Francis Berger's Blog, page 51
February 10, 2023
Because They Have Become Useless
Behold the peck "immunity certificate" the Hungarian government handed out to all of its pecked citizens at the height of the birdemic.Yeah, you read that right -- "immunity" certificate.
For a while the government strongly implied that all Hungarians would require one of these in order to conduct their day-to-day lives.
For a while Hungarians did need one of these if they wanted to travel by plane, or visit a hospital, or go to a restaurant, or attend certain public events.
For a while there were suggestions that the card would eventually be needed to for other things like attending school, using public transportation, and going grocery shopping.
Some "experts" went as far as to demand the creation of an apartheid society or the incarceration of people without "immunity certificates".
Fun times. Great people.
I never got the "immunity certificate". Those who did eventually realized that they were not really immune to anything.
Well, in its infinite wisdom and goodness, the Hungarian government has decided to bring an end to the era of the immunity certificate -- at least in Hungary:
According to Világgazdaság, the government will issue no more COVID immunity certificates because they have become useless.
Based on a new decree, owners can keep their immunity certificate and can access their EU digital COVID certificate via its QR code. People will also be able to access their digital COVID certificate with the help of different apps.
The Hungarian government refuses to state the obvious. These certificates did not become useless -- they were always useless, at least from the perspective of public health. Ah, but they were certainly useful for trying to establish a totalitarian bureaucracy, weren't they?
Shame that didn't work out, but I'm sure they're not done trying, particularly since the fine folks at the EU continue to push the whole digital ID thing. Too bad about all the destruction in the meantime though.
One more thing -- revocation is not repentance. In fact, it doesn't even qualify as an apology.
Just throwing that out there.
February 9, 2023
Slaves Well Before They Became Slaves
When we think of slavery (or servility or subservience or self-abasement), we tend to conceptualize it as a purely external force exerting oppressive pressure on an otherwise free and resisting being.
Within this conceptualization, the free and resisting being only becomes a slave after force overpowers his freedom and resistance to oppression.
This force then smothers the free and resisting being into submission. Thus, slavery is the dominance of oppressive force over a conquered but otherwise innately free being.
This is all fine and well to a certain degree, but it limits slavery to an external imposition, thereby neglecting the reality that most forms of external slavery first arise deep within man himself -- that the exterior slavery man experiences is, more often than not, a form of slavery man has created for himself within his interior being.
Some slavery can be purely external, but most of the slavery we see around us today is the product of consciousness.
This tends to get lost in the mix because the only slavery we perceive and experience as slavery is that which manifests and plays out in the external world.
The external world certainly has the power and force to enslave, but this power is nothing compared to the internal power of man to enslave himself via consciousness.
Hence, our go-to conceptualization of slavery is sorely misguided because it casually ignores the reality of a purely external force exerting oppressive pressure on a servile and consenting being.
Within this conceptualization, the servile and consenting being was a slave long before he ever encountered the external oppressive force.
Such a being does not need to be overpowered or smothered because he was submissive long before the external power appeared. Such a being welcomes the external force and regards it as a liberator.
Thus, the appearance of an oppressive external power does little more than draw out the servile consciousness of such a being and renders it tangible and perceptible to those who are still able to discern between what constitutes a free and resisting being and what does not.
Within this conceptualization, the free and resisting being only becomes a slave after force overpowers his freedom and resistance to oppression.
This force then smothers the free and resisting being into submission. Thus, slavery is the dominance of oppressive force over a conquered but otherwise innately free being.
This is all fine and well to a certain degree, but it limits slavery to an external imposition, thereby neglecting the reality that most forms of external slavery first arise deep within man himself -- that the exterior slavery man experiences is, more often than not, a form of slavery man has created for himself within his interior being.
Some slavery can be purely external, but most of the slavery we see around us today is the product of consciousness.
This tends to get lost in the mix because the only slavery we perceive and experience as slavery is that which manifests and plays out in the external world.
The external world certainly has the power and force to enslave, but this power is nothing compared to the internal power of man to enslave himself via consciousness.
Hence, our go-to conceptualization of slavery is sorely misguided because it casually ignores the reality of a purely external force exerting oppressive pressure on a servile and consenting being.
Within this conceptualization, the servile and consenting being was a slave long before he ever encountered the external oppressive force.
Such a being does not need to be overpowered or smothered because he was submissive long before the external power appeared. Such a being welcomes the external force and regards it as a liberator.
Thus, the appearance of an oppressive external power does little more than draw out the servile consciousness of such a being and renders it tangible and perceptible to those who are still able to discern between what constitutes a free and resisting being and what does not.
February 8, 2023
On the Hill Top
On the Hill Top - Károly Ferenczy - 1901
February 6, 2023
There is No "Globo-Only" Option; Even if There Was, It Would Be Spiritually Unviable
Conservative and/or Christian bloggers and writers often cite Hungary’s government as the epitome of traditional values, common sense, anti-wokeness, and “sticking it to the globalists.”
I get where they’re coming from. When I moved to Hungary seven years ago, I was singularly impressed by the seeming candidness of Viktor Orbán’s apparent illiberal politics and Christian-national policies, particularly when juxtaposed to the converged governments of the Anglo countries in which I had spent the majority of my life.
Unlike their conservative/right-wing counterparts in other parts of the West, Orbán et al. not only talked the talk, but they also seemed willing to walk the walk. For example, the leaders of most Europe countries responded to the 2015 migrant crisis by asking their citizens to rush to train stations and bus terminals and welcome the mostly 18-35-year-old male “refugees” from the Middle East and North Africa with hugs, balloons, and stuffed animals. Orbán et al. went in the other direction and worked to install a 320-kilometer fence to stem the migrant tide pouring in from the southern border.
Having been in the country for only a few months when this transpired, I must confess that I was dazzled by Orbán’s common sense response to a manufactured globalist crisis. I was even more dazzled by the Hungarian government’s staunch and unwavering defense of the fence after the EU and its globalist-puppet governments began attacking Hungary with their usual arsenal of human rights concerns, Nazi accusations, and fascist labeling. Hungary returned fire by turning on the EU and going against George Soros-funded NGOs.
To put this in perspective, this was at about the same time as the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom and Trump’s election in the United States. A palpable pushback against globalism was in the air; for a few years, it appeared the anti-globalist political forces might succeed in putting a halt to the increasingly unbearable and suicidal global machinations flooding the West. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. The political pushback that had picked up momentum during the migrant crisis fizzled when the birdemic erupted onto the scene in late 2019.
Shortly before the 2020 global totalitarian coup, I thought about what had gone wrong. Why had Brexit, Trump, and Orbán’s anti-EU stance all flopped? It did not take me long to realize that a part of the problem seemed to lie in the inability or unwillingness of nations and their leaders to spiritually extract themselves from the globo component of what some right-wing and Christian bloggers and writers pejoratively refer to as the “globohomo” political paradigm. I usually avoid the term in my posts but refer to it here, mostly for illustrative purposes.
If I am not mistaken, globohomo is the official abbreviation for “global homogenization”, but said right-wing and Christian bloggers extended the connotations to refer to the social/sexual engineering globalist forces pushed upon populations via the continuation of the sexual revolution.
Anyway, within the globohomo conceptualization, the globo half of the political model refers to globalist agenda items that have to do with finance, economics, trade, law, business, the environment, and so forth.
The homo half touches upon agenda items like the assault against traditional families, the promotion of homosexuality, feminism, abortion, and the trans agenda. I suppose you could expand the homo part to anything on the human side of the equation and include other agenda issues like anti-racism, anti-whiteness, mass migration, equality, equity, diversity, inclusion, and so forth.
To return to the point I was beginning to make, conservative, anti-globalist forces seem capable of putting up rather fierce resistance to some or all of the globalist agenda items on the one side of the globohomo manifesto, but are lukewarm when it comes items to the other side of the agenda.
For instance, I may be wrong, but I perceived Brexit mainly as a reaction against the globo side. Though concerns over homo agenda items certainly played a part – mass immigration being one of them -- the Brexit movement seemed more focused on the practical side of getting the UK out of the EU financially and politically.
The same applies to Trump and his “drain the swamp” rhetoric and promise of making America great again. Though he spoke of building walls and bringing industrial jobs back from China and elsewhere, he tended to avoid topics like rolling back gay rights, the trans agenda, or other sexual-social issues.
Orbán’s government in Hungary takes the opposite approach. Though nationalistic and pugilistic in its rhetoric, the Hungarian government barely makes any waves about remaining in the EU, receiving EU funds, or allowing global corporations to set up shop in Hungary so that they may exploit the intentionally low wages of the Hungarian workforce. Orbán et al.’s only apparent beefs with the EU and globalism rest predominately on the homo side of the agenda.
The Hungarian government is happy to comply with the globalist agenda as long as the homo aspects remain off the table. Case in point, the Hungarian government has frequently criticized and passed resolutions against the trans agenda, but is perfectly willing to comply when it comes to things like the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, global climate targets, green energy, smart cities, and every other imaginable non-homo agenda item.
Many rightists and Christians tend to dismiss such political concessions as meaningless. Others are quick to rationalize them away as examples of pragmatism, realism, strategizing, or just plain “playing politics”. The underlying belief seems to be that the globo half of the agenda is not altogether evil or not all that spiritually significant and that concessions made on that half of the agenda are unavoidable in “the real world”.
The problem with this attitude and approach is that it refuses to recognize the globohomo agenda as entirely evil. Moreover, it sees the agenda as a list of bullet points rather than unified damnation campaign. Some bullet points need to be challenged and resisted; others, not so much. The hopeful among rightists and Christians go as far as to claim that the globohomo agenda can be rolled back and defeated if conservatives manage to seize control of the globo part of the program.
Rightists and Christians fail to realize that the globohomo agenda is a package deal. Despite appearances to the contrary, there is no “globo-only” option. Any political force than accepts the globo part of the agenda also accepts the homo part by default, and the demons behind the agenda will not rest until they have secured this totality. Regardless, they still win even if they fail to do so.
The ultimate evidence of this lies in Orbán’s groveling subservience to the 2020 global coup and its birdemic. The Hungarian government did not resist the “global-only” diktat of “none are safe until all are safe”. On the contrary, it relished the opportunity to impose measures, lockdowns, and terrorize the populace into receiving the peck.
To this day, it regards its actions during the birdemic as virtuous and inviolable. Dissenting voices are either ignored or silenced. Orbán and his government have expressed no regret for their deeds, nor have they given any indication that they have anything for which to repent.
From the demonic perspective, that qualifies as a mission accomplished.
Since the birdemic, Hungary has reverted to its pre-birdemic schtick of criticizing the homo aspects of globohomo while remaining mostly aligned with the globo points. The Globohomo Empire has responded to Hungary’s partial disloyalty by installing a gay, Jewish human rights lawyer in Budapest as America’s ambassador.
To drive home the point that “globo only” is not an option, the Empire ensured that the ambassador arrived to family-friendly, conservative, traditional Hungary with his “husband” and two children in tow. Since his arrival, the ambassador has done little more than remind Hungary about where its loyalties lie and express veiled threats about potential consequences should the country prove disloyal to the agenda as a whole.
Though I generally avoid politics on this blog, I have outlined the above to draw attention to a crucial point about the same sort of dynamic at the level of individual Christians.
At that level, the globohomo agenda is simply an umbrella term for what Dr. Charlton has called the Litmus Test Issues of Serious Christianity. If 2020 has revealed anything, it is this – all countries, governments, institutions, and organizations in the West are on board with the Litmus Tests.
Put another way, there isn’t a country, government, institution, or organization in the West that is not spiritually aligned with the globohomo agenda in some significant way. Unfortunately, this also includes all the mainstream Christian churches in the West.
The takeaway here is simple – individual Christians must assume responsibility for their faith, discernment, and decisions. Christians cannot trust or rely on external authorities to guide them, defend them, protect them, represent them, or “save them”.
Moreover, unlike so-called conservative and Christian politicians, individual Christians must recognize and understand the need to spiritually resist and reject the globohomo agenda in its entirety.
Christians cannot fall into the political trap of resisting and rejecting some agenda items while simultaneously embracing others. Nor can they regard this sort of “pick and choose” approach as spiritually coherent, tolerable, or acceptable.
You cannot profess to be a serious Christian if you claim to oppose gay marriage, the trans agenda, and mass migration but accept the climate emergency or the UN’s sustainable development goals.
You cannot profess to be a serious Christian if you have resisted all the Litmus Test issues but find nothing immoral about believing in the birdemic or willingly succumbing to the peck program.
The globohomo agenda/Litmus Test issues are a unified and indivisible demonic agenda. You cannot be against one part of the demonic agenda if you actively support another part. Globo only or homo only or one failed Litmus Test are not viable options because each accepted agenda item invites evil directly into the heart. Once evil has been invited in, it is only a matter of time before “globo only” becomes “globohomo”; it is only a matter of time before one failed Litmus Test becomes two or three or four.
Fail one Litmus Test, and you fail them all.
It is that simple.
Ideally, Litmus Tests are passed when we reject them forthrightly at every level of our being; however, individual circumstances may not allow for an external/material/worldly rejection of a Litmus Test/globohomo agenda item.
The most obvious example that springs to mind is Christians who took the peck to keep their jobs. It is not the action of taking the peck that defines whether one has failed the Litmus Test. What defines a failed Litmus Test is the individual’s spiritual attitude toward and understanding of the action.
If a Christian recognizes that the choice made is inherently against God and Creation and repents the choice, that Christian passes the Litmus Test regardless of his action.
On the other hand, if a Christian regards his choice as good – as a choice that is somehow, miraculously aligned with God and Creation, and then packages this attitude with all sorts of rationalizations and justifications, and then insists that he has nothing for which to repent, then that Christian has failed that Litmus Test.
Whether he admits it or not, he is firmly on board with the demonic globohomo agenda where it counts the most – in his heart and in his spirit. His vehement opposition to the remaining 99% of the agenda means very little if he refuses to repent that 1% agreement.
If you’ve signed up for globo, you’ve signed up for homo. Conversely, if you've signed up for homo, you've signed up for globo.
There is no globo-only or homo-only option in the demonic globohomo agenda at the political level. It’s a package deal. Take it or leave it.
The same applies at the individual spiritual level. The choice – the spiritual choice – is ours to make.
And every choice we make is ultimately a spiritual choice.
I get where they’re coming from. When I moved to Hungary seven years ago, I was singularly impressed by the seeming candidness of Viktor Orbán’s apparent illiberal politics and Christian-national policies, particularly when juxtaposed to the converged governments of the Anglo countries in which I had spent the majority of my life.
Unlike their conservative/right-wing counterparts in other parts of the West, Orbán et al. not only talked the talk, but they also seemed willing to walk the walk. For example, the leaders of most Europe countries responded to the 2015 migrant crisis by asking their citizens to rush to train stations and bus terminals and welcome the mostly 18-35-year-old male “refugees” from the Middle East and North Africa with hugs, balloons, and stuffed animals. Orbán et al. went in the other direction and worked to install a 320-kilometer fence to stem the migrant tide pouring in from the southern border.
Having been in the country for only a few months when this transpired, I must confess that I was dazzled by Orbán’s common sense response to a manufactured globalist crisis. I was even more dazzled by the Hungarian government’s staunch and unwavering defense of the fence after the EU and its globalist-puppet governments began attacking Hungary with their usual arsenal of human rights concerns, Nazi accusations, and fascist labeling. Hungary returned fire by turning on the EU and going against George Soros-funded NGOs.
To put this in perspective, this was at about the same time as the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom and Trump’s election in the United States. A palpable pushback against globalism was in the air; for a few years, it appeared the anti-globalist political forces might succeed in putting a halt to the increasingly unbearable and suicidal global machinations flooding the West. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. The political pushback that had picked up momentum during the migrant crisis fizzled when the birdemic erupted onto the scene in late 2019.
Shortly before the 2020 global totalitarian coup, I thought about what had gone wrong. Why had Brexit, Trump, and Orbán’s anti-EU stance all flopped? It did not take me long to realize that a part of the problem seemed to lie in the inability or unwillingness of nations and their leaders to spiritually extract themselves from the globo component of what some right-wing and Christian bloggers and writers pejoratively refer to as the “globohomo” political paradigm. I usually avoid the term in my posts but refer to it here, mostly for illustrative purposes.
If I am not mistaken, globohomo is the official abbreviation for “global homogenization”, but said right-wing and Christian bloggers extended the connotations to refer to the social/sexual engineering globalist forces pushed upon populations via the continuation of the sexual revolution.
Anyway, within the globohomo conceptualization, the globo half of the political model refers to globalist agenda items that have to do with finance, economics, trade, law, business, the environment, and so forth.
The homo half touches upon agenda items like the assault against traditional families, the promotion of homosexuality, feminism, abortion, and the trans agenda. I suppose you could expand the homo part to anything on the human side of the equation and include other agenda issues like anti-racism, anti-whiteness, mass migration, equality, equity, diversity, inclusion, and so forth.
To return to the point I was beginning to make, conservative, anti-globalist forces seem capable of putting up rather fierce resistance to some or all of the globalist agenda items on the one side of the globohomo manifesto, but are lukewarm when it comes items to the other side of the agenda.
For instance, I may be wrong, but I perceived Brexit mainly as a reaction against the globo side. Though concerns over homo agenda items certainly played a part – mass immigration being one of them -- the Brexit movement seemed more focused on the practical side of getting the UK out of the EU financially and politically.
The same applies to Trump and his “drain the swamp” rhetoric and promise of making America great again. Though he spoke of building walls and bringing industrial jobs back from China and elsewhere, he tended to avoid topics like rolling back gay rights, the trans agenda, or other sexual-social issues.
Orbán’s government in Hungary takes the opposite approach. Though nationalistic and pugilistic in its rhetoric, the Hungarian government barely makes any waves about remaining in the EU, receiving EU funds, or allowing global corporations to set up shop in Hungary so that they may exploit the intentionally low wages of the Hungarian workforce. Orbán et al.’s only apparent beefs with the EU and globalism rest predominately on the homo side of the agenda.
The Hungarian government is happy to comply with the globalist agenda as long as the homo aspects remain off the table. Case in point, the Hungarian government has frequently criticized and passed resolutions against the trans agenda, but is perfectly willing to comply when it comes to things like the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, global climate targets, green energy, smart cities, and every other imaginable non-homo agenda item.
Many rightists and Christians tend to dismiss such political concessions as meaningless. Others are quick to rationalize them away as examples of pragmatism, realism, strategizing, or just plain “playing politics”. The underlying belief seems to be that the globo half of the agenda is not altogether evil or not all that spiritually significant and that concessions made on that half of the agenda are unavoidable in “the real world”.
The problem with this attitude and approach is that it refuses to recognize the globohomo agenda as entirely evil. Moreover, it sees the agenda as a list of bullet points rather than unified damnation campaign. Some bullet points need to be challenged and resisted; others, not so much. The hopeful among rightists and Christians go as far as to claim that the globohomo agenda can be rolled back and defeated if conservatives manage to seize control of the globo part of the program.
Rightists and Christians fail to realize that the globohomo agenda is a package deal. Despite appearances to the contrary, there is no “globo-only” option. Any political force than accepts the globo part of the agenda also accepts the homo part by default, and the demons behind the agenda will not rest until they have secured this totality. Regardless, they still win even if they fail to do so.
The ultimate evidence of this lies in Orbán’s groveling subservience to the 2020 global coup and its birdemic. The Hungarian government did not resist the “global-only” diktat of “none are safe until all are safe”. On the contrary, it relished the opportunity to impose measures, lockdowns, and terrorize the populace into receiving the peck.
To this day, it regards its actions during the birdemic as virtuous and inviolable. Dissenting voices are either ignored or silenced. Orbán and his government have expressed no regret for their deeds, nor have they given any indication that they have anything for which to repent.
From the demonic perspective, that qualifies as a mission accomplished.
Since the birdemic, Hungary has reverted to its pre-birdemic schtick of criticizing the homo aspects of globohomo while remaining mostly aligned with the globo points. The Globohomo Empire has responded to Hungary’s partial disloyalty by installing a gay, Jewish human rights lawyer in Budapest as America’s ambassador.
To drive home the point that “globo only” is not an option, the Empire ensured that the ambassador arrived to family-friendly, conservative, traditional Hungary with his “husband” and two children in tow. Since his arrival, the ambassador has done little more than remind Hungary about where its loyalties lie and express veiled threats about potential consequences should the country prove disloyal to the agenda as a whole.
Though I generally avoid politics on this blog, I have outlined the above to draw attention to a crucial point about the same sort of dynamic at the level of individual Christians.
At that level, the globohomo agenda is simply an umbrella term for what Dr. Charlton has called the Litmus Test Issues of Serious Christianity. If 2020 has revealed anything, it is this – all countries, governments, institutions, and organizations in the West are on board with the Litmus Tests.
Put another way, there isn’t a country, government, institution, or organization in the West that is not spiritually aligned with the globohomo agenda in some significant way. Unfortunately, this also includes all the mainstream Christian churches in the West.
The takeaway here is simple – individual Christians must assume responsibility for their faith, discernment, and decisions. Christians cannot trust or rely on external authorities to guide them, defend them, protect them, represent them, or “save them”.
Moreover, unlike so-called conservative and Christian politicians, individual Christians must recognize and understand the need to spiritually resist and reject the globohomo agenda in its entirety.
Christians cannot fall into the political trap of resisting and rejecting some agenda items while simultaneously embracing others. Nor can they regard this sort of “pick and choose” approach as spiritually coherent, tolerable, or acceptable.
You cannot profess to be a serious Christian if you claim to oppose gay marriage, the trans agenda, and mass migration but accept the climate emergency or the UN’s sustainable development goals.
You cannot profess to be a serious Christian if you have resisted all the Litmus Test issues but find nothing immoral about believing in the birdemic or willingly succumbing to the peck program.
The globohomo agenda/Litmus Test issues are a unified and indivisible demonic agenda. You cannot be against one part of the demonic agenda if you actively support another part. Globo only or homo only or one failed Litmus Test are not viable options because each accepted agenda item invites evil directly into the heart. Once evil has been invited in, it is only a matter of time before “globo only” becomes “globohomo”; it is only a matter of time before one failed Litmus Test becomes two or three or four.
Fail one Litmus Test, and you fail them all.
It is that simple.
Ideally, Litmus Tests are passed when we reject them forthrightly at every level of our being; however, individual circumstances may not allow for an external/material/worldly rejection of a Litmus Test/globohomo agenda item.
The most obvious example that springs to mind is Christians who took the peck to keep their jobs. It is not the action of taking the peck that defines whether one has failed the Litmus Test. What defines a failed Litmus Test is the individual’s spiritual attitude toward and understanding of the action.
If a Christian recognizes that the choice made is inherently against God and Creation and repents the choice, that Christian passes the Litmus Test regardless of his action.
On the other hand, if a Christian regards his choice as good – as a choice that is somehow, miraculously aligned with God and Creation, and then packages this attitude with all sorts of rationalizations and justifications, and then insists that he has nothing for which to repent, then that Christian has failed that Litmus Test.
Whether he admits it or not, he is firmly on board with the demonic globohomo agenda where it counts the most – in his heart and in his spirit. His vehement opposition to the remaining 99% of the agenda means very little if he refuses to repent that 1% agreement.
If you’ve signed up for globo, you’ve signed up for homo. Conversely, if you've signed up for homo, you've signed up for globo.
There is no globo-only or homo-only option in the demonic globohomo agenda at the political level. It’s a package deal. Take it or leave it.
The same applies at the individual spiritual level. The choice – the spiritual choice – is ours to make.
And every choice we make is ultimately a spiritual choice.
February 5, 2023
Mednyánszky - Memento: Scene of Horror
I appreciate László Mednyánsky mostly for his landscapes and quality of light, but the Wandering Baron also has a knack for capturing mood in his other pieces, such as in this rough oil-on-board study called Memento: Scene of Horror.
In my humble opinion, "The Psychological and Spiritual State of Contemporary Man" would have been a more fitting title.
In my humble opinion, "The Psychological and Spiritual State of Contemporary Man" would have been a more fitting title.
February 4, 2023
Be Wary of Media Acknowledgments, Confessions, Reversals, and Rollbacks
I think it is safe to say that the
none are safe until all are safe
global totalitarian technocracy the Ahrimanics wanted to install after their successful but ultimately short-lived 2020 global coup has fallen well short of its declared expectations and objectives.
At the same, the increasing noise about the end of Davos Man and the ultimate defeat of the Ahrimanic bureaucratic model strikes me as overhasty and premature, particularly in the West where the Ahrimanics are still in power and still pull the strings, albeit with far less cohesion and increasing chaos and destruction.
Moreover, though the awareness of and resistance to the 2020 global coup and its agenda has increased in the general population over the past three years, it is extremely hyperbolic to claim that the West is experiencing or undergoing a mass awakening or some such thing.
An authentic mass awakening would have to begin at the individual level first, and the source of the awakening would have to emanate from within the hearts of individuals before it could be externally perceptible or knowable on a mass scale.
What might an authentic mass awakening look like? Picture the mass of humanity as a sea of unlit candles. Then imagine the candles coming to life, one by one as an inner spark lights the wick. At first, it would only be a few disparate flames flickering here and there. Over time, more candles would ignite; then, one day, in place of darkness, you would see a tranquil ocean of light pushing against the darkness.
An authentic mass awakening requires the candles to light themselves with the aid and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This process most definitely starts internally before it is ever perceptible externally. Also, because it is an internal process happening first at the level of individuals, it does not rely upon externals for momentum, sustenance, or validation.
Awakening implies a new state of being that leaves a former state of being behind, not the externally-imposed alteration of a current state of masquerading as a new state of being.
As mentioned above, authentic awakening requires the candles to light themselves. Inauthentic externally-imposed awakening provides that illusion. At the very least, such an awakening makes it seem as if the candles were lit by something from the outside, but in actuality, no candles light up during inauthentic mass awakenings. Everything remains dark.
Inauthentic mass awakenings provide no inner or outer spark with which to ignite a flame. What externally-induced mass awakenings provide instead is heat. A relentless, blasting heat that melts the candles instead of lighting them. The end goal of all faux mass awakenings is a massive, formless pool of cooling and congealing wax that can never again provide light of any kind.
The supposed mass awakening I see around me now is little more than that external heat melting the candles. It depends almost entirely on external sources, most notably the media and its sudden need to confess, acknowledge, reverse, and roll back “apparent” lies, mistakes, errors, fallacies, lapses, omissions, missteps, and misapplications.
All externally-induced mass awakenings are demonic operations aiming at damnation. As such, they demand spiritual vigilance and discernment.
For example, the acknowledgment that the “safe and effective” peck may not be as “safe and effective” as previously promoted has the potential to serve many negative spiritual aims. On the one hand, it can activate rage, despondency, or despair in the pecked. On the other hand, it can also generate contemptuousness, hubris, and abusiveness in the unpecked.
The same applies to all other media communication that supposedly seeks to redress or rectify the events that have transpired since 2020.
To sum up, any mass awakening the media produces or reports upon is not a mass awakening; it is simply the continuation of a campaign aiming for mass damnation.
At the same, the increasing noise about the end of Davos Man and the ultimate defeat of the Ahrimanic bureaucratic model strikes me as overhasty and premature, particularly in the West where the Ahrimanics are still in power and still pull the strings, albeit with far less cohesion and increasing chaos and destruction.
Moreover, though the awareness of and resistance to the 2020 global coup and its agenda has increased in the general population over the past three years, it is extremely hyperbolic to claim that the West is experiencing or undergoing a mass awakening or some such thing.
An authentic mass awakening would have to begin at the individual level first, and the source of the awakening would have to emanate from within the hearts of individuals before it could be externally perceptible or knowable on a mass scale.
What might an authentic mass awakening look like? Picture the mass of humanity as a sea of unlit candles. Then imagine the candles coming to life, one by one as an inner spark lights the wick. At first, it would only be a few disparate flames flickering here and there. Over time, more candles would ignite; then, one day, in place of darkness, you would see a tranquil ocean of light pushing against the darkness.
An authentic mass awakening requires the candles to light themselves with the aid and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This process most definitely starts internally before it is ever perceptible externally. Also, because it is an internal process happening first at the level of individuals, it does not rely upon externals for momentum, sustenance, or validation.
Awakening implies a new state of being that leaves a former state of being behind, not the externally-imposed alteration of a current state of masquerading as a new state of being.
As mentioned above, authentic awakening requires the candles to light themselves. Inauthentic externally-imposed awakening provides that illusion. At the very least, such an awakening makes it seem as if the candles were lit by something from the outside, but in actuality, no candles light up during inauthentic mass awakenings. Everything remains dark.
Inauthentic mass awakenings provide no inner or outer spark with which to ignite a flame. What externally-induced mass awakenings provide instead is heat. A relentless, blasting heat that melts the candles instead of lighting them. The end goal of all faux mass awakenings is a massive, formless pool of cooling and congealing wax that can never again provide light of any kind.
The supposed mass awakening I see around me now is little more than that external heat melting the candles. It depends almost entirely on external sources, most notably the media and its sudden need to confess, acknowledge, reverse, and roll back “apparent” lies, mistakes, errors, fallacies, lapses, omissions, missteps, and misapplications.
All externally-induced mass awakenings are demonic operations aiming at damnation. As such, they demand spiritual vigilance and discernment.
For example, the acknowledgment that the “safe and effective” peck may not be as “safe and effective” as previously promoted has the potential to serve many negative spiritual aims. On the one hand, it can activate rage, despondency, or despair in the pecked. On the other hand, it can also generate contemptuousness, hubris, and abusiveness in the unpecked.
The same applies to all other media communication that supposedly seeks to redress or rectify the events that have transpired since 2020.
To sum up, any mass awakening the media produces or reports upon is not a mass awakening; it is simply the continuation of a campaign aiming for mass damnation.
February 3, 2023
The Un-Listened Voice and Silent Knowing
There are many types and levels of thinking, but I imagine for most people, thinking is listening to a voice. I suppose everyone has at least one thinking voice.
I suspect most thinking voices are dull and dry. Monotone drones; no beginning or end. Coming from somewhere, going nowhere. Endless round-and-rounds. Too oblivious of the mark to pretend to miss it. Or maybe stones skipping perpetually on glassy water, for-ever skimming the surface . . . never penetrating.
Never sinking. Capable of surface, incapable of depth.
But most find even this superficial murmuring unbearable. Better to dissolve the drone in a kaleidoscopic cacophony of unthinking and let the graceless voices lull and tug until nothing remains but the sound of their lulling and tugging.
Much in-between, I'm sure, but even there it is voices – whispering, cajoling, threatening, enticing, obliterating – and it is to these voices that people have listened. It is these voices, people have followed. They are the voices that have brought nearly everyone to where they are now.
Yet somewhere within that vocal whirlpool sucking everyone into nowhere is a voice not listened. Not unheard, but not listened. Un-listened to.
A discernible, audible, distinct, and recognizable thinking voice -- shunned, ignored, exiled, cast aside. The drone and the cacophony have brought people to where they are. Where might they be if they had listened to the un-listened voice?
Chances are they would not be where they are. Chances are they would be in another place entirely. Chances are they would catch snippets of themselves – their true selves.
Chances are they would learn to think; and when they had learned to think well enough, the voice would fade into a silent knowing much louder than any thinking voice could ever be.
I suspect most thinking voices are dull and dry. Monotone drones; no beginning or end. Coming from somewhere, going nowhere. Endless round-and-rounds. Too oblivious of the mark to pretend to miss it. Or maybe stones skipping perpetually on glassy water, for-ever skimming the surface . . . never penetrating.
Never sinking. Capable of surface, incapable of depth.
But most find even this superficial murmuring unbearable. Better to dissolve the drone in a kaleidoscopic cacophony of unthinking and let the graceless voices lull and tug until nothing remains but the sound of their lulling and tugging.
Much in-between, I'm sure, but even there it is voices – whispering, cajoling, threatening, enticing, obliterating – and it is to these voices that people have listened. It is these voices, people have followed. They are the voices that have brought nearly everyone to where they are now.
Yet somewhere within that vocal whirlpool sucking everyone into nowhere is a voice not listened. Not unheard, but not listened. Un-listened to.
A discernible, audible, distinct, and recognizable thinking voice -- shunned, ignored, exiled, cast aside. The drone and the cacophony have brought people to where they are. Where might they be if they had listened to the un-listened voice?
Chances are they would not be where they are. Chances are they would be in another place entirely. Chances are they would catch snippets of themselves – their true selves.
Chances are they would learn to think; and when they had learned to think well enough, the voice would fade into a silent knowing much louder than any thinking voice could ever be.
February 2, 2023
A Little Music to Support the War Effort
Russian guitar music? I had no idea such a thing existed. Very new territory for me. And quite pleasing.
February 1, 2023
Most Recent New World Island Audio Posts
New audio recordings of blog posts from Romantic Christian blogs are now up at New World Island's YouTube channel (see sidebar or link below).
The Fire - Cormac McCarthy's Faint Vision of Hope in the Sorath-Eclipsed World of "The Road"
Post-apocalyptic novels have become a genre all to themselves, but few capture the desolate aftermath of Sorathic destruction as hauntingly and oppressively as Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which some have described as one of the bleakest and most agonizing novels ever written.Set in the wake of an unspecified apocalypse – most likely a nuclear war, even though the film adaptation of the novel widened the scope to include the trendy warnings of climate-induced catastrophe – The Road tells the stark story of a man and his son desperately struggling to stay alive and reach some unknown destination in a world in which there is essentially nowhere to go and fundamentally nothing left to live for.
McCarthy is a strange writer; a breed all to himself. Dark poetic flourishes that shrivel into the unpoetic beauty lace the foundation of his terse and Hemingwayesque style. Thematically, he stands within that small, select group of storytellers that recognizes and understands the devastating evil that is Sorathic destruction. In his other novels, McCarthy confines Sorath to senseless, savage upsurges that erupt onto the façade of real-world tranquility like volcanic explosions; in The Road, McCarthy gives destruction free reign over God and Creation, depicting a world in which Sorath reigns triumphant:
It took two days to cross that ashen scabland. The road beyond ran along the crest of the ridge where the barren woodland fell away on every side. It’s snowing, the boy said. He looked at the sky. A single gray flake sifting down. He caught it in his hand and watched it expire there like the last host of christendom.
On the surface, The Road is a story of physical survival – a narrative focused on the instinct to stay alive in a world where there is nothing for which to live. Beneath the surface, McCarthy’s post-Armageddon tale explores the apparent impossibility of remaining spiritually aligned with God and Creation when both God and Creation appear to be no more.
The central motif that attests to this spiritual theme is “the fire”. Invisible and only referred to, the fire becomes the sole motivation and hope through which the story and its characters cling to meaning. At the most obvious level, the fire represents the love between the man and his son – one of the only examples of human love left in the world.
The man and the boy both guard the fire as they stumble ceaselessly through senseless landscapes of death and despair. They remind each other that they are “carrying the fire” and use this designation to distinguish themselves from the bad guys who -- to paraphrase a line from Charles Bukowski’s Dinosauria, We -- are radiated men eating the flesh of other radiated men.
There are certain boundaries the man will not cross as he struggles to keep his son alive in the ravaged world of The Road, yet his focused love and fixation often reduce his behavior to the animal level of ruthless survival. Here McCarthy utilizes the boy and transforms him into the barely audible whisperings of God – survival, yes, but not at any cost.
Within the borders of this dark world gone to hell, the fire the boy safeguards glows like a muted beacon, a soft reminder of the reality of life beyond survival. A soft reminder that Sorath’s destruction can only be countered by love and creativity, and that as long as these exist, God exists, as does Creation.
