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 4: No Ethical Technological Innovation Under Capitalism
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...
episode 5: No Royal Road- As Old Worlds End and New Ones Begin: Part III (With C. Derick Varn)
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...
episode 6: The Farce of American Socialism: The American Socialist Movement, Part II
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...
episode 7: The Death of the Left?
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...
episode 8: No Royal Road- As Old Worlds End and New Ones Begin: Part IV (With C. Derick Varn)
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...
episode 9: Neither "Neither Washington nor Moscow" nor Washington nor Moscow
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.
https://www.theatlantic...
episode 10: The One Where We Talk About Everything That Is Wrong
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
episode 11: Marxism in Dialogue With Christianity
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...
episode 12: No Royal Road -- The Feudal Revolution Debate (With C. Derick Varn)
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
episode 12: Red Theology (Part I): Christian Communism as Political Myth
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...