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 Marxist salvage project capable of putting up a good fight as the world burns around us. A clean, honest, and unsentimental melancholy is required; we are cultivating one and would like to share it with you.
https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 8 days 16 hours 4 minutes
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episode 19: Pessimism is an Optimism: A Return to Dialectical Pessimism
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...
episode 18: No Royal Road: Class Conflict and The Crisis of Feudalism (Part I)
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
Patreon Preview: Revolution by Enzo Traverso (Part IV)
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.
episode 17: The Dialectic of Degrowth: Socialists and the Burden of Ecological Disaster
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...
Patreon Preview: Replacing the Dead by Mie Nakachi
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...
episode 16: Lumpenization and its Discontents: Disagreements About the Lumpen Classes
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...
Patreon Preview: Daddy Masaryk and Czechoslovakism
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
Support the showepisode 15: No Royal Road: Neo-Feudalism, or the Fuzzy Edges of Capitalism: The End of Techno-Feudal Reason (Part V of V)
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
Patreon Preview: Revolution by Enzo Traverso, Part III (Regrettable Book Club)
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
Support the showepisode 15: Podcasts From Nowhere: William Morris' Romantic Marxism
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.
William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary - Cascadian Midsummer 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAXjblFVhxI&t=928s
How I Became a Socialist (William Morris)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1894/hibs/hibs...