

The Regrettable Century
Chris, Jason, Kevin, 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.
Check us out on Patreon for regular Patron Book Clubs, Regrettable Geopolitics updates, Real Nerd Hours, and more...
Visit The Regrettable Century Merch Shop
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...
Visit The Regrettable Century Merch Shop
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 4, 2020 • 1h 20min
The Angel of History: Walter Benjamin, Myth, Rationality, and Modernity-- With Patrick from the Radical Thoughts Podcast
This week we sat down with Patrick of the Radical Thoughts Podcast to talk about Walter Benjamin and his ideas of myth and rationality, capitalism as religion, and a number of other disconnected things that were just fun to talk about.
Please check out Radical Thoughts as they read through the entire Zero Books Radical Thinkers series and subscribe to their patreon for bonus episodes.
https://www.patreon.com/radicalthoughts/posts
Capitalism and Religion-
https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/2018/06/08/capitalism-as-religion-benjamin-1921/
Benjamin, Walter, et al. Selected writings. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, 1996.
Benjamin, Walter, and Rolf Tiedemann. The arcades project. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, 1999. Print.
The Lost Horizons Network
https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/
The Lost Horizons Network Podcast:
https://share.transistor.fm/s/c3bf81dd
Red Library Podcast:
https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts
From78 Podcast
https://www.patreon.com/from78
Support the show (http://patreon.com/theregrettablecentury)
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Apr 27, 2020 • 1h 8min
Lost Horizons Network Roundtable: Well... Here we are, still, after all (EPISODE I)
This week we have something special for you guys, our very first Lost Horizons Network collective podcast release, Here We Are Together, Still...After All.
Join Chris and Jason from The Regrettable Century, Adam from Red Library, and Neil from the From78 Podcast as we talk about what it means to be dialectically pessimistic.
The Lost Horizons Network Podcast:
https://share.transistor.fm/s/c3bf81dd
Red Library Podcast:
https://www.patreon.com/redlibrary/posts
From78 Podcast
https://www.patreon.com/from78
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Apr 24, 2020 • 1h 34min
BONUS- A Rising Every Generation: James Connolly, the Easter Rising, and Irish Republican Socialism
On Easter Monday, April 24 1916, 1,200 members of the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army mustered in Dublin and declared the formation of the Irish Republic. Marxist and Irish Republican, James Conolly, led the Irish Citizen's Army in hopes that the Easter Rising would touch off a revolution in Ireland that would lead to the establishment of a Workers' Republic, the death of the British Empire, and the beginning of a socialist world revolution.
Over a century later, Ireland is still ruled in the north by what remains of the British Empire, The Republic of Ireland is a Bankers' Republic, and hopes for the world revolution are a nostalgic memory... for now.
Manifesto of the Irish Socialist Republican Party (Connolly):
https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1896/xx/isrp.htm
Connolly and the Paris Commune
https://jacobinmag.com/2016/04/james-connolly-paris-commune-easter-rising-tactics?fbclid=IwAR2NFon_XDCsFniTFdsVD1qM_u3m23fbJ88qKzokacYaSqghGlaPIAevu40
Socialism Made Easy (Connolly) -- the only long-ish one:
https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2017-07-26/james-connollys-socialism-made-easy-1909-11-political-action-labor
Easter Rising Proclamation (original text):
https://www.onthisday.com/photos/easter-proclamation-of-1916
Socialism and Nationalism (Connolly):|
https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1897/01/socnat.htm
https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1897/xx/scirenat.htm
Socialism and Religion (Connolly):
https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1901/evangel/socrel.htm
Socialism in Ireland (Connolly):
https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1908/03/socinire.htm
Direct Action in Belfast (Connolly):
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Apr 22, 2020 • 3min
PATREON TEASER: Four Theses on the Comrade
This week, Jenny, Chris, and Jason read and discussed Jodi Dean's essay: The Four Theses on the Comrade.
A comrade is much more than an identity that one adopts. It is an ethos, an ideal for the collective reorganization of the world. We talk about how this is a concept that the left has abandoned and needs to find again.
Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the full episode.
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Apr 13, 2020 • 1h 32min
The Church of the Better Apocalypse
The old world is dying and a new one is being created before our eyes. Thus far, the left has had little if any input into this process. If we don't insert ourselves into the conversation with great haste, a much worse version of our current hellscape will be the outcome. What kind of project will be necessary to salvage the useful pieces of detritus needed to build a better world? To that end, we sat down with our good friend Michael to talk about how to build a better post-apocalyptic world.
The Mask of the Red Death: Dispatch One from a Changing World- Salvage Editorial Board
https://salvage.zone/articles/the-mask-of-the-red-death-dispatch-one-from-a-changing-world/
The Tragedy of the Worker: Towards the Proletarocene- Salvage Editorial Board
https://salvage.zone/editorials/the-tragedy-of-the-worker-towards-the-proletarocene/
Under coronavirus, pro market ideologies are overturned around the world, But its too little, too late. - Jeff Sparrow
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/26/under-coronavirus-pro-market-ideologies-are-overturned-around-the-world-but-its-too-little-too-late?fbclid=IwAR0i6X8SfuLdlHyc119RYYlEqMUsT8XCBnK9ZsnFWJkjIagNCqC4D3YrYWM
The world after coronavirus- Yuval Noah Harari
https://www.ft.com/content/19d90308-6858-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcca75?fbclid=IwAR2f2bCCh3iBuc61PT_Nt4zLbthYaPQuodJsg0ee6Qwoocln65faxeK0cpY
A Greater Depression? Nouriel Roubini
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/coronavirus-greater-great-depression-by-nouriel-roubini-2020-03?fbclid=IwAR2f6pVYUmXeacbcOx3TTobG_0vZodG0MVoJ2VrxVqtZPBcshLSQdapm3Vw
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Apr 6, 2020 • 1h 1min
Marxism Against the Tide of Modernity: Uniting the Promethean and Romantic (PART II) With Donald Parkinson
(PART II)
The birth pangs of the bourgeois epoch included a multi faceted opposition in the form of romanticism. This reaction lauded humanity's lost connection to the natural world, to spirituality, and to a forgotten sense of communal life. While it is easy to point out the romantic strain in rightist political ideologies, we often overlook the one that has existed in Marxism since the beginning.
Löwy, Michael, and Robert Sayre. Romanticism against the tide of modernity. Durham: Duke University Press, 2001.
The Word, the Devil, and the Flesh- JD Bernal
https://www.marxists.org/archive/bernal/works/1920s/soul/
Music: Alyans- Na Zare
Cosmonaut Magazine
https://cosmonaut.blog/
Cosmopod Podcast
https://cosmopod.libsyn.com/
Radical Thoughts Podcast
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/patricks-podcast
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Apr 3, 2020 • 6min
PATREON TEASER: Scattered Thoughts on Electoralism, Coronavirus, and What to Do Next With CPUSA Brad
Jenny, Chris, and Jason sat down with our friend, rank and file union organizer, and CPUSA member Brad to talk about electoralism and what the hell to do next.
Please head over to our Patreon and subscribe for the insanely low fee of $2 a month to hear the rest.
https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury
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Mar 30, 2020 • 1h 4min
Marxism Against the Tide of Modernity: Uniting the Promethean and Romantic (with Donald from Cosmonaut)
The birth pangs of the bourgeois epoch included a multi faceted opposition in the form of romanticism. This reaction lauded humanity's lost connection to the natural world, to spirituality, and to a forgotten sense of communal life. While it is easy to point out the romantic strain in rightist political ideologies, we often overlook the one that has existed in Marxism since the beginning.
Löwy, Michael, and Robert Sayre. Romanticism against the tide of modernity. Durham: Duke University Press, 2001.
The Word, the Devil, and the Flesh- JD Bernal
https://www.marxists.org/archive/bernal/works/1920s/soul/
Music: ROME- The Accidents of Gesture
Cosmonaut Magazine
https://cosmonaut.blog/
Cosmopod Podcast
https://cosmopod.libsyn.com/
Radical Thoughts Podcast
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/patricks-podcast
Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here).
Support the show
Visit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

Mar 16, 2020 • 1h 25min
Pashukanis and the Origins of Soviet Legal Theory (with Steven from Supreme Leap Forward)
Our good friend and regular contributor to the show, Steven, brings his legal expertise and knowledge of early soviet law history to this weeks episode. We discuss the Evgeny Pashukanis, Pytor Stuchka, and their contributions to legal theory in the days just after the revolution. There was a debate among legal theorists of the time about whether it is possible to construct a socialist legal system and how the law should be used in a socialist society. Ultimately, Pashukanis would wind up on the losing side of the Socialism in One Country debate and would die for it.
Intro to Pashukanis
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v4hto1qm5seti8o/Beirne%20%2B%20Sharlet_%20Introduction%20to%20Pashukanis%20%281979%29.pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR1AhfJGWw_YlZTFc6upxEp1g0eckeoXIISoJcatXx0RLub3rHholnE-LNk
The Passionate Legal Debates of the Early Years of...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/58i5wg5uohkz43z/The%20Passionate%20Legal%20Debates%20of%20the%20Early%20Years%20of%20the%20Russian%20Revolution.pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR05HcbLIu75Un3jH5t1KL8fJJCgMTKSd_Q2Ig5BpxkPmTJOvpAend6OpN8
The trajectory of Yevgeniy Pashukanis and the struggle for power in Soviet law
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j6lbz606491nn60/The_trajectory_of_Yevgeniy_Pashukanis_an.docx.pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR1XD0XBMopt0ifkxOUV_iBVVN_1XLrq6TJk1BYyeiz7qcOW2kw3Ra7uaTE
Principles of Soviet Criminal Law
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pxedstwf8pum00f/Principles%20of%20Soviet%20Criminal%20Law%2C%20Berman%2C%20Harold%20J%2056YaleLJ803.pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR1QWhZuohuU2cmfsLJzfArICrrZgeirgnVqEwdO7iFSgcZ_nDQeTHZeBkk
Looking Back And Forward At The Turn of the Century
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ldjvuuchv4krvha/15AustlJLSocy101.pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR0vVUJaaPTGVRdwPXFLTNavu8UgH0XrG1QV7_vxg60Pq2WfJunQ6K_9HTE
Dont forget to check out our podcast network comrades:
From 78
https://twitter.com/From78podcast
Red Library
https://twitter.com/RedLibraryPod
And coming soon, our network website...
https://losthorizonsnetwork.com/
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Mar 2, 2020 • 52min
We Would Prefer Not To: Against a Politics of Catharsis- UNLOCKED
We had an episode planned where we were going to talk about the Bolsheviks and Early Soviet Law, but our main law dude (Steven from Supreme Leap Forward) got deathly ill and bailed on us. So, we are unlocked one of our Patreon episodes. Please forgive us, but trust that we have some good stuff coming up.
Sometimes doing something (anything!) is much worse than doing nothing; we really need to figure out when that is. We read and thought and talked about an article that admonishes us to think and talk and read before acting. We have to stand against a politics of catharsis, a politics that does nothing but makes us feel like we are making a difference.
But... then what do we do?
I Would Prefer Not To: Žižek’s Bartleby Politics
https://medium.com/@mdowns1611/i-would-prefer-not-to-%C5%BEi%C5%BEeks-bartleby-politics-12bd8d9de66a
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