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
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...
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 unco...
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 ...
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 . Ha...
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 o...
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 Tr...
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 a...
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
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 respo...
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...
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 C...
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...
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 he...
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...
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; M...
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...
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...
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 Mea...
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...
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...
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-strateg...
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 Deat...
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...
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,...
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...
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://consiliencep...
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, 2...
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,...
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 re...
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...
