Greymantle's Politics and Culture

Insights into the Long Game

Greymantle's Politics And Culture

Good Guys Wear Black, Part 2: From Tragic Antiheroes to Inverted Heroes

Ivor Greymantle

Ivor Greymantle
September 20, 2026

The 21st century American film protagonist doesn’t need to be decent. He or she needs only to be effective. The assassin earns admiration because she is the finest assassin in the world. The criminal mastermind commands respect because he outwits everyone around him. This paradox defines the shift from tragic antiheroes to inverted heroes in film since the late 1990s.

Traveling to Juba by the Slow Train: A Personal Reminiscence of Sudan in the Early 1980s, Part 2

Robert Cox

Robert Cox
September 12, 2026

During my three-month sojourn in Sudan, I grew to like sleepy, dusty Khartoum. In the 1980s, Khartoum had a reputation as one of the safest - or possibly the safest - city in Africa. Its residents were universally viewed as courteous and hospitable. But Sudan's darker history was always hoving in the background, and just below the surface, like a crocodile in river water.

Traveling to Juba by the Slow Train: A Personal Reminiscence of Sudan in the Early 1980s, Part 1

Robert Cox

Robert Cox
September 7, 2026

It looked so easy on a map—a river called the Nile connected the two cities: Cairo and Juba. Only a single country, Sudan, stood between them. My plan was simple: cross Lake Nasser by ferry boat and follow the Nile south into Sudan. Once I reached Khartoum, traveling to Juba by the slow train seemed like a good option. I was in my twenties and game for anything. Or so I thought.

“Hellscape” Update: Taiwan’s Legislature Frustrates President’s Innovative Drone-Defense Plan

Richard Jupa

Richard Jupa
August 31, 2026

There were plenty of smiles in Beijing on August 20, 2026, when Taiwan's opposition parties, the KMT and TPP, passed a supplemental defense budget that stripped out billions in additional funding requested by Taiwan's president to construct a formidable new arsenal of autonomous aerial and underwater drones. This is not the "Hellscape" update that Taiwan's staunchest defenders were hoping for over the summer.

Why Do Political Scandals Seem To Be Getting So Much Uglier?

Gideon Evans

Gideon Evans
August 29, 2026

Adultery. Blackmail. Murder. These elements have been part of political scandals since the nation’s founding. The question is, even if the main elements have stayed consistent, why do political scandals seem to be getting so much uglier?

The Hellscape Option: Assessing Taiwan’s Drone Warfare Survival Plan

Richard Jupa

Richard Jupa
August 15, 2026

Rather than attempting to defeat a Chinese invasion through conventional force-on-force combat, Taipei is increasingly looking to asymmetric weapons—including thousands of drones—to make an amphibious assault prohibitively costly for Beijing. There is a new name for this strategy: the "Hellscape" Option.