Francis Berger's Blog, page 130
March 23, 2020
I Envy Bald Men Their Crisis Readiness
This is a light-hearted post. I somehow felt one was necessary today . . .
I am one of those men who - despite a venerable age of 48 - is still cursed with a full head of hair.
Unlike my baldheaded brethren, I am forced to consider and make time for things like combs, shampoos and, yes, haircuts. Many of my hairless homies probably envy these worries of mine, but I argue, most firmly, that my barren-domed brothers simply to not understand how oppressive and burdensome a full head of hair truly is.
Allow me to explain. I should have got a haircut back at the end of February, but I kept putting it off for various reasons. And I continued to delay my trip to the barber shop even as the ominous corvid-filled clouds of the birdemic plague began gathering on the horizon. The whole time, my full head of hair kept getting fuller and longer. Some mornings I could barely get it to look civilized, yet I continued to make excuses for not visiting the barber. I was convinced there would always be a tomorrow - and I kept convincing myself of this until one fine day my tomorrows suddenly vanished.
In a flurry of events I still find too harrowing to contemplate, every barber within a thousand-kilometer radius of my home was forced into lockdown. I joined them a mere day later, confined within the four walls of my home, isolated and alone with my overgrown and tangled full head of hair.
During the first few days of lockdown I could barely get myself to look into a mirror. The odd time I did, I could see my full head of hair was mocking me; new curls lolled playfully onto my forehead and swooped derisively over the edges of my ears.
Whenever I do leave the house, I make sure to hide it all beneath a wool hat, even when the temperature is nearly twenty degrees above zero.
But it's always the worst at night. I swear, I can hear it growing in the darkness. It whispers to me then, my hair, and fills my dreams with nightmare visions of a world without barbers.
The problem is, I don't have time for all of that at the moment. I have much more pressing matters to worry about now like stocking up on two-years' worth of toilet paper and buying a flamethrower for when things get really stupid.
There's a crisis brewing and my hair is interfering with all the prepping I still need to do. It's more than I can stand. For example, the other day I had a really hard time cleaning my assault rifle because my damn hair kept getting in my eyes.
On top of that, I have to make extra room in my bunker for hair care products, which means less room for beef jerky, which means my damn neighbor is almost guaranteed to live two weeks longer than I stand to, and it's all thanks to my stupid hair.
My hair-challenged chums don't have to worry about any of that. The smoothness with which they can transition into crisis mode matches the smoothness of their scalps. Face it - bald men are crisis ready! While I'm wasting time stocking up on things like shampoo and hair gel, they're doing useful stuff like installing water-free compost toilets and planting landmines in their front yards.
And when the crisis is all finished, my bald buddies will all come out of it looking exactly the same as they did when they went into - tough and hard, like these guys:
Whereas I will come out of it looking like my family namesake from the aptly named Hair. 
Give me a head with hair - yeah, whatever.
I am one of those men who - despite a venerable age of 48 - is still cursed with a full head of hair.
Unlike my baldheaded brethren, I am forced to consider and make time for things like combs, shampoos and, yes, haircuts. Many of my hairless homies probably envy these worries of mine, but I argue, most firmly, that my barren-domed brothers simply to not understand how oppressive and burdensome a full head of hair truly is.
Allow me to explain. I should have got a haircut back at the end of February, but I kept putting it off for various reasons. And I continued to delay my trip to the barber shop even as the ominous corvid-filled clouds of the birdemic plague began gathering on the horizon. The whole time, my full head of hair kept getting fuller and longer. Some mornings I could barely get it to look civilized, yet I continued to make excuses for not visiting the barber. I was convinced there would always be a tomorrow - and I kept convincing myself of this until one fine day my tomorrows suddenly vanished.
In a flurry of events I still find too harrowing to contemplate, every barber within a thousand-kilometer radius of my home was forced into lockdown. I joined them a mere day later, confined within the four walls of my home, isolated and alone with my overgrown and tangled full head of hair.
During the first few days of lockdown I could barely get myself to look into a mirror. The odd time I did, I could see my full head of hair was mocking me; new curls lolled playfully onto my forehead and swooped derisively over the edges of my ears.
Whenever I do leave the house, I make sure to hide it all beneath a wool hat, even when the temperature is nearly twenty degrees above zero.
But it's always the worst at night. I swear, I can hear it growing in the darkness. It whispers to me then, my hair, and fills my dreams with nightmare visions of a world without barbers.
The problem is, I don't have time for all of that at the moment. I have much more pressing matters to worry about now like stocking up on two-years' worth of toilet paper and buying a flamethrower for when things get really stupid.
There's a crisis brewing and my hair is interfering with all the prepping I still need to do. It's more than I can stand. For example, the other day I had a really hard time cleaning my assault rifle because my damn hair kept getting in my eyes.
On top of that, I have to make extra room in my bunker for hair care products, which means less room for beef jerky, which means my damn neighbor is almost guaranteed to live two weeks longer than I stand to, and it's all thanks to my stupid hair.
My hair-challenged chums don't have to worry about any of that. The smoothness with which they can transition into crisis mode matches the smoothness of their scalps. Face it - bald men are crisis ready! While I'm wasting time stocking up on things like shampoo and hair gel, they're doing useful stuff like installing water-free compost toilets and planting landmines in their front yards.
And when the crisis is all finished, my bald buddies will all come out of it looking exactly the same as they did when they went into - tough and hard, like these guys:
Whereas I will come out of it looking like my family namesake from the aptly named Hair. Give me a head with hair - yeah, whatever.
Spring Blossoms
The plum trees in my backyard are putting on quite show this season. I hope their blossoms pull through the sudden dip in temperatures and high winds we have been experiencing over the past two days. If they do, we should have a good crop this year. If not . . . no plum jam for winter.
Hang in there blossoms! Warmer, calmer days are just ahead!
Hang in there blossoms! Warmer, calmer days are just ahead!
March 20, 2020
Totalitarianism Via Altruism
The word 'lockdown' has been frequently employed in the past two weeks to describe the circumstances the birdemic virus has triggered in the world. In our current situation, we have been instructed to interpret the term lockdown as a state of isolation or restricted access enacted as a security measure.
Appropriately enough, we have, in effect been isolated and have seen our access to the most mundane of daily tasks severely curtailed. The justification for these draconian measures? A strain of flu virus that has been declared a pandemic and is apparently threatening the lives of millions.
The lockdown is working because it appeals to altruism. Governments around the world have isolated us and restricted our access to the daily routines of life under the pretext of disinterested and selfless concern for the welfare and well-being of others. We have been told that being locked down is the only way to save lives. Any objections to the implemented security and safety measures are treated as a declarations of callous selfishness bordering on criminal recklessness. In some places non-compliance has indeed become a crime, punishable by fines and or jail time.
People have thus far accepted the lockdown without much of a fuss. To do otherwise would be to deem oneself selfish and uncaring. However, like nearly everything in our society, the psychology of the lockdown is saturated with the poison of inversion. It provides a perfect means through which people can appear to be self-sacrificing for the greater good while simultaneously fortifying themselves in selfishness and self-concern.
Let's face it, I imagine many people welcome the lockdown more as a means to protect themselves than as a means to protect others. After all, no one wants to become a victim of this terrible plague, do they? Nor do they want their families to fall ill. The self-centeredness beneath the altruistic syrup coating the lockdown measures also becomes evident through the empty shelves we find in grocery stores and pharmacies. This sort of thing would be rare or would simply not exist if the emotions supporting the apparent altruism were authentic.
The Establishment and the governments it controls are using altruism as justification for the severe actions it has taken. They inform us they are doing this for our own good. The tell us they don't want to do any of it, but must in an effort to flatten curves and protect the populace from a mass death event. They are quick to point out their own selflessness and concern through their willingness to sacrifice their economies and societies in an effort to stem the tide of encroaching death. They eagerly parade a few of their infected own on the media to drive home the point that no one is safe.
Employment, taxes, debt, deficits, profits, markety, supply chains - none of that matters here and now. What matters here and now is isolating and restricting the general population to stop the spread of a killer disease that threatens to overwhelm our health care systems, thereby destroying the very foundation of civilization itself.
Yet, paradoxically, the altruistic actions the Establishment is taking, altruistic actions the general populace have thus far adhered to with practically little or no protest, also run the risk of destroying the very foundation of civilization. As far as I can tell, a massive inversion of the old adage 'prevention is better than cure' is currently being played out. The Establishment seems intent on destroying the economy and society in its efforts to hinder the spread of a disease it claims will destroy civilization. I am certain the policies and regulations the Establishment has swiftly enacted around the world will soon show prevention to be far worse than cure in this case.
This brings us to possible underlying motivations behind the Establishment's current lockdown measures. As I mentioned above, we are being told to interpret the lockdown that has been imposed through the lens of altruism. We are being obliged to view the measures themselves as necessary means to achieve safety and security. Whatever freedom we enjoyed has been suspended in the name of welfare. While this is happening, another meaning of the word 'lockdown' - the one employed to describe conditions in prison when prisoners are confined to their cells so the guards may prevent or control a riot - has been almost completely ignored.
How odd.
Official and armchair pundits alike have argued against the foolishness of reading too much into our current lockdown situation. The actions and measures we are currently experiencing, these pundits claim, are not unprecedented. On the contrary, history teems with examples of societies going into lockdown mode as a means to combat a terrible plague with the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic being the most notable recent example. Pundits are also quick to point out that life more or less returned to normal once the public health threat in various historical examples subsided.
Sounds reassuring, doesn't it?
I certainly hope the pundits are right. I really do. Because if they aren't, then we are likely living through what will one day be known as the biggest and, thus far, most successful totalitarian power grab ever attempted.
Sound hyperbolic? Yes, it does sound hyperbolic, doesn't it? And perhaps it is hyperbolic. But being told you would not be allowed to gather in groups larger than five or take the family out to dinner would have sounded hyperbolic two weeks ago as well, wouldn't it have?
The truth is no one can tell what the future will bring. We all live and breathe in the in the present, and our present is now totalitarian. Whether it stays that way remains to be seen, but as of now we are little more than prisoners on lockdown.
This immediately raises a question. Why now?
I can't say with any certainty, but my intuition tells me it has something to do with the economy. The Establishment knew the economy would eventually implode. I am of the mind that it should have imploded back in 2008/2009, but that implosion was averted by ridiculous fiscal and financial stimulus actions and policies that managed to paper over the problem until now. Whatever the case, the Establishment appears quite intent on allowing the implosion to proceed at present, and, to me at least, it appears to be using the birdemic virus as a both a shroud and an explanation for the cause of the ever-accelerating collapse.
Bad policies, rapacious greed, and criminal negligence are not the cause of the collapse; a virus is. On top of it all, the Establishment gets to prove their altruism and demonstrate their love of humanity to the world. By destroying the economy to prevent the spread of virus, the Establishment can show that it loves human life more than it loves money. And as the collapse escalates, it will ask us all to adopt the same stance - all in the name of altruism.
Nevertheless, there is one thing the Establishment value far more than money or human life - and that one thing is power. Though the Establishment may appear to lose material wealth and comfort in the coming weeks and months - unlike the rest of us who surely will lose material wealth and comfort in the coming weeks and months - they have made and will continue to make vast gains in power. These gains in power will come at the expense of our personal freedoms and liberties. If we want to know what that will feel like, we need do no more than simply look around because, as of now, we're living it.
Of course, the pundits will argue this all temporary, but in my experience, the Establishment rarely if ever walks back its encroachments on individual freedoms and liberties. Instead, they have tended to use each step forward as a launching pad for a future encroachment. Think Patriot Act and try to remember the last time you weren't asked to remove your belt or shoes or given a free body massage at an international airport. Or try to recall the last time you weren't asked to fill out intrusive forms in order to transfer larger amounts of money. Or the last time you felt well within your rights to call a man pretending to be a woman a man.
What has happened and is happening now makes the Patriot Act look like nothing more than a list of club rules a child would write in crayon and stick the wall of his backyard treehouse. Consider the following little news item from Israel that covers a proposal involving "A Total Suspension of Individual Freedom":
When MK Yoav Kish (Likud) sought to clarify whether she meant a total lockdown or curfew, Sadetsky replied: “A lockdown and personal monitoring of people, and a total halt to personal freedoms.”
Sadetsy and Moshe Bar Siman Tov, the Health Ministry’s director general, tried to persuade committee members to give the Shin Bet the go-ahead to use “special technological means” to detect where people diagnosed with the disease had been and the people they were exposed to while they were contagious, and to isolate them.
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Saturday that such methods had been adopted, it provoked a strong public outcry due to the extraordinary loss of civil liberties by methods normally reserved for use in the war on terror.
These special means include gathering data about a person’s location via their cellphone and additional technological information using secret tools, and cross-referencing all of the data.
The process identifies all of the contacts coronavirus patients have had and the places they were, whether they are aware of it or not. A text message is then sent to any people who may have been affected, telling them to self-isolate.
The suspension of individual freedom. Micro-surveillance. Special technological means to detect movement and contacts.
I hate to say it, but Ahriman is cementing its grip on us. I hope the pundits are correct when they claim the isolation and restriction measures will be lifted once the virus fades, but I don't believe this will be the case. Even if the virus threat recedes, the economic fallout of the Establishment's policies will remain.
If this economic fallout turns out to be as bad as some suggest, lockdown measures will probably be maintained or increased in the name of protecting safety and order. Of course, neither of these will truly exist in any meaningful sense if the Establishment succeeds in tanking its own System, but that's very much beside the point.
The main point, as far as the Establishment is concerned, is to keep us isolated and restricted in our cells. We are all prisoners now. Prisoners in the name of the greater good. Locked down in the name of altruism.
Ahriman is stepping ever closer to a totalitarian world order, and it is wielding altruism as its weapon of choice in the achievement of this aim.
Appropriately enough, we have, in effect been isolated and have seen our access to the most mundane of daily tasks severely curtailed. The justification for these draconian measures? A strain of flu virus that has been declared a pandemic and is apparently threatening the lives of millions.
The lockdown is working because it appeals to altruism. Governments around the world have isolated us and restricted our access to the daily routines of life under the pretext of disinterested and selfless concern for the welfare and well-being of others. We have been told that being locked down is the only way to save lives. Any objections to the implemented security and safety measures are treated as a declarations of callous selfishness bordering on criminal recklessness. In some places non-compliance has indeed become a crime, punishable by fines and or jail time.
People have thus far accepted the lockdown without much of a fuss. To do otherwise would be to deem oneself selfish and uncaring. However, like nearly everything in our society, the psychology of the lockdown is saturated with the poison of inversion. It provides a perfect means through which people can appear to be self-sacrificing for the greater good while simultaneously fortifying themselves in selfishness and self-concern.
Let's face it, I imagine many people welcome the lockdown more as a means to protect themselves than as a means to protect others. After all, no one wants to become a victim of this terrible plague, do they? Nor do they want their families to fall ill. The self-centeredness beneath the altruistic syrup coating the lockdown measures also becomes evident through the empty shelves we find in grocery stores and pharmacies. This sort of thing would be rare or would simply not exist if the emotions supporting the apparent altruism were authentic.
The Establishment and the governments it controls are using altruism as justification for the severe actions it has taken. They inform us they are doing this for our own good. The tell us they don't want to do any of it, but must in an effort to flatten curves and protect the populace from a mass death event. They are quick to point out their own selflessness and concern through their willingness to sacrifice their economies and societies in an effort to stem the tide of encroaching death. They eagerly parade a few of their infected own on the media to drive home the point that no one is safe.
Employment, taxes, debt, deficits, profits, markety, supply chains - none of that matters here and now. What matters here and now is isolating and restricting the general population to stop the spread of a killer disease that threatens to overwhelm our health care systems, thereby destroying the very foundation of civilization itself.
Yet, paradoxically, the altruistic actions the Establishment is taking, altruistic actions the general populace have thus far adhered to with practically little or no protest, also run the risk of destroying the very foundation of civilization. As far as I can tell, a massive inversion of the old adage 'prevention is better than cure' is currently being played out. The Establishment seems intent on destroying the economy and society in its efforts to hinder the spread of a disease it claims will destroy civilization. I am certain the policies and regulations the Establishment has swiftly enacted around the world will soon show prevention to be far worse than cure in this case.
This brings us to possible underlying motivations behind the Establishment's current lockdown measures. As I mentioned above, we are being told to interpret the lockdown that has been imposed through the lens of altruism. We are being obliged to view the measures themselves as necessary means to achieve safety and security. Whatever freedom we enjoyed has been suspended in the name of welfare. While this is happening, another meaning of the word 'lockdown' - the one employed to describe conditions in prison when prisoners are confined to their cells so the guards may prevent or control a riot - has been almost completely ignored.
How odd.
Official and armchair pundits alike have argued against the foolishness of reading too much into our current lockdown situation. The actions and measures we are currently experiencing, these pundits claim, are not unprecedented. On the contrary, history teems with examples of societies going into lockdown mode as a means to combat a terrible plague with the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic being the most notable recent example. Pundits are also quick to point out that life more or less returned to normal once the public health threat in various historical examples subsided.
Sounds reassuring, doesn't it?
I certainly hope the pundits are right. I really do. Because if they aren't, then we are likely living through what will one day be known as the biggest and, thus far, most successful totalitarian power grab ever attempted.
Sound hyperbolic? Yes, it does sound hyperbolic, doesn't it? And perhaps it is hyperbolic. But being told you would not be allowed to gather in groups larger than five or take the family out to dinner would have sounded hyperbolic two weeks ago as well, wouldn't it have?
The truth is no one can tell what the future will bring. We all live and breathe in the in the present, and our present is now totalitarian. Whether it stays that way remains to be seen, but as of now we are little more than prisoners on lockdown.
This immediately raises a question. Why now?
I can't say with any certainty, but my intuition tells me it has something to do with the economy. The Establishment knew the economy would eventually implode. I am of the mind that it should have imploded back in 2008/2009, but that implosion was averted by ridiculous fiscal and financial stimulus actions and policies that managed to paper over the problem until now. Whatever the case, the Establishment appears quite intent on allowing the implosion to proceed at present, and, to me at least, it appears to be using the birdemic virus as a both a shroud and an explanation for the cause of the ever-accelerating collapse.
Bad policies, rapacious greed, and criminal negligence are not the cause of the collapse; a virus is. On top of it all, the Establishment gets to prove their altruism and demonstrate their love of humanity to the world. By destroying the economy to prevent the spread of virus, the Establishment can show that it loves human life more than it loves money. And as the collapse escalates, it will ask us all to adopt the same stance - all in the name of altruism.
Nevertheless, there is one thing the Establishment value far more than money or human life - and that one thing is power. Though the Establishment may appear to lose material wealth and comfort in the coming weeks and months - unlike the rest of us who surely will lose material wealth and comfort in the coming weeks and months - they have made and will continue to make vast gains in power. These gains in power will come at the expense of our personal freedoms and liberties. If we want to know what that will feel like, we need do no more than simply look around because, as of now, we're living it.
Of course, the pundits will argue this all temporary, but in my experience, the Establishment rarely if ever walks back its encroachments on individual freedoms and liberties. Instead, they have tended to use each step forward as a launching pad for a future encroachment. Think Patriot Act and try to remember the last time you weren't asked to remove your belt or shoes or given a free body massage at an international airport. Or try to recall the last time you weren't asked to fill out intrusive forms in order to transfer larger amounts of money. Or the last time you felt well within your rights to call a man pretending to be a woman a man.
What has happened and is happening now makes the Patriot Act look like nothing more than a list of club rules a child would write in crayon and stick the wall of his backyard treehouse. Consider the following little news item from Israel that covers a proposal involving "A Total Suspension of Individual Freedom":
When MK Yoav Kish (Likud) sought to clarify whether she meant a total lockdown or curfew, Sadetsky replied: “A lockdown and personal monitoring of people, and a total halt to personal freedoms.”
Sadetsy and Moshe Bar Siman Tov, the Health Ministry’s director general, tried to persuade committee members to give the Shin Bet the go-ahead to use “special technological means” to detect where people diagnosed with the disease had been and the people they were exposed to while they were contagious, and to isolate them.
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Saturday that such methods had been adopted, it provoked a strong public outcry due to the extraordinary loss of civil liberties by methods normally reserved for use in the war on terror.
These special means include gathering data about a person’s location via their cellphone and additional technological information using secret tools, and cross-referencing all of the data.
The process identifies all of the contacts coronavirus patients have had and the places they were, whether they are aware of it or not. A text message is then sent to any people who may have been affected, telling them to self-isolate.
The suspension of individual freedom. Micro-surveillance. Special technological means to detect movement and contacts.
I hate to say it, but Ahriman is cementing its grip on us. I hope the pundits are correct when they claim the isolation and restriction measures will be lifted once the virus fades, but I don't believe this will be the case. Even if the virus threat recedes, the economic fallout of the Establishment's policies will remain.
If this economic fallout turns out to be as bad as some suggest, lockdown measures will probably be maintained or increased in the name of protecting safety and order. Of course, neither of these will truly exist in any meaningful sense if the Establishment succeeds in tanking its own System, but that's very much beside the point.
The main point, as far as the Establishment is concerned, is to keep us isolated and restricted in our cells. We are all prisoners now. Prisoners in the name of the greater good. Locked down in the name of altruism.
Ahriman is stepping ever closer to a totalitarian world order, and it is wielding altruism as its weapon of choice in the achievement of this aim.
There Is Only One True Safe Haven, And It Isn't Gold, Crypto, or Bonds
Back on March 8 I wrote the following in a post called Listen All Y'All, It's a Sabotage:
The current global financial and economic system strikes me as sophisticated and complex, yet fragile and delicate. Everything depends on everything else. There appears to be very little margin for error. A small, seemingly insignificant problem could easily ripple across the whole network - become amplified and magnified. Set of a chain reaction. Topple dominos.
So sophisticated and complex. Yet so fragile and delicate.
And the powers that be seem quite intent on bringing it down. Now. I couldn't tell you to what degree or for what duration, but the way the hysteria is spinning out of control indicates that this might be the start of something big.
. . .
I am no economist, but I know enough about the voodoo our current witchdoctors have concocted to know that most of what accounts for the global economy is built on ravenous consumption fueled by Himalayan heaps of debt. I know enough about personal finance to understand that the average Westerner is one or two missed paychecks away from catastrophe. I know enough about business to comprehend that with the exception of small, family-run enterprises, no corporation on the planet will ever use its vast profits to help itself sail over stormy seas.
And against this backdrop, they have decided to terrorize and slowly shutdown the world.
. . .
On one hand, I am making attempts to see the possible positive side of these rather baffling developments, but its hard to see a positive side when such blatant sabotage is clearly at play.
The purposive pursuit to end something usually indicates a desire to start something new. I feel no kinship for or affiliation to our current System. It is clearly an obstacle. A barrier. It needs to be dismantled and sent to the scrap yard in order for something better to emerge. But the dismantling I am seeing now will unlikely lead to anything better. More likely, it will lead to something worse.
And that is a possibility we must consider.
That was twelve days ago.
I remember feeling apprehensive when I wrote that post. I didn't want to sound like an alarmist or play a part in spreading fear and panic, but it became rather clear to me that the Establishment was intent on crashing the economy. In the twelve days that have passed since, I have become positively convinced of it.
Bruce Charlton has posited that the economic collapse is deliberate and planned.
I agree with him.
But here's the thing - this is not something I want to be right about.
Let me repeat that - this is not something I want to be right about.
And I know Dr. Charlton does not want to be right about this either. The problem with Dr. Charlton is he can be incredibly prescient, to the point of being prophetic, as demonstrated by this post from November 27, 2019.
I hope I'm wrong about this. I really do.
I hope and pray that in a month's time I will have succeeded in making an utter fool of myself.
Having stated that, I noticed I was wrong about one thing on March 8. The Establishment is not shutting down the world slowly. Quite the opposite.
In a span of twelve days, it has succeeded in essentially placing nearly everyone in the world under house arrest, all under the guise of altruism and public safety (something I'll probably write about tomorrow).
Stock markets are tanking, currencies are fluctuating, debt is imploding, liquidity is disappearing, industries are cratering, and jobs are vanishing.
For its part, the Establishment is going through its well-worn routine of stimulus packages, credit expansion, and money printing to 'solve' the crisis.
In the midst of this sudden chaos people the world over are scrambling to find safe havens. Investors are selling their stocks and ploughing into cash. Others are buying up gold and silver. Others still believe they will be spared by putting their capital into digital currencies. At the ground level, people are hoarding toilet paper; loading up on canned goods; buying assault rifles.
Everyone is desperate to find safety and security - some form of sanctuary through which they hope to ride out the storm. And who can blame them? The will to survive often roars to life during times of potential peril.
But here's the catch. The will to physically survive is both natural and good, but our highest survival instinct should always be spiritual survival.
This entails recognizing and focusing attention on the only true safe haven that exists.
I have nothing against those who are scrambling to find material safe havens in an effort to preserve their wealth and protect their families. I am making some adjustments and weighing options at the moment myself. After all, I have a duty to protect my family from whatever hell is bound to come. This is all well and good, to a point, but it must not be driven by fear or despair and it must not be our sole concern during these times.
Above all else, we must remember we are in a spiritual war. The Establishment has begun the process of unleashing unimaginable material suffering, but spiritual suffering is the true purpose of the material agony we are all sure to experience to some degree. It's crucial to keep that in mind.
The Establishment wants to bring us to our knees, get us to turn our backs on God, and embrace whatever faux-salvation it will offer us to help alleviate our material suffering.
Material safe havens may protect us for a while. Maybe they can even pull us through the storm and help us come out at the other end, but they cannot protect us from spiritual devastation.
In light of this, we mustn't forget God's love. We mustn't, not even in the most challenging of circumstances, forget that we live in a loving Creation. We mustn't forget to learn from the experiences we will have and use them to align ourselves with God.
There's only one thing we can take away from this world. And there's only one way we can take it out of this world.
That's the safe haven that matters above all the others.
That's the safe haven we must strive to secure.
Note added: On their respective blogs, Bruce Charlton and William Wildblood have both written extensively about the precedence of spiritual preparation during these times. I owe both a debt of gratitude for some of the views I have expressed here.
The current global financial and economic system strikes me as sophisticated and complex, yet fragile and delicate. Everything depends on everything else. There appears to be very little margin for error. A small, seemingly insignificant problem could easily ripple across the whole network - become amplified and magnified. Set of a chain reaction. Topple dominos.
So sophisticated and complex. Yet so fragile and delicate.
And the powers that be seem quite intent on bringing it down. Now. I couldn't tell you to what degree or for what duration, but the way the hysteria is spinning out of control indicates that this might be the start of something big.
. . .
I am no economist, but I know enough about the voodoo our current witchdoctors have concocted to know that most of what accounts for the global economy is built on ravenous consumption fueled by Himalayan heaps of debt. I know enough about personal finance to understand that the average Westerner is one or two missed paychecks away from catastrophe. I know enough about business to comprehend that with the exception of small, family-run enterprises, no corporation on the planet will ever use its vast profits to help itself sail over stormy seas.
And against this backdrop, they have decided to terrorize and slowly shutdown the world.
. . .
On one hand, I am making attempts to see the possible positive side of these rather baffling developments, but its hard to see a positive side when such blatant sabotage is clearly at play.
The purposive pursuit to end something usually indicates a desire to start something new. I feel no kinship for or affiliation to our current System. It is clearly an obstacle. A barrier. It needs to be dismantled and sent to the scrap yard in order for something better to emerge. But the dismantling I am seeing now will unlikely lead to anything better. More likely, it will lead to something worse.
And that is a possibility we must consider.
That was twelve days ago.
I remember feeling apprehensive when I wrote that post. I didn't want to sound like an alarmist or play a part in spreading fear and panic, but it became rather clear to me that the Establishment was intent on crashing the economy. In the twelve days that have passed since, I have become positively convinced of it.
Bruce Charlton has posited that the economic collapse is deliberate and planned.
I agree with him.
But here's the thing - this is not something I want to be right about.
Let me repeat that - this is not something I want to be right about.
And I know Dr. Charlton does not want to be right about this either. The problem with Dr. Charlton is he can be incredibly prescient, to the point of being prophetic, as demonstrated by this post from November 27, 2019.
I hope I'm wrong about this. I really do.
I hope and pray that in a month's time I will have succeeded in making an utter fool of myself.
Having stated that, I noticed I was wrong about one thing on March 8. The Establishment is not shutting down the world slowly. Quite the opposite.
In a span of twelve days, it has succeeded in essentially placing nearly everyone in the world under house arrest, all under the guise of altruism and public safety (something I'll probably write about tomorrow).
Stock markets are tanking, currencies are fluctuating, debt is imploding, liquidity is disappearing, industries are cratering, and jobs are vanishing.
For its part, the Establishment is going through its well-worn routine of stimulus packages, credit expansion, and money printing to 'solve' the crisis.
In the midst of this sudden chaos people the world over are scrambling to find safe havens. Investors are selling their stocks and ploughing into cash. Others are buying up gold and silver. Others still believe they will be spared by putting their capital into digital currencies. At the ground level, people are hoarding toilet paper; loading up on canned goods; buying assault rifles.
Everyone is desperate to find safety and security - some form of sanctuary through which they hope to ride out the storm. And who can blame them? The will to survive often roars to life during times of potential peril.
But here's the catch. The will to physically survive is both natural and good, but our highest survival instinct should always be spiritual survival.
This entails recognizing and focusing attention on the only true safe haven that exists.
I have nothing against those who are scrambling to find material safe havens in an effort to preserve their wealth and protect their families. I am making some adjustments and weighing options at the moment myself. After all, I have a duty to protect my family from whatever hell is bound to come. This is all well and good, to a point, but it must not be driven by fear or despair and it must not be our sole concern during these times.
Above all else, we must remember we are in a spiritual war. The Establishment has begun the process of unleashing unimaginable material suffering, but spiritual suffering is the true purpose of the material agony we are all sure to experience to some degree. It's crucial to keep that in mind.
The Establishment wants to bring us to our knees, get us to turn our backs on God, and embrace whatever faux-salvation it will offer us to help alleviate our material suffering.
Material safe havens may protect us for a while. Maybe they can even pull us through the storm and help us come out at the other end, but they cannot protect us from spiritual devastation.
In light of this, we mustn't forget God's love. We mustn't, not even in the most challenging of circumstances, forget that we live in a loving Creation. We mustn't forget to learn from the experiences we will have and use them to align ourselves with God.
There's only one thing we can take away from this world. And there's only one way we can take it out of this world.
That's the safe haven that matters above all the others.
That's the safe haven we must strive to secure.
Note added: On their respective blogs, Bruce Charlton and William Wildblood have both written extensively about the precedence of spiritual preparation during these times. I owe both a debt of gratitude for some of the views I have expressed here.
Don't Underestimate Your Spiritual Power
The following was taken from a comment I wrote in response to this post:
I have no desire to alienate or distance any serious Christian, Catholic or otherwise. In many ways this blog has become a way for me to form alliances and relationships with serious Christians of all denominations, and I want to continue building those alliances and relationships to whatever extent I can.
By serious Christians I mean those who truly believe in Jesus Christ and wish to follow Him with the entirety of their minds, hearts, and souls. I do not wish to bicker over theological fine points or haggle over who is right and who is wrong concerning history, church dogma, doctrine, traditions, or anything else.
We all have our own unique spiritual destinies, one that is guided by a loving God, and I have no qualms with any Christian who believes he is doing the right thing by adhering to a church.
Having said all of that, we are experiencing something unprecedented in the history of the world. I am not referring here only to the closure of churches over a virus scare, but everything that is happening. What matters now is the primacy of the spiritual. Whatever helps you find and maintain the primacy of the spiritual is fine with me, as long as it aligns with God's reality and loving Creation.
"the Catholic Church is not the Church of the pope, the cardinals, the bishops, the parish priests, or even the laity. It is the Church of the Saints."
I'll go a step further. The Church is you. You should strive to be that Saint. Don't underestimate the power of your spirit. The time for waiting to see what will happen has passed. God is waiting for us to take a step toward Him through an act of Creativity. God is waiting for us to become co-Creators.
I say that not out of heresy or spiritual pride, but out of necessity and sobriety.
Gentlemen, like it or not, we have been un-Churched. As I said earlier, you are now the Church. You need to draw on direct knowledge from God. You are the immanent that needs to meet the transcendent. That meeting happens through love, faith, and hope.
We can and should draw on tradition, but we shouldn't be regressive. Nor should we be passive. We need to move beyond our spiritual adolescence and become spiritual adults.
That is our task.
Here and now.
I have no desire to alienate or distance any serious Christian, Catholic or otherwise. In many ways this blog has become a way for me to form alliances and relationships with serious Christians of all denominations, and I want to continue building those alliances and relationships to whatever extent I can.
By serious Christians I mean those who truly believe in Jesus Christ and wish to follow Him with the entirety of their minds, hearts, and souls. I do not wish to bicker over theological fine points or haggle over who is right and who is wrong concerning history, church dogma, doctrine, traditions, or anything else.
We all have our own unique spiritual destinies, one that is guided by a loving God, and I have no qualms with any Christian who believes he is doing the right thing by adhering to a church.
Having said all of that, we are experiencing something unprecedented in the history of the world. I am not referring here only to the closure of churches over a virus scare, but everything that is happening. What matters now is the primacy of the spiritual. Whatever helps you find and maintain the primacy of the spiritual is fine with me, as long as it aligns with God's reality and loving Creation.
"the Catholic Church is not the Church of the pope, the cardinals, the bishops, the parish priests, or even the laity. It is the Church of the Saints."
I'll go a step further. The Church is you. You should strive to be that Saint. Don't underestimate the power of your spirit. The time for waiting to see what will happen has passed. God is waiting for us to take a step toward Him through an act of Creativity. God is waiting for us to become co-Creators.
I say that not out of heresy or spiritual pride, but out of necessity and sobriety.
Gentlemen, like it or not, we have been un-Churched. As I said earlier, you are now the Church. You need to draw on direct knowledge from God. You are the immanent that needs to meet the transcendent. That meeting happens through love, faith, and hope.
We can and should draw on tradition, but we shouldn't be regressive. Nor should we be passive. We need to move beyond our spiritual adolescence and become spiritual adults.
That is our task.
Here and now.
March 18, 2020
Oak Ridges - Probably The Only Song Ever Written About My Hometown
I was born in New York City, but I grew up in a small town, or at least what had once been a small town, about twenty kilometers north of Toronto, Canada.
Oak Ridges was a a sleepy, unremarkable little town of about two thousand throughout my childhood. The only reason most non-residents ever bothered even stopping in the place was to fill their cars at one of the five gas stations lining the length of Yonge Street, which divided the settlement into two distinct halves - Oak Ridges proper and Lake Wilcox.
I grew up in a house located right on Lake Wilcox, a lovely, small kettle lake the last glacier carved into the landscape as it receded. This ensured I had a wonderful childhood filled with summers of swimming, fishing, and canoeing and winters of ice-skating, hockey, and ice fishing.
But I have to say, Oak Ridges was a fairly dull place otherwise. Aside from having the Oak Ridges Moraine named after it, the town has only two notable claims to fame. The first is Ivan Reitman's 1973 horror comedy disaster Cannibal Girls, for which Oak Ridges provided the setting.
The film itself is so awful it easily falls into the 'so bad it's good' genre of B-movie filmmaking. The trailer begins with the following: "Once upon a time, there was a little country town, where folks had a very strange diet . . . Strangers who stopped for lunch ended up staying for dinner." As far as I can remember, we had no cannibal girls in Oak Ridges when I was growing up. Sure, we had plenty of dope smokers, unemployed layabouts, headbangers, and girls who wore construction boots all year round, but I can't recall any girl ever eating anyone else, at least not intentionally.
The town's other claim to fame is the song Oak Ridges written by The Sadies, a mostly obscure but otherwise terrific band. Two brothers from Aurora, a more affluent town about five kilometers north of my hometown, make up half of The Sadies. I went to high school with both, and though we were not friends, we had many mutual friends, which meant I hung out with them every now and then - usually at some beer-drinking party.
For reasons I will never understand, The Sadies wrote a song about Oak Ridges. Well not really. The song is named after the town, and it describes witnessing something traumatic in the town (perhaps beautiful women eating people or something), but it actually reveals nothing about the town at all. But then again, when it comes to Oak Ridges, there isn't all that much to reveal.
It's a strange little tune from a strange little band, but I like it. And I would like it even if The Sadies called it Aurora instead of Oak Ridges.
As for the town itself, I agree with one of the lines from the tune. Though I have many fond memories of growing up in Oak Ridges, at this point in my life I don't ever want to go back there again. Oak Ridges
I'm still not sure what I should try to keep it all from coming back to haunt me
If I can't get away from harm's way I'll deserve whatever they unleash upon me
The only thing that's left to do is try and keep on walking
Even if it means I came way out here for nothing
It's not the kind of thing you'd want to run from
No matter what it might have been, I don't ever want to go back there again
The things I can't remember are the same things that I do not want to believe
And in my eyes will always be the things that weren't meant for me to see
And all that's left to do out here is try and keep on walking
And just forget that we went all the way out here for nothing
It's not a situation you can run from
No matter what it used to be
You'll never find a way back cause you don't know where you've been
But you won't ever want to go back there again
Oak Ridges was a a sleepy, unremarkable little town of about two thousand throughout my childhood. The only reason most non-residents ever bothered even stopping in the place was to fill their cars at one of the five gas stations lining the length of Yonge Street, which divided the settlement into two distinct halves - Oak Ridges proper and Lake Wilcox.
I grew up in a house located right on Lake Wilcox, a lovely, small kettle lake the last glacier carved into the landscape as it receded. This ensured I had a wonderful childhood filled with summers of swimming, fishing, and canoeing and winters of ice-skating, hockey, and ice fishing.
But I have to say, Oak Ridges was a fairly dull place otherwise. Aside from having the Oak Ridges Moraine named after it, the town has only two notable claims to fame. The first is Ivan Reitman's 1973 horror comedy disaster Cannibal Girls, for which Oak Ridges provided the setting.
The film itself is so awful it easily falls into the 'so bad it's good' genre of B-movie filmmaking. The trailer begins with the following: "Once upon a time, there was a little country town, where folks had a very strange diet . . . Strangers who stopped for lunch ended up staying for dinner." As far as I can remember, we had no cannibal girls in Oak Ridges when I was growing up. Sure, we had plenty of dope smokers, unemployed layabouts, headbangers, and girls who wore construction boots all year round, but I can't recall any girl ever eating anyone else, at least not intentionally.
The town's other claim to fame is the song Oak Ridges written by The Sadies, a mostly obscure but otherwise terrific band. Two brothers from Aurora, a more affluent town about five kilometers north of my hometown, make up half of The Sadies. I went to high school with both, and though we were not friends, we had many mutual friends, which meant I hung out with them every now and then - usually at some beer-drinking party.
For reasons I will never understand, The Sadies wrote a song about Oak Ridges. Well not really. The song is named after the town, and it describes witnessing something traumatic in the town (perhaps beautiful women eating people or something), but it actually reveals nothing about the town at all. But then again, when it comes to Oak Ridges, there isn't all that much to reveal.
It's a strange little tune from a strange little band, but I like it. And I would like it even if The Sadies called it Aurora instead of Oak Ridges.
As for the town itself, I agree with one of the lines from the tune. Though I have many fond memories of growing up in Oak Ridges, at this point in my life I don't ever want to go back there again. Oak Ridges
I'm still not sure what I should try to keep it all from coming back to haunt me
If I can't get away from harm's way I'll deserve whatever they unleash upon me
The only thing that's left to do is try and keep on walking
Even if it means I came way out here for nothing
It's not the kind of thing you'd want to run from
No matter what it might have been, I don't ever want to go back there again
The things I can't remember are the same things that I do not want to believe
And in my eyes will always be the things that weren't meant for me to see
And all that's left to do out here is try and keep on walking
And just forget that we went all the way out here for nothing
It's not a situation you can run from
No matter what it used to be
You'll never find a way back cause you don't know where you've been
But you won't ever want to go back there again
Yes, Good Can Come Out of This, But That Doesn't Make This Good
Picture a morbidly obese person who can't stop overeating. Now imagine this obese person suddenly finds himself stuck in famine conditions where his access to food has been severely curtailed.
After three or four months of barely eating anything, he inevitably sheds the excess pounds and begins to approach what could be considered his ideal weight. In this individual's case, would it be correct and accurate to say that something good came out of the famine?
Some would argue that a case for something good could be made. The famine conditions severely curtailed the man's compulsion to overeat. This in turn forced him to lose weight. Though the famine itself was bad, some would invariably argue that it led to good results.
But are these results really good? Well, I suppose that depends on the man's attitude to famine and the results it achieved.
If the famine inspired the man to re-evaluate his overeating and his unhealthy weight and make a conscious decision to permanently change his habits and overcome his compulsions, particularly when conditions improve and food becomes accessible again, then yes, the results could be viewed as good because they involve learning and repentance. In other words, the man was able to draw something good out of conditions that were inherently bad.
On the other hand, what if the man merely suffers through the famine only to return to his old ways once the famine ends?
Or worse, vows to change during the famine, but immediately returns to his gluttony when food is plentiful again. Whatever good was forced upon our fat friend disappears. Nothing good was taken out of the bad.
Of course the worst case would be the following: after several months of hunger and agony, deprived of everything he once held sacred and dear, the fat man loses all hope of ever having the opportunity to gorge himself on food again and, thus, falls into despair and kills himself.
Having said all of that, the highest good the morbidly obese man could achieve would involve re-evaluating his overeating and unhealthy weight and taking the necessary steps to curb his hunger and bring down his weight during normal circumstances when food is plentiful. These actions would demonstrate resolve and strength - the fortitude to choose something good despite the presence of ubiquitous temptation. He would also likely suffer less if a famine ever hit.
Whatever the scenario, it would be a mistake to argue that the famine itself was good, even in the case where it ultimately led to repentance, right choices, and good results.
The analogy above hold true in our current circumstances as well. I have spent a great deal of time railing against the evil System. I have described it as anti-beauty, anti-truth, anti-goodness, anti-virtue, anti-spiritual, and anti-God. It is no secret that I would welcome the System's demise. Nevertheless, I do not view the current deliberate sabotaging of the System by the Establishment as something intrinsically good.
The Establishment is collapsing its evil System to generate more, not less, evil. And it is doing this primarily for spiritual reasons. This vital point needs to be understood by those who rub their hands together in glee at the apparent demise of the evil System and the 'goods' emerging from the cracking infrastructure the Establishment has lorded over until now.
The Establishment's purposive and deliberate destruction of its own System is very much like the famine mentioned in the example above. The System's primary motivation here is to inflict material hardship and suffering on everyone. They are convinced this material hardship and suffering will inspire fear, despair, and ultimately, self-chosen spiritual annihilation in the majority of the population. Physical death is of secondary importance and is only useful after an individual has committed themselves to damnation.
Admittedly, the hardship and suffering the Establishment are unleashing may act as a negative motivator for some. It may inspire some individuals to see the errors of their ways and, ultimately, spiritually reject the System.
Those who are on the side of Good are working and will work to make this happen. Like the morbid man mentioned earlier, this is an example of drawing good out of a bad situation, but this is not what the Establishment is aiming for and they play no active role in this process. In fact, they are doing and will do everything within their power to ensure it doesn't happen.
As I mentioned earlier, I believe the System is evil, but I also believe that a good collapse could only be brought about by a shift in consciousness much like the shift in consciousness that eventually resulted in the collapse of communism in Europe in the twentieth century.
In other words, a good collapse of the System would have to begin with a positive rather than a negative motivator.
In circumstances like that, people would freely and consciously choose to abandon the System for something better and would freely and consciously choose to endure any hardship and suffering accompanying this choice. Simply put, they would gladly put up with discomfort for the reality of something better.
That is not what is happening now.
People have not freely and consciously chosen to endure hardship and suffering. The Establishment is forcing it upon them, and it is forcing it upon them for the most pernicious and malevolent of reasons.
The best we can hope for under these circumstances is that people respond to the suffering the Establishment inflicts as a negative motivator - that after a certain period of agony, they might see the light and work to draw good out of circumstances that are intrinsically bad.
It goes without saying that this is good, but that in itself does not make the current deliberate collapse of the System good; much the same way the morbidly obese man's weight loss and changed eating habits do not make the famine he suffered through innately good.
After three or four months of barely eating anything, he inevitably sheds the excess pounds and begins to approach what could be considered his ideal weight. In this individual's case, would it be correct and accurate to say that something good came out of the famine?
Some would argue that a case for something good could be made. The famine conditions severely curtailed the man's compulsion to overeat. This in turn forced him to lose weight. Though the famine itself was bad, some would invariably argue that it led to good results.
But are these results really good? Well, I suppose that depends on the man's attitude to famine and the results it achieved.
If the famine inspired the man to re-evaluate his overeating and his unhealthy weight and make a conscious decision to permanently change his habits and overcome his compulsions, particularly when conditions improve and food becomes accessible again, then yes, the results could be viewed as good because they involve learning and repentance. In other words, the man was able to draw something good out of conditions that were inherently bad.
On the other hand, what if the man merely suffers through the famine only to return to his old ways once the famine ends?
Or worse, vows to change during the famine, but immediately returns to his gluttony when food is plentiful again. Whatever good was forced upon our fat friend disappears. Nothing good was taken out of the bad.
Of course the worst case would be the following: after several months of hunger and agony, deprived of everything he once held sacred and dear, the fat man loses all hope of ever having the opportunity to gorge himself on food again and, thus, falls into despair and kills himself.
Having said all of that, the highest good the morbidly obese man could achieve would involve re-evaluating his overeating and unhealthy weight and taking the necessary steps to curb his hunger and bring down his weight during normal circumstances when food is plentiful. These actions would demonstrate resolve and strength - the fortitude to choose something good despite the presence of ubiquitous temptation. He would also likely suffer less if a famine ever hit.
Whatever the scenario, it would be a mistake to argue that the famine itself was good, even in the case where it ultimately led to repentance, right choices, and good results.
The analogy above hold true in our current circumstances as well. I have spent a great deal of time railing against the evil System. I have described it as anti-beauty, anti-truth, anti-goodness, anti-virtue, anti-spiritual, and anti-God. It is no secret that I would welcome the System's demise. Nevertheless, I do not view the current deliberate sabotaging of the System by the Establishment as something intrinsically good.
The Establishment is collapsing its evil System to generate more, not less, evil. And it is doing this primarily for spiritual reasons. This vital point needs to be understood by those who rub their hands together in glee at the apparent demise of the evil System and the 'goods' emerging from the cracking infrastructure the Establishment has lorded over until now.
The Establishment's purposive and deliberate destruction of its own System is very much like the famine mentioned in the example above. The System's primary motivation here is to inflict material hardship and suffering on everyone. They are convinced this material hardship and suffering will inspire fear, despair, and ultimately, self-chosen spiritual annihilation in the majority of the population. Physical death is of secondary importance and is only useful after an individual has committed themselves to damnation.
Admittedly, the hardship and suffering the Establishment are unleashing may act as a negative motivator for some. It may inspire some individuals to see the errors of their ways and, ultimately, spiritually reject the System.
Those who are on the side of Good are working and will work to make this happen. Like the morbid man mentioned earlier, this is an example of drawing good out of a bad situation, but this is not what the Establishment is aiming for and they play no active role in this process. In fact, they are doing and will do everything within their power to ensure it doesn't happen.
As I mentioned earlier, I believe the System is evil, but I also believe that a good collapse could only be brought about by a shift in consciousness much like the shift in consciousness that eventually resulted in the collapse of communism in Europe in the twentieth century.
In other words, a good collapse of the System would have to begin with a positive rather than a negative motivator.
In circumstances like that, people would freely and consciously choose to abandon the System for something better and would freely and consciously choose to endure any hardship and suffering accompanying this choice. Simply put, they would gladly put up with discomfort for the reality of something better.
That is not what is happening now.
People have not freely and consciously chosen to endure hardship and suffering. The Establishment is forcing it upon them, and it is forcing it upon them for the most pernicious and malevolent of reasons.
The best we can hope for under these circumstances is that people respond to the suffering the Establishment inflicts as a negative motivator - that after a certain period of agony, they might see the light and work to draw good out of circumstances that are intrinsically bad.
It goes without saying that this is good, but that in itself does not make the current deliberate collapse of the System good; much the same way the morbidly obese man's weight loss and changed eating habits do not make the famine he suffered through innately good.
March 17, 2020
The Roman Catholic Church in Hungary Shows Its Virtue By Offering Virtual Mass
The Roman Catholic Church In Hungary has decided to bar people from Sunday Mass until further notice.
But there's no reason to despair, Mass will still be held! A virtual Mass! Yes, priests will still show up and conduct Masses in their churches throughout the country, but the churches will otherwise be empty. No need to wake up, get dressed, and trudge down to the old cathedral. Best of all, these Masses will be recorded live and broadcast to parishioners who will now be able to enjoy the holy service from the comfort of their own homes.
Think of the luxury! I mean, you could participate in Mass wrapped in a Snuggy! Or your underwear! Rumor has it the clergy have come up with some special 3D effects for the communion. Heck, why watch it live? Why not just record the Mass? This way you can fast-forward through the dull bits and tailor the service to your own liking.
But what about those who, for whatever strange reason, actually miss being physically present in church? Well have no fear, churches will still be open for private prayers - as long as fewer than . . . what? Twenty? Fifteen? Ten people show up at the same time? And as long as they stay at least a meter apart from each other.
I'm making light of this, but in reality it's no laughing matter. Regardless, these actions reveal some uncomfortable yet meaningful truths. As Bruce Charlton very perceptively pointed out on his blog yesterday, the Roman Catholic Church, together with nearly all other Christian churches, has essentially told Christians that they are on their own.
Extra ecclesiam nulla salus?
Sum howa I doubtimus it.
But there's no reason to despair, Mass will still be held! A virtual Mass! Yes, priests will still show up and conduct Masses in their churches throughout the country, but the churches will otherwise be empty. No need to wake up, get dressed, and trudge down to the old cathedral. Best of all, these Masses will be recorded live and broadcast to parishioners who will now be able to enjoy the holy service from the comfort of their own homes.
Think of the luxury! I mean, you could participate in Mass wrapped in a Snuggy! Or your underwear! Rumor has it the clergy have come up with some special 3D effects for the communion. Heck, why watch it live? Why not just record the Mass? This way you can fast-forward through the dull bits and tailor the service to your own liking.
But what about those who, for whatever strange reason, actually miss being physically present in church? Well have no fear, churches will still be open for private prayers - as long as fewer than . . . what? Twenty? Fifteen? Ten people show up at the same time? And as long as they stay at least a meter apart from each other.
I'm making light of this, but in reality it's no laughing matter. Regardless, these actions reveal some uncomfortable yet meaningful truths. As Bruce Charlton very perceptively pointed out on his blog yesterday, the Roman Catholic Church, together with nearly all other Christian churches, has essentially told Christians that they are on their own.
Extra ecclesiam nulla salus?
Sum howa I doubtimus it.
March 16, 2020
The Right Thing For The Wrong Reason
After I finished teaching what will likely end up being my last in-class lesson for the semester, I happened to bump into a familiar colleague - an economic history professor for whom I have completed some proofreading work in the past. Like most of the profs at my university, his research focuses primarily on climate change. Also like most of the profs at my university, it's hard to tell if he really believes the stuff he writes about or if he's only engages in the climate research out of necessity or expediency.
You see, nearly all the grant money my university receives from the EU is tied to climate change, which means nearly all the profs and researchers at my institution incorporate climate change into their research in some way. Most do so willingly and enthusiastically. Others make a compromise and let it slowly kill them inside. And the rest - well, it's hard to tell. My economic history colleague fell into this category for me. I never could tell if he was really onboard with the agenda or just playing along for the sake of a career.
He's younger than me, this economic history prof - mid-to-late thirties at most - and in my collaborations with him, I have found him to be a respectful and amicable fellow. We stopped to chat after we met just a short distance from the campus. It didn't take long for the birdemic shutdowns and cancellations to come up. I opined my displeasure with the whole situation, but generally kept my responses open and vague.
"I just don't get it," I told the prof. "I mean, these are extremely drastic measures to take for something like this. The way everyone is responding, you would think the virus is a million times more dangerous than it actually is."
"Yeah, I agree," the prof responded matter-of-factly. "This isn't a dangerous situation at all, yet they've shut down the world. It infuriates me to no end. If they can shut down the world for this stupidity, it means they could have shut down the world much sooner to fight the only real danger we're facing - climate change!"
I pretended to notice something out of the corner of my eye and looked away for a second. I had to. I just couldn't keep looking at him. I just couldn't.
"But they haven't. Not for climate change anyway," he continued sadly. "Their excuse? It would have hurt the economy. But they're more than willing to shut down the economy now! And for what? To save a few thousand people? Climate change is still there! That affects everyone. I hope they remember that once this virus disappears. What they're doing now is right, but it's for all the wrong reasons."
I nodded my head, muttered something about never having thought of that before, and made an excuse to end the conversation. I offered my hand to the prof in parting. He hesitated and looked at my outstretched hand for a second. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was thinking about germs. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally indulged me with a limp handshake. As I turned to leave, I pictured him rummaging through his backpack for hand sanitizer after I was out of his view.
I pondered his words as I turned the corner. "The right thing for the wrong reason."
People have a way of revealing themselves during a crisis. They really do.
Let's face it, many people not only desire totalitarianism - they positively crave it. The whole episode got me thinking about how we really are at 'the point' now.
Our civilization has toppled over the edge. They'll be no return to anything at the collective level. Something has definitely ended - something else has begun.
In my mind, the world is now officially an open-air concentration camp. The only changes we'll notice from here on in is an increasing sense of physical constriction and suffocation as the Establishment tightens the boundaries it has constructed around us through what will likely become a never-ending cascade of crises that can only be ended by doing the 'right' things.
Our only moral imperative in such a world will be to engage in all the 'wrong' things for the right reasons.
And these 'wrong' things will have to be primarily spiritual in nature.
You see, nearly all the grant money my university receives from the EU is tied to climate change, which means nearly all the profs and researchers at my institution incorporate climate change into their research in some way. Most do so willingly and enthusiastically. Others make a compromise and let it slowly kill them inside. And the rest - well, it's hard to tell. My economic history colleague fell into this category for me. I never could tell if he was really onboard with the agenda or just playing along for the sake of a career.
He's younger than me, this economic history prof - mid-to-late thirties at most - and in my collaborations with him, I have found him to be a respectful and amicable fellow. We stopped to chat after we met just a short distance from the campus. It didn't take long for the birdemic shutdowns and cancellations to come up. I opined my displeasure with the whole situation, but generally kept my responses open and vague.
"I just don't get it," I told the prof. "I mean, these are extremely drastic measures to take for something like this. The way everyone is responding, you would think the virus is a million times more dangerous than it actually is."
"Yeah, I agree," the prof responded matter-of-factly. "This isn't a dangerous situation at all, yet they've shut down the world. It infuriates me to no end. If they can shut down the world for this stupidity, it means they could have shut down the world much sooner to fight the only real danger we're facing - climate change!"
I pretended to notice something out of the corner of my eye and looked away for a second. I had to. I just couldn't keep looking at him. I just couldn't.
"But they haven't. Not for climate change anyway," he continued sadly. "Their excuse? It would have hurt the economy. But they're more than willing to shut down the economy now! And for what? To save a few thousand people? Climate change is still there! That affects everyone. I hope they remember that once this virus disappears. What they're doing now is right, but it's for all the wrong reasons."
I nodded my head, muttered something about never having thought of that before, and made an excuse to end the conversation. I offered my hand to the prof in parting. He hesitated and looked at my outstretched hand for a second. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was thinking about germs. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally indulged me with a limp handshake. As I turned to leave, I pictured him rummaging through his backpack for hand sanitizer after I was out of his view.
I pondered his words as I turned the corner. "The right thing for the wrong reason."
People have a way of revealing themselves during a crisis. They really do.
Let's face it, many people not only desire totalitarianism - they positively crave it. The whole episode got me thinking about how we really are at 'the point' now.
Our civilization has toppled over the edge. They'll be no return to anything at the collective level. Something has definitely ended - something else has begun.
In my mind, the world is now officially an open-air concentration camp. The only changes we'll notice from here on in is an increasing sense of physical constriction and suffocation as the Establishment tightens the boundaries it has constructed around us through what will likely become a never-ending cascade of crises that can only be ended by doing the 'right' things.
Our only moral imperative in such a world will be to engage in all the 'wrong' things for the right reasons.
And these 'wrong' things will have to be primarily spiritual in nature.
My Eight-Year-Old Begins Dipping Into Philosophy and Semantics
Son: Do you think a cat's meow is a nice sound?
Me: Sure. Most of the time.
Son: Yeah, I think its nice, too, but what if the cat is actually saying something not nice?
Me: What do you mean?
Son: Well, we hear a meow and we think it sounds nice, but maybe when a cat meows, it's actually saying something "Aaaarghhhhh!"
Me: Sure. Most of the time.
Son: Yeah, I think its nice, too, but what if the cat is actually saying something not nice?
Me: What do you mean?
Son: Well, we hear a meow and we think it sounds nice, but maybe when a cat meows, it's actually saying something "Aaaarghhhhh!"
