our Czechoslovak socialism series, we dive in to the ill fated and short lived Hungarian Soviet Republic. This also turns out to be incredibly relevant to anyone who is following along with our series on Otto Bauer and the national question. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E22 · Mon, October 21, 2024
This week it's just the Regrettable brothers and we are talking about "leftism" and whether the category of "left" still holds any meaning. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, October 09, 2024
Wherein we cover the entirety of Chapter 2, dealing with the concept of the nation state. A link to the PDF: https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E21 · Mon, September 30, 2024
Continuing what has become a series on Czechoslovak Socialism, we dive into the attempt to reform the Czechoslovak system. The official ML narrative and the liberal narrative about the Prague Spring are the same, they say that it was an attempt to re-establish bourgeois democracy. However, it seems clear that the intentions of its participants were the opposite. They appear to have been a genuine attempt to revitalize and push forward the communist project. The Action Programme of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia https://www.marxists.org/subject/czech/1968/action-programme.htm Stoneman, Anna J. “Socialism With a Human Face: The Leadership and Legacy of the Prague Spring.” The History Teacher 49, no. 1 (2015): 103–25. Prague Spring Archive at MIA (worth browsing for historical first impressions) https://www.marxists.org/subject/czech/index.htm The Prague Spring of 1968: a glimpse of socialism? http://isj.org.uk/the-prague-spring/ Liehm, A. J. (1978). The Prague Spring and Eurocommunism. International Journal, 33(4), 804. doi:10.2307/40201691 Skilling, H. Gordon. "The Prague Spring Reassessed." Slavic Review 38, no. 4 (1979): 663-66. doi:10.2307/2496570. Reform and Counter-reform in Bureaucratic Power https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/reform.html Music: Karel Kryl - Veličenstvo kat (English Translation) In a gloomy light of a gothic hall the scared profiteers are gazing into their missals and a horde of slayers is asking for blessing After all the first of the knights is his majesty executioner Aaah look the first of the knights is his Majesty Executioner Priest – the devil who served the mass is wearing a stole made from a hangmans slope Having a bottle of vitriol under the purple rochet The smell of sulfur coming from the mortars is crawling under the red hood of the first from all the knights his Majesty Executioner Aaah to the first of knights look it is his Majesty Executioner On the national flag there is an emblem with guillotine And the barbed wire smells by something decayed In our region is a flock of raven nesting the master hangman reigns these people The king is kneeing infront of Satan eagers to have the sceptre And the rabble is hanging the wise council at the plane tree And the heretic crowd is exhilarated and rejoices After all the first of knights is his Majesty Exe
Trailer · Thu, September 26, 2024
We are back at it again talking decadence theory with Varn. This week, we dig into Samir Amin's piece from Monthly Review. We discussed the following materials: Morley, Neville. "Decadence as a Theory of History." New Literary History, Vol. 35, No. 4, Forms and/of Decadence (Autumn, 2004), pp.573-585 Decadence: The Theory of Decline or the Decline of Theory https://libcom.org/library/decadence-aufheben-2 Revolution or Decadence? https://monthlyreview.org/2018/05/01/revolution-or-decadence/ Check out Varn Vlog Here https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E20 · Wed, September 18, 2024
Come listen to the boys discuss Hegel's enduring importance to the contemporary world. Hegel Is Still an Important Thinker for the Left https://jacobin.com/2023/11/hegel-political-philosophy-world-revolutions-book-review Hegel in the Era of “Wokeness” https://jacobin.com/2023/12/hegel-wokeness-world-spirit-political-theory-history-philosophy-richard-bourke Reading Hegel on Bastille Day https://jacobin.com/2016/07/hegel-bastille-day-burke-french-revolution The dialectic in the service of revolution (up to/until the Marx section…) https://links.org.au/dialectic-service-revolution Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, September 12, 2024
We soldier on through this excellent but little known work on the national question. This week we FINALLY finish Chapter 1. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E19 · Mon, September 02, 2024
The boys get together and talk about the triumphs and failures, the uses and misuses, and the love and hate for the concept of the Popular Front. Haslam, Jonathan. “The Comintern and the Origins of the Popular Front 1934-1935.” The Historical Journal 22, no. 3 (1979): 673–91. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638659. Communists, Coalitions, and the Class Struggle https://www.cpusa.org/article/communists-coalitions-and-the-class-struggle/ The Popular Front Didn’t Work https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/10/popular-front-communist-party-democrats France’s Popular Front: Lessons from the 30s https://www.counterfire.org/article/frances-popular-front-lessons-from-the-30s/ The Popular Front, Then and Now https://www.rs21.org.uk/2024/06/29/the-popular-front-then-and-now-france-and-the-elections/ The United Front http://isj.org.uk/the-united-front/ Uruguay’s Frente Amplio: From Revolution to Dilution https://upsidedownworld.org/archives/uruguay/uruguays-frente-amplio-from-revolution-to-dilution/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Sat, August 31, 2024
The boys dive in to chapter 6 of Dugin's Fourth Political theory. Don't worry, there are literally no digressions and the guys stay on point the whole time. Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts Check out Antifada here: https://www.patreon.com/theantifada Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, August 28, 2024
We just can't stop talking about Czechoslovak Socialism. We decided to deal with the Slovak portion of the Czechoslovak lands, which we feel has been a little neglected in our previous discussions. Slovakia is important as an integral part of the movement of Czechoslovak socialism and as a case study of the problem of the national question. If you have been following along with our discussions of Otto Bauer's work on the national question, you might appreciate the context. Hear the full episode: https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E18 · Mon, August 19, 2024
We accidentally released the wrong episode, this one should have come before the last! This week we sat down with C. Derick Varn to talk about "decadence theory," "crisis theory" and "breakdown theory." This is a special episode, mostly because it wasn't supposed to come out until August, but Varn accidentally released it early so y'all get a bonus episode. We discussed the following materials: Morley, Neville. "Decadence as a Theory of History." New Literary History, Vol. 35, No. 4, Forms and/of Decadence (Autumn, 2004), pp.573-585 Decadence: The Theory of Decline or the Decline of Theory? https://libcom.org/library/decadence-aufheben-2 Revolution or Decadence? https://monthlyreview.org/2018/05/01/revolution-or-decadence/ Check out Varn Vlog Here https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, August 15, 2024
Back at it again with the national question and continuing the long march through chapter one. A link to the PDF: https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E17 · Tue, August 13, 2024
This is an impromptu episode recorded by Jason and Varn where they discuss their dissatisfaction with the general situation of American and world politics. It roughly fits in with the subject matter of our Dawn to Decadence series, so here ya go! Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E16 · Mon, August 05, 2024
This week we all sat down to talk about the uselessness of identifying with a political tendency in our current moment. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Tue, July 30, 2024
This week we discussed an excellent study of migrant workers in the Soviet Union which focused on Uzbeks, Tajiks, Georgians, Azerbaijanis who came to Leningrad and Moscow in toward the end of Union's existence. Sahadeo, Jeff. 2019. Voices From the Soviet Edge: Southern Migrants in Leningrad and Moscow . Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E15 · Wed, July 24, 2024
First off, please forgive the first few minutes of Chris' audio, we adjusted the levels during the podcast and fixed it. You won't have to bear with it all the way through. We sat down to talk about SAVING DEMOCRACY FROM TRUMPIST FASCISM, or rather, how the left has fallen into the trap of letting the Democratic Party off the hook for its crimes against humanity and its constant kowtowing to the GOP. Stanley Payne on anti-fascism without fascism https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2021/01/antifascism-without-fascism Liberals’ Heated Fascism Rhetoric Sidesteps Self-Reflection https://jacobin.com/2024/04/liberals-fascism-rhetoric-democrats-election Anti-fascism: formula for confusion https://www.quinterna.org/lingue/english/historical_en/antifascism_confusion.htm Andy from Antifada on Antifa https://communemag.com/anti-anti-antifa/ Is Trump a fascist? 8 experts weigh in. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21521958/what-is-fascism-signs-donald-trump Noam Chomsky: Antifa is a 'major gift to the right' https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/noam-chomsky-antifa-major-gift-right-wing-anti-fascist-alt-left-a7906406.html Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 Enull · Sun, July 21, 2024
This is an impromptu episode recorded by Jason and Varn where they discuss their dissatisfaction with the general situation of world politics. Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E14 · Wed, July 17, 2024
This week we are joined by our official France correspondent, Matthew. We discuss the unique threat of the post-fascist menace and what the results and prospects are for the shaky leftist coalition. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, July 11, 2024
Wake up babe, new Dugin Time just dropped. The boys are back and discussing Dugin's understanding of processes and, now that they're about halfway done with the book, begin to ask the question "What is the Fourth Political Theory?" Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts Check out Antifada here: https://www.patreon.com/theantifada Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, June 26, 2024
This week we sat down with C. Derick Varn to talk about "decadence theory," "crisis theory," and "breakdown theory." This is a special episode, mostly because it wasn't supposed to come out until August, but Varn accidentally released it early so y'all get a bonus episode. We discussed the following materials: Morley, Neville. "Decadence as a Theory of History." New Literary History, Vol. 35, No. 4, Forms and/of Decadence (Autumn, 2004), pp.573-585 Decadence: The Theory of Decline or the Decline of Theory? https://libcom.org/library/decadence-aufheben-2 Revolution or Decadence? https://monthlyreview.org/2018/05/01/revolution-or-decadence/ Check out Varn Vlog Here https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E13 · Mon, June 24, 2024
This week we sat down with members of the New Zealand Federation of Socialist Societies to discuss their efforts to revitalize the socialist project and to build a basis for future socialist struggles. NZFSS Website https://www.socialistsocieties.org.nz/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, June 20, 2024
Back at it again with the national question and soldiering on through chapter 1... A link to the PDF: https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E12 · Mon, June 10, 2024
We invited podcast alumnus, Jess, back to talk about how terrible everything is. We touch on Tiktok houses, literature, and the death of the future. The End of The Future https://jacobin.com/2024/03/left-politics-future-history-capitalism-progress Why Is Our Culture So Obsessed With Individual Experience https://jacobin.com/2024/03/anna-kornbluh-immediacy-individualism-capitalism/ Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle: Are We Defined by How We Appear https://www.thecollector.com/guy-debord-society-of-the-spectacle/ The Anxiety of Influencers https://harpers.org/archive/2021/06/tiktok-house-collab-house-the-anxiety-of-influencers/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, June 06, 2024
Jason, Varn, and Sean KB continue the forced march through the Aleksander Dugin's Fourth Political Theory. Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts Check out Antifada here: https://www.patreon.com/theantifada Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Sun, June 02, 2024
This week we are tying up some loose ends we left unexplored in our last regular episode on Fascism and Anarcho-Individualism. Enjoy this bonus content! Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E11 · Wed, May 22, 2024
This week we discussed one of the many currents of thought that led to the creation of Italian Fascism, Anarcho-Individualism. It seems counterintuitive that anarchism would have made any contribution to the creation of fascism, until you think about it. Whitaker, Stephen B. The Anarchist-individualist Origins of Italian Fascism . Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers, 2002. From Stirner to Mussolini: The Anarchist-Individualist Origins of Italian Fascism https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/william-gillis-from-stirner-to-mussolini.pdf Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E10 · Mon, May 13, 2024
This week Jason and Kevin discuss the Liberal Socialism; what it is, where it comes from, its impact on the development of the left, its prospects, and its limitations. What Is Liberal Socialism? https://www.liberalcurrents.com/what-is-liberal-socialism/ The Idea of a Liberal Socialism https://www.socialeurope.eu/the-idea-of-a-liberal-socialism Liberal Socialism Now https://aeon.co/essays/the-case-for-liberal-socialism-in-the-21st-century Toward A Liberal Socialism? https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/toward-a-liberal-socialism/ Socialists Don’t Want to Destroy Liberalism. We Want to Go Beyond It. https://jacobin.com/2020/10/socialism-liberalism-marx Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, May 09, 2024
We are back at it again covering Otto Bauer's unique Marxist take on the national question. This week we began to cover Chapter I. A link to the PDF: https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, May 01, 2024
Jason, Varn, and Sean are back and talking Fourth Political Theory once again. Check out Varn Vlog: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts Check out the ANTIFADA: https://www.patreon.com/theantifada Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E9 · Mon, April 29, 2024
The Marxist/Christian dialogue continues! This week Jason and Ben sat down with Daniel Saunders to discuss an article he wrote called Ideology, Fetishism, Apophaticism: Marxist Criticism and Christianity: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/nbfr.12642 Daniel's paper "explores Christianity’s ambiguous relationship to capitalism by engaging Marx’s notion of the fetishism of commodities as a way of rethinking Marxism’s critique of religion from the standpoint of political economy. " Other Daniel stuff can be found here: https://daniel-saunders.com/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, April 18, 2024
This week we tried something new, we put out a call on our Patreon and Discord for questions and y'all responded with 10 pretty good questions. Questions about democracy, ethics, children, etc... We answered them. Enjoy! Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, April 11, 2024
They said it wasn't possible for a Marxist to break down the national question in a sophisticated and nuanced way, but Otto Bauer has done it. This book from 1907, which no one on the Anglophone Left has ever read, is quite possibly the best book on the subject. We are here to read it and let you know. This week we covered the introductory materials. A link to the PDF: https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E8 · Mon, April 08, 2024
This week we are joined by Jon (thelitcritguy of HorrorVanguard fame) to discuss his new book A Primer on Utopian Philosophy: An Introduction to the Work of Ernst Bloch which was just released on Zero Books. We discuss nihilism, optimism, hope, and dialectical pessimism and the ever pertinent work of Ernst Bloch. Check out Horror Vanguard Here Check out Jon's Blog Here Buy Jon's Book Here Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E7 · Tue, March 26, 2024
This week we sat down with our old comrade and actual Psychiatrist, Dr Byron, to talk about mental health, the left, and how TikTok is ruining everyones brains. Psychiatric Hegemony: A Marxist Theory of Mental Illness (review for relevant book) https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/03/psychiatric-hegemony-marxist-theory-mental-illness/ What the Anti-Psychiatry Movement Got Wrong About Mental Illness https://jacobin.com/2022/03/anti-psychiatry-movement-mental-illness-psychological-suffering Psychiatry Won’t Solve Our Mental Health Crisis — Only Politics Can Do That https://jacobin.com/2023/12/psychiatry-history-trauma-politics-medicine-mental-health This Is Not the Way to Help Depressed Teenagers (NYT discussing the WISE Teens Study) https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/18/opinion/teenagers-mental-health-treatment.html The functions of the mental health system under capitalism https://joannamoncrieff.com/2022/03/28/the-functions-of-the-mental-health-system-under-capitalism/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, March 21, 2024
Jason and Varn are joined again by Sean KB of Antifida and continue with their close reading of The Fourth Political Theory by Alexander Dugin. Check out Varn Vlog: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts Check out the ANTIFADA: https://www.patreon.com/theantifada Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, March 13, 2024
This month we return to Richard Seymour's essay about the new forms of nationalism. At this point the essay is a few years old, so we were able to discuss how things have developed since it was written. We also did not know that a book by the same name by Seymour was coming out soon... Prepared for the Worst: Disaster Nationalism https://salvage.zone/prepared-for-the-worst-disaster-nationalism/ Disaster Nationalism: THE DOWNFALL OF LIBERAL CIVILIZATION https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/761156/disaster-nationalism-by-richard-seymour/ Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E6 · Mon, March 11, 2024
This week the boys got together to talk about political apostasy. From the old left, to the new left, to whatever the hell it is that we have now. We discuss the motivations and consequences of jumping ship. The Ex-Communist’s Conscience https://www.marxists.org/archive/deutscher/1950/ex-communist.htm Turned Around: Why Leftists Go Right https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/22/why-leftists-go-right From Memoirs of a Trotskyist by Irving Kristol https://www.pbs.org/arguing/nyintellectuals_krystol_2.html The Neoconservative Counterrevolution https://jacobin.com/2015/04/neoconservatives-kristol-podhoretz-hartman-culture-war How Ex-Communists Shaped American Conservatism https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/03/how-ex-communists-shaped-american-conservatism/426849/ Trotskycons https://www.nationalreview.com/2003/06/trotskycons-stephen-schwartz/ The Neoconservative Journey https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/0817945725_105.pdf The Legacy of the Trotskyist Right https://www.toqonline.com/archives/v6n2/SneigoskiTOQV6N2.pdf Like our theme song? Check out Autumn Brigade here: https://autumnbrigade.bandcamp.com/album/geist-ist-tot Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, March 07, 2024
This week Jason and Varn sat down to have a primer discussion about the different types of American Conservatism. Don't worry, we will be back later this month with more Dugin. Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, February 26, 2024
Welcome to our seventh and FINAL reading group episode on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. We had a lot of fun with this series and will be starting a new one soon. Head on over to the Discord if you would like to be involved. Special thanks to our comrade Connor at Autumn Brigade for our new intro music. Check his music out here: https://autumnbrigade.bandcamp.com/album/geist-ist-tot Traverso, Enzo. 2021. Revolution : An Intellectual History . London ; New York: Verso. https://www.versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E5 · Tue, February 20, 2024
As recovering Third Campists ourselves, we sit down to discuss the lingering problems that the third camp of Trotskyism has always had and how they are much dumber in their contemporary incarnation. Resignation from the Fourth International - Natalia Sedova Trotsky https://www.marxists.org/archive/sedova-natalia/1951/05/09.htm Against Campism, for International Working-Class Solidarity https://socialistforum.dsausa.org/issues/winter-2020/against-campism-for-international-working-class-solidarity/ The Third Camp, Socialism From Below, and the First Principle of Revolutionary Socialism https://newpol.org/issue_post/third-camp-socialism-below-and-first-principle-revolutionary-socialism/ Libya’s revolution, U.S. intervention, and the left https://isreview.org/issue/77/libyas-revolution-us-intervention-and-left/index.html Ukraine and fetishising the anti-NATO call https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2022-05-04/ukraine-and-fetishising-anti-nato-call Like our theme song? Check out Autumn Brigade here! Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E4 · Mon, February 05, 2024
This is a Patreon episode that we recorded in April of 2022. We decided to post this on our main feed at the request of several of our patrons who said more people should hear it. Continuing in the spirit of our discussion about the synthesis of socialism from above and below, we decided to dive a bit deeper into a topic that we have referenced many times in passing. The liberal narrative about the revolution is that it was a coup carried out by the Soviet Union against the will of the Czechoslovak people, but a cursory glance at how the revolution unfolded reveals a much different tale. Czechoslovakia 1948- By Joseph Grim Feinberg in Jacobin Magazine The Czechoslovak Revolution- By Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart in Foreign Affairs Magazine Duchacek, Ivo. “The February Coup in Czechoslovakia.” World Politics 2, no. 4 (1950): 511–32. https://doi.org/10.2307/2008933. Myant, Martin. Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia: 1945 - 1948 . Soviet and East European Studies 33. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1981. Music: Hej, slnko vychodí - (Hey, the sun is out) composed by Bartolomej Urbanec and sung in Slovak. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, February 01, 2024
Jason and Varn continue with their close reading of The Fourth Political Theory by Alexander Dugin. **This is a 30m preview of a 3 hour long episode** Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, January 25, 2024
This episode of InForm:Podcast is a re-release and cross-post of an older interview done with From78 (of Lost Horizons fame). It was originally posted several lifetimes ago, in 2020, but has been re-released by InForm so we decided to promote it here. Go check out the full episode: https://www.surplusjouissance.com/inform-podcast/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E3 · Tue, January 23, 2024
Not really, but we do talk about the history of Zionism as a settler colonial project. Pappe, Ilan. “The Framing of the Question of Palestine by the Early Palestinian Press: Zionist Settler-Colonialism and the Newspaper Filastin, 1912-1922.” The Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies : a Multidisciplinary Journal 14, no. 1 (2015): 59–81. https://doi.org/10.3366/hlps.2015.0104. Zionism: False Messiah (1998) by Lance Selfa https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/selfa/1998/xx/zionism.htm Zionism from the standpoint of Its Victims (1979) By Edward Said https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Edward-Said-Excerpt.pdf Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Jewish Victims Author(s): Ella Shohat https://palestinecollective.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/sephardim-in-israel_-zionism-from-the-standpoint-of-its-jewish-victims.pdf The long history of Zionist proposals to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/the-long-history-of-zionist-proposals-to-ethnically-cleanse-the-gaza-strip Like our intro music? Of course you do! Check out Autumn Brigade here: https://autumnbrigade.bandcamp.com/album/geist-ist-tot Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, January 15, 2024
Varn and Jason discuss this new collaborative project "Boundless and Bottomless Seas" and discuss why talking about Dugin and his Fourth Political Theory is worth doing. This is episode was recorded before the first episode of the series and is meant to be a sort of primer and introduction to the project. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E2 · Mon, January 08, 2024
This week we've got a podcast that we recorded with Subjective Conditions a few months ago. This podcast deals with Walter Benjamin as a vibe and, in true Regrettable Century fashion, the discussion is guided by the World Spirit. Check out Subjective Conditions here: https://www.patreon.com/subjectiveconditions/posts Check out Autumn Brigade here: https://autumnbrigade.bandcamp.com/album/geist-ist-tot Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, January 04, 2024
Sean KB from the Antifada joins Jason and Varn for a new series that examines the work of right wing thinkers. This week they are discussing the first chapter of Alexander Dugin's, 'The Fourth Political Theory' to break down and understand why people from all over the political spectrum are influenced by this seminal work of post-fascist thought. **This is a 30m preview of a 2.5 hour long episode** Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, January 01, 2024
This preview is from our sixth reading group episode on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. This week we discuss different conceptions of freedom, liberation, and the liberation of time. This was supposed to be the final episode, but it looks like we will have to do one more... Special thanks to our comrade Connor at Autumn Brigade for our new intro music. Check his music out here: https://autumnbrigade.bandcamp.com/album/geist-ist-tot Traverso, Enzo. 2021. Revolution : An Intellectual History . London ; New York: Verso https://www.versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S6 E1 · Mon, December 18, 2023
This week we continue our series reading from Rodney Hilton's collection of essays about the Crisis of Feudalism. These are pretty short essays, but we will no doubt be talking about them forever. Hilton, Rodney. Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism . A&C Black, 1985. Check out Varn Vlog: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, December 14, 2023
Head on over to our Patreon to hear us discuss the Napoleon movie with our comrade Matthew. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E54 · Tue, December 05, 2023
Welcome to part two of our YEAR 5 in review episode. We make one big announcement and then talk about all the really cool stuff that happened this year and all the really cool stuff that is on the horizon. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E23 · Wed, November 29, 2023
Welcome to our YEAR 5 in review episode. We make one big announcement and then talk about all the really cool stuff that happened this year and all the really cool stuff that is on the horizon. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, November 23, 2023
Welcome to our fifth reading group episode on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. This week we discuss different conceptions of freedom, liberation, and the liberation of time. Traverso, Enzo. 2021. Revolution : An Intellectual History . London ; New York: Verso. https://www.versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution Music: The Strike-Shots Heard the World Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E22 · Thu, November 16, 2023
This week we continue our discussion of Napoleon Bonaparte with our comrade Matthew. We start out tying up some loose ends and then discuss the upcoming Ridley Scott movie and the many variations of Bonapartism. Music: Marche du Sacre de Napoléon Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E21 · Thu, November 09, 2023
This week we had our long time comrade and resident France expert, Matthew, back on the show to talk about the mixed legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte. Was Napoleon a force for progress or the death of the revolution? The answer is yes. Revolutionary Figures: Napoleon Bonaparte https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/ageofrevolution/revolutionary-figures/napoleon-bonaparte/# Napoleon: Hegelian Hero https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/napoleon-hegelian-hero/ Hegel and Napoleon: On Heroes and the Sublime in History https://minervawisdom.com/2020/04/13/hegel-and-napoleon-on-heroes-and-the-sublime-in-history/ Music: Chant du départ , the anthem of the first French Empire. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, October 30, 2023
A little bonus episode for you this week. Here is the audio of a lecture that Kevin gave at the Cascadian Midsummer festival this summer about William Morris. Check out Cascadian Midsummer here: https://www.cmfest.org/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E20 · Thu, October 26, 2023
This week we continue our series reading from Rodney Hilton's collection of essays about the Crisis of Feudalism. These are pretty short essays, but we will no doubt be talking about them forever. Hilton, Rodney. Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism . A&C Black, 1985. Check out Varn Vlog: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, October 12, 2023
This week we discussed a book about the collapse of the Soviet Union and guess what, it wasn't the result of the United States' efforts to defeat the Evil Empire. It's much dumbe rand worse than that. Serhii Plokhy. 2015. The Last Empire : The Final Days of the Soviet Union . New York: Basic Books, A Member Of The Perseus Books Group. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E19 · Tue, October 03, 2023
The original dudes are back, with an original dudes topic revisiting our pessimism (because of intellect) and our optimism (because of will). No it's not just a doomer affectation that we can use to sound as cool as we look, its a critical method of engaging with the bleak reality that faces us. The only way out is through but getting through is possible. Revolutionary Pessimism: The Worst is Yet to Come https://www.christiansocialism.com/2020/05/12/covid-peter-fleming-revolutionary-pessimism-capitalism/ Pessimism of the Will https://viewpointmag.com/2020/05/28/pessimism-of-the-will/ CRITICAL PESSIMISM AND THE LIMITS OF TRADITIONAL MARXISM https://www.jstor.org/stable/657342 For A Refresher: The Proper Amount of Bumming People Out: Pessimisms and Optimisms of Intellect and Will https://regrettablecentury.buzzsprout.com/220523/1410229-the-proper-amount-of-bumming-people-out-pessimisms-and-optimisms-of-intellect-and-will Scattered Thoughts on Melancholia and the Organization of Pessimism https://regrettablecentury.buzzsprout.com/220523/1320682-scattered-thoughts-on-melancholia-and-the-organization-of-pessimism Pessimism of the Intellect, Pessimism of the Will https://regrettablecentury.buzzsprout.com/220523/889740-pessimism-of-the-intellect-pessimism-of-the-will Music- Англия - Сказочный мир Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E18 · Mon, September 18, 2023
This week we start a new series where we read from Rodney Hilton's collection of essays about the Crisis of Feudalism. These are pretty short essays, but we will no doubt be talking about them forever. Hilton, Rodney. Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism . A&C Black, 1985. Check out Varn Vlog: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, September 14, 2023
Welcome to our fourth reading group episode on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. This week we discuss the revolutionary intellectual. Traverso, Enzo. 2021. Revolution : An Intellectual History . London ; New York: Verso. https://www.versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E17 · Mon, September 04, 2023
We think degrowth is going to be necessary, but we also think the debate about degrowth has been all wrong. We read the newest issue of Monthly Review and had a discussion about the politics of degrowth. Planned Degrowth: Ecosocialism and Sustainable Human Development https://monthlyreview.org/2023/07/01/planned-degrowth/ Nine Theses on Ecosocialist Degrowth https://monthlyreview.org/2023/07/01/nine-theses-on-ecosocialist-degrowth/ (Here’s the whole issue) https://monthlyreview.org/product/mr-075-03-2023-07/ Music: Bad Religion- Watch it Die Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, August 28, 2023
Back with another book that Chris read in grad school, this time we are dealing with the problem of repopulating the Soviet Union after the Second World War. Please forgive the intermittent audio problems with Jason's track, we are still trying to figure out how to record in the same room and actually make it sound good. Mie Nakachi. Replacing the Dead : The Politics of Reproduction in the Postwar Soviet Union . New York, Ny: Oxford University Press, 2021. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E18 · Tue, August 22, 2023
This week the Law Boyz are back with a special guest, Kevin. We discuss the concept of the lumpenproletariat and their historical role as foot soldiers of reaction. Then we all argue about the police. Peter Stallybrass (1990) Marx and Heterogeneity: Thinking the Lumpenproletariat, Representations, No. 31, Special Issue: The Margins of Identity in Nineteenth-Century England, pp. 69-95 Nicholas Thoburn (2002) Difference in Marx: the lumpenproletariat and the proletarian unnamable, Economy and Society, 31:3, 434-460 Robert L. Bussard (1987) The ‘dangerous class’ of Marx and Engels: The rise of the idea of the Lumpenproletariat, History of European Ideas, 8:6, 675-692 Music: Johnny Cash- This Side of the Law Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, August 17, 2023
I know we said we were done with our Czechoslovak Socialism series, but like George Lucas we just couldn't leave well enough alone and have made a prequel. It turns out there is an interesting pre-history to Czechoslovak Socialist Republic that is worth discussing. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E16 · Mon, August 07, 2023
No Royal Road is back with part four of our discussion of Evegny Morozov's "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason." Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, July 31, 2023
Our third reading group episode on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. This week we discuss Concepts, Symbols, and Realms of Memory. Traverso, Enzo. 2021. Revolution : An Intellectual History . London ; New York: Verso. https://www.versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E16 · Tue, July 25, 2023
Kevin recently gave a talk about William Morris' transition from romantic anti-capitalism to Marxism and is thus well suited to school us on the subject. We decided to record it and share it with all of you. How I Became a Socialist (William Morris) https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1894/hibs/hibs.htm Under an Elm-Tree, Or, Thoughts in the Country-Side (William Morris) https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1889/commonweal/07-elm-tree.htm Facing the Worst of It (William Morris) https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1887/commonweal/02-facing-worst.htm William Morris (E.P. Thompson) https://www.marxists.org/archive/thompson-ep/1959/william-morris.htm Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E15 · Sun, July 16, 2023
This week we return to an old favorite topic of ours, the warm stream, romantic, or gothic in Marxism. This time we are joined by an accredited expert in all things gothic, Jon from the Horror Vanguard. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/horror-vanguard/id1445594437 https://twitter.com/TheLitCritGuy Bloch, Ernst, Neville Plaice, and Stephen Plaice. The Principle of Hope. Vol. 1. MIT Press, 1995. Music: Sisters of Mercy- She's a Monster Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, July 13, 2023
Ukrainian Nationalism and Third Worldism in the Cold War This week we read and discussed Congo on the Dnipro: Third Worldism and the Nationalization of Soviet Internationalism in Ukraine by Thom Lloyd. The author discusses attempts by Ukrainian nationalists to appropriate the language of third world liberation struggles, but with a twist (spoiler alert, its a racist one). Loyd, Thom. "Congo on the Dnipro: Third Worldism and the Nationalization of Soviet Internationalism in Ukraine." Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 22, no. 4 (2021): 787-811. doi:10.1353/kri.2021.0053. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E14 · Mon, July 03, 2023
The Patsocs are coming, the Patsocs are coming! There has been much fruitless discourse and claims of rising fascism among the keyboard proletarian vanguard about the problem of Social Patriotism. We got the original gang back together to talk about what the appropriate level for freaking out about it on the internet is. There is no contradiction between patriotism and socialism https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/there-no-contradiction-between-patriotism-and-socialism Is There a Place for Patriotism on the Left? https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/patriotism-left-nationalism/ Democratic Socialism Must Be Internationalist https://jacobin.com/2021/04/john-judis-the-socialist-awakening-review-socialist-left-internationalism-nationalism In Defense of U.S. Proletarian Patriotism https://www.midwesternmarx.com/articles/in-defense-of-us-proletarian-patriotism-a-comradely-response-to-danny-haiphongs-marxist-polemic-on-patriotic-socialism-by-kayla-popuchet British Communism’s Patriotic Disease https://www.ebb-magazine.com/essays/british-communisms-patriotic-disease The Case for a Left Patriotism https://www.thebellows.org/the-case-for-a-left-patriotism/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, June 28, 2023
Welcome to our second reading group episode on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. This week we discuss BODIES. Traverso, Enzo. 2021. Revolution : An Intellectual History . London ; New York: Verso. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E13 · Mon, June 19, 2023
No Royal Road is back with part four of our discussion of Evegny Morozov's "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason." Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, June 15, 2023
Just like the Prague Spring, it seems clear that the intentions of its participants were the opposite. The vast majority of Czechoslovaks who participated in the movements that brought down the republic were attempting to reform the socialist system, not destroy it. Krapfl, James. Revolution with a Human Face Politics, Culture, and Community in Czechoslovakia, 1989–1992 . Cornell University Press, 2017. Scott Brown. “Prelude to a Divorce? The Prague Spring as Dress Rehearsal for Czechoslovakia’s ‘Velvet Divorce.’” Europe-Asia Studies 60, no. 10 (2008): 1783–1804. Krishan Kumar (1992). The Revolutions of 1989: Socialism, Capitalism, and Democracy. Theory and Society, 21(3), 309–356. Paal Sigurd Hilde (1999). Slovak Nationalism and the Break-Up of Czechoslovakia. Europe-Asia Studies, 51(4), 647–665. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E12 · Mon, June 05, 2023
This week we discuss a couple of articles by Roland Boer about Lunacharsky, Lenin, and the project of godbuilding. This is our final episode with Mir before he goes off to Austria and Germany to learn all the sneakiest Jesuit tricks. Boer, Roland . “God in the World: Lenin, Hegel, and the God-Builders.” Heythrop Journal , 2015. Boer, Roland. “Religion and Socialism: A. V. Lunacharsky and the God-Builders.” Political Theology 15, no. 2 (March 2014): 188–209. Music: Current 93- Thunder Perfect Mind I Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, May 31, 2023
Back again with another one, this time we are throwing one out to the middle aged men in the audience by talking about World War Two. Edele, Mark. Stalinism at War : The Soviet Union in World War II . London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E11 · Mon, May 29, 2023
We are joined by Matthew and Julia for a continuation of our discussion about the French pension reforms. Matthew is our old comrade and friend from the days of Trot hyperactivism and Julia is an actually existing French person. Together they provide us their impressions of the struggle against Macron's pension reforms. Music: Komintern Sect- Rêves de liberté Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, May 22, 2023
Welcome to the first of our reading group episodes on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. This week we discuss TRAINS. Traverso, Enzo. 2021. Revolution : An Intellectual History . London; New York: Verso. https://www.versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E10 · Mon, May 08, 2023
No Royal Road is back with part three of our discussion of Evegny Morozov's "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason." Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Sun, April 30, 2023
We are back with more books Chris read in grad school. This one is written by Rachel Applebaum (no relation to Anne) and discusses the Soviet Friendship programs, their successes, and failures. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E9 · Mon, April 17, 2023
This week we discuss why the left allows the liberals to set the tone for its politics. Liberalism’s Hegemony Over The Left https://www.counterfire.org/article/liberalisms-hegemony-over-the-left/ Death Sentence For The American Left? https://damagemag.com/2023/01/25/a-death-sentence-for-the-american-left/ Debord and the Postmodern Turn: New Stages of the Spectacle https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/Illumina%20Folder/kell17.htm Nothing is Any Longer the Opposite of Anything: Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle Today https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/5019-nothing-is-any-longer-the-opposite-of-anything-guy-debord-s-the-society-of-the-spectacle-today Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, April 05, 2023
We are back with another book that Chris read in grad school. This one is an interesting read about the impact of material culture on the lives of late Soviet citizens called "The Things of Life: Materiality in Late Soviet Russia" by Alexy Golulbev. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E8 · Mon, April 03, 2023
We are once again joined by our old friend and comrade Matthew, who is currently residing in Paris. Matthew gives us the rundown of the French pension reforms and we talk about the prospects for the labor and socialist movements. Music- Edith Piaf- Ça Ira (Sans-culotte version) Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine aristocrats to the lamp post! Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine the aristocrats, we'll hang them! If we don't hang them We'll break them If we don't break them We'll burn them Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine aristocrats to the lamp-post Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine the aristocrats, we'll hang them! We shall have no more nobles nor priests Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine Equality will reign everywhere The Austrian slave shall follow him Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine And their infernal clique Shall go to hell Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine aristocrats to the lamp-post Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine the aristocrats, we'll hang them! And when we'll have hung them all We'll stick a shovel up their arse. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, March 27, 2023
We are finally back with part four of our discussion of Rodrigo Nunes' new book on Verso. This week we actually finish the book. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E7 · Sun, March 19, 2023
No Royal Road is back! Varn joins Chris and Jason to discuss the second part of Evegny Morozov's "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason." Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E6 · Sun, March 12, 2023
The boys are back and we are finally finishing this masterwork of left sociology by heavyweight Polish intellectual and dissident Marxist, Zygmunt Bauman. From the publisher's note: "Modernity was supposed to be the period in human history when the fears that pervaded social life in the past could be left behind and human beings could at last take control of their lives and tame the uncontrolled forces of the social and natural worlds. And yet, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, we live again in a time of fear. Whether its the fear of natural disasters, the fear of environmental catastrophes or the fear of indiscriminate terrorist attacks, we live today in a state of constant anxiety about the dangers that could strike unannounced and at any moment. Fear is the name we give to our uncertainty in the face of the dangers that characterize our liquid modern age, to our ignorance of what the threat is and our incapacity to determine what can and can't be done to counter it." We cover the last two chapters and conclusion in this episode. Bauman, Zygmunt. 2006. Liquid Fear . Cambridge U.A.: Polity Press. Music: Dimitri Shostakovich- Waltz No. 2 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E5 · Wed, February 22, 2023
We return to the concept of the republic, this time with our comrade Brad who is a member of the CPUSA, a union activist, and first class republic respecter. Brad is here to make a pitch for the continuation of a revolutionary tradition that is steeped in revolutionary republicanism. Pettit, Philip. 2012. On the People’s Terms : A Republican Theory and Model of Democracy . Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press. Bill of Rights Socialism and the Future of the Republic Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, February 13, 2023
This week we're discussing A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev which is a not very good book that advances a thesis that doesn't need to exist. Enjoy! Zubok, V M. 2009. A Failed Empire : The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev . Chapel Hill: University Of North Carolina Press. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E4 · Mon, February 06, 2023
No Royal Road is back! Varn joins Chris and Jason to discuss Evegny Morozov's "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason." This is the first of what will probably be a multi part series. Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E3 · Sun, January 29, 2023
Steven from Supreme Leap Forward is back and this time he's bringing his thoughts on natural law. For this weeks episode we read from Olúfémi Táíwò's Legal Naturalism and an article by Anna Lukina to prepare for this discussion. Olúfémi Táíwò. 2015. Legal Naturalism : A Marxist Theory of Law . Ithaca: Cornell University Press. https://legalform.blog/2020/07/30/kelsen-on-marx-engels-and-natural-law-anna-lukina/?fbclid=IwAR3qomVFwcvNttJqNJJKDhJcyrRPLbF4kGnBpplao3C-BsS3EfjZp01Ajcw Music: Tupac- Fuck the Law Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Tue, January 24, 2023
Happy New Year and welcome to a new series where Chris talks about books he read in grad school. This week we are reading and discussing Laboratory of Socialist Development: Cold War Politics and Decolonization in Soviet Tajikistan by Artemy Kalinovsky. Kalinovsky, Artemy M. 2018. Laboratory of Socialist Development : Cold War Politics and Decolonization in Soviet Tajikistan . Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E2 · Mon, January 16, 2023
We got together with our old friend and comrade from the Trot sect days to talk about why it is that the nominally socialist left is so obsessed with liberal culture war discourse. Music: Embrace- Money Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S5 E1 · Mon, December 19, 2022
Happy December, I just finished my semester and finally got around to mastering this episode that we recorded a couple months ago. We are revisiting this masterwork of left sociology by heavyweight Polish intellectual and dissident Marxist, Zygmunt Bauman who is a harsh critic of late capitalist modernity. From the publisher's note: "Modernity was supposed to be the period in human history when the fears that pervaded social life in the past could be left behind and human beings could at last take control of their lives and tame the uncontrolled forces of the social and natural worlds. And yet, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, we live again in a time of fear. Whether its the fear of natural disasters, the fear of environmental catastrophes or the fear of indiscriminate terrorist attacks, we live today in a state of constant anxiety about the dangers that could strike unannounced and at any moment. Fear is the name we give to our uncertainty in the face of the dangers that characterize our liquid modern age, to our ignorance of what the threat is and our incapacity to determine what can and can't be done to counter it." We cover the two middle chapters of the book in this episode. Bauman, Zygmunt. 2006. Liquid Fear . Cambridge U.A.: Polity Press. Music: Dimitri Shostakovich- Waltz No. 2 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, November 30, 2022
We are back with part three of our discussion of Rodrigo Nunes' new book on Verso. This week we talk about chapters three and four. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E22 · Tue, November 22, 2022
We just turned four! Looks like we have successfully fooled you into listening to us for another year. In honor of exiting the anal stage and entering our phallic stage of childhood psychosexual development as a podcast, we decided to do an episode about it. Please enjoy the very last episode of year four. Year five will be worse for humanity and likely better for our podcast. See you in season five! Music: The Dead Kennedys- Kill The Poor Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E21 · Sun, November 06, 2022
This week we continued our discussion of The Tragedy of the Worker by the Salvage Collective and discussed the implications of looming climate collapse. Once again we ask: what kind of world do you want to build in the post-apocalyptic wasteland? https://www.versobooks.com/books/3727-the-tragedy-of-the-worker Music: Bad Religion - Modern Man Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E20 · Tue, November 01, 2022
This week we read The Tragedy of the Worker by the Salvage Collective and discussed the implications of looming climate collapse. Once again we ask: what kind of world do you want to build in the post-apocalyptic wasteland? https://www.versobooks.com/books/3727-the-tragedy-of-the-worker Music: The Broadways- We'll Have a Party Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E19 · Fri, October 14, 2022
The Lost Horizons gang is back together. We welcome Comrade Adam back to the Lost Horizons network and discuss a couple of articles about Hegel, Foucault, and MADNESS. The Good the Mad and the Ugly: Part I The Good the Mad and the Ugly: Part II https://www.patreon.com/subjectiveconditions Music: Madness- One Step Beyond Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E18 · Mon, October 03, 2022
Happy October! Its what they call spooky season so it is only fitting that we dive into a book about Fear. This is a work of left sociology by heavyweight Polish intellectual and dissident Marxist, Zygmunt Bauman who is a harsh critic of late capitalist modernity. From the publisher's note: "Modernity was supposed to be the period in human history when the fears that pervaded social life in the past could be left behind and human beings could at last take control of their lives and tame the uncontrolled forces of the social and natural worlds. And yet, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, we live again in a time of fear. Whether its the fear of natural disasters, the fear of environmental catastrophes or the fear of indiscriminate terrorist attacks, we live today in a state of constant anxiety about the dangers that could strike unannounced and at any moment. Fear is the name we give to our uncertainty in the face of the dangers that characterize our liquid modern age, to our ignorance of what the threat is and our incapacity to determine what can and can't be done to counter it." We cover the introduction and first two chapters in this episode. Bauman, Zygmunt. 2006. Liquid Fear . Cambridge U.A.: Polity Press. Music: New Model Army- 225 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, September 21, 2022
Jason is out of the rehab facility and convalescing with our sister, so we decided to do a little test recording to see how it felt to be podcasting again after a coma and traumatic brain injury. We decided it went pretty alright and will be back soon with some episodes. This isn't a real episode, but we have part two of our reading group coming soon and Jason and I will be recording part three of our Czechoslovak socialism series this month as well. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E17 · Mon, September 12, 2022
Welcome to the fifth and final part of our reading series on Roland Boer's Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition. We are joined by our Comrades in Christ, Mir and Ben, for a set of chapters dealing with the Taiping Revolution, Chinese Christian Marxism, and Christianity in the DPRK. We are missing Jason on this podcast, but hopefully, he will be back some time this month. Boer, Roland. Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition . Studies in Critical Research on Religion . Haymarket Books, 2020. Music: Han Lei, Qi Jianbo, and Fan Xiaobin- The Vast Heaven and Earth Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Fri, September 09, 2022
Book Clubs are back, back in a temporarily diminished capacity, but back. This week we read the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Rodrigo Nunes' new book on Verso. This book rhymes with concepts we have been discussing on the podcast for quite some time, so we were excited to dive in. Nunes, Rodrigo. Neither Vertical nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organisation . Verso, 2021. To join in future reading groups please join our Patreon by clicking below. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E16 · Tue, August 23, 2022
Welcome to the fourth part of our reading series on Roland Boer's Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition. We are joined by our Comrades in Christ, Mir and Ben, for a set of chapters dealing with Althusser's Christianity, Farnham Maynard, and the God-building Project of Anatoly Lunacharsky. We are missing Jason on this podcast, but hopefully, he will be back in a month or two. Until then we will wrap up this series without him. Boer, Roland. Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition . Studies in Critical Research on Religion . Haymarket Books, 2020. Music: Choir of the Brethren at Valaam Monastary- Agni Parthene Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E15 · Tue, July 19, 2022
Welcome to the third part of our reading series on Roland Boer's Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition. We are joined by our Comrades in Christ, Mir and Ben, for the third set of chapters dealing with the contradictory legacy of Martin Luther and Marx's secular eschaton. This episode was recorded before Jason's accident, but I have just now gotten around to mixing and uploading it. It has been a crazy month, but we are hoping to get back in the swing of things soon. Jason won't be able to podcast again until probably September at the earliest, but we are going to try to get some stuff together in his absence. Enjoy! Boer, Roland. Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition . Studies in Critical Research on Religion . Haymarket Books, 2020. Music: Norfolk Chamber Consort - J.S. Bach, Cantata 106: II. Gottes Zeit ist die allerbester Zeit Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Wed, July 13, 2022
It's been about a month since we posted anything, here is why. Don't worry, we will be back soon! Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E14 · Tue, May 31, 2022
Welcome to the second part of our reading series on Roland Boer's Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition. We are joined by our Comrades in Christ, Mir and Ben, for the second set of chapters dealing with the contradictory legacies of St, Paul, Martin Luther, and John Calvin. Boer, Roland. Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition . Studies in Critical Research on Religion . Haymarket Books, 2020. Music: John Brown's Body - Paul Robeson Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Tue, May 24, 2022
Continuing what has become a series on Czechoslovak Socialism, we discuss the attempt to reform the ČSSR in 1968. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E13 · Mon, May 16, 2022
This week we are joined by Comrade Adam, a Lost Horizons alumnus of Red Library fame, to discuss what sort of dialogue can be had between Marxism and Buddhism. We decided to branch out, and cover a non-Christian faith in this continuation of our series on Marxism and religion. We hope to continue touching on other faiths and their interaction and overlap with the emancipatory project. Dharmic Marxism- A blog that posts about Marxism and Buddhism https://dharmicmarxism.wordpress.com/ Subjective Conditions Podcast https://sites.libsyn.com/subjectiveconditions?fbclid=IwAR3KGWIeoFCwqPy8A0Cmbhher7JsWW9iAfGYqEmwajic8yVd_BeNweLYp28 Music- YOB- In Our Blood Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E12 · Mon, May 02, 2022
Welcome to the first part of our reading series on Roland Boer's Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition. We are joined by our Comrades in Christ, Mir and Ben for the first two chapters, which mostly deal with Karl Kautsky's writings about early Christianity and how it informs the communist tradition. Boer, Roland. Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition . Studies in Critical Research on Religion . Haymarket Books, 2020. Music: Ktož jsú boží bojovníci written by Jan Čapek z Klatov in 15th Century as a battle anthem for the Hussite rebels. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E12 · Wed, April 20, 2022
In this episode, we discuss another Chris Wickham article about feudalism. This is a stand-alone episode, but it is in spiritual continuity with our previous series discussing Chris Wickham's The Other Transition. We will be back soon with another series on a similar topic. Reuter, Timothy, and Chris Wickham. “The ‘Feudal Revolution.’” Past & Present , no. 155 (1997): 177–208. http://www.jstor.org/stable/651130. https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Tue, April 19, 2022
Continuing in the spirit of our discussions about the relationship between "Socialism From Below" and "Socialism From Above," we've decided to dive in a bit deeper into a topic we've referenced many times in passing... Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E11 · Wed, April 06, 2022
Once again, we continue our unending project of reuniting the cold and the warm streams of Marxism. This time we are joined by our comrade Ben to talk about the need for a dialogue between Marxism and Christianity. We once again ask what Christians can learn from the liberatory message of Marxism and what Marxists may be able to take away from the liberatory message of Christianity. Marxists and Christians: The Fate of the Dialogue The Urgency of Marxist-Christian Dialogue by Herbert Aptheker; Marxism and Radical Religion: Essays toward a Revolutionary Humanity by Thomas Dean; John C. Raines; Church in a Marxist Society by Jan Milic Lochman Review by: Charles C. West The Journal of Religion, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Jul., 1972), pp. 304-317 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, March 28, 2022
Wherein a group of us get together to read and discuss the latest issue of Jacobin magazine, its analysis of the current political situation, and what to do about it... and the extent to which it actually does those things. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E10 · Mon, March 21, 2022
Here is about an hour's worth of bonus content recorded before our last episode of No Royal Road. We were just riffing about neoliberalism, left delusions, anti-imperialism, paleo-cons, liberals, conservatism, inflation, Volcker Shock, internet tankies, and a bunch of other things we thought might be worth recording. So, we hit record. Enjoy. https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts Music: Tragedy- Conflicting Ideas Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E9 · Mon, March 07, 2022
The American left's response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia is as depressing as its prospects. We at the Regrettable Century are against invasions and World War 3 and think you should be too. We talk about what orientation if any, it would be useful for Marxists to take in response to the unfolding tragedy in Eastern Europe. The Ugly, Embarrassing Spectacle of ‘Milling’ Around Online https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/03/russia-ukraine-invasion-twitter/624168/ Why John Mearsheimer Blames the U.S. for the Crisis in Ukraine https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-john-mearsheimer-blames-the-us-for-the-crisis-in-ukraine Armed Nationalists in Ukraine Pose a Threat Not Just to Russia https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/world/europe/ukraine-nationalism-russia-invasion.html Music: Україна і Росія - Ukraine and Russia by The State Choir of the Ukrainian SSR "Dumka" (Державна капела УРСР «Думка») Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Sun, February 27, 2022
Some Real Nerd Hours covering the emergence of a conscious German "National Bolshevism" during the Weimar Era between the World Wars... Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E8 · Wed, February 23, 2022
Welcome to the fourth and final episode of our discussion on Chris Wickham's essay The Other Transition , about the transition from the classical to the feudal mode production. This is the last in this particular reading series, but not the last for this collaboration. We will be back soon with another series on a similar topic. Chris Wickham, THE OTHER TRANSITION: FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD TO FEUDALISM, Past & Present , Volume 103, Issue 1, May 1984, Pages 3–36 https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E7 · Mon, February 07, 2022
This week the guys discuss the rotting whale carcass that is the American left. Gone are the days of mass organizations, the workers movement, and even the microsect. We discuss atomization, idealism, and our prospects moving forward. Remapping the American Left: A History of Radical Discontinuity (pp 22-32) https://depts.washington.edu/moves/pdf/Gregory_Remapping_the_American_Left_LABOR_May2020.pdf The U.S. left at a strategic impasse https://www.tempestmag.org/2022/01/the-u-s-left-at-a-strategic-impasse/ Bismarck, Browder, and Biden: Joe’s Hegemony Versus Ours https://cosmonautmag.com/2021/10/bismarck-browder-biden-joes-hegemony-versus-ours/ Music: Tha Crossroads- Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E6 · Wed, January 26, 2022
This week Jason continues to teach us about the history of American socialism. We pick up with the collapse of the old left, discuss the birth of the New Left, the New Communist Movement, and end with the End of History and the turn inward. Dennis, Peggy. The Autobiography of an American Communist: A Personal View of a Political Life, 1925-1975. Lawrence Hill Books, 1977. Bernstein, Walter. Inside Out: A Memoir of the Blacklist. Da Capo Press, 1996. Isserman, Maurice. If I Had A Hammer: The Death of the Old Left and the Birth of the New Left. Basic Books, 1987. Unger, Irwin. The Movement: A History of the New Left, 1959-1972 . Dodd, Mead, 1974. Leonard, Aaron J & Gallagher, Conor A. A Threat of the First Magnitude: FBI Counterintelligence & Infiltration From the Communist Party to the Revolutionary Union, 1962-1974. Repeater, 2018. Leonard, Aaron J & Gallagher, Conor A. Heavy Radicals - The FBI's Secret War on America's Maoists: The Revolutionary Union / Revolutionary Communist Party, 1968-1980. Zero Books, 2015. Elbaum, Max. Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che. Verso, 2018. Dixon, Aaron. My People Are Rising: Memoir of a Black Panther Party Captain . Haymarket, 2012. Sheppard, Barry. The Party: A Political Memoir (The Socialist Workers Party 1960-1988). Haymarket, 2006. Camejo, Peter. North Star: A Memoir. Haymarket, 2010. Music: Fortunate Son- Circle Jerks Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Fri, January 21, 2022
From the second installment of the Regrettable Book Club's reading of Antonio Labriola's Socialism and Philosophy covering the introduction by Paul Piccone. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E5 · Wed, January 12, 2022
Welcome to the third episode of a new collaborative series with Varn Vlog and the Regrettable Century, where we will be talking about history, historiography, social technologies, relations of production, modes of production, and most importantly, transitions. In this episode, we continue talking about the other transition, the transition to the feudal mode of production. Chris Wickham, THE OTHER TRANSITION: FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD TO FEUDALISM, Past & Present , Volume 103, Issue 1, May 1984, Pages 3–36 https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Sun, January 02, 2022
Last year, Neil Gorman and Regrettable Chris hung out during the Christmas break to talk about how bad higher education had gotten during the pandemic. This clip however, is a little preview of the other stuff they talked about. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E4 · Tue, December 28, 2021
This week we further explore our critique of technology under capitalism. Chris was absent from the recording due to grad school reasons, so Jess led the charge on this one. We ultimately determine that technology is bad and the Luddites were right. The Rise of the Machines https://jacobinmag.com/2013/04/the-rise-of-the-machines The Ideology Behind Technology https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3333-the-ideology-behind-technology The Case Against Naive Technocapitalist Optimism https://consilienceproject.org/the-case-against-naive-technocapitalist-optimism/ Marx on Technology https://andymerrifield.org/2019/09/29/marx-on-technology/ HYPER-REALITY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs&t=291s Music: Bathsheba- At the End of Everything Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E3 · Thu, December 16, 2021
This week Jason teaches us about the history of American socialism. We start with the beginnings of the movement in the late 19th century and ends just after the Second World War. Cannon, James P. The History of American Trotskyism, 1928-1938 : Report of a participant . New York: Pathfinder, 2002. Drucker, Peter. Max Shachtman and His Left : A Socialist's Odyssey Through the "American century . Amherst: Prometheus, 2001. Foner, Philip S. The Great Labor Uprising of 1877 . New York: Pathfinder, 2002. Ginger, Ray. The Bending Cross : A biography of Eugene Victor Debs . Chicago, Ill: Haymarket Books, 2007. Gornick, Vivian. The Romance of American Communism . London Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2020. Johanningsmeier, Edward P. Forging American Communism : The Life of William Z. Foster . Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994. Kelley, Robin D. Hammer and hoe : Alabama Communists During the Great Depression . Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2015. Kipnis, Ira. The American Socialist Movement, 1897-1912 . Chicago, Ill: Haymarket Books, 2004. Naison, Mark D. Communists in Harlem During the Depression . Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005. Weinstein, James. The Decline of Socialism in America, 1912-1925 . New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 1984. Music: Talking Union- Pete Seeger Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E2 · Tue, November 30, 2021
Welcome to the second episode of a new collaborative series with Varn Vlog and the Regrettable Century, where we will be talking about history, historiography, social technologies, relations of production, modes of production, and most importantly, transitions. On this episode we continue talking about the other transition, the transition to the feudal mode of production. Chris Wickham, THE OTHER TRANSITION: FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD TO FEUDALISM, Past & Present , Volume 103, Issue 1, May 1984, Pages 3–36 https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S4 E1 · Wed, November 10, 2021
This is the first episode in a series on the book Psychoanalytic Politics by Sherry Turkle. We teamed up with Neil, our Lost Horizons alumnus of From 78 fame, to talk about this book he likes and thought we might too. Neil is really into psychoanalysis and we are really into politics, we figured this would be a good book to bridge our interests and have a discussion. Check out InForm here: https://inform.transistor.fm/ Turkle, Sherry. Psychoanalytic politics : Jacques Lacan and Freud's French revolution . London New York: Free Association Books Guilford Press, 1992. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E35 · Wed, November 03, 2021
This week we have the whole gang together to celebrate the 100th episode of The Regrettable Century. We discuss the highlights of the previous year, how dumb we were as children, and how violent punk shows used to be. Listen as we make our political predictions for the upcoming year and actually figure out how to do Marxist virtue ethics. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, October 20, 2021
From the first installment of the Regrettable Book Club's reading of Antonio Labriola's Socialism and Philosophy covering the introduction by Paul Piccone. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E34 · Mon, October 18, 2021
Welcome to a new collaborative series with Varn Vlog and the Regrettable Century, where we will be talking about history, historiography, social technologies, relations of production, modes of production, and most importantly, transitions. We start off by talking about the other transition, the transition to the feudal mode of production. Chris Wickham, THE OTHER TRANSITION: FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD TO FEUDALISM, Past & Present , Volume 103, Issue 1, May 1984, Pages 3–36 https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E33 · Tue, September 28, 2021
This week Chris joins Jason on another one of his side projects, A Fine Old Conflict , which he does with our friend and comrade, Matthew. The guys talk about their shared background of punk rock/pop-culture and whether or not the new Refused album was any good. If you enjoy this discussion, please check out A Fine Old Conflict . Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E32 · Tue, September 14, 2021
Join the boys as they send Red Library off to the Gray Havens with this final episode in our Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition series. In this weeks episode we dive into Magee's explanation of Hegel's The Science of Logic as the Kabbalistic Tree, The Philosophy of Nature and the Philosophy of Subjective Spirit as alchemical formulae, and the Philosophy of Objective and Absolute Spirit as the rose in the cross of the present. Magee, Glenn A. Hegel and the hermetic tradition . Ithaca, N.Y. Bristol: Cornell University Press University Presses Marketing distributor, 2008. Suite II in g minor- Robert Fludd Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E31 · Mon, September 06, 2021
This week we would like to introduce to you to The Measures Taken . The Measures Taken is a podcast about the intellectual history of the key debates that occurred in Marxism and it also happens to be one of Jason's side projects. All of the contributors to the podcast come from different corners of the American left and believe that they have all been miseducated. This podcast is an attempt at self education and an encouragement for others to do the same. https://www.themeasurestaken.org/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E30 · Tue, August 24, 2021
Christopher Lasch is a figure that draws strong reactions from people all over the political spectrum. Lasch's later work spoke of a growing chasm between liberal managerial elites and the traditional working class (endearing him to some conservatives), but his older work falls solidly within the tradition of homegrown American socialist politics. Our friend and comrade, C. Derick Varn, is currently co-authoring a book on Christopher Lasch, and he stopped by to tell us why Lasch is worth reading. Books by Christopher Lasch Music- Incendiary- Zeitgeist Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E29 · Wed, August 18, 2021
Christopher Lasch is a figure that draws strong reactions from people all over the political spectrum. Lasch's later work spoke of a growing chasm between liberal managerial elites and the traditional working class (endearing him to some conservatives), but his older work falls solidly within the tradition of homegrown American socialist politics. Our friend and comrade, C. Derick Varn, is currently co-authoring a book on Christopher Lasch, and he stopped by to tell us why Lasch is worth reading. Books by Christopher Lasch Music- Wailin Storms- Rope Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E28 · Wed, August 04, 2021
We teamed up with Adam from Red Library, and our comrade Mir from Sweden, in a farewell reading series on Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition by Glenn Alexander Magee. Magee forges a path tread by few in arguing that Hegel was decisively influenced by western esotericism. In this weeks episode we dive into Magee's explanation of Hegel's Mythology of Reason and the Phenomenology of the Spirit as a Hermetic initiation rite. Magee, Glenn A. Hegel and the hermetic tradition . Ithaca, N.Y. Bristol: Cornell University Press University Presses Marketing distributor, 2008. The Keeper of the Grail · John Williams Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E27 · Thu, July 29, 2021
This week we discuss an article by Ben Davis in Salvage Journal titled T he Anarchist in the Network which discusses the pitfalls of organizing in the age of the internet. The extreme atomization of our society has been exacerbated by our social media addictions and our methods of organization against capitalism have suffered as a result. While calls for protests may go viral and enormous crowds may turn out, they lack to coherence needed to bring sustained pressure to bear. There really is no substitute for the patience, discipline, and efficacy that comes from the self organization of the working class. https://salvage.zone/articles/the-anarchist-in-the-network/ Music- Billy Bragg- There Is Power in the Union Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Tue, July 27, 2021
From the Regrettable Book Club's investigation of the Appendices in Monsieur Dupont's Nihilist Communism . Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E26 · Wed, July 21, 2021
This week we sat down with Lost Horizons comrade and Red Library Alumnus, Adam to talk about mental illness as a social problem, but we ended up talking about a lot more. We cover the less than stellar performance of SSRIs, Hezychasm, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, communism, exercise, and therapy. Ultimately we concluded that there is no liberation from mental illness without the abolition of capitalism. Turn Illness Into a Weapon https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2013/11/14/turn_illness_into_a_weapon.pdf?fbclid=IwAR32rI-UNxlnfI5-jJDnld9HpLgsu16sdhfjtsEmTsCsa2KTCghV75hoJw8 Depression as a Social Disease https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-is-he-thinking/201802/depression-social-disease?fbclid=IwAR3JZ1zvC1N9Z1kD6fhoPUpxOJRnJNfGsPdAE86gLvYBhKH6VVRNHjdi5xs Capitalism Hits Home: An Interview with Harriet Fraad https://publicseminar.org/essays/capitalism-hits-home-an-interview-with-harriet-fraad/?fbclid=IwAR3Uoiwv3f6ehypnjTtBYNrk8kR6xbBsDHIOVCrS5mwrEpA7YR3k22mSKw8 Music: The Broadways- 15 Minutes Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E25 · Wed, July 14, 2021
This week we continue our series on republicanism and Marxism by discussing the complicated legacy of the American Revolution. Like the bourgeois project as a whole, the historical consequences of the American Revolution have had mixed results. Simultaneously spurring on the cause of human freedom and stifling it, the American Revolution was pregnant with a creative and destructive spirit. As the American Empire appears to be in decline, we ask whether or not things could have gone, or could still go, in another direction. Check out Matthew and Jason's Podcast: A Fine Old Conflict https://afineoldconflict.buzzsprout.com/ War and Revolution: Rethinking the 20th Century https://thecharnelhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/domenico-losurdo-war-and-revolution-rethinking-the-twentieth-century.pdf Historical Revisionism and Delegitimation of the Revolutionary and Anticolonial Tradition—A Review of War and Revolution https://sci-hub.se/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21598282.2016.1172752 Liberals and Reactionaries http://www.leninology.co.uk/2011/10/liberals-and-reactionaries.html From Karl Marx to the Fourth of July https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/07/inde-j03.html THE MYTH OF THE “CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTION” https://socialistworker.org/2011/12/14/myth-of-the-conservative-revolution Communist and Neo-Babouvist readings of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution https://www.academia.edu/38110441/_Communist_and_Neo_Babouvist_readings_of_the_Enlightenment_and_the_French_Revolution_in_E_Vallance_ed_Remembering_Early_Modern_Revolutions_London_Routledge_2018 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E24 · Thu, July 01, 2021
We teamed up with Adam from Red Library in a farewell reading series on Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition by Glenn Alexander Magee. Magee forges a path tread by few in arguing that Hegel was decisively influenced by western esotericism. In this weeks episode we trace the roots of Hermetic tradition from a syncretic cult that blended Greek and Egyptian ideas of magic and spirituality, through figures like Paracelsus, Agrippa, Bruno, Baader, and Böhme. Magee argues that, in order to understand Hegel, we have to view him as a Hermetic thinker. Hopefully this book well help us understand Hegel a little bit better. Magee, Glenn A. Hegel and the hermetic tradition . Ithaca, N.Y. Bristol: Cornell University Press University Presses Marketing distributor, 2008. Music: The Mystical Body Of Christ In Chorazaim (The Great In The Small) · Current 93 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, June 28, 2021
From the inaugural episode of our recurring Regrettable Book Club. Our first selection is Monsieur Dupont's Nihilist Communism with which we both agree and also disagree. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E23 · Thu, June 17, 2021
It doesn't take much to convince someone that the capitalist system has exhausted its progressive potential and is in a state of decline. There are a number of theories that the prolonged state of crisis of the capitalist system is evidence that capitalism has peaked and is on its way out. While we agree that capitalism has entered a state of decadence, does that necessarily mean that it will collapse completely, and if so will anything good come from it? The Theory of Decline or the Decline of Theory http://libcom.org/library/decadence-aufheben-2#:~:text=In%20our%20view%20this%20theory,critique%20the%20theory%20of%20decadence.&text=Essentially%20the%20theory%20suggests%20that,has%20now%20entered%20its%20decline. Revolution or Decadence (Sami Amin) https://monthlyreview.org/2018/05/01/revolution-or-decadence/ A Framework for the Concept of Decadence of Capitalism (shortest reading) https://www.leftcom.org/en/forum/2013-02-17/a-framework-for-the-concept-of-decadence-of-capitalism ICC Decadence Theory Readings https://en.internationalism.org/tag/28/287/decadence-theory-and-historical-materialism?fbclid=IwAR1bS0PVOixz8j9Lbtfkq7AELvhjOjmMG5COy8sryHHdrAItTcsFi6lbB2M Music: Refused- Protest Song 68 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E22 · Wed, June 09, 2021
We sat down with our old friend, comrade, and fellow veteran of Trotskist hyperactivsm to discuss the concept of the Republic and whether or not is still useful to Marxist organizing/theorizing. The era of the bourgeois republic has been a simultaneous process of creation and destruction, of liberation and enslavement. As the final epoch of human civilization reaches its nadir, do we still have any use for the republic? The Constitution & The Class Struggle https://socialistcall.com/2018/11/27/the-constitution-and-the-class-struggle/ Looking at Chris Maisano’s “The Constitution and the Class Struggle” https://cosmonaut.blog/2020/12/02/lenin-and-the-class-point-of-view-looking-at-chris-maisanos-the-constitution-and-the-class-struggle/ Fight The Constitution, Demand a New Republic! https://cosmonautmag.com/2021/03/fight-the-constitution-demand-a-new-republic/ Bill of Rights socialism and the future of the republic https://www.cpusa.org/article/bill-of-rights-socialism-and-the-future-of-the-republic/ Abolish The States https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/08/abolish-the-states/ Abolish The Senate https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/12/abolish-the-senate/ Music: Paul Robeson- John Brown's Body A Fine Old Conflict Podcast https://afineoldconflict.buzzsprout.com/ Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E22 · Wed, June 09, 2021
We sat down with our old friend, comrade, and fellow veteran of Trotskist hyperactivsm to discuss the concept of the Republic and whether or not is still useful to Marxist organizing/theorizing. The era of the bourgeois republic has been a simultaneous process of creation and destruction, of liberation and enslavement. As the final epoch of human civilization reaches its nadir, do we still have any use for the republic? The Constitution & The Class Struggle https://socialistcall.com/2018/11/27/the-constitution-and-the-class-struggle/ Looking at Chris Maisano’s “The Constitution and the Class Struggle” https://cosmonaut.blog/2020/12/02/lenin-and-the-class-point-of-view-looking-at-chris-maisanos-the-constitution-and-the-class-struggle/ Fight The Constitution, Demand a New Republic! https://cosmonautmag.com/2021/03/fight-the-constitution-demand-a-new-republic/ Bill of Rights socialism and the future of the republic https://www.cpusa.org/article/bill-of-rights-socialism-and-the-future-of-the-republic/ Abolish The States https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/08/abolish-the-states/ Abolish The Senate https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/12/abolish-the-senate/ Music: Paul Robeson- John Brown's Body A Fine Old Conflict Podcast https://afineoldconflict.buzzsprout.com/ Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury)
S3 E21 · Wed, June 02, 2021
This week we discuss the final chapters of the Twittering Machine by Richard Seymour in the conclusion of our three part series. Seymour's book is an extremely black-pilling look into the trolls, e-celebs, pile-ons, live streamed suicide, and corporate surveillance that make up the social media cesspool. Ultimately we conclude that the internet and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. Seymour, Richard. The twittering machine . London: The Indigo Press, 2019. Print. Music: Earth Crisis- Destroy the Machines Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, May 26, 2021
It is clear that our activism has been largely fruitless for the past few decades but what should we be doing instead? Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E20 · Mon, May 24, 2021
This week we discuss chapters two and three of the Twittering Machine by Richard Seymour in the second of a three part series. Seymour's book is an extremely black-pilling look into the trolls, e-celebs, pile-ons, live streamed suicide, and corporate surveillance that make up the social media cesspool. Ultimately we conclude that the internet and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. Seymour, Richard. The twittering machine . London: The Indigo Press, 2019. Print. Music: Indecision- Higher Side of Low Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E19 · Mon, May 17, 2021
This week we discuss the introduction and first chapter of the Twittering Machine by Richard Seymour in the first of a three part series. Seymour's book is an extremely black-pilling look into the trolls, e-celebs, pile-ons, live streamed suicide, and corporate surveillance that make up the social media cesspool. Ultimately we conclude that the internet and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. Seymour, Richard. The twittering machine . London: The Indigo Press, 2019. Print. Music: Snapcase- Break the Static Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E18 · Thu, May 06, 2021
This week Chris is temporarily replaced by a special guest that long time listeners will remember from the early days of the pod, Jenny. The gang talks about the loneliness of social distancing, the long term effects of pandemic based hyper-alienation, and what the political prospects moving forward look like. Society of the Spectacle (sections 28, 172, 221) https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.htm The pandemic has unleashed the age of individualism https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/the-pandemic-has-unleashed-the-age-of-individualism-11608132621601.html 22 percent of millennials say they have “no friends” https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/8/1/20750047/millennials-poll-loneliness?fbclid=IwAR1Z7EBeAAXgcUTw5mUA_eOGIQDk_0dM5GUweA6OOv4Fe1B5gbN8qtpCCnc Pandemic shaming: is it helping us keep our distance? https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/apr/04/pandemic-shaming-is-it-helping-us-keep-our-distance?fbclid=IwAR3FsljvgtF4TqI2DbwJvZFBISsKk-7anRcP0YO-f0F8xLsgh2bqEOnRGOU Isolation, Stress, and Poverty: Capitalism and Our Declining Mental Health https://www.socialistalternative.org/2020/11/23/isolation-stress-and-poverty-capitalism-and-our-declining-mental-health/ Music: Joy Divison- Isolation Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Fri, April 30, 2021
Half the podcast crew and a couple of the extended family get together to steal a bit joy from the future by thinking aloud as to how a small handful of our myriad problems might begin to be addressed. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in more discussions like this one. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E17 · Wed, April 28, 2021
Last year during the unrest after George Floyd's murder, we read an article about recuperation and talked about the concept within the context of then unfolding paroxysms of rage against police brutality. Does every movement for social change eventually get recuperated? Yes. Is it still worth engaging in social movements? Also yes. The Recuperation of Authentic Outrage https://libcom.org/library/recuperation-authentic-outrage Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E16 · Wed, April 14, 2021
We are now living in the most watched society in history. Our every move is tracked, our conversations monitored, our purchases logged, every link we click is logged, but its okay because its not the government doing it right? You Are Now Remotely Controlled -- Shoshana Zuboff https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/opinion/sunday/surveillance-capitalism.html?fbclid=IwAR0N6cbEaABSR2Yb7lEfLRjtWopZQu-bizbl2k7XaJFQOFfwcnV3riBJ7MI Willing servants -- Richard Seymour https://newhumanist.org.uk/5516/willing-servants?fbclid=IwAR3G7zXvBob940xv1ayY1ryPrAfU5Xf5ZU53J2I_bWCwLQ6V8IeUfW_YpEc Communicative Capitalism and Class Struggle -- Jodi Dean https://spheres-journal.org/contribution/communicative-capitalism-and-class-struggle/ When the social industry bans the people we hate -- Richard Seymour https://www.patreon.com/posts/27523240?fbclid=IwAR3M5UICw48xJPlsTWW2at96G0LCjSd8lZ1BQUQ_XGqFfFZ-dIb893Twvas Your Phone is Listening and it's Not Paranoia https://www.vice.com/en/article/wjbzzy/your-phone-is-listening-and-its-not-paranoia?fbclid=IwAR1UWg7TOU8ocwC1PXYqpBOuVXC9teau250pEynsUPlhyfKGFXwPtXrXb9o Music- Bauhaus- The Spy in the Cab Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E15 · Thu, April 01, 2021
Like most other political terms, the word "neoliberal" has been used so much to describe so many disparate things that it has ceased to have meaning. Well, unfortunately neoliberalism is real and it is an economic idea and political project that completely dominates every aspect of modern capitalist society and even our resistance to it. So, listen up and learn what we just learned about how much everything sucks. Varn talks with Mirowski on Symptomatic Redness https://www.mixcloud.com/symptomatic-redness/ep-1-phillip-mirowski-on-neoliberalism/ Harvey on Neoliberalism As a Political Project https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/david-harvey-neoliberalism-capitalism-labor-crisis-resistance/ Interview with Mirowski https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/08/fixing-old-markets-with-new-markets-the-origins-and-practice-of-neoliberalism.html Mirowski on Neoliberalism https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/02/neoliberalism-movement-dare-not-speak-name/ The Uses and Abuses of “Neoliberalism” https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/uses-and-abuses-neoliberalism-debate Michael Roberts on Neoliberalism https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2019/03/12/neoliberalism-not-so-bad/ https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2017/11/27/neoliberalism-works-for-the-world/ Music: MelonadeM- Garfield Gameboy'd Credits Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Fri, March 26, 2021
Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and sign up on our Discord to take part in future Patron Roundtables. We were joined by some of our choicest patrons to discuss the question of the party form. Join us as we solve the party problem. Join us on our Discord to plan out to plan out the next one, then remember to come join in the discussion. All patrons are welcome! Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E14 · Mon, March 22, 2021
Its been said elsewhere that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism. Well, that may be true, but it doesn't take much imagining to conceive of the end of the world. We are currently living though the end of the world. Who would have thought it would be so boring? Join us as we lament our collective willingness to go gentle into that good night. Imagining the End of Capitalism With Kim Stanley Robinson https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/10/kim-stanley-robinson-ministry-future-science-fiction IMAGINING THE END https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/05/imagining-the-end In Defence of Metabolic Rift Theory https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3691-in-defence-of-metabolic-rift-theory#:~:text=One%20Marxist%20line%20of%20inquiry,%2C%20Morristown%2C%20Ohio%2C%201974 Music- Napalm Death: The Brink of Extinction The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E13 · Mon, March 08, 2021
This week we are joined once again by Adam from Red Library for the final episode in our series. We continue our multi part series tackling the monster tome by Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity. McCarraher believes that capitalism displaced religion and disenchanted the world and that Capitalism then became a religion itself, replacing the sacramental enchantment of the pre-capitalist world with a pecuniary enchantment that he calls Mammonism. McCarraher, Eugene. The enchantments of Mammon : how capitalism became the religion of modernity . Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. Print. Music- Gregorian Chant for the Dead - Dies irae (Sequentia) -Alessio Randon The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, March 01, 2021
Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and sign up on our Discord to take part in future Patron Roundtables. We were joined by some of our choicest patrons to discuss the question of the party form. Join us as we solve the party problem. Join us on our Discord to plan out to plan out the next one, then remember to come join in the discussion. All patrons are welcome! Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E12 · Thu, February 25, 2021
This week we team up with our pal Jess to talk about the mixed legacy of the enlightenment and we ultimately determine that the enlightenment was good and also it was bad. Smith, C. (1996) Hegel Marx and the Enlightenment: An Interim Report https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-cyril/works/articles/interim.htm Sherratt, Y. (2000) ADORNO AND HORKHEIMER’S CONCEPT OF “ENLIGHTENMENT.” British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 8(3), 521–544. Nielsen, K. (1988) Marx and the enlightenment. Critical Review, 2(4), 59–75. Hook, S. (1968) The Enlightenment and Marxism. Journal of the History of Ideas, Music: The Broadways- 15 Minutes Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E11 · Mon, February 08, 2021
This week we are joined once again by Adam and Don from Red Library. We continue our multi part series tackling the monster tome by Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity. McCarraher believes that capitalism displaced religion and disenchanted the world and that Capitalism then became a religion itself, replacing the sacramental enchantment of the pre-capitalist world with a pecuniary enchantment that he calls Mammonism. McCarraher, Eugene. The enchantments of Mammon : how capitalism became the religion of modernity . Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. Print. MUSIC: Jesus Christ- Woody Guthrie The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E10 · Mon, February 01, 2021
This is the second, but only peripherally related, part of our discussion with C. Derick Varn and PH from Radical Thoughts. In this episode we talk about the abysmal state of the left, the bankruptcy of liberalism, and how the hell we can possibly move forward. T he Washington Riot Was a Defeat for the Far Right, Not a Triumph https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/capitol-building-riot-business-trump?fbclid=IwAR0G-TkRfpMVUZdLE86-Qky0SWUyBxtGuv7Up_J0lYZkMHBCrtxOVWq2f_A We Should Be Very Worried About Joe Biden’s “Domestic Terrorism” Bill https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/joe-biden-domestic-terrorism-bill-capitol-building?fbclid=IwAR0tDTAFXEstET0cdDGAS4Di-p49jVbUBsaGRa-H1dADcGBjkIWPHu2JQAs The US Capitol riot risks supercharging a new age of political repression https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/14/biden-protest-surveillance-repression?fbclid=IwAR3XSFD5SZJlzZxZKOSiN_p--xko9nLGA1T4D4WtJlkFk5D47GVobcLF588 US police three times as likely to use force against leftwing protesters, data finds https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/13/us-police-use-of-force-protests-black-lives-matter-far-right?fbclid=IwAR2XgiT5WX36LYdW6moSApGcevbhz5ddHpNmiZx8ffC38-eVLUmYzPzwAF8 / Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E9 · Wed, January 20, 2021
This week we are joined by C. Derick Varn, PH from Radical Thoughts Podcast, and Steven from Supreme Leap Forward to discuss how the Capitol Riot wasn't a coup, or a terrorist attack, and admonish the "left" for supporting the expansion of the security state. T he Washington Riot Was a Defeat for the Far Right, Not a Triumph https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/capitol-building-riot-business-trump?fbclid=IwAR0G-TkRfpMVUZdLE86-Qky0SWUyBxtGuv7Up_J0lYZkMHBCrtxOVWq2f_A We Should Be Very Worried About Joe Biden’s “Domestic Terrorism” Bill https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/joe-biden-domestic-terrorism-bill-capitol-building?fbclid=IwAR0tDTAFXEstET0cdDGAS4Di-p49jVbUBsaGRa-H1dADcGBjkIWPHu2JQAs The US Capitol riot risks supercharging a new age of political repression https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/14/biden-protest-surveillance-repression?fbclid=IwAR3XSFD5SZJlzZxZKOSiN_p--xko9nLGA1T4D4WtJlkFk5D47GVobcLF588 US police three times as likely to use force against leftwing protesters, data finds https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/13/us-police-use-of-force-protests-black-lives-matter-far-right?fbclid=IwAR2XgiT5WX36LYdW6moSApGcevbhz5ddHpNmiZx8ffC38-eVLUmYzPzwAF8 / Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E8 · Mon, January 18, 2021
There are many on the left who seem to be incapable of letting a momentary upturn in struggle, or a softening of policy by the ruling class, pass without declaring the end of Capitalist realism. The common ruin of the contending classes is all we have to look forward to unless we can find a way to assert our agency. Until we realize our world historic mission, capitalist realism and its devastating consequences are here to stay. On the Current Conjuncture https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4954-on-the-current-conjuncture?fbclid=IwAR0ZSlfzCQnDc43oIjNEKOtnmgsa0i_9_M-D8JXiJybodVBPd5sPSwlGzL4 Capitalist Catastrophism https://roarmag.org/magazine/capitalist-catastrophism/?fbclid=IwAR1ui303CjXt0fvl19Z9iRZH-oOshL4NEUlJU1do-7Fzpb04nxHdYLJWMNE Coronavirus Is the End of the End of History https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/03/coronavirus-is-the-end-of-the-end-of-history?fbclid=IwAR2iCYlYdPJHfdrXVH9nzGpBld7YU_w8hedK0FPWfEv2OLmpX1bfwSUdJ-Q Music: Good Riddance- After the Nightmare Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E7 · Sun, January 10, 2021
Marxism needs a better system of ethics. We think that virtue ethics are compatible with the project of human emancipation, so does our friend C. Derick Varn. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory MacIntyre, Alasdair C. After virtue : a study in moral theory . Notre Dame, Ind: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007. Print. Marxism and Ethics https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isj2/2008/isj2-120/blackledge.html Philippa Foot, major founder of contemporary virtue ethics, “Natural Goodness” https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philippa-foot/#NatuGood Marx’s Ethic of Freedom https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/brenkert.htm Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, January 07, 2021
Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and sign up on our Discord to take part in future Patron Roundtables. We were joined by some of our choicest patrons to discuss the question of the party form. Join us as we solve the party problem. Join us on our Discord to plan out to plan out the next one, then remember to come join in the discussion. All patrons are welcome! Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E6 · Mon, January 04, 2021
Marxism needs a better system of ethics. We think that virtue ethics are compatible with the project of human emancipation, so does our friend C. Derick Varn. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory MacIntyre, Alasdair C. After virtue : a study in moral theory . Notre Dame, Ind: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007. Print. Marxism and Ethics https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isj2/2008/isj2-120/blackledge.html Philippa Foot, major founder of contemporary virtue ethics, “Natural Goodness” https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philippa-foot/#NatuGood Marx’s Ethic of Freedom https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/brenkert.htm Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E5 · Mon, December 28, 2020
Everyone knows what the happiness industry is, that vapid misapplication of eastern spiritual practice, adapted to help stave off deaths by despair or convince you that alienated depression is the fault of your brain chemistry and not the crushing weight of capitalism. As the contemporary left is little more than liberalism turned up to 11, it should surprise no one to learn that there is a "socialist" version of this as well. We sat down to talk about how it is dumb and bad. How to pronounce schadenfreude https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3_DjiLLDfo Left-Wing Hypomania https://thebaffler.com/latest/left-wing-hypomania-chaudhary Is socialism winning? https://www.tempestmag.org/2020/12/is-socialism-winning/ National Political Committee newsletter — 85,000 members strong https://www.dsausa.org/news/npc-newsletter-nov2020/ There Was Actually a Lot of Good News for the Left on Election Day https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/downballot-socialist-elected-election-day-dsa Music: Cro Mags- Face the Facts Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, December 24, 2020
Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and sign up on our Discord to take part in future Patron Roundtables. We were joined by some of our choicest patrons to discuss the fine distinctions between genres of Tankie. Join us on our Discord to plan out to plan out the next one, then remember to come join in the discussion. All patrons are welcome! Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E4 · Mon, December 21, 2020
This week we continue our discussion about what psychoanalysis can offer to Marxism. Both Adam and Alex are Marxists who study psychoanalysis and find it to be useful to their Marxism, but do not consider themselves Freduo-Marxist or Lacanian-Marxists. Is it necessary to create a new type of Marxism every time we incorporate a new lens to help us understand Marxism? Is it possible for us to have a myriad of influences and inspirations while maintaining a Marxist framework to understand and act upon The world? Join us while we discuss the messy dialectic of Marxism and Psychoanalysis. L acanian Psychoanalysis and Revolutionary Marxism https://studylib.net/doc/8039634/lacanian-psychoanalysis-and-revolutionary-marxism?fbclid=IwAR2nemqbBANbjSBbujrUj13lEfRXiNwLNxOheqF-2lcAHIg8qnt3oj2dnlA Lacan, Psychoanalysis and the Left https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isj2/1980/no2-007/collier.html?fbclid=IwAR3vxo07JAlZNdWf9gaGYNzPhEvwoGW--urPkFNAGU6Wo_X3yg3HmVcQwYA The Four Fundamental Concepts of Slavoj Žižek’s Psychoanalytic Marxism https://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/59?fbclid=IwAR3J552MAOY2YZPfGvV06iwa3dfvfltc0-gDloNqFUZHzyCaWFZrYrrpXyo The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E3 · Mon, December 14, 2020
This week we are joined by Alex and Adam from Red Library to talk about what psychoanalysis can offer to Marxism. Both Adam and Alex are Marxists who study psychoanalysis and find it to be useful to their Marxism, but do not consider themselves Freduo-Marxist or Lacanian-Marxists. Is it necessary to create a new type of Marxism every time we incorporate a new lens to help us understand Marxism? Is it possible for us to have a myriad of influences and inspirations while maintaining a Marxist framework to understand and act upon The world? Join us while we discuss the messy dialectic of Marxism and Psychoanalysis. L acanian Psychoanalysis and Revolutionary Marxism https://studylib.net/doc/8039634/lacanian-psychoanalysis-and-revolutionary-marxism?fbclid=IwAR2nemqbBANbjSBbujrUj13lEfRXiNwLNxOheqF-2lcAHIg8qnt3oj2dnlA Lacan, Psychoanalysis and the Left https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isj2/1980/no2-007/collier.html?fbclid=IwAR3vxo07JAlZNdWf9gaGYNzPhEvwoGW--urPkFNAGU6Wo_X3yg3HmVcQwYA The Four Fundamental Concepts of Slavoj Žižek’s Psychoanalytic Marxism https://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/59?fbclid=IwAR3J552MAOY2YZPfGvV06iwa3dfvfltc0-gDloNqFUZHzyCaWFZrYrrpXyo The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E2 · Mon, December 07, 2020
This week we are joined by Adam, Don, and Alex from the Red Library. We continue our multi part series tackling the monster tome by Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity. McCarraher believes that capitalism displaced religion and disenchanted the world and that Capitalism then became a religion itself, replacing the sacramental enchantment of the pre-capitalist world with a pecuniary enchantment that he calls Mammonism. In our fifth installment we deal with the Heavenly City of Fordism and the Machine Age. McCarraher, Eugene. The enchantments of Mammon : how capitalism became the religion of modernity . Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. Print. MUSIC: Micah No 5- Apologetix The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Fri, November 27, 2020
We read Richard Seymour's Article from Salvage Quarterly about Disaster Nationalism and talked about it. Tune in to hear about the Chad Nationalism’ of ‘sexy’, ‘dangerous’, gym-hitting boys, zaddy fascism, and listen while we parse rightisms and talk about how Trump and the GOP (still) aren't fascists. https://salvage.zone/articles/prepared-for-the-worst-disaster-nationalism/ Click through to join our Patreon for $2 a month to hear the rest of the discussion. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S3 E1 · Tue, November 24, 2020
We are dumb babies who don't understand Hegel. Sam, who recently joined our network as a part of the Red Library's The Red Desert series is not. He sat down with us and helped us understand some key Hegelian concepts that he posits need to be understood in order to continue the radicalization of Marxism. Mladan Dolar on The Phenomenology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6sG1nw0m_w Lecture on the Zizek chapter below. https://youtu.be/gk0A12NYKS8 1. The Hegel Variations by Frederic Jameson - The chapters "Idealism", "Oppositions" and "Spirit as Collectivity" 2. Less Than Nothing by Slavoj Žižek - The chapter "Marx as a Reader of Hegel, Hegel as a Reader of Marx" 3. The Restlessness of the Negative by Jean-Luc Nancy - The chapter "Restlessness" 4. Reason and Revolution by Herbert Marcuse - The chapters "Hegel's First system" and "Introduction: From Philosophy to Social Theory" https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/marcuse/works/reason/reason-and-revolution.pdf 5. Mourning Sickness: Hegel and the French Revolution by Rebecca Comay - The Introduction "French Revolution, German Misère" 6. Gramsci's Hegelian Marxism by Paul Piccone 7. Hegel and Freud by Alenka Zupančič 8. The Dash by Rebecca Comay & Frank Ruda - The Introduction "Hegel to the Letter" In forwarded email. Music: Cursed- Hegel's Bastards The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/c3bf81dd Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E32 · Sun, November 15, 2020
Hey everyone, we turned two! You guys keep listening to us for some reason and we are happy about it. For our birthday party we sat down to talk about highlights, lowlights, and what we hope to do in the future. Please enjoy the very last episode of year two before we kick off what we hope will be an exciting and fruitful year three! Music: Modern Life is War- Night Shift at the Potato Factory Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Bonus · Tue, November 10, 2020
We recorded an episode, about something else, but in the process we talked about the election for 45 minutes. Here it is! Keep in mind this episode was recorded as results were coming in on the day after the election. Music: Bad Religion- Fuck Armageddon Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, October 22, 2020
Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and sign up on our Discord to take part in future Patron Roundtables. For our second Patron roundtable the crew had a well rounded discussion that included making fun of dumb conspiracies, talking about the myriad of actual conspiracies, and finally what makes conspiratorial logic so appealing to the right and left alike . Join us on our Discord to plan out to plan out the next one, then remember to come join in the discussion. All patrons are welcome! Materials used in discussion: Jameson, Fredric. The geopolitical aesthetic : cinema and space in the world system . Bloomington London: Indiana University Press BFI Pub, 1992. Print. https://www.d.umn.edu/ ~cstroupe/ideas/cognitivemap.html Good Conspiracy Documentary Series https://www.fox.com/the-x-files/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E30 · Mon, October 19, 2020
Steven from The Supreme Leap Forward is back to talk about why the Supreme Court is a regressive, reactionary, and profoundly undemocratic institution that needs to be abolished. Waiting for SCOTUS https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/06/waiting-for-scotus?fbclid=IwAR1fZ-KItsd9Yfp9d5qGr-8Hr8QTZnkf6e1LCWCaaGIvXHW0JmMJfyULNJo Amy Coney Barrett Worked on Bush v. Gore https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/09/amy-coney-barrett-bush-gore-election-trump?fbclid=IwAR1xku0mvqk2RbgGEm3enLD6O7hkrP_Gl4Mj8fA7rYf6lCkXthUvuWB506c The Future of the Supreme Court in the Liberal Imagination https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/01/supreme-court-trump-kavanaugh-liberalism?fbclid=IwAR18XUaifhwGcQVU72w9znE581wzvzx4Gz6ExUI5-HHFDORi81sFmhOoKC0 The Scandal of Democracy: Seven Theses https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/10/supreme-court-senate-electoral-college-undemocratic?fbclid=IwAR1fZ-KItsd9Yfp9d5qGr-8Hr8QTZnkf6e1LCWCaaGIvXHW0JmMJfyULNJo Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E29 · Sun, October 11, 2020
This week we are joined once again by Adam and Don from Red Library. We continue our multi part series tackling the monster tome by Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity. McCarraher believes that capitalism displaced religion and disenchanted the world and that Capitalism then became a religion itself, replacing the sacramental enchantment of the pre-capitalist world with a pecuniary enchantment that he calls Mammonism. In our fourth installment we deal with the populists, socialists, and anarchists during the golden age of the American left. McCarraher, Eugene. The enchantments of Mammon : how capitalism became the religion of modernity . Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. Print. MUSIC: Spacecataz The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E28 · Wed, October 07, 2020
For all of our claims to be historical materialists, there is nothing that the left loves more than a great leader to guide us to victory. If we are to make history, but not in circumstances of our own choosing, what role do we actually have to play as individuals? What role does the extraordinary person play in making history? “History is made in such a way that the final result always arises from conflicts between many individual wills, of which each in turn has been made what it is by a host of particular conditions of life. Thus there are innumerable intersecting forces, an infinite series of parallelograms of forces which give rise to one resultant — the historical event.” Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1840) http://history.furman.edu/benson/fywbio/carlyle_great_man.htm On the Role of the Individual in History https://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1898/xx/individual.html Karl Marx and his conception of history https://mronline.org/2018/05/11/karl-marx-and-his-conception-of-history/ The individual and the Marxist view of history https://www.marxist.com/the-individual-and-the-marxist-view-of-history.htm Music- Armageddon Blues by Power Trip Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E27 · Tue, September 22, 2020
No. Woke Capitalism Is Not Your Friend https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/06/brands-corporate-publicity-racial-justice Where Are the Woke Capitalists Now? https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/04/01/where-are-all-woke-capitalists-now Woke Capitalists Can Save America https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2020/04/05/how-the-woke-capitalists-can-save-america/#13af4c0671ed The Rise of Woke Capital https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/opinion/corporate-america-activism.html Why Corporations Can No Longer Avoid Politics https://time.com/5735415/woke-culture-political-companies/ Woke America Is Pre-Revolutionary Russia https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/woke-america-pre-revolutionary-russia/ Until Black Women Are Free, None of Us Will Be Free https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/until-black-women-are-free-none-of-us-will-be-free The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E26 · Mon, August 31, 2020
This week we have unlocked the second half of our discussion with Phd Candidate Chris Manno. We discussed the differences between objective, subjective, and instrumental reason and how philosophers have moved through these three in stages culminating in the mercenary use of instrumental reason for the justification of the status quo. Modern philosophy has focused on the latter forms of reason to the point of rejecting any objective understanding on the world, a situation that is tailor made for exploitation of people and the planet under capitalism. Horkheimer, Max. Eclipse of reason . Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing, 2013. Print. Marcuse, Herbert. One-dimensional man : studies in the ideology of advanced industrial society . Boston: Beacon Press, 1991. Print. Music: The Flying Dutchman Overture- Richard Wagner The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Thu, August 27, 2020
We read an article about recuperation and talked about the concept within the context of the contemporary social unrest that is currently gripping the United States. Does every movement for social change eventually get recuperated? Yes. Is it still worth engaging in social movements? Also yes. To hear the full episode, join our Patreon for $2 a month. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E25 · Mon, August 17, 2020
This week we are joined once again by Adam and Don from Red Library, we even had a brief appearance by Kevin. We continue our multi part series tackling the monster tome by Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity. McCarraher believes that capitalism displaced religion and disenchanted the world and that Capitalism then became a religion itself, replacing the sacramental enchantment of the pre-capitalist world with a pecuniary enchantment that he calls Mammonism. In our third installment we deal with the Robber Barons, corporate personhood, and the birth of American Imperialism. McCarraher, Eugene. The enchantments of Mammon : how capitalism became the religion of modernity . Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. Print. MUSIC: Satyricon- Mother North The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E24 · Sun, August 09, 2020
This week we are joined by Swedish podcaster, activist, social worker, and Christian communist, Mir Bal to talk about Christianity and Marxism. We continue with our unending project of reuniting the cold and the warm streams of Marxism, by talking about the draw of Christians to the liberatory message of Marxism and what Marxists may be able to take away for the liberatory message of radical Christianity. Horn. Western European liberation theology : the first wave (1924-1959 . Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print. Catholic Case for Communism- Dean Detloff https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/07/23/catholic-case-communism Catholicism and Marx an Introduction- Chase Padusniak https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jappersandjanglers/2017/06/catholicism-marx-introduction/ Marxism and Liberation Theology- Michael Lowy https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Va-4lh8qfXtv-YEDt2VuAGABdPEhBYs7/view?fbclid=IwAR2TMM9Q3FZQpWuyPBGGMvPBP0CgHmQ-LJqRvT8mIXtcEnVG5YLB8zgrqpo MUSIC: Pete Seeger- God Bless the Grass The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Tue, August 04, 2020
Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear part two of our conversation with Chris! Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E23 · Mon, July 27, 2020
This week we are joined once again by Adam from Red Library, but also by fellow Red Librarian Don, who was kind enough to edit the podcast. We continue our multi part series tackling the monster tome by Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity. McCarraher believes that capitalism displaced religion and disenchanted the world and that Capitalism then became a religion itself, replacing the sacramental enchantment of the pre-capitalist world with a pecuniary enchantment that he calls Mammonism. In our second installment we deal with with a real who's who list of Mammon worshiping malefactors as well as Puritan covenant theology, Mormonism, and slavery. McCarraher, Eugene. The enchantments of Mammon : how capitalism became the religion of modernity . Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. Print. MUSIC: Satyricon- Mother North The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E22 · Wed, July 22, 2020
We had philosophy Phd Candidate Chris Manno join us for a discussion on Marxism and Reason. We discussed the differences between objective, subjective, and instrumental reason and how philosophers have moved through these three in stages culminating in the mercenary use of instrumental reason for the justification of the status quo. Modern philosophy has focused on the latter forms of reason to the point of rejecting any objective understanding on the world, a situation that is tailor made for exploitation of people and the planet under capitalism. Horkheimer, Max. Eclipse of reason . Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing, 2013. Print. Marcuse, Herbert. One-dimensional man : studies in the ideology of advanced industrial society . Boston: Beacon Press, 1991. Print. Music: Wolves In the Throne Room- Born From the Serpent's Eye The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E21 · Mon, July 06, 2020
This week we are joined by Adam from the Red Library podcast, who was nice enough to record and edit the episode for us. We start our multi part series tackling the monster tome by Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity. McCarraher believes, much like Max Weber, that capitalism displaced religion and disenchanted the world, but unlike Weber, he believes that Capitalism then became a religion itself. He argues that capitalism is full of religious thinking that grew up in the fields and factories of England, was transported to America by the Puritans, and perfected by evangelicals. We think this topic is right up our alley and have had a blast reading and talking about it. McCarraher, Eugene. The enchantments of Mammon : how capitalism became the religion of modernity . Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. Print. The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E20 · Tue, June 30, 2020
Lacanian psychoanalysis has left an indelible mark on the left, with prominent philosophers like Slavoj Žižek and Alain Badiou keeping a Marxist Lacanianism relevant... and we don't really know anything about it. As the only non Lacanian podcast on the Lost Horizons network, we had to look to our network comrade Neil to get a little bit of an understanding. Turin Theory of the Subject of the School http://www.amp-nls.org/page/gb/60/the-turin-theory-of-the-subject-of-the-school Music: ROME- We who fell in love with the sea The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast Well... Here we are still, after all. https://well.transistor.fm/ Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E19 · Mon, June 22, 2020
Last week, we read and discussed The End of Policing by Alex Vitale in order to get a better grasp on the history of the police, over-policing, the failure of technocratic reforms, and some of the ideas for the uses of funds after police defunding (be it partial or wholesale). Whether or not the revolt against the police will produce lasting systematic reform reform remains to be seen, but we have to admit that the conversation about how to fix the problem of policing has begun on favorable footing. Vitale, Alex S. The end of policing . London Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2017. The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/c3bf81dd Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E18 · Thu, June 11, 2020
While we were reading about Covid 19 in Salvage last week, an uprising against police brutality began in Minneapolis. We didn't (don't) know what to make of it yet, but it sure did take over a discussion that was supposed to be about pestilence and the left's role in troll vigilantism. Listen to our uninformed and incomplete takes from day one of the unrest. We have a much more complete and thought out take coming for you in a few days. We Are All Unclean- Salvage Editorial Collective https://salvage.zone/articles/we-are-all-unclean-dispatch-two-from-a-changing-world/ The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/c3bf81dd Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E17 · Tue, May 26, 2020
We are joined by veteran of the podcast wars, C. Derick Varn, for his third appearance on the show, to talk a little about historical Bonapartism and a little more about contemporary Bonapartism. We talked about the contemporary left's perceived need to seek out a Bonapartist savior and drift further and further from the utopian horizons we once sought. The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ Music: Cro Mags- Hard Times Pop the Left- With Douglas Lain and C. Derick Varn https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/dietsoap/episodes/2019-11-25T07_11_58-08_00 The Emancipation Network http://emancipation.network/ The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/c3bf81dd Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E16 · Mon, May 18, 2020
Marxism had always contained within it a multiplicity of variations and is possessed, in equal parts, of the potential to be used for illumination and obfuscation. Nothing more clearly illustrates this than the early responses of Marxists to fascism. In our third installment of our series on the history of fascism, we dive into some more Marxist theories of fascism; specifically the German and Austrian Social Democratic Theories, Trotsky and Thalheimer, and then wrap up with a bit of Horkheimer. Our primary source of info for this episode is this wonderful book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1233-marxists-in-the-face-of-fascism The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/c3bf81dd Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E15 · Mon, May 04, 2020
This week we sat down with Patrick of the Radical Thoughts Podcast to talk about Walter Benjamin and his ideas of myth and rationality, capitalism as religion, and a number of other disconnected things that were just fun to talk about. Please check out Radical Thoughts as they read through the entire Zero Books Radical Thinkers series and subscribe to their patreon for bonus episodes. https://www.patreon.com/radicalthoughts/posts Capitalism and Religion- https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/2018/06/08/capitalism-as-religion-benjamin-1921/ Benjamin, Walter, et al. Selected writings . Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, 1996. Benjamin, Walter, and Rolf Tiedemann. The arcades project . Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, 1999. Print. The Lost Horizons Network https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/ The Lost Horizons Network Podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/c3bf81dd Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E14 · Mon, April 27, 2020
This week we have something special for you guys, our very first Lost Horizons Network collective podcast release, Here We Are Together, Still...After All. Join Chris and Jason from The Regrettable Century, Adam from Red Library, and Neil from the From78 Podcast as we talk about what it means to be dialectically pessimistic. The Lost Horizons Network Podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/c3bf81dd Red Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts From78 Podcast https://www.patreon.com/from78 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E13 · Fri, April 24, 2020
On Easter Monday, April 24 1916, 1,200 members of the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army mustered in Dublin and declared the formation of the Irish Republic. Marxist and Irish Republican, James Conolly, led the Irish Citizen's Army in hopes that the Easter Rising would touch off a revolution in Ireland that would lead to the establishment of a Workers' Republic, the death of the British Empire, and the beginning of a socialist world revolution. Over a century later, Ireland is still ruled in the north by what remains of the British Empire, The Republic of Ireland is a Bankers' Republic, and hopes for the world revolution are a nostalgic memory... for now. Manifesto of the Irish Socialist Republican Party (Connolly): https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1896/xx/isrp.htm Connolly and the Paris Commune https://jacobinmag.com/2016/04/james-connolly-paris-commune-easter-rising-tactics?fbclid=IwAR2NFon_XDCsFniTFdsVD1qM_u3m23fbJ88qKzokacYaSqghGlaPIAevu40 Socialism Made Easy (Connolly) -- the only long-ish one: https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2017-07-26/james-connollys-socialism-made-easy-1909-11-political-action-labor Easter Rising Proclamation (original text): https://www.onthisday.com/photos/easter-proclamation-of-1916 Socialism and Nationalism (Connolly):| https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1897/01/socnat.htm https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1897/xx/scirenat.htm Socialism and Religion (Connolly): https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1901/evangel/socrel.htm</b
Trailer · Wed, April 22, 2020
This week, Jenny, Chris, and Jason read and discussed Jodi Dean's essay: The Four Theses on the Comrade. A comrade is much more than an identity that one adopts. It is an ethos, an ideal for the collective reorganization of the world. We talk about how this is a concept that the left has abandoned and needs to find again. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the full episode. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E12 · Mon, April 13, 2020
The old world is dying and a new one is being created before our eyes. Thus far, the left has had little if any input into this process. If we don't insert ourselves into the conversation with great haste, a much worse version of our current hellscape will be the outcome. What kind of project will be necessary to salvage the useful pieces of detritus needed to build a better world? To that end, we sat down with our good friend Michael to talk about how to build a better post-apocalyptic world. The Mask of the Red Death: Dispatch One from a Changing World- Salvage Editorial Board https://salvage.zone/articles/the-mask-of-the-red-death-dispatch-one-from-a-changing-world/ The Tragedy of the Worker: Towards the Proletarocene- Salvage Editorial Board https://salvage.zone/editorials/the-tragedy-of-the-worker-towards-the-proletarocene/ Under coronavirus, pro market ideologies are overturned around the world, But its too little, too late. - Jeff Sparrow https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/26/under-coronavirus-pro-market-ideologies-are-overturned-around-the-world-but-its-too-little-too-late?fbclid=IwAR0i6X8SfuLdlHyc119RYYlEqMUsT8XCBnK9ZsnFWJkjIagNCqC4D3YrYWM The world after coronavirus- Yuval Noah Harari https://www.ft.com/content/19d90308-6858-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcca75?fbclid=IwAR2f2bCCh3iBuc61PT_Nt4zLbthYaPQuodJsg0ee6Qwoocln65faxeK0cpY A Greater Depression? Nouriel Roubini https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/coronavirus-greater-great-depression-by-nouriel-roubini-2020-03?fbclid=IwAR2f6pVYUmXeacbcOx3TTobG_0vZodG0MVoJ2VrxVqtZPBcshLSQdapm3Vw Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E11 · Mon, April 06, 2020
(PART II) The birth pangs of the bourgeois epoch included a multi faceted opposition in the form of romanticism. This reaction lauded humanity's lost connection to the natural world, to spirituality, and to a forgotten sense of communal life. While it is easy to point out the romantic strain in rightist political ideologies, we often overlook the one that has existed in Marxism since the beginning. Löwy, Michael, and Robert Sayre. Romanticism against the tide of modernity . Durham: Duke University Press, 2001. The Word, the Devil, and the Flesh- JD Bernal https://www.marxists.org/archive/bernal/works/1920s/soul/ Music: Alyans- Na Zare Cosmonaut Magazine https://cosmonaut.blog/ Cosmopod Podcast https://cosmopod.libsyn.com/ Radical Thoughts Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/patricks-podcast Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Fri, April 03, 2020
Jenny, Chris, and Jason sat down with our friend, rank and file union organizer, and CPUSA member Brad to talk about electoralism and what the hell to do next. Please head over to our Patreon and subscribe for the insanely low fee of $2 a month to hear the rest. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E10 · Mon, March 30, 2020
The birth pangs of the bourgeois epoch included a multi faceted opposition in the form of romanticism. This reaction lauded humanity's lost connection to the natural world, to spirituality, and to a forgotten sense of communal life. While it is easy to point out the romantic strain in rightist political ideologies, we often overlook the one that has existed in Marxism since the beginning. Löwy, Michael, and Robert Sayre. Romanticism against the tide of modernity . Durham: Duke University Press, 2001. The Word, the Devil, and the Flesh- JD Bernal https://www.marxists.org/archive/bernal/works/1920s/soul/ Music: ROME- The Accidents of Gesture Cosmonaut Magazine https://cosmonaut.blog/ Cosmopod Podcast https://cosmopod.libsyn.com/ Radical Thoughts Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/patricks-podcast Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E9 · Mon, March 16, 2020
Our good friend and regular contributor to the show, Steven, brings his legal expertise and knowledge of early soviet law history to this weeks episode. We discuss the Evgeny Pashukanis, Pytor Stuchka, and their contributions to legal theory in the days just after the revolution. There was a debate among legal theorists of the time about whether it is possible to construct a socialist legal system and how the law should be used in a socialist society. Ultimately, Pashukanis would wind up on the losing side of the Socialism in One Country debate and would die for it. Intro to Pashukanis https://www.dropbox.com/s/v4hto1qm5seti8o/Beirne%20%2B%20Sharlet_%20Introduction%20to%20Pashukanis%20%281979%29.pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR1AhfJGWw_YlZTFc6upxEp1g0eckeoXIISoJcatXx0RLub3rHholnE-LNk The Passionate Legal Debates of the Early Years of... https://www.dropbox.com/s/58i5wg5uohkz43z/The%20Passionate%20Legal%20Debates%20of%20the%20Early%20Years%20of%20the%20Russian%20Revolution.pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR05HcbLIu75Un3jH5t1KL8fJJCgMTKSd_Q2Ig5BpxkPmTJOvpAend6OpN8 The trajectory of Yevgeniy Pashukanis and the struggle for power in Soviet law https://www.dropbox.com/s/j6lbz606491nn60/The_trajectory_of_Yevgeniy_Pashukanis_an.docx.pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR1XD0XBMopt0ifkxOUV_iBVVN_1XLrq6TJk1BYyeiz7qcOW2kw3Ra7uaTE Principles of Soviet Criminal Law https://www.dropbox.com/s/pxedstwf8pum00f/Principles%20of%20Soviet%20Criminal%20Law%2C%20Berman%2C%20Harold%20J%2056YaleLJ803.pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR1QWhZuohuU2cmfsLJzfArICrrZgeirgnVqEwdO7iFSgcZ_nDQeTHZeBkk Looking Back And Forward At The Turn of the Century https://www.dropbox.com/s/ldjvuuchv4krvha/15AustlJLSocy101.pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR0vVUJaaPTGVRdwPXFLTNavu8UgH0XrG1QV7_vxg60Pq2WfJunQ6K_9HTE Dont forget to check out our podcast network comrades: From 78 <a href='h
S2 E8 · Mon, March 02, 2020
We had an episode planned where we were going to talk about the Bolsheviks and Early Soviet Law, but our main law dude (Steven from Supreme Leap Forward) got deathly ill and bailed on us. So, we are unlocked one of our Patreon episodes. Please forgive us, but trust that we have some good stuff coming up. Sometimes doing something (anything!) is much worse than doing nothing; we really need to figure out when that is. We read and thought and talked about an article that admonishes us to think and talk and read before acting. We have to stand against a politics of catharsis, a politics that does nothing but makes us feel like we are making a difference. But... then what do we do? I Would Prefer Not To: Žižek’s Bartleby Politics https://medium.com/@mdowns1611/i-would-prefer-not-to-%C5%BEi%C5%BEeks-bartleby-politics-12bd8d9de66a Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E7 · Mon, February 17, 2020
This week we continue our discussion of Splendour, Misery, and Possibilities: An X-Ray of Socialist Yugoslavia by Darko Suvin with our podcast network comrade, Adam from Red Library. Please Check out and subscribe to Red Library and From 78 and be on the lookout for more updates concerning the Lost Horizons Network. Red Library: A Political Education Podcast for Today's Left From 78 Podcast Suvin, Darko. Splendour, misery, and possibilities : an X-ray of socialist Yugoslavia . Leiden Boston: Brill, 2016. A UTOPIA IN THE BALKANS -- CATHERINE SAMARY https://newleftreview.org/issues/II114/articles/catherine-samary-a-utopian-in-the-balkans Splendours, Miseries, and Potentialities of Socialist Yugoslavia- The Berlin Thesis https://www.corsoitalia7.it/2017/03/splendours-miseries-and-potentialities-of-socialist-yugoslavia-the-berlin-theses1/ The Life and Death of Yugoslav Socialism -- James Robertson https://jacobinmag.com/2017/07/yugoslav-socialism-tito-self-management-serbia-balkans Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E6 · Mon, February 10, 2020
We read and discussed Splendour, Misery, and Possibilities: An X-Ray of Socialist Yugoslavia by Darko Suvin with Adam from Red Library. This incredibly dense book was a wealth of theoretical and historical knowledge about one of our favorite subjects, Yugoslavia. The SFRY defies neat categorization and the more we learn about it the more questions we have about the process of transition to communism, workers' self management, radical democracy, markets, and state socialism. It is the perfect meditative subject for a podcast that continually implores Marxists to stop being so certain of everything. Red Library: A Political Education Podcast for Today's Left From 78 Podcast Suvin, Darko. Splendour, misery, and possibilities : an X-ray of socialist Yugoslavia . Leiden Boston: Brill, 2016. A UTOPIA IN THE BALKANS -- CATHERINE SAMARY https://newleftreview.org/issues/II114/articles/catherine-samary-a-utopian-in-the-balkans Splendours, Miseries, and Potentialities of Socialist Yugoslavia- The Berlin Thesis https://www.corsoitalia7.it/2017/03/splendours-miseries-and-potentialities-of-socialist-yugoslavia-the-berlin-theses1/ The Life and Death of Yugoslav Socialism -- James Robertson https://jacobinmag.com/2017/07/yugoslav-socialism-tito-self-management-serbia-balkans Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E5 · Mon, February 03, 2020
In this episode we revisit the topic of Fully Automated Luxury Communism with our friend Annaliese. While we are already on the record opposing the viability and desirability of a socialism without sacrifice, we decided to make a few more critiques we didn't think of making last time, but we also talk a bit about what kinds of futures we would like to see, the nature of work and leisure time, and how much it would suck to have robots do everything. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Wed, January 15, 2020
Head over to Patreon and sign up for $2 a month to hear the second part of the discussion. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Bonus · Sun, January 12, 2020
The British left was epically owned last month in one of the crappiest election results in several generations. While the reaction to this defeat has been largely one of despair and feelings of rudderlessness, we make the case that this is just one in a long line of defeats we will inevitably suffer. Unless we gird ourselves for defeat with a dialectical pessimism, there's no way we will last long enough to make a real difference. Head over to Patreon and sign up for $2 a month to hear the second part of the discussion. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury This Is Why We Hate You: December Editorial https://salvage.zone/articles/this-is-why-we-hate-you-december-editorial/?fbclid=IwAR0Asf5cKmEYUPcpZE59vzZeKToaC-N7dSDyCdt4X_oiH78AXX24E0ntgYk No False Consolations https://novaramedia.com/2019/12/13/no-false-consolations/?fbclid=IwAR3tuTEtTBK4husLxkYnPz3-vmHY-sCbH0MQGi-EijWxYnbWNq_9lAXPWwg The Last Gasp of Labourism https://left-flank.org/2019/12/13/anti-politics-the-last-gasp-of-british-labourism/?fbclid=IwAR3bHVCrKBS4-F5Tn3ctP_EBW2PUMEpdczUrNJ_cwHCYg-n8Owa1ckpT3uQ Class War Corbynism https://newsocialist.org.uk/class-war-corbynism/?fbclid=IwAR2h7UpFSSEXdywDypP2GSkI6y7aGnM8rCXWl3O-1lQwSx__6uz8aBGKxpw Corbyn’s Defeat and the Democratic Socialists of America https://newpol.org/corbyns-defeat-and-the-democratic-socialists-of-america/?fbclid=IwAR3QaQI_ORrdrLB37PyS4RNu1SELKDkI4ZkiWHkWBluUUdriWhRig0DNwuw What the U.S. Left Can Learn From the Labour Party’s Epic Loss http://inthesetimes.com/article/22220/labour-party-jeremy-corbyn-boris-johnson-uk-brexit-bernie-sanders-left?fbclid=IwAR1w5wzfIZEMiLDXoiI8NPqXQTs3rVPaCFBcWiJd-IiSEvBbucEaoMMyR6k What the U.K. Election Does (and Doesn’t) Teach Democrats<
Trailer · Mon, January 06, 2020
Wherein we continue our discussion with Derick. Head on over tour our Patreon and sign up for $2 a month to check it out. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E3 · Wed, January 01, 2020
The boys--all the good ones--sat down with C. Derick Varn of Pop the Left and the Symptomatic Redness (which can be found on the Zero Books podcast feed) to talk about Socialism in One Country and/or Socialist Internationalism. We tackled the topic that has plagued the workers' movement from the early days of the Socialist International and wrapped it up quite nicely. We have answered the national question and can now proceed forward to proletarian victory. Please check out Part II of our discussion on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Socialism in One Country: A Reassessment -- Erik Van Ree 'SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY' -- Jean Paul Sartre (NLR) Cuba, Che Guevara, and the Problem of “Socialism in One Country” -- Ron Augustin https://monthlyreview.org/2019/01/01/cuba-che-guevara-and-the-problem-of-socialism-in-one-country/ Yugoslav Self-Management: Capitalism Under the Red Banner -- Juraj Katalenac http://insurgentnotes.com/2013/10/yugoslav-self-management-capitalism-under-the-red-banner/ Socialism in One Country & The Cuban Revolution -- Celia Hart http://links.org.au/node/26 Trotsky and the Debate on Socialism in One Country -- Monty Johnstone (NLR) The Revolution Betrayed Appendix: “Socialism in One Country” -- Leon Trotsky, 1936 https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/revbet/ch12.htm Socialism in One Country versus Permanent Revolution -- Stalin, 1925 http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1924-2/industrialization-debate/industrialization-debate-texts/socialism-in-one-country-versus-permanent-revolution/ On Permanent Revolution -- Bukharin, 1924 https://www.marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1924/permanent-revolution/index.htm Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). <a rel="payment" href="http://patreon.com/theregretta
S2 E2 · Mon, December 09, 2019
Apparently, fully automated luxury communism is more than just a meme. We read some articles about it and decided to have a discussion about its merits and shortfalls. Is a post labor society something that is possible or desirable? Is technology really shifting the base of society in a direction that makes fully automated luxury communism more likely? How do we define the concept of luxury and is it really something we'd like perpetuate? Do we as a civilization, species, or planet even have time for something like this to come to fruition before we face total annihilation? Fully automated luxury communism: a utopian critique https://libcom.org/blog/fully-automated-luxury-communism-utopian-critique-14062015 Fully Automated Luxury Communism — A Review https://medium.com/swlh/fully-automated-luxury-communism-a-review-a127d94dcb9a Is a Post-Work, Post-Scarcity Future Possible? https://www.bookforum.com/print/2602/fully-automated-luxury-communism-by-aaron-bastani-22004 FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY COMMUNISM: A MANIFESTO BY AARON BASTANI https://societyandspace.org/2019/09/03/fully-automated-luxury-communism-a-manifesto-by-aaron-bastani/ James Bridle on why technology is creating a new dark age https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/16/17564174/james-bridle-new-dark-age-book-computational-thinking-interview Aaron Bastani’s ‘luxury communism’ is a false future https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/fully-automated-luxury-communism-review Review: Fully Automated Luxury Communism http moo s://www.rs21.org.uk/2019/06/09/review-fully-automated-luxury-communism/ Artificial Stupidity https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/artificial-stupidity/ Inventing The Future https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/on-algorithmic-communism/ <a target="_blank" href="ht
Trailer · Thu, December 05, 2019
Sometimes doing something is much worse than doing nothing; we need to figure out when that is. We read and thought and talked about an article that admonishes us to think and talk and read before acting. We have to stand against a politics of catharsis, a politics that does nothing but makes us feel like we are making a difference. Check out the full episode on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S2 E1 · Mon, November 25, 2019
Marxism had always contained within it a multiplicity of variations and is possessed, in equal parts, the potential to be used for illumination and obfuscation. Nothing more clearly illustrates this than the early responses of Marxists to fascism. In our second installment of our series on the history of fascism, we dive into some Marxist theories of fascism. Our primary source of info for this episode is this wonderful book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1233-marxists-in-the-face-of-fascism Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E34 · Mon, November 11, 2019
It is the first birthday of the Regrettable Century! We spent the better part of an hour reflecting on our proud moments, regrets, things we changed our minds about (or didn't), and where we would like to go in the future. We've got some heavy material coming up, so enjoy this comparatively light fare. Music: Every Day is Halloween - Ministry Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E33 · Wed, October 23, 2019
The movement for proletarian self emancipation is at a low ebb, but in a testament to how stupid and bad the world is, Democrats, Republicans, and European post-fascists have ramped up their rhetorical attacks on the pale ghost of the specter of communism. Anti-communism has always been the stand-in ideology for racist authoritarianism and it serves the same purpose now in a world without a global movement to scare the bourgeoisie. Liberals, attempting to stem a nascent socialist movement, would condemn fascism and communism equally, hoping to stamp out a nascent workers' movement. We sat down to talk about how dumb that is. Losurdo vs. The Category of Totalitarianism http://awm.or.kr/bbs/data/document/1/Losurdo___Critique_of_Totalitarianism_(2004).pdf On the false equivalence of fascism and communism https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/bulgaria-fascism-nazism-anticommunism-historical-memory?fbclid=IwAR3KlX0_S-giXERD9s2CvrOk-cV0KkKmhXckAjgxSgT0orSlFOrXWH7U7iA Anticommunism in a world without communism https://www.patreon.com/posts/anticommunism-in-28790447 The New Anti-Communism: Rereading the Twentieth Century https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2811-enzo-traverso-the-new-anti-communism-rereading-the-twentieth-century?fbclid=IwAR2_nrgCygrq0vxJj79ufs4iPJ6ZC8bWSGL83faav1BSKVdP26Jb2eZXhJw Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E32 · Mon, October 07, 2019
Steven from The Supreme Leap Forward is back to talk about the KKKriminal INjustice CIStem of the United $nakes of AmeriKKKa. We discuss the courts, restorative justice, twitter pileons/call out culture, and a little about Soviet jurisprudence. Steven's essay mentioned in the episode: Understanding Crime Under Capitalism: A Critique of American Criminal Justice and Introduction to Marxist Jurisprudence- Steven Gilmore The Works of Evegny Pshukanis: https://www.marxists.org/archive/pashukanis/index.htm The other episode we did with Steven http://regrettablecentury.buzzsprout.com/220523/989392-lawyerization-and-its-discontents-a-discussion-on-marxist-jurisprudence-with-steven-from-supreme-leap-forward-part-i Kevin and Steven's Marxist Law Podcast featuring Chris Supreme Leap Forward Episode 12 - Game Of Owns and Feudal Law Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E31 · Mon, September 16, 2019
The slow cancellation of the future has been accompanied by a deflation of expectations, both in the realm of cultural and -- apparently -- technological production. Culture has crawled to a halt, its progress replaced by advances in methods of distribution. Technology is bogged down in a cycle of adding additional cameras to the iphone. Has capitalism outlived its progressive potential? (The TLDR is yes) Mark Fisher: The Slow Cancellation Of The Future https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCgkLICTskQ&t=304s David Graeber: Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit https://thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit We are not living in a technological golden age. https://youtu.be/tvG3dT79TeY Music: Маяк - Выше Звезд Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, September 09, 2019
Check out some Real Nerd Hours when Chris and Jason have a discussion about a not very well known article from an obscure Trotskyist journal written around a decade ago... It generated a little bit of a buzz, but was mostly ignored. We think that was a mistake and we are going to tell you all about why you should care about the decisions of the 10th party congress. https://www.patreon.com/posts/red-jacobins-and-29448338?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=postshare Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E30 · Mon, September 02, 2019
"Perhaps the feeling most characteristic of our current moment is a mixture of boredom and compulsion. Even though we recognise that they are boring, we nevertheless feel compelled to do yet another Facebook quiz, to read yet another Buzzfeed list, to click on some celebrity gossip about someone we don’t even remotely care about. We endlessly move among the boring, but our nervous systems are so overstimulated that we never have the luxury of feeling bored. No one is bored, everything is boring." For this episode we read a couple of articles by Mark Fisher and the Institute for Precarious Consciousness discussing some of the mechanisms that capitalism exploits to dampen our abilities to organize against it. While the production of this episode really is us just feeding more content into a machine that devours our time and creativity, we are kinda hoping this is an example of the capitalists selling us some rope. Mark Fisher: No one is bored, Everything is boring https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/no-one-is-bored-everything-is-boring/ Institute for Precarious Consciousness: We Are All Very Anxious http://intercommunalworkshop.org/we-are-all-anxious/ Jodi Dean: Communicative Capitalism and Class Struggle http://spheres-journal.org/communicative-capitalism-and-class-struggle/ Music: Savages- Shut Up Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E29 · Mon, August 19, 2019
This week we dive in to the second part of our two part collaboration with Adam from Red Library , who hosts s a great podcast that analyzes and discusses important works of Marxist theory and history. We are big fans, go check them out. This week we continued our discussion on Dialectic of Defeat: Contours of Western Marxism by Russell Jacoby, so if you haven't listened to the first part, do that now. In Dialectic of Defeat, Jacoby examines the losers of the Marxist tradition and argues that there is something to be learned from them, even in their defeat. He exhorts us to read the heretics, doubt the orthodoxies, and truly understand all of the rich and varied currents of Marxism, even if they ultimately failed to create a successful revolution. After all, all of our gods failed us in the end. Either that, or we failed them. Jacoby, Russell. Dialectic of defeat : contours of western Marxism . Cambridge, U.K. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print. Music: Current 93/Nurse With Wound - Ballad of the Pale Girl Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E28 · Mon, August 12, 2019
Red Library is a great podcast that analyzes and discusses important works of Marxist (and other leftist) literature, and we are big fans. So, we are happy to announce that this week we teamed up with them to read and talk about Dialectic of Defeat: Contours of Western Marxism by Russell Jacoby. The discussion ran long, so it has been broken into two parts. This is part one. In Dialectic of Defeat, Jacoby examines the losers of the Marxist tradition and argues that there is something to be learned from them, even in their defeat. He exhorts us to read the heretics, doubt the orthodoxies, and truly understand all of the rich and varied currents of Marxism, even if they ultimately failed to create a successful revolution. After all, all of our gods failed us in the end. Either that, or we failed them. Jacoby, Russell. Dialectic of defeat : contours of western Marxism . Cambridge, U.K. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print. Music: Modern Life Is War - Farmer's Holiday Association Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Fri, August 02, 2019
We decided that a good companion to our episode about Melancholia and Organized Pessimism would be a rare recording with all of us (except Kevin) in the same room, talking about a pretty cool movie that we saw over a decade ago. Sign up on our, very reasonably priced, Patreon to access our-- small but ever growing number of-- bonus episodes. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E27 · Tue, July 30, 2019
When we were kids: history ended, the Christian right launched an all out assault on the gains of the 1960s/70s, the liberals launched an all out assault on the gains of the New Deal/labor movement, and the left launched an all out assault on each others shopping choices. It sucked. The world was recreated in the dumbest and worst possible ways and we are going to let you listen to us talk about how it warped all of our brains. Coming of Age at the End of History https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/26/coming-of-age-at-the-end-of-history-2/ Neoliberalism Is A Political Project https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/david-harvey-neoliberalism-capitalism-labor-crisis-resistance/ From Revolution to Evolution: The Changing Nature of the Christian Right (1994) http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.857.5145&rep=rep1&type=pdf What Pat Robertson Teaches Us https://jacobinmag.com/2018/03/pat-robertson-cbn-evangelical-christian-sanders The Reagan Counterrevolution Crushes The American Dream https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/9/8/1328063/-The-Reagan-Counter-Revolution-Crushes-the-American-Dream How The Christian Right Ended Up Transforming American Politics https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/brief-history-of-the-christian-right The Sexual Counterrevolution https://prospect.org/article/sexual-counterrevolution Music: Propagandhi- "Stick The Fucking Flag Up Your Goddam Ass, You Sonofabitch" Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E26 · Mon, July 15, 2019
We received a really thoughtful and challenging question/comment from one of our Patrons and we decided to give it the attention it deserves, in the form of a full episode. We discuss "pessimism of the intellect/optimism of the will," mourning, melancholy, the church-like euphoria of the mass meeting, and how much it is necessary to bum people out. If you have a question or concern you'd like us to address, send it to our email address regrettablecentury@gmail.com or message us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Patreon. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E25 · Mon, June 24, 2019
We read a bunch of stuff about Walter Benjamin and Enzo Traverso and tried to have a conversation about it. We've only managed to reinforce the idea that "The organization of pessimism" is the only slogan that can save us from death. Traverso, Enzo. Left-wing melancholia : Marxism, history, and memory . New York: Columbia University Press, 2016. Print. Against Revolutionary Pessimism and Optimism: Revolutionary Realism by J. Moufawad Paul http://moufawad-paul.blogspot.com/2016/10/against-revolutionary-pessimism-and.html An Invisible Underground River: On Left-Wing Melancholia- Michael Lowy https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3289-an-invisible-underground-river-on-left-wing-melancholia How to kill a zombie: strategizing the end of neoliberalism- Mark Fisher https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/how-to-kill-zombie-strategizing-end-of-neoliberalism/ Walter Benjamin’s Gothic Marxism and The Organization of Pessimism: Michael Lowy https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/walter-benjamin-and-surrealism Victor Serge: Indispensable Critic of Leftist Illusion- Mitchel Abidor https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/02/28/victor-serge-indispensable-critic-of-leftist-illusion/ Four Reasons the European Left Lost- Wolfgang Streeck https://jacobinmag.com/2019/05/european-parliament-elections-results-left?fbclid=IwAR0IIEH5W8SrlH9EfJ31XDLDFjvTZ2lp-ucok0GtxtpDsWzsrSMHQ_oB9DM The Organization of Pessimism: Profane Illumination & Anthropological Materialism in Walter Benjamin https://www.academia.edu/33848834/The_Organization_of_Pessimism_Profane_Illumination_and_Anthropological_Materialism_in_Walter_Benjamin Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E24 · Mon, June 10, 2019
We sat down with C. Derick Varn and solved all the problems that are currently ailing the left. We reconciled the divergent currents of Marxism and wove together the materialist and idealist dichotomy with resounding success, but then lost an hour and a half of audio and were forced to restart the recording; what resulted was a meandering, but entertaining, discussion about just about everything... and religion. Varn's Podcast "Symptomatic Redness" http://zero-books.net/blogs/zero/tag/symptomatic-redness/ and his poetry. http://www.unlikelystories.org/unlikely-books/apocalyptics Music: Des Geyers Schwarzer Haufen- Bauernkreig (German Peasant Revolt Anthem) Further Reading: MacIntyre, Alasdair C. Marxism and Christianity . Notre Dame, Ind: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984. Religion for radicals: An interview with Terry Eagleton https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-gospel-according-to-terry Roland Boer on Marxism and Religion http://isj.org.uk/the-full-story-on-marxism-and-religion/ Lenin: The Attitude of the Workers Party To Religion https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm Boer, R. (2014). Religion and Socialism. Political Theology, 15(2), 188–209. Fitzpatrick, F. (1967). A. V. Lunacharsky: Recent Soviet Interpretations and Republications. Soviet Studies. Vol. 18. No. 3. pp 267-289 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Trailer · Mon, June 03, 2019
After our Socialism From Below episode, Jason and Chris thought they could have used more time to talk about the 4th Comintern congress and the question of "Workers' Governments." What resulted is an impromptu discussion that we posted on our Patreon. Head on over and sign up for $2. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E23 · Mon, May 27, 2019
From Babeuf and Blanqui to Bakunin; from Karl Marx and Kautsky to Kropotkin, an ideological battle rages over the true nature of socialism! But why though? This week we discuss whether or not there really are only "Two Souls of Socialism" and if idea of "socialism from below" is a useful analytical framework around which to organize our politics. Hal Draper’s “Two Souls of Socialism” https://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/1966/twosouls/ Marxism, Anarchism, & the Genealogy of “Socialism From Below” https://uppingtheanti.org/journal/article/02-marxism-anarchism-the-genealogy-of-socialism-from-below Building Socialism From Below- Ben Tarnoff https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/12/nicos-poulantzas-socialism-from-below-democratic-power Socialism From Below: A Delusion? -Mike McNair https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1071/socialism-from-below-a-delusion/ Music: Back in the USSR by Crisis Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Bonus · Mon, May 13, 2019
This is part one of a series in which we will chart the history of fascism and attempt to dissect and discuss it in greater detail than we have previously been able to. Our goal is to analyze some of the scholarship done by mainstream and Marxist scholars alike, in order to better understand the phenomenon. In Part one we synthesize a list of the ideological characteristics of Classical Fascism from similar lists that are employed by fascism scholars, in an attempt to understand what gave historic fascism the unique appeal that it had and attempt to construct a working definition that we can use to define our terms for the rest of the series. If this ends up going well, the series will trace the history of fascism from its roots in the societal ferment of the 19th century to the modern day post-fascist movements. Payne, Stanley G. A history of fascism, 1914-1945 . Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. Print Sternhell, Zeev, Mario Sznajder, and Maia Ashéri. The birth of fascist ideology : from cultural rebellion to political revolution . Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1994. Print. Paxton, Robert O. The anatomy of fascism . New York: Knopf, 2004. Print. Griffin, Roger. The nature of fascism . London New York: Routledge, 1993. Print. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Bonus · Mon, April 29, 2019
The Gang Gets Underwhelmed by Zizek v. Peterson. It wasn't the "Debate of the Century" we wanted, but it's the one that we deserved. Music: Kerber- Ratne Igre Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E20 · Mon, April 22, 2019
We are currently witnessing what appears to be the death of the micro sect form of political organization, a bastard form of the Leninist party that has all but dominated the minuscule and embattled American radical left for the past half century. The political landscape has changed in a way that has rendered these groups obsolete, removing the sectarian left's monopoly on socialist politics in the US, but what will replace it? Dare we be hopeful for a bright new era? LOL The New Communist Movement: An Obituary https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-7/mrl-obit.htm?fbclid=IwAR21HRylPBOW_OuyET7G4gIdgQnTHI_Qfy430OQnF9f_vScuQG3zIunN_q4 Hal Draper’s the Anatomy of the Microsect https://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/1973/xx/microsect.htm Hal Draper’s the Alternative to the Microsect https://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/1971/alt/alt.htm Warning about microsect organizing from David McNally in 2009 http://davidmcnally.org/p=1077&fbclid=IwAR1giyezHhZfnQPDzKvu2YvJoBp31_JWtnSXDBqypJ_saOd8GIlZeih7mt0 Socialism In One Organization https://failedharvest.com/blog/socialism1org John Riddell on the SWP Part One https://johnriddell.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/the-u-s-swp-attempts-an-outward-turn-1977-83/ Part Two https://johnriddell.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/causes-of-a-socialist-collapse-the-u-s-swp-1976-83/ The Sect System https://libcom.org/library/sect-system Song: Bill Bailey (The Ultimate Sectarian) Joe Glazer and Bill Friedman Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E19 · Wed, April 03, 2019
As a concept, as a slogan, as an expression of intent The Right to The City contains within it an opportunity for this generation to conceive of new methods of class struggle, of new models of class organization, and of the return of class power. It’s but one of many opportunities we have right now to advance a constructive, utopian, and revolutionary vision of the future. It’s about demystifying social relations where they are presently abstracted. It’s about no longer viewing political activity as either pressuring politicians or becoming them. It’s about identifying what are presently hidden means of exerting our power as class to confront the class enemy, not just at work, but everywhere. Henri Lefebvre and the Right to the City http://faculty.washington.edu/mpurcell/jua_rtc.pdf Neoliberalism is a Political Project -- Harvey https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/david-harvey-neoliberalism-capitalism-labor-crisis-resistance/ The Right to the City -- Harvey https://newleftreview.org/II/53/david-harvey-the-right-to-the-city PDF of Henri Lefebevre's Urban Revolution https://thecharnelhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Henri-Lefebvre-The-Urban-Revolution.pdf Writings on Cities -- Lefebvre https://thecharnelhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Henri-Lefebvre-Writings-on-Cities.pdf Critique of Urban Geography -- Debord https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/presitu/geography.html Why Psychogeography? https://www.sayitwithpavingstones.org/news/2018/8/14/derive-0-why-psychogeography Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Bonus · Mon, March 25, 2019
This week Chris and Jason sit down with Donald Parkinson-- the managing editor of Cosmonaut Magazine-- to discuss post apocalyptic eco-war communism, rekindling the Utopian imagination, the need for a post-tradition socialist movement, The DSA, The Marxist Center, Mike McNair, and some of the reasons Donald thinks we shouldn't be so pessimistic. Cosmonaut Magazine https://cosmonaut.blog/ Outro Music: Eduard Artemyev- Lullaby Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E17 · Mon, March 18, 2019
This week the gang talks about the radical liberatory programs of the Bolsheviks, the failure of these programs, the conservative reaction of Stalin, and the renewed blossoming of these ideas in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. We ultimately conclude the Warsaw Pact countries leave much to be desired in the way of workers' democracy, but also provide us with an example of what is possible when a society's resources are devoted to liberation instead of hoarded by the bourgeoisie. The USSR’s Founding Mother https://cosmonaut.blog/2018/10/08/the-ussrs-founding-mother/ Liberation in the early days of the USSR https://isreview.org/issue/86/legacy-october Bad Romance https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/11/women-better-sex-under-socialism-review Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/opinion/why-women-had-better-sex-under-socialism.amp.html Ghodsee, Kristen R. Why women have better sex under socialism : and other arguments for economic independence . New York: Nation Books, 2018. Music: Ina Martell- Ich war allein Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E16 · Mon, March 11, 2019
Kevin and Chris sat down with our old friend Steven; an attorney, Marxist and host of the defunct(ish?) Supreme Leap Forward Podcast to discuss Marxist criminology, prison, cops, and Soviet jurisprudence. We ultimately conclude that cops suck, prisons suck, the law is dumb, and the concept of the lumpenproletariat is something that we need to keep arguing about. Hal Draper essay mentioned in the episode: The concept of the Lumpenproletariat in Marx and Engels- Hal Draper Kevin and Steven's Marxist Law Podcast featuring Chris Supreme Leap Forward Episode 12 - Game Of Owns and Feudal Law Steven's essay mentioned in the episode: Understanding Crime Under Capitalism: A Critique of American Criminal Justice and Introduction to Marxist Jurisprudence- Steven Gilmore The Works of Evegny Pshukanis: https://www.marxists.org/archive/pashukanis/index.htm Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E15 · Mon, March 04, 2019
This week Jenny makes the case that there are "good" and bad types of identity politics and we discuss the redeemable and irredeemable aspects of them. Ultimately, we come to conclusions that are sure to get us canceled by workerists and idpol-libs alike. Which... doesn't matter because will have all been boiled alive by rising oceans of acidic seawater long before we ever figure any of this out. Combahee River Collective Statement : http://circuitous.org/scraps/combahee.html Asad Haider: 'Eight Theses on Identity' http://salvage.zone/ Haider, Asad. Mistaken identity : race and class in the age of Trump . London Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2018. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Bonus · Mon, February 25, 2019
Kevin interviews anarchist author Alexander Reid Ross about fascism, environmentalism, some of the differences between anarchism and Marxism, and his views on the state of today's left. Since we are grouchy old Marxist pessimists, we naturally don't agree with everything he says, but he's provided us with an interesting conversation. If you are interested in hearing the second part of the interview, please subscribe to our Patreon for the low price of $2 a month. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Special thanks to Jeremy Salmon of the Giving the Mic to the Wrong Person podcast for producing this interview. Check out Jeremy's podcast here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/giving-the-mic-to-the-wrong-person/id1147501806?mt=2 Music: Oi Polloi- Bash the Fash Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury)
S1 E13 · Mon, February 18, 2019
In part two of our discussion we finally get around to talking about horror movies, Jenny talks about Caliban and the Witch a lot more, and Chris brings that conversation back to fascism... again. The outro music is Lords of the New Church- Open Your Eyes Towards A Gothic Marxism I – On Monsters https://thelitcritguy.com/2018/02/05/towards-a-gothic-marxism-i-on-monsters/ Towards A Gothic Marxism Part Two: Monsters For Socialism https://thelitcritguy.com/2018/02/05/towards-a-gothic-marxism-part-two-monsters-for-socialism/ A Thousand Lost Worlds: Notes on Gothic Marxism by Adam Turl http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/evicted-art-blog/a-thousand-lost-worlds-notes-on-gothic-marxism Socialists Must Reclaim Halloween https://jacobinmag.com/2018/10/halloween-socialism-china-mieville Michael Lowy on Benjamin’s Gothic Marxism https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/walter-benjamin-and-surrealism The Horror of the Real: Zizek as Modern Gothic http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/356/356 Adam Tooze on Surrealism and Gothic Marxism https://blindfieldjournal.com/2016/12/01/of-surrealism-marxism/ McNally, David. Monsters of the Market : Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism . Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2012. Cohen, Margaret. Profane Illumination : Walter Benjamin and the Paris of Surrealist Revolution . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993 Federici, Silvia. Caliban and the Witch . New York London: Autonomedia Pluto, distributor, 2004. Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E12 · Sun, February 10, 2019
In this episode we talk about Marxist romanticism and the gothic strain in Marxism, or "gothic Marxism." We attempt to salvage the detritus of bourgeois society and the broken dreams of generations of the defeated to piece together a vision of world worth fighting for. Marx often used Gothic imagery in his writings and held a strong romantic streak that we think has been ignored by "vulgar" Marxists who cling to the mechanistic Protestantism and scientism of the enlightenment. This is only part one of a two part episode and we promise you we talk about horror movies eventually, just keep your shorts on. The intro is a paraphrasing of Adam Turl from a piece he wrote for Red Wedge Magazine, linked below: The outro music is Bauhaus- The Passion of Lovers Towards A Gothic Marxism I – On Monsters https://thelitcritguy.com/2018/02/05/towards-a-gothic-marxism-i-on-monsters/ Towards A Gothic Marxism Part Two: Monsters For Socialism https://thelitcritguy.com/2018/02/05/towards-a-gothic-marxism-part-two-monsters-for-socialism/ A Thousand Lost Worlds: Notes on Gothic Marxism by Adam Turl http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/evicted-art-blog/a-thousand-lost-worlds-notes-on-gothic-marxism Socialists Must Reclaim Halloween https://jacobinmag.com/2018/10/halloween-socialism-china-mieville Michael Lowy on Benjamin’s Gothic Marxism https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/walter-benjamin-and-surrealism The Horror of the Real: Zizek as Modern Gothic http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/356/356 Adam Tooze on Surrealism and Gothic Marxism https://blindfieldjournal.com/2016/12/01/of-surrealism-marxism/ McNally, David. Monsters of the Market : Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism . Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2012. Cohen, Margaret. Profane Illumination : Walter Benjamin and the Paris of Surrealist Revolution . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993 Siegel, Paul N. The Meek and the Militant : Religion and Power Across the World . Chicago, Ill: Haymarket Books, 2005. <
S1 E11 · Mon, January 28, 2019
This week we dive deep into eco-terrorism / green anarchy / primitivism, and discuss why we think the Unambomber had some good points while also disagreeing with him, a lot. Anti-Civ folks would tell you that the problems that plague humanity begin with the industrial revolution and that we need to go back to hunter/gatherer societies. We at The Regrettable Century, however, enjoy the fact that we survived past childbirth and can wear corrective lenses to read books safely inside of our warm homes this winter. We bet you can figure out what we think the real problem is. Also, we talk about eco-fascism. A short list of resources we mined for this episode: Children of Ted http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/the-unabomber-ted-kaczynski-new-generation-of-acolytes.html The Unabomber's Manifesto as originally published by WaPo: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.text.htm?noredirect=on Interview with John Zerzan on NPR https://www.spreaker.com/user/oregonpublicbroadcasting/anarchy-and-civilization “No Way Out?” By John Zerzan https://www.johnzerzan.net/articles/no-way-out.html “The Problem of Civilization” from Deep Green Resistance, Derrick Jensen’s group, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2011/05/05/deep-green-resistance-strategy-save-planet 20 min ELF propaganda video: https://youtu.be/MO2pA5We34A Watch full length documentary “If a Tree Falls: a Story of the Earth Liberation Front” https://youtu.be/UmZkNNJqr1I “Whatever Happened to Ecoterrorism?” https://psmag.com/environment/whatever-happened-to-eco-terrorism Review/summary of “Ecological Rift,” by John Bellamy Foster http://links.org.au/node/2293 Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support
S1 E10 · Sun, January 20, 2019
We pick up where we left off last week; discussing Russian Nazbols, American Third Positionism, and the re-emphasizing the need to speak with clarity about this topic of dire importance. Listen to Part II of a II part series, in which we think out loud about the history and politics of fascist anti-capitalism. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury A short list of some of the material referenced for the show: Payne, Stanley G. A History of Fascism, 1914-1945 . Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. Lee, Martin A. The Beast Reawakens . Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1997. Coogan, Kevin. Dreamer of the Day : Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International . Brooklyn, N.Y: Autonomedia, 1999. A scholarly article about The National Question and the Communists in Weimar Germany. https://libcom.org/files/NATIONAL%20BOLSHEVISM%20IN%20WEIMAR%20GERMANY.pdf The (Now Defunct) Traditionalist Workers Party: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/traditionalist-worker-party An undercover expose of the Traditionalist Workers Party: https://unicornriot.ninja/2018/leaked-a-year-inside-the-failed-neo-nazi-traditionalist-worker-party/ Article about a alt-righters adopting “anti-capitalism” https://www.thenation.com/article/the-racist-right-looks-left/ Music: Holocaust by Crisis off of No Town Hall Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E9 · Wed, January 16, 2019
Yes there is an anti-capitalist right and leftists need to stop being so confused when rightists are opposed to, or critical of, capitalism. Listen to Part I of a II part series, in which we think out loud about the history and politics of the Strasserites, Nazbols, European New Right, and Third Positionists. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury A short list of some of the material referenced for the show: Payne, Stanley G. A History of Fascism, 1914-1945 . Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. Lee, Martin A. The Beast Reawakens . Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1997. Coogan, Kevin. Dreamer of the Day : Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International . Brooklyn, N.Y: Autonomedia, 1999. The National Question and the Communists in Weimar Germany. https://libcom.org/files/NATIONAL%20BOLSHEVISM%20IN%20WEIMAR%20GERMANY.pdf The (Now Defunct) Traditionalist Workers Party: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/traditionalist-worker-party An undercover expose of the Traditionalist Workers Party: https://unicornriot.ninja/2018/leaked-a-year-inside-the-failed-neo-nazi-traditionalist-worker-party/ Article about a alt-righters adopting “anti-capitalism” https://www.thenation.com/article/the-racist-right-looks-left/ Music: Auf, auf zum Kampf by Commandantes off of Lieder Für Die Arbeiterklasse Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E8 · Mon, January 07, 2019
Behold, our original intro episode! Jason and Chris talk about their motivations for creating the podcast and dive into Mark Fisher's book "Capitalist Realism." Fisher argues that after 1989 capitalism was able to present itself as the only option and warped our reality to fit that claim. We talk about how he was right. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E7 · Mon, December 31, 2018
In the years since Guy Debord wrote "The Society of the Spectacle" we have witnessed the utter triumph of said spectacle and have been thoroughly crushed under the jackboot of its mediocrity. We think that some of the ideas of the Situationists are even more relevant now than they were in 68 and are worth having a conservation about, so we did. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury A Short List of Some of the Readings For this Episode: Society of the Spectacle (full text) https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.htm Revenge of the Spectacle http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/online-issue/revenge-of-the-spectacle-this-time-its-personal Bringing Fuel to The Flames: Anselme Jappe's Guy Debord http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/online-issue/bringing-fuel Notes on the Spectacle of Opposition https://www.sayitwithpavingstones.org/news/2018/6/29/some-notes-on-the-spectacle-of-opposition Why Psychogeography? https://www.sayitwithpavingstones.org/news/2018/8/14/derive-0-why-psychogeography Background on 1968 https://jacobinmag.com/2018/05/how-beautiful-it-was/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
Bonus · Tue, December 18, 2018
In our first ever FEATURE episode, we talk about the Marxist art, its mission, the idea of the Popular Avant Garde, and why transgression is important. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E5 · Fri, December 14, 2018
This week we discuss our orientation as Revolutionary Pessimists. We believe that humanity is worth saving, but were not so sure that is going to work out. A clear headed, sober, pessimistic orientation is necessary to continue to organize as socialists. We must be ready to salvage the burnt out husk of our planet and build an egalitarian future in the irradiated post apocalyptic deserts. A strategy for ruination is necessary. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Salvage Quarterly http://salvage.zone/in-print/salvage-perspectives-1-amid-this-stony-rubbish/ For a Marxism Without Guarantees http://www.agpolpsy.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Hall-For-a-Marxism-Without-Guarantees.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2zkfhtBHg_j1-YBQ3eCpPUXCnKeg0FxeEq5Y3KWN4Fqdf5lVCGwhEBsqs Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E4 · Wed, November 28, 2018
This week we discuss ourselves a little bit before diving into the topic of base building. What is base building? Is it a new strategy? Is it just aping Maoist and Narodnik tactics in a decidedly un-Bolshevik fashion? It isn't, but if it was why would that be bad? In this episode, we talk about why building is becoming popular among the membership of the DSA and whether it is a viable strategy for working class power https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E3 · Fri, November 16, 2018
Part Two of our series examining fascism. The post fascist matrix has vomited forth a dizzying array of political formations; we recorded ourselves thinking out loud about them. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E2 · Wed, October 31, 2018
Part one of our series examining all of the fascisms (This is a re-upload with some sound issues resolved) https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
S1 E1 · Tue, October 23, 2018
We discuss Mark Fisher's pertinent and controversial essay "Exiting the Vampire's Castle. What did Fisher get wrong, what did he get right? Will the left shake its toxic call out culture in time to save humanity from impending catastrophe? Exiting the Vampire Castle https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/exiting-vampire-castle/ Our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show
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