Merry Christmas 2025
Many thanks to everyone who has supported my work on Substack this year under Journeys by the Styx and welcome to everyone who has come across to the new weblog Mindwars Ghosted.
It has been a journey since I started writing on the topic of Estrangement Ideology only 12 months ago now. Through the more than 50 Substack articles on that topic, I explored many of the ideological foundations of world of the family estrangement, mostly through an in-depth critical analysis of estranging adult child communities on Reddit and allied websites. By late March, the personal effects of this intense focus had worn me out and I decided to stop and make peace—I had said all I had to say on the topic. It is encouraging that throughout the year many people have continued to comment on different aspects of the topic and said that they found something of use in the articles.
During this time, Dr Joshua Colemen has been a constant supporter and I applaud his longstanding and continuing work with estranged parents and children alike to help encourage family reconciliation and understanding. Over the year, Joshua has been joined by a number of others from within the therapy profession who recognise that there is a need for therapeutic approaches that encourage understanding and mutual respect over simplistic and harsh one-sided "boundary" setting and strict "No Contact" power games dressed in the language of emotional safety.
The focus since April marked a move back to an enduring interest in geopolitical affairs I originally started writing about many years ago. Topics on the Substack evolved to include personal Reflections as well as articles under the Technika, Geopolitika, Overlords, Operators and Mindwars banners. These covering AI, geopolitics, elite theory and the psychological war on humanity.
Throughout the year I have continued to expand on my training in critical social psychology, the focus of my MA in Psychology gained nearly 20 years ago. This academic grounding has been combined with a fascination for the power of new AI technologies to develop the Geopolitika analysis system—essentially a custom GPT on OpenAI's ChatGPT platform. The result is a sophisticated geopolitical and elite-theory-aware narrative deconstruction machine that draws on techniques from critical theory, post-modernism, semiotics and post-structuralist thought—but without the Marxist and social reform overlays.
My project is not to change society, it is to empower readers by showing how power works through narrative and pose uncomfortable questions to help people to challenge those seeking to exert that power. I have deliberately chosen to present my examination of power using a tools the elites have provided to control knowledge (AI) and the very artifacts generated by the establishment—think tank reports, journal articles, government publications etc. The nature of these analyses is often quite dense with layered ideas, complex arguments and unfamiliar terms. While I have tried in later articles to hopefully lower the readability barrier, I realise the field will always be niche and if you are a frequent reader then you can obviously cope.
The collaboration with Dr Ursula Edgington that resulted in the "George and the Philanthropath" six part fictional morality play in 12 Acts was a highlight and I would like to thank Ursula for thinking of bringing this to the table and Margaret Anna Alice for the foundational idea and term.
Looking forward into 2026, expect more of the same. But, with the transition to the Ghost.io platform, I am hoping to create a community of shared interest and a big part of that will be encouraging subscribers to comment and discuss the topics and interpretations made in the articles. I am also keen for subscribers to suggest new subjects and even send me materials for analysis—links to think tank reports, news media articles, government policy documents, or whatever strikes your attention as a power move.
That said, Merry Christmas everyone, I wish you and yours all the best for the season.
Steven Howard
25 Dec 2025
