#the promethean society

[carnocus]

normal people writing checks and balances for their magic systems: you get tired after using magic, you have a limited amount of magic, etc.

me: you have to EAT RAW HUMAN FLESH

[brightgoat]

Promethean Society pamphlet for how to recruit scientists to our great cause

[kudzucataclysm]

digging into carmines new personality/backstory is crazy cuz i just unearthed a whole ass potential new storyline

[probablybadrpgideas]

Youtube Channels By Chronicles Of Darkness Splat

Vampire: Vampires don’t show up on camera so you’d think they wouldn’t have youtube channels but no, they’re thirsty bitches who live for the drama so they all do makeup tutorials. 

Werewolf: Highly aggressive vlogs. “Smash that like button” isn’t a request. They’re gonna vlog your head clean off your fucking shoulders if you don’t like and subscribe, that’s what they’re gonna do. 

Mage: Utterly incomprehensible long form media critique. “The Arcane Secrets Of Every Prime Numbered Episode Of Steven Universe”. “I Played All Of Game Grumps Backwards And Touched Eternity”. “The Office Is A Secret Code To Understand The Mind Of God And Here’s Why”. Somehow, despite these being literally impossible for normal humans to comprehend, they regularly get millions of views.

Promethean: As weird doll people with a purely theoretical understanding of human behavior and a supernatural aura that compels people to leave hurtful comments, it’s actually not possible to tell a promethean from a standard professional youtuber.

Changeling: Like normal parasocial interactions if The McElroy Brothers could also climb out from under your bed while you sleep and steal your teeth to trade to goblins. Don’t trust their “one like equals one firstborn son given to the channel” publicity stunts.

Hunter: Mostly just make their rantsonas cross their arms in response to the other videos on this list.

Geist: 3AM Challenge Gone Rights where they summon whatever ghost is making the rounds and then have a pleasant chat with them to send them on their way. 

Mummy: Entirely dubstep remixes of episodes of “Malcolm in the middle” and you can’t prove that’s not thematically relevant because no-one has ever completed a game of Mummy:The Curse

Beast: Ironically the sadistic nightmare monsters that feed on terror and misery are actually not even in the top hundred most fucked up prank channels on YouTube. This kind of shit gives the Dark Mother nightmares.

Demon: Sadly the YouTube Algorthim is 100% some kind of Infrastructure so you mostly find them on Vimeo. You could learn deep secrets of the cosmos here but, you know. You’d have to use Vimeo.

Deviant: As twisted creatures abandoned by society with a fundamentally broken soul only able to comprehend spite and rage, it’s not actually possible to tell a deviant from a standard youtube commentator.

[mollysunder]

In Arcane, there's an ongoing interpretation that smoking is an action that represents power, all influential figures in Zaun (Vander, Sevika, Silco) do it. I don't think we spend much time examining promethean like element to it though. What I mean is that the powerful smoke, but when another character takes their fire the thief is then/will be elevated in society.

Marcus takes Vander's pipe and douses the flames. Immediately after Vander is deposed by Silco and Marcus will be promoted to Sheriff.

Vi knocks out Sevika's cigarillo as she ambushes her for their first fight. Later Sevika struggles to light Silco's cigars (using Finn's lighter), and Vi is on the path to becoming an enforcer with close connections to Piltover Councilmen/Sheriff.

The less talked about version this is where Enforcers with Zaunite-like accents (similar to Benzo's) drop their cigarillos on screen in the shock of Jinx's fire. Everyone except for Caitlyn, who doesn't smoke dies immediately after in Jinx's explosion. I wonder how the narrative will elevate Jinx's position after that? I wouldn't count Jinx's Shimmer boost as it because that would be like saying Vi's Atlas gauntlets are how she's elevated in prominence.

[kazimirkharza]

What are your thoughts on how many anarcho-primitivist/luddite/anticiv spaces have been taken over by right-wing types? It seems less people are actually engaging in primitivist thought and more so thinking it's "based" and "trad."

I saw how you got downvoted for insulting whatalthist, and this is what led me to ask this question.

I'm assuming you're referring to online spaces. There's a strong effort by the right to co-opt primitivism. There are some forums that are frequented by right-wingers, though they're in the minority; most problematic spaces are the ones about Kaczynski and things directly related to him. There are also many social media accounts that express primitivistic ideas in combination with authoritarian and rightist politics (e.g. individuals who adore both Ted Kaczynski and Pentti Linkola). Most concerning to me are actually the offline examples that get press coverage.

I see this as being both due to deliberate efforts to co-opt primitivism, much in the manner Nazis co-opted socialism, and due to ignorance on the part of many right-wingers. It isn't too hard to misinterpret Kaczynski's remarks about leftism if you read him inattentively, and conclude that he must be some sort of right-winger. Ted's mistake was focusing on attacking the left too much and worrying too little about the right, but at the time he wrote his manifesto this choice made sense.

Ted was a fan of Earth First! and when he wrote Industrial Society and its Future the wounds of an ideological split within it were still fresh. EF! started out as a truly ecocentric movement with extremely narrow goals of protecting the wilderness from the ravages of industrialism and other harm caused by civilized humans. After gaining a lot of momentum, EF! attracted thousands of newcomers, many of whom leaned more to the side of leftist humanism than deep ecology, causing conflict — the newcomers were trying to transform the movement into one about ecology-related social justice issues, while the original Earth First!ers preferred to only focus on wilderness conservation. (For more on this check out Earth First!: Environmental Apocalypse by Martha F. Lee). The right-wing in America at the time was comprised mostly of people who were staunch prometheans, warmongers, etc., and Ted rightly assumed they weren't going to take over his movement. However as the political climate changed they became one.

The US and the rest of the "West" seems to be experiencing a rise in right-wing back-to-nature ideas, similar in many ways to the so-called "right-wing hippies" of the Weimar republic. I'm talking about doomsday preppers, christian nationalist communes, etc. Kaczynski did not anticipate this, and by the time news about who was adopting (some of) his ideas — not just anarchists and former Earth First!ers, but people including the Greek fascist Golden Dawn party, and Andreas Breivik — reached Kaczynski in his supermax prison it was a bit late. He penned a short note titled Ecofascism: An Aberrant Branch of Leftism in 2020, arguing against their ideas and saying he's their enemy. However, more people read and will read ISAIF in the future than this obscure note and the few other scattered critiques of the right that can be found throughout his work.

What we need to do is to aggressively shun these types until we successfully repel them. This applies to real life and online interactions. There will always be some who'll try to co-opt primitivism, but this big wave needs to be halted. There are also some who are genuinely willing to learn and adjust their beliefs, but they're few in between. It's necessary to distinguish between the two, keep the latter and reject the former.

[thebrickinbrick]

The Horizon Which One Beholds From the Summit of a Barricade

The situation of all in that fatal hour and that pitiless place, had as result and culminating point Enjolras’ supreme melancholy.

Enjolras bore within him the plenitude of the revolution; he was incomplete, however, so far as the absolute can be so; he had too much of Saint-Just about him, and not enough of Anacharsis Cloots; still, his mind, in the society of the Friends of the A B C, had ended by undergoing a certain polarization from Combeferre’s ideas; for some time past, he had been gradually emerging from the narrow form of dogma, and had allowed himself to incline to the broadening influence of progress, and he had come to accept, as a definitive and magnificent evolution, the transformation of the great French Republic, into the immense human republic. As far as the immediate means were concerned, a violent situation being given, he wished to be violent; on that point, he never varied; and he remained of that epic and redoubtable school which is summed up in the words: “EightyNinety-three.”

Enjolras was standing erect on the staircase of paving-stones, one elbow resting on the stock of his gun. He was engaged in thought; he quivered, as at the passage of prophetic breaths; places where death is have these effects of tripods. A sort of stifled fire darted from his eyes, which were filled with an inward look. All at once he threw back his head, his blond locks fell back like those of an angel on the sombre quadriga made of stars, they were like the mane of a startled lion in the flaming of an halo, and Enjolras cried:

“Citizens, do you picture the future to yourselves? The streets of cities inundated with light, green branches on the thresholds, nations sisters, men just, old men blessing children, the past loving the present, thinkers entirely at liberty, believers on terms of full equality, for religion heaven, God the direct priest, human conscience become an altar, no more hatreds, the fraternity of the workshop and the school, for sole penalty and recompense fame, work for all, right for all, peace over all, no more bloodshed, no more wars, happy mothers!

To conquer matter is the first step; to realize the ideal is the second. Reflect on what progress has already accomplished. Formerly, the first human races beheld with terror the hydra pass before their eyes, breathing on the waters, the dragon which vomited flame, the griffin who was the monster of the air, and who flew with the wings of an eagle and the talons of a tiger; fearful beasts which were above man. Man, nevertheless, spread his snares, consecrated by intelligence, and finally conquered these monsters. We have vanquished the hydra, and it is called the locomotive; we are on the point of vanquishing the griffin, we already grasp it, and it is called the balloon. On the day when this Promethean task shall be accomplished, and when man shall have definitely harnessed to his will the triple Chimæra of antiquity, the hydra, the dragon and the griffin, he will be the master of water, fire, and of air, and he will be for the rest of animated creation that which the ancient gods formerly were to him. Courage, and onward! Citizens, whither are we going? To science made government, to the force of things become the sole public force, to the natural law, having in itself its sanction and its penalty and promulgating itself by evidence, to a dawn of truth corresponding to a dawn of day. We are advancing to the union of peoples; we are advancing to the unity of man. No more fictions; no more parasites. The real governed by the true, that is the goal.

Civilization will hold its assizes at the summit of Europe, and, later on, at the centre of continents, in a grand parliament of the intelligence. Something similar has already been seen. The amphictyons had two sittings a year, one at Delphos the seat of the gods, the other at Thermopylæ, the place of heroes. Europe will have her amphictyons; the globe will have its amphictyons. France bears this sublime future in her breast. This is the gestation of the nineteenth century. That which Greece sketched out is worthy of being finished by France.

Listen to me, you, Feuilly, valiant artisan, man of the people. I revere you. Yes, you clearly behold the future, yes, you are right. You had neither father nor mother, Feuilly; you adopted humanity for your mother and right for your father. You are about to die, that is to say to triumph, here. Citizens, whatever happens to-day, through our defeat as well as through our victory, it is a revolution that we are about to create. As conflagrations light up a whole city, so revolutions illuminate the whole human race. And what is the revolution that we shall cause? I have just told you, the Revolution of the True.

From a political point of view, there is but a single principle; the sovereignty of man over himself. This sovereignty of myself over myself is called Liberty. Where two or three of these sovereignties are combined, the state begins. But in that association there is no abdication. Each sovereignty concedes a certain quantity of itself, for the purpose of forming the common right. This quantity is the same for all of us. This identity of concession which each makes to all, is called Equality. Common right is nothing else than the protection of all beaming on the right of each. This protection of all over each is called Fraternity. The point of intersection of all these assembled sovereignties is called society. This intersection being a junction, this point is a knot. Hence what is called the social bond. Some say social contract; which is the same thing, the word contract being etymologically formed with the idea of a bond. Let us come to an understanding about equality; for, if liberty is the summit, equality is the base. Equality, citizens, is not wholly a surface vegetation, a society of great blades of grass and tiny oaks; a proximity of jealousies which render each other null and void; legally speaking, it is all aptitudes possessed of the same opportunity; politically, it is all votes possessed of the same weight; religiously, it is all consciences possessed of the same right.

Equality has an organ: gratuitous and obligatory instruction. The right to the alphabet, that is where the beginning must be made. The primary school imposed on all, the secondary school offered to all, that is the law. From an identical school, an identical society will spring. Yes, instruction! light! light! everything comes from light, and to it everything returns. Citizens, the nineteenth century is great, but the twentieth century will be happy.

Then, there will be nothing more like the history of old, we shall no longer, as to-day, have to fear a conquest, an invasion, a usurpation, a rivalry of nations, arms in hand, an interruption of civilization depending on a marriage of kings, on a birth in hereditary tyrannies, a partition of peoples by a congress, a dismemberment because of the failure of a dynasty, a combat of two religions meeting face to face, like two bucks in the dark, on the bridge of the infinite; we shall no longer have to fear famine, farming out, prostitution arising from distress, misery from the failure of work and the scaffold and the sword, and battles and the ruffianism of chance in the forest of events. One might almost say: There will be no more events. We shall be happy. The human race will accomplish its law, as the terrestrial globe accomplishes its law; harmony will be re-established between the soul and the star; the soul will gravitate around the truth, as the planet around the light.

Friends, the present hour in which I am addressing you, is a gloomy hour; but these are terrible purchases of the future. A revolution is a toll. Oh! the human race will be delivered, raised up, consoled! We affirm it on this barrier. Whence should proceed that cry of love, if not from the heights of sacrifice? Oh my brothers, this is the point of junction, of those who think and of those who suffer; this barricade is not made of paving-stones, nor of joists, nor of bits of iron; it is made of two heaps, a heap of ideas, and a heap of woes. Here misery meets the ideal.

The day embraces the night, and says to it: ‘I am about to die, and thou shalt be born again with me.’ From the embrace of all desolations faith leaps forth. Sufferings bring hither their agony and ideas their immortality. This agony and this immortality are about to join and constitute our death. Brothers, he who dies here dies in the radiance of the future, and we are entering a tomb all flooded with the dawn.”

Enjolras paused rather than became silent; his lips continued to move silently, as though he were talking to himself, which caused them all to gaze attentively at him, in the endeavor to hear more. There was no applause; but they whispered together for a long time. Speech being a breath, the rustling of intelligences resembles the rustling of leaves.

[lalalian]

alruna dr plot | part I : setting

date: march 15, 2024

I take it that tumblr is less witchhunt-y than tiktok...? Not sure, but I'll be careful. No worries, I don't fuck with violence or anything super messed up.

I know I haven't been posting much on tiktok about the actual plot, world building, or much about Eros besides a few confusing edits and perhaps some long ass paragraph videos, so I'll explain it all clearly on tumblr.

Let's start with the setting of this DR. A short summary will do for now, but I'll talk about each kingdom and species individually in other parts.

In this DR, there are nobles, peasants, and middle-class people. The three most dominant species are humans, elves, and dreki. Dreki is such a stupid name for dragon shifters, but it was all I could do at the time, and now.. well it kind of just stuck, yknow? Elves tend to like living in more homogenous societies, but with the rise of power in human, dreki, and even faerie empires, the globe has become more and more diverse.

The Alodias Empire boasts the most prosperous elven majority empire in this reality. Debatably, it's the most powerful empire, but I think I'll get to that another day. While I said that there's a big elven majority in the Alodias Empire, it is not considered to have a homogeneous population. There is still a clear diverse mix of species within the empire, but I will say, elves make up most noble families. Elves here take rules and etiquette very seriously. The capital of the Alodias Empire, Wyndrial City, is in the Eclara Kingdom. Oh and I also live in the capital along with the royal family. The Alodias Empire’s largest export is finished goods, most notably magitech.

The Umbrian Empire is similar to the Alodias Empire wherein that there is a majority species; dreki are the most abundant in the Umbrian Empire. Dreki makes up most noble families, but there are a fair few who are half-elven or half-dwarven. The Umbrian Empire is a direct rival to the Alodias Empire in terms of power. The capital of the Umbrian Empire is Exalos. It’s located in the Kingdom of Aprana. Eros and his family live here.

The Norfolk Empire is also an Empire with a large elven majority. The Norfolk Empire is a bit distinct in the fact that it would be considered a homogeneous society. It’s not as prosperous as the Alodias Empire, but a unique phenomenon occurs here (I’ll talk about that in my Moon Bearer post). This empire relies heavily on exporting agricultural products and tourism. A long time ally of the Norfolk empire are the Merfolk.

The Ko'estgrime Empire is a small but profitable empire with a sizable goblin and dwarven population. Their largest exports are monster parts, crystals, and weapons. Ko’estgrime used to be overrun with monsters; however, in the last few decades, they’ve gotten a hold of their lands and now are well respected for their warriors. Because of their dungeons, many travel to Ko’estgrime to find artifacts and ancient weapons.

The Promethean Empire has a large human and animalia presence, dwarves are also often seen here. The Promethean Empire’s largest export is basic agricultural commodities such as hand-harvested crops. The Promethean Empire doesn’t have the best reputation because of its history of crazed imperialism. Many Promethean kings have tried to conquer kingdoms from different empires, especially the Alodias Empire (I’ll talk about this more when I post about tales).

More posts coming soon today! Expect at least 2-3 informative posts today.

[carnocus]

find that word tag game

thank you @thatndginger for the tag! my words were: anger, cover, throne, stick, & call.

anger:

i couldn't find it :( i was suprised, i thought it would be fairly common with how angry my characters are all the time.

cover:

"The bleeding continued for a week. The molding was covered in Band-Aids now, and so was the ceiling. The staircase was wrapped in gauze. Reeve was listening to the house again, crying as it wailed, when she heard Charlotte’s yell. The shower stopped abruptly." - the house of famish (short story)

throne:

didn't have this one either, which wasn't that surprising since I don't write about royalty (or other topics in which thrones are common) a lot.

stick:

"It was raining the day it happened, that hard type of rain that makde spiders of water scurry down the driveway as the sky breaks apart. Your mother was with her friends in Hawaii, and it was just you and him and the shadow. The shadow was working on his project, his printed papers scattering on his desk and textbooks filled with sticky notes on the floor surrounding a glass box with plants that you were told not to touch. He guided your hand as you swung the hammer, restrained you from hitting too hard or from being too afraid. When the shadow got up it was no longer the shadow." - the phantom prince (short story)

call:

"She was not wrong. Micah did possess what she called “those special powers”. He wondered if she knew she did too. He marched off to the hallway she told him, a new commitment to his plan birthed from her comment. He would tell her, and he would tell them all. They were just as special as he was, and if they knew, the Clergy would fall to their knees." - the promethean society (novel series + main wip)

tagging @euphoniouspandemonium @careful-pyromancer and @isherwoodj . your words are natural, alone, thing, grain, and jump.

[massivecheesecakewolf]

A discussion of a missed potential of a crossover of Danny Phantom.

In Tumblr I saw a lot of DPxDC, DPxMHA, and and even a DPxSupernatural fanfic once but didn't see any post about a crossover i am about to talk about. I didn't see any knowledgeable people like @aikoiya didn't talk about it while having a great theory about Danny being a tutelary spirit.

What am I talking about.

WORLD OF DARKNESS.

And chronicles of darkness.

Yes you read that right.

A dark tabletop RPG setting about a supernatural society that clashes with each other that normal people are unaware about in a masquerade where player characters play as a supernatural being that are either pawn to a higher power or a spanner in the works, and also hunter, that can be crossed over with Danny Phantom. Before you type something like "just WHY?" And " I think you are wrong as Wraith the oblivion underworld is massively different then the infinite realm" let me explain.

I think there is potential in this crossover as while sure WOD is dark, it is also fun as according to this video by Bruva Alfabusa at 5:25 it is also a clown world by its sheer wackiness like a company putting demons into their cheeseburger and other things. The potential of Danny Phantom x world of darkness (or DP x WOD for short) in my opinion is great as the world of darkness is focused on the character and their social skills as they are being forced to do something by their "boss"and I have an idea that DP ghosts are different then WOD ghost. Hell you could even put hunter the parenting in Danny Phantom world as HTP set in 2006 and Danny Phantom set in 2004 to 2007 according to the main timeline in the wiki.

Also I want people to do something funny about the idea that the infinite realm is different from the underworld and hunters who studied wraith are confused about mistaking an infinite realm ghost for a wraith (that the main reason I first write this post) and making a similarity and difference of fetter and obsession. As well the fact while WOD is dark, it is also heartwarming as one of a chronicles of darkness game line Promethean the created can earn a happy ending by turning human after a pilgrimage.

The individual game line I think could work with DP

Hunter the reckoning 5th edition

Vampire the masquerade and requiem

Changeling the lost

Werewolf the apocalypse and forsaken

Hunter the vigil (BTW the GIW don't count as hunter to my eye)

Both mage

Wraith the oblivion ( only if the underworld is different then the infinite realm)

Geist the sin eater ( geist are not halfa, they came back to life with a bond of an ancient spirit.)

And Promethean the created ( I want to see a Promethean get help for their pilgrimage while in Amity Park for a while, somehow ambiance ectoplasm somehow prevent the effects of wasteland and disquiet, just give Promethean happy ending please.)

Edit 2: genius the transgression ( I know that is a fan game but it is good)

Edit: in case you didn't pick it up I got into WOD by hunter the parenting.

[kudzucataclysm]

SE Timeline Rough Draft

Early 1800s - Martians arrive on Earth after a century of observation. They either land in central Siberia or the Alps. Over the course of a couple years, the Martians split up to infiltrate human society. They are extremely successful.

1868 - Computers are invented.

1889 - Lupe Altena is born.

1897 - Personal computers invented. Sold to the general public.

1904 - Hammond is created.

1909 - There are over 500 webpages on the world wide web. This is the start of the internet.

1914 - WW1.

1917 - Carmine Keller is born.

1922 - WW1 ends in a “stalemate” with the establishment of multiple European DMZs. 

1925 - The first man in space. A political party, “The Machine”, takes the majority of power in congress.

1930s - Britain goes to war with Japan. Superscience race begins, leading to the invention of the atomic bomb. Lupe splits from The Machine (The New Machine) and funds the creation of the Martian hunting team known as ATLAS. First mutant powers begin to emerge.

1940s - Economic stagnation as conflicts at the European DMZs begin to escalate. America looks to profit as it appears another outbreak of total war may occur in Europe. Hammond and Azelfafage meet; Lupe catches ADP. Friday joins ATLAS.

1951 - Yellowstone Incident. Global atomic war begins 7 hours later. The winter of that year lasts for almost a decade.

1951-1969 - Famine. Plague. Civil war. Nuclear, broken weather. Superpowered chaos. Tall tales emerging from the wastes of red creatures with a hundred eyes… 

1955? - Lupe Altena establishes the Promethean Society and headquarters The New Machine in the outskirts of the former city of Chicago.

1958 - The construction of what will eventually be known as “The NEC” begins.

1960s - Countries not as devastated by the atomic war (such as Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Switzerland, Argentina, etc) attempt peacekeeping operations in the United States with little to no success. The Disincorporated United States of America is established, and a corporate committee of “superheroes” acts as its sword.

1970? - Martians reveal themselves to the world, promising aid and support in exchange for Earth’s resources. They soon begin terraforming Earth’s atmosphere in order to ensure a major ice age.

1971 - Intersolar Protocol is signed. A new species, known as “Chimera”, explodes across the world.

1973 - Maya Fontaine is born.

1974 - Carson Keller is born.

1980s - Necropolis turns into a tower of Babel, a megacity of stacked/layered cities, out in the middle of Lake Michigan due to the Martian King Azelfafage. The city’s population grows to the size of a country, and is unofficially regarded as such (to the ire of DUSA). It becomes a free economic zone, influenced largely by foreign capital.

1990 - Lupe Altena disappears. The authority of the NEC falls into feudalism between cities and layers. Francis Mueller is born.

1991 - Outbreak of firestorms across the southern states. Desmond Arkady is born.

1995 - Hammond disappears.

1999 - Francis experiences a “medical incident”. She develops a form of amnesia.

2000 - Francis and Vincent meet.

2003 - Sloane Arkady abandons the family. Francis is handed over to alleged crime lord Carmine Keller.

2004 - The remnants of the Arkady family move to the NEC.

2005 - Desmond is inducted into the Promethean School of Science.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Anti-degrowthers reject and misrepresent, often deliberately, the views of degrowth thinkers to preserve, in ideology if not reality, human domination of nature; to preserve in other words, the current way of life, red in tooth and claw, forged by the notion nature, somehow separate from humanity, must be contained as if the natural world in which we are embedded is a Cold War adversary. When the term, sustainability, is used by this group, it is only to present the concept, as John Gray stated, of a sustainable more. In the name of Marx, the Prometheans discard the old man’s most potent tool, dialectical materialism, which should inspire one to look out the window to see our actually existing condition, to sell us a vision of life as usual, only more so. They claim to look boldly into the future but are caught in a forever 1950 when American capitalism gazed upon the world and saw only resources. As a point of comparison with Phillips’ Silicon Valley-esque call to “transcend limits”, consider J.B. Foster’s definition of degrowth, presented in an essay titled “Planned Degrowth: Ecosocialism and Sustainable Human Development” the introduction to a series published in Monthly Review (Volume 75, Number 3 (July-August 2023): “The word degrowth stands for a family of political-economic approaches that, in the face of today’s accelerating planetary ecological crisis, reject unlimited, exponential economic growth as the definition of human progress. To abandon economic growth in wealthy societies means to shift to zero net capital formation. With continual technological development and the enhancement of human capabilities, mere replacement investment is able to promote steady qualitative advancements in production in mature industrial societies, while eliminating exploitative labor conditions and reducing working hours.” To paraphrase John Duncan, and contrary to the tireless, and tiresome, efforts of the Prometheans to apply GDP and corporate growth projection thinking to Marxist methods, degrowth is not austerity (which is, after all, a capitalist technique, imposed to preserve profit). It is, simply, an acknowledgement of our material conditions; an effort to imagine, and hopefully shape, a world beyond ‘growth’ as defined by capitalism.

[deadpoetscrusade]

"With Frankenstein’s abandonment of his creation, Adam is thus separated from society, detached from those who would teach him the rules and norms of the world. Adam then moves into margin, or the liminal phase, unfettered as Promethean clay, in a state of unbeing ready to be molded into a perfect member of society, “the very prototype of sacred poverty….In the words of King Lear [representing] ‘naked unaccommodated man.’”"

-excerpt from my aforementioned anthropology final

[dionysian-socialism]

Ted Kaczynski was an awful dude, but the amount of times I've recently thought to myself "the Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race" (just that phrase, not any of his additional reactionary ramblings) upon seeing late-stage capitalist widgets, waste, and war has been nigh uncountable.

Uncritical progress narratives — upheld by both Pinkerist liberals and Promethean socialists — always presume that the good of modernity far outweighs the bad. Capitalism is seen as a necessary step in the arc of history, even as it dehumanizes billions and turns everything into a commodity at the altar of profit. People have to just "put up with it" in some sense because the deterministic march of destiny demands that humans develop the productive capacities, despite this putting the world ecologies on the brink of collapse.

The Industrial Revolution gave us polluting factories, concentrated exploitation, fascism, the nuclear bomb, state surveillance, car culture, AI art, the military industrial complex, the abstract movement of stock lines mattering more than the concrete material needs of human beings — the list goes on and on.

For the sake of balance, I don't want to act like modernity is all bad. Certain yet-to-be-realized worldviews and structures fostered in the pockets of capitalist civilization are definitely worth taking with us into a potential classless future.

Left-libertarian ideas of reconciling negative liberty and positive liberty, and reconciling the freedom of the individual with the larger collective good? Great stuff.

An internationalism whereby all people are seen as part of the same global community that can thrive via cooperation? Hell yeah.

A collection of sustainable technologies that can be used in a humanizing context to reduce toil, save lives, help us steward the Earth, or otherwise improve our lives? Sign me up.

But I don't believe that those things required dragging humanity through the slaughterhouse that was/is hundreds of years of imperialism and capitalism. We could have came to these conclusions and innovations through a different path, one that didn't put us at the mercy of industrialists and racists and bureaucrats and war profiteers. Hell, various indigenous groups and cultural communities throughout the world across the thousands of years since the Neolithic were realizing those above-mentioned positives in their own ways long before the modern west did; so the path was certainly not set in stone and the rest of humanity could have ended up following their examples. All of this outlines how west-centric progress narratives truly are — their conceptions of "development", their ideas of what structures are inevitable or necessary, their preoccupations with the dehumanizing technologies which have alienated the life out of people and planet.

We can do so so much better. And it's not because socialism will inevitably follow capitalism in some preordained script; it's because we always had the potential to realize a classless, cooperative, ecologically-rooted society by virtue of being human. Material conditions do matter, but that doesn't mean socialism requires capitalist conceptions of "development" — it doesn't mean that the good society is only possible once we've trudged through the back-breaking grind of an imperial machine at its apex, like some kind of proverbial Heaven at the close of a grueling sinful life and purgatorial repentance. Yes, it will take a lot of work to reach socialism, but that "work" shouldn't follow the dualistic laws of progress forced onto us by the civilizational leviathan presently setting the world on fire.

Socialism was, is, and shall be always immanent within humanity. Though there is no true "end of history" — no literal socio-political eschaton — socialism acts a kind of realization of our deepest and fullest potentials, as well as a negation of and ending to the eons of imperial civilization. Socialism is a metaphorical eschaton we absolutely must immanentize.

[erzatz3117]

all of them give us the rundown 😌

well, since you asked

THE UNIVERSE OF TOTAL DECAY

My upcoming book, "Dahn Sinkewicz and Total Decay", takes place on Protei, a world with a technological level of the 1970s or so and also widespread usage of magic. It is populated by about 11 sentient races (depending on the way you count), out of whom humans constitute a small plurality. Most of the species living on Protei are divided along ethnic and political boundaries, but some of the most powerful states on the planet have assumed the right to represent their entire species globally. For dwarves, it is Gorna, the oldest state still in existence, for water-affine species it is Salia, for the Collateral Commonwealth it is Olqeserk (this role was prebiously held by Obi-Yud, but that didnt last and the Olken-Obiyudi cold war ended with the former's total victory), for humans it is Pervorodina. Actually, they claim not only diplomatic, but also political and religious dominion over humanity, all of which is de-jure a part of the Human Empire.

Here are all the species, except for werewolves, since the question of their specieshood is hotly debated

Here is some more lore in the form of matchbox images - yeah, most of Total Decay lore is organised like this

THE UNIVERSE OF THE FOURTH ZENITH

Actually, the Fourth Zenith was supposed to be a small-scale project, so its world isnt that exciting. Technically, it is alternate history since its timeline diverges from ours in about 1912 with the split of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party. Unlike our universe's Bolsheviks, the Promethean faction is hellbent on rapid modernisation of society (abolition of the state, abolition of money relations, abolition of family and all that), on achieving communism practically overnight. They come to power in Russia after the May Revolution (didnt even wait until October, yeah). Thanks to butterfly effect the german Spartacist uprising also succeeds, very soon spiraling into a worldwide revolution. The global Promethean State (totally just temporary) rapidly advances scientifically, with FTL travel becoming widespread around 2000. A wave of colonisation engulfs the galaxy, and many planets are settled and terraformed (terraforming is actually a major ideological stance of the party at that point, they believe that nature should be transformed to be completely subordinate to human needs). The planet the comics takes place on, Andropov-7, is settled around 2030. It is among the last colonies to be established before Earth's and the Promethean State's sudden and total disintegration. Left completely alone, the 260 million colonists on Andropov-7 struggle to finish terraforming the planet and destroy the giant mountains of alien flesh that attack their convoys and settlements. The only remaining combat machine on the planet, Zenith-4, was built out of the scrap of the original 3 machines, which were all destroyed. Like most complex equipment of the Promethean State, Zenith-4 is operated by 2 people artificially put into what is known as a state of resonance - a fusion of their separate counsciousnesses and experiences into one.

[leiascully]

OctoberFicFest Day 22: Flame

This year I’m using these prompts from World Anvil.

Mulder is afraid of fire.  Still, like a mothman, he’s drawn to flame.  This, he thinks as he savors a rare glass of whiskey, explains most of the major disasters of his life.  He inherited this tendency: his parents were likewise attracted to the heated promise of greatness, the searing ambition of possibility.  They would burn the world to the ground to get what they wanted.  They would sail to the stars and leave the ashes of society behind.  

White-hot light lanced into his life, taking his sister and burning his heart to a cinder.  Somewhere, somehow, under that thick crust of carbon, a fragment of his soul still pulsed, but his nerves were charred insensitive.  He sought out flames, then, in an attempt to feel anything.  He laid himself like kindling at the feet of women who smiled like a match striking.  He let himself go up in flame, over and over.

Scully’s hair is the color of a banked ember.  Her eyes are the blue of a pilot light.  She has harnessed her passion, tamed her flame to soothe and warm and aid rather than scattering sparks to see if they’ll catch.  He thought he could only love women like a wildfire, women who would change the landscape of his life.  Discovering Scully is like discovering fire all over again.  Promethean, she touches his hand and his heart flickers back to life.  The glow of her regard doesn’t burn.  Scully’s presence is a circle of firelight: monsters press back into the shadows, and he can breathe again.  The dark and the cold may linger outside, but next to her, he finds a moment of respite.