Why artists tend to bend the knee to tyranny

Blazing Reader,

In Friday's post, I shared a Heretics podcast interview with Winston Marshall (former banjo player for Mumford & Sons) in which he talks about why he thinks artists tend to bend the knee to tyranny: they are too agreeable.

Even Marshall admits he ranks extremely high in "agreeableness" in the Big Five Aspects personality test. I first heard of this test in 2022, during an interview on The Iron Will Report. Host Will Dove told how he's found that supporters of the counter-narrative movement rank close to 0% in agreeableness.

That got me curious, so I took the test. And while I'm not quite as agreeable as Winston Marshall, I ranked rather high. To see my results, and hear my theory which explains why — despite being so agreeable — Marshall and I are still non-conforming artists, read this post from 2022: Are people who put up with tyranny too agreeable?

John C.A. Manley

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.