Mindless Ones

The following steps may be taken whenever the taint of the fascist insect is felt. But to do it like they did it in the day, stake out thirty minutes beginning 11.30 on a Sunday morning.

Step 1.
A quiet room, not too bright. Clean the room with incense first if you like. Sit or recline, feet and hands together, facing London. If you’re in London, face Greenwich.

Step 2.
Clasp in your hands a piece of paper with your campaign objective written or symbolised upon it. Use this statement as your default until you receive further instructions:

Cosmic Law’s victory over unbalanced force is inevitable.
Though obliged to struggle, there is no need for fear.

Step 3.
Using psychic intuition – or common sense – imagine a visual picture that sums up the objective for you. Slow your thoughts and breathing, and listen to the image’s vibrations. Do this for no more than one minute.

Step 4.
In your mind, dedicate your self to the goodness of the supreme being, whoever yours may be. The goodness you will call through is for all, according to Cosmic Law.

Step 5.
Become a facet of the mind of our human species. Its life is your life, and yours to determine:

• Invoke the name of your god
• Open your being to the Masters of Wisdom

Step 6.
Refocus on the campaign objectives. You will begin to feel the presence of the Inner Circle, whose influence will shape the remaining imagery of your meditation. Let go to them. Continue in their company and record what you see.

Step 7.
Close down:

• Imagine a pair of blackout curtains drawn across the scene
• Stand and stamp your foot on the ground.
• Say aloud ‘IT IS FINISHED’
• Return to normal consciousness in good time for lunch.

Further campaign objectives and visual talismans will be issued in due course.

The above strategy was developed by the mystic Dion Fortune at the outbreak of World War Two to counter and defeat the psycho-spiritual components of the threat from the Nazi Reich. As an act of directed mass-psychism it stands as one of the most effective and critical workings on record.

Further instructions on how to save the planet below.

The most interesting thing we learn in issue two of Crisis on Infinite Earths is that the scope of the story is much wider than we might have originally supposed.

About fifteen years ago, I had the idea to write a comic script about a shapeshifting superhero, and in particular to have that superhero be trans. Perhaps they could be one gender in their secret identity, and another as their superhero identity?

Thankfully, a trans friend quickly persuaded me that this would be a really, really, really bad idea and that I should instead not do that, and do literally anything else instead, because I am a cis man, and I’d have ended up writing the most grossly offensive thing possible, in the name of “dealing with the issues” and performative allyship.

However, I’ve been very surprised that in the intervening years, especially with gender being an increasingly controversial topic, no-one in the superhero comics world has decided to do exactly that, or something very like it. It’s all too easy to imagine the angry twitterstorms as some cis man called Mark or Nick attacks all the “trolls” who “abuse” him by asking him “why are you doing this bad thing?”

Thankfully, we now have the first serious attempt to present a trans superhero, and rather than being that kind of hateful pseudo-wokeness, it’s actually rather good.

First, an apology that this post is so much later than the first six. Sadly, I had an arthritis flare-up that made it painful for me to type more than a sentence or two at a time, and which also made me too fatigued to even think for more than a week. The perils of chronic illness.

Still, my hands are working – more or less – now, so let’s have a look at the most-loved story (or to hear many people talk, the only loved story) of season twenty-two.

Welcome back to Diane.

Tonight Rosie, Adam and Bob discuss part 9  of Mark Frost and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return.

The Major, scattered by the time winds, reaches out from his billy pilgrimage. The Agent, lost in mind, shows wisdom in muscle. A younger brother is lost in the woods and getting older, and hungry. His body may not be his any more.

As you’ll know by now, the conversation around our dinner table is always lively.

Theme from Diane is by our pal Mass Roman of Strangers from Birth.

Throughout Twin Peaks: The Return, new episodes of Diane will appear on Libsyn 24 hours after UK broadcast.

Diane is conjuring esoteric extras, including a video version of this episode, on Patreon. Go chuck a buck in the buck bucket.

Or easier and thriftier, please just head over to iTunes and give Diane a much sought-after Five Star Review. It will make four or five people very happy indeed!

Diane loves to chat here on Mindless Ones Dot Com or on Twitter: @dianepodcast.

You can even go and look at some pictures or whatever on Diane’s tumblr.

This is a difficult one to write about, in two different ways.

Doctor Who season twenty-two is not, as we saw in the previous essay, a particularly loved season, and its opener is no exception. It’s one of the most reviled Doctor Who stories ever, and in my opinion unfairly so.

NOBODY TELLS ME WHAT TO DO, NO NOT ME

Well, this was a lot of fun. On May 11th 2017, Gary Lactus, The Beast Must Die and Lord Nuneaton Savage sat atop the Bishop’s Finger with a the finest fellows a bunch of pod bods could ever hope for.

Small Press was the theme of the evening but first we started off with Tam Laniado leading a tribute to the recently rest-in-peaced Leo Baxendale.

Proceedings proceeded with some rambling chat which covered such small press obscurities as Bum Child by Tim Leopard, OHM by an odd chap that John Bishop met at a convention many years ago, Fast Fiction, Meow by Cyriak and L.I.F.E. Brigade by the delusional genius C. A. Stormon. There was also talk of Viz and the indestructible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

After a pleasant refill we decided it would be sensible to talk to the creators present. This meant John Riordan going on about Hitsville UK, Douglas Noble waffling on about Strip For Me and Gareth Hopkins guffing about Intercorstal. Luckily there’s some top top chat about daytime TV wine experts to liven things up.

After a lovely singalong we turned off the recording devices and indulged in social activities which shall go unrecorded and spoken of in hushed tones as the years passed thus turning all present for this wonderful evening into legends.

LEARN MORE!
John Riordan
Nick Bryan
Steve Lacey
Anton and Amy
Gareth Hopkins
Douglas Noble
Two Headed Thingies

CLICK HERE FOR A GALLERY OF STARS AND SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES

New podcast from me and the boy Sean. Trial period. Shonky first effort.

1DEEP STATUS

Bannon/Evola: The antipopular believe 

Esoteric fascism past and present
Why it’s shit
And how to beat it.

links

MUSIC
DEEPTHEME by the wonderful Nestor Middleton

BANNON
Bloomberg profile.

Handsome Dan and Prenk Rebus talking at the Conservative People Ain’t Cool convention, February.

Transcript of Bannon speech to an exclusive audience of the Vatican’s wackest paedophiles, Rome 2014.

NY Times article in which having ever read one book by a brokedick fascist is, like, really clever.

An article on Vox about Bannon and Moldbug. Ugliness everywhere.

EVOLA
Wikipedia page.

Julie, maybe stop looking like such a Nazi all the time?

Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the secret intellectual history of the Twentieth Century

MISC
Fourth Turning wikipedia page

The Magical Battle of Britain

NEXT UP
2DEEPSTATUS
The Megatron doctrine