The Regrettable Century

Welcome to the second episode of a new collaborative series with Varn Vlog and the Regrettable Century, where we will be talking about history, historiography, social technologies, relations of production, modes of production, and most importantly, transitions. On this episode we continue  talking about the other transition, the transition to the feudal mode of production. Chris Wickham, THE OTHER...

This is the first episode in a series on the book Psychoanalytic Politics by Sherry Turkle. We teamed up with Neil, our Lost Horizons alumnus of From 78 fame, to talk about this book he likes and thought we might too. Neil is really into psychoanalysis and we are really into politics, we figured this would be a good book to  bridge our interests and have a discussion. Check out InForm here: https:...

This week we have the whole gang together to celebrate the 100th episode of The Regrettable Century. We discuss the highlights of the previous year, how dumb we were as children, and how violent punk shows used to be. Listen as we make our political predictions for the upcoming year and actually figure out how to do Marxist virtue ethics.  Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Suppor...

From the first installment of the Regrettable Book Club's reading of Antonio Labriola's Socialism and Philosophy covering the introduction by Paul Piccone. 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. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Sup...

Welcome to a new collaborative series with  Varn Vlog and the Regrettable Century, where we will be talking about history, historiography, social technologies, relations of production, modes of production, and most importantly, transitions. We start off by talking about the other transition, the transition to the feudal mode of production. Chris Wickham, THE OTHER TRANSITION: FROM THE ANCIENT WORL...

This week Chris joins Jason on another one of his side projects, A Fine Old Conflict, which he does with our friend and comrade, Matthew. The guys talk about their shared background of punk rock/pop-culture and whether or not the new Refused album was any good.  If you enjoy this discussion, please check out A Fine Old Conflict  .   Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the s...

Join the boys as they send Red Library off to the Gray Havens with this final episode in our Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition series.  In this weeks episode we dive into Magee's explanation of Hegel's The Science of Logic as the Kabbalistic Tree, The Philosophy of Nature and the Philosophy of Subjective Spirit as alchemical formulae, and the Philosophy of Objective and Absolute Spirit as the rose...

This week we would like to introduce to you to The Measures Taken. The Measures Taken is a podcast about the intellectual history of  the key debates that occurred in Marxism and it also happens to be one of Jason's side projects. All of the contributors to the podcast come from different corners of the American left and believe that they have all been miseducated. This podcast is an attempt at se...

Christopher Lasch is a figure that draws strong reactions from people all over the political spectrum. Lasch's later work spoke of a growing chasm between liberal managerial elites and the traditional working class (endearing him to some conservatives), but his older work falls solidly within the tradition of homegrown American socialist politics. Our friend and comrade, C. Derick Varn, is current...

Christopher Lasch is a figure that draws strong reactions from people all over the political spectrum. Lasch's later work spoke of a growing chasm between liberal managerial elites and the traditional working class (endearing him to some conservatives), but his older work falls solidly within the tradition of homegrown American socialist politics. Our friend and comrade, C. Derick Varn, is current...

We teamed up with Adam from Red Library, and our comrade Mir from Sweden, in a farewell reading series on Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition by Glenn Alexander Magee. Magee forges a path tread by few in arguing that Hegel was decisively influenced by western esotericism. In this weeks episode we dive into Magee's explanation of Hegel's Mythology of Reason and the Phenomenology of the Spirit as a Her...

This week we discuss an article by Ben Davis in Salvage Journal titled The Anarchist in the Network which discusses the pitfalls of organizing in the age of the internet. The extreme atomization of our society has been exacerbated by our social media addictions and our methods of organization against capitalism have suffered as a result. While calls for protests may go viral and enormous crowds ma...

From the Regrettable Book Club's investigation of the Appendices in Monsieur Dupont's Nihilist Communism . 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. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show Visit the Regrettable Century Merch...

This week we sat down with Lost Horizons  comrade and Red Library Alumnus, Adam to talk about mental illness as a social problem, but we ended up talking about a lot more. We cover the less than stellar performance of SSRIs, Hezychasm, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, communism, exercise, and therapy. Ultimately we concluded that there is no liberation from mental illness without the abolition of capitali...

This week we continue our series on republicanism and Marxism by discussing the complicated legacy of the American Revolution. Like the bourgeois project as a whole, the historical consequences of the American Revolution have had mixed results. Simultaneously spurring on the cause of human freedom and stifling it, the American Revolution was pregnant with a creative and destructive spirit. As the...

We teamed up with Adam from Red Library in a farewell reading series on Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition by Glenn Alexander Magee. Magee forges a path tread by few in arguing that Hegel was decisively influenced by western esotericism. In this weeks episode we trace the roots of Hermetic tradition from a syncretic cult that blended Greek and Egyptian ideas of magic and spirituality, through figure...

From the inaugural episode of our recurring Regrettable Book Club. Our first selection is Monsieur Dupont's Nihilist Communism with which we both agree and also disagree. 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. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respon...

It doesn't take much to convince someone that the capitalist system has exhausted its progressive potential and is in a state of decline. There are a number of theories that the prolonged state of crisis of the capitalist system is evidence that capitalism has peaked and is on its way out. While we agree that capitalism has entered a state of decadence, does that necessarily mean that it will coll...

We sat down with our old friend, comrade, and fellow veteran of Trotskist hyperactivsm to discuss the concept of the Republic and whether or not is still useful to Marxist organizing/theorizing. The era of the bourgeois republic has been a simultaneous process of creation and destruction, of liberation and enslavement. As the final epoch of human civilization reaches its nadir, do we still have an...

This week we discuss the final chapters of the Twittering Machine by Richard Seymour in the conclusion of our three part series. Seymour's book is an extremely black-pilling look into the trolls, e-celebs, pile-ons, live streamed suicide, and corporate surveillance that make up the social media cesspool. Ultimately we conclude that the internet and its consequences have been a disaster for the hum...

It is clear that our activism has been largely fruitless for the past few decades but what should we be doing instead? 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. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury) Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show Visit the Regrettable C...

This week we discuss chapters two and three of the Twittering Machine by Richard Seymour in the second of a three part series. Seymour's book is an extremely black-pilling look into the trolls, e-celebs, pile-ons, live streamed suicide, and corporate surveillance that make up the social media cesspool. Ultimately we conclude that the internet and its consequences have been a disaster for the human...

This week we discuss the introduction and first chapter of the Twittering Machine by Richard Seymour in the first of a three part series. Seymour's book is an extremely black-pilling look into the trolls, e-celebs, pile-ons, live streamed suicide, and corporate surveillance that make up the social media cesspool. Ultimately we conclude that the internet and its consequences have been a disaster fo...

This week Chris is temporarily replaced by a special guest that long time listeners will remember from the early days of the pod, Jenny. The gang talks about the loneliness of social distancing, the long term effects of pandemic based hyper-alienation, and  what the political prospects moving forward look like. Society of the Spectacle (sections 28, 172, 221) https://www.marxists.org/reference/arc...

Half the podcast crew and a couple of the extended family get together to steal a bit joy from the future by thinking aloud as to how a small handful of our myriad problems might begin to be addressed. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in more discussions like this one. Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecen...