<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:googleplay="http://www.google.com/schemas/play-podcasts/1.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[The Reaction: Posts]]></title><description><![CDATA[Opinion, essays, posts, etc.]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/s/posts</link><image><url>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2OWS!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcc065b5d-ed3f-4795-8b47-11a932f84f57_1080x1080.png</url><title>The Reaction: Posts</title><link>https://www.thereaction.org/s/posts</link></image><generator>Substack</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:55:24 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.thereaction.org/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><copyright><![CDATA[Johannes Mathijs Koenraadt]]></copyright><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><webMaster><![CDATA[thereaction@substack.com]]></webMaster><itunes:owner><itunes:email><![CDATA[thereaction@substack.com]]></itunes:email><itunes:name><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></itunes:name></itunes:owner><itunes:author><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></itunes:author><googleplay:owner><![CDATA[thereaction@substack.com]]></googleplay:owner><googleplay:email><![CDATA[thereaction@substack.com]]></googleplay:email><googleplay:author><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></googleplay:author><itunes:block><![CDATA[Yes]]></itunes:block><item><title><![CDATA[Guerrilla Drones, the Emerging Field]]></title><description><![CDATA[The idea that state actors have made guerrilla warriors obsolete because of drones is false.]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/guerrilla-drones-the-emerging-field</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/guerrilla-drones-the-emerging-field</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 22 Mar 2026 19:29:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SEW0!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bc716a3-55f9-4d9e-a156-df1732225914_768x512.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SEW0!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bc716a3-55f9-4d9e-a156-df1732225914_768x512.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SEW0!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bc716a3-55f9-4d9e-a156-df1732225914_768x512.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SEW0!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bc716a3-55f9-4d9e-a156-df1732225914_768x512.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SEW0!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bc716a3-55f9-4d9e-a156-df1732225914_768x512.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SEW0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bc716a3-55f9-4d9e-a156-df1732225914_768x512.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SEW0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bc716a3-55f9-4d9e-a156-df1732225914_768x512.jpeg" width="768" height="512" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6bc716a3-55f9-4d9e-a156-df1732225914_768x512.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:512,&quot;width&quot;:768,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Militarized Civilian Drones in Ukraine... | Hot Takes | RAS/NSA&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Militarized Civilian Drones in Ukraine... | Hot Takes | RAS/NSA" title="Militarized Civilian Drones in Ukraine... | Hot Takes | RAS/NSA" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SEW0!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bc716a3-55f9-4d9e-a156-df1732225914_768x512.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SEW0!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bc716a3-55f9-4d9e-a156-df1732225914_768x512.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SEW0!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bc716a3-55f9-4d9e-a156-df1732225914_768x512.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SEW0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bc716a3-55f9-4d9e-a156-df1732225914_768x512.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>The idea that state actors have made guerrilla warriors obsolete because of drones is false. Rather, guerrilla warfare will co-opt drone warfare to create new opportunities. And it&#8217;s not about having access to the latest tech. It&#8217;s about mimicry, deception, and winning psychological battles.</strong></p><p>How would it work, hypothetically, for a non-state actor (such as the infamous IRA) to take on a state military&#8217;s drone army? Though the presence of state drones in urban settings greatly diminishes guerrilla operations, it isn&#8217;t necessary to head-on confront the state&#8217;s drone operators. Rather, guerrillas can use the idea of drone warfare against the state.</p><p>Strategically, guerrilla actors best stay out of surveillance drones&#8217; reach and simply remain unseen. Facial detection systems may be implemented by the state, so that once-exposed guerrillas can be targeted in a crowd. To avoid this, guerrillas will learn never to expose themselves as guerrillas in urban/civilian settings.<br><br>In recent years, former guerrilla snipers have become drone operators themselves, using commercially available "Temu" drones fitted with lethal explosives. Cheap drones have leveled the playing field. Yemen&#8217;s Houthi rebels (likely working under Iranian or Chinese command) have successfully used their much cheaper equipment against very expensive US-Israeli rockets.</p><p>Guerrilla drones, then, may be used in several ways:</p><ul><li><p>Cheap solution to the enemy&#8217;s expensive defenses.</p></li><li><p>Precisely to keep guerrillas away from surveillance, by using drones to pester the state enemy.</p></li><li><p>By repaying drone surveillance with guerrilla drone surveillance in order to scope out what the state actors are doing.</p></li><li><p>By disguising deadly drones as commercial toy-drones, such as the ones commonly operated by kids, causing confusion in certain situations.</p></li><li><p>By producing large numbers of &#8216;fake&#8217; (flimsy, non-lethal) drones that look the part. Only including a small number of &#8216;deadlies&#8217; among them, so that state actors are again confused. </p></li><li><p>Imagine a drone swarm of 100 flimsy fakes, but there is 1 deadly, thus causing psychological problems for state actors dealing with the fakes (depleting their defenses while missing the deadly one).</p></li><li><p>By making guerrilla drones look and sound just like the state&#8217;s drones, thus terrorizing the local population and blaming the state for these rogue drones.</p></li><li><p>Using very small surveillance drones to find state drone operators, and attack operators using conventional (cheap) ambush or sniper methods.</p></li><li><p>Using drones that only produce disorienting sounds effects, such as grenade explosions or gunfire to rattle state actors. </p></li><li><p>Booby-trapped drones that look like state drones. When moved, they go off.</p></li></ul><p>This is not an exhaustive list of ideas, but it is clear that urban guerrilla warriors can use drones for effective and affordable psychological warfare against a state actor in the region. If done well, the origin of the guerrilla drones should be kept unknown/secret, so that drone operators cannot be traced (no face ID).</p><p>Guerrilla drone warfare can work well in any settings, since the aims are the same as former sniper warfare: to cause psychological fear &amp; debilitate the enemy's organization, for example by keeping the enemy indoors. Since drones can be operated relatively autonomously or even perfectly anonymously, guerrillas can blame the state for drone attacks, or at least convince the public thereof using media propaganda.<br><br>Keeping costs low may be the bottleneck for non-state actors. However, since the goal is to instill fear, you can imagine a cheap drone carrying the 3D-printed frame of an expensive professional drone. A fly pretending to be a hawk. Think of a fake flimsy drone that only looks and sounds dangerous. Just once in a while, you slip in a real dangerous drone to cause psychological damage. So out of 100 cheap fakes, only 1 is real and deadly.<br><br>On occasion, you could direct a cheap swarm of 100s of fakes, but only a handful are deadlies, used for targeting high-profile targets. This would destroy the state actors' morale.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Dark Ages Weren't Dark; The Dark Ages Never Happened]]></title><description><![CDATA[Catholic primary school taught me about the Dark Ages, but little did I know that our Dutch Calvinist curriculum was peddling anti-Catholic propaganda.]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/the-dark-ages-werent-dark-the-dark</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/the-dark-ages-werent-dark-the-dark</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:11:38 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jCOI!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F36ce6227-e9f3-451e-a6e6-3cff07e95703_1086x833.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jCOI!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F36ce6227-e9f3-451e-a6e6-3cff07e95703_1086x833.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jCOI!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F36ce6227-e9f3-451e-a6e6-3cff07e95703_1086x833.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jCOI!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F36ce6227-e9f3-451e-a6e6-3cff07e95703_1086x833.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jCOI!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F36ce6227-e9f3-451e-a6e6-3cff07e95703_1086x833.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jCOI!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F36ce6227-e9f3-451e-a6e6-3cff07e95703_1086x833.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jCOI!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F36ce6227-e9f3-451e-a6e6-3cff07e95703_1086x833.jpeg" width="1086" height="833" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/36ce6227-e9f3-451e-a6e6-3cff07e95703_1086x833.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:833,&quot;width&quot;:1086,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jCOI!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F36ce6227-e9f3-451e-a6e6-3cff07e95703_1086x833.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jCOI!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F36ce6227-e9f3-451e-a6e6-3cff07e95703_1086x833.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jCOI!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F36ce6227-e9f3-451e-a6e6-3cff07e95703_1086x833.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jCOI!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F36ce6227-e9f3-451e-a6e6-3cff07e95703_1086x833.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Painting by Jan van Eyck </figcaption></figure></div><p><strong>Catholic primary school taught me about the Dark Ages, but little did I know that our Dutch Calvinist curriculum was peddling anti-Catholic propaganda. Did Europe really fall under the &#8220;night of superstition&#8221; during the 5th through 15th centuries AD until the Protestant Reformation came and paved the way for the Enlightenment?</strong></p><p>Not every country teaches kids about any Dark Ages. Italians call it <em>La Decadenza</em>, and it refers to the decadence of the late-stage Roman Empire before the fall. But the image of Europeans groveling like animals in a hellish darkness cast upon the earth by a Satanic papacy&#8212;well, that&#8217;s Protestant propaganda. It never happened.</p><p>According to the Google Ngram Viewer, occurrences of the phrase &#8220;Dark Ages&#8221; didn&#8217;t become popular until around the mid-18th century, and its popularity dropped starkly after the 1830s. From 1740&#8211;1780 AD, the British evangelical Methodists established themselves and began exporting their new brand of Christian faith to the USA as well. Indeed, it was this evangelical movement that first popularized the idea of the European &#8220;Dark Ages.&#8221;</p><p>The evangelicals juxtaposed these Dark Ages with the &#8220;light&#8221; of the Reformation. They spoke frequently of &#8220;popish darkness.&#8221; This makes perfect sense geopolitically, for the Anglo colonization of the Americas gave Protestants (the Atlantic nations of Britain and the USA) the power to push back against the Catholic Holy Roman Empire.</p><p>Talk of the Dark Ages dissipated after the 1830s&#8212;because that&#8217;s when the last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, died, after having abdicated in 1806. With the emperor gone and without a continuation, Catholic power diminished, and Europe was blinded by the Reformation&#8217;s light.</p><p>In a livestream episode (The Great Johannes stream #64), I explored at length the unintended consequences of the Reformation. According to author Brad S. Gregory in <em>The Unintended Reformation</em>, religious fragmentation turned our societies into the woke dystopia. Individualism, consumerism, moral and cultural relativism, the excesses of capitalism, pluralism, diversity and tolerance, and scientific atheism all emerged as consequences of the Protestant Reformation.</p><div class="embedded-post-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;id&quot;:159090877,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.jmk.info/p/the-unintended-reformation-stream&quot;,&quot;publication_id&quot;:1083090,&quot;publication_name&quot;:&quot;Johannes MK's Newsletter&quot;,&quot;publication_logo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jPTj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2e72b96a-9a00-43a5-8b49-93efd9af6e89_1280x1280.png&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;The Unintended Reformation [stream #64] &quot;,&quot;truncated_body_text&quot;:&quot;Watch on YouTube &#187;&quot;,&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-03-14T22:01:07.872Z&quot;,&quot;like_count&quot;:1,&quot;comment_count&quot;:0,&quot;bylines&quot;:[{&quot;id&quot;:56364939,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Johannes M. Koenraadt&quot;,&quot;handle&quot;:&quot;jmkinfo&quot;,&quot;previous_name&quot;:&quot;Johannes MK&quot;,&quot;photo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/20176b28-70c7-4704-918a-fa878cf8f3e1_1674x2232.jpeg&quot;,&quot;bio&quot;:&quot;Metaphysician, geopolitical commentator, and author of The Revival of the West. I was persecuted by the Dutch government.&quot;,&quot;profile_set_up_at&quot;:&quot;2022-09-11T09:54:34.203Z&quot;,&quot;reader_installed_at&quot;:&quot;2022-10-04T17:15:42.001Z&quot;,&quot;publicationUsers&quot;:[{&quot;id&quot;:1032356,&quot;user_id&quot;:56364939,&quot;publication_id&quot;:1083090,&quot;role&quot;:&quot;admin&quot;,&quot;public&quot;:true,&quot;is_primary&quot;:true,&quot;publication&quot;:{&quot;id&quot;:1083090,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Johannes MK's Newsletter&quot;,&quot;subdomain&quot;:&quot;jmkinfo&quot;,&quot;custom_domain&quot;:&quot;www.jmk.info&quot;,&quot;custom_domain_optional&quot;:false,&quot;hero_text&quot;:&quot;Johannes MK is a political commentator, public intellectual, and author of The Revival of the West. I was persecuted by the government of The Netherlands. &quot;,&quot;logo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/2e72b96a-9a00-43a5-8b49-93efd9af6e89_1280x1280.png&quot;,&quot;author_id&quot;:56364939,&quot;primary_user_id&quot;:56364939,&quot;theme_var_background_pop&quot;:&quot;#99A2F1&quot;,&quot;created_at&quot;:&quot;2022-09-11T09:56:49.375Z&quot;,&quot;email_from_name&quot;:&quot;JMK&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;Johannes Mathijs Koenraadt&quot;,&quot;founding_plan_name&quot;:&quot;Founding Member&quot;,&quot;community_enabled&quot;:true,&quot;invite_only&quot;:false,&quot;payments_state&quot;:&quot;enabled&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:null,&quot;explicit&quot;:false,&quot;homepage_type&quot;:&quot;newspaper&quot;,&quot;is_personal_mode&quot;:false}},{&quot;id&quot;:5706406,&quot;user_id&quot;:56364939,&quot;publication_id&quot;:5594289,&quot;role&quot;:&quot;admin&quot;,&quot;public&quot;:true,&quot;is_primary&quot;:false,&quot;publication&quot;:{&quot;id&quot;:5594289,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;The Reaction&quot;,&quot;subdomain&quot;:&quot;thereaction&quot;,&quot;custom_domain&quot;:&quot;www.thereaction.org&quot;,&quot;custom_domain_optional&quot;:false,&quot;hero_text&quot;:&quot;Join the Reaction and beat back progress.&quot;,&quot;logo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/cc065b5d-ed3f-4795-8b47-11a932f84f57_1080x1080.png&quot;,&quot;author_id&quot;:56364939,&quot;primary_user_id&quot;:null,&quot;theme_var_background_pop&quot;:&quot;#FF6719&quot;,&quot;created_at&quot;:&quot;2025-07-09T14:10:58.351Z&quot;,&quot;email_from_name&quot;:&quot;The Reaction&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;Johannes Mathijs Koenraadt&quot;,&quot;founding_plan_name&quot;:&quot;Founding Member&quot;,&quot;community_enabled&quot;:true,&quot;invite_only&quot;:false,&quot;payments_state&quot;:&quot;enabled&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:null,&quot;explicit&quot;:false,&quot;homepage_type&quot;:&quot;newspaper&quot;,&quot;is_personal_mode&quot;:false}}],&quot;is_guest&quot;:false,&quot;bestseller_tier&quot;:null,&quot;status&quot;:{&quot;bestsellerTier&quot;:null,&quot;subscriberTier&quot;:null,&quot;leaderboard&quot;:null,&quot;vip&quot;:false,&quot;badge&quot;:null,&quot;paidPublicationIds&quot;:[],&quot;subscriber&quot;:null}}],&quot;utm_campaign&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;podcast&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="EmbeddedPostToDOM"><a class="embedded-post" native="true" href="https://www.jmk.info/p/the-unintended-reformation-stream?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_campaign=post_embed&amp;utm_medium=web"><div class="embedded-post-header"><img class="embedded-post-publication-logo" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jPTj!,w_56,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2e72b96a-9a00-43a5-8b49-93efd9af6e89_1280x1280.png"><span class="embedded-post-publication-name">Johannes MK's Newsletter</span></div><div class="embedded-post-title-wrapper"><div class="embedded-post-title-icon"><svg width="19" height="19" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
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  <path d="M21 19C21 19.5304 20.7893 20.0391 20.4142 20.4142C20.0391 20.7893 19.5304 21 19 21H18C17.4696 21 16.9609 20.7893 16.5858 20.4142C16.2107 20.0391 16 19.5304 16 19V16C16 15.4696 16.2107 14.9609 16.5858 14.5858C16.9609 14.2107 17.4696 14 18 14H21V19ZM3 19C3 19.5304 3.21071 20.0391 3.58579 20.4142C3.96086 20.7893 4.46957 21 5 21H6C6.53043 21 7.03914 20.7893 7.41421 20.4142C7.78929 20.0391 8 19.5304 8 19V16C8 15.4696 7.78929 14.9609 7.41421 14.5858C7.03914 14.2107 6.53043 14 6 14H3V19Z" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path>
</svg></div><div class="embedded-post-title">The Unintended Reformation [stream #64] </div></div><div class="embedded-post-body">Watch on YouTube &#187;&#8230;</div><div class="embedded-post-cta-wrapper"><div class="embedded-post-cta-icon"><svg width="32" height="32" viewBox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
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</svg></div><span class="embedded-post-cta">Listen now</span></div><div class="embedded-post-meta">a year ago &#183; 1 like &#183; Johannes M. Koenraadt</div></a></div><p>The Protestant propaganda stuck because Europeans, having a guilt-based morality, need to have something to feel bad about in order to feel good. We need to paint the past as backward so that we may cast the present as having progressed toward something better. If the past hadn&#8217;t been exactly dark and gloomy, then we can&#8217;t really claim to be progressing. And so, Catholicism was now evil and the Enlightenment&#8217;s science was now good.</p><p>Dig deeper and you&#8217;ll find that these Dark Ages never happened. Enter the <em>Phantom Time Hypothesis</em> by German author Heribert Illig. He claims that about three centuries (297 years to be exact) were inserted into the Western timeline&#8212;namely the height of the &#8220;Dark Ages&#8221; from 614&#8211;911 AD&#8212;for political reasons: to place the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Otto III in the year 1000 AD.</p><p>That year, Otto III, supported by Pope Sylvester II, made a pilgrimage from Rome to Aachen (Charlemagne&#8217;s alleged birthplace). The idea was to revive the Catholic Christian &#8220;Holy Roman Empire,&#8221; i.e., to sell it to a larger audience. The Pope, the Emperor, and their intellectual henchmen were able to pull off this time heist because the people of Europe were largely illiterate and mostly didn&#8217;t know what year it was.</p><p>Archaeology backs it up: We find few to no artifacts from the alleged Dark Ages. Illig points out that we also found almost no corpses from that period. Another pointer is that there is no discontinuity in German poetry from the 6th to the 10th century AD, as though there was no stylistic break.<br><br>In conclusion, the Dark Ages weren&#8217;t dark&#8212;the Dark Ages never happened. The phrase &#8220;Dark Ages&#8221; says more about Protestant Enlightenment propaganda than it does about history. It served to help transfer religious power away from Catholic Europe to the new Protestant transatlantic realm.</p><p>And that process is something The Reaction intends to reverse. With the decline of globalism, the Anglo-American Empire is expected to wane, and with it, the ideals of the Enlightenment (individualism, materialism, robots, AI) shall disappear.</p><p><em>The light from the shadow shall renew Europe&#8217;s soul!</em></p><p>Join the Reaction!</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Auctioning Off Kurt Westergaard's Signed and Numbered Mohammed Cartoon Reprint #212/1,000]]></title><description><![CDATA[Funding the Reaction]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/auctioning-off-kurt-westergaards</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/auctioning-off-kurt-westergaards</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 18:08:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PcBv!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaefd30f-8e96-4bcd-aa82-6cc1e9acf24a_1360x1700.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Our founder owns a copy of late Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard&#8217;s &#8220;Mohammed Cartoon&#8221;, the one that sparked riots throughout the Arab world. It is a reprint signed (with pencil) by Kurt Westergaard, an original autograph, and numbered as #212 of 1,000 (limited edition).</strong> </p><p>This limited edition reprint was produced and shipped in 2009. It comes with the original shipping container, including the Danish postage stamps, with the reprint still curled up inside. It has never been put on display in a frame. The reprint has been stored inside the original shipping container since it arrived.</p><p><strong>Starting bid: &#8364;15,000</strong> (to make a meaningful contribution to <em>The Reaction</em>)</p><ul><li><p>The reprint (#212/1,000) curled up inside the container</p></li><li><p>The original shipping container with postage stamps etc.</p></li></ul><p><em>Inquiries: mail@thereaction.org</em></p><div class="image-gallery-embed" data-attrs="{&quot;gallery&quot;:{&quot;images&quot;:[{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/eaefd30f-8e96-4bcd-aa82-6cc1e9acf24a_1360x1700.jpeg&quot;},{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9610ee44-dca8-42c1-a0ba-d6be6b4afd74_1816x1279.jpeg&quot;},{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6a35a2e6-8c18-4409-a8a6-42f8dcd89a39_1816x2463.jpeg&quot;},{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a5ea7b82-7210-4638-83ab-1ff37a3c343e_1405x507.jpeg&quot;},{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/01268bfe-2363-4398-82fd-d2e81fe7fb69_1816x3056.jpeg&quot;}],&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Kurt Westergaard Mohammed Cartoon Reprint Auction&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Kurt Westergaard Mohammed Cartoon Reprint Auction&quot;,&quot;staticGalleryImage&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/82ca710a-324b-4586-a616-ba8364d1c25d_1456x1210.png&quot;}},&quot;isEditorNode&quot;:true}"></div><p></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[On the Violent Ektropic God versus the Sterility of Being]]></title><description><![CDATA[Was Western Philosophy All Wrong?]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/on-the-violent-ektropic-god-versus</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/on-the-violent-ektropic-god-versus</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:07:49 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0hZN!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb1e1c65-363c-457d-8bf2-b1346b68475a_1003x1024.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0hZN!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb1e1c65-363c-457d-8bf2-b1346b68475a_1003x1024.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0hZN!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb1e1c65-363c-457d-8bf2-b1346b68475a_1003x1024.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0hZN!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb1e1c65-363c-457d-8bf2-b1346b68475a_1003x1024.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0hZN!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb1e1c65-363c-457d-8bf2-b1346b68475a_1003x1024.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0hZN!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb1e1c65-363c-457d-8bf2-b1346b68475a_1003x1024.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0hZN!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb1e1c65-363c-457d-8bf2-b1346b68475a_1003x1024.jpeg" width="1003" height="1024" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/cb1e1c65-363c-457d-8bf2-b1346b68475a_1003x1024.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1024,&quot;width&quot;:1003,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Yggdrasil - The Tree of Life &#8211; BaviPower&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Yggdrasil - The Tree of Life &#8211; BaviPower" title="Yggdrasil - The Tree of Life &#8211; BaviPower" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0hZN!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb1e1c65-363c-457d-8bf2-b1346b68475a_1003x1024.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0hZN!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb1e1c65-363c-457d-8bf2-b1346b68475a_1003x1024.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0hZN!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb1e1c65-363c-457d-8bf2-b1346b68475a_1003x1024.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0hZN!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb1e1c65-363c-457d-8bf2-b1346b68475a_1003x1024.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>I suggest that we may be living in a universe that was always there, that the body is the key and the solution to the Cartesian split (or so-called mind-matter dualism), and that the post-Heideggerian Western philosophical focus on Being has been an enormous mistake, for Being is a sterile intellectual concept without any bearing on reality. Instead, we should be looking toward what I call the unbound Sensing, of which Being is a limitation. I argue that anything rational is a chain holding back the irrational, that physical reality ought to be regarded as a limitation of the spiritual, and that &#8220;somethingness&#8221; is a limitation of &#8220;nothingness.&#8221; Sentient minds, in other words, invented the illusions they later fell for.</strong></p><h3>On the Beginnings</h3><p>Have you noticed that the abiogenesis theory explaining the origins of life, the scientific &#8220;universe from nothing&#8221; also known as the Big Bang theory, and the Christian Genesis all presuppose a beginning? Once I realized this, I began to wonder about a universe without an origin and whether that was physically possible.</p><p>It is. The modern universe is said to be governed by the laws of thermodynamics (TD). However, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) theory offers a physical alternative: a universe that was always there. In this so-called Plasma Universe, pioneered and coined by Swedish physicist and Nobel laureate Hannes Alfv&#233;n, time and space may have existed for all eternity, without a beginning and without a Big Bang.</p><p>But I&#8217;m not particularly interested in the physics of a possibly eternal universe. I&#8217;m interested in its practical implications. You see, a universe with a beginning can theoretically progress away from it. In the Darwinian sense, life can start with simple beings&#8212;single-celled organisms&#8212;that then evolve, through natural selection, into more complex beings such as humans. This is, in fact, the premise of modern materialist science: that the simple (an atom, a cell, an individual) can evolve into the complex (a molecule, an organism, a society). Moreover, this materialist conception posits that increased complexity is superior to simpler orders. Progress is a good thing. Utopia is near.</p><p>In an eternal universe, however, we are left wondering why Utopia hasn&#8217;t arrived yet. If the universe has always existed, why did anatomically modern humans allegedly arrive only 100,000 to 300,000 years ago? Why not far earlier? If the universe is infinitely old, we might suspect that progress either leads nowhere, doesn&#8217;t happen at all, or that its results are always erased, forcing development to start over. Aristotle, for example, believed animals evolved from humans who had failed in life and reincarnated as lesser beings.</p><p>So it matters whether we live in a universe with a simple beginning (the tiny singularity that became the Big Bang and then the universe), evolving toward greater complexity, or in a steady-state universe that was always there and is not progressing toward anything. My eternal universe may still display change, and some of that change may be experienced as progress from time to time. I might fantasize, for example, that human beings have always existed, that an infinite number of societies and civilizations have come and gone, and that&#8212;as we can observe&#8212;the socialist-Marxist utopian dream of equal material wealth for all hasn&#8217;t arrived yet, despite an eternity of waiting.</p><div class="paywall-jump" data-component-name="PaywallToDOM"></div><p>In my fantasy universe there will never be a utopia&#8212;only eternal struggle against the elements, against time, and against nothingness. One peculiar thought experiment is that an eternal universe without a beginning might still have been &#8220;created&#8221; or have &#8220;come from nothing,&#8221; namely with an eternal history pre-attached to it. As alien as it sounds, a philosopher should explore this possibility. I can imagine several bizarre scenarios: an eternal universe that came from nothing, springing to life on the eve of 1952, with everything pre-configured, set in motion, and supplied with an infinite history&#8212;including human belief in Christian Genesis or Lawrence Krauss&#8217;s &#8220;universe from nothing.&#8221;</p><p>Absurd! Yes, absurd&#8212;but not as absurd as one might think. For if we accept that universes can come from nothing, we must accept that time and space can come from nothing too. And if time can come from nothing, so can history. And if history can come from nothing, then we have no way of knowing whence anything came or when. The universe might be continuously recreated in the present moment, opening yet another array of bizarre possibilities, such as discontinuous time&#8212;i.e., the next present moment &#8220;stitched&#8221; to the previous one with a completely falsified history or a changed past that we, in the present, would never notice.</p><p>Indeed, such strangeness implies a force at work that science and theology happily deny, but with which the philosopher should not be satisfied. He or she should want to know all the possibilities in order to draw several truths from them:</p><ul><li><p>We don&#8217;t know anything about the universe&#8217;s origins, for those origins may have come into being as a falsified history that we can neither prove nor disprove (for example, the cosmic microwave background radiation that allegedly proved the Big Bang may also be reinterpreted as a phenomenon unrelated to any such beginning);</p></li><li><p>We cannot prove or disprove the Big Bang, the origin of life, abiogenesis, the beginning of time and space, Christian Genesis, or any other historical beginning for the aforementioned reason (we weren&#8217;t there, and even if we had records, those records could have been falsified&#8212;e.g., a fossil record planted by a playful god);</p></li><li><p>As philosophers we can only assume the universe has a beginning, and when we do so we may likewise assume the possibility of progress (technological, biological, social, etc.);</p></li><li><p>We can also assume the universe is eternal and was always there, in which case we cannot assume the possibility of lasting progress (e.g., everything always reverts to a mean, though fluctuations above and below are possible);</p></li><li><p>The fact that we experience progress temporarily&#8212;technological progress since the Industrial Age, say, or Western philosophical progress since Heraclitus&#8212;does not prove that this type of progress will last forever, that its results will remain with us forever, or that the changes perceived as progress were actual progress;</p></li></ul><p>Most importantly, why do all thinking men and women look for a beginning outside humanity itself? It sounds strange to believe that the universe was born of humanity rather than the other way around, but as a philosopher I want to entertain the freakish possibility that the human body is the only &#8220;real&#8221; universe and that the material world we experience around us was created as a backdrop to support our bodies.</p><p>I say this, indeed, because I saw it on TikTok. Let me explain: having browsed TikTok videos for several hours a week for several years (to my embarrassment), my pattern-seeking brain found a pattern. The vast majority of TikTok videos I ever consumed featured one or more prominent human bodies moving before a backdrop called &#8220;the world.&#8221; What we commonly call the world&#8212;its etymology coming from wer-ald, meaning &#8220;man-age&#8221; or the age through which human souls pass&#8212;is described as a physical place (when the word actually suggests time): the planet Earth, the galaxies around it, buildings, architecture, infrastructure, and all living or reproducing nature. Yet TikTok videos suggest that all of this &#8220;world&#8221; is merely backdrop to present the human body. The majority of media content people consume is about other people.</p><p>Of course, people are most interested in themselves&#8212;but the suggestion remains that the world is a time rather than a place. If the material world is mere backdrop, then humanity&#8212;especially our bodies&#8212;is its center. This brings me to the question of incarnation. How exactly did human beings receive a soul, free will, consciousness, the ability to move, etc.? Science denies many of these things, but even science must admit that (human) beings can move around in the world. What is the source of that motion?</p><h3>On Being</h3><p>Philosophers talk a lot about Being&#8212;after Parmenides, and especially after Martin Heidegger, who famously rebooted the question of what Being is (die Frage nach dem Seyn). Heidegger said we had forgotten Being in favor of beings (Seiendes). But I&#8217;m not really interested in talking much about Being, other than to say that I think the philosophers have got it all wrong. &#8220;Being&#8221; is a sterile intellectual concept with no bearing on reality, like a mathematical idea without application. The fact that we can think it does not make it real&#8212;not without incarnation, not without birth into flesh.</p><p>I emphasize the flesh because, as I&#8217;ve said, the body is the key and the solution to mind-matter dualism. The world is neither purely real nor purely ideal. Both realist materialism and German idealism got it wrong. The world is neither only physical nor only mental in origin. Though I believe it came from a mental origin, it is now materially real. It was materialized&#8212;but not without the help of flesh. I do not believe that human beings, or any beings of flesh and motion, evolved within the world; rather, the world around us evolved as a backdrop for the flesh. The world is not pure will nor pure matter. Not all matter is conscious or panpsychic. Rather, the human body localizes the spiritual (the mind) at a certain place in the world, while the world offers the body possibilities.</p><p>Many Western thinkers conceived of God (in their view, pure Being) as an unchanging, immutable, purely rational entity (see Philo of Alexandria), but these are merely the desires of overly intellectual men who hated their bodies&#8212;likely because most philosophers were physically inept men forced to think because they couldn&#8217;t get laid. In fact, I know exactly what sort of men most philosophers have been: untouched children who grew up without bodily affection. Heidegger was different; he famously slept around with many women, which is why we find some appreciation of the body in his work&#8212;the man who told his students to bring their skis on trips around the Schwarzwald.</p><p>Being-in-the-world requires a body. That&#8217;s what it&#8217;s for. That&#8217;s why the eternal bachelor Schopenhauer believed the world was purely immaterial&#8212;as though he had to rely on sexual fantasies to get the women he wanted, because he was physically unable to attract any. The character of the philosopher matters; it informs his thinking.</p><p>If there is a God, he is not just &#8220;out there&#8221; or above us but within us. God is the ebullient Sensing and Sensation from which everything flows. What material scientists call nothingness is concentrated desire, emotion, and feeling. Out of this desire and feeling the nothingness created something more: the physical. Notice how our skin delimits our bodies, demarcating us from the rest of the world and from other bodies. Does this not look like a budding-off from the central source of all things? The same with the mind&#8212;trapped in a brain wired throughout the body yet hidden inside the skull. The brain that sees everything is itself the hardest thing to see. Our faces and skulls hide what is there. It is the nothingness itself peering into the world it first created.</p><p>As I wrote in my book The Ignorant God, &#8220;God does not know He is God.&#8221; God is rather the sensing that senses the world through our senses&#8212;seeing with our eyes, smelling with our noses, touching with our skin, hearing with our ears, tasting with our tongues. The nothingness, so desperate to be something more, accepted imprisonment in the physical world as the price for existence&#8212;the price for Being-there, Being-for-itself, Being-in-itself, and whatever other qualities of Being philosophers invent.</p><p>Human beings are incarnations not merely of rational minds but, even more, of bodily feelings. When I prepare for sleep at night I return to the nothingness. I do my nightly rituals, lie down, rest my body, close my eyes. Slowly my senses fade, and I no longer attend to the outside world. My room is dark and quiet; I retreat within myself. My thoughts become my focus until I fall asleep and am no longer aware of them. For a while it can be said that I do not exist at all&#8212;until REM sleep produces dreams I may partially remember upon waking.</p><p>We should care to know why human beings spend about one-third of their lives retreating into nothingness. Physiologically we do it for replenishment, rest, bodily cleaning, and mental maintenance. I say we also do it to release the soul trapped inside our bodies back into nothingness&#8212;for the same reason we cannot sit in airplane seats longer than about 16 hours. Prolonged immobility gives us cramps. Imagine, then, an immaterial soul trapped and localized inside a physical body. Would it not also need a &#8220;stretch&#8221;? Whether you believe this or not, sleep gives the soul the opportunity to escape.</p><p>Bodily feelings are commonly ignored by intellectual men precisely because they are invisible, subjective, and hard to put into words. I might feel angry yet be unable to explain why. I may desire revenge without knowing why or against whom. Moreover, intellectual men find feelings disturbing. Rational thought is like writing computer code or doing mathematics; these processes are interrupted by the body&#8217;s needs for food, exercise, sleep, and maintenance. This is why upper-class people call lower-class people &#8220;emotional&#8221;: the upper classes have become society&#8217;s limiters. They control and coerce common people toward economic activity, war, and (sometimes orchestrated) famine and death&#8212;&#8220;in an orderly fashion&#8221; that benefits the elite. The elite are society&#8217;s prison wardens; they control the military and police, and the people are in many ways their prisoners&#8212;often because the common people do, indeed, lack self-control. One needs self-control to control others.</p><p>I would say that elites function as society&#8217;s skin the way our skin keeps our organs in place. Yet this ordering principle is a limitation that does not exist in sleep. And yet I rarely, if ever, dream of my organs falling out&#8212;as though my sleeping soul has no concept of the internal body anyway. The academic philosopher, like the material scientist, logician, and mathematician, deeply hates and despises bodies for this reason. They wish they could die and think rationally forever. Medieval Christian scholars thought that is exactly what they would do after death: all think the same &#8220;correct&#8221; thoughts. It worried some of them about their individuality! Luckily, I know the purpose of thinking is not to be correct. It is to be wrong a million times.</p><p>Being is a sterile intellectual concept that means nothing. I get it: I see a red apple. The apple &#8220;is&#8221; red. Then I want to know what &#8220;is&#8221; means. What does it mean to be? What is Being itself? This Being is an intellectual concept that does not exist in the world. Heidegger was quite wrong to speak of &#8220;Seynsvergessenheit,&#8221; for nothing was forgotten. Something that is nothing cannot be forgotten. Yet he did ask the right question: &#8220;Why is there something rather than nothing?&#8221; There is something because it serves the body. The world is the backdrop&#8212;remember, TikTok proves this. People and their bodies largely exist for each other; everything else serves to make the experience more interesting.</p><p>The eternal nothingness that desired to feel was incarnated into our bodies so that, through our flesh, it could experience touch. Imagine how mad you would be if you couldn&#8217;t feel anything. That is the state of nothingness&#8212;forever. I would transform myself into a Big Bang too if I were that nothingness. I would willingly accept imprisonment in a body of flesh so that, at least, I could feel and express myself.</p><p>God is not the unchanging but the changing, not the rational but the irrational. Of course, intellectual men disagree; their minds cannot classify or make sense of the irrational. They cannot contain it in formulae or facts. They cannot analyze the invisible and unlocalized. They cannot master what they cannot understand. So they turn away from it. The Western materialist tradition since Democritus and the atomists was a big joke: intellectual men running from their senses, bodies, and feelings because feelings interrupted their holy thinking.</p><p>&#8220;Being&#8221; is an empty fiction. The real God is the Ektropic&#8212;the overflowing, self-regenerative source of everything, wild and unrestricted. The moment you introduce order, logic, and reason you have already diminished God, for these are the chains people cling to in the physical realm. God is not Unbeing nor Nothingness but pure Unrealized Potential whose first act was Incarnation: pouring itself into flesh. God no longer exists separately but is here with us, hidden inside our bodies. This Ignorant God does not know He is God. Our senses are God&#8217;s senses; through us, God lives. It is not atoms or thought-particles that govern the universe but a continuous feeling, a restless desire driving us toward an infinite array of impossible experience.</p><p>To live is to experience. The rational, logical, and mathematical are tools for the economic maintenance of the materialized Ektropic&#8212;to give it ability, to allow it to grow, and to prevent abuse and collapse. Rational thought is not the highest form of thought but merely a tool in the service of the Ektropic. The infinite Potential, the pure Ektropic Force, had to pay for its physical appearance with physical restrictions.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Cure for Male Depression Is to Start Playing High Status]]></title><description><![CDATA[On Status Play, Frontstage Personas, and Bodily Transformation]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/the-cure-for-male-depression-is-to</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/the-cure-for-male-depression-is-to</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jan 2026 12:27:31 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ucj5!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F31ff75d3-c5d8-40d8-bf3d-1cf43c06c1d3_1841x1339.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ucj5!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F31ff75d3-c5d8-40d8-bf3d-1cf43c06c1d3_1841x1339.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ucj5!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F31ff75d3-c5d8-40d8-bf3d-1cf43c06c1d3_1841x1339.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ucj5!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F31ff75d3-c5d8-40d8-bf3d-1cf43c06c1d3_1841x1339.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ucj5!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F31ff75d3-c5d8-40d8-bf3d-1cf43c06c1d3_1841x1339.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ucj5!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F31ff75d3-c5d8-40d8-bf3d-1cf43c06c1d3_1841x1339.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ucj5!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F31ff75d3-c5d8-40d8-bf3d-1cf43c06c1d3_1841x1339.jpeg" width="1456" height="1059" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/31ff75d3-c5d8-40d8-bf3d-1cf43c06c1d3_1841x1339.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1059,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;No photo description available.&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="No photo description available." title="No photo description available." srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ucj5!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F31ff75d3-c5d8-40d8-bf3d-1cf43c06c1d3_1841x1339.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ucj5!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F31ff75d3-c5d8-40d8-bf3d-1cf43c06c1d3_1841x1339.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ucj5!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F31ff75d3-c5d8-40d8-bf3d-1cf43c06c1d3_1841x1339.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ucj5!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F31ff75d3-c5d8-40d8-bf3d-1cf43c06c1d3_1841x1339.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">The Boxers (1954) by William George</figcaption></figure></div><p><strong>If men aren&#8217;t doing well mentally, it&#8217;s because of learned helplessness. The cage is no longer there, but you are still hiding in it. Life feels lived by others telling you what to do. Talking about your feelings won&#8217;t cure the depression. Transforming your body in order to behave differently will. The solution lies in self-empowerment, in putting yourself back in charge.</strong></p><p>Cleaning your room to please your mom or spouse won&#8217;t heal your depression. However, the road to salvation lies in adopting high-status behaviors, combined with the frontstage persona of a man in charge, while simultaneously improving your backstage skills and competencies.</p><h3>Overcoming Feminist Society</h3><p>But first, we must equate modern Western &#8216;feminist&#8217; societies to a narcissistic household that intentionally scapegoats boys and men. Feminists like to scapegoat men in order to diminish male power. They target boys, because boys don&#8217;t yet have the proper psychological defenses. Much of progressive society functions to prevent boys from developing into high-status men.</p><p>Self-empowerment thus starts by identifying your real self, not the role you were taught to play. It means beginning your proper self-differentiation, which means seeing yourself as separate and different from your society as a whole. As a man of power, you were never meant to be a member of the human herd, but rather a shepherd. You&#8217;re not turning your back on humanity, but you will lead the herd.</p><p>Healing male depression requires you to increase your self-worth. No one but you can do this. To achieve it, think of the IKEA effect. When people put together their Billy bookcase, they have mixed some of their time and creative effort into the end result. Now imagine supporting yourself in a similar manner. By putting some time and creative effort into sculpting your body, your skills and your personality, you are going to understand that <strong>you have value</strong>.</p><p>Invest in yourself to increase your sense of worth. Personally, I increased my sense of worth by acquiring all sorts of skills: practicing ice skating, playing the trombone, learning how to draw, boxing, pimping my mountainbike, going to the gym regularly, managing to do one-leg squats, and so on. These are small improvements requiring basic effort, but putting them all together improved my self-confidence. I learned that <strong>I can just do things</strong>.</p><p>The escape from women&#8217;s society also requires that you learn to live more selfishly. Women&#8217;s society has a tendency to employ males as servants. My old-time neighbor was quite a domineering old woman. She got several guys down our street to help fix her front yard for her&#8212;free of charge. Guys who don&#8217;t learn to say no to a bossy woman will invariably end up being her unpaid slave.</p><p>In fact, I overheard one wealthy woman call such helpful men &#8220;dogs&#8221;. She called them dogs because they help her business out for free. Why should she respect them? The lesson learned is that you shouldn&#8217;t want to be a dog to women who don&#8217;t care about you. To earn society&#8217;s respect, you&#8217;re going to have to offer some healthy opposition to it.</p><p>A man who beats women goes to jail, but a man who occasionally yells at a woman gets laid. Opposition is necessary and healthy, and productive, whereas willing servitude is counterproductive.</p><h3>The Fisherman and His Wife</h3><p>Christine Lawson wrote a book called <em>Understanding the Borderline Mother</em>. In it, she describes the sort of devouring mother who has become a witch. In particular, I believe the story of Western civilization is comparable to the story of the Fisherman and His Wife. Lawson retells the story (originally by the Brothers Grimm) as follows:</p><blockquote><p>A poor fisherman catches an enchanted flounder (a prince) and releases it out of kindness. His wife forces him to summon the flounder repeatedly with escalating demands: first a cottage, then a castle, then to become king, emperor, and finally pope. Each wish is granted, but the wife&#8217;s greed peaks when she demands to rule over the sun, moon, and heavens like God. The flounder responds that she already has what she deserves, and the couple is returned to their original miserable hovel, symbolizing the destructive consequences of boundless entitlement and the enabling compliance of those around her.</p></blockquote><p>Western women, in my view, are like the fisherman&#8217;s wife. Their material greed knows no boundaries. No matter how much White men conquered for her, it&#8217;s never enough. Even when White men had mastered most of the world and transferred most of the world&#8217;s wealth to the West (the USA), White women could not be satisfied. When the flow of wealth started slowing down, White women immediately dismissed White men as being &#8216;no longer good enough for them&#8217;.</p><p>This has left White men deeply scarred with a sense of inferiority, though totally unjustifiably so. It is important that White men learn to distance and separate themselves from women&#8217;s greed. We must recognize that their dissatisfaction is not a reflection of our worth. Not only have we been the most successful males in human history, we have suffered the greatest rejection for it nonetheless. It is time to guard ourselves against this emotional transference. Women&#8217;s dissatisfaction with their civilization is not our problem.</p><h3>High Status and Dominance</h3><p>Acclaimed improvisation theatre director Keith Johnstone was no right-wing reactionary, perhaps more of a Marxist, but his famous work on status play, in the book <em>Impro</em>, offers us insight into the behavior, mannerisms, and mindset of &#8220;high-status&#8221; people.</p><p>Johnstone was just shy of calling &#8220;high-status&#8221; people dominant, for dominance is what is supposed to be a man&#8217;s foundation. A dominant man is not an aggressive man, nor a flying monkey. In fact, the monkeys in the jungle that enjoy flying from one branch to the next have the lowest rank and the lowest testosterone. A dominant person doesn&#8217;t need to show off, for his position is already secure.</p><p>Dominant people display effortless self-control, and have a low fear of social evaluation. They don&#8217;t care too much what people think of them. They have a willingness to bear some social risk, and they don&#8217;t mind making people feel slightly uncomfortable around them. They know that most people respond to such discomfort with submissive or pleasing behavior.</p><p>To be dominant means to have low stress, low cortisol levels, and a high baseline testosterone, likely from proper exercise and ample rest. Indeed, high-status people get to have good sleep, for they don&#8217;t need to fear attacks. Their status naturally protects them (you&#8217;d have to be insane to attack a high-status person in their sleep).</p><p>Most importantly, the dominant person is in charge of time and space. They believe they deserve attention and access to scarce resources, and they will fight for these resources when necessary. Low-status people are much more likely to concede resources to others. In the grand scheme of things, White colonial men have indeed been the dominant ones taking others&#8217; resources. There&#8217;s just nothing wrong with that.</p><p>The dominant has a sense of entitlement, and breaks the rules when it suits him.</p><p>In terms of speech, dominant people speak slowly and pause often. They lower volume and pitch to draw attention, or to emphasize what they&#8217;re saying. They speak in full sentences, but delay responses by 1-2 seconds. They&#8217;re not eager to give answers because they&#8217;re not trying to prove how smart they are. Most peculiarly, dominant people speak with a falling intonation at the end of sentences. They also use up to 40% fewer words than the person they&#8217;re talking to.</p><p>Johnstone listed a large number of physical mannerisms that accompany high-status individuals. So no, money is not where it starts, though the high-status person may end up acquiring a lot of money. It turns out that the most dominant person in any room is the one who moves his head the least. This person almost never nods or shakes his head rapidly. He rarely smiles, and when he does, he does it slowly. His hands don&#8217;t touch his face, neck, or crotch. He keeps his hands comfortably by his sides, or on the table when seated.</p><p>In terms of behaviors, dominant people rarely feel the need to explain themselves. They don&#8217;t argue with the trolls. They tease people or put them down with light insults. They respond calmly to challenges, avoid hurry, and don&#8217;t ask for permission. They make others wait, and they walk toward the center of a room after entering. They touch other people&#8217;s stuff to move it out of the way.</p><p>You may wonder whether adopting such behaviors is really the &#8220;trick&#8221; to become high-status. Indeed, Johnstone taught his improv students precisely to do these things and the effect was a total transformation of a low-status person into a high-status one. It can begin with mimicry. And by adopting the behaviors of a high-status person, you may end up believing it.</p><h3>Frontstage and Backstage Persona</h3><p>Erving Goffman was a sociologist famous for writing the book <em>The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life</em>. I found it to be a bit of a technical read, but the gist of it is that we all play a role during the day.</p><p>Goffman separates our lives into backstage and frontstage settings, as with a theatre. Backstage, we can relax and be among friends and family. We don&#8217;t need to watch our words here. We can be a bit more radical and unpredictable, for we know our friends will tolerate it.</p><p>It is backstage, however, where we also develop and train our skills. Here we practice how to be when the show starts and we need to know our lines before a live audience. This carries over into psychology. At home, in our bedrooms, we can practice what it&#8217;s like to be confident outside. We can close our eyes and make our bodies big and tall, and gently experience the feelings we would have if we were confident.</p><p>Myself, I like the comparison to learning how to swim. We teach children swimming on land first. On dry land, lying on our bellies, perhaps on a bench, we stretched our arms out and tried mimicking the teacher, who showed us how to cup our hands and turn our arms, and how to kick our feet and bend our legs. Once we mastered the correct motions, we tried it in water.</p><p>This, too, is how dominance and confidence are learned: by practicing in your bedroom how to move dominantly and confidently. Women may have an advantage here, as they can practice &#8220;walking like a model&#8221;, which is essentially performing a confident walk. For men, we walk differently, more slowly, with less sway from left to right, but with relaxed arms and hands swinging by our sides.</p><p>Walking outside, I noticed that I kept my arms too tightly by my sides, and I wasn&#8217;t swinging them casually with the rhythms of gravity. It gave me a somewhat restricted overall appearance, as though I were afraid of bumping into someone due to my wide frame. By practicing &#8220;the walk&#8221; at home, I was able to pinpoint this flaw in my walking. I taught myself to feel more relaxed when walking, now with loose arms.</p><p>Not only did my walk become more energy efficient, my sense of confidence outside rose along with it. In fact, I started walking with such confidence that people coming my way started lowering their heads or moving out of my way. When, in the past, I had to let people pass an obstacle first, now they were letting me pass first. Not only that, some began apologizing for the obstacle.</p><p>Becoming a dominant man of action is a self-reinforcing attitude. The more you succeed in being confident, dominant, and in charge, the more people will allow you to be.</p><h3>Felt Transformation</h3><p>There is, of course, more to being a dominant person than just mimicking dominant people&#8217;s mannerisms. I already alluded to the necessary fundamental transformation, namely to start seeing yourself as more valuable. People who wake up feeling valuable are naturally more dominant, as they are much less likely to take flak from others. A valuable person won&#8217;t allow others to diminish them.</p><p>True transformation comes down to a physical transformation. You have to change the way you feel about yourself. If you feel diminished or small, you&#8217;re going to have to create the necessary bodily changes that make you feel big and large. This can be done through physical exercise such as weightlifting, but even more so through a review of your fundamental bodily feelings.</p><p>In the book Focusing, the author Eugene Gendlin explains that most psychotherapy doesn&#8217;t work, and most therapists are paid friends who&#8217;ll milk the relationship with their patient for as long as possible. Change is not achieved analytically or rationally. &#8220;Talking about your feelings&#8221; in the way of a researcher presenting a paper will never help you heal from depression.</p><p>Real healing, however, is possible, as some patients do change. Gendlin explains: The patients who heal successfully (from depression or mental illness) are the ones who become aware of the corresponding bodily feeling that is the source of their problem. By focusing on this &#8220;felt sense&#8221; in the body, they are then able to change it.</p><p>Personally, I wasn&#8217;t feeling too well for a long time. With Gendlin&#8217;s approach, I realized that I don&#8217;t feel in charge. I have a strong desire for autonomy and for being in charge. Absent this, I was living in retreat, always backing away from situations where I could have taken charge, because I didn&#8217;t think I was worthy.</p><p>Once I understood this, I instantly felt a change in my mind, body, and heart&#8212;like an epiphany&#8212;because the solution to all my problems now lay within reach: I began looking forward to putting myself in charge.</p><p>A man who puts himself in charge is a dominant man. And such a man does not suffer from depression any longer. He has cured himself.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[There Is No Mind-Body Problem, but One of Blood]]></title><description><![CDATA[Every Dwindling End Has Its Vigorous New Beginning]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/there-is-no-mind-body-problem-but</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/there-is-no-mind-body-problem-but</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 21:27:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cpVN!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cpVN!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cpVN!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cpVN!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cpVN!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cpVN!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cpVN!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg" width="750" height="570" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:570,&quot;width&quot;:750,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:77269,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.thereaction.org/i/185461140?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cpVN!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cpVN!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cpVN!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cpVN!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab346dd0-b9b2-4d2c-bf00-91f5ed38cf7f_750x570.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>Is there a mind-body problem? Or is there rather no such problem? Famously, Ren&#233; Descartes created this Cartesian split. But in hindsight, it seems that the French philosopher was trying to cut the mind out of the body in order to do away with the latter.</strong></p><p>It's glaringly obvious that the body is the key to solving the spirit-matter problem. The mind inhabits the body, and the body inhabits the world. We are incarnated minds, embodied beings. The flesh of our body is very distinct from trees and rocks and metals.</p><p>The body is the center of our personal universe. It awards one the gift of motion. The body in motion acts as the gateway that seamlessly links one&#8217;s thoughts to actions. The body is the tool to help materialize one&#8217;s dreams. It is also the house in which the mind or soul lives.</p><p>The blood in one's veins is brought to life by the heart pumping it truth the lungs, mixing blood with air, invisible spirit that we all breath. The blood in men becomes their semen, and in pregnant women blood becomes the milk, to create and feed babies with liquid life.</p><p>Blood is thus, in every way, a life-giving force. It is no wonder that ancient Celtic and Germanic magicians used to sprinkle animal blood onto their congregation during rituals. To give life to the community. Christians today still consume the bread as though it were Christ's body, and the wine as though it were Christ's blood. Again, all meant to keep the religious people vigorous.</p>
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Robotics and AI, the Pathological Technologies of Our Time]]></title><description><![CDATA[Another Hindenburg Waiting to Happen]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/robotics-and-ai-the-pathological</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/robotics-and-ai-the-pathological</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 12:25:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!x575!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc88f567-4582-4d7d-ac2b-6108332526b9_1080x1180.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!x575!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc88f567-4582-4d7d-ac2b-6108332526b9_1080x1180.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!x575!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc88f567-4582-4d7d-ac2b-6108332526b9_1080x1180.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!x575!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc88f567-4582-4d7d-ac2b-6108332526b9_1080x1180.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!x575!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc88f567-4582-4d7d-ac2b-6108332526b9_1080x1180.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!x575!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc88f567-4582-4d7d-ac2b-6108332526b9_1080x1180.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!x575!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc88f567-4582-4d7d-ac2b-6108332526b9_1080x1180.jpeg" width="1080" height="1180" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/dc88f567-4582-4d7d-ac2b-6108332526b9_1080x1180.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1180,&quot;width&quot;:1080,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Titans - Another super cool bladerunner themed artwork I found : r/ bladerunner&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Titans - Another super cool bladerunner themed artwork I found : r/ bladerunner" title="Titans - Another super cool bladerunner themed artwork I found : r/ bladerunner" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!x575!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc88f567-4582-4d7d-ac2b-6108332526b9_1080x1180.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!x575!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc88f567-4582-4d7d-ac2b-6108332526b9_1080x1180.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!x575!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc88f567-4582-4d7d-ac2b-6108332526b9_1080x1180.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!x575!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc88f567-4582-4d7d-ac2b-6108332526b9_1080x1180.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>In his book </strong><em><strong>Monsters </strong></em><strong>(2015), Ed Regis coined the term pathological technology. It refers to, for example, the zeppelin programs of the 20th century. Prior to the infamous Hindenburg disaster, the global airship craze ended in over thirty fiery explosions and many hundreds of civilian deaths. The British and Americans had their own airship programs with even more disastrous results than those recorded on the German side. Ed Regis calls such technologies &#8220;pathological&#8221; because they are 1) big, 2) driven by emotion, 3) costly, and 4) have their risks frequently downplayed. Modern examples of pathological technologies would be robotics and AI.</strong></p><p>Reading Regis&#8217; book, it came to mind that the temples of ancient Mayan and Incan societies were also <em>pathological technologies</em>. They were 1) big pyramids, 2) laden with an emotional death cult, 3) costly to erect, and 4) their obvious deadly nature&#8212;the ritual killings of civilians&#8212;was downplayed as part of some necessary religious lore. But such technology that <em>only serves to drain a society&#8217;s resources while adding little in return</em> has re-emerged in the modern age, namely in the form of massive data centers to host artificial intelligence and robotics. </p><p>Don&#8217;t say these technologies are harmless, for many a person around the world has already overdosed on the wrong AI chat advice, or committed suicide, or has been referred to mental institution to heal from AI-inspired visions of grandiosity.</p><p>The greater insight is that these technologies are extremely wasteful. Though unmanned drones have killed many on the battlefield and at home, the real pathology behind Amazon&#8217;s robot delivery and self-driving delivery vans is that the push to robotize everything renders human beings obsolete. Instead of spending money on families of blood and flesh, we invest in technology that mimics human beings. At the same time, a third of pregnancies in countries such as the UK now ends in abortion. That means we&#8217;re back at 1800s levels of child survival rates, since back then only about 50-70% of children made it to age five. With modern abortions, only 70% makes it to day one.</p><p>So, I argue that modern societies are no more &#8216;advanced&#8217; than primitive ones. We have merely become equally primitive <em>but on a larger scale. </em>We have adopted a cult of economies of scale, whereas the ancients were still rooted in rural traditionalism. Nonetheless, our kind of economic progress hasn&#8217;t led to utopia as much as the ancient Pharaohs never arrived at their privatized heaven. The pyramids of Egypt, of course, were also pathological technologies that bankrupted the Old Kingdom. In fact, the internet itself may be, at least in part, a pathological technology, such as in the form of dating apps that remove physical encounters but return only unstable hookups. Or think of a Facebook that prevents people from meeting new people because the app keeps people trapped in their existing circle of friends.</p><p>Cryptocurrency technology that still hasn&#8217;t found the problem it&#8217;s supposed to solve certainly is another pathological development. In fact, I will offer to simplify Ed Regis&#8217; definition of what a pathological technology is. I say it is <em>any technology or economic activity</em> that is 1) extremely wasteful of resources and 2) continues to be wasteful despite offering no meaningful returns to humanity. Bitcoin fits that bill. Its mining operations have been extremely wasteful and have only become more wasteful without offering clear or meaningful returns to humanity. So far, Bitcoin has seen the largest speculatist wealth redistribution since socialism. Bitcoin effectively redistributed wealth from the FOMO crowd to early and patient investors, i.e., from weak hands to steady hands, but it has done so at the expense of wasting planetary energy for no other reason. </p><p>Yeah, crypto is a pathological technology. But so are over-the-top makeup tutorials that turned women into painted clowns. Transgender surgery and &#8216;looksmaxxing&#8217; procedures are also pathological technologies. In the case of Clavicular, an insecure teenage boy trying to look &#8220;hot&#8221;, it&#8217;s clear that the plastic surgery industry has found a new market for insecure boys, to lure them into for-profit surgery. It serves no other purpose than to transfer wealth from ugly boys to creepy surgeons. As you might tell, a lot of modern advanced culture is just as primitive&#8212;and deadly&#8212;as the death rituals of ancient Latin America. </p><div class="pullquote"><p><em>It appears that our modern civilization, like those in the past, has begun devouring its people, and only to keep itself going for a little while longer before we enter the stage of collapse.</em></p></div><p>The Large Hadron Collider is another pathological technology, especially since it continuously arouses in scientists the desire to build an even bigger collider. The Tokamaks or nuclear fusion engines&#8212;which are very likely a <a href="https://aeturrell.com/thestarbuilders/thestarbuilders.html">total scam</a> meant to draw government subsidies&#8212;are also pathological inventions. </p><p>What are the reasons that ancient and modern civilizations all end up developing the sort of pathological desires that ultimately kill themselves off? After a period of sustained growth, the machinery simply runs out of steam and begins digesting its people. May I make a first prediction: AI and robots, and in particular their data centers, will become so costly, yet so perversely funded, that they will eventually kill all of modern civilization. In particular, I envision data centers growing so hungry for energy that they will be starving entire cities of water and energy.</p><p>The idea for pathological technology, of course, is as old as the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. A people no longer interested in ordinary life begins the challenge of building a tower to reach the heavens. That&#8217;s what NASA did with rockets. And it&#8217;s what Elon Musk wants to do, too. I&#8217;m saying that none of the present space programs will achieve their goals, and that all of them will collapse like the Tower of Babel. And I&#8217;m saying that the point was never to <em>achieve the goal</em> but to deflect people&#8217;s attention away from the reality of an already collapsing civilizational economy. People can&#8217;t afford having children anymore, but they can still afford to have hobbies. </p><p>The difficulty in recognizing pathological technologies is that, as with many aspects of human cultures, the truth keeps changing shape. At first sight, a tower, a temple, a zeppelin, a large hadron collider, or a data center appear as distinct as they could be from one another. Yet, the fundamental principles behind these technologies driving them forward are equally the same: 1) big, 2) emotional, 3) costly, and 4) their risks downplayed. Or as I would say, they are 1) wasteful, and 2) continue being wasteful without offering the dreamed returns. </p><p>We, the people of the latest craze, are tasked with the mission to begin seeing the truths that a changing human culture always tries to hide from us. This is the task for a magician. The task to dream of a new beginning to prepare ourselves for the next craze.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Rediscovering the Sacred Space Where Our Souls Live]]></title><description><![CDATA["The Real Theory of Everything is Theology"]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/rediscovering-the-sacred-space-where</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/rediscovering-the-sacred-space-where</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 13 Jan 2026 11:56:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zkIz!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zkIz!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zkIz!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zkIz!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zkIz!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zkIz!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zkIz!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png" width="785" height="607" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/f967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:607,&quot;width&quot;:785,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:659471,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.thereaction.org/i/184411459?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zkIz!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zkIz!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zkIz!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zkIz!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff967add1-15bc-4d65-baf8-ad854c83cef7_785x607.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Detail of a painting by Danish artist Carl Friedrich Bloch depicting Christ&#8217;s body being transferred to his tomb after his crucifiction</figcaption></figure></div><p><strong>In my earlier article on </strong><em><strong><a href="https://www.thereaction.org/p/re-enchanting-the-west">Re-Enchanting the West</a></strong></em><strong>, I introduced the notion of sacred space. Borders used to be sacred, hallowed by priests. But the de-sacralization of Medieval space that happened after the French and Industrial Revolutions</strong> <strong>closed heaven&#8217;s doors. It condemned humanity to hide itself within the cyberspace of internet technology. </strong><em><strong>It&#8217;s time to break out of the machines holding us captive.</strong></em></p><p>In 1999, BBC 4&#8217;s Melvyn Bragg hosted a podcast titled <em><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00545d1">Space in Religion and Science</a></em> with British theologian John Polkinghorne and Australian science writer Margaret Wertheim. They had a lively debate about the meaning of this new thing called <em>cyberspace. </em>It was a place that early internet lovers said could perhaps, one day, host their souls. </p><p>Back in the day, in movies such as <em>Tron</em> or <em>The Lawnmower Man</em>, the ancient cyberspace was being portrayed as a possible heaven for humanity, a place to transcend the limitations of our physical bodies, perhaps even to do away with physical reality altogether. Some saw in cyberspace the potential to create a &#8216;real&#8217; heaven, unlike what the Four Horsemen of Militant Atheism (Dennet, Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens) would call religious dogma.</p><p>This was a time when people started fantasizing about the possibility of using computer technology to create new universes. To create our own heaven with the use of technology in the hands of ordinary man&#8212;that was the goal! Men were going to be gods. We were going to live forever after uploading our minds to the internet, hosting our souls on data centers (coincidentally controlled by &#8220;job-creating&#8221; capitalists), as a promise sold to us by commercial marketeers. </p><p>You just had to imagine it.  </p>
      <p>
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why Israel and Palestine Remain Central Cruxes in Western Geopolitics]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Ongoing War for Judea]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/why-israel-and-palestine-remain-central</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/why-israel-and-palestine-remain-central</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 08 Jan 2026 18:06:49 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gxz_!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F821442d2-100e-4d20-8809-fa3655dbe5c1_2000x1444.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gxz_!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F821442d2-100e-4d20-8809-fa3655dbe5c1_2000x1444.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gxz_!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F821442d2-100e-4d20-8809-fa3655dbe5c1_2000x1444.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gxz_!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F821442d2-100e-4d20-8809-fa3655dbe5c1_2000x1444.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gxz_!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F821442d2-100e-4d20-8809-fa3655dbe5c1_2000x1444.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gxz_!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F821442d2-100e-4d20-8809-fa3655dbe5c1_2000x1444.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gxz_!,w_2400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F821442d2-100e-4d20-8809-fa3655dbe5c1_2000x1444.jpeg" width="1200" height="866.2087912087912" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/821442d2-100e-4d20-8809-fa3655dbe5c1_2000x1444.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:false,&quot;imageSize&quot;:&quot;large&quot;,&quot;height&quot;:1051,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:1200,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;John Martin Fine Art Print: Belshazzar's Feast &#8211; GalleryThane&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;center&quot;,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-large" alt="John Martin Fine Art Print: Belshazzar's Feast &#8211; GalleryThane" title="John Martin Fine Art Print: Belshazzar's Feast &#8211; GalleryThane" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gxz_!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F821442d2-100e-4d20-8809-fa3655dbe5c1_2000x1444.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gxz_!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F821442d2-100e-4d20-8809-fa3655dbe5c1_2000x1444.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gxz_!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F821442d2-100e-4d20-8809-fa3655dbe5c1_2000x1444.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gxz_!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F821442d2-100e-4d20-8809-fa3655dbe5c1_2000x1444.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Detail of Belshazar&#8217;s Feast</figcaption></figure></div><p><strong>Ever since Biblical times, people understood the real-estate value of the territories named Israel, Palestine, or Judea. &#8220;Israel&#8221;, especially Greater Israel, captures many of the world&#8217;s important trade routes going from East to West, and North to South. Greater Israel can potentially link together the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean, also the rivers Nile, Euphrates and Tigris, Jordan, and Litini, along with overland trade such as the Silk Road and modern energy trade (pipelines and railroads).</strong></p><p>I argue that this geopolitical value is what makes the Israeli-Palestinian territories so contested. It&#8217;s why everyone from Europeans to Americans and Russians, and Chinese, Iranians, and Arabs is so interested in capturing that part of the world. And by all means necessary. </p><p><em>Below, I offer a crude (and likely wrong on points) but brief version of Western history seen from the perspective of this interest:</em></p><h3>Yesterday</h3><ul><li><p>Bronze Age city states rule Judea (&#8220;Israel&#8221;)</p></li><li><p>Ancient Egyptians rule Judea</p></li><li><p>&#8220;Hebrew&#8221; Judeans ultimately come along, occupying the prime real estate for global trade, as in Genesis 15:18, &#8220;from the river of Egypt to... the river Euphrates&#8221;.</p></li><li><p>The surrounding Empires want the same thing: Persian, Greek, Babylonian (ruled by Jews?) etc. and wage war on Judea.</p></li><li><p>Moses comes up with the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, declaring themselves superior people, the Chosen Few who alone deserve to inhabit this land.</p></li><li><p>Stories of the Exodus (which likely never happened) are mythologized.</p></li><li><p>The Greeks counter with the New Testament, giving the supremacist Judeans their Messiah (Christ), whom they reject.</p></li><li><p>Greeks rule Judea for some time for trade with the East.</p></li><li><p>The Roman Empire runs off with Christianity and next dominates Judea for a while for trade with India.</p></li><li><p>The Roman Empire splits into East and West; Christianity splits into Western and Eastern by 1054 AD or so, Catholic and Orthodox, causing division.</p></li><li><p>Judeans meanwhile cleverly created or influenced Islam (founding documents have mysteriously disappeared), and used it to overthrow their rivals, supporting Ottomans against Greece, and Arabs against the Persians etc.</p></li><li><p>Ottoman Turks rule Judea for some time, North Africa is Islamized along with Central Asian nations and ultimately Indonesia etc. &#8212; to capture global trade</p></li><li><p>Islam succeeded in its conquests of Mediterranean Europe: Southern Italy, Eastern Europe, Southern Spain etc. fall to the Muslims. Rome and Athens are captured.</p></li><li><p>European Christianity counters with the Holy Roman Empire and the Crusades to &#8220;liberate&#8221; (retake) Judea.</p></li><li><p>At least for a 1,000 years (800 AD - 1800 AD) the Germanic Christians rule or influence Judea, once temporarily called The Kingdom of Jerusalem.</p></li><li><p>Judeans start countering the Catholic Empire with Protestantism based on the Old Testament again.</p></li><li><p>The mercantilists convert North-West Europeans from Catholicism to their Jewish faith (Old Testament, Calvinism, Protestantism), starting/causing the Reformation.</p></li><li><p>Protestant nations such as The Netherlands and England break away from the Holy Roman Empire, later the Holy Roman Empire falls.</p></li><li><p>Western European nations discover the Americas and find ways around South Africa to circumvent the Islamic powers. Europeans start doing trade with Indo-China again.</p></li><li><p>The Protestant &#8220;Judeo-Christians&#8221; seize global trade over sea, ultimately also conquering the Middle East again.</p></li><li><p>The British Empire (Protestant) reigns supreme for a while.</p></li><li><p>Shit backfires: The Germans, now raised on the supremacism of the Old Testament instead of New Testament meekness, elect Hitler and seek to rule Judea again, among others.</p></li><li><p>The declining British Empire manages to cut Hitler off from the Middle East (Serbian railroad sabotage etc.).</p></li><li><p>After Hitler&#8217;s fall, the remnants of the British Empire installs Jews in Judea from 1948 onward, with the foundation of the state of Israel as per Theodore Herzl&#8217;s Zionism.</p></li></ul><h3>Today</h3><ul><li><p>Zionists are in charge of Israel and dream of Biblical Greater Israel.</p></li><li><p>Meanwhile, China backing Iran is looking to destroy Israel.</p></li><li><p>Turkey dreaming of another Ottoman Empire also wants Israel gone.</p></li><li><p>Russia having planted 1.5 million Russian speakers in Israel during the 1990s is dreaming of taking over, as well.</p></li><li><p>The Arabs&#8217; awakening self-consciousness has their sights set on Judea as well.</p></li><li><p>The Americans ally with their Greatest Ally to try to protect their commercial interests (&#8220;let&#8217;s build hotels in Gaza&#8221;).</p></li><li><p>Europeans have no clue what to do.</p></li></ul><h3>Tomorrow</h3><p><em>What possibilities lie ahead?</em></p><ul><li><p>Russia seizes Judea, but Israel remains Jewish due to the Russian Jews&#8217; presence. Zionism prevails, but different.</p></li><li><p>China alone seizes Judea, and forges an alliance with Israeli Jews instead of ousting them. Zionism prevails.</p></li><li><p>China/Iran seize Judea, and supplant most Jews with Arabs. Jews move to Ukraine. Zionism survives.</p></li><li><p>The Arabs seize Judea on their own (unlikely), with surviving Jews moving to Ukraine. Zionism survives.</p></li><li><p>Ottoman revivalists (Turkey) seizes Judea with Russian support, but Jews end up running the place. Zionism survives.</p></li><li><p>Europe, either backed by American Christians or on its own, counters all of the above with new Crusades and the foundation of a new Catholic Empire. Europe seizes Western Russia for resources and the Holy Roman Empire returns for another 1,000 years. Zionism dies.</p></li></ul>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Re-Enchanting the West]]></title><description><![CDATA[On Magical Revival]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/re-enchanting-the-west</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/re-enchanting-the-west</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 04 Jan 2026 10:18:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6S_e!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6S_e!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6S_e!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6S_e!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6S_e!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6S_e!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6S_e!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png" width="757" height="925" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:925,&quot;width&quot;:757,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:623516,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.thereaction.org/i/183061847?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6S_e!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6S_e!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6S_e!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6S_e!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa13c68ce-db6d-4bae-80c7-0dc822802423_757x925.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>With the loss of magical practices&#8212;denounced as either unscientific or superstitious&#8212;the West also lost its &#8220;magical shield&#8221;. Indeed, our sacred space has been invaded by hordes of foreigners under the guise of equality and diversity. I argue that we need to re-enchant the Western peoples, and their lands, as the crucial step toward warding off demons.</strong></p><p>Fun fact: Borders used to be sacred. When ancient farmers decided to convert a patch of land into productive soil, a magician or priest would first circle the land and hallow its borders. The newly created agricultural land was then considered magically separated from natural wilderness, for example, to ward off invasive insects and crop diseases. </p><p>The modern movement against such borders constitutes a wholesale spiritual attack on the sanctity of exclusionary spaces. Such spaces that we can control and own are necessary for the survival of any people.</p><p>When Catholicism came to Europe, it relegated heathen magic to the realm of Devil worship. Catholicism, notably, didn&#8217;t <em>deny</em> magic was real. The Church merely tried to <em>ban</em> unwanted magic. Witches were burned, likely because the women were heathen seeresses and considered a threat to clergical power. Then came the Protestant Reformation which erased magic altogether in favor of rational sciences.</p><p>But if magic were harmless superstition, why did Europe&#8217;s profane rulers so aggressively hunt down and exterminate magic&#8217;s practitioners? Surely, the shamans and seeresses were thought of as a real threat against worldly power, not merely a cosmetic nuisance. And I think I know why: In heathen Europe, our brand of magic was commonly tied to the spoken word, much unlike the Asiatic shamans who practiced demonic possession while in a state of trance.</p><p>European magicians tended to exert power through prophetic poetry, chants, spells, and songs. I.e., the &#8220;freedom of magic&#8221; was as dangerous to political power as &#8220;freedom of speech&#8221; is today. In a way, freedom of speech is the freedom to practice magical incantations. Though only a few gifted people know how to wield words properly, those who do would have won immense influence. Free speech, like free magic, gives financially powerless individuals the power to influence political affairs. And that&#8217;s dangerous.</p><p>By purging magic, it was the Protestant Reformation that ultimately allowed for the Industrial Age to begin. The shift away from magic to religion (under Catholicism), and then from religion to rationality (under Protestantism), paved the way for exponential technological and economic growth. We hailed the newfound wealth the way Faust welcomed the Devil. We sold our souls to economic regimentation.</p><p>Magic, today, plays no overt role in &#8216;advanced&#8217; Western society. Magical practices are looked down upon as children&#8217;s fantasy. German philosopher Martin Heidegger warned of such disenchantment in favor of &#8220;thingness&#8221;. We have become mere matter, he wrote, things, gears and levers to be turned and pulled. Rather than mortals, we have become employees occupying a giant gas station called Planet Earth.</p><p>Heidegger also spoke of the de-godding or the &#8220;flight of the gods&#8221; (<em>Entg&#246;tterung</em>), leaving humanity behind in a godless, calculative world, i.e., the modern world of so-called technological progress. But Heidegger and others saw technology as a threat. They accused Western man in particular of dominating the planet by holding Mother Earth captive through the use of machinery. Technology was man&#8217;s victory over the Earth&#8217;s resources, but at what cost?</p><p>Technological dominance, in my view, also implies the loss of magic which next exposed ourselves to primitive attacks. We&#8217;ve lost our reproductive vigor, for example. When we hail Poland&#8217;s recent economic boom, we ignore that native Polish women are now having barely one child per woman, thus opening Poland up for mass migration. What is really the point of technological progress if it exhausts one&#8217;s race? What is the purpose of generating wealth if it means to give it up to primitive invaders?</p><p>Does technological progress distract us from living a more meaningful life?</p><p>In James Cameron&#8217;s <em>Avatar</em>, the primitive blue creatures, guided by their spirit goddess Eywa, turn against the technologically superior humans whose endless-growth economies have nearly destroyed their home planet. In reality, we don&#8217;t need to wait for an alien species to come and teach us such a lesson. Our technological prowess will run out of steam long before we develop interplanetary space travel. </p><p>The lesson to be learned comes from Yemen&#8217;s Houthi rebels throwing sticks and stones at hi-tech drones. Think of the modern, rich, and powerful USA that is somehow unable to stop having its founding race from being replaced with low-IQ, third-world immigrants. When our magical defenses were broken down in favor of technology, we opened ourselves up for demonic destruction as well as endless mass migration.</p><p>It seems we have traded our spiritual energy away for temporary progress. Sapped and trapped, the sacred has been nearly devoured by the profane. We&#8217;ve sold our magic (our soul) to the Devil (technology). This removal of the &#8220;sacred shield&#8221; that was meant to protect and preserve us was, in fact, the first step toward our mental, moral, and techno-masochistic decline. </p><p>The Na&#8217;vi of <em>Avatar&#8217;s</em> Pandora are strong because they still have their magic, whereas the humans are weak because they&#8217;ve lost theirs. And so it is in the real world here on Earth.</p><p>In his book <em>Anglo-Saxon Magic, </em>author G. Storms mentioned many of the sort of charms and spells that the heathen magicians of North-Western Europe once cast. Most of these spells relate to protective measures against disease or theft, and also against one&#8217;s enemies. We find a good collection of spells in the Icelandic <em>Galdrab&#243;k </em>(the Book of Magic). Though heavily Latinized, the spells&#8217; intents were still heathen. By and large, the heathen Nordic-Germanic magicians acted as spiritual generals and doctors, guarding the wellbeing of their people.</p><p>So, why did the West embark on this path, to give up magic for technology? Might one regard magic as a spiritual technology and modern technology as disenchanted magic? Why did Protestantism in particular favor technology over magic? </p><p>Well, for starters, Protestantism is based on the Mosaic prophets of the Old Testament (Moses et al.), whereas Catholicism is a New Testament Christianity based on ancient Egyptian magic. In a way, Protestantism is much more &#8220;Jewish&#8221; and mercantilist than Catholicism, which drove Jews out of the Church around the third century AD. When there is talk of &#8220;Judeo-Christian values&#8221; (a literary invention of the late 19th century), we are perhaps looking at a geopolitical construct meant to help get American evangelicals behind support for Israel.</p><p>The two branches of Western Christianity (Catholic and Protestant) might as well be called different religions, for one still wields magic, and the other denies magic is real. Importantly, Protestantism became the religion of the Freemasons. Catholics and women were initially barred from joining. Masonic lodges spread across the globe along with the spread of the British Empire. And so, Protestant Freemasons became the world&#8217;s secret shadow elite.</p><p>It has led some to comment that, perhaps, Protestantism was a Judeo-mercantilist invention meant to overthrow the still magically oriented Catholicism. Under the British Empire, this mercantilist empire, many national populations were subsequently converted into <em>consumers</em> and, later, into <em>expendable assets</em>. </p><p>Remember what Heidegger said? He warned that technology would turn the whole Earth into a standing reserve, a giant gas station meant for consumption. In <em>The Wealth of Nations</em> (1776), Adam Smith summarized it as follows:</p><div class="pullquote"><p>&#8220;To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers.&#8221;</p></div><p>Smith called Britain a nation of shopkeepers but failed to mention that the British elites, at the time, were influentially Jewish or had, at least, adopted Jewish mercantilism. It certainly weren&#8217;t the heathen Celto-Germanics who had abandoned their magical ways in favor of global consumption. An  alien race had turned Britain into a shop, and would later turn America into a mall. </p><p>Malls and shops are famously open to members of all races and religions. Magical boundaries, such as those once set by the ancient priests, were now considered economic nuisances. The world was forced to open itself up to commerce and trade, to the benefit of certain global elites.</p><p>Subjects of the West ceased being purposeful mortals and became products of the technological age. No longer were we growing food to feed families, but rather, we started breeding families in order to sell more food. We started diluting food&#8217;s nutritional contents in order to sell more of it, while teaching people to &#8220;drink more water&#8221; to help them flush minerals out of their bodies, forcing people to eat more. In line with this, the Ozempic medicine, which is supposed to reduce one&#8217;s fat contents, perfectly help sell <em>more food</em> again.</p><p>Food has lost its magic. No longer is food a substance meant to nourish both the soul <em>and </em>the body. Modern food <em>only </em>nourishes the body, but barely, while depriving the soul. Selling more food (and clothing and houses), as you will understand, became one of the drivers behind mass migration. Once poor nutrition killed a population&#8217;s will to reproduce, mass immigration became required to continue the scheme. </p><p><em>We need to put a stop to this development. </em>What we need is an overturning of modernity. </p><p>Icelandic language still betrays the importance of the magicians, who were called the &#8220;<em>megttugaste</em>&#8221;, or the mightiest of men. Though Iceland&#8217;s magicians were generally considered lower-class, namely financially poor, they were frequently literate. The history of Iceland&#8217;s magicians shows that magic was not reserved to the elites, who sometimes practiced it, but to anyone with the right spiritual skillset.</p><p>Throughout the pre-Christian European age, master magicians and high priests generally ranked above worldly leaders such as kings and princes, and below only the gods. The rich used to bow before their priest, and emperors needed their magician&#8217;s approval for war. </p><p>The peoples of the West need a spiritual renewal that begins with the embrace of magic. We cannot possibly defeat diversity and multiculturalism until a new generation of priests and magicians is allowed to hallow our borders and sanctify our exclusionary spaces again. We shall fight globalism not with more technology, but with magical incantations.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Radical Death: Living in a State of Total War]]></title><description><![CDATA[When Ends Meet]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/radical-death-living-in-a-state-of</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/radical-death-living-in-a-state-of</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 28 Nov 2025 12:15:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LFQp!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e99f5e9-4b25-42e1-94d7-276b765c5474_2560x1646.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LFQp!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e99f5e9-4b25-42e1-94d7-276b765c5474_2560x1646.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LFQp!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e99f5e9-4b25-42e1-94d7-276b765c5474_2560x1646.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LFQp!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e99f5e9-4b25-42e1-94d7-276b765c5474_2560x1646.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LFQp!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e99f5e9-4b25-42e1-94d7-276b765c5474_2560x1646.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LFQp!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e99f5e9-4b25-42e1-94d7-276b765c5474_2560x1646.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LFQp!,w_2400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e99f5e9-4b25-42e1-94d7-276b765c5474_2560x1646.jpeg" width="1200" height="771.4285714285714" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/8e99f5e9-4b25-42e1-94d7-276b765c5474_2560x1646.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:false,&quot;imageSize&quot;:&quot;large&quot;,&quot;height&quot;:936,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:1200,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;undefined&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;center&quot;,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-large" alt="undefined" title="undefined" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LFQp!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e99f5e9-4b25-42e1-94d7-276b765c5474_2560x1646.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LFQp!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e99f5e9-4b25-42e1-94d7-276b765c5474_2560x1646.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LFQp!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e99f5e9-4b25-42e1-94d7-276b765c5474_2560x1646.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LFQp!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e99f5e9-4b25-42e1-94d7-276b765c5474_2560x1646.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">A Valkyrie and the dying hero. In death, we have no fear and no worries.</figcaption></figure></div><p><strong>A young man asked me what is still worth living for? My response was to do whatever you need to do to make the money required for living, but to remain emotionally entirely detached. As minorities in our countries, we are now soldiers hiding in enemy territory (our former nations). For the sake of our survival, we must embrace the doctrine of </strong><em><strong>Radical Death</strong></em><strong>.</strong></p><p>&#8216;Radical death&#8217; is a concept I conceived from the writings of Martin Heidegger, Ernst Schertel, Carl Jung, and others. Radical death means to embrace one&#8217;s end already in the present moment, as though one were already dead. Imagine it as though our societies had already crumbled and fallen. </p><p>This living death echoes the mythological state of Odin&#8217;s armies of the dead, but leads to the Christian concept of resurrection. When we imagine death has already come to us, then nothing can hurt us anymore. We are without worry. As the designated scapegoats of diversity, we must stage our death so that we may resurrect ourselves, later, as our nations&#8217; sovereign rulers.</p><h3>White Scapegoats</h3><p>To explain why radical death is the answer to our problems, let me describe to you the behaviors inflicted upon scapegoats. A &#8216;scapegoat&#8217; used to be a literal goat in Biblical lore upon which all blame and curse was placed, so that, upon its slaughter, the goat and all of society&#8217;s problems would die. </p><p>However, in our modern time, the educated classes of the West have made White people&#8212;and in particular, White men&#8212;the scapegoat. Instead of standing up for ourselves and defending our nations against the war by mass migration, against Islam and Judaization, Western educated circles have chosen the path of submission and surrender. </p><p>To secure a place in the world for themselves, the educated Western classes have begun scapegoating <em>our race&#8217;s children</em>, in particular, <em>White boys.</em> The way to understand this phenomenon is to see diversity and multiculturalism as a <em>war</em> being waged <em>by one&#8217;s own leaders</em> against <em>one&#8217;s own children</em>, in order for the do-good elites to secure their survival by allying with the enemy.</p><h3>Elite Treason</h3><p>I.e., we are living through an age of extreme betrayal. The treason has assumed the form of &#8220;progressive advances&#8221; that are, in fact, the chosen modes of butchering our designated scapegoats (White men and boys) in order to accommodate the invaders.</p><p>It went like this:</p><p>First, the educated White middle classes began scapegoating the White lower classes. The working men and women were pictured as &#8216;indecent&#8217;, as &#8216;unmannered&#8217; and, above all, as &#8216;xenophobic, racist, and fascist&#8217;. White working men were the first to be faced with near-total replacement immigration, as male immigrants from rural (low-IQ) areas of Eastern Europe and from outside of Europe began pouring in by the millions since the 1960s. But by the 1990s, White working-class people&#8217;s children had already become minorities in most working-class schools. </p><p>Today, post-2020, White working classes have nearly disappeared in larger towns and cities. However, to further preserve the educate elite&#8217;s status and position, the scapegoating circus began targeting all White people in general. By disassociating themselves from their own race of people, the ugly, intellectual, academic-minded &#8220;laptop class&#8221; could perhaps win the favors of the newcomers. In other words, after the lower classes, now the lower middle classes were going to be sacrificed on the altars of diversity.</p><p>Western farmers have also come under attack as yet another designated scapegoat group. As diversity intensifies, more and more groups of people will discover that they are being elected for &#8220;removal&#8221;. So this process isn&#8217;t at all over yet, and will continue until only the top tiers of the White upper middle and upper classes are left standing.</p><p>Our greatest enemies, then, are the snobbish traitors we find among our own.</p><h3>The Scapegoating</h3><p>We can now discern clearly what sort of scapegoating tactics are being used against us:</p><ul><li><p>Children as young as 2 years old, and many teenagers, are confronted with gay lifestyle propaganda to &#8220;help them explore their sexuality&#8221;. It&#8217;s called &#8220;sexual education&#8221; but is really <strong>infertility propaganda</strong>.</p></li><li><p>After the gay circus, children at every earlier ages are now proposed to go down the route of transgenderism. Hormone blockers help stunt healthy teens&#8217; physical growth. It is sold as &#8220;self-expression&#8221; but is really <strong>child castration and mutilation</strong><em>.</em></p></li><li><p>Not surprisingly, all so-called &#8220;progressive&#8221; Western nations have begun normalizing and even promoting suicide for teenagers, and even for children. Suicide is no longer a Christian sin, but a viable option for teenagers unable to start life (because they are being scapegoated!). Again, it is sold as &#8220;healthcare&#8221; but is really <strong>child sacrifice and ritual child murder </strong>(by driving children to suicide as their only option).</p></li><li><p>Past suicide, countries such as the Netherlands are readying laws to allow under-12-year-olds to opt in to having themselves euthanized. Soon, even without having to inform parents. You could have yourself euthanized by the school doctor, for example. Euthanasia, once meant only for the terminally-ill old, is now being sold as &#8220;a human right&#8221; to 9-year-olds suffering tinnitus or bad hair days. It is really <strong>state-sanctioned</strong> <strong>mass murder.</strong></p></li><li><p>The totally fake wars in Ukraine and elsewhere serve to cull the White populations of their men (ages 20-40), and soon also the young White men (ages 15-20), whereas women are propagandized to mate with African, Arab, Hindu or other Asian immigrants. This is sold as &#8220;diversity&#8221; or even &#8220;necessary to prevent extinction&#8221; (as per one Danish commercial mocking a White couple), but it is really <strong>systematic genocide of White people</strong>. </p></li><li><p>The housing and job markets entirely favor immigrants. Why hire a member of a scapegoated class? Accusations of &#8220;historical colonialism and racism&#8221; only serve as justifications to <strong>sacrifice</strong> the designated scapegoats.</p></li><li><p>Then there&#8217;s the matter of the Covid vaccinations, which were globally administered to mostly Western and Chinese populations, whereas Muslims and Africans arriving to the West have <em>generally not been vaccinated against Covid<strong>. </strong></em>(I also didn&#8217;t take the jabs.) What was sold as healthcare may, in fact, have been another act of <strong>medical genocide</strong>.</p></li><li><p>The attack on meat and dairy foods may be sold as &#8220;necessary to fight climate change&#8221;, but if you factor in that meat and dairy are mostly eaten by people of European descent (since Asians are grain and rice eaters, and black Africans naturally prefer fruits and starchy roots), then veganism explains itself as an <strong>attack vector on White people&#8217;s food supply</strong>, leading to more <strong>genocide by starvation </strong>(starving us of the animal fats and proteins needed for our reproductive vigor). Some White parents happily try to raise their babies on vegan diets, which has already led to deaths (White babies starve on vegan diets, and survivors tend to have stunted bodies and brains).</p></li></ul><h3>Living in a State of Total War</h3><p>All of this scapegoating is, of course, presented as <strong>progressive</strong>. You are either with the scapegoats (fascists, racists, etc.) or with the good people (minorities, women, etc.)!</p><p>The mass societal scapegoating exercise takes the form of <em>do-goodery</em> and emphasizes <em>equal rights</em>, but these are excuses to effectively enact <em>a mass murder plot to wipe out people of European descent</em>. The scapegoating may take the form of &#8220;meat production is bad CO2,&#8221; but it really means, &#8220;White men eating healthy food are bad&#8221;. It may say, &#8220;suicide is a human right,&#8221; but really reads, &#8220;we must purge more White children&#8221;.</p><p>And so, we who are under attack must change our attitudes toward the world. This world is hostile and it wants us dead. Our White educated classes and our ruling elites have decided to sacrifice their own in order to maintain fictions of power and relevance. The so-called progressive policies really serve to scapegoat White men, boys, and to some extent even women and girls (who are told to do porn or mix races).</p><h3>Winning the War</h3><p>This war cannot be won in conventional ways. There is no physical front line. There are no bombs and bullets. It is a cultural war that is being waged primarily at a psychological level, namely by getting people to go along with their planned demographic suicide. </p><p>This psychological war, however, can be won by <em>accepting the outcome upfront</em>&#8212;namely, the death of our civilization. By accepting that Western (White) civilization as we know it is coming to an end, we may now choose to <strong>kill the civilization</strong> in order to <strong>save the people</strong>, rather than sacrificing the people in order to save the economy!</p><p>Our goal, then, is the resurrection of our race, not the preservation of our finances. We shall have to accept that no amount of money or material wealth can deliver us from the evils of diversity. Only when we accept the death of our societies do we win the possibility of resurrection. </p><p>It is <em>toward</em> death, then, and <em>through</em> death, that we must live in order to win. Though naked near the end, we shall arrive at our vigorous new beginning.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[AI's False Dawn: Self-Control, Not Intelligence, Drives Economies]]></title><description><![CDATA[AI Can Never Compensate for Mass Delinquency from Imported, Uncultured Demographics]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/ais-false-dawn-self-control-not-intelligence</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/ais-false-dawn-self-control-not-intelligence</guid><pubDate>Mon, 24 Nov 2025 10:50:25 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QHb9!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8119e18b-ec4a-47e8-b16c-8f72142eb51f_540x360.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QHb9!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8119e18b-ec4a-47e8-b16c-8f72142eb51f_540x360.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QHb9!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8119e18b-ec4a-47e8-b16c-8f72142eb51f_540x360.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QHb9!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8119e18b-ec4a-47e8-b16c-8f72142eb51f_540x360.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QHb9!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8119e18b-ec4a-47e8-b16c-8f72142eb51f_540x360.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QHb9!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8119e18b-ec4a-47e8-b16c-8f72142eb51f_540x360.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QHb9!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8119e18b-ec4a-47e8-b16c-8f72142eb51f_540x360.jpeg" width="540" height="360" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/8119e18b-ec4a-47e8-b16c-8f72142eb51f_540x360.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:360,&quot;width&quot;:540,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;1950S Family Images &#8211; Browse 19,724 Stock Photos, Vectors, and Video |  Adobe Stock&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="1950S Family Images &#8211; Browse 19,724 Stock Photos, Vectors, and Video |  Adobe Stock" title="1950S Family Images &#8211; Browse 19,724 Stock Photos, Vectors, and Video |  Adobe Stock" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QHb9!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8119e18b-ec4a-47e8-b16c-8f72142eb51f_540x360.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QHb9!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8119e18b-ec4a-47e8-b16c-8f72142eb51f_540x360.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QHb9!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8119e18b-ec4a-47e8-b16c-8f72142eb51f_540x360.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QHb9!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8119e18b-ec4a-47e8-b16c-8f72142eb51f_540x360.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Growing economies need a population with growing conscientiousness: no tattoos, no drugs, no alcohol, no slacking on the job, paying taxes, paying the bus fare, no public peeing, no loud shouting, giving way in traffic, and planning for the future.</figcaption></figure></div><p><strong>In an era where tech titans pour trillions into artificial intelligence, promising a utopia of effortless prosperity, the real story unfolds not in silicon valleys but in crumbling civic norms. This essay argues that economic vitality hinges less on raw intellect &#8211; whether human or algorithmic &#8211; and more on collective self-control: the quiet discipline to labor steadily, respect shared spaces, and curb impulses that erode trust.</strong> </p><p>Economies depend on millions of ordinary people showing up on time, paying their fares, refraining from petty theft, and accepting unpleasant but necessary work. <em>When large segments of a population lose these habits, no amount of computing power can prevent decline.</em> The evidence&#8212;from long-term psychological studies, economic history, and current fiscal data&#8212;consistently places self-control above cognitive ability as the primary predictor of individual and national prosperity.</p><h3>The Economic Evidence: AI Spending Is Masking, Not Creating, Growth</h3><p>Capital expenditure on AI infrastructure has become one of the few bright spots in otherwise weak economies. In the United States, the large technology companies are on track to spend more than $600 billion in 2025 alone on data centers and chips. This spending has kept headline GDP numbers respectable and supported a narrow band of suppliers. Remove those expenditures, however, and the broader economy shows clear signs of weakness: flat or declining non-tech business investment, stagnant real disposable incomes, and shrinking earnings for all but the largest firms.</p><p>Europe presents an even starker picture. Despite repeated political summits and promises of an &#8220;AI continent,&#8221; the European Union is investing less than one-tenth of what the United States spends annually. Heavy regulation, fragmented capital markets, and risk-averse public funding have prevented European companies from reaching the scale required for competitive AI development. The result is growing technological dependence on American and Chinese providers rather than genuine economic renewal.</p><h3>Self-Control, Not IQ, Predicts Life Outcomes</h3><p>Decades of longitudinal research have tested the relative importance of intelligence and self-control. The most authoritative evidence comes from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, which has followed more than 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to middle age. Children rated as having poor self-control at ages 3&#8211;11 (by teachers, parents, and observers) ended up, as adults, with worse health, lower earnings, higher rates of crime, and greater dependence on welfare&#8212;regardless of their IQ or family socioeconomic background.<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-1" href="#footnote-1" target="_self">1</a></p><p>A separate line of research has repeatedly shown that measures of conscientiousness and impulse control explain more variance in academic grades, job performance, and accumulated wealth than IQ does. In direct statistical comparisons, self-control typically accounts for 20&#8211;40 percent more of the differences in outcomes than cognitive ability alone.<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-2" href="#footnote-2" target="_self">2</a> These findings have been replicated across countries, age groups, and socioeconomic strata.</p><h3>How Low-Level Disorder Becomes Systemic Collapse</h3><p>Small violations of public order&#8212;fare evasion, shoplifting, littering, and vandalism&#8212;appear trivial in isolation. In aggregate, however, they impose large economic costs and, more importantly, erode the social norms that make complex economies possible.</p><p>When a critical mass of people stops paying train fares, transit authorities must either raise prices for everyone else or cut service; ridership falls further, and the spiral continues. When retail theft is tolerated, stores close or install expensive security measures, reducing taxable commerce and employment. The National Retail Federation estimates that organized retail crime alone now costs American merchants more than $100 billion a year.</p><p>Psychological research on norm violation shows that visible rule-breaking is contagious. Once a subset of the population gains immediate advantages from minor infractions and suffers no consequences, others quickly abandon their own restraint. The result is a rapid, self-reinforcing decline in civic behavior that no technology can offset.</p><h3>Diminishing Returns and the Limits of Complexity</h3><p>Economist and energy analyst Gail Tverberg has documented how modern economies face steadily diminishing returns on additional complexity. Each new layer of technology, regulation, or infrastructure requires disproportionately large inputs of energy and materials while delivering smaller marginal benefits.<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-3" href="#footnote-3" target="_self">3</a> Artificial intelligence fits this pattern: training the largest models already consumes electricity equivalent to that of midsize countries, and the physical limits of chip manufacturing are approaching known engineering barriers.</p><p>A society that maintains high average self-control can push further along the complexity curve before returns turn negative. A society that loses behavioral discipline hits the wall sooner, because more resources must be diverted to security, insurance, and remediation rather than productive investment.</p><h3>Immigration and the Transmission of Behavioral Norms</h3><p>Large-scale immigration from regions with different cultural norms regarding punctuality, rule-following, and public order can significantly affect a host country&#8217;s average level of self-control. Economic studies of second-generation outcomes in Europe consistently find that behavioral assimilation lags far behind language acquisition or formal education. Children of immigrants often retain crime rates and welfare-dependency patterns closer to those of their parents&#8217; countries of origin than to native averages.</p><p>The fiscal consequences are measurable. Peer-reviewed estimates for several European countries place the lifetime net fiscal cost of low-skilled immigration between 0.5 and 1 percent of GDP per year. These costs arise not from any inherent inability, but from persistently lower employment rates and higher involvement with criminal justice and social services&#8212;patterns that correlate strongly with differences in impulse control and future orientation.</p><h3>The Educational Failure: Teaching Self-Expression Instead of Self-Mastery</h3><p>Modern Western education has largely abandoned the explicit teaching of posture, politeness, punctuality, and personal responsibility in favor of self-expression and emotional validation. Longitudinal data show that students in permissive environments develop lower conscientiousness scores and higher dropout rates than peers in structured settings.</p><p>Employers now routinely report that recent graduates lack basic workplace discipline: they resist unpleasant tasks, arrive late, and prioritize personal comfort over collective deadlines. These are not intelligence deficits; they are failures of character formation that no algorithm can correct.</p><h3>Conclusion: No Technological Substitute for Civic Discipline</h3><p>Artificial intelligence can optimize processes, reduce certain forms of labor, and create new industries. It cannot make people show up on time, pay their debts, or refrain from stealing when they believe they will not be caught. Economies are ultimately networks of trust and reciprocity, sustained by millions of daily acts of self-restraint.</p><p>As long as policymakers and investors continue to treat intelligence as the binding constraint on prosperity while ignoring the erosion of self-control, the current wave of AI investment will prove to be another expensive detour rather than a genuine renewal. History suggests that societies which lose the bourgeois virtues of order, diligence, and civility decline long before their technological capabilities peak.</p><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-1" href="#footnote-anchor-1" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">1</a><div class="footnote-content"><p>Moffitt et al., &#8220;A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety,&#8221; *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences* 108, no. 7 (2011): 2693&#8211;2698.</p></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-2" href="#footnote-anchor-2" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">2</a><div class="footnote-content"><p>Duckworth &amp; Seligman, &#8220;Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents,&#8221; *Psychological Science* 16, no. 12 (2005): 939&#8211;944.</p></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-3" href="#footnote-anchor-3" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">3</a><div class="footnote-content"><p>Gail Tverberg, &#8220;Why growth can&#8217;t continue: Diminishing returns,&#8221; *Our Finite World*, various posts 2018&#8211;2025 (e.g., May 31, 2025 summary).</p></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Preparing for the End of Civilization]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Rise and Fall of Subordinate Races]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/preparing-for-the-end-of-civilization</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/preparing-for-the-end-of-civilization</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2025 08:15:16 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cvcu!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06310a7f-b406-46ac-bca0-c9ae40f88765_1280x720.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cvcu!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06310a7f-b406-46ac-bca0-c9ae40f88765_1280x720.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cvcu!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06310a7f-b406-46ac-bca0-c9ae40f88765_1280x720.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cvcu!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06310a7f-b406-46ac-bca0-c9ae40f88765_1280x720.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cvcu!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06310a7f-b406-46ac-bca0-c9ae40f88765_1280x720.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cvcu!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06310a7f-b406-46ac-bca0-c9ae40f88765_1280x720.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cvcu!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06310a7f-b406-46ac-bca0-c9ae40f88765_1280x720.jpeg" width="1280" height="720" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/06310a7f-b406-46ac-bca0-c9ae40f88765_1280x720.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:720,&quot;width&quot;:1280,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Conan the Barbarian - Riders of Doom (1982 HD)&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Conan the Barbarian - Riders of Doom (1982 HD)" title="Conan the Barbarian - Riders of Doom (1982 HD)" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cvcu!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06310a7f-b406-46ac-bca0-c9ae40f88765_1280x720.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cvcu!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06310a7f-b406-46ac-bca0-c9ae40f88765_1280x720.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cvcu!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06310a7f-b406-46ac-bca0-c9ae40f88765_1280x720.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cvcu!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06310a7f-b406-46ac-bca0-c9ae40f88765_1280x720.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>In </strong><em><strong><a href="https://digital-library.canterbury.ac.nz/resources/open/freerange/FR8_Humanimal3.0_Digital.pdf">The Rise of the Subordinate</a></strong></em><strong>, the author maintains that the transition from hunter-gather societies to more egalitarian agricultural societies allowed low-ranking subordinates to multiply without immediate resource restrictions. In fact, this process is what we now call &#8216;culture&#8217;. But it cannot last forever.</strong></p><p>The distinction between culture and what came before it is the difference between dominance hierarchies, ruled by competent men who beat down the competition, and egalitarian networks that collectively bully dominant leaders into submission. The author explains that, </p><blockquote><p>&#8220;different groups use coalitional strategies (such as feminism) to suppress dominance hierarchies&#8221;.</p></blockquote><p>Think of it in terms of <em>The Lion King</em>. The lions initially rule the pride lands. They are authoritarian and dominance-based, led by male leader Mufasa. However, the hyenas, larger in number, more manipulative, and led by hyena matriarch Shenzi, ultimately take over the pride lands. The hyenas then hunt the lands to extinction, turning them into a desert, echoing the idea of <em>limits to growth</em>.</p><p>Indeed, our planet is also facing potential resource depletion. Not just oil, but a host of other raw materials are becoming either increasingly scarce, or increasingly expensive to mine. Following the studies of actuarian Gail Tverberg, on her blog <em><a href="https://ourfiniteworld.com/">Our Finite World</a></em>, her conclusion is that what we call &#8216;civilization&#8217; must come to an end during the next 20 to 50 years.</p><p>In <em>The Lion King</em>, Scar, Mufasa&#8217;s evil brother, expresses this sentiment, namely that, </p><blockquote><p>&#8220;While some are born to feast, others spend their lives in the dark, begging for scraps.&#8221; </p></blockquote><p>Scar embodies the <em>feasting</em> attitude of communism, which implores people to maximize their consumption. This, of course, goes hand in hand with capitalist enterprise.</p><p>The author of <em>The Rise of the Subordinate </em>further explains, &#8220;The increased availability of surviving mates and relative resource equity of the agrarian cultural system is responsible for reducing selection pressures &#8230;&#8221;. However, &#8220;the best survival outcomes in zero-sum conflicts in the lawless wild will produce over time a fitness bias towards dominance hierarchy.&#8221;</p><p>Meaning, we ought to expect a return to dominance hierarchies and, therewith, the end of civilization.</p><h3>What Subordinates? </h3><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kcNn!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4e1ae77-b8bf-4350-80e9-42f835d56132_1128x480.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kcNn!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4e1ae77-b8bf-4350-80e9-42f835d56132_1128x480.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kcNn!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4e1ae77-b8bf-4350-80e9-42f835d56132_1128x480.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kcNn!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4e1ae77-b8bf-4350-80e9-42f835d56132_1128x480.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kcNn!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4e1ae77-b8bf-4350-80e9-42f835d56132_1128x480.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kcNn!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4e1ae77-b8bf-4350-80e9-42f835d56132_1128x480.jpeg" width="1128" height="480" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a4e1ae77-b8bf-4350-80e9-42f835d56132_1128x480.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:480,&quot;width&quot;:1128,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;YARN | Civilization, ancient and wicked. | Conan the Barbarian (1982) |  Video gifs by quotes | 057f7596 | &#32023;&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="YARN | Civilization, ancient and wicked. | Conan the Barbarian (1982) |  Video gifs by quotes | 057f7596 | &#32023;" title="YARN | Civilization, ancient and wicked. | Conan the Barbarian (1982) |  Video gifs by quotes | 057f7596 | &#32023;" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kcNn!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4e1ae77-b8bf-4350-80e9-42f835d56132_1128x480.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kcNn!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4e1ae77-b8bf-4350-80e9-42f835d56132_1128x480.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kcNn!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4e1ae77-b8bf-4350-80e9-42f835d56132_1128x480.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kcNn!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4e1ae77-b8bf-4350-80e9-42f835d56132_1128x480.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">In the 1982 movie <em>Conan the Barbarian</em>, Conan enters civilization, and ends up destroying it.</figcaption></figure></div><p>Who are the <em>subordinates</em>, then, that are expected to lose their power? They include cattle and grain, and the masses that consume them, the <em>hoi polloi</em>. It is taxpayers and voters who stand to lose most of their numbers during the collapse of civilization. And along with them, the subordinate races further down the hierarchy shall perish.</p><p>Around the year 1800, the continent of Africa had just about 90 million inhabitants. Today, they count over 1.2 billion. This 12-fold explosion in barely 225 years should be understood as the &#8220;rise of the subordinate&#8221;. The men and women who benefited so much from Western technology, medicine, and education, now stand to lose the most, as such large numbers are entirely unsustainable, especially since these numbers depend entirely on Western technology transfer to Africa, in exchange for resources for the factories outside of Africa.</p><p>It is unlikely that the billion African will <em>not</em> suffer a major famine event that could wipe out up to 90% of their numbers, reducing them to 1800s population levels. In Europe, too, after the death of the boomers, the demand for migrants out of Africa (and elsewhere) may dwindle, as Europe will no longer need that many helping hands to service aging demographics. Many an immigrant cook and cleaner may have to leave Europe to find work elsewhere&#8212;work that won&#8217;t be available anywhere.</p><p>Thus, the death of the White boomer generation also implies the end of mass immigration, multiculturalism, and diversity, since demand for extra pairs of brown hands will disappear. The homeless will die, welfare dependents will die, and NGO-leftists living off of government subsidies will die along with them. A whole self-serving system will come crashing down as both <em>supply and</em> <em>demand for hand-out services</em> disintegrates.</p><p>Thus, we shall see the Fall of the Subordinates, the natural erasure of the popular mob, and the restoration of dominance hierarchies. As Tverberg explains, </p><blockquote><p>&#8220;It is unlikely that democracies can continue; authoritarian rulers with a support staff are more likely. Plagues may cause the overall population to fall.&#8221;</p></blockquote><p><em>Plagues such as Covid</em>&#8212;which wasn&#8217;t a real virus, but rather a government program intended to reduce the population, in hopes of saving the economy. One day, the technocrats won&#8217;t be able to save the economy, and the democratic population will simply be killed off nearly entirely.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z6JV!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1bc89392-9ab8-4db4-8357-6408b9b7ba29_1600x800.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z6JV!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1bc89392-9ab8-4db4-8357-6408b9b7ba29_1600x800.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z6JV!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1bc89392-9ab8-4db4-8357-6408b9b7ba29_1600x800.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z6JV!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1bc89392-9ab8-4db4-8357-6408b9b7ba29_1600x800.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z6JV!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1bc89392-9ab8-4db4-8357-6408b9b7ba29_1600x800.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z6JV!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1bc89392-9ab8-4db4-8357-6408b9b7ba29_1600x800.jpeg" width="1456" height="728" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/1bc89392-9ab8-4db4-8357-6408b9b7ba29_1600x800.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:728,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Arnold Schwarzenegger Explains Legend of Conan's Development Issues&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Arnold Schwarzenegger Explains Legend of Conan's Development Issues" title="Arnold Schwarzenegger Explains Legend of Conan's Development Issues" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z6JV!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1bc89392-9ab8-4db4-8357-6408b9b7ba29_1600x800.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z6JV!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1bc89392-9ab8-4db4-8357-6408b9b7ba29_1600x800.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z6JV!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1bc89392-9ab8-4db4-8357-6408b9b7ba29_1600x800.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z6JV!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1bc89392-9ab8-4db4-8357-6408b9b7ba29_1600x800.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Or, as Conan would say,</p><div class="pullquote"><p>The best thing in life to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.</p></div><p>On that note, we must prepare. Be prepared for the end of civilization. Let us position our best men as authoritarian rulers of the world, in the new age ruled by dominant men of action.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[God, and the Imaginative Will]]></title><description><![CDATA[Why Normies Are Aristotle's "Natural Born Slaves"]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/god-and-the-imaginative-will</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/god-and-the-imaginative-will</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 09:43:08 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SZLB!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ca0b6f9-b17a-4c53-97c4-8c0bccff544d_1024x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SZLB!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ca0b6f9-b17a-4c53-97c4-8c0bccff544d_1024x1024.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SZLB!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ca0b6f9-b17a-4c53-97c4-8c0bccff544d_1024x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SZLB!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ca0b6f9-b17a-4c53-97c4-8c0bccff544d_1024x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SZLB!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ca0b6f9-b17a-4c53-97c4-8c0bccff544d_1024x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SZLB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ca0b6f9-b17a-4c53-97c4-8c0bccff544d_1024x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SZLB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ca0b6f9-b17a-4c53-97c4-8c0bccff544d_1024x1024.png" width="1024" height="1024" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/4ca0b6f9-b17a-4c53-97c4-8c0bccff544d_1024x1024.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1024,&quot;width&quot;:1024,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Greek Slavery - History for kids&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Greek Slavery - History for kids" title="Greek Slavery - History for kids" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SZLB!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ca0b6f9-b17a-4c53-97c4-8c0bccff544d_1024x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SZLB!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ca0b6f9-b17a-4c53-97c4-8c0bccff544d_1024x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SZLB!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ca0b6f9-b17a-4c53-97c4-8c0bccff544d_1024x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SZLB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ca0b6f9-b17a-4c53-97c4-8c0bccff544d_1024x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>Greek philosopher Aristotle justified slavery because, he believed, some people are born slaves. He called a slave &#8220;anyone who, while being human, is by nature not his own but of someone else&#8221;. But what exactly distinguishes a natural born slave from a free man? A look at the Myers-Briggs personality classication offers the answer as to who are property and who should rule.</strong></p><p>Aristotle further stated that a slave &#8220;is of someone else when, while being human, he is a piece of property,&#8221; and that &#8220;a piece of property is a tool for action&#8221;. Who are these tools for human action?</p><p>Looking at the Myers-Briggs personality typology, we make a distinction between introverted (I) and extroverted (E) people; between intuitive (Ni) minds and sensing or observing minds (S); feeling (F) or thinking (T); judging (J) or perceiving (P). Now it happens to be so that most of these personality traits have a 50%-50% near-equal distribution, <em>except</em> for intuitive thinking versus sensins, which skews in favor of sensing by 75% (versus intuition 25%).</p><p>It means that barely a quarter of humanity is capable of imagining things that aren&#8217;t there, such as interpolating or extrapolating data, or fantasizing about the future and seeing multiple different outcomes. It should be no surprise, then, that people with the intuitive personality type&#8212;on average&#8212;do better than all the sensing personalities. That is because IQ tests usually require you to see into the future to guess, correctly, the outcome of a series of numbers of visuals.</p><p>People with intuitive minds can see into the future. They don&#8217;t rely on mere that which is in front of them in the present moment. Intuitives can recognize patters and distill previously unknown information. It is for this reason that ruling classes are all recruited from the intuitive minds, for they see the patterns among the common populations, which they subsequently exploit, either for the good of humanity, for the good of their elite in-group, or both. </p><p>The people who &#8220;can&#8217;t see&#8221; because they are still blind, then, form the working classes, or about three-quarters of humanity who are destined to be ruled rather than to rule. They are in every sense more akin to <em>animals</em> who respond and react reflexively to their environment. Due to the limitations of their mental state, this large portion of humanity can only follow cues. They may be expert trackers in the wild, but are also the first to be fooled by AI videos.</p><h3>Transcending Matter to Reshape Reality</h3><p>Those who favor intuition over sensing embody a  capacity to transcend the  sensory world, peering  into the realm of (more or less) abstract possibilities. This intuitive disposition enables individuals to &#8220;discount&#8221; the clamor of the senses in favor of imaginative visions that, far from being mere fantasy, hold the potential to alter the physical world itself. </p><p>Philosopher Martin Heidegger captured this dynamic in his distinction between &#8220;<em>closeness</em>&#8221; to the sensory &#8220;outside world&#8221;  and &#8220;<em>distance</em>,&#8221; a contemplative remove that unveils deeper structures of being. I argue that cultivating a stronger ability to imagine is a transformative force capable of reshaping reality.</p><p>Imagination helps access inner potencies to override material constraints, with particular application to Europe&#8217;s potential to reclaim traditional faith and culture against the tide of American-style materialism. When I say American, I really mean the style of the non-European matriarchal world, which, through the influence of Judeo-Marxism and its global trade systems, has rather infected the American corporate capitalist world, now being imposed upon Europe. It is not the natural state of being for European elites to care for things like urbanism and material consumption.</p><p>In prioritizing love and ethnic rootedness over money and enforced diversity, Europeans might harness their imaginative forces, once again, to foster vibrant small-town communities, thereby dismantling the homogenizing grip of the global economy.</p><h3>Philosophy: From Will to World-Making</h3><p>At the heart of this argument lies a philosophical tradition that posits imagination as the bridge between inner essence and outer manifestation. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer&#8217;s magnum opus, <em>The World as Will and Representation</em> (1818), offers a framework: the world unfolds in two aspects, namely the &#8220;<em>will</em>,&#8221; an insatiable, blind striving that constitutes the noumenal core of existence, and the &#8220;<em>representation</em>,&#8221; the phenomenal veil spun by senses, space, time, and causality. </p><p>For Schopenhauer, everyday sensory immersion traps us in the will&#8217;s service, manifesting as endless desire and suffering. Yet imagination, particularly through aesthetic contemplation in art and poetry, elevates us to a &#8220;pure, will-less subject of knowledge,&#8221; momentarily silencing the will&#8217;s clamor and revealing timeless universals. </p><p>Without such imaginative intervention, the will devours itself in material excess; with it, we glimpse redemption through creative transcendence. This Schopenhauerian insight resonates with the broader arc of German Idealism, which elevated mind and spirit as the architects of reality, in stark contrast to Marxian materialism&#8217;s inversion. </p><p>Thinkers like Johann Gottlieb Fichte and G.W.F. Hegel envisioned the world as the self-unfolding of absolute spirit or ego: Fichte&#8217;s <em>Wissenschaftslehre</em> (1794) posits the &#8220;I&#8221; as an act of imagination that constructs the non-ego (external world) through intellectual intuition, while Hegel&#8217;s dialectical idealism in <em>Phenomenology of Spirit</em> (1807) traces history as Geist&#8217;s progressive realization, where ideas drive material change. </p><p>According to German Idealists, imagination is not passive but generative. Imagination is the faculty through which consciousness objectifies itself, birthing institutions, cultures, and revolutions. Marx and Engels, in <em>The German Ideology</em> (1845&#8211;46), famously &#8220;stood Hegel on his head,&#8221; arguing that material conditions determine consciousness, rendering idealism a bourgeois illusion that obscures economic base from superstructure. </p><p>For Marxians, change arises from dialectical materialism: proletarian revolution seizes the means of production, not through visionary fiat but through historical inevitability grounded in labor and scarcity.</p><p>The tension between these paradigms is illuminating. German Idealism empowers imagination as a sovereign force, capable of willing worlds anew, while Marxian materialism risks reducing humans to economic cogs. In an era of rampant consumerism, where Marx&#8217;s &#8220;fetishism of commodities&#8221; manifests as endless accumulation, idealism&#8217;s emphasis on inner will offers a market correction.</p><p>By strengthening our innate imaginative strengths, as a creative <em>Herrenvolk</em>, we reclaim agency over matter, inverting Marx&#8217;s formula, to let our spirit dialectically reshape the material world. Our &#8216;Reaction&#8217;, then, is not at all a materialist reflex. Our reactionary movement will precisely beat back the Marxian materialist view of man as a cog in a machine, and reawaken among our people the divine spirit that is the true agent of change.</p><h3>The Occult: Imagination as Causal Agent</h3><p>Occult and mystical traditions amplify imagination&#8217;s world-altering potency, portraying it as a disciplined force that overrides sensoral facts. Ernst Schertel&#8217;s <em>Magic: History, Theory and Practice</em> (1923) theorizes imagination as a &#8220;super-sensuous&#8221; conduit to cosmic energies. Through ritual ecstasy, the adept amplifies inner visions to manifest will.</p><p>The idea is that our sensory input (what we see, hear, smell, touch, or taste) may be so strong that we have come to regard our imagination as a weaker, less truthful force. However, by training our imagination, and by having the discipline to work toward the realization of our imaginations, we may succesfully <em>overturn</em> the entrapment of the physical world.</p><p>In Hermetic and Kabbalistic lineages, this manifests as meditative visualization (*<em>Kavanah</em>*), while Christian mystics like St. John of the Cross describe divine imagination birthing prophetic realities.</p><p>Imagination, trained and directed, acts causally. Sensory-bound individuals (i.e., Aristotle&#8217;s natural born slaves), lost in Heideggerian &#8220;closeness,&#8221; dream mundanely; distant visionaries, per Thomas Aquinas&#8217;s <em>Summa Theologica</em>, abstract essences from phantasms to illuminate &#8220;being itself,&#8221; fostering contemplative acts that ripple into history. </p><h3>Science: Neural Pathways to Creative Override</h3><p>Contemporary science lends empirical weight, revealing imagination as a neurobiological lever for physical transformation. The brain&#8217;s default mode network (DMN), active in mind-wandering and ideation, decouples from sensory cortices to simulate alternatives, with high-creativity individuals (Intuitive archetypes) exhibiting robust DMN-prefrontal links that correlate with fluid intelligence. </p><p>Neuroplasticity ensures that imaginative training rewires circuits, blurring perception and creation: artists and innovators literally &#8220;think&#8221; structural changes into existence, from architectural blueprints to therapeutic interventions that heal bodies and societies.</p><h3>Europe&#8217;s Imaginative Reclamation from Globalist Consumerism</h3><p>Europe possess the spiritual and imaginative potential to confront American consumerism, a materialist juggernaut that Marx might decry as commodity fetishism writ planetary. Critiques highlight America&#8217;s cult of excess: ubiquitous, cheap indulgences like bottomless coffee symbolize an individualistic ethos that prioritizes profit over solidarity, eroding Europe&#8217;s more temperate, collective traditions. </p><p>Europeans, surveys show, favor sustainable durability (i.e., traditionally produced products) and responsible brands over America&#8217;s disposability, yet global forces, fueled by U.S.-led neoliberalism, impose rather homogenized markets, displacing local crafts and guilds with fast-food fashion, eroding cultural sovereignty.</p><p>Here, the power to imagine new worlds emerges as Europe&#8217;s salvific force, countering globalism. By envisioning alternatives, as in &#8220;do-it-yourself&#8221; movements that preserve folk arts amid globalization, Europeans can invert materialist tides. This manifests spatially: small towns, with their close-knit rhythms and short commutes, nurture traditional faith and ethnic cultures, fostering bonds where love supplants money&#8217;s isolation. </p><p>Big cities, while vibrant, often breed anonymity and overwork. Their diversity&#8212;though financially enriching&#8212;risks dilution of rooted identities into superficial multiculturalism. Proponents of traditionalism argue that ethnic homogeneity in rural enclaves sustains cultural continuity, from festivals to dialects, warding off globalism&#8217;s &#8220;extractive capitalism&#8221;.</p><p>Europe&#8217;s small towns could spearhead a return to tradition with policies prioritizing agrarian self-sufficiency over urban sprawl, faith-based economies valuing stewardship over GDP, and narratives celebrating ethnic tapestries over diversity&#8217;s race to the bottom. </p><p>Love, as communal ethos, trumps money&#8217;s alienation.</p><h3>Conclusion</h3><p>It&#8217;s time for European to put their most imaginative people back in charge of geopolitcal policy, though our goals will also have to change. No longer will citizens be the sensory slaves of global Marxism. People will have to be reawakened to live more internally validating lives. </p><p>This can be achieved by offering people a return to religion. In a religious setting, the community practices its ability to imagine together. Through communal imagination of divine spheres, we then begin to transform our world.</p><p>The end of mechanical consumer-globalism is near. It&#8217;s to imagine better.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[25 Books for the Reactionary Movement]]></title><description><![CDATA[1.]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/25-books-for-the-reactionary-movement</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/25-books-for-the-reactionary-movement</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 2025 20:24:36 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Fy-v!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67fb0b4a-b57c-4eb3-b597-938eb405d28a_720x899.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Fy-v!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67fb0b4a-b57c-4eb3-b597-938eb405d28a_720x899.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Fy-v!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67fb0b4a-b57c-4eb3-b597-938eb405d28a_720x899.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Fy-v!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67fb0b4a-b57c-4eb3-b597-938eb405d28a_720x899.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Fy-v!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67fb0b4a-b57c-4eb3-b597-938eb405d28a_720x899.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Fy-v!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67fb0b4a-b57c-4eb3-b597-938eb405d28a_720x899.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Fy-v!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67fb0b4a-b57c-4eb3-b597-938eb405d28a_720x899.jpeg" width="720" height="899" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Fy-v!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67fb0b4a-b57c-4eb3-b597-938eb405d28a_720x899.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Fy-v!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67fb0b4a-b57c-4eb3-b597-938eb405d28a_720x899.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Fy-v!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67fb0b4a-b57c-4eb3-b597-938eb405d28a_720x899.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Fy-v!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67fb0b4a-b57c-4eb3-b597-938eb405d28a_720x899.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h3>1. After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre</h3><p><em>After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory</em>, published in 1981 by Scottish philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre</p><blockquote><p>Individuals no longer have roles such as peasant, warrior, priest, or king. The modern "manager" uses manipulation, for he has no ethical legitimacy. We must return to a society of virtue grounded in purpose.</p></blockquote><h3>2. The Forest Passage by Ernst J&#252;nger</h3><p>Various books by Ernst J&#252;nger, the German World War I hero who promoted an aristocratic masculinity. </p><ul><li><p><em>The Forest Passage</em>, 1951 (about rebellion)</p></li><li><p><em>Storm of Steel</em>, 1920 (the WWI diary experience)</p></li><li><p><em>On Pain</em>, 1934</p></li><li><p><em>War as an Inner Experience</em>, 1922</p></li></ul><h3>3. Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun</h3><p>Norwegian author Knut Hamsun's Growth of the Soil (1917), which won him the Nobel Prize &#127942;. This was the world's first novel to feature a main character's inner monologue.</p><blockquote><p>A man finds a fertile patch of untouched land where he starts a life from nothing, but he is soon entangled in a growing bureaucracy being built around him.</p></blockquote><h3>4. Thinking Black by Dan Crawford</h3><p><em>Thinking Black: 22 Years Without a Break in the Long Grass of Central Africa</em> (1912) is a memoir by Dan Crawford, a British missionary who spent over two decades in the Congo. </p><blockquote><p>Drawing from his firsthand observations, he explores African thought patterns, folklore, and social structures.</p></blockquote><h3>5. The Fates of Nations by Paul Colinvaux</h3><p>Ohio State professor of ecology Paul Colinvaux gives us <em>The Fates of Nations: A Biological Theory of History </em>(1980), or why richer nations must wage war on poorer nations.</p><h3>6. Intellectuals by Paul Johnson</h3><p>British historian Paul Johnson's <em>Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky</em> (1988).</p><blockquote><p>Johnson argues that these figures often exhibit profound personal failings, such as hypocrisy, cruelty, deceit, and egocentricity, which undermine their right to prescribe sweeping societal reforms.</p></blockquote><h3>7. Ship of Fools by C.R. Hallpike</h3><p>C.R. Hallpike's <em>Ship of Fools: An Anthology of Learned Nonsense about Primitive Society</em> (2018).</p><blockquote><p>The book targets popular works by authors like Yuval Harari in "Sapiens," William Arens on cannibalism myths, and Noam Chomsky on universal grammar, exposing their lack of anthropological grounding. Hallpike likens their claims to the fictional absurdity of "The Flintstones," highlighting their superficial scientific value.</p></blockquote><h3>8. Traditionalism by John Dunn</h3><p><em>Traditionalism: The Only Radicalism</em> (2014) by John Dunn, emeritus Professor at King's College, Cambridge.</p><blockquote><p>Dunn posits traditionalism as a radical reclamation pre-modern values. He draws from medieval ethos, communal bonds, and a rejection of usury and debt-based economies that could dismantle the modern wage-slavery system.</p></blockquote><h3>9. The Coming Caesars by Amaury de Riencourt</h3><p><em>The Coming Caesars</em> (1957) by Amaury de Riencourt</p><blockquote><p>De Riencourt's central thesis is that America's democratic institutions, strained by its global superpower status and the de-individualization of its egalitarian masses, are inevitably evolving toward "Caesarism": a charismatic, centralized leadership that fuses executive power with popular sovereignty.</p></blockquote><h3>10. The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter</h3><p><em>The Collapse of Complex Societies</em> (1988) by archaeology Professor Joseph Tainter.</p><blockquote><p>Tainter argues that societies are inherently "problem-solving organizations" that grow more complex to address challenges, but this process eventually leads to diminishing returns, making further investments unsustainable and triggering rapid simplification, i.e., collapse.</p></blockquote><h3>11. God&#8217;s Battalions by Rodney Stark</h3><p>American sociologist Rodney Stark published <em>God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades </em>in 2009.</p><blockquote><p>Stark argues that the Crusades were a justified, defensive response to centuries of aggressive Muslim persecution of Christians in the Holy Land and beyond.</p></blockquote><h3>12. Oriental Despotism by Karl Wittfogel</h3><p>Former communist Karl A. Wittfogel's book <em>Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power</em> (1957) offers the explanation why the West is unique and the rest is despotic.</p><h3>13. The Ascent of Mind by William Calvin </h3><p>William H. Calvin's provocative book <em>The Ascent of Mind: Ice Age Climates and the Evolution of Intelligence</em> (1991) explains why Nordic races such as European hominids developed superior intelligence.</p><h3>14. The Emotional Life of Nations</h3><p>Psychoanalyst and social historian Lloyd deMause offers a dive into <em>The Emotional Life of Nations </em>(2002).</p><blockquote><p>The book's central argument is that wars, violence, and broader human misery stem from the restaging of early childhood traumas on a societal scale.</p></blockquote><h3>15. Jews and the New American Scene by Seymour Lipset and Earl Raab</h3><p>Seymour M. Lipset and Earl Raab's <em>Jews and the New American Scene</em> (1995) describes how 19th-century Jewish immigrants, who started in New York City as tailors, became a massively overrepresented ethnicity in politics, business, media, and law by the late 20th century.</p><h3>16. Prussianism and Socialism by Oswald Spengler</h3><p><em>Prussianism and Socialism</em> (1919) by Oswald Spengler (the author of <em>The Decline of the West</em>).</p><blockquote><p>Unlike "English socialism" (associated with liberalism and economic individualism), which Spengler sees as rooted in personal gain, Prussian socialism is militaristic and state-centric, drawing on traditions of command and bureaucratic efficiency exemplified by figures like Otto von Bismarck.</p></blockquote><h3>17. The Case for Patriarchy by Timothy Gordon</h3><p><em>The Case for Patriarchy</em> (2021) by Timothy J. Cordon.</p><blockquote><p>Patriarchy is not only biblically mandated but essential for restoring Christian order in the family and society.</p></blockquote><h3>18. Across the Atlantic Ice by Dennis Stratford and Bruce Bradley</h3><p><em>Across the Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America's Clovis Culture</em> (2012) by Dennis J. Stanford and Bruce A. Bradley.</p><blockquote><p>The authors argue that the American Clovis culture, the first human inhabitants of North America, were Europeans from present-day France and Spain.</p></blockquote><h3>19. Catastrophic Failure by Stephen Coughlin</h3><p>Stephen Coughlin's <em>Catastrophic Failure: Blindfolding America in the Face of Jihad</em> (2014).</p><blockquote><p>The book critiques U.S. national security policy, arguing that ideological blinders&#8212;imposed by political correctness and influences like the Muslim Brotherhood&#8212;have left America vulnerable to jihadist threats.</p></blockquote><h3>20. Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters</h3><p><em>Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800</em> (2004) by Robert C. Davis.</p><h3>21. Death Object by Akio Akatani</h3><p><em>Death Object: Exploding the Nuclear Weapons Hoax</em> (2017) by Akio Nakstani.</p><blockquote><p>Delivers the case that atomic bombs don't exist, and that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were carpet-bombed with napalm fire.</p></blockquote><h3>22. Genius and the Mobocracy by Frank Wright</h3><p>Architect Frank Lloyd Wright's <em>Genius and the Mobocracy</em> (1947).</p><blockquote><p>A bold critique of "mobocracy": the dehumanizing sway of mass mechanization and conformity that erodes individual creativity in favor of bland, soulless uniformity.</p></blockquote><h3>23. Sparta and Its Law by Eduardo Velasco </h3><p><em>Sparta and Its Law</em> (2021) by Eduardo Velasco. </p><blockquote><p>Sparta was much more than a simple State: it was an archetype, it was the greatest exponent of the war doctrine.</p></blockquote><h3>24. The Unintended Reformation by Brad Gregory </h3><p><em>The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society</em> (2012) by Brad S. Gregory.</p><blockquote><p>The reforms that Martin Luther meant for the  Catholic Church gradually morphed into many of the liberal values we now regret, including consumerism.</p></blockquote><h3>25. The Concept of the Political by Carl Schmitt</h3><p>German political thinker Carl Schmitt wrote <em>The Concept of the Political</em> (1927).</p><blockquote><p>Politics is about distinguishing between friends and enemies. This distinction is not moral (good vs. evil) or aesthetic (beautiful vs. ugly), but public and concrete, where the enemy represents a threat to one's way of life that could escalate to physical killing in extreme cases.</p></blockquote>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Reactionary Movement Needs a Flag]]></title><description><![CDATA[1099 & 1517 & 1806]]></description><link>https://www.thereaction.org/p/a-reactionary-movement-needs-a-flag</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.thereaction.org/p/a-reactionary-movement-needs-a-flag</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Johannes M. Koenraadt]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 14 Sep 2025 18:03:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7YOK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7YOK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7YOK!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7YOK!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7YOK!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7YOK!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7YOK!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:30769,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.thereaction.org/i/173595829?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7YOK!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7YOK!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7YOK!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7YOK!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F473a49ca-33f8-4781-8d12-abb6a16f0520_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">&#8220;1099&#8221; refers to the year that the Kingdom of Jerusalem was established.</figcaption></figure></div><p><em>I set up a <a href="https://shop.jmk.info/en-eur/products/raven-flag">merchandise site</a> where you can order the flags.</em></p><p><strong>To design the reactionary movement&#8217;s flag, it makes sense to hearken back to a traditional emblem, namely that of the Jerusalem Cross, also known as the </strong><em><strong>Crusader Cross</strong></em><strong>. This Christian symbol was the emblem of the Kingdom of Jerusalem after its takeover by the Crusaders in 1099 AD.</strong> </p><p>The five crosses represent the five wounds of Christ. This makes the Crusader Cross a powerful geopolitical statement, namely against both a Hebrew Israel and an Arab Palestine. </p><p>The importance of the Middle East lies in its access to some of the world&#8217;s busiest trade routes, such as the modern Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea, as well as overland trade along the Silk Road and elsewhere, thus connecting Central Europe (Germany) to the world via Iraq and Palestine.</p><p>The rulers of the Germanic Holy Roman Empire (<em>the First Reich</em>) understood this very well. It&#8217;s the real reason why the crusades were launched, and why German Catholics ruled Europe for a thousand years. </p><p>Later, German unifier Otto von Bismarck embarked on the construction of railroads from Berlin to and through Palestine and Baghdad, precisely to connect German industry to global trade (i.e., with North Africa, the Middle East, India, and China) and attract the world&#8217;s energy flows (i.e., Iraqi oil). </p><p>You may have guessed that there&#8217;s a reason why globalist forces hate Christianity so much. A Christian-European takeover of the Middle East is their greatest nightmare.</p><p>The Jerusalem Cross, then, states : <em>We will make the Middle East CHristian Again (MECHA).</em></p><div class="image-gallery-embed" data-attrs="{&quot;gallery&quot;:{&quot;images&quot;:[{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6ea6d82a-17fe-4da5-a313-3ccbd00a4a17_193x275.jpeg&quot;},{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/0504c897-1f8f-40b1-8ae7-e4f99b0bb1a3_250x289.jpeg&quot;}],&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;The Crusader Cross as worn by the ancestor Godfrey of Bouillon&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;staticGalleryImage&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/d8f607aa-2a0c-4e1c-84fd-bafd168d2484_1456x720.png&quot;}},&quot;isEditorNode&quot;:true}"></div><p>Below, a more ceremonial orange-yellow version, with &#8220;1806&#8221; referring to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!n79G!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9382fa9c-08d4-4725-b538-963351e5f677_1920x1080.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!n79G!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9382fa9c-08d4-4725-b538-963351e5f677_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!n79G!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9382fa9c-08d4-4725-b538-963351e5f677_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!n79G!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9382fa9c-08d4-4725-b538-963351e5f677_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!n79G!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9382fa9c-08d4-4725-b538-963351e5f677_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!n79G!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9382fa9c-08d4-4725-b538-963351e5f677_1920x1080.png" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9382fa9c-08d4-4725-b538-963351e5f677_1920x1080.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:35070,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.thereaction.org/i/173595829?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9382fa9c-08d4-4725-b538-963351e5f677_1920x1080.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!n79G!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9382fa9c-08d4-4725-b538-963351e5f677_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!n79G!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9382fa9c-08d4-4725-b538-963351e5f677_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!n79G!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9382fa9c-08d4-4725-b538-963351e5f677_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!n79G!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9382fa9c-08d4-4725-b538-963351e5f677_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>And a blue-yellow version for the 1517 flag,</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XdHN!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F673c7a31-37a7-4e3f-8a56-c15207da5506_1920x1080.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XdHN!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F673c7a31-37a7-4e3f-8a56-c15207da5506_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XdHN!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F673c7a31-37a7-4e3f-8a56-c15207da5506_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XdHN!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F673c7a31-37a7-4e3f-8a56-c15207da5506_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XdHN!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F673c7a31-37a7-4e3f-8a56-c15207da5506_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XdHN!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F673c7a31-37a7-4e3f-8a56-c15207da5506_1920x1080.png" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/673c7a31-37a7-4e3f-8a56-c15207da5506_1920x1080.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:29094,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.thereaction.org/i/173595829?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F673c7a31-37a7-4e3f-8a56-c15207da5506_1920x1080.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XdHN!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F673c7a31-37a7-4e3f-8a56-c15207da5506_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XdHN!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F673c7a31-37a7-4e3f-8a56-c15207da5506_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XdHN!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F673c7a31-37a7-4e3f-8a56-c15207da5506_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XdHN!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F673c7a31-37a7-4e3f-8a56-c15207da5506_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>&#8220;1517&#8221; refers to the start of the Protestant Reformation, the effects of which the reactionary movement will want to undo. As argued in the book<em> The Unintended Reformation</em> by Brad S. Gregory, Martin Luther intended to reform Catholicism, but unintendedly laid the foundation for individualism, secularism, and consumer capitalism.</p><p>Our movement represents nationalism (national collectivism), theocracy, and family-owned businesses (or value capitalism).</p><p><em><strong>Note:</strong> The numbers don&#8217;t need to be included in the flags. They can be dropped. I suggest using the numbered flags for ceremonial purposes.</em></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>