The Regrettable Century
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
Episodes
257 episodes
Patreon Preview -- The Question of Nationalities & Social Democracy by Otto Bauer: Regrettable Book Club (Episode VII)
Soldiering on and finishing Chapter 3 of Bauer's excellent Marxist analysis of the nation.Read along with us:https://libcom.org/article/ques...
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Season 7
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20:15
Patreon Preview -- Books Chris Read in Grad School: The Peculiarities of German History
This week, we read and discussed Eley and Blackbourn's indispensable discussion of the Sonderweg, or special path, of German history. It is often said that Germany's path to the Holocaust begins with the failure of the bourgeois revolution to t...
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Season 7
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11:11
Class Struggle & Christian Love: Herbert McCabe & Marxist Christianity
Kicking off Year VII, Chris and Ben are joined by Daniel Saunders to discuss Herbert McCabe's Class Struggle and Christian Love. The intention was also to cover pieces by Dennis Turner and Terry Eagleton but time got away from them, so...
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Season 7
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Episode 1
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1:31:58
Year VI In Review: More Geopolitics but Finally Also Podcast and Personal Stuff (II of II)
The long-awaited part two of our year six in review episode. We kick it off with a little geopolitical discussion but get around to discussing our personal lives and the podcast.
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Season 6
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Episode 27
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1:33:03
From Dawn to Decadence (Part II): With Varn Vlog *UNLOCKED*
We are back at it again talking decadence theory with Varn. This week, we dig into Samir Amin's piece from Monthly Review.We discussed the following materials:Morley, Neville. "Decadence as a Theory of History." New Literary H...
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Season 6
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Episode 26
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1:46:41
Year VI In Review: US Elections, Gaza, and Ukraine (Part I of II)
As we wrap up another year of podcasting, we offer our expert opinions on everything that sucks about the world. Stay tuned for part II.
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Season 6
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Episode 25
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1:10:12
Patreon Preview -- The Question of Nationalities & Social Democracy by Otto Bauer: Regrettable Book Club (Episode VI)
The long march through the text continues as the gang tackles chapter three.Read along here:https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer
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Season 6
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15:19
The Socialism of Fools: Weimar National Bolshevism and Strasserism (Part II of II)
This is part two of a discussion based on a paper Chris wrote about the concept of "German Socialism" from which groups like the NSDAP, the National Bolsheviks, Conservative Revolutionaries, and Black Front draw the basis for their ideologies.&...
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Season 6
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Episode 24
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53:06
Patreon Preview -- Boundless & Bottomless Seas: Dugin's 4th Political Theory (Part VIII)
The boys dive in to Dugin's thoughts on civilization, colonialism, and imperialism.Don't worry, there are literally no digressions and the guys stay on point the whole time.Check out the full episode here:https://www.patreon.com...
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Season 6
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26:27
The Socialism of Fools: Weimar National Bolshevism and Strasserism (Part I of II)
First of all, if you are listening to a version with bad audio, don't worry, I reuploaded a version with good audio and you can probably just refresh your podcasting app to get the newer version. This is a discussion based on...
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Season 6
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Episode 23
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1:02:43
Patreon Preview -- The Tragedy of the Hungarian Soviet Republic
In what turns out to be an offshoot of our Czechoslovak socialism series, we dive in to the ill fated and short lived Hungarian Soviet Republic. This also turns out to be incredibly relevant to anyone who is following along with our series on O...
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Season 6
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13:32
Real Grouchy Old Man Hours: What's Left of the Left?
This week it's just the Regrettable brothers and we are talking about "leftism" and whether the category of "left" still holds any meaning.
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Season 6
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Episode 22
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45:32
Patreon Preview -- The Question of Nationalities & Social Democracy by Otto Bauer: Regrettable Book Club (Episode V)
Wherein we cover the entirety of Chapter 2, dealing with the concept of the nation state.A link to the PDF: https://libcom.org/article/quest...
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Season 6
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19:37
UNLOCKED -- Socialism With a Human Face: The Prague Spring and Its Defeat (Czechoslovak Socialism Part II)
Continuing what has become a series on Czechoslovak Socialism, we dive into the attempt to reform the Czechoslovak system. The official ML narrative and the liberal narrative about the Prague Spring are the same, they say that it was an attempt...
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Season 6
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Episode 21
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1:04:59
Patreon Preview -- From Dawn to Decadence (Part II): With Varn Vlog
We are back at it again talking decadence theory with Varn. This week, we dig into Samir Amin's piece from Monthly Review.We discussed the following materials:Morley, Neville. "Decadence as a Theory of History." New Literary...
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Season 6
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20:10
The World Spirit on Podcast: Is Hegel Still Relevant after the End of History?
Come listen to the boys discuss Hegel's enduring importance to the contemporary world.Hegel Is Still an Important Thinker for the Left
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Season 6
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Episode 20
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1:04:54
Patreon Preview -- The Question of Nationalities & Social Democracy by Otto Bauer: Regrettable Book Club (Episode IV)
We soldier on through this excellent but little known work on the national question. This week we FINALLY finish Chapter 1.
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Season 6
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15:22
To Front or Not to Front: The Question of "Popular Frontism"
The boys get together and talk about the triumphs and failures, the uses and misuses, and the love and hate for the concept of the Popular Front. Haslam, Jonathan. “The Comintern and the Origins of the Popular Front 1934-1935.” The ...
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Season 6
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Episode 19
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1:11:53
Patreon Preview -- Boundless and Bottomless Seas: Dugin's 4th Political Theory (Part VII)
The boys dive in to chapter 6 of Dugin's Fourth Political theory. Don't worry, there are literally no digressions and the guys stay on point the whole time.Check out Varn Vlog here:ht...
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Season 6
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31:02
Patreon Preview -- Slovak Socialism: A Czechoslovak Socialism Addendum
We just can't stop talking about Czechoslovak Socialism. We decided to deal with the Slovak portion of the Czechoslovak lands, which we feel has been a little neglected in our previous discussions. Slovakia is important as an integral part of t...
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Season 6
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11:54
From Dawn to Decadence (Part I): With Varn Vlog *UNLOCKED*
We accidentally released the wrong episode, this one should have come before the last!This week we sat down with C. Derick Varn to talk about "decadence theory," "crisis theory" and "breakdown theory." This is a special episode, mostly ...
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Season 6
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Episode 18
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1:56:25
Patreon Preview -- The Question of Nationalities and Social Democracy by Otto Bauer: Regrettable Book Club (Episode III)
Back at it again with the national question and continuing the long march through chapter one.A link to the PDF:https://libcom.org/article/qu...
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Season 6
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19:20
From Dawn to Decadence: Doom 2024 (Episode 1.5 -- BONUS) *UNLOCKED*
This is an impromptu episode recorded by Jason and Varn where they discuss their dissatisfaction with the general situation of American and world politics. It roughly fits in with the subject matter of our Dawn to Decadence series, so here ya g...
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Season 6
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Episode 17
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1:36:46
The Boys Figure out Which Marxist Tendency is Correct
This week we all sat down to talk about the uselessness of identifying with a political tendency in our current moment.
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Season 6
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Episode 16
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57:11
Patreon Preview -- Voices from the Soviet Edge
This week we discussed an excellent study of migrant workers in the Soviet Union which focused on Uzbeks, Tajiks, Georgians, Azerbaijanis who came to Leningrad and Moscow in toward the end of Union's existence.Sahadeo, Jeff. 2019. Vo...
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Season 6
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17:24