Forum Log

‘Halo: Reach’ is about losing completely. You play as a member of an elite team that discovers an alien invasion of humanity’s second Earth – Reach, and tries to defend it. It ends in catastrophe: the planet is glassed, its people decimated, and your team killed. The last level has a single (impossible) objective: “Survive”. You win every firefight, complete every objective, but losing, while tragic, isn’t ultimately frustrating. It’s an impressive subversion of the power fantasy typical of shooters like it. The helplessness of individuals to prevent defeat is at the heart of Reach’s tragedy. It’s anti-heroic. The military is American, mechanised, and competent (!). The enemy are infinite, religiously-fanatical, _alien_. Like other 2000s sci-fi, Reach looked at the past, but instead of an origin story it looks at a past _collapse_. It’s post-9/11, post-Iraq, post-2008, and post-Fukuyama. Culture had lost confidence in heroes, in the future, and in agency.

Spain operates like an asymmetric confederacy in key areas – some regions manage their own taxes, security, as well as schooling and public media – although it maintains that it’s a state of autonomies. I doubt this will be reversed, even if governments halt further devolution. There isn’t the political capital – or narrative – to recentralise power. Growing regionalism is especially a threat to Spain’s national story. The inequality of treatment and privileges between supposed equals can destroy the narrative of Spain as one people, one state. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Spain will devolve into micro-states, but it’s a reminder that de facto > de jure. Brexit, the Catalan declaration of independence in 2017, and UN resolutions are all WEAK politics attempting to play _de jure_. Navarre’s gradual devolution – see log/25/, Catalonia’s collection of income tax, and Norway and Switzerland’s relationship with the EU are STRONG politics that care about _de facto_ reality.

" The temporal coincidence of these two events [the Budapest Gay Pride and the Bezos-Sanchez wedding] suggests that we should mark 28 June 2025 as the day of the cyborgs’ triumph, on both ends of the political spectrum. Now, the true dialectic is - as [Antonio] Negri writes - biopolitical, and the fundamental decision is whether one intervenes to intensify one’s biological determinations or to negate them. More than ever, the political is the personal in the most material sense of the term: buckets of blood; bone shavings; connective, adipose, and epithelial tissue; and tonnes of silicone and Botox undergird both the Mar-a-Lago aesthetic of Venice and the claims of Gay Pride in Budapest. " - Alejandro Zaera-Polo (architect), "Bodas de sangre en Venecia". Published in the 'ABC de Sevilla', 8 July 2025. Translated from the Spanish.

" I have tamed that savage stenographic mystery. I make a respectable income by it. I am in high repute for my accomplishments in all pertaining to the art, and am joined with eleven others in reporting the debates in Parliament for a Morning Newspaper. Night after night, I record predictions that never come to pass, professions that are never fulfilled, explanations that are only meant to mystify. I wallow in words. Britannia, that unfortunate female, is always before me, like a trussed fowl: skewered through and though with office-pens, and bound hand and foot with red tape. I am sufficiently behind the scenes to know the worth of political life. I am quite an Infidel about it, and shall never be converted. " Charles Dickens, 'David Copperfield', Chapter XLIII, first published 1850.

" a man’s life, especially in the beginning, is often built around one question: How do I become worthy? You don’t need to be told you’re not enough. The world says it in a thousand little ways. You just kind of know. Somewhere between being a boy and becoming a man, you look around and realise everything you want - respect, love, attention, peace - has to be earned. That’s the deal. " Source: https://goranshbharal.substack.com/p/what-women-dont-understand-about

1 'Spaniards See Morocco as the Main External Threat' (ABC de Sevilla) "Since […] February 2022, Russia has held second place in Spaniards’ perception of foreign threats." "Morocco’s rise as a perceived threat has been steady across all respondents: from 35% in 2021, to 49% in 2024, and reaching 55% this year." "Morocco exhibits a degree of rhetorical aggressiveness toward Spain […][and a] "historic claim" over the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla." "Morocco is not considered a threat that falls under NATO’s scope." 2 'Morocco Unilaterally Shuts Down Melilla Commercial Customs Post Again After Six Months of Operation' (Diario de Cádiz) "[The president of Melilla stated that] ‘Morocco is the one calling the shots at the Spanish border, that’s crystal clear’. […] The customs post was also shut without warning in 2018, shortly after the PSOE came to power." Translated from Spanish. 9 July 2025

– What is the essential thing one learns from Cervantes? – To live against idealism - a philosophy incompatible with reality. Idealism leads a human being to personal, professional, and political failure. The European Enlightenment is pure idealism. And today, democracy is in love with idealism. - Jesus G Maestro (2025, July 13). https://postimg.cc/F7JRZqqW Original: – ¿Qué es lo nuclear que se aprende de Cervantes? – A vivir contra el idealismo, una filosofía incompatible con la realidad. El idealismo conduce al ser humano al fracaso personal, laboral y político. La Ilustración europea es idealismo puro. Y hoy la democracia está enamorada del idealismo.

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Superman is a modern myth: Superman is America. It’s a story we retell because “What is America?” is still a relevant question. We pay attention to the answer. Art reveals. Something in the new Superman film struck me. As Superman nears his lowest point, Lex Luthor ruins Superman’s public image by revealing his true mission - one even Superman didn’t know: He was sent to dominate Earth and secure his genetic legacy. To this end, he is to take as many women as necessary. This goes viral as “Superman’s secret harem.” The harem is what horrifies the public and the other heroes the most. And it works on the audience. It works viscerally. Because the fear is _real_. We fear it could happen. The fear that a superior man (an alien!) might exploit power to hoard women. It’s the Tate fear. The Islam fear. The fear that a resurgent masculinity will lead not just to tyranny, but to harems. That the superman might act like a sultan.

I enjoyed this post. I particularly like "Superman is a modern myth" and "Art reveals". Yes, the fear is correct. Any future with resurgent masculinity is one in which the women are just captured / acquired / attracted, often quite willingly, and the average man today, with no spirit / thumos / strength / network, gets - nothing. Actually nothing. The fact that this harem fear was expressed indicates that we (correctly) see ourselves as weak. When watching the film: - I noted that the only way Superman makes sense as a character is if he has rural American Christian parents, and that this film accepted that. A small change in the zeitgeist regarding Christianity ? - I highly enjoyed the new message from his birth parents. It's a striking twist on Krypton's culture that I don't think has been done before. - I appreciated Lex Luthor's recognition and acceptance of his envy, and his use of it as a source of strength.