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: The Right to the City: Changing the City, to Change Ourselves
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...
episode 20: The Death of the Micro-Sect
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...
episode 21: Zizek v. Peterson: The "Debate of the Century" that We Deserve
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
episode 22: A Time of Monsters: Towards a Working Definition of Fascism
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...
episode 23: Neither Socialism From Above, Nor Below...but definitely Socialism
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...
episode 24: Marxism & Religion & Everything Else & Religion, With C. Derick Varn
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...
episode 25: Scattered Thoughts on Melancholia and the Organization of Pessimism
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...
episode 26: The Proper Amount of Bumming People Out: Pessimisms and Optimisms of Intellect and Will
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...
episode 27: Children of the Counterrevolution
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...
episode 28: Dialectic of Defeat: A Collaboration with Red Library, Part I
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...