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
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...
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.co...
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...
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:...
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 ...
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...
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...
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: Corn...
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 s...
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...
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....
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 sti...
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 Hege...
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...
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 ...
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/...
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: Ea...
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...
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: Inde...
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. ...
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/...
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...
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...
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/willin...
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/symptomat...
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 ...
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-stanle...
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 Ma...
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...
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 enlightenme...
