The Regrettable Century

Steven from The Supreme Leap Forward is back to talk about the KKKriminal INjustice CIStem of the United $nakes of AmeriKKKa. We discuss the courts, restorative justice, twitter pileons/call out culture, and a little about Soviet jurisprudence. Steven's essay mentioned in the episode:Understanding Crime Under Capitalism: A Critique of American Criminal Justice and Introduction to Marxist Jurisprudence- Steven Gilmore The Works of Evegny Pshukanis:https://www.marxists.org/archive/pashukanis/index.htmThe other episode we did with Stevenhttp://regrettablecentury.buzzsprout.com/220523/989392-lawyerization-and-its-discontents-a-discussion-on-marxist-jurisprudence-with-steven-from-supreme-leap-forward-part-iKevin and Steven's Marxist Law Podcast featuring Chris Supreme Leap Forward Episode 12 - Game Of Owns and Feudal Law Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the showVisit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

The slow cancellation of the future has been accompanied by a deflation of expectations, both in the realm of cultural  and -- apparently -- technological production. Culture has crawled to a halt, its progress replaced by advances in methods of distribution. Technology is bogged down in a cycle of adding additional cameras to the iphone. Has capitalism outlived its progressive potential? (The TLDR is yes)Mark Fisher: The Slow Cancellation Of The Futurehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCgkLICTskQ&t=304s David Graeber: Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profithttps://thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit We are not living in a technological golden age. https://youtu.be/tvG3dT79TeYMusic: Маяк - Выше ЗвездSend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the showVisit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

Check out some Real Nerd Hours when Chris and Jason have a discussion about a not very well known article from an obscure Trotskyist journal written around a decade ago...It generated a little bit of a buzz, but was mostly ignored. We think that was a mistake and we are going to tell you all about why you should care about the decisions of the 10th party congress.https://www.patreon.com/posts/red-jacobins-and-29448338?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=postshareSend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the showVisit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

"Perhaps the feeling most characteristic of our current moment is a mixture of boredom and compulsion. Even though we recognise that they are boring, we nevertheless feel compelled to do yet another Facebook quiz, to read yet another Buzzfeed list, to click on some celebrity gossip about someone we don’t even remotely care about. We endlessly move among the boring, but our nervous systems are so overstimulated that we never have the luxury of feeling bored. No one is bored, everything is boring."For this episode we read a couple of articles by Mark Fisher and the Institute for Precarious Consciousness discussing some of the mechanisms that capitalism exploits to dampen our abilities to organize against it. While the production of this episode really is us just feeding more content into a machine that devours our time and creativity, we are kinda hoping this is an example of the capitalists selling us some rope. Mark Fisher: No one is bored, Everything is boringhttps://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/no-one-is-bored-everything-is-boring/Institute for Precarious Consciousness: We Are All Very Anxioushttp://intercommunalworkshop.org/we-are-all-anxious/  Jodi Dean: Communicative Capitalism and Class Strugglehttp://spheres-journal.org/communicative-capitalism-and-class-struggle/ Music: Savages- Shut UpSend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the showVisit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

This week we dive in to the second part of our two part collaboration with Adam from Red Library, who hosts s a great podcast that analyzes and discusses important works of Marxist theory and history. We are big fans, go check them out. This week we continued our discussion on Dialectic of Defeat: Contours of Western Marxism by Russell Jacoby, so if you haven't listened to the first part, do that now. In Dialectic of Defeat, Jacoby examines the losers of the Marxist tradition and argues that there is something to be learned from them, even in their defeat. He exhorts us to read the heretics, doubt the orthodoxies, and truly understand all of the rich and varied currents of Marxism, even if they ultimately failed to create a successful revolution. After all, all of our gods failed us in the end.Either that, or we failed them. Jacoby, Russell. Dialectic of defeat : contours of western Marxism. Cambridge, U.K. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print.Music:Current 93/Nurse With Wound- Ballad of the Pale Girl Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the showVisit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

Red Library is a great podcast that analyzes and discusses important works of Marxist (and other leftist) literature, and we are big fans. So, we are happy to announce that this week we teamed up with them to read and talk about Dialectic of Defeat: Contours of Western Marxism by Russell Jacoby. The discussion ran long, so it has been broken into two parts. This is part one.In Dialectic of Defeat, Jacoby examines the losers of the Marxist tradition and argues that there is something to be learned from them, even in their defeat. He exhorts us to read the heretics, doubt the orthodoxies, and truly understand all of the rich and varied currents of Marxism, even if they ultimately failed to create a successful revolution. After all, all of our gods failed us in the end.Either that, or we failed them. Jacoby, Russell. Dialectic of defeat : contours of western Marxism. Cambridge, U.K. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print.Music:Modern Life Is War- Farmer's Holiday Association Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the showVisit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

We decided that a good companion to our episode about Melancholia and Organized Pessimism would be a rare recording with all of us (except Kevin) in the same room, talking about a pretty cool movie that we saw over a decade ago.Sign up on our, very reasonably priced, Patreon to access our-- small but ever growing number of-- bonus episodes. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecenturySend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the showVisit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

When we were kids: history ended, the Christian right launched an all out assault on the gains of the 1960s/70s, the liberals launched an all out assault on the gains of the New Deal/labor movement, and the left launched an all out assault on each others shopping choices. It sucked. The world was recreated in the dumbest and worst possible ways and we are going to let you listen to us talk about how it warped all of our brains. Coming of Age at the End of Historyhttps://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/26/coming-of-age-at-the-end-of-history-2/ Neoliberalism Is A Political Projecthttps://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/david-harvey-neoliberalism-capitalism-labor-crisis-resistance/ From Revolution to Evolution: The Changing Nature of the Christian Right (1994)http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.857.5145&rep=rep1&type=pdf What Pat Robertson Teaches Ushttps://jacobinmag.com/2018/03/pat-robertson-cbn-evangelical-christian-sandersThe Reagan Counterrevolution Crushes The American Dreamhttps://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/9/8/1328063/-The-Reagan-Counter-Revolution-Crushes-the-American-DreamHow The Christian Right Ended Up Transforming American Politicshttps://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/brief-history-of-the-christian-rightThe Sexual Counterrevolutionhttps://prospect.org/article/sexual-counterrevolutionMusic: Propagandhi- "Stick The Fucking Flag Up Your Goddam Ass, You Sonofabitch"Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the showVisit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

We received a really thoughtful and challenging question/comment from one of our Patrons and we decided to give it the attention it deserves, in the form of a full episode. We discuss "pessimism of the intellect/optimism of the will," mourning, melancholy, the church-like euphoria of the mass meeting, and how much it is necessary to bum people out. If you have a question or concern you'd like us to address, send it to our email address regrettablecentury@gmail.com or message us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Patreon.  Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the showVisit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

We read a bunch of stuff about Walter Benjamin and Enzo Traverso and tried to have a conversation about it. We've only managed to reinforce the idea that "The organization of pessimism" is the only slogan that can save us from death. Traverso, Enzo. Left-wing melancholia : Marxism, history, and memory. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016. Print.Against Revolutionary Pessimism and Optimism: Revolutionary Realism by J. Moufawad Paul http://moufawad-paul.blogspot.com/2016/10/against-revolutionary-pessimism-and.htmlAn Invisible Underground River: On Left-Wing Melancholia- Michael Lowyhttps://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3289-an-invisible-underground-river-on-left-wing-melancholiaHow to kill a zombie: strategizing the end of neoliberalism- Mark Fisher https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/how-to-kill-zombie-strategizing-end-of-neoliberalism/ Walter Benjamin’s Gothic Marxism and The Organization of Pessimism: Michael Lowy https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/walter-benjamin-and-surrealismVictor Serge: Indispensable Critic of Leftist Illusion- Mitchel Abidor https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/02/28/victor-serge-indispensable-critic-of-leftist-illusion/ Four Reasons the European Left Lost- Wolfgang Streeck https://jacobinmag.com/2019/05/european-parliament-elections-results-left?fbclid=IwAR0IIEH5W8SrlH9EfJ31XDLDFjvTZ2lp-ucok0GtxtpDsWzsrSMHQ_oB9DMThe Organization of Pessimism: Profane Illumination & Anthropological Materialism in Walter Benjaminhttps://www.academia.edu/33848834/The_Organization_of_Pessimism_Profane_Illumination_and_Anthropological_Materialism_in_Walter_BenjaminSend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the showVisit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop