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You read that right. 1800 years ago, a Roman youngster etched a taunting cartoon of a classmate raising his hand to salute a figure on a cross. This graffito, labeled "Alexamenos worshipping his god," is remarkable for two reasons: it is the oldest known artistic depiction of Jesus, and it happens to depict the Christian Messiah as a man with the head of a donkey.

This artistic choice might seem perplexing, but actually reflects an ancient pagan stereotype. In this Gladio Free Europe solo episode, Liam explores a three-thousand-year-old allegation: that Yahweh, the all-powerful God of Israel, was actually an ignoble ass. 

Despite being outright false, the idea that Judaism and Christianity had something to do with the worship of donkeys was a strong conviction of many ancient writers, even capable scholars like Tacitus and Posidonius. In fact, this myth goes back incredibly far into ancient history, with roots in Egyptian mythology and the cultural memory of the Hyksos, a Bronze Age dynasty of Levantine origin who appear to have actually included onolatry into their practice.

The story of ass worship, as an allegation and a practice, is as nearly as old as the history of civilization, with unexpected connections to Greek mythology, gnosticism, and the beginnings of Mesopotamian Kingship. Listen to this episode of Gladio to see why maybe the dutiful donkey really does deserve some veneration after all!

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At the dawning of the modern era, Spain was the most Catholic country on the planet. Desite the turbulence of the Reconquista, the conquest of America, the invasion of Napoleon, and the loss of every New World colony from California to Cuba, the Roman Catholic Church remained the foundation of solid yet stultifying social order. As the people of the kingdom began to struggle against these ancient bonds, the unspeakable question was posed: could there be a Spain without the church? For generations of Spaniards, this matter was so grave that it was worth the blood of innocents, the destruction of priceless chapels and relics, and a civil war that would split Iberia, and the world, into the camps of secular Republicanism and merciless Nationalism.

Longtime collaborator and Catholic correspondent James @gommunisd returns to Gladio Free Europe to explore the spiritual front of the Spanish Civil War, a complex and poignant conflict that in many ways prefigured the flames of despair that would consume nearly the entire planet in World War II. We begin with a look at the long history of anticlericalism in the Spanish Kingdom, as generations of Spaniards of all social classes rejected control of the church for various reasons and by various means. From the establishment of public schools rather than parish schools, to the violent destruction of monasteries and even killings of clergy, this had been a major part of Spanish history for a century before the Civil War. But as economic and intellectual transformations brought a semi-medieval Spanish society into the modern era, objections to this marriage of church and state became too loud to ignore. After the ruination of the Spanish American War and the despair of the Depression, the contest between a new Spain and an Old Spain boiled over an armed conflict that ended with over 200,000 innocents dead and the kingdom in the clutches of history's most successful fascist state.

In the second half of the episode, James explores international religious reactions to the war in Spain. Although American Catholics were mostly Democrats within Franklin Roosevelt's progressive New Deal coalition, church institutions overwhelmingly supported the nationalist clique despite the US policy of neutrality. As evidence of right-wing atrocities mounted, the American Catholic community found itself torn apart in its own sort of civil war. Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, Catholics and Protestants alike took part in delegations to Spain, gathering vital information about the conflict as it was happening. The Spanish Civil War was a test of integrity to civil and religious institutions across the western world: When atrocities are committed in your name, do you speak up? Or do you shut your eyes as children are killed in the name of God and country?

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In the winter of 1817, a caravan of half-starved Swabians crossed through miles of frozen forests to find their promised land: Ohio. In accordance with their egalitarian ethos and inspired by apocalyptic prophecy, these men and women rejected private ownership and held all things in common. This radical commune, which they called Zoar, would be the most successful intentional community in American history and one of the most enduring socialist experiments, lasting several years longer than even the Soviet Union.

Gladio Free Europe's Ohio correspondent Jern (@realJernfer) returns for another stirring story of the Buckeye state. Founded by Pietist refugees from the German state of Wurttemberg, Zoar put into practice the same kinds of radical ideas discussed previously among the Anabaptists, Quakers, and Shakers. Unlike most other communes, including Robert Owen's enlightenment dream of New Harmony, Zoar was stable and prosperous. Succeeding where so many others failed, the commune held together across multiple generations and even developed an early industrial economy. It attracted the envy and admiration of many other communities, including the controversial free-love society of Oneida.

Zoar saw itself as a refugee from the sinful and venal world outside, taking its name from the town that sheltered the Biblical Lot after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet the community's influence over Ohio trade and finance meant the outside world could not be kept away. Ultimately, Zoar would be a victim of its own success, as its wealthy residents decided to dissolve the commune and divvy up their belongings into private hands.

Despite ultimately failing in its mission to secede from the world of material things, Zoar is an inspiring story of what it looks like to build the New Moral World. And although its founders were sectarian socialists from the Holy Roman Empire, who spoke little English and had even less interest in the broader national project, the undaunted ambition of Zoar makes this small commune a quintessential chapter of American history.

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The story of the Haitian Revolution is well-known. From the oath at Bois Caiman to the large-scale slave revolt which birthed the nation and subsequent war against the Napoleonic invasion force, the revolution is filled with cinematic moments of great poignancy. But what happened next?

Usually the story ends with Jean-Jacques Dessalines taking power, but with the help of our Haitian-born and raised friend Sebastian, we take the story further, and explore just what happened to this Caribbean nation for the remainder of the 19th century. We take aim at Haiti's troubled economics , political system, and internal racial politics.

The story is told through the lens of the many colorful personalities who took the reins of power while styling themselves monarchs. From Henri Christophe to Faustin Soulouque, Haitian history is filled with figures who sought to emulate French political forms despite the antagonistic relationship between these two countries.

The imperial moniker was partly a signifier intended for foreign consumption, but it had a ring of truth to it as well, as these rulers built palaces through corvee labor, minted aristocrats, and sought to impose their authority over their Spanish-speaking neighbors in what is today the Dominican Republic.

So what went on in Haiti? Listen to the episode to find out.

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See Sebastian's Substack Kaskad for more contemporary Haiti analysis.

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"And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." King James Bible, Acts 2:44

"And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also." King James Bible, Acts 17:6

Liam and Russian Sam are joined by once again by Jackson (@GraceCathedralPark) for a two thousand summary of American radicalism and the utopian tradition. Since ancient times, religious and moral conviction has compelled the most pious among us to leave this sinful world behind.

Jewish groups like the Essenes and the Ebionites were joined by the earliest Christian monks in their complete rejection of secular society, preferring to live in intentional communities organized toward complete observance of religious commandments. These groups, who may have included the first followers of Jesus, held their property in common and believed they could lead mankind by their example toward a new moral world.

By the European Middle Ages, Christian institutions had taken on all the venal and violent obligations of the state. Reformers seeking to challenge the worldly power of the church were met by centuries of brutal oppression. By the 16th century these contradictions had become too much to bear, with the eruption of the Protestant Reformation and the flowering of idealistic sectarians. Some of these groups, like the Anabaptists and the Diggers, sought to upend the material hierarchies of man and make all equal before God. When these groups were also hunted down, even by their fellow Protestants, the dream of a new beginning survived across the sea.

Religious settlers like the Puritans and Quakers saw the wild American lands as a blank slate for their moral dreams, while more materialistic colonists used the New World to engineer new systems of extraction and domination unimaginable back home. Many of these groups created communes in the wilderness, some surviving for months and others for centuries. As Enlightenment writers argued for the equality of man based on reason rather than scripture, and the American and French Revolutions called all political secular communitarian projects also began to emerge. Most significant of all of these was New Harmony, the utopian experiment of reformed capitalist and lifelong idealist Robert Owen. Though New Harmony would not be a particularly long-lived commune, it cemented Owen as one of the most famous men of the early 19th century and a father of the socialist movement. Like many parents, Owen would see some of his children turn away from him, yet his lifelong agitation would lay the groundwork for more enduring transformative projects. While we now understand the utopian movement to have failed, Owen and his two thousands years of forebears succeeded in inspiring mankind to build a new moral world.

Listen to the end of this one to hear about Jackson's own radical utopian dream: BYU for Owenism.

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2000 years ago, Roman began a campaign of suppression against the defiant sages of barbarian Gaul. Yet millennia later, these druids survive. Their memory would inspire generations of alchemists, aristocrats, alternative-spiritualists, and eventually the creators of Britain's most iconic horror film.

On this week's episode of Gladio Free Europe, Liam and Russian Sam continues their survey over the druids, moving from the practices and beliefs of the ancient holy men to the generations of occultists and eccentrics who have sought to recapture their arcane knowledge. The strange road of neo-druidism winded its way to inspire The Wicker Man, the immortal 1973 picture set on an island of new-age recluses who revive their ancestral beliefs with murderous results.

For over 500 years, scholars and hobbyists have pored over the scant surviving references to the pagan priests of the ancient Celts, convinced that Western Europe's first recorded wise men were key to understanding the history of modern peoples in Britain and Ireland. These scholars, looking through a kaleidoscope of ideology, all believed they could use the secrets of the druids to advance their own spiritual and political agendas. Figures like Conrad Celtis, Iolo Morganwg, William Stukely, and Margaret Murray wore the robes of the druids to advance the cause of Christianity, anti-Christianity, Jacobinism, Jacobitism, freemasonry and deism. Neo-druidic belief and ritual has been used to promote a unified British imperial identity, and to defend regional Celtic cultures against English domination.

Listen to this week's episode of Gladio Free Europe to see how a half millennium of European history has shaped and been shaped by memories of the druids, the world's most enduring counterculture.

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Unique among the barbarians of ancient Europe, the Celtic tribes of Britain and Gaul were led by a sophisticated priesthood. The druids, who left us no writing of their own, fascinated and frightened their literate neighbors in Greece and Rome. Described as both brilliant philosophers and murderous bloodletters, these ancient sages were fundamental to the classical understanding of the pagan world, and widely discussed even after being suppressed and outlawed as a dangerous cult. But the druids could not be defeated so easily, as scattered references persist until the middle ages, and they continue to captivate the minds of historians and occultists to this day. Pick up your sickle and venture into the sacred grove, and join Gladio Free Europe as we glean the secrets of the druids.

Liam and Russian Sam go on a deep dive of virtually all available information on just who the druids were, from the classical texts of Julius Caesar and Pliny the Elder to medieval Irish poetry and startling discoveries in modern archaeological. Listen to this episode to learn all about Celtic human sacrifice, Indo-European horse worship, and St. Patrick's epic rap battle of history against his druid slave-masters. Because this is Gladio Free Europe, our episode could not be complete with a quick return to one of our favorite topics, the bog bodies.

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Ready your crossbow as we venture up high into the Swiss Alps, a tyrannous bailiff might be nearby! This week we explore the William Tell, a national symbol of Switzerland, and the very real history which inspired his story. Join us as we venture back into a time before the Swiss were neutral, before they were known for their chocolate, and before they were even a state. How did this plucky assortment of cantons cohere in the first place, and how does the truth of Swiss history compare with the idyllic land imagined by Orson Welles when he quipped that in 500 years of democracy and peace they produced little more than the cuckoo clock.

Through all of this, the legend of William Tell was born and reborn regularly with a new message, a new intended audience, and a new platform, but always with the same goal: the pursuit of liberty and the battle against injustice. From the Swiss Rebellion of 1654, led by the Three Tells themselves risen from hibernation, to the Napoleonic Wars when William Tell became a symbol of the Helvetic Republic, to the pan-Germanic William Tell imagined by Friedrich Schiller in the eponymous play, William Tell has lived more lives than most.

Hop on our ski lift for one last look at William Tell’s winding journey, through medieval revolts, Napoleonic upheavals, and Schiller’s literary magic. Is he a flesh-and-blood freedom fighter or a cunning invention of Swiss lore? Grab your gear, the slopes are calling.

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Every aspect of our modern lives is commodified and decimalized, from the minutes of our labor to the food upon our table. All goods and services we consume are produced and handled by professionals, who spend their lives developing their mobile arsenal of mental and tactile skills because they can outsource the production of food and shelter to other workers. Yet until 300 years ago, this way of life was completely alien to everyone outside a small population of urban merchants and artisans.

Liam and Russian Sam are joined once again by Jackson @gracecthdralprk to explore the city before capitalism, when urban people were small, ambitious, and literate minority distinct from the peasants and princes who lived outside the city walls. This episode of Gladio Free Europe dives into early modern city life, and particularly the artisan system that was the engine of pre-capitalistic production. Drawing on the works of Yuri Slezkine, Sean Wilentz, and E.P. Thompson, this discussion looks at the early relationship between city and country, and the development of an artisan political consciousness, especially in the early United States.

As the 19th century progressed and wage labor began to take hold across industrializing economies, the artisans recognized that their way of life was collapsing and refused to go without a fight. Artisan radicalism would fail, their early 19th century militancy laid the foundation for later working class agitation. The values and aspirations of these ambitious craftsmen would come to define the logic of the entire world.

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Brains. Rot. A shambling gait. Everyone knows the tropes that make up zombie, but how did this strange cocktail come to be? Liam and Russian Sam paddle through dark and torrid waters in this week's episode of Gladio Free Europe to chart the origins of the zombie from Afro-Caribbean folklore to today's Hollywood monstrosities.

Possibly the most enduring creature of the classic era of horror cinema, zombies continue to petrify moviegoers in ways that mummies and wolfmen and even vampires do not. But unique among this pantheon of monsters, the zombie is rooted in African religious traditions that crossed into the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. In fact, the word "zombie" first appears as an appellation of a slave rebel centuries before it was associated with the undead. But by the 19th century, the term reemerged among practitioners of vodou, the unique religion of Haiti that blends Catholicism with traditional West African religions. In the context of vodou, a zombie came to mean the most horrible product of black magic: an empty corpse brought back to life by being filled with the soul of another, always in order to do that person's bidding.

Modern movie zombies have little in common with Haitian folk religion, drawing as much from European stories of ghosts and vampires as from vodou. But elements of vodou and the folk memory of the brutality of slavery survive in unexpected ways in zombie lore. The fear of zombies may be so resilient because they remind us of the brutal domination of man over man. The act of zombification thus represents a fear that lurks in all of our hearts, and a fear that became reality for millions of Africans in the colonial era: that a simple change of fortune could strip of us our will and personhood, and that we could be forced to exist with our humanity stripped away.