“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
Monday Jan 28, 2019
Monday Jan 28, 2019
This week we dive deep into eco-terrorism / green anarchy / primitivism, and discuss why we think the Unambomber had some good points while also disagreeing with him, a lot.
Anti-Civ folks would tell you that the problems that plague humanity begin with the industrial revolution and that we need to go back to hunter/gatherer societies.
We at The Regrettable Century, however, enjoy the fact that we survived past childbirth and can wear corrective lenses to read books safely inside of our warm homes this winter. We bet you can figure out what we think the real problem is.
Also, we talk about eco-fascism.
A short list of resources we mined for this episode:
Children of Ted
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/the-unabomber-ted-kaczynski-new-generation-of-acolytes.html
The Unabomber's Manifesto as originally published by WaPo:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.text.htm?noredirect=on
Interview with John Zerzan on NPR
https://www.spreaker.com/user/oregonpublicbroadcasting/anarchy-and-civilization
“No Way Out?” By John Zerzan
https://www.johnzerzan.net/articles/no-way-out.html
“The Problem of Civilization” from Deep Green Resistance, Derrick Jensen’s group, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2011/05/05/deep-green-resistance-strategy-save-planet
20 min ELF propaganda video:
https://youtu.be/MO2pA5We34A
Watch full length documentary “If a Tree Falls: a Story of the Earth Liberation Front”
https://youtu.be/UmZkNNJqr1I
“Whatever Happened to Ecoterrorism?”
https://psmag.com/environment/whatever-happened-to-eco-terrorism
Review/summary of “Ecological Rift,” by John Bellamy Foster
http://links.org.au/node/2293
Sunday Jan 20, 2019
Sunday Jan 20, 2019
We pick up where we left off last week; discussing Russian Nazbols, American Third Positionism, and the re-emphasizing the need to speak with clarity about this topic of dire importance.
Listen to Part II of a II part series, in which we think out loud about the history and politics of fascist anti-capitalism.
https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury
A short list of some of the material referenced for the show:
Payne, Stanley G. A History of Fascism, 1914-1945. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.
Lee, Martin A. The Beast Reawakens. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1997.
Coogan, Kevin. Dreamer of the Day : Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International. Brooklyn, N.Y: Autonomedia, 1999.
A scholarly article about The National Question and the Communists in Weimar Germany.
https://libcom.org/files/NATIONAL%20BOLSHEVISM%20IN%20WEIMAR%20GERMANY.pdf
The (Now Defunct) Traditionalist Workers Party:
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/traditionalist-worker-party
An undercover expose of the Traditionalist Workers Party:
https://unicornriot.ninja/2018/leaked-a-year-inside-the-failed-neo-nazi-traditionalist-worker-party/
Article about a alt-righters adopting “anti-capitalism”
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-racist-right-looks-left/
Music:
Holocaust by Crisis off of No Town Hall
Wednesday Jan 16, 2019
Wednesday Jan 16, 2019
Yes there is an anti-capitalist right and leftists need to stop being so confused when rightists are opposed to, or critical of, capitalism.
Listen to Part I of a II part series, in which we think out loud about the history and politics of the Strasserites, Nazbols, European New Right, and Third Positionists.
https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury
A short list of some of the material referenced for the show:
Payne, Stanley G. A History of Fascism, 1914-1945. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.
Lee, Martin A. The Beast Reawakens. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1997.
Coogan, Kevin. Dreamer of the Day : Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International. Brooklyn, N.Y: Autonomedia, 1999.
The National Question and the Communists in Weimar Germany.
https://libcom.org/files/NATIONAL%20BOLSHEVISM%20IN%20WEIMAR%20GERMANY.pdf
The (Now Defunct) Traditionalist Workers Party:
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/traditionalist-worker-party
An undercover expose of the Traditionalist Workers Party:
https://unicornriot.ninja/2018/leaked-a-year-inside-the-failed-neo-nazi-traditionalist-worker-party/
Article about a alt-righters adopting “anti-capitalism”
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-racist-right-looks-left/
Music:
Auf, auf zum Kampf by Commandantes off of Lieder Für Die Arbeiterklasse
Monday Jan 07, 2019
Monday Jan 07, 2019
Behold, our original intro episode! Jason and Chris talk about their motivations for creating the podcast and dive into Mark Fisher's book "Capitalist Realism."
Fisher argues that after 1989 capitalism was able to present itself as the only option and warped our reality to fit that claim. We talk about how he was right.
https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury
Monday Dec 31, 2018
Monday Dec 31, 2018
In the years since Guy Debord wrote "The Society of the Spectacle" we have witnessed the utter triumph of said spectacle and have been thoroughly crushed under the jackboot of its mediocrity. We think that some of the ideas of the Situationists are even more relevant now than they were in 68 and are worth having a conservation about, so we did.
https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury
A Short List of Some of the Readings For this Episode:
Society of the Spectacle (full text)
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.htm
Revenge of the Spectacle
http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/online-issue/revenge-of-the-spectacle-this-time-its-personal
Bringing Fuel to The Flames: Anselme Jappe's Guy Debord
http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/online-issue/bringing-fuel
Notes on the Spectacle of Opposition
https://www.sayitwithpavingstones.org/news/2018/6/29/some-notes-on-the-spectacle-of-opposition
Why Psychogeography?
https://www.sayitwithpavingstones.org/news/2018/8/14/derive-0-why-psychogeography
Background on 1968
https://jacobinmag.com/2018/05/how-beautiful-it-was/
Tuesday Dec 18, 2018
Tuesday Dec 18, 2018
In our first ever FEATURE episode, we talk about the Marxist art, its mission, the idea of the Popular Avant Garde, and why transgression is important.
https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury
Friday Dec 14, 2018
Friday Dec 14, 2018
This week we discuss our orientation as Revolutionary Pessimists. We believe that humanity is worth saving, but were not so sure that is going to work out. A clear headed, sober, pessimistic orientation is necessary to continue to organize as socialists. We must be ready to salvage the burnt out husk of our planet and build an egalitarian future in the irradiated post apocalyptic deserts. A strategy for ruination is necessary.
https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury
Salvage Quarterly
http://salvage.zone/in-print/salvage-perspectives-1-amid-this-stony-rubbish/
For a Marxism Without Guarantees
http://www.agpolpsy.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Hall-For-a-Marxism-Without-Guarantees.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2zkfhtBHg_j1-YBQ3eCpPUXCnKeg0FxeEq5Y3KWN4Fqdf5lVCGwhEBsqs
Wednesday Nov 28, 2018
Wednesday Nov 28, 2018
This week we discuss ourselves a little bit before diving into the topic of base building. What is base building? Is it a new strategy? Is it just aping Maoist and Narodnik tactics in a decidedly un-Bolshevik fashion? It isn't, but if it was why would that be bad?
In this episode, we talk about why building is becoming popular among the membership of the DSA and whether it is a viable strategy for working class power
https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury
Thursday Nov 15, 2018
Thursday Nov 15, 2018
Part Two of our series examining fascism. The post fascist matrix has vomited forth a dizzying array of political formations; we recorded ourselves thinking out loud about them.
https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury
Wednesday Oct 31, 2018
Wednesday Oct 31, 2018
Part one of our series examining all of the fascisms (This is a re-upload with some sound issues resolved)
https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury