Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton
@gadflyacademy.bsky.social
How do we get out of this mess? Download “The How Did We Get Here? Reading List” and join us down the rabbit hole...and out of the matrix: https://sleek.bio/gadflyacademy
“America, said Bly, was ‘the first culture in history that has colonised itself’.…
In The Revolt of the Elites, [American historian Christopher] Lasch forecast the future accurately. ‘The culture wars that have convulsed America since the sixties’, he wrote, ‘are best understood..."
In The Revolt of the Elites, [American historian Christopher] Lasch forecast the future accurately. ‘The culture wars that have convulsed America since the sixties’, he wrote, ‘are best understood..."
February 12, 2026 at 2:22 PM
“America, said Bly, was ‘the first culture in history that has colonised itself’.…
In The Revolt of the Elites, [American historian Christopher] Lasch forecast the future accurately. ‘The culture wars that have convulsed America since the sixties’, he wrote, ‘are best understood..."
In The Revolt of the Elites, [American historian Christopher] Lasch forecast the future accurately. ‘The culture wars that have convulsed America since the sixties’, he wrote, ‘are best understood..."
“The Machine is the liberal anticulture made manifest. In the new civilization it is building, culture will be made not by that magical, strange, impossible and miraculous combination of human bodies, wild nature and the soul, but by the Algorithm and the AI.”
~ #PaulKingsnorth, Against The Machine
~ #PaulKingsnorth, Against The Machine
February 10, 2026 at 9:27 PM
“The Machine is the liberal anticulture made manifest. In the new civilization it is building, culture will be made not by that magical, strange, impossible and miraculous combination of human bodies, wild nature and the soul, but by the Algorithm and the AI.”
~ #PaulKingsnorth, Against The Machine
~ #PaulKingsnorth, Against The Machine
“Liberalism did not naturally ‘evolve’ from previously existing arrangements. It needed to artificially create the ‘sovereign individual’ from new cloth. The individual ‘as a disembodied, self-interested economic actor’, claims Deneen, ‘didn't exist in any actual state of nature,..."
February 9, 2026 at 2:18 PM
“Liberalism did not naturally ‘evolve’ from previously existing arrangements. It needed to artificially create the ‘sovereign individual’ from new cloth. The individual ‘as a disembodied, self-interested economic actor’, claims Deneen, ‘didn't exist in any actual state of nature,..."
“Philosopher Patrick Denneen, in his 2018 book Why Liberalism Failed, presents this modern drive towards liberation as an ideological project, suggesting that ‘liberalism’ is one of three ideologies which have dominated the world over the last three centuries..."
February 8, 2026 at 9:59 PM
“Philosopher Patrick Denneen, in his 2018 book Why Liberalism Failed, presents this modern drive towards liberation as an ideological project, suggesting that ‘liberalism’ is one of three ideologies which have dominated the world over the last three centuries..."
“It is an ‘anticulture,’ because the elements of human life from which cultures of all kinds, however different, have traditionally sprung are negated by today's way of life. The values of the Machine are an attack on the values upon which pre-modern, traditional societies were built..."
February 7, 2026 at 3:30 PM
“It is an ‘anticulture,’ because the elements of human life from which cultures of all kinds, however different, have traditionally sprung are negated by today's way of life. The values of the Machine are an attack on the values upon which pre-modern, traditional societies were built..."
“The age, I think, is unique. It might be that everyone thinks this about their time, but I think that today we have a good case. The sheer scale of global culture, the degree of technological interconnectedness, the dangers of those technologies, from AI to nuclear missiles,..."
February 6, 2026 at 2:27 PM
“The age, I think, is unique. It might be that everyone thinks this about their time, but I think that today we have a good case. The sheer scale of global culture, the degree of technological interconnectedness, the dangers of those technologies, from AI to nuclear missiles,..."
“The Machine is virtually impossible to resist, not least because it is found both around us and within us. As Lewis Mumford explained, the ‘myth of the Machine’ comes from within the human heart: we carry its drive for planning, efficiency, profit, clarity, straight lines, organization,..."
February 5, 2026 at 2:17 PM
“The Machine is virtually impossible to resist, not least because it is found both around us and within us. As Lewis Mumford explained, the ‘myth of the Machine’ comes from within the human heart: we carry its drive for planning, efficiency, profit, clarity, straight lines, organization,..."
“All of the enclosures, the destruction of alternative lifeways, the early modern revolutions, the fanning of want, the unsettling of peoples, the journeys of the Black Ships, the myth of progress: all that leads here to the triumph of technique, to the kingdom of the Machine.”
#PaulKingsnorth, ATM
#PaulKingsnorth, ATM
February 4, 2026 at 2:25 PM
“All of the enclosures, the destruction of alternative lifeways, the early modern revolutions, the fanning of want, the unsettling of peoples, the journeys of the Black Ships, the myth of progress: all that leads here to the triumph of technique, to the kingdom of the Machine.”
#PaulKingsnorth, ATM
#PaulKingsnorth, ATM
“Ellul's technique is an attitude of mind, one which replaces spontaneous, human-scale, organic ways of living with a focus on technical, rationalised, planned and directed outcomes. Technique is not the same thing as technology. Humans have always used technologies, or at least tools;..."
February 3, 2026 at 2:56 PM
“Ellul's technique is an attitude of mind, one which replaces spontaneous, human-scale, organic ways of living with a focus on technical, rationalised, planned and directed outcomes. Technique is not the same thing as technology. Humans have always used technologies, or at least tools;..."
“But the Machine is not simply the logical end point of certain trends within culture and history. It is not simply a collection of advanced tools, historical designs and political power games. It is that, but it is also something else...."
January 31, 2026 at 3:01 PM
“But the Machine is not simply the logical end point of certain trends within culture and history. It is not simply a collection of advanced tools, historical designs and political power games. It is that, but it is also something else...."
“Since the 1990s—or perhaps since the 1850s—the process of Machine globalisation has been a war against all ‘closed’ things; against limits and boundaries of any kind, cultural or ecological; against historical traditions, local economies, trades unions, national economic plans, nations themselves..
January 30, 2026 at 2:28 PM
“Since the 1990s—or perhaps since the 1850s—the process of Machine globalisation has been a war against all ‘closed’ things; against limits and boundaries of any kind, cultural or ecological; against historical traditions, local economies, trades unions, national economic plans, nations themselves..
“The flaw in the cosmopolitan dream, now as then, is a simple failure to understand that the world is not ‘rational’, and neither are we. We are crooked timber, and we grow from the ground. Universalist projects ignore that human need for roots, and the attack on culture by commerce fuels..."
January 28, 2026 at 3:07 PM
“The flaw in the cosmopolitan dream, now as then, is a simple failure to understand that the world is not ‘rational’, and neither are we. We are crooked timber, and we grow from the ground. Universalist projects ignore that human need for roots, and the attack on culture by commerce fuels..."
“To those who ask, ‘What can I actually do?’, he [E. F. Schumacher] said, the answer was ‘as simple as it is disconcerting: we can each of us work to put our own inner house in order..."
January 26, 2026 at 4:34 PM
“To those who ask, ‘What can I actually do?’, he [E. F. Schumacher] said, the answer was ‘as simple as it is disconcerting: we can each of us work to put our own inner house in order..."
“So this is who we are. You don't have to be a Christian or a Buddhist to see where it has led us, and where it will lead next. Want is the acid. Capitalism is the battery. Growth is the engine. Greed is the forming energy that moves us to where we are inevitably headed.
What is the brake?..."
What is the brake?..."
January 25, 2026 at 6:18 PM
“So this is who we are. You don't have to be a Christian or a Buddhist to see where it has led us, and where it will lead next. Want is the acid. Capitalism is the battery. Growth is the engine. Greed is the forming energy that moves us to where we are inevitably headed.
What is the brake?..."
What is the brake?..."
“‘What is at stake,’ asserts [E. F.] Schumacher, ‘is not economics but culture; not the standard of living but the quality of life. Economics and the standard of living can just as well be looked after by a capitalist system, moderated by a bit of planning and redistributive taxation..."
January 24, 2026 at 6:49 PM
“‘What is at stake,’ asserts [E. F.] Schumacher, ‘is not economics but culture; not the standard of living but the quality of life. Economics and the standard of living can just as well be looked after by a capitalist system, moderated by a bit of planning and redistributive taxation..."
“We are all bourgeois now, which is to say that we are all driven forward by want. We have all learned a bourgeois version of history too, in which medieval ‘feudalism’ is seen as dark and barbaric, while modern capitalism is equated with freedom and liberty..."
January 22, 2026 at 2:47 PM
“We are all bourgeois now, which is to say that we are all driven forward by want. We have all learned a bourgeois version of history too, in which medieval ‘feudalism’ is seen as dark and barbaric, while modern capitalism is equated with freedom and liberty..."
“I’m no Marxist, but The Communist Manifesto describes the world we are in with brilliant prescience, despite being written nearly two centuries ago. The mass consumption of the world, and the mass excretion of our culture's toxic byproducts into its waters in woods and skies,..."
January 20, 2026 at 2:45 PM
“I’m no Marxist, but The Communist Manifesto describes the world we are in with brilliant prescience, despite being written nearly two centuries ago. The mass consumption of the world, and the mass excretion of our culture's toxic byproducts into its waters in woods and skies,..."
“The city itself ‘becomes consumable, indeed expendable: the container must change as rapidly as its content. The latter imperative undermines a main function of the city as an agent of human continuity. The living memory of the city, which once bound together generations and centuries, disappears:"
January 19, 2026 at 8:59 PM
“The city itself ‘becomes consumable, indeed expendable: the container must change as rapidly as its content. The latter imperative undermines a main function of the city as an agent of human continuity. The living memory of the city, which once bound together generations and centuries, disappears:"
“This Metropolis breeds a globalized elite class who feel more at home in each others’ cities than they do in the hinterlands of their respective nations, and who promote and represent the ideology of Progress that keeps the metropolis humming..."
January 17, 2026 at 3:59 PM
“This Metropolis breeds a globalized elite class who feel more at home in each others’ cities than they do in the hinterlands of their respective nations, and who promote and represent the ideology of Progress that keeps the metropolis humming..."
“The city provides opportunities for wealth that the village never could, but it treats its poor and marginalized with a contempt that the village would regard with incomprehension.
As so often, this is a question of scale..."
As so often, this is a question of scale..."
January 16, 2026 at 3:51 PM
“The city provides opportunities for wealth that the village never could, but it treats its poor and marginalized with a contempt that the village would regard with incomprehension.
As so often, this is a question of scale..."
As so often, this is a question of scale..."
“One of the great myths of the city is that we go there to individuate—to ‘find ourselves’. It might be more accurate to say that the city removes our agency, deskills us, and toys with us at its leisure..."
January 14, 2026 at 3:53 PM
“One of the great myths of the city is that we go there to individuate—to ‘find ourselves’. It might be more accurate to say that the city removes our agency, deskills us, and toys with us at its leisure..."
“Once a structure of this size and complexity has been created, it must be maintained. In the case of a modern city, this means that the surrounding lands, and then the lands further afield, must be colonised to supply it and its inhabitants, their whims and desires and needs...."
January 13, 2026 at 3:13 PM
“Once a structure of this size and complexity has been created, it must be maintained. In the case of a modern city, this means that the surrounding lands, and then the lands further afield, must be colonised to supply it and its inhabitants, their whims and desires and needs...."
“A city is, at its heart, just such a ‘relentless collective assault’ on the way that humans have lived for 99 percent of their history; and, maybe more importantly, a collective assault on other forms of life..."
January 12, 2026 at 2:55 PM
“A city is, at its heart, just such a ‘relentless collective assault’ on the way that humans have lived for 99 percent of their history; and, maybe more importantly, a collective assault on other forms of life..."
“A Machine civilization is an urban civilization, and its worldview and direction is that of the urban dwellers who build, justify and benefit from it.”
~ #PaulKingsnorth, #AgainstTheMachine, p. 82
* Join our #BookStudy @GadflyAcademy on YouTube!
~ #PaulKingsnorth, #AgainstTheMachine, p. 82
* Join our #BookStudy @GadflyAcademy on YouTube!
January 10, 2026 at 3:45 PM
“A Machine civilization is an urban civilization, and its worldview and direction is that of the urban dwellers who build, justify and benefit from it.”
~ #PaulKingsnorth, #AgainstTheMachine, p. 82
* Join our #BookStudy @GadflyAcademy on YouTube!
~ #PaulKingsnorth, #AgainstTheMachine, p. 82
* Join our #BookStudy @GadflyAcademy on YouTube!
“In 1900, around 12 percent of the world's people lived in towns and cities. By 2050, nearly 70 percent will. That's not simply a matter of where people live: it's the whole mindset of humanity changing from one which dwells in a place in which we are not the centre of attention,..."
January 9, 2026 at 3:23 PM
“In 1900, around 12 percent of the world's people lived in towns and cities. By 2050, nearly 70 percent will. That's not simply a matter of where people live: it's the whole mindset of humanity changing from one which dwells in a place in which we are not the centre of attention,..."