Category Archives: Consumerism

Robert Stark talks to James O’Meara about Mysticism After Modernism

1960's, aesthetics, Alan Watts, Aldous Huxley, Aleister Crowley, Alfred Hitchcock, American Culture, Aristocratic Individualism, Art, Basic Income, Bronze Age Pervert, Buddhism, California, capitalism, Carl Jung, Christianity, Cinema, Class, Colin Wilson, conformity, Conspiracy Theories, Consumerism, Corporations, counterculture, Culture, David Lynch, Donald Trump, dreams, Economics, England, Fascism, Franz Kafka, Gnosticism, Greg Johnson, H. P. Lovecraft, History, Hollywood, Homosexuality, Human Bio Diversity, Islam, James O'Meara, Jason Reza Jorjani, Jeffery Mishlove, Journey to Vapor Island, Judaism, Julius Evola, Liberalism, Literature, Managerialism, Marin County, Marquis de Sade, materialism, Media, meditation, Mitch Horowitz, Morality, Mythology, Neville Goddard, New Thought, Nietzsche, Occultism, Oscar Wilde, parapsychology, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Politics, Psychology, Religion, Rudolf Steiner, Science, Sexuality, Socialism, spirituality, Stanley Kubrick, Sufism, Surrealism, Third Way Economics, Traditionalism, Transcendentalism, Transhumanism, Utopia, Vaporfornia, William S. Burroughs

Robert Stark speaks with James O’Meara about his book, Mysticism After Modernism: Crowley, Evola, Neville, Watts, Colin Wilson, & Other Populist Gurus. Mysticism After Modernism is published by Manticore Press, where it is available for purchase. You can also find it at Counter-Currents and on Amazon.

“Our spirituality has gotten too tame today. James J. O’Meara has a solution [in Mysticism After Modernism]
–Mitch Horowitz, PEN Award-winning author of Occult America and The Miracle Club

-The intersection of mysticism with politics and culture, and how mysticism is available to any political persuasion
-Countering the Hippie-dippy liberal  stereotype about New Age gurus
-Critiquing the reactionary who passively accepts cycles of decay, and the need to embrace infinite possibilities
-A practical take on magic/mysticism, in regards to enacting real world change
-Aleister Crowley’s definition of magic as transforming the World in accordance with one’s will
-Examples of opinions and attributes of Alan Watts and William Burroughs that come across as anti-liberal
-Greg Johnson’s article, “The Spiritual Materialism of Alan Watts: A Review of Does It Matter?”
-Watts’ ties to quasi-fascist Serbian mystic, Dimitrije Mitrinović
–New Thought, and an explanation for how Neville Goddard’s Law of Assumption works
-New Thought as a vehicle for political change, by removing all mental constraints
-Why Theosophy is the theology best adapted to hereditarianism (eg. illiberal pluralism)
-William Burroughs’ obsession with rejecting control in a metaphysical sense
–The Greek Qabalah, hidden esoteric traditions in Abrahamic faiths
-Colin Wilson’s practical mysticism, focused on expanding consciousness
-Parapsychology and Spiritual Science
-The need for spiritual elitism and Aristocratic Radicalism
-Robert’s novel, Vaporfornia, which has themes relating to New Thought
-James’ book, Passing the Buck: Coleman Francis and Other Cinematic Metaphysicians

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark talks to Keith Preston about Rudolf Steiner

Academia, Aleister Crowley, American Culture, Anarchism, Aristocratic Individualism, Art, Austria, capitalism, Carl Jung, Christianity, Consumerism, Culture, decentralization, Despair, Distributism, dreams, Drugs, Economics, Emile Durkheim, Enlightenment, Eugenics, Fascism, Germany, Gnosticism, Hinduism, History, Human Bio Diversity, Jeffery Mishlove, Julius Evola, Keith Preston, localism, Managerialism, Marxism, materialism, Matthew Pegas, Morality, Nationalism, neo-tribalism, Neoliberalism, Nietzsche, Occultism, parapsychology, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Politics, Psychology, Rationalism, Religion, Robert Putnam, Rudolf Steiner, Science, social capital, Social Isolation, Social Media, social trust, Socialism, spirituality, Surrealism, technology, Thinkers Against Modernity, Third Position, Third Way Economics, Timothy Leary, Traditionalism, Transhumanism

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas talk to Keith Preston about the life and philosophy of Austrian occultist and Renaissance Man, Rudolf Steiner, and what we can learn about Steiner’s ideas to address contemporary problems. Check out Keith Preston’s article, Scientific Spirituality and Ethical Individualism: The Legacy of Rudolf Steiner, and Troy Southgate’s new book, THE SPIRIT UNBOUND: RUDOLF STEINER’S PHILOSOPHY OF FREEDOM. Keith Preston is a historian, social scientist, political analyst, author, lecturer, trends researcher, and the editor of Attack the System. Follow Keith on Twitter.

Topics:

The crisis of modernity as anomie, uprootedness from place, identity, tradition, and social bonds, and its impact on the human psyche
Parallels between the modern existential crisis and that of Steiner’s era
Traditional religion being replaced by new secular religions (eg. social justice, scientism, secular heresies)
Steiner’s belief that spirituality and science are interconnected
Parapsychology, including studies of near death experiences
Comparisons to Carl Jung and Christian mystics, Emanuel Swedenborg and William James
Anti-vaxxers’ fascination with Steiner’s warnings of genetically re-engineering people’s spirituality
Steiner’s views on spiritual races and the Steiner schools becoming a target of cancel culture, though Steiner was staunchly anti-fascist
The limitations of materialism and rationalism, and Steiner’s influence from Romanticism 
Steiner’s philosophical relation to other thinkers, including Julius Evola, Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, and Martin Buber
How the essence of Steiner’s political philosophy was reconciling the differences  between individualism and rootedness, liberal egalitarianism and tradition, and occultism and ethics
How Steiner favored an economic system like distributism, over capitalism or Marxism, and decentralized local autonomy and identities, over nationalism

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark interviews Montgomery Markland about his movie Malibu Road

1960's, 1970's, 1990's, acting, aesthetics, Aldous Huxley, Alfred Hitchcock, Alice in Wonderland, American Culture, Ancient Greece, Architecture, Art, Banking, Beatniks, Beverly Hills, Buddhism, California, capitalism, Carl Jung, censorship, Cinema, conformity, Conservatives, Conspiracy Theories, Consumerism, coronavirus, Corporations, counterculture, Culture, David Lynch, Despair, dreams, Drugs, Economics, Enter The Void, Film, Film Noire, Gaspar Noe, Hinduism, History, Hollywood, horror films, Hunter S. Thompson , Literature, Los Angeles, Malibu, Malibu Road, Matthew Pegas, Media, Mid-Century Modern, Montgomery Markland, Mulholland Drive, Mythology, Philip K. Dick, Philosophy, Photography, Political Correctness, Politics, Prostitution, Psychology, relationships, Religion, Sexuality, spirituality, Surrealism, Texas, Tiki, Timothy Leary, Travel, Twin Peaks, Vice, Video Games, William S. Burroughs, Zoomers

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas speak with filmmaker, Montgomery Markland, about his film Malibu Road, which he both directed and starred in. Malibu Road is available to watch for free on Tubi, and for purchase on Apple TV and Amazon. While the pandemic delayed Malibu Road’s theatrical release, Montgomery has further plans for multipicture deals.

“Fast living Los Angelenos are targeted by the Central Intelligence Agency during Operation Midnight Climax, part of MKUltra. The experience takes a turn for the deadly during New Year’s Eve 1960 and now a professor, a starlet and the workers at a hotel with a questionable reputation must rediscover reality or be trapped in an endless cycle of sex, drugs and murder in ‘paradise.'”

–Malibu Road (2021) IMDb 

Montgomery Markland has an idiosyncratic resume. Originally from Dallas, Montgomery was a state and local reporter in Austin, worked in the Texas state legislature on policy, was  then a producer, president, and CCO at a number of video game companies, before working in Hollywood. Follow Montgomery on Twitter.

Topics:

Applying videogame design principles to Cinema
The Meisner acting technique
MKUltra connections to university professors and Hollywood (eg. Irvin Keshner)
Timothy Leary’s prediction that video games had the potential to recreate psychedelic trips
The History of the Albatross Hotel in Malibu and connections to Old Hollywood
Cinemaphotographic techniques used to capture the psychedelic aesthetic
Distorting reality in stories as representations of dreams (eg. traumnovelle), and influences from David Lynch
Influence from soap operas, telenovelas, and 90s Cinemax
The set design, recreating the aesthetics of the 60s and 70s
Influences from Jungian archetypes, as well as Ancient Greek, Hindu, and Buddhist mythology (eg. Timothy Leary on the Tibetan Book of the Dead)
Hunter S. Thompson
Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo
Malibu Road’s filming locations, including Malibu State Park and Will Rogers State Historic Park
The politicization of entertainment, and why overtly political conservative media fails
Reasons to be optimistic about opportunities in entertainment via niche markets
The Banking crisis, Economic Death Spiral, and narratives of collapse

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark chats with Default Friend

American Culture, Andrea Dworkin, Art, Baby Boomers, Class, Consumerism, coronavirus, Culture, Default Friend, Despair, Drugs, Ellliot Rodger, Feminism, Gender, Generation X, Gio Pennacchietti, Hipsters, History, Incels, income inequality, Internet, Los Angeles, Manosphere, Matthew Pegas, Millennials, Morality, Naama Kates, Neoliberalism, New York, Occupy Wall Street, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Politics, Psychology, relationships, San Francisco, Sexuality, Silicon Valley, Social Isolation, Social Media, social status, technology, The Black Pill, The Perfume Nationalist, Vaporfornia, Zoomers

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas talk to Default Friend about online subcultures, incels, and generational trends. Default Friend, Katherine Deee, is a writer, cultural commentator, cultural anthropologist, internet historian, and digital native. Check out Default Friend’s Substack, Default Wisdom, her writings for the Claremont Institute’s American Mind, and follow her on Twitter.

Topics:
Thoughts on various political-spheres including the intellectual dark web
The politicization of sex and relationships
On being a proto-Femcel
The impacts of dating apps and income inequality on the “sexual market place”
New York Times article, A Manifesto Against Sex Positivity, reviewing Default Friend’s writings on the backlash against hookup culture
The rise in conservative feminism and woke puritanism
Generational differences between Millennials and Zoomers, and cultural shifts from the 00s-to the 2010s, and 2020s
The trend in the end of mass youth subcultures and the rise in fusionism of “hybrid collages” and nostalgia based upon past generations’ nostalgia
The internet as the astral plane
Prediction of a tech backlash in the 2020s
Justin Murphy’s and Alex Kaschuta’s neo-traditionalism

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark interviews Apex about Systems & Agency

aesthetics, Afghanistan, Alt Center, Alternative Right, American Culture, Apex, Architecture, Banking, capitalism, Cities, Classical Liberalism, Conservatives, Conspiracy Theories, Consumerism, Corporations, Culture, demographics, Distributism, Diversity, Donald Trump, Economics, education, History, Immigration, Imperialism, Leftism, Liberalism, Libertarianism, Managerialism, Marxism, materialism, Morality, neo-tribalism, Neoliberalism, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Politics, Psychology, Radical Center, social capital, Social Isolation, social trust, Socialism, Third Way Economics, Urbanism

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Apex talk about Systems, Pan-Enclavism, and the Alt-Center. Apex is a former leftist from a landless North Eastern Native American Tribe, and loosely part of the Post-Left/Post-Right sphere. He describes himself as the “Cartographer of the Simulation and the Architect of Post-America.” Subscribe to Apex’s Substack and follow him on Twitter.

Topics:

Why the Left are Hyper-capitalists
How we can embrace certain leftwing social policies while rejecting the philosophical framework
Systems and Agency
Why All Politics are Identity Politics
Robert’s Proposal for a New Alt-Center which offers a counter-argument to the slippery slope fallacy and O’Sullivan’s First Law with core philosophical principles
Why There is no such thing as a “Private Company” and why The Right is No Home of Mine
Distributism, Adam Smith’s critique of absentee ownership, and why market power matters more than supply and demand
The huge and confusing gap in theorizing power structures
The viability of alternative institutions such as in finance and education
Pan-Enclavism: the case for communal self-determination as a bulwark against mass homogenization
Post Americanism: embracing America as an internal empire
Politics as a cope: The LARPing will continue until morale improves

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and in production documentary The Gospel of Gibson, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark interviews artist Gio Pennacchietti

1960's, 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, aesthetics, Alternative Right, American Culture, Architecture, Art, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Baby Boomers, Bimbo Ubermensch, BLAUERGEIST!, Canada, capitalism, Catholicism, Christianity, Cities, Class, Classical Liberalism, Coach Black Pill, Communism, Consumerism, counterculture, Crime, Culture, Diversity, Donald Trump, Economics, England, France, Francis Nally, Futurism, Gio Pennacchietti, Globalization, Gnosticism, History, Immigration, Incels, income inequality, Italian Futurism, Jason Reza Jorjani, Journey to Vapor Island, Las Vegas, Leftism, Liberalism, Literature, Malls, materialism, Matthew Pegas, Media, Mid-Century Modern, Middle Class, Millennials, Morality, Multiculturalism, Nationalism, NEETs, neo-tribalism, Neoliberalism, Neon, New York, Nietzsche, Philosophy, Pilleater, Police, Police Brutality, Police State, Political Correctness, Politics, Postmodernism, Prison, Prison Industrial Complex, Prison Rape, Psychology, Religion, Retro Futurism, Silicon Valley, Socialism, South Africa, Soviet Union, Surrealism, Synthwave, technology, Toronto, Traditionalism, Vaporwave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas talk to Gio Pennacchietti about aesthetic, cultural, and social trends. Gio Pennacchietti is a social impressionist painter and writer from the “first post-national country” (Canada), Gonzo Philosopher, and failed academic. Check out his YouTube channel GiantArt Productions, Instagram, writings at Substack and WordPress, and Twitter.

Topics:

Gio’s review of Robert Stark’s Art: The Fauvist Vaporwave Interiors
20th Century aesthetic genres, retrofuturism, post-modernism, late 20th century pop art, trends in nostalgia, and the psychology of hauntology
Political symbolism in aesthetics: 2010s minimalism, Neoliberal Kitsch, Sanford Biggers’ statue in Rockefeller Plaza, the de-evolution of Trump’s aesthetics, and the lack of a cohesive aesthetic trend for the future
Robert’s article on Pan-Enclavism and how it relates to Canada as a post-national nation
A critique of the Intellectual Dark Web
The need for a new bohemian/creative movement comparable to the Vienna Secession
Gio’s interest in the after prison Youtubers
Gio’s artistic background, influences, and art as a spiritual endeavor

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and in production documentary The Gospel of Gibson, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark catches up with Logo Daedalus in the simulation

2020 Riots, American Culture, Andrew Yang, automation, Basic Income, Beatniks, capitalism, comedy, Communism, Consumerism, coronavirus, Corporations, counterculture, Culture, Donald Trump, Economics, History, humor, Indian Bronson, Jack Kerouac, Jean Baudrillard, Literature, Logo Daedalus, Matt Pegan, Matthew Pegas, Media, Michel Houellebecq, Morality, Neoliberalism, Philosophy, Police, Politics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matt Pegan talk to Logo Daedalus about the current political climate and whether there’s any historical significance and deeper philosophical meaning to all this. Logo is the author of Selfie, Suicide: or Cairey Turnbull’s Blue Skiddoo and you can follow him on Twitter.

Topics:

The different online tribes and how the weakest are based on ideology
Ideology as a pavlovian learned response
Thoughts on the protests, civil unrest, and Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
The Woke Capital phenomenon, and why Logo thinks it’s more of an advertisement investment rather than political agenda
Why pointing out moral hypocrisy is an ineffective political strategy
The significance of Iconoclasm
How America is an economic zone, all politics are consumer choices, and Americans are tourists
Baudrillard’s concept of current events as part of the simulation
Kojève and the End of history
The need for a post establishment world view
How building communities, creative endeavors, and independent institutions are more important than politics
The need for neo-mercantilism as an alternative to neo-liberalism
The animalization of American life (future of humans as pets)
Why the Boiling frog theory is more likely than the collapse (World will be same but worse after ‘banal’ virus, says Houellebecq)
How the police will be co-opted into the woke agenda rather than defunded
Nathan for You and what makes effective satire
The Kerouac Pill
Logo’s upcoming book inspired by the Canterbury Tales

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram




Robert Stark interviews Scott Tungay

2020 Riots, Academia, aesthetics, Africa, American Culture, Architecture, Banking, Basic Income, Bernie Sanders, capitalism, China, Christianity, Cities, Class, Classical Liberalism, Conservatives, Consumerism, coronavirus, Crime, Culture, demographics, Donald Trump, Economics, education, England, Environment, Globalization, Healthcare, Immigration, Leftism, Liberalism, Libertarianism, localism, Media, Nationalism, Nature, Neoliberalism, New Urbanism, Overpopulation, Political Correctness, Politics, Race Relations, Religion, Scott Tungay, social capital, social trust, Socialism, South Africa, Southern Agrarians, Suburbia, The American South, Third Position, Third Way Economics, Urbanism, Usury, Wealth, Wilderness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark talks to Scott Tungay about the current situation in South Africa, the ongoing riots in America, and his views on social capital, land use, and wealth. Scott is originally from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and immigrated to Kentucky to be with his American wife. He blogs at Department of Winning, has a Youtube channel with his wife Kelli, and is also on Twitter.

Topics:

Scott’s background, like many English South Africans, growing up believing in the Rainbow nation narrative and classical liberal values
How immigrating to America lit a nationalist spark
Scott’s passion for homesteading and Permaculture
Scott’s admiration for conservationist Wendell Berry and the Southern Agrarians
How Scott is currently stuck in South Africa which has one of the most draconian Lockdowns in the world
How the lockdown could be used as a power grab by the ANC, with businesses foreclosing, and a planned expropriation of White property
Why South Africa will fall, like Yugoslavia | With Scott Tungay by Willem Petzer
Different scenarios for South Africa, including a partition into smaller nations, Chinese intervention, and why a Rwandan scenario is unlikely
How most White South Africans are looking to emigrate
The ongoing riots in America, and why Scott thinks America is 20-30 years away from where South Africa is now
The media narrative about race relations, divide and conquer strategy, and long term un-sustainability due to economic breakdown
The failure of conservatism, and opportunity for a Third Position that is localist, anti-usury, and anti-globalist
The missed mashup that could have happened between Bernie and Trump
The Back–to-the-land movement and New Urbanism as alternatives to the commercial squalor that destroyed small town Americana
How the lockdown proves the value of family and community over the corporate rat race
Economic Class Dynamics: The significance, slave, and survival economy
The importance of aesthetics: how beauty elicits care
The limits of meritocracy: how future economic survival will depend upon one’s In-group

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram




Robert Stark talks to Paul Bingham about the Planned Obsolescence of the American Heartland

addiction, alienation, American Culture, Andrew Yang, Animal Cruelty, animals, Asset Tax, automation, Basic Income, Bernie Sanders, Brazil, Bullshit Jobs, capitalism, China, Christianity, Class, Conspiracy Theories, Consumerism, coronavirus, Corporations, Culture, demographics, Despair, documentary, Donald Trump, Drugs, Economics, Feminism, Free Trade, Gender, Globalization, Immigration, income inequality, India, Mormonism, neo-tribalism, Neoliberalism, Oligarchy, Overpopulation, Paul Bingham, Poetry, Politics, social capital, Social Isolation, social trust, Suburbia, Suicide, TFW NO GF, The American South, Travel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark talks to Paul Bingham about his in-production documentary chronicling the economic and social despair of the American Heartland. Paul Bingham is the author of Down Where the Devil Don’t Go and Black House Rocked. You can contact Paul at paulbingham44@yahoo.com.

Topics:

Paul’s footage and interviews conducted across the South and Midwest
The concept of non-essential jobs exposing the reality that most of the workforce will become obsolete
Long term economic consequences of the pandemic including permanent job loss, foreclosure of small banks and businesses, and more automation and streamlining
Trump’s failure to bring back manufacturing
The conglomeration of farmland and real estate
Why Paul predicts America will serve as the breadbasket of the world
Paul’s speculation that elites support mass immigration in the short term but population reduction in the long term
Stratification of elites, hiding of assets, and effectiveness of an asset tax
Crisis of addiction and deaths of despair (highest rates among Whites and Native Americans)
The foreign policy motive behind foreign owned cash businesses
The benefits of economic specialization and family based businesses
America’s nomadic nature
Why certain groups of Americans are better adapted to thrive in the future
Why the general public is only educated to be a consumer and not a rational political actor
Failure of past political movements from Ron Paul to Bernie Sanders
How the documentary will record the heartland’s decline rather than explicitly make political predictions
Paul’s upcoming poetry book, Strip Club Poetry

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews Jack from The Perfume Nationalist

 Angelo Badalamenti, 1980's, 1990's, 80's music, aesthetics, alienation, Alternative Left, American Culture, Architecture, Art, Bernie Sanders, Camille Paglia, capitalism, censorship, Cinema, Cities, Class, Consumerism, counterculture, Culture, David Lynch, Donald Trump, Fashion, Film, Freedom of Speech, History, Hollywood, Homosexuality, income inequality, Las Vegas, Madonna, Malls, Marquis de Sade, materialism, Matt Pegan, Matthew Pegas, Music, Nationalism, Neoliberalism, Neon, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Politics, Postmodernism, Sexuality, social status, Surrealism, Texas, TFW NO GF, The Perfume Nationalist, True Stories, Twin Peaks, Wealth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matt Pegan talk to Jack from The Perfume Nationalist podcast. Check out Jack on Twitter.

Topics:

Nationalism as an aesthetic brand, selling perfume and soap opera visions to the right
Re-appropriating “queer culture”
Camille Paglia
Trump as a performance art aesthetic brand despite his standard neoliberal policies
Beauty equality vs. an upward value of aesthetic excellence
The aspirational quality of 80s aesthetics
How 2010s neoliberal minimalism conceals wealth and power while erasing history
The elite charade of fake bohemianism
How to time travel with perfume
Las Vegas as the last frontier of scented opulent public spaces
Jack’s affinity for 80s pop icon Madonna
Jack’s defense of the artistic integrity of Lena Dunham
David Lynch’s success at synthesizing surrealist art, perfume adds, and nighttime soap
Jack’s Perfume recommendations
TFW NO GF

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island