Maxim Blake
Earth · MMXXVI
A blog about human extinction
Topic Archive

#Contemporary

essays Spanning May 2025 to Apr 2026
Showing 8 essays in #Contemporary
№ 1
How I Learned *to Stop Worrying* and Appreciate Authoritarianism's Honest Branding
Apr 2026 18 · 04 · 26 Contemporary · Critique · Nihilism

How I Learned *to Stop Worrying* and Appreciate Authoritarianism's Honest Branding

Why do Western governments make decisions that seem actively suicidal? Why do they start wars they can't win, tank their own economies, sell out their industrial base, behave with a schizophrenia that makes no strategic sense?

8 min
№ 2
Starving the Beast Next Door
Mar 2026 30 · 03 · 26 Capitalism · Contemporary · Critique · Existential · Indifference

Starving the Beast Next Door

Competition is the poison we drink whilst toasting to our health. So I play a dark game. I starve my neighbour. I become a black hole of mediocrity so he levels up to nothing. I save my best for the ones who deserve it. The rest get the silence. I am accelerating our extinction by refusing to play.

2 min
№ 3
The Violent Birth of Tomorrow
Sep 2025 07 · 09 · 25 Philosophy · Nihilism · Society · Social · Cognitive Dissonance · Contemporary

The Violent Birth of Tomorrow

Real change is not a morning routine or a mindset hack, it is controlled demolition. Self-shock is the choice to destroy the parts that keep you safe and small, so a truer self can form. Do not wait for crisis, become the author of your own rupture and rebirth.

8 min
№ 4
The Fake Churchill Quote
Aug 2025 31 · 08 · 25 Contemporary · Critique · Cognitive Dissonance · Satire · Social · Society

The Fake Churchill Quote

Smart people love quoting, with a smug smile, “The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.” They always claim Churchill said it, as if dropping profound wisdom. Try reading it in a British accent, it hits harder.

4 min
№ 5
Nationalism's Favourite Colour
Aug 2025 13 · 08 · 25 Contemporary · Indifference · Power · Privilege · Psychological · Social

Nationalism's Favourite Colour

Uniformity is a mask for fear. Across a world flirting with tyranny, truth is drowned and obedience sold as strength. I argue the opposite. Diversity, disagreement and the courage to think are not our weakness, they are the only path to survival and renewal.

11 min
№ 6
We Resurrect the Deads
Aug 2025 12 · 08 · 25 Contemporary

We Resurrect the Deads

There's something profoundly fucked about the way we've sanitised death through technology, transformed it into something manageable, scrollable, likeable.

7 min
№ 7
A Reflection on Religion and Humanity
Jul 2025 28 · 07 · 25 Philosophy · Religion · Contemporary · Critique

A Reflection on Religion and Humanity

There is something deeply, stubbornly human about the need to believe. Not necessarily in truth or proof, but in comfort. Religion, in that sense, is less about God and more about us.

3 min
№ 8
Stones
May 2025 02 · 05 · 25 Critique · Indifference · Existential · Contemporary

Stones

A letter to Benjamin Netanyahu and his team. There's a wall in an ancient city. They called it the wailing wall. It's made of stones. People still press their foreheads to

6 min

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