Hellstromian

A new term for an extreme collectivist society based on the 1973 science fiction novel Hellstrom’s Hive by Frank Herbert. Herbert’s novel is about an underground colony of genetically engineered humans who have abandoned traditional human morality, free will and individuality to live like social insects (such as bees or termites). Hellstromian is another level up from Orwellian to describe a worrisome trend towards collectivism and against individualism in early 21st century Western culture. Hellstromian is analogous to new-left ‘wokeism’ as Orwellian was to Marxism.

This new application of Hellstromian is different from and should not be confused with the pre-existing term used by magicians and mentalists to describe the technique of muscle reading or contact mind reading.

The synergy of social media, legacy media and authorities asserting a one-sided partisan dominant narrative, coupled with the ascendancy of AI and other means of mass information control, can lead to blind public acceptance of increased regulation and government overreach that can result in an authoritarian or even Hellstromian society. Especially if coordinated within an environment of perceived fear of either terrorism, an external military threat, internal threat to democracy or a major pandemic. If left unchallenged, this can evolve into an authoritarian police state that will make the Chinese Communist Party’s social credit system and Nazi, Soviet, North Korean and Islamist dictatorships look like amateurs.

Hellstromian by moixa July 17, 2026