It seems like forever since I posted on the site itself because I’ve been going so hard on the Gram, but for anyone who’s unaware, there is a new book on sale in the store!!
The dawn of a new era of history is upon us, because I have dropped the 1st volume in my encyclopedia of badassery that is Plague of Strength’s Bite-Size History! This shit is unlike any other history book or book on lifting, because I have recast our history in terms of culture rather than nation, language, or skin color. You’re about to see that the life you are living now existed in bygone eras!
With BSH you get a ten-page work in progress of a historical timeline that delineates my entirely new epochs for lifting history. As you’ll see inside, the nomenclature for my eras actually makes sense, and it will illustrate the reasons why the physiques of different eras look so dissimilar.
You’re gonna learn the names of the people who actually contributed to your interest in lifting, martial arts, or just badass stuff in general, rather than the names of people who won various competitions. You’ll get the historical background for why their feats are so impressive, and you’ll understand why the lifters of yore were so hard. 200+ pages of solid gold!!
Even better? You’ll get clued in on how dudes built lean 19″ and 20″ arms in the years before steroids, you’ll be introduced to a bevy of badass women from history you never knew existed, and you’ll slowly come to the realization that building and maintaining a sick physique is actually much easier than everyone thinks.
CLICK ME AND BUY THE FUCKING THING! IT’S ONLY TEN BUCKS!!
And to all of my Patrons, I cannot thank you for your support over the years. I’m going to release 2 more volumes over the next 4 months, and at that point I’ll drop an Omnibus that all of my Patrons will get a digital copy of for free. I’d give you this volume for a discount but I am $24 dollars and a paintcan-full-of- change style broke at the moment, so I’m going to give you the entire thing for free at the end. I have no timeline on a print version bc I’m focused on getting the 3 volumes completed in under 4 months, but @punk_rock_fairy_godmother hopes we’ll have a print version on Amazon in Feb.
NOW WRITING FULL TIME! LET’S GOOO!
Fuck yeah, keen!
And I’ve got more long-form stuff coming on the site. I’m gonna be doint oth long and short form stuff now.
Oh.. its a history of lifting. I’m not into lifting. Jamie seems a lively oddball, but I’ve never been big into sports, gym stuff, conspicuous displays of masculinity (for fear of being accused of ‘compensating’, maybe), or business stuff, money stuff, magic stuff.. so I guess Jamie and I are oil and water.
Peds? Oh.. Performance drugs. I used to do GHB, a bodybuilding / date-rape drug all the time. Very few girls took the opportunity to rape me, though, so I moved on to more traditional research chemicals. (5 methoxy DMT, DiPT, MDMA, LSD, PRO-LAD, also betel nut, MJ, ephedra, classic stims (speed, coke, caffeine) MJ+caffeine is still my go-to. My only lifting experience was when I got drunk, at 13- on some disgusting syrup wine. I couldn’t move my arms for 2 days after that.
‘Heretical’ assumes the existence of some dumb sky-God, I think. I’m more into Spinoza’s God, aka Einstein’s God. I like quoting Einstein.. here is a mention of his beliefs that touches on heretics:
“It comes about, therefore, that we find precisely among the heretics of all ages men who were inspired by this highest religious experience; often they appeared to their contemporaries as atheists, but sometimes also as saints.”
I got excited when I heard the bytesized history idea, though. I was hoping for just a summary of human endeavor. Its always interesting to hear what people say when you ask them to summarize human civilization in, say, 4 sentences. Here is Einstein’s bite sized history.
[1] … most of the major states of history owed their existence to conquest.
[2] The conquering peoples established themselves, legally and
economically, as the privileged class of the conquered country.
[3] They seized for themselves a monopoly of the land ownership and appointed
a priesthood from among their own ranks.
[4] The priests, in control of education, made the class division of society into a permanent institution and created a system of values by which the people were thenceforth, to a large extent unconsciously, guided in their social behavior.
……
A teaser for what follows: “Innumerable voices have been asserting for some time now that human society is passing through a crisis, that its stability has been gravely shattered. ” [full text at MonthlyReview/Why-socialism]
Thanks for the review!!!
I read the article you mentioned “Monthly Review/Why -socialism.” And not bad at all. I particularly liked the conclusion. “Nevertheless, it is necessary to remember that a planned economy is not yet socialism. A planned economy as such may be accompanied by the complete enslavement of the individual. The achievement of socialism requires the solution of some extremely difficult socio-political problems: how is it possible, in view of the far-reaching centralization of political and economic power, to prevent bureaucracy from becoming all-powerful and overweening? How can the rights of the individual be protected and therewith a democratic counterweight to the power of bureaucracy be assured?
Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition. Since, under present circumstances, free and unhindered discussion of these problems has come under a powerful taboo, I consider the foundation of this magazine to be an important public service.”
I think Einstein is falling into the trap of accepting “the power of bureaucracy” The point being to create a society without bureaucracy. Instead of REPRESENTATIVES we have delgates, elected and RECALLABLE.
Whatwe are dealing with here, and I think it does have some bearing on the topic of lifting and the like, is POWER.
You’re arguing with a bot, I think.
Really miss your writing brother
I’ve been writing pretty much daily on my instagram bro! instaram.com/plagueofstrength. I’ve been piecing together an article for the site using insta as a way to kind of part it out. It will drop soon.
Bunch of videos here taking a somewhat more profound look at PUMPING IRON. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OP3rqdAZfs&ab_channel=CarvedOuttaStone Arnold’s fascism?
Bro, he was raised by a Nazi officer in the same city the Habsburgs of that era were from- there’s literally no other way he could have been. It adds a nice redemption arc to his story though, and he did seem to change his behavior incredibly quickly. Back in the day everyone was fascinated with the Nazis- they had the cool uniforms that looked like the badass Empire guys in star wars. There was a kid on my block who had all these trading cards that were WW2 weaponry and shit, and we all sort of were steeped in it. Hell, all of the historical documentaries in the 80s and 90s were about the Nazis, and they all sort of presented the Nazis as almost really dope, but they got sidetracked with that racism bullshit. Had they shown us what bumbling chickenhawk dickhead methmouth dipshits they ACTUALLY were, I doubt we would have looked at them like the unheralded underground band that never made it. And I’m saying that as an American son of a father who was disgusted by bigots but voted Republican and was raised in the 80s rather than the son of a Nazi Obersturmfuhrer who probably worshipped Otto Skorzeny as a literal god.
So in short, I appreciate you sharing that, although I think you missed the point entirely if your takeaway was that Arnold was a fascist.