Character Generation on the Carousel of Collapse
Discussing the collapse of complex civilizations, the metapolitics of male flight from the ivory tower, and reality as MMORPG
Having interesting conversations is one of my favourite pastimes, so when interesting people invite me onto their podcasts I invariably say yes. The last couple of weeks have been rather busy in this regard: after going on Prof Rachel Fulton Brown’s Mosaic Ark (find her on Substack at
) and ’s Marching Through the Shadowlands to discuss Words to Rewyrd the World, I was invited onto three additional podcasts. It’s exhausting, but in a good way.First up is the Eurabamania podcast, a joint project from gentleman jihadi warlord
and tradcath philosopher . Obviously, I don’t really agree with the premise of their show. Europe isn’t going to get absorbed into Eurabia.
But Ahnaf and Kenaz are smart guys, and excellent sparring partners.
The jumping off point for the episode was my short story Hector Saves His Dad, which Ahnaf quite enjoyed, as have many others, judging by the comments it’s received:
“This is the best fiction I've read on Substack. Props.”
“Holy crap dude. This is fantastic”
“That packed a wallop!”
“I see some greatness in this writing, and I see this expanding beyond earth. Good, male oriented fiction is hard to come by.”
“I am unsatisfied only because it ended so quickly.”
“I'm ready for the movie.”
All you need to do to read it is to
Hector Saves His Dad
“What the hell, John? You’re putting something behind a paywall? Aren’t you always talking about how you deliberately put things out there for free?”
It was really the story’s setting that Ahnaf wanted to talk about, which is a sort of post-apocalyptic cyberpunk dystopia in which ultratech posthumans coexist alongside neoprimitivist biker tribes. This served to frame a much wider discussion about the future. Ahnaf is of the opinion that space travel won’t happen, both due to intractable engineering challenges, as well as resource limitations, in particular energy availability. This is a view he shares with the eminent archdruid
, a man whom both of us greatly respect (and who Ahnaf and Kenaz have interviewed not only once but twice).Obviously, I disagree with all of them (and everyone else who says we can’t - or shouldn’t - make it in space, for whatever reason).
It was a spirited discussion, and I think you’ll enjoy it.
The second appearance was a livestream with
on The Carousel, in which Simpson picked my brain about my viral Xitter thread on the subject of male flight from feminized spaces, condensing the arguments made in my essay Academia Is Women’s Work. This is the second time Isaac has invited me on; the first, earlier this year, was also talking about the woman question, in particular my essay Pixel Valhalla, which remains one of my personal favourites.Isaac had me walk his audience through the thread, explaining the significance of the various graphs supporting the arguments, and asking some very insightful questions along the way. There is video which you can follow along with, although of course, I had my camera turned off, because I am very shy.
Once we got through the thread, the conversation developed in some interesting directions, as we started exploring the metapolitical implications of the collapse of academia’s prestige – issues that I didn’t have time to address in the original essay, which was already quite long enough, but which I’ve written about a bit in the past.
It was a really enjoyable, relaxed conversation, which I think you’ll get a lot out of.
Isaac has a talent for great threads himself: see this excellent explanation of the eye-watering incompetency of the Kampala Kampane, which I found thanks to
’s always-essential New Right Poast, where it was awarded Thread of the Week.
Finally, I sat down with my excellent friend
of The Cat Was Never Found to discuss the Story Force. If you’ve been reading Postcards From Barsoom for any length of time, you probably know Mark already – and if you don’t, you’re missing out. He’s one of the more creative minds in this space, as well as being a phenomenal prose stylist. Earlier this year he sent a guest postcard, Devil Worshipping Aliens from Dimension X, in which he considers the UAP phenomenon. Are those slimy little anal-probing grey sleezballs extraterrestrial intelligences? Or do they come from somewhere much closer ... somewhere abyssal?Devil Worshipping Aliens From Dimension X
Mark Bisone of The Cat Was Never Found is, in my opinion, one of the best writers on Substack. He weaves together his beautiful prose with the binocular parallax of an engineer and an artist, communicating an absolutely unique perspective on subjects as diverse as AI and the unseen realms. He’s a joy to read, and it’s impossible to read him without walk…
It’s a spooky, thought-provoking read. All the more relevant today, in light of President Trump confirming to Joe Rogan that he’s talked to pilots who have ... seen things ... and that he finds those reports entirely credible.
Back to the podcast. I’ll quote directly from Mark’s description, which captures the essence of our wide-ranging discussion better than I can (particularly as, by the end, I was about halfway through a bottle of Serbian red).
On this episode, John attempts to assess reality as a game in Story Mode, in which the players discover the characters they were designed to be. Does reality include a force that bends it into a story structure? If so, what is your role in writing and acting out your part? What happens when you fight against this force of nature, or try to tell bad, broken stories instead of good ones?
We also delve into archetypes, spoil popular movies, investigate time-vampires and educated zombies, puncture the post-scarcity delusion, analyze the enemies of achievement, and much, much more.
“You know how I got these scars?”
Listen, and you just might find out.
The Joker quote is an oblique reference to a very interesting theory Mark advanced regarding the villain’s backstory ... but to hear it, you’ll have to listen to find out.
Remember – if you listen and enjoy, don’t forget to subscribe to the hosts!
All for now. As always, a million shining thank yous to all of my patrons.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
I had an encounter with gentleman jihadi warlord Ahnaf Ibn Qais on Tree of Woe's blog. I disagreed and pushed back against what I perceived as "Islamic Supremacism". His argument was that Islam will dominate Europe because of Demographics. I argued that neither the progressive nor traditionalist Europeans have any interest in becoming Muslims, and that in the last 500 years, the Muslim world has made practically no contributions to Western culture, so why convert? Conquest through your ability to outbreed your host with throngs of children is not a winning strategy. That and other points got his goat, but rather than respond with counter arguments, he had me blocked. I just haven't seen the intellectual acumen that others say he has. Maybe I should read his blog, but I have so many others to read that it's a low priority.
One thing (of many) that stuck with me from the "Re-enchantment" essay is this idea of space travel being the ultimate expression of humanity's focus on the transcendent and celestial. It made me think about Evola and "Revolt Against the Modern World" , in which he denotes the difference between the celestial-focused "hyperborean" spirit with the cthonic "ground and filth" obsession of the global south.
If space travel doesn't happen, it's because there are people (entities) that will do everything they can from keeping us out of the heavens. I am pretty certainly convinced that reaching for the stars and the spiritual issue are connected.