“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.
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Episodes
Sunday May 28, 2023
Sunday May 28, 2023
We are joined by Matthew and Julia for a continuation of our discussion about the French pension reforms. Matthew is our old comrade and friend from the days of Trot hyperactivism and Julia is an actually existing French person. Together they provide us their impressions of the struggle against Macron's pension reforms.
Music: Komintern Sect- Rêves de liberté
Monday May 22, 2023
Monday May 22, 2023
Welcome to the first of our reading group episodes on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. This week we discuss TRAINS.
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.
Sunday May 07, 2023
Sunday May 07, 2023
No Royal Road is back with part three of our discussion of Evegny Morozov's "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason."
Check out Varn Vlog here:
https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog
Saturday Apr 29, 2023
Saturday Apr 29, 2023
We are back with more books Chris read in grad school. This one is written by Rachel Applebaum (no relation to Anne) and discusses the Soviet Friendship programs, their successes, and failures.
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.
Monday Apr 17, 2023
Monday Apr 17, 2023
This week we discuss why the left allows the liberals to set the tone for its politics.
Liberalism’s Hegemony Over The Left
https://www.counterfire.org/article/liberalisms-hegemony-over-the-left/
Death Sentence For The American Left?
https://damagemag.com/2023/01/25/a-death-sentence-for-the-american-left/
Debord and the Postmodern Turn: New Stages of the Spectacle
https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/Illumina%20Folder/kell17.htm
Nothing is Any Longer the Opposite of Anything: Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle Today
Tuesday Apr 04, 2023
Tuesday Apr 04, 2023
We are back with another book that Chris read in grad school. This one is an interesting read about the impact of material culture on the lives of late Soviet citizens called "The Things of Life: Materiality in Late Soviet Russia" by Alexy Golulbev.
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.
Monday Apr 03, 2023
Monday Apr 03, 2023
We are once again joined by our old friend and comrade Matthew, who is currently residing in Paris. Matthew gives us the rundown of the French pension reforms and we talk about the prospects for the labor and socialist movements.
Music- Edith Piaf- Ça Ira (Sans-culotte version)
Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine
aristocrats to the lamp post!
Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine
the aristocrats, we'll hang them!
If we don't hang them
We'll break them
If we don't break them
We'll burn them
Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine
aristocrats to the lamp-post
Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine
the aristocrats, we'll hang them!
We shall have no more nobles nor priests
Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine
Equality will reign everywhere
The Austrian slave shall follow him
Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine
And their infernal clique
Shall go to hell
Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine
aristocrats to the lamp-post
Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine
the aristocrats, we'll hang them!
And when we'll have hung them all
We'll stick a shovel up their arse.
Sunday Mar 26, 2023
Sunday Mar 26, 2023
We are finally back with part four of our discussion of Rodrigo Nunes' new book on Verso. This week we actually finish the book.
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.
Sunday Mar 19, 2023
Sunday Mar 19, 2023
No Royal Road is back!
Varn joins Chris and Jason to discuss the second part of Evegny Morozov's "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason."
Check out Varn Vlog here:
https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog
Sunday Mar 12, 2023
Sunday Mar 12, 2023
The boys are back and we are finally finishing this masterwork of left sociology by heavyweight Polish intellectual and dissident Marxist, Zygmunt Bauman.
From the publisher's note:
"Modernity was supposed to be the period in human history when the fears that pervaded social life in the past could be left behind and human beings could at last take control of their lives and tame the uncontrolled forces of the social and natural worlds. And yet, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, we live again in a time of fear. Whether its the fear of natural disasters, the fear of environmental catastrophes or the fear of indiscriminate terrorist attacks, we live today in a state of constant anxiety about the dangers that could strike unannounced and at any moment. Fear is the name we give to our uncertainty in the face of the dangers that characterize our liquid modern age, to our ignorance of what the threat is and our incapacity to determine what can and can't be done to counter it."
We cover the last two chapters and conclusion in this episode.
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2006. Liquid Fear. Cambridge U.A.: Polity Press.
Music: Dimitri Shostakovich- Waltz No. 2