Ikipr outlines all the reasons he thinks Iain Spence’s prediction that the youth culture of the 00s would be dominated by so-called “Stormers” actually did come true.
It’s a good, long article defending Spence’s Sekhmet Hypothesis, which as we’ve seen here before Spence himself no longer subscribes.
Kook Science Resistance: Stormer Generation and the Aeon of Sekhmet
I recommend reading it, but I have a couple notes to make:
1) It wasn’t just the lack of Stormer culture that made Spence abandon the Sekhmet Hypothesis. It was the lack of correlating solar data.
2) I think what Ikipr is exhibiting here is… not apophenia – because the patterns more certainly are there. But there are other patterns as well. As Ikipr notes towards the end, Alex Grey’s work was tremendously popular during the 00s. There were whole psychedelic and magickal subcultures at play, from the psyhipsters seen in Arthur to the digital occultnik underground on sites like Disinfo, Irreality, Frequency 23 and Key 23/64 which eventually culminated in the meatspace EsoZone events.
Each of the movements Spence originally identified had aspects other than the ones that Spence highlighted (as Spence admitted in the comments here, and says he never said that movements like hippie and punk were mutually exclusive). The 60s counterculture wasn’t entirely peaceful. There were the Weathermen, the Black Panthers, the Hell’s Angels. The punk movement wasn’t just rage and destruction – there were animal rights and anti-war sentiments throughout. By night, ravers were about PLUR – but they experienced some nasty morning afters. And James St. James pointed out some of the darker corners of the party scene (and that’s to say nothing of the other subcultures of the 90s).
3) I’m surprised Ikipr didn’t mention Woodstock 99, though I guess the testosterone fueled violence there doesn’t quite fit with his Stormers, who are more cyber than physical.
I’m not sure what, if anything, my two notes above matter.
October 14, 2011 at 4:00 am
See also “Climate and the Affairs of Men” by Iben Browning and Nels Winkless (1975).
October 16, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Hey Klint!
I really appreciate the links and followup ideas you posted here. As for the Solar Cycle evidence it’s my understanding 11 years is an overall rough estimate for solar cycles and they vary +/-2 to 3 years. There are obvious fluctuations in amplitude of peaks during these cycles and solar indexes extending backward 400 years also demonstrate overall minimum and maximum periods of solar activity governing longer periods of time. It may be that the past century or so saw a recent peak in the solar activity maximum range. There are intricacies of this science that are best left to others. I think correlating solar activity and human reactionary trends may be an interesting avenue to explore though. Perhaps we should use more precise maps as opposed to a generalized 11 year cycle.
Anyways, There’s so much evidence suggesting we are leaving a rather Stormer-ish mentality. Even some of the occult circles you reference from the 2000’s have a sort of feel along the lines of each agent training for their own agenda similar to the overall one-man-army motif. But I blanked on Woodstock and the 00’s tech bubble too. The era immediately proceeding the 90’s boom made technology seem gray and cold again, just in the economic and creative considerations, ignoring expanding military application. It doesn’t surprise me some of the communities that relied on this stuff for their primary means of groking one another reflect that aesthetic to some degree. I don’t see the stormers as a purely cyberspace notion or manifestation really either. It’s a liminal state of being, neurotuning we received – we see it reflected in our on-line networks because this is the vessel it best grafts onto, it’s a decade of the militarization of ideaspace and finds it’s voice for expression through malleable digital means more easily than our day to day lives in meatspace.
I think the most interesting aspect of the concept is not so much in precise details of history but more so a possible map for now or tomorrow. NASA offers solar activity monitoring data to the public with day to day stats on sunspots, flare and general activity at solarmonitor.org – With the Sekhmet Hypothesis as a rough codices for understanding this force’s effects on ourselves, it might be interesting to track more realtime data now. This might be a good way to see, for instance, do smaller burst of solar activity seem to coincide with revolutionary action?
I must also say Supergods gave me an appreciation for the way Grant Morrison was able to channel his grasp on this lofty solar pulse into the mode he approached his work and art from.
October 18, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Hi Klint : )
I’m in agreement as to your thoughts on Ikipr’s views.
Meanwhile the non solar scene is left floundering with all they have left – the sequential description of the four life scripts and its interesting periodic value in infancy (strength scripts take roughly twice as long to establish as weak ones).
Funnily enough this points to the imminent emergence of a hostile strength archetype.
But I’m not holding my breath. I guess if they haven’t appeared by 2013 it might be time to dump the whole hypothesis.
Hi Ikipr, thanks for the feedback : )
Punk culture broke into mainstream closer to solar minimum not maximum – it was a freak cycle.
As for Grant did you know he and his chums MCR are currently pushing 14 million hits in Battery City with the Na Na Na punk video? And yet he claims we’re peaking into a new psychedelic phase. MCR’s punky edge is in funny contrast to Grant’s take on 2011 ‘psychedelia’. He’s living proof that the hippie-punk pendulum is no more than a figment of our imagination. He made good money primarily out of his own creativity, not from the Sekhmet hypothesis.
The initial swing from Friendly Weakness to Hostile Weakness can come as a surprise for most parents hence the simplistic pendulum idea, but I think we’re into ‘complex beastie phase’ by the time Friendly Strength kicks in. By this point the planetary toddler is practically climbing around the transactional furniture.
So the Sekhmet hypothesis is dead. No amount of leonine copulation in the glossies of Battery City will bring her back. Hare hypothesis itself might only have a shelf life of a couple of years…unless something funny starts happening soon.
BTW, I see no ‘stormer influence’ in the recent riots in England. I just see gangs of rat-like looters with little in the way of any style or self-empowerment. Baggy grey tracksuits are drab archetypes. I think it’s kind of superstitious to suggest that any mass street violence in the UK this last 10 years is ‘stormer’ influenced. I happen to know of a local who was involved in the Rangers riots of 2008 – he wasn’t influenced by solar flares however. He just happens to be an asshole.
Here’s the Spaceweather website –
http://www.spaceweather.com/java/sunspot.html
Please type in ‘March 1988’ in the historical box. Not looking good is it?
Now for the final nail in the coffin, try ‘January 1977’.
June 8, 2012 at 11:23 pm
I’m not intending to coempte with the wiki, I’m an editor there myself and I think it’s the best place for the facts’, and it’s important that it’s kept up-to-date. But lengthier pieces especially from people with different opinions about playing the same race, for example are what this site is all about.