

The Regrettable Century
Chris, Kevin, Jason, & Ben
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
Mentioned books

Apr 14, 2021 • 1h 11min
The Internet Was a Mistake: Surveillance Capitalism and the Public-Private Tech Panopticon
We are now living in the most watched society in history. Our every move is tracked, our conversations monitored, our purchases logged, every link we click is logged, but its okay because its not the government doing it right? You Are Now Remotely Controlled -- Shoshana Zuboffhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/opinion/sunday/surveillance-capitalism.html?fbclid=IwAR0N6cbEaABSR2Yb7lEfLRjtWopZQu-bizbl2k7XaJFQOFfwcnV3riBJ7MIWilling servants -- Richard Seymourhttps://newhumanist.org.uk/5516/willing-servants?fbclid=IwAR3G7zXvBob940xv1ayY1ryPrAfU5Xf5ZU53J2I_bWCwLQ6V8IeUfW_YpEc Communicative Capitalism and Class Struggle -- Jodi Dean https://spheres-journal.org/contribution/communicative-capitalism-and-class-struggle/ When the social industry bans the people we hate -- Richard Seymour https://www.patreon.com/posts/27523240?fbclid=IwAR3M5UICw48xJPlsTWW2at96G0LCjSd8lZ1BQUQ_XGqFfFZ-dIb893Twvas Your Phone is Listening and it's Not Paranoiahttps://www.vice.com/en/article/wjbzzy/your-phone-is-listening-and-its-not-paranoia?fbclid=IwAR1UWg7TOU8ocwC1PXYqpBOuVXC9teau250pEynsUPlhyfKGFXwPtXrXb9o Music- Bauhaus- The Spy in the CabSend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Apr 1, 2021 • 58min
Capitalism Without a Human Face: Neoliberalism as a Stage of Capitalism?
Like most other political terms, the word "neoliberal" has been used so much to describe so many disparate things that it has ceased to have meaning. Well, unfortunately neoliberalism is real and it is an economic idea and political project that completely dominates every aspect of modern capitalist society and even our resistance to it. So, listen up and learn what we just learned about how much everything sucks. Varn talks with Mirowski on Symptomatic Redness https://www.mixcloud.com/symptomatic-redness/ep-1-phillip-mirowski-on-neoliberalism/Harvey on Neoliberalism As a Political Projecthttps://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/david-harvey-neoliberalism-capitalism-labor-crisis-resistance/Interview with Mirowski https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/08/fixing-old-markets-with-new-markets-the-origins-and-practice-of-neoliberalism.htmlMirowski on Neoliberalismhttps://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/02/neoliberalism-movement-dare-not-speak-name/The Uses and Abuses of “Neoliberalism”https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/uses-and-abuses-neoliberalism-debate Michael Roberts on Neoliberalismhttps://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2019/03/12/neoliberalism-not-so-bad/ https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2017/11/27/neoliberalism-works-for-the-world/ Music: MelonadeM- Garfield Gameboy'd CreditsSend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Mar 26, 2021 • 5min
PATREON TEASER: Communist Hope, Communist Despair
Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and sign up on our Discord to take part in future Patron Roundtables. We were joined by some of our choicest patrons to discuss the question of the party form. Join us as we solve the party problem. Join us on our Discord to plan out to plan out the next one, then remember to come join in the discussion. All patrons are welcome!Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury)Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Mar 22, 2021 • 58min
Imagining the End: Climate Catastrophe, Mass Extinction, and Utopia
Its been said elsewhere that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism. Well, that may be true, but it doesn't take much imagining to conceive of the end of the world. We are currently living though the end of the world. Who would have thought it would be so boring?Join us as we lament our collective willingness to go gentle into that good night. Imagining the End of Capitalism With Kim Stanley Robinsonhttps://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/10/kim-stanley-robinson-ministry-future-science-fiction IMAGINING THE ENDhttps://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/05/imagining-the-end In Defence of Metabolic Rift Theoryhttps://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3691-in-defence-of-metabolic-rift-theory#:~:text=One%20Marxist%20line%20of%20inquiry,%2C%20Morristown%2C%20Ohio%2C%201974Music- Napalm Death: The Brink of Extinction The Lost Horizons Networkhttps://losthorizonsnetwork.com/The Lost Horizons Network PodcastWell... Here we are still, after all.https://well.transistor.fm/Red Library Podcast:https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/postsFrom78 Podcasthttps://www.patreon.com/from78Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Mar 8, 2021 • 2h 10min
The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity - Part VII- The Final Episode (with Red Library)
This week we are joined once again by Adam from Red Library for the final episode in our series. We continue our multi part series tackling the monster tome by Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity.McCarraher believes that capitalism displaced religion and disenchanted the world and that Capitalism then became a religion itself, replacing the sacramental enchantment of the pre-capitalist world with a pecuniary enchantment that he calls Mammonism.McCarraher, Eugene. The enchantments of Mammon : how capitalism became the religion of modernity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. Print.Music- Gregorian Chant for the Dead - Dies irae (Sequentia) -Alessio RandonThe Lost Horizons Networkhttps://losthorizonsnetwork.com/The Lost Horizons Network PodcastWell... Here we are still, after all.https://well.transistor.fm/Red Library Podcast:https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/postsFrom78 Podcasthttps://www.patreon.com/from78Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Mar 1, 2021 • 6min
PATREON TEASER: Microsects, Macrosects, and Failing Better
Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and sign up on our Discord to take part in future Patron Roundtables. We were joined by some of our choicest patrons to discuss the question of the party form. Join us as we solve the party problem. Join us on our Discord to plan out to plan out the next one, then remember to come join in the discussion. All patrons are welcome!Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Feb 25, 2021 • 1h 8min
The Enlightenment is Dead, Long Live the Enlightenment
This week we team up with our pal Jess to talk about the mixed legacy of the enlightenment and we ultimately determine that the enlightenment was good and also it was bad. Smith, C. (1996) Hegel Marx and the Enlightenment: An Interim Reporthttps://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-cyril/works/articles/interim.htmSherratt, Y. (2000) ADORNO AND HORKHEIMER’S CONCEPT OF “ENLIGHTENMENT.” British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 8(3), 521–544. Nielsen, K. (1988) Marx and the enlightenment. Critical Review, 2(4), 59–75. Hook, S. (1968) The Enlightenment and Marxism. Journal of the History of Ideas,Music: The Broadways- 15 MinutesSend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Feb 8, 2021 • 1h 53min
The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity - Part VI (with Red Library)
This week we are joined once again by Adam and Don from Red Library.We continue our multi part series tackling the monster tome by Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity.McCarraher believes that capitalism displaced religion and disenchanted the world and that Capitalism then became a religion itself, replacing the sacramental enchantment of the pre-capitalist world with a pecuniary enchantment that he calls Mammonism.McCarraher, Eugene. The enchantments of Mammon : how capitalism became the religion of modernity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. Print.MUSIC: Jesus Christ- Woody GuthrieThe Lost Horizons Networkhttps://losthorizonsnetwork.com/The Lost Horizons Network PodcastWell... Here we are still, after all.https://well.transistor.fm/Red Library Podcast:https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/postsFrom78 Podcasthttps://www.patreon.com/from78Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Feb 1, 2021 • 1h 9min
Posting Made Flesh: Scattered Thoughts on the Current and Future State of the Left (With C. Derick Varn and PH )
This is the second, but only peripherally related, part of our discussion with C. Derick Varn and PH from Radical Thoughts. In this episode we talk about the abysmal state of the left, the bankruptcy of liberalism, and how the hell we can possibly move forward. The Washington Riot Was a Defeat for the Far Right, Not a Triumphhttps://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/capitol-building-riot-business-trump?fbclid=IwAR0G-TkRfpMVUZdLE86-Qky0SWUyBxtGuv7Up_J0lYZkMHBCrtxOVWq2f_A We Should Be Very Worried About Joe Biden’s “Domestic Terrorism” Bill https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/joe-biden-domestic-terrorism-bill-capitol-building?fbclid=IwAR0tDTAFXEstET0cdDGAS4Di-p49jVbUBsaGRa-H1dADcGBjkIWPHu2JQAs The US Capitol riot risks supercharging a new age of political repressionhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/14/biden-protest-surveillance-repression?fbclid=IwAR3XSFD5SZJlzZxZKOSiN_p--xko9nLGA1T4D4WtJlkFk5D47GVobcLF588 US police three times as likely to use force against leftwing protesters, data findshttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/13/us-police-use-of-force-protests-black-lives-matter-far-right?fbclid=IwAR2XgiT5WX36LYdW6moSApGcevbhz5ddHpNmiZx8ffC38-eVLUmYzPzwAF8 / Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Jan 20, 2021 • 1h 29min
Expanding the Austerity Panopticon: The Capitol Riot as Political Theater (with C. Derick Varn, PH Higgins, and Steven)
This week we are joined by C. Derick Varn, PH from Radical Thoughts Podcast, and Steven from Supreme Leap Forward to discuss how the Capitol Riot wasn't a coup, or a terrorist attack, and admonish the "left" for supporting the expansion of the security state. The Washington Riot Was a Defeat for the Far Right, Not a Triumphhttps://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/capitol-building-riot-business-trump?fbclid=IwAR0G-TkRfpMVUZdLE86-Qky0SWUyBxtGuv7Up_J0lYZkMHBCrtxOVWq2f_A We Should Be Very Worried About Joe Biden’s “Domestic Terrorism” Bill https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/joe-biden-domestic-terrorism-bill-capitol-building?fbclid=IwAR0tDTAFXEstET0cdDGAS4Di-p49jVbUBsaGRa-H1dADcGBjkIWPHu2JQAs The US Capitol riot risks supercharging a new age of political repressionhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/14/biden-protest-surveillance-repression?fbclid=IwAR3XSFD5SZJlzZxZKOSiN_p--xko9nLGA1T4D4WtJlkFk5D47GVobcLF588 US police three times as likely to use force against leftwing protesters, data findshttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/13/us-police-use-of-force-protests-black-lives-matter-far-right?fbclid=IwAR2XgiT5WX36LYdW6moSApGcevbhz5ddHpNmiZx8ffC38-eVLUmYzPzwAF8 / Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show