The Hare hypothesis was first synthesized in the late 1980s. I developed it after reading a short line from a book by the philosopher Robert Anton Wilson. The line comes from 'Prometheus Rising', Wilson's guide to the transactional analysis grid. In this book, Wilson makes a brief, offhanded remark that a correlation exists between the archetype of the Gentle Angel from archaic symbolism and the symbol of the Flower Child from modern times. From this I figured that a pattern was occurring within contemporary youth culture which described not one, but instead a series of archetypes based on our instinctive and emotional nature.
Using this idea I recognised it was possible to predict the atavistic nature of future youth currents by studying the sequential description of the four life scripts. This study showed that the next youth current to follow rave culture would appear out of the underground, within Western culture, perhaps around 1999. This next atavistic current would have hostile strength attributes. The term 'Stormer' seemed like an appropriate strong name to give to this futuristic reveller, an archetype which was still at least ten years off in the future....
(Of course, 'storming' orientated youth culture didn't take off in 1999 or any other major youth trend, but the hypothesis keeps getting revived by other people every year, so I thought I'd leave this archive up here and add my own thoughts as to where the original hypothesis went wrong.)

Back in the past, I wrote several articles over the years on youth culture, mainly for the pagan small press in Britain. This culminated in a self-published book/let, The Sekhmet Hypothesis, in 1995. Sekhmet (pronounced Sake-hmet) and Sekhmetian refer to an archetype which was used to personify an all encompassing hypothesis. Originally, Sekhmet was the lioness headed, solar goddess of ancient Egypt. As the hypothesis dealt with vibrant chaotic youth culture, it seemed fitting to personify the idea with an untamed goddess. The lioness archetype also tapped into the aura of the Noble Lion from archaic symbolism, which encapsulated the strength of Rave culture.
More recently the totem of the wild hare has been used to personify the heart of the hypothesis. It seems like a more light-hearted icon compared to the sombre lioness, plus it's closer to home.
I hope this new study will help us understand some of the social changes which are currently affecting emerging global culture. The core idea surrounding the hypothesis is to suggest that the four main atavistic moods which make up the development of the infant (namely friendly weakness, hostile weakness, friendly strength and hostile strength), now replicate themselves socially, in a predictable and cyclical fashion. These self-referring moods, which appear as social youth trends, rely on the twilight zone of childhood and adulthood to manifest. Or to put it another way, they feed off the vibrancy of youth culture.

Lastly, please note I'm a boring old fart in my early 40s, so don't rely on this site as a guide to 'Storm' culture when or if it comes. You're more likely to find me poking about in the countryside than wandering about the streets pretending to be eternally young.

Cheers, Iain ; )

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