Francis Berger's Blog, page 113
October 21, 2020
Lockdown Redux?
Back in March I received an email from the Austrian university where I work part-time. The email informed me that the institution had basically locked its doors and that I was to continue my classes in a purely online format until further notice. A week later I received a similar message from the Hungarian university where I hold a full-time position. I ended up teaching the rest of the semester online for both of my jobs.
In September I was allowed to physically return to work in Austria and Hungary and have been teaching most of my classes "live" since then. Anyway, this afternoon the Austrian university sent me a notification that all instruction was being reverted back online for the remainder of the semester.
The email did not surprise me much, but I do consider it ominous. I suspect I will receive a similar communication from my Hungarian employer in the coming week. Moreover, I very much doubt these new measures will be limited to institutions of higher education, which means Austria and Hungary might be teetering on the edge of another round of hard national lockdowns.
Hey, why not? Just yesterday Ireland declared it was locking down for a minimum of six weeks.
The worse I had anticipated earlier this week has arrived much sooner than I expected.
At this point, all I can say is 'bring it.'
In September I was allowed to physically return to work in Austria and Hungary and have been teaching most of my classes "live" since then. Anyway, this afternoon the Austrian university sent me a notification that all instruction was being reverted back online for the remainder of the semester.
The email did not surprise me much, but I do consider it ominous. I suspect I will receive a similar communication from my Hungarian employer in the coming week. Moreover, I very much doubt these new measures will be limited to institutions of higher education, which means Austria and Hungary might be teetering on the edge of another round of hard national lockdowns.
Hey, why not? Just yesterday Ireland declared it was locking down for a minimum of six weeks.
The worse I had anticipated earlier this week has arrived much sooner than I expected.
At this point, all I can say is 'bring it.'
October 19, 2020
We Are In a Spiritual War - An Excellent Post by William Wildblood
Yesterday I published a rather bleak post in which I argued that the successful implementation of the Great Reset agenda would require conditions to become considerably worse than those we are currently experiencing.
Coincidentally enough, William Wildblood has addressed this likelihood in a recent post published on his Meeting the Masters blog. In the post, William delineates our current situation and offers some much-needed perspective about where our focus must be -- more importantly, where it must remain if and when things do take a turn for the worse.
It is obvious that we live in very dangerous times. Clearly, I am not referring to Covid-19 which I assume all readers of this blog realise is just a more or less conventional virus that is being used as a means to an end, that end being control and dominance. The virus is really the least of our worries. It will kill off some elderly people just as flu and pneumonia regularly do but it will not do much harm to the great majority. By all means, we should protect the vulnerable but it should be apparent to anyone by now who bothers to look beyond the official propaganda that our reaction has been totally disproportionate to the threat. Whether that is because of fear and panic or politicians, administrators and other figures of the establishment wanting to hold onto power or even something deliberate and planned is another matter. Whatever the cause of it all, the reality is that we have been deceived into giving up freedom.
The real danger is spiritual and this, I fear, is only the beginning. The groundwork has been carefully laid over the last few decades, centuries even. We have been gradually led away from the knowledge that our life is centred in God to a worldview which is totally materialistic and atheistic. This to the extent that even many people who think they are spiritual or religious still adapt most of their thinking to the materialistic ethos. I am not always exempt from this myself. It's the water in which we swim and it can be difficult to throw it off completely. But look at Christ and the prophets of old. They did not compromise with the worldly powers and worldly wisdom one iota. They grounded themselves totally in spiritual knowledge without any concession to the world. We too must do this. There can be no compromise with lies, even lies plausibly dressed up to look like partial truths. Why bother with partial truths when you have the truth? They are usually just means to smuggle in the lie anyway.
I say the danger is spiritual. What I mean by this is that we will be asked to give up more and more of our personal integrity.
Read the rest of William's post here.
Coincidentally enough, William Wildblood has addressed this likelihood in a recent post published on his Meeting the Masters blog. In the post, William delineates our current situation and offers some much-needed perspective about where our focus must be -- more importantly, where it must remain if and when things do take a turn for the worse.
It is obvious that we live in very dangerous times. Clearly, I am not referring to Covid-19 which I assume all readers of this blog realise is just a more or less conventional virus that is being used as a means to an end, that end being control and dominance. The virus is really the least of our worries. It will kill off some elderly people just as flu and pneumonia regularly do but it will not do much harm to the great majority. By all means, we should protect the vulnerable but it should be apparent to anyone by now who bothers to look beyond the official propaganda that our reaction has been totally disproportionate to the threat. Whether that is because of fear and panic or politicians, administrators and other figures of the establishment wanting to hold onto power or even something deliberate and planned is another matter. Whatever the cause of it all, the reality is that we have been deceived into giving up freedom.
The real danger is spiritual and this, I fear, is only the beginning. The groundwork has been carefully laid over the last few decades, centuries even. We have been gradually led away from the knowledge that our life is centred in God to a worldview which is totally materialistic and atheistic. This to the extent that even many people who think they are spiritual or religious still adapt most of their thinking to the materialistic ethos. I am not always exempt from this myself. It's the water in which we swim and it can be difficult to throw it off completely. But look at Christ and the prophets of old. They did not compromise with the worldly powers and worldly wisdom one iota. They grounded themselves totally in spiritual knowledge without any concession to the world. We too must do this. There can be no compromise with lies, even lies plausibly dressed up to look like partial truths. Why bother with partial truths when you have the truth? They are usually just means to smuggle in the lie anyway.
I say the danger is spiritual. What I mean by this is that we will be asked to give up more and more of our personal integrity.
Read the rest of William's post here.
October 18, 2020
It Will Have To Get Worse - Here's Why
The title of this post is a parody of the kind of article titles one comes across on the World Economic Forum's website. The formula is a simple one -- an outlandish declaration followed by a teaser that promises to explain why the outlandish declaration not only makes sense, but is absolutely necessary for world survival.The range of topics these sorts of articles address is both vast and comprehensive, but the same overarching message underpins them all: everything -- yes, everything including your job, your lifestyle, your nation, your outdated social views, your concept of money, your consumption habits, everything you believe, do, and are -- needs to be "reset".
I don't spend a great of deal time reading WEF articles anymore, but I happened to peruse a few recent ones today after I finished lunch. As I was doing so, I was struck by a rather obvious thought. For the Great Reset agenda to succeed, things will have to get worse -- much worse. Yes, things are bad enough as it is, and yes, you could argue that some of the initial Great Reset agenda points have already been implemented, but at the same time any full-scale implementation of the WEF's inconceivably all-encompassing initiatives will require conditions that are considerably worse than anything we have experienced in the past six or seven months.
Not a happy thought, I'm afraid, but I believe it is imperative to steel ourselves against the probability of things getting much worse in the near future.
October 16, 2020
So, What Should We Make Of This?
The Thinking Housewife recently shared a short video by a group calling themselves the World Doctors Alliance. Awful globalist-sounding name aside, the organization declares itself to be "an independent non-profit alliance of doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals and staff around the world who have united in the wake of the Covid-19 response chapter to share experiences with a view to ending all lockdowns and related damaging measures and to re-establish universal health determinance of psychological and physical wellbeing for all humanity."
The WDA includes the following on its website:
We were told initially that the premise for lockdown was to ‘flatten the curve’ and therefore protect the NHS from being overwhelmed.
It is clear that at no point was the National Health Service (NHS) in any danger of being overwhelmed, and since May 2020 covid wards have been largely empty; and crucially the death toll from covid has remained extremely low.
We now have hundreds of thousands of so-called ‘cases’, ‘infections’ and ‘positive tests’ but hardly any sick people. Recall that four fifths (80%) of ‘infections’ are asymptomatic (1) Covid wards have been by and large empty throughout June, July, August and September 2020. Most importantly covid deaths are at an all-time low. It is clear that these ‘cases’ are in fact not ‘cases’ but rather they are normal healthy people.
So-called asymptomatic cases have never in the history of respiratory disease been the driver for spread of infection. Rather it is symptomatic people who spread respiratory infections - not asymptomatic people.(2)
It is also abundantly clear that the ‘pandemic’ is basically over and has been since June 2020.
We have very highly likely reached herd immunity and therefore have no need for a vaccine.
We have safe and very effective treatments and preventative treatments for covid, we therefore call for an immediate end to all lockdown measures, social distancing, mask wearing, testing of healthy individuals, track and trace, immunity passports, the vaccination program and so on.
There has been a catalogue of unscientific, non-sensical policies enacted which infringe our inalienable rights, such as - freedom of movement, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. These draconian totalitarian measures must never be repeated.
The site contains many other observations and insights concerning the birdemic; the same sorts of observations and insights many bloggers (including yours truly) have voiced since about March 2020. These include:
Covid has proved less deadly than previous influenza seasons – There were 50,100 flu deaths from December 2017 to March 2018 in England and Wales. There were 80,000 flu deaths in 1969. To date we have circa 42,000 covid related deaths in the UK.We have never locked down society for a respiratory virus before.The basis for lockdown was a mathematical model by Professor Neil Ferguson. His modelling which predicted half a million deaths in the UK has been roundly condemned as being not fit for purpose. His estimated death figures were clearly wrong by a factor of 10 or 12 times. The vast majority of deaths occurred in elderly and very elderly peopleThe vast majority of deaths occurred in people with pre-existing serious health issues such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes etc.
And so on . . .
Now I am not a medical doctor, but back in March I argued that the birdemic scare should never have made the news, and that it was being used a pretext for something far more sinister. This organization of doctors appears to agree with that notion. The only questions I have concerning this organization of medical professionals:
Is it sincere/honest/legitimate?Will it have any impact at all on the birdemic?
I am doubtful on both points.
As Bruce Charlton noted very early on, the birdemic is not about the birdemic. In this regard, the birdemic has achieved its purpose. The coup has happened; the totalitarians are in control. I very much doubt the general public of any nation will be moved by organizations like the World Doctors Alliance.
The WDA includes the following on its website:
We were told initially that the premise for lockdown was to ‘flatten the curve’ and therefore protect the NHS from being overwhelmed.
It is clear that at no point was the National Health Service (NHS) in any danger of being overwhelmed, and since May 2020 covid wards have been largely empty; and crucially the death toll from covid has remained extremely low.
We now have hundreds of thousands of so-called ‘cases’, ‘infections’ and ‘positive tests’ but hardly any sick people. Recall that four fifths (80%) of ‘infections’ are asymptomatic (1) Covid wards have been by and large empty throughout June, July, August and September 2020. Most importantly covid deaths are at an all-time low. It is clear that these ‘cases’ are in fact not ‘cases’ but rather they are normal healthy people.
So-called asymptomatic cases have never in the history of respiratory disease been the driver for spread of infection. Rather it is symptomatic people who spread respiratory infections - not asymptomatic people.(2)
It is also abundantly clear that the ‘pandemic’ is basically over and has been since June 2020.
We have very highly likely reached herd immunity and therefore have no need for a vaccine.
We have safe and very effective treatments and preventative treatments for covid, we therefore call for an immediate end to all lockdown measures, social distancing, mask wearing, testing of healthy individuals, track and trace, immunity passports, the vaccination program and so on.
There has been a catalogue of unscientific, non-sensical policies enacted which infringe our inalienable rights, such as - freedom of movement, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. These draconian totalitarian measures must never be repeated.
The site contains many other observations and insights concerning the birdemic; the same sorts of observations and insights many bloggers (including yours truly) have voiced since about March 2020. These include:
Covid has proved less deadly than previous influenza seasons – There were 50,100 flu deaths from December 2017 to March 2018 in England and Wales. There were 80,000 flu deaths in 1969. To date we have circa 42,000 covid related deaths in the UK.We have never locked down society for a respiratory virus before.The basis for lockdown was a mathematical model by Professor Neil Ferguson. His modelling which predicted half a million deaths in the UK has been roundly condemned as being not fit for purpose. His estimated death figures were clearly wrong by a factor of 10 or 12 times. The vast majority of deaths occurred in elderly and very elderly peopleThe vast majority of deaths occurred in people with pre-existing serious health issues such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes etc.
And so on . . .
Now I am not a medical doctor, but back in March I argued that the birdemic scare should never have made the news, and that it was being used a pretext for something far more sinister. This organization of doctors appears to agree with that notion. The only questions I have concerning this organization of medical professionals:
Is it sincere/honest/legitimate?Will it have any impact at all on the birdemic?
I am doubtful on both points.
As Bruce Charlton noted very early on, the birdemic is not about the birdemic. In this regard, the birdemic has achieved its purpose. The coup has happened; the totalitarians are in control. I very much doubt the general public of any nation will be moved by organizations like the World Doctors Alliance.
A Few Gentle Reminders Concerning Heaven
Heaven cannot exist if God does not exist.You cannot believe in heaven if you do not believe in God.You will never experience a prolonged "feeling" of heaven in this mortal life, regardless of how good or comfortable or exciting your life happens to be.Despite arguments to the contrary, heaven has never been and will never be established on earth.All attempts to establish heaven on earth will fail, regardless of whether you believe in God in or not. The desire to establish heaven on earth is ultimately Satanic in nature; this applies regardless of your belief or non-belief in the existence of Satan.
October 15, 2020
The Endless Drone of Unapologetic Incoherence
Incoherence. An endless drone of incoherence from all sides and from every conceivable angle. With each passing day it becomes more intense, more inconsistent, and more unintelligible. Running parallel with this is the unwillingness to acknowledge the incoherence - the constant acting as if the lack of orderly continuity is actually orderly continuity. Framing all of this is the total lack of penitence displayed by those who actively generate, distribute, and promote the incoherence.
Don't get me wrong - I don't expect anyone who actively opposes God to fall to his or her knees and publicly cry out in repentance, but at the same time I imagined I would catch a glimpse of remorse every once in a while; that I would pick up the faint scent of compunction here and there; that I would detect nervous whispers of regret beneath the droning. At the very least I anticipated mild expressions of doubt seeping through now and again. But I have yet to sense anything of the kind, and I doubt I will see much of it in the future.
Look, the evil we face now is unabashedly unapologetic. And why not? Relentless and unmerciful, it simply does not care about what anyone thinks because it has come to the perfectly correct conclusion that barely anyone thinks at all.
Don't get me wrong - I don't expect anyone who actively opposes God to fall to his or her knees and publicly cry out in repentance, but at the same time I imagined I would catch a glimpse of remorse every once in a while; that I would pick up the faint scent of compunction here and there; that I would detect nervous whispers of regret beneath the droning. At the very least I anticipated mild expressions of doubt seeping through now and again. But I have yet to sense anything of the kind, and I doubt I will see much of it in the future.
Look, the evil we face now is unabashedly unapologetic. And why not? Relentless and unmerciful, it simply does not care about what anyone thinks because it has come to the perfectly correct conclusion that barely anyone thinks at all.
October 14, 2020
A Crack in the Sacred
Divorce - Károly Ferenczy - 1892 Learning of an impending divorce within the circle of people I know always leaves me devastated. Granted, the devastation I feel is nothing like the avalanche of ruin that has buried the poor woman in the painting above, but still. For a while I suspected this acutely negative (over?)reaction had to do with the great many divorces I witnessed (this includes my parents' divorce) as I was growing up, but I eventually realized there was more to it than that.
Whenever I become aware of a marriage that is ending in divorce, I tend to visualize a hairline crack rippling through the Sacred.
Desolating to say the least.
October 13, 2020
It's Complicated, Stupid
Present most people with the forthright observation that the global elite pulled off a devastatingly swift and successful totalitarian coup under the pretext of the birdemic and the observation would be peremptorily rejected as too simplistic to be true.
In fact, most people would regard such an observation as the hallmark of a stupid and unenergetic mind, one too lazy to appreciate let alone figure out the complicated world we inhabit. The totalitarian coup observation would be labeled "a simple answer" concocted by an unsophisticated mode of thinking undeserving of serious attention.
Granted, a great many lazy minds have generated a great deal of simple answers that have indeed done very little justice to the complexity of some issues. And yes, some simple answers have frequently led to simple "solutions" that often had nothing at all to do with the problems they had been created to solve. In this sense, a simple answer truly can be indicative of a stupid and lazy mind.
At the same time, those who regard the complexity of a complicated world as the only proof needed to defy the possibility of simple answers are utterly blind to the outright stupidity and laziness of their own apparently sophisticated mode of thinking. While simultaneously scoffing at the laughable notion of a simple answer capable of explaining everything (or at least explaining that which is most essential), this refined and worldly mode of thinking does little more than construct complicated answers that are incapable of explaining anything.
To regard everything as too complex and complicated for simple answers is to regard everything as a foggy labyrinth with no assured exit. Entering the labyrinth is easy enough, but finding a way out is another matter entirely. Wandering through complexity quickly degenerates into a Herculean labor. The sophisticated mode of thinking learns to avoid this laboring altogether. It is far more efficient and practical to merely declare everything to be an intricate labyrinth and leave it at that.
Hence, the totalitarian takeover cannot have really happened, and even if it did, it is definitely not as straightforward and comprehensible as it appears to be. It's more complicated than that, stupid. Too complicated to think about. Best to just acknowledge the complexity of it all and wade no further. To do otherwise would be to seek the unsophisticated sanctuary of the "simple answer".
In fact, most people would regard such an observation as the hallmark of a stupid and unenergetic mind, one too lazy to appreciate let alone figure out the complicated world we inhabit. The totalitarian coup observation would be labeled "a simple answer" concocted by an unsophisticated mode of thinking undeserving of serious attention.
Granted, a great many lazy minds have generated a great deal of simple answers that have indeed done very little justice to the complexity of some issues. And yes, some simple answers have frequently led to simple "solutions" that often had nothing at all to do with the problems they had been created to solve. In this sense, a simple answer truly can be indicative of a stupid and lazy mind.
At the same time, those who regard the complexity of a complicated world as the only proof needed to defy the possibility of simple answers are utterly blind to the outright stupidity and laziness of their own apparently sophisticated mode of thinking. While simultaneously scoffing at the laughable notion of a simple answer capable of explaining everything (or at least explaining that which is most essential), this refined and worldly mode of thinking does little more than construct complicated answers that are incapable of explaining anything.
To regard everything as too complex and complicated for simple answers is to regard everything as a foggy labyrinth with no assured exit. Entering the labyrinth is easy enough, but finding a way out is another matter entirely. Wandering through complexity quickly degenerates into a Herculean labor. The sophisticated mode of thinking learns to avoid this laboring altogether. It is far more efficient and practical to merely declare everything to be an intricate labyrinth and leave it at that.
Hence, the totalitarian takeover cannot have really happened, and even if it did, it is definitely not as straightforward and comprehensible as it appears to be. It's more complicated than that, stupid. Too complicated to think about. Best to just acknowledge the complexity of it all and wade no further. To do otherwise would be to seek the unsophisticated sanctuary of the "simple answer".
October 6, 2020
All Work and No Blog Makes Me A Dull Boy
Nothing annoys me more than people who complain about how busy they are, which is why I find writing this particular blog post so annoying.
I'll get right to the point - I've been very busy lately - too busy to blog on a consistent basis (which explains the lack of posts lately).
Anyway, I hope to be out of the weeds and back to regular blogging in the next two or three days.
Until then.
I'll get right to the point - I've been very busy lately - too busy to blog on a consistent basis (which explains the lack of posts lately).
Anyway, I hope to be out of the weeds and back to regular blogging in the next two or three days.
Until then.
October 1, 2020
Hildegard von Blingin'? (Not a Misspelling)
This is probably one of those things that everyone is already aware of . . . but just in case . . .
So, I was browsing Hildegard von Bingen music on YouTube earlier today, and I happened upon a selection called Hildegard von Blingin'. At first I thought the suggested video was merely a typo or, worse, a crude parody. My first impulse was to ignore it, but curiosity got the better of me, and I gave the video a click. What I discovered is apparently referred to as "bardcore", and I have to say, it's quite creative and amusing.
Hildegard von Blingin' basically takes contemporary pop songs and gets medieval on their backsides. The result is actually delightful and fun. If you haven't encountered this sort of thing before, I encourage you to give it a listen.
Comparing the original version of a pop song with the von Blingin' cover is an enjoyable distraction, especially if you take the time to read the von Blingin' lyrics (which are inventive and, strangely enough, convincingly authentic-sounding).
Here is Hildegard von Blingin's version of Radiohead's Creep. The original version of the pop song appears below that.
Enjoy.
Note added: The von Blingin' renditions of Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know and Hadaway's What is Love? are also entertaining.
So, I was browsing Hildegard von Bingen music on YouTube earlier today, and I happened upon a selection called Hildegard von Blingin'. At first I thought the suggested video was merely a typo or, worse, a crude parody. My first impulse was to ignore it, but curiosity got the better of me, and I gave the video a click. What I discovered is apparently referred to as "bardcore", and I have to say, it's quite creative and amusing.
Hildegard von Blingin' basically takes contemporary pop songs and gets medieval on their backsides. The result is actually delightful and fun. If you haven't encountered this sort of thing before, I encourage you to give it a listen.
Comparing the original version of a pop song with the von Blingin' cover is an enjoyable distraction, especially if you take the time to read the von Blingin' lyrics (which are inventive and, strangely enough, convincingly authentic-sounding).
Here is Hildegard von Blingin's version of Radiohead's Creep. The original version of the pop song appears below that.
Enjoy.
Note added: The von Blingin' renditions of Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know and Hadaway's What is Love? are also entertaining.
