Francis Berger's Blog, page 78
January 28, 2022
Stupidity: It's The Other Way Around Today
The lights are on, but no one's home.
This expression -- meant to denote someone's stupidity -- was ubiquitous when I lived in the Anglo-world. I imagine it still is today. However, I don't think it really applies anymore. In fact, I think the inverted form of this expression represents the current state of the world far more accurately:
Someone's home, but the lights are out.
Or, more even accurately:
Everyone's home and the light is on, but nearly everyone has blinded themselves to it.
This expression -- meant to denote someone's stupidity -- was ubiquitous when I lived in the Anglo-world. I imagine it still is today. However, I don't think it really applies anymore. In fact, I think the inverted form of this expression represents the current state of the world far more accurately:
Someone's home, but the lights are out.
Or, more even accurately:
Everyone's home and the light is on, but nearly everyone has blinded themselves to it.
January 27, 2022
Nikolai Berdyaev: The Other Reason For My Profound Respect
Readers of this blog are probably aware of my deep respect for the Russian Christian philosopher, Nikolai Berdyaev -- specifically for his ideas on freedom, objectification, personality, creativity, and the further development of Christianity.
Though I often explore Berdyaev's ideas and themes on this blog, I don't profess to be a Berdyaev expert. In fact, I'm certain that I don't really "get" many of Berdyaev's ideas. All the same, most of his work resonates with me -- some of it quite deeply.
Having said that, my respect for Berdyaev extends past his philosophy and goes all the way to the man himself. He spent most of his life concentrating on Christianity, but unlike so many others who do the same, Berdyaev was one of those rare souls who actually practiced what he preached when it mattered most.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn refers to Nikolai Berdyaev a few times in The Gulag Archipelago. The philosopher's name first appears in the second chapter of Gulag in which Solzhenitsyn painstakingly outlines how the secret police went about rounding up suspected enemies and counterrevolutionaries in the early 1920s. Appropriately enough, Solzhenitsyn called this harrowing chapter The History of Our Sewage System, and in the opening pages of this chapter he devotes some time to the arrests and persecutions of religious figures (bold added):
Men of religion were an inevitable part of every annual "catch", and their silver locks gleamed in every cell and in every prisoner transport en route to the Solovetsky Islands.
From the early twenties on, arrests were also made among groups of theosophists, mystics, spiritualists. (Count Palen's group used to keep official transcripts of its communications with the spirit world.) Also, religious societies and philosophers of the Berdyaev circle. The so-called "Eastern Catholics" -- followers of Vladimir Solovyev-- were arrested and destroyed in passing, as was the group of A.J. Abrikosova. And, of course, ordinary Roman Catholics -- Polish Catholic priests, etc. -- were arrested, too, as part of the normal course of events.
Later, in Chapter Three -- The Interrogation -- Solzhenitsyn intensely explores the psychological and spiritual implications of being interrogated after arrest and succinctly illustrates the manner in which Nikolai Berdyaev dealt with interrogation after he was rounded up by the secret police:
So what is the answer? How can you stand your ground when you are weak and sensitive to pain, when people you love are still alive, when you are unprepared?
What do you need to make you stronger than the interrogator and the whole trap?
From the moment you go to prison you must put your cozy past firmly behind you. At the very threshold, you must say to yourself: "My life is over, a little early to be sure, but there's nothing to be done about it. I shall never return to freedom. I am condemned to die -- now or a little later. But later on, in truth, it will be even harder, and so the sooner the better. I no longer have any property whatsoever. For me those I love have died, and for them I have died. From today on, my body is useless and alien to me. Only my spirit and my conscience remain precious and important to me.
Confronted by such a prisoner, the interrogation will tremble.
Only the man who has renounced everything can win that victory.
But how can one turn one's body to stone?
Well, they managed to turn some individuals from the Berdyaev circle into puppets for a trial, but they didn't succeed with Berdyaev. They wanted to drag him into an open trial; they arrested him twice; and (in 1922) he was subjected to a night interrogation by Dzerzhinsky himself. Kamanev was there too (which means that he too was not averse to using the Checka in an ideological conflict). But Berdyaev did not humiliate himself. He did not beg or plead. He set forth firmly those religious and moral principles which had led him to refuse to accept the political authority established in Russia. And not only did they come to the conclusion that he would useless for a trial, but they liberated him.
A human being has a point of view!
Though I often explore Berdyaev's ideas and themes on this blog, I don't profess to be a Berdyaev expert. In fact, I'm certain that I don't really "get" many of Berdyaev's ideas. All the same, most of his work resonates with me -- some of it quite deeply.
Having said that, my respect for Berdyaev extends past his philosophy and goes all the way to the man himself. He spent most of his life concentrating on Christianity, but unlike so many others who do the same, Berdyaev was one of those rare souls who actually practiced what he preached when it mattered most.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn refers to Nikolai Berdyaev a few times in The Gulag Archipelago. The philosopher's name first appears in the second chapter of Gulag in which Solzhenitsyn painstakingly outlines how the secret police went about rounding up suspected enemies and counterrevolutionaries in the early 1920s. Appropriately enough, Solzhenitsyn called this harrowing chapter The History of Our Sewage System, and in the opening pages of this chapter he devotes some time to the arrests and persecutions of religious figures (bold added):
Men of religion were an inevitable part of every annual "catch", and their silver locks gleamed in every cell and in every prisoner transport en route to the Solovetsky Islands.
From the early twenties on, arrests were also made among groups of theosophists, mystics, spiritualists. (Count Palen's group used to keep official transcripts of its communications with the spirit world.) Also, religious societies and philosophers of the Berdyaev circle. The so-called "Eastern Catholics" -- followers of Vladimir Solovyev-- were arrested and destroyed in passing, as was the group of A.J. Abrikosova. And, of course, ordinary Roman Catholics -- Polish Catholic priests, etc. -- were arrested, too, as part of the normal course of events.
Later, in Chapter Three -- The Interrogation -- Solzhenitsyn intensely explores the psychological and spiritual implications of being interrogated after arrest and succinctly illustrates the manner in which Nikolai Berdyaev dealt with interrogation after he was rounded up by the secret police:
So what is the answer? How can you stand your ground when you are weak and sensitive to pain, when people you love are still alive, when you are unprepared?
What do you need to make you stronger than the interrogator and the whole trap?
From the moment you go to prison you must put your cozy past firmly behind you. At the very threshold, you must say to yourself: "My life is over, a little early to be sure, but there's nothing to be done about it. I shall never return to freedom. I am condemned to die -- now or a little later. But later on, in truth, it will be even harder, and so the sooner the better. I no longer have any property whatsoever. For me those I love have died, and for them I have died. From today on, my body is useless and alien to me. Only my spirit and my conscience remain precious and important to me.
Confronted by such a prisoner, the interrogation will tremble.
Only the man who has renounced everything can win that victory.
But how can one turn one's body to stone?
Well, they managed to turn some individuals from the Berdyaev circle into puppets for a trial, but they didn't succeed with Berdyaev. They wanted to drag him into an open trial; they arrested him twice; and (in 1922) he was subjected to a night interrogation by Dzerzhinsky himself. Kamanev was there too (which means that he too was not averse to using the Checka in an ideological conflict). But Berdyaev did not humiliate himself. He did not beg or plead. He set forth firmly those religious and moral principles which had led him to refuse to accept the political authority established in Russia. And not only did they come to the conclusion that he would useless for a trial, but they liberated him.
A human being has a point of view!
January 26, 2022
Human Dignity Alone Does Not Save a Human Being From Becoming a Thing
In a recent post titled Satan’s Scheme, Dr. Charlton noted the following:
Maybe the goal is to convince all people that they are things.
(Once that's done, the work of damnation has been achieved - and the rest is just Satan having fun.)
To do this by making the world on that treats all-of-reality as things - only things are really-real.
I believe that effectively and succinctly captures the essence of what could be referred to as the satanic agenda. Furthermore, I believe “convince” is the key word in Dr. Charlton’s observation. People are not really things, but if they can be convinced that they are in reality nothing more than things, then they will act like things and allow themselves to be treated as things.
On the surface, the satanic goal of convincing people that they are things appears to be an abysmal failure. If asked, I sense nearly all contemporary people would vehemently reject the idea that they are merely things and would instead insist on the reality that they are human beings. In other words, very few moderns appear open to the idea that they are just things.
Yet these same moderns also insist upon the un-reality of God, transcendence and the supernatural – which is all discarded as delusional supernaturalism – and choose instead to believe in life as nothing but the random, unguided, accidental, and self-existing evolutionary material “reality” of the natural world, of which they are an integral – but essentially inexplicable and fundamentally meaningless – component.
The problem with this humanistic life stance of being immersed solely in the unguided “flow” of the material, natural world is simple – it does diminish human beings to the level of things. Which immediately raises a question – How do modern people reconcile their rejection of being classified as “merely things” with their humanist, reductionist, positivist, leftist assumptions about their place in a reality that is nothing more than the flow and interaction of unguided things?
Well, primarily by clasping onto a progressive nontheistic worldview that keeps humanity firmly confined within the limits of the natural world yet somehow magically elevates humanity above the laws and forces of the natural world via “humanity”; more specifically, human reason, which strives “to be good without God” through the implementation and pursuit of ethical values informed by scientific knowledge. These scientifically informed values then give birth to the desire to defend civil liberties, establish secular governance based on justice, compassion, and equality as well as the motivation to affirm the dignity of every human being by ensuring their real needs, here and now.
It is the inherent belief in the dignity of every human being that appears to block people from thinking of themselves or other people as things, but this immediately reveals a contradiction. On the one hand, modern people have willingly accepted the belief that they are simply a part of a reality that fundamentally amounts to nothing more than the random unfolding of the natural world. On the other hand, modern people continue to assert that they possess some sort of dignified status within this unguided natural process.
I posit that the inherent dignity of every human being that modern people continue to insist upon is rooted in the divine world – the very world their opposing metaphysical assumptions conspire to deny. With this in mind, it is worth noting that the devil’s greatest tricks are the ones he manages to slip past people undetected. By convincing people that the dignity of human beings originates solely in the natural world rather than the “non-existent” divine world, Satan has shrewdly convinced to humanity to sidestep the spiritual issue of overcoming duality.
In reality, a human being is a bridge between two worlds – the natural world and the divine world, which together form the cosmos. These two worlds are not actually divided because everything in the material, natural world belongs to the world of the divine, but human nature falls into the trap of perceiving the two worlds as distinct from each other as a dualism of existence. A big part of human spiritual development entails uniting the two worlds within man, which can only be achieved through spiritual freedom and creativity. Uniting the two worlds allows for the possibility of a cosmic perspective – a true religious consciousness that experiences the two apparent worlds in their full extent as unified cosmos. But for this cosmic perspective to be born, the natural world must first be overcome.
Overcoming the natural world is not a rejection of it. On the contrary, overcoming the natural world entails redeeming it as part of the cosmos, which requires the recognition of human beings as both essential parts of the cosmos as well as little cosmos in and of themselves.
Overcoming the natural world, overcoming the apparent dualism of existence, and attaining a cosmic perspective are acts of spiritual integration through which the fear, suffering, violence, oppression, objectification, alienation, entropy, and evil of the natural world are transcended.
It is from this spiritual potential and responsibility that human beings derive their dignity. It is here that a human being knows himself to be more than a mere thing. However, a true understanding of this dignity requires a firm belief in God and Creation.
Satan’s scheme offers a faux solution to the dualism of existence. Instead of striving to unite two worlds within themselves as cosmos, people become convinced that cosmos cannot exist and that there is only one world – the monism of the natural, material world in which everything is just a thing. After this conviction settles into place, Satan diverts the call of the divine – which continues to appear in “natural” man as the need for “dignity” – by convincing people of the nobility of natural human-all-too-human-only-human humanity, which is somehow above the natural “thingness” of everything else.
This shift in consciousness locks human beings in the external, material, object world. Stripped of its spiritual aspects, the natural world quickly becomes the “given” world of pure externalities, which is a non-cosmic condition of atomization, alienation, and enmity. Stripped of their spiritual aspects, human beings begin to disintegrate rather than integrate. Instead of overcoming the natural world, man is consumed by it and, in short time, enslaved by it.
Having no foundation in cosmic transcendental values, humanity’s human-only-human values of dignity quickly deteriorate. They are subverted, perverted, and inverted and steadily degrade until they become anti-human values. When the spiritual reality of humanity is openly rejected, it is only a matter of time before the “natural” dignity of humanity is ceremoniously debased, devalued, and dehumanized until it becomes “just a thing” and, eventually, “no-thing”.
When people convince themselves that they are things, the spiritual beings they fundamentally are cannot have a genuine "human" experience in this mortal life. They lose the freedom needed to do what they have been incarnated to do. Instead of unifying the natural world and the divine world into the reality of the cosmos that is God and Creation, our divine selves are dragged down into a dehumanized experience of "thingness", which is at once a major obstacle to spiritual learning as well as a certain path to damnation.
Note added: I have drawn some of the ideas I have expressed here from Dr. Charlton's thoughts on cosmic perspective and Nikolai Berdyaev's ideas of creativity.
Maybe the goal is to convince all people that they are things.
(Once that's done, the work of damnation has been achieved - and the rest is just Satan having fun.)
To do this by making the world on that treats all-of-reality as things - only things are really-real.
I believe that effectively and succinctly captures the essence of what could be referred to as the satanic agenda. Furthermore, I believe “convince” is the key word in Dr. Charlton’s observation. People are not really things, but if they can be convinced that they are in reality nothing more than things, then they will act like things and allow themselves to be treated as things.
On the surface, the satanic goal of convincing people that they are things appears to be an abysmal failure. If asked, I sense nearly all contemporary people would vehemently reject the idea that they are merely things and would instead insist on the reality that they are human beings. In other words, very few moderns appear open to the idea that they are just things.
Yet these same moderns also insist upon the un-reality of God, transcendence and the supernatural – which is all discarded as delusional supernaturalism – and choose instead to believe in life as nothing but the random, unguided, accidental, and self-existing evolutionary material “reality” of the natural world, of which they are an integral – but essentially inexplicable and fundamentally meaningless – component.
The problem with this humanistic life stance of being immersed solely in the unguided “flow” of the material, natural world is simple – it does diminish human beings to the level of things. Which immediately raises a question – How do modern people reconcile their rejection of being classified as “merely things” with their humanist, reductionist, positivist, leftist assumptions about their place in a reality that is nothing more than the flow and interaction of unguided things?
Well, primarily by clasping onto a progressive nontheistic worldview that keeps humanity firmly confined within the limits of the natural world yet somehow magically elevates humanity above the laws and forces of the natural world via “humanity”; more specifically, human reason, which strives “to be good without God” through the implementation and pursuit of ethical values informed by scientific knowledge. These scientifically informed values then give birth to the desire to defend civil liberties, establish secular governance based on justice, compassion, and equality as well as the motivation to affirm the dignity of every human being by ensuring their real needs, here and now.
It is the inherent belief in the dignity of every human being that appears to block people from thinking of themselves or other people as things, but this immediately reveals a contradiction. On the one hand, modern people have willingly accepted the belief that they are simply a part of a reality that fundamentally amounts to nothing more than the random unfolding of the natural world. On the other hand, modern people continue to assert that they possess some sort of dignified status within this unguided natural process.
I posit that the inherent dignity of every human being that modern people continue to insist upon is rooted in the divine world – the very world their opposing metaphysical assumptions conspire to deny. With this in mind, it is worth noting that the devil’s greatest tricks are the ones he manages to slip past people undetected. By convincing people that the dignity of human beings originates solely in the natural world rather than the “non-existent” divine world, Satan has shrewdly convinced to humanity to sidestep the spiritual issue of overcoming duality.
In reality, a human being is a bridge between two worlds – the natural world and the divine world, which together form the cosmos. These two worlds are not actually divided because everything in the material, natural world belongs to the world of the divine, but human nature falls into the trap of perceiving the two worlds as distinct from each other as a dualism of existence. A big part of human spiritual development entails uniting the two worlds within man, which can only be achieved through spiritual freedom and creativity. Uniting the two worlds allows for the possibility of a cosmic perspective – a true religious consciousness that experiences the two apparent worlds in their full extent as unified cosmos. But for this cosmic perspective to be born, the natural world must first be overcome.
Overcoming the natural world is not a rejection of it. On the contrary, overcoming the natural world entails redeeming it as part of the cosmos, which requires the recognition of human beings as both essential parts of the cosmos as well as little cosmos in and of themselves.
Overcoming the natural world, overcoming the apparent dualism of existence, and attaining a cosmic perspective are acts of spiritual integration through which the fear, suffering, violence, oppression, objectification, alienation, entropy, and evil of the natural world are transcended.
It is from this spiritual potential and responsibility that human beings derive their dignity. It is here that a human being knows himself to be more than a mere thing. However, a true understanding of this dignity requires a firm belief in God and Creation.
Satan’s scheme offers a faux solution to the dualism of existence. Instead of striving to unite two worlds within themselves as cosmos, people become convinced that cosmos cannot exist and that there is only one world – the monism of the natural, material world in which everything is just a thing. After this conviction settles into place, Satan diverts the call of the divine – which continues to appear in “natural” man as the need for “dignity” – by convincing people of the nobility of natural human-all-too-human-only-human humanity, which is somehow above the natural “thingness” of everything else.
This shift in consciousness locks human beings in the external, material, object world. Stripped of its spiritual aspects, the natural world quickly becomes the “given” world of pure externalities, which is a non-cosmic condition of atomization, alienation, and enmity. Stripped of their spiritual aspects, human beings begin to disintegrate rather than integrate. Instead of overcoming the natural world, man is consumed by it and, in short time, enslaved by it.
Having no foundation in cosmic transcendental values, humanity’s human-only-human values of dignity quickly deteriorate. They are subverted, perverted, and inverted and steadily degrade until they become anti-human values. When the spiritual reality of humanity is openly rejected, it is only a matter of time before the “natural” dignity of humanity is ceremoniously debased, devalued, and dehumanized until it becomes “just a thing” and, eventually, “no-thing”.
When people convince themselves that they are things, the spiritual beings they fundamentally are cannot have a genuine "human" experience in this mortal life. They lose the freedom needed to do what they have been incarnated to do. Instead of unifying the natural world and the divine world into the reality of the cosmos that is God and Creation, our divine selves are dragged down into a dehumanized experience of "thingness", which is at once a major obstacle to spiritual learning as well as a certain path to damnation.
Note added: I have drawn some of the ideas I have expressed here from Dr. Charlton's thoughts on cosmic perspective and Nikolai Berdyaev's ideas of creativity.
January 25, 2022
Caspar David Friedrich's "Metaphysical Dimension"
Though he is considered the most important German painter of his generation, I sense many people are not really all that familiar with the works of Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840).
No, wait a minute -- that's not quite right. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say most people are familiar with some of Friedrich's famous creations, but are largely unaware of Friedrich himself.
For example, I imagine almost everyone has come across an image of this painting at some point . . .
Der Wanderer Über dem Nebelmeer (Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog) - circa 1817 . . . but I sense that only a handful of people who have encountered this painting can name the artist.
I know I couldn't when I first saw it . . . and then saw it again . . . and again.
Friedrich was primarily a landscape painter. Even better, he was a Romantic landscape painter, which means his landscapes communicate a subjective and emotional response to the natural scenes he depicted. He was also fond of including human figures in his landscapes, but in a way that, according to Wikipedia, set a human presence in diminished perspective amid expansive landscapes, reducing figures to a scale that, according to the art historian Christopher John Murray, directs "the viewer's gaze towards their metaphysical dimension."
The Friedrich landscape that sparks the biggest subjective and emotional response in me is his The Evening Star -- for the simple reason that it so very much resembles the landscape I currently inhabit here in western Hungary, which makes the whole "metaphysical dimension" aspect of the painting easily accessible and comprehensible.
Der Abendstern (The Evening Star) - circa 1830
No, wait a minute -- that's not quite right. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say most people are familiar with some of Friedrich's famous creations, but are largely unaware of Friedrich himself.
For example, I imagine almost everyone has come across an image of this painting at some point . . .
Der Wanderer Über dem Nebelmeer (Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog) - circa 1817 . . . but I sense that only a handful of people who have encountered this painting can name the artist. I know I couldn't when I first saw it . . . and then saw it again . . . and again.
Friedrich was primarily a landscape painter. Even better, he was a Romantic landscape painter, which means his landscapes communicate a subjective and emotional response to the natural scenes he depicted. He was also fond of including human figures in his landscapes, but in a way that, according to Wikipedia, set a human presence in diminished perspective amid expansive landscapes, reducing figures to a scale that, according to the art historian Christopher John Murray, directs "the viewer's gaze towards their metaphysical dimension."
The Friedrich landscape that sparks the biggest subjective and emotional response in me is his The Evening Star -- for the simple reason that it so very much resembles the landscape I currently inhabit here in western Hungary, which makes the whole "metaphysical dimension" aspect of the painting easily accessible and comprehensible.
Der Abendstern (The Evening Star) - circa 1830
January 24, 2022
A Dominant Song in My Personal Birdemic Era Soundtrack
This is neither here nor there, but I recently became fully aware of a subconsciously selected set of songs that have been cycling through my mind since the spring of 2020. Taken altogether, these songs have formed what I now refer to as my own personal "birdemic era soundtrack."
A dominant song in this personal soundtrack has been La Villa Strangiato by the legendary Canadian power trio, Rush.
Partly inspired by some nightmares guitarist Alex Lifeson had experienced, La Villa Strangiato is a nine-minute instrumental divided into twelve distinct parts that combined tell a unified story complete with a plot and characters,
Part adventure, part fantasy, part nightmare, the song contains as many twist, turns, and transitions as the birdemic era itself, which is likely why it has found a place in my personal soundtrack over the course of the past two years.
The first video is a live performance. The second is the studio version of the song complete with chapter titles for those interested in following Strangiato "plot." Note added: My personal soundtrack is exactly that -- a soundtrack that reflects my own personal, internal experience of the birdemic era; it is not meant to represent the birdemic era itself.
A dominant song in this personal soundtrack has been La Villa Strangiato by the legendary Canadian power trio, Rush.
Partly inspired by some nightmares guitarist Alex Lifeson had experienced, La Villa Strangiato is a nine-minute instrumental divided into twelve distinct parts that combined tell a unified story complete with a plot and characters,
Part adventure, part fantasy, part nightmare, the song contains as many twist, turns, and transitions as the birdemic era itself, which is likely why it has found a place in my personal soundtrack over the course of the past two years.
The first video is a live performance. The second is the studio version of the song complete with chapter titles for those interested in following Strangiato "plot." Note added: My personal soundtrack is exactly that -- a soundtrack that reflects my own personal, internal experience of the birdemic era; it is not meant to represent the birdemic era itself.
January 23, 2022
A Creator of Co-Creators
All Christians agree that God is the Creator. But what kind of Creator is the Christian God?
A Creator of creatures and things or a Creator of (potential and actual) co-creators?
Much depends on how one understands Creation.
Is Creation a one-time event in the distant, nebulous past over which God presides as an omnipotent judge and clocksmith?
Or is Creation an ongoing process in which all beings have the potential to freely strive to achieve and add qualities and values to Creation -- a Creation in which God is the ultimate locus of creative action and purpose?
A Creator of creatures and things or a Creator of (potential and actual) co-creators?
Much depends on how one understands Creation.
Is Creation a one-time event in the distant, nebulous past over which God presides as an omnipotent judge and clocksmith?
Or is Creation an ongoing process in which all beings have the potential to freely strive to achieve and add qualities and values to Creation -- a Creation in which God is the ultimate locus of creative action and purpose?
January 21, 2022
They Will Do Everything in Their Power to Ensure the Choice is Yours
Getting people to willingly and actively choose their damnation has been the dominant theme of the birdemic since 2020.
Yes, there has been much persuasion, propaganda, and pressure -- and yes, there have been manipulations and machinations aplenty.
Terror tactics? Sure.
Bold-faced lying and devious dishonesty? Certainly.
Coercion? Oppression? Harassment? Arm-twisting? You betcha!
What about straight-up force?
Though there has been some compulsion here and there, evil has generally avoided the blatant use of force whenever possible for the simple reason that it wants to ensure the choice is yours.
Evil has generally left some room for choice, even when it has mandated and compelled. Granted, the choices it tends to offer barely seem like choices at all -- penalties, fines, job-loss, etc. -- but they are choices all the same.
Case in point, the looming peck mandate in Austria. Parliament there has recently enacted the mandate into law. In a few weeks time, Austrians will have to get pecked or face hefty fines. Not much choice there, especially not in the long run. Sounds like a done deal, right?
Well, not exactly. You see, minutes after the mandate became law, the Austrian government announced the implementation of a peck lottery -- more specifically, unpecked Austrians will now have a one-in-three chance of winning five hundred euros if they voluntarily choose to get pecked before the mandate goes into effect.
Why would the government initiate such a lottery? Why not just wait for the mandate to go into effect and simply force people to get pecked and fine them heavily if they refuse?
Well, why not?
Because they don't want to make the choice for people. They really don't. They want people to make the choice themselves. And they want people to own that choice.
Note added: Choices can be repented, especially choices made under coercion, but I imagine evil is banking on a majority of such choices remaining un-repented. Even better, such coerced choices could become a fertile breeding ground for resentment, rage, and despair.
Yes, there has been much persuasion, propaganda, and pressure -- and yes, there have been manipulations and machinations aplenty.
Terror tactics? Sure.
Bold-faced lying and devious dishonesty? Certainly.
Coercion? Oppression? Harassment? Arm-twisting? You betcha!
What about straight-up force?
Though there has been some compulsion here and there, evil has generally avoided the blatant use of force whenever possible for the simple reason that it wants to ensure the choice is yours.
Evil has generally left some room for choice, even when it has mandated and compelled. Granted, the choices it tends to offer barely seem like choices at all -- penalties, fines, job-loss, etc. -- but they are choices all the same.
Case in point, the looming peck mandate in Austria. Parliament there has recently enacted the mandate into law. In a few weeks time, Austrians will have to get pecked or face hefty fines. Not much choice there, especially not in the long run. Sounds like a done deal, right?
Well, not exactly. You see, minutes after the mandate became law, the Austrian government announced the implementation of a peck lottery -- more specifically, unpecked Austrians will now have a one-in-three chance of winning five hundred euros if they voluntarily choose to get pecked before the mandate goes into effect.
Why would the government initiate such a lottery? Why not just wait for the mandate to go into effect and simply force people to get pecked and fine them heavily if they refuse?
Well, why not?
Because they don't want to make the choice for people. They really don't. They want people to make the choice themselves. And they want people to own that choice.
Note added: Choices can be repented, especially choices made under coercion, but I imagine evil is banking on a majority of such choices remaining un-repented. Even better, such coerced choices could become a fertile breeding ground for resentment, rage, and despair.
January 20, 2022
Berdyaev on the Misinterpretation of Creativity
An interesting video that briefly outlines Berdyaev's views concerning man's misinterpretation of creativity in the modern world since the Renaissance. The main points:the Renaissance released an unprecedented outburst of freedom and human creativity, personified most notably by DaVincithe creativity itself was good, but it was misinterpreted; thus, it cut humanity off from its "organic center" and distanced man from God"humanism may have liberated human energies, but it cannot be said that it lifted man up spiritually -- it emptied him"of DaVinci, Berdyaev notes: "He was responsible for the mechanization and materialization of modern life, for its dead-ness and for the loss we have suffered for its highest meaning."for Berdyaev, the source of humanity's creative force is the spirit of God. This source is not within the physical, organic nature of humanity itself -- which is the message of pantheism and of secular humanism -- rather the creative source is a spiritual source, one that is not quantified and material-based. It is not discernible through scientific study. It is a mystery, and it is within that mystery, within the embracing of that mystery that its strength lies." Humanity and its relationship to its Creator and the creative force beneath that creation is steeped in mystery and awe and creative power. This is the image of God within homo sapiens, and it is within this mystery that our true, unique creative power lies. "The night is coming and we must take up spiritual weapons for the fight against evil. We must make more sensitive our power for its discernment. We must build up a new knighthood.
January 19, 2022
The Demonic Redefinition of Human Beings as Hazards
The satanic elite has redefined human beings as hazards.
This redefinition of humanity served as the cornerstone of the satanic elite’s successful coup of 2020 and has become a permanent feature of the global totalitarianism implemented thereafter. Reclassifying human beings as health and safety hazards who must be strictly monitored, curtailed, restricted, and controlled to minimize perpetual potential harm to the System has benefited the satanic elite immensely. Under the global diktat of none are safe until all are safe, the powers-that-should-not-be have effectively convinced the world that the only viable future for humanity is slavish obedience to technocratic totalitarianism.
The Satanic elite’s redefining of human beings as hazards does not end with health and safety because people are also environmental hazards – hazards that simply must be monitored, curtailed, restricted, and controlled to minimize the perpetual potential harm they pose to the climate and the planet. Human beings are also political, social, and ideological hazards who – if left to their own devices – would impede societal and political progress.
Granted, certain segments of power have always branded specific human beings or groups of human beings as hazardous, but when the satanic elite declared the entire human race to be an imminent threat, it took the practice of hazard labeling to an entirely new, unprecedented level.
Another unprecedented feature of our current totalitarian world -- the vast majority of the world’s people have willingly and actively embraced the satanic elite’s redefinition of human beings as hazards that need to be monitored, curtailed, restricted, and controlled.
At the same time, these same people maintain a firm belief in Enlightenment principles such as law, reason, natural rights, self-government, and societal progress. Nearly all of them believe that these things still exist.
Moreover, they have concluded that the totalitarian diktat of none are safe until all are safe – the diktat that has defined them all as hazards to be monitored, curtailed, restricted, and controlled – is somehow logically consistent with Enlightenment ideals like tolerance, liberty, fraternity, reason, and all the rest of it. Perhaps most regard current circumstances to be little more than the happy fulfillment of the philosophy of enlightened self-interest.
Such thinking is the product of a devastated and despiritualized consciousness – the exact kind of consciousness the demonic forces behind the totalitarianism wish to instill and maintain in humanity forever. The truth of the matter is simple – the satanic elite are right to label human beings as hazards, but the danger human beings pose has little to do with health, safety, the environment, politics, or society. To the satanic elite, human beings represent a spiritual hazard – an imminent threat to their ongoing war against God and Creation – and it is for this reason above all others that the threat must be neutralized and, eventually, eliminated.
The only way to “escape” the satanic elite’s redefinition of humanity and subsequent totalitarianism is through spirit. Rather than regard ourselves as physical dangers to be monitored and controlled, we must reconnect with the reality of ourselves as primarily spiritual beings created in the image of God. Once this re-connection occurs, a human being becomes a spiritual hazard to the satanic elite, which is the only kind of hazard classification with which any self-respecting human being should feel comfortable.
This redefinition of humanity served as the cornerstone of the satanic elite’s successful coup of 2020 and has become a permanent feature of the global totalitarianism implemented thereafter. Reclassifying human beings as health and safety hazards who must be strictly monitored, curtailed, restricted, and controlled to minimize perpetual potential harm to the System has benefited the satanic elite immensely. Under the global diktat of none are safe until all are safe, the powers-that-should-not-be have effectively convinced the world that the only viable future for humanity is slavish obedience to technocratic totalitarianism.
The Satanic elite’s redefining of human beings as hazards does not end with health and safety because people are also environmental hazards – hazards that simply must be monitored, curtailed, restricted, and controlled to minimize the perpetual potential harm they pose to the climate and the planet. Human beings are also political, social, and ideological hazards who – if left to their own devices – would impede societal and political progress.
Granted, certain segments of power have always branded specific human beings or groups of human beings as hazardous, but when the satanic elite declared the entire human race to be an imminent threat, it took the practice of hazard labeling to an entirely new, unprecedented level.
Another unprecedented feature of our current totalitarian world -- the vast majority of the world’s people have willingly and actively embraced the satanic elite’s redefinition of human beings as hazards that need to be monitored, curtailed, restricted, and controlled.
At the same time, these same people maintain a firm belief in Enlightenment principles such as law, reason, natural rights, self-government, and societal progress. Nearly all of them believe that these things still exist.
Moreover, they have concluded that the totalitarian diktat of none are safe until all are safe – the diktat that has defined them all as hazards to be monitored, curtailed, restricted, and controlled – is somehow logically consistent with Enlightenment ideals like tolerance, liberty, fraternity, reason, and all the rest of it. Perhaps most regard current circumstances to be little more than the happy fulfillment of the philosophy of enlightened self-interest.
Such thinking is the product of a devastated and despiritualized consciousness – the exact kind of consciousness the demonic forces behind the totalitarianism wish to instill and maintain in humanity forever. The truth of the matter is simple – the satanic elite are right to label human beings as hazards, but the danger human beings pose has little to do with health, safety, the environment, politics, or society. To the satanic elite, human beings represent a spiritual hazard – an imminent threat to their ongoing war against God and Creation – and it is for this reason above all others that the threat must be neutralized and, eventually, eliminated.
The only way to “escape” the satanic elite’s redefinition of humanity and subsequent totalitarianism is through spirit. Rather than regard ourselves as physical dangers to be monitored and controlled, we must reconnect with the reality of ourselves as primarily spiritual beings created in the image of God. Once this re-connection occurs, a human being becomes a spiritual hazard to the satanic elite, which is the only kind of hazard classification with which any self-respecting human being should feel comfortable.
January 17, 2022
A Macabre Practical Joke . . . I Hope . . .
I travel to work by commuter train every day. The trip is relatively short -- twenty minutes -- and I usually spend the time reading or gazing out at the passing landscape. On this morning's commute, I opted to stare out of the window. The train was passing by a dense stand of black locust trees when I happened to catch a glimpse of something I never could have expected -- a severed human head impaled on a stake.
The sight lasted but a second -- flashing by as quickly as it had appeared -- but the image remained clear in my mind. The head of a man in his twenties or thirties with long, light brown hair tied back in a ponytail, eyes wide open, mouth agape, neck perched on a stake.
My reaction? Bemusement more than anything. Though the sight certainly had the potential to be disturbing, I can't say I was perturbed. Nor was I horrified. The second the impaled head vanished from view, I immediately chalked it up to some sort of macabre practical joke. I hoped to catch a glimpse of it in the afternoon on the way home, but it was it too dark to make anything out.
A macabre practical joke. That's what I'm sticking to. However, if the severed head on a stake does turn out to be real, well, then I'll grant myself the luxury of feeling horrified and perturbed.
The sight lasted but a second -- flashing by as quickly as it had appeared -- but the image remained clear in my mind. The head of a man in his twenties or thirties with long, light brown hair tied back in a ponytail, eyes wide open, mouth agape, neck perched on a stake.
My reaction? Bemusement more than anything. Though the sight certainly had the potential to be disturbing, I can't say I was perturbed. Nor was I horrified. The second the impaled head vanished from view, I immediately chalked it up to some sort of macabre practical joke. I hoped to catch a glimpse of it in the afternoon on the way home, but it was it too dark to make anything out.
A macabre practical joke. That's what I'm sticking to. However, if the severed head on a stake does turn out to be real, well, then I'll grant myself the luxury of feeling horrified and perturbed.
