Brace yourself. If you’re not familiar with the Bronze Age Pervert, it can be shocking. I debated whether to indirectly promote this book by blogging on it, as it has some pretty abominable material. I netted out that it’s better to be aware of what is going on – no matter how reprehensible – than to be ignorant.

During the After Capitalism research, I tasked my son Vincent with providing a synopsis of “Alt-Right” groups, which I’m putting in quotes as it’s not quite accurate, but should suit our purposes. The reason was to see what kinds of ideas these groups had about the future, and if or how they might relate to After Capitalism. It was very instructive. In short, there is a lot more happening with these groups than I or most people are aware of. The scale is still relatively small and the groups themselves don’t tend to aggregate … lots of small pockets.

As I start thinking more about the “how” or pathway to After Capitalism, I’m becoming intrigued by an “off-the-grid” trend that ranges from simple solar panels to checking out of mainstream society. So, I’m looking at various groups and their motivations. The BAP or Bronze Age Pervert, which to clarify was the pseudonym of the leader of the “community,” which chiefly exists on social media. He was recently outed as Costin VladAlamariu with a Ph.D. in political science from Yale.

Let’s get to the book. It was self-published in 2018. It is not well-produced or well-written (probably part of the schtick), but apparently reached as high at the top 150 best-seller in Amazon … and that is overall, not in a category. That is a lot of sales! And currently 2,4444 reviews on Amazon. And for further context, his social media followers are estimated to be well over 100,000. The Wikipedia page speculates on many influential people who have been influenced by his work.

Okay, what are the ideas that are appealing to a significant number of people, generally viewed to be young white adult males: (although this is difficult to verify).

Early on the “shock value” is established: “the great nobodies of our time … Hilary Clinton or Adam Schiff with eyes bugged out on stimms and anti-depressants.” Or “the minds of biologists are in general very limited … the biggest minds always went for physics.” One more, those on the left are referred to as the bug-men, who engage in “depressive introspection and questioning of the meaning of life.” The answer for him is simple: single-minded purity of purpose is true manliness, which is essentially preparation for war. He breaks down life at its most basic, struggle for ownership of space. Lebensraum came to my mind.

He settles on the bronze age men as the exemplar of life and force. This higher order of man possesses aesthetic physique that celebrates the body in its glorious and divine beauty. (It’s a strange combination of celebrating muscled bodies and homophobia). Think Sparta and you’ve probably got it. And if you’re wondering about the role of women … yikes! “With the liberation of women in the 19^th century, the west has given itself an infection from which it can’t recover.” That’s not even the worst of it. It is mind-boggling to me that in the year 2025 that such views have appeal.

For futurists aware of social change theories, he is anti-development. He seems to want to bring the principles of the Bronze Age back, but not necessarily undo all of contemporary society.He suggests that “the creation of Israel is a great model for others to show that reestablishment of antiquity is fully possible.”

He is not against technology: “I can imagine few fates worse than if we decided to live closer to our means, to retrench and stop technological progress and innovation, to scale back to small, integral communities.” But he also says that “AI is the golem of those who hate life … it is their true messiah and their vengeance.”

The book reminded me of the spoof Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche. It has spoofy elements and uses shock value, which may be part of its appeal, but let’s not kid ourselves, this “manifesto” has appeal and that should scare us.

This kind of work and appeal highlights the seriousness of the work we are doing in promoting positive guiding images of After Capitalism. While we can’t expect to appeal to everyone, we certainly need to be aware of what we are up against and think about how we might appeal to a broader audience. – Andy Hines