“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 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.
Check us out on Patreon for regular Patron Book Clubs, Regrettable Geopolitics updates, Real Nerd Hours, and more...
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Episodes
Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
Another lightly edited casual conversation about geopolitics. We do a whirlwind summary of the stuff that has happened since last week and land back on the subject of Ukraine for most of the program.
Tuesday Mar 11, 2025
Tuesday Mar 11, 2025
The boys and Varn Vlog are back again, talking about "Decadence Theory" and how it differs from "crisis theory" and "breakdown theory." We discuss Samir Amin's third-worldist (and not very Marxist) take on decadence theory.
Revolution or Decadence- Samir Amin
https://monthlyreview.org/2018/05/01/revolution-or-decadence/
Monday Mar 03, 2025
Monday Mar 03, 2025
Welcome to a new series that we are trying out for Patrons. This is a lightly edited casual conversation between Jason and Chris about Geopolitics. We aren't really preparing for these by doing a lot of research and we certainly aren't doing much editing. We are going to try to do these semi-regularly and hopefully we can figure out how to do video versions as well.
Monday Feb 24, 2025
Monday Feb 24, 2025
This week we discussed the thought of one of 20th-century Marxism's socialist opponents, Tomáš Masaryk. Masaryk was reviled by Czech communists until they appropriated him and he was an opponent of capitalism until the champions of capitalism did the same. He was a social democrat with an ethical and Christian-humanist vision of socialism that inspired the Prague Spring but was later coopted by the opponents of the working class and human liberation.
A State without Suicide
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/state-without-suicide
Betts, R. R. “Masaryk’s Philosophy of History.” The Slavonic and East European Review 26, no. 66 (1947): 30–43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4203912.
Kohak, Erazim. “T. G. Masaryk’s Revision of Marxism.” Journal of the History of Ideas 25, no. 4 (1964): 519–42. https://doi.org/10.2307/2708184.
Kovác, Dusan. "World Revolution — Tomás Garrigue Masaryk and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" Human Affairs 1, no. 1 (1991): 22-29. https://doi.org/10.1515/humaff-1991-010105
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, and Karel Čapek. Talks with T.G. Masaryk. Catbird Press, 1995.
Winters, Stanley B, Robert B Pynsent, and Harry Hanak. T.G. Masaryk (1850-1937).: Thinker and Critic. Palgrave Macmillan , 1989.
Wednesday Feb 19, 2025
Wednesday Feb 19, 2025
So, you think you had some judgments? TOO BAD THEY ARE ALL REFUTED!
This week Jason and Andrew watched and discussed Guy Debord's follow up to his Society of the Spectacle film, which is essentially a clapback at his haters. As any good Regrettable discussion goes, the film was the anchor, but the topics ranged far and wide. Enjoy!
Refutation of All the Judgements, Pro or Con, Thus Far Rendered on the Film “The Society of the Spectacle" (1975)
https://www.ubu.com/film/debord_refutation.html
Monday Feb 10, 2025
Monday Feb 10, 2025
This week we read and discussed an article by Richard Seymour that explores Marxism's relationship with materialism and idealism. Seymour argues that the Hegelian inheritance within Marxism forces it in the direction of an idealism which is essential for a successful revolutionary politics.
Duel and duality, or, degrowth and dialectics https://www.patreon.com/posts/81735357?pr=true&fbclid=IwAR2ftGQudDJQhykIW4rv_3F34xqP8RGHZdyZyb4JsGQgxzQ7qxvRNI9BP7k
Thursday Feb 06, 2025
Thursday Feb 06, 2025
The gang tackles Chapter 5 of Bauer's analysis of the concept of the nation.
Read Along With Us:
https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer
Monday Jan 27, 2025
Monday Jan 27, 2025
This week we delve into what is sort of a pre-history of the American Socialist movement. Though the populist movement undeniably kept its Jeffersonian character, it was the first (arguably only) significant challenge to the dominance of the two major capitalist parties in the US. Much of the energy and the spirit of American populism flowed into and colored the burgeoning American workers' movement.
From Populism to Socialism and Back
https://jacobin.com/2019/08/populism-socialism-daniel-de-leon-eugene-debs
American Populism, 1876-1896
https://digital.lib.niu.edu/illinois/gildedage/populism
Populist Party Platform July 4, 1892
https://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1876-1900/populist-party-platform-july-4-1892.php
Cantrell, Gregg, and D. Scott Barton. “Texas Populists and the Failure of Biracial Politics.” The Journal of Southern History 55, no. 4 (1989): 659–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/2209044.
Wednesday Jan 22, 2025
Wednesday Jan 22, 2025
The boys and Varn Vlog are back again, talking about "Decadence Theory" and how it differs from "crisis theory" and "breakdown theory." We discuss Samir Amin's Third-Worldist (and not very Marxist) take on decadence theory.
Revolution or Decadence- Samir Amin
https://monthlyreview.org/2018/05/01/revolution-or-decadence/
Thursday Jan 16, 2025
Thursday Jan 16, 2025
The gang tackles Chapter 4 of Bauer's analysis of the concept of the nation...