The Regrettable Century

We are back at it again talking decadence theory with Varn. This week, we dig into Samir Amin's piece from Monthly Review.

We discussed the following materials:

Morley, Neville. "Decadence as a Theory of History." New Literary History, Vol. 35, No. 4, Forms and/of Decadence (Autumn, 2004), pp.573-585

 Decadence: The Theory of Decline or the Decline of Theory?
https://libcom.org/library/decadence-aufheben-2

 Revolution or Decadence?
https://monthlyreview.org/2018/05/01/revolution-or-decadence/ 

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As we wrap up another year of podcasting, we offer our expert opinions on everything that sucks about the world. Stay tuned for part II. 

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The long march through the text continues as the gang tackles chapter three.

Read along here:
https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer 

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This is part two of a discussion based on a paper Chris wrote about the concept of "German Socialism" from which groups like the NSDAP, the National Bolsheviks, Conservative Revolutionaries, and Black Front draw the basis for their ideologies. 

Mosse, George Lachmann. The Crisis of German Ideology. 1964. Reprint, New York: Schocken, 1981.

 King, John. “Writing and Rewriting the First World War: Ernst Jünger and the Crisis of the Conservative Imagination, 1914-25.” St. John’s College, 1999.

 Kedar, Asaf. “National Socialism Before Nazism: Friedrich Naumann and Theodor Fritsch, 1890-1914,” PhD diss., (University of California, Berkeley, 2010).

 Krebs, Gerhard. “Moeller van Den Bruck: Inventor of the ‘Third Reich.’” American Political Science Review 35, no. 6 (December 1941), 1088-1089.

 Stachura, Peter D. Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism (RLE Nazi Germany & Holocaust). Routledge, 2014.

 Stern, Fritz. The Politics of Cultural Despair : A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology. 1961. Reprint, Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1974.

 Tourlamain, Guy. Völkisch” Writers and National Socialism : A Study of Right-Wing Political Culture in Germany, 1890-1960. Oxford Et Autres: Peter Lang, 2014.

 Waite, Robert G L. Vanguard of Nazism : The Free Corps Movement in Postwar Germany 1918-1923. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969.

 Ward, James J. “Pipe Dreams or Revolutionary Politics? The Group of Social Revolutionary Nationalists in the Weimar Republic.” Journal of Contemporary History 15, no. 3 (July 1980): 513–32.

 Woods, Roger. The Conservative Revolution in the Weimar Republic. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : New York: Macmillan Press ; St. Martin’s Press, 1996, 62.

 Ley, Robert. 1920. “The Program of the NSDAP.” The 25 Points 1920: An Early Nazi Program, February. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/25points.asp.

 Paetel, Karl O. The National Bolshevist Manifesto. 1933. Reprint, Coppell Tx: Red Flame Press, 2021.

 Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow. Translated by Eden and Ceder Paul. 1932. Reprint, London: Jonathan Cape, 1940.

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The boys dive in to Dugin's thoughts on civilization, colonialism, and imperialism.
Don't worry, there are literally no digressions and the guys stay on point the whole time.

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https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts

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First of all, if you are listening to a version with bad audio, don't worry,  I reuploaded a version with good audio and you can probably just refresh your podcasting app to get the newer version. 

This is a discussion based on a paper Chris wrote about the concept of "German Socialism" from which groups like the NSDAP, the National Bolsheviks, Conservative Revolutionaries, and Black Front draw the basis for their ideologies. 

Mosse, George Lachmann. The Crisis of German Ideology. 1964. Reprint, New York: Schocken, 1981.

 King, John. “Writing and Rewriting the First World War: Ernst Jünger and the Crisis of the Conservative Imagination, 1914-25.” St. John’s College, 1999.

 Kedar, Asaf. “National Socialism Before Nazism: Friedrich Naumann and Theodor Fritsch, 1890-1914,” PhD diss., (University of California, Berkeley, 2010).

 Krebs, Gerhard. “Moeller van Den Bruck: Inventor of the ‘Third Reich.’” American Political Science Review 35, no. 6 (December 1941), 1088-1089.

 Stachura, Peter D. Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism (RLE Nazi Germany & Holocaust). Routledge, 2014.

 Stern, Fritz. The Politics of Cultural Despair : A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology. 1961. Reprint, Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1974.

 Tourlamain, Guy. Völkisch” Writers and National Socialism : A Study of Right-Wing Political Culture in Germany, 1890-1960. Oxford Et Autres: Peter Lang, 2014.

 Waite, Robert G L. Vanguard of Nazism : The Free Corps Movement in Postwar Germany 1918-1923. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969.

 Ward, James J. “Pipe Dreams or Revolutionary Politics? The Group of Social Revolutionary Nationalists in the Weimar Republic.” Journal of Contemporary History 15, no. 3 (July 1980): 513–32.

 Woods, Roger. The Conservative Revolution in the Weimar Republic. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : New York: Macmillan Press ; St. Martin’s Press, 1996, 62.

 Ley, Robert. 1920. “The Program of the NSDAP.” The 25 Points 1920: An Early Nazi Program, February. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/25points.asp.

 Paetel, Karl O. The National Bolshevist Manifesto. 1933. Reprint, Coppell Tx: Red Flame Press, 2021.

 Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow. Translated by Eden and Ceder Paul. 1932. Reprint, London: Jonathan Cape, 1940.

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In what turns out to be an offshoot of our Czechoslovak socialism series, we dive in to the ill fated and short lived Hungarian Soviet Republic. This also turns out to be incredibly relevant to anyone who is following along with our series on Otto Bauer and the national question.

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This week it's just the Regrettable brothers and we are talking about "leftism" and whether the category of "left" still holds any meaning. 

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Wherein we cover the entirety of Chapter 2, dealing with the concept of the nation state.

A link to the PDF:
https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer

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Continuing what has become a series on Czechoslovak Socialism, we dive into the attempt to reform the Czechoslovak system. The official ML narrative and the liberal narrative about the Prague Spring are the same, they say that it was an attempt to re-establish bourgeois democracy. However, it seems clear that the intentions of its participants were the opposite. They appear to have been a genuine attempt to revitalize and push forward the communist project. 

The Action Programme of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia

https://www.marxists.org/subject/czech/1968/action-programme.htm

Stoneman, Anna J. “Socialism With a Human Face: The Leadership and Legacy of the Prague Spring.” The History Teacher49, no. 1 (2015): 103–25. 

Prague Spring Archive at MIA (worth browsing for historical first impressions)

https://www.marxists.org/subject/czech/index.htm

The Prague Spring of 1968: a glimpse of socialism?

http://isj.org.uk/the-prague-spring/

Liehm, A. J. (1978). The Prague Spring and Eurocommunism. International Journal, 33(4), 804. doi:10.2307/40201691

Skilling, H. Gordon. "The Prague Spring Reassessed." Slavic Review 38, no. 4 (1979): 663-66. doi:10.2307/2496570.

Reform and Counter-reform in Bureaucratic Power

https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/reform.html

Music: Karel Kryl - Veličenstvo kat

(English Translation)

In a gloomy light of a gothic hall

the scared profiteers are gazing into their missals

and a horde of slayers is asking for blessing

After all the first of the knights is his majesty executioner

Aaah look the first of the knights is his Majesty Executioner

Priest – the devil who served the mass

is wearing a stole made from a hangmans slope

Having a bottle of vitriol under the purple rochet

The smell of sulfur coming from the mortars

is crawling under the red hood of the first from all the knights

his Majesty Executioner

Aaah to the first of knights look it is his Majesty Executioner

On the national flag there is

an emblem with guillotine

And the barbed wire

smells by something decayed

In our region is a flock of raven nesting

the master hangman reigns these people

The king is kneeing infront of Satan

eagers to have the sceptre

And the rabble is hanging the wise council

at the plane tree

And the heretic crowd is exhilarated and rejoices

After all the first of knights is his Majesty Executioner

Aaah the first of knights is his Majesty Executioner

At a streetcorner a murderer is holding a lecture about moral

Infront of the prison's door the guardians are walking

From the military armour plate the black sign proclaims

that the first of the knights is his Majesty Executioner

Aaah that the first of the knights is his Majesty Executioner

Over the government palace

rises the flag with guillotine

The children love the ice cream cornets

The judges were upset about them

so they killed their ice cream man

A horrible state it was,

as you had to watch

the writing beeing forbidden

and the singing beeing forbidden

And they didn't have enough

they commanded the kids

to pra

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