Francis Berger's Blog, page 90

The Peck and The Elusive Obvious

I'm not going to mince words or doll this one up. 

If you have willingly submitted to the peck, you have willingly surrendered to global totalitarian evil. You have willingly caved in to the side that is opposed to God and Creation.

It really is that simple.

Take a moment to wrap your head around it. I'll wait.

Now, now. Spare the world your rationalizations and justifications. 

You knelt down before the Big Lie. Even worse, you have willingly endorsed it.

Contrary to the official narrative, you haven't saved anyone. You haven't made anyone safe. You haven't helped get things back to "normal". You haven't added anything at all to what remains of the public good.

Quite the opposite. 

Furthermore, your submission has strengthened totalitarian evil and has helped it to spread. Like it or not, you are now a part of the ubiquitous demonic pressure. Peck passports, peck mandates, paycheck deductions, threats of job loss, denial of healthcare, additional booster pecks, the relentless lies, manipulations, and propaganda - you are a part of all of that now.

I could go on, but I won't.

Listen up. If you willingly submitted to the peck, you must repent, and you must repent truly and deeply. That isn't me being judgmental - that is simple Christian common sense.

Repent truly and deeply and you can get back on the side of God and Creation.

Refuse to repent or rationalize your way out of repentance - well, that's between you and God.

In the meantime, get out of the way and let the rest of us carry on from where you so miserably failed.

Is Christ Asking You For A Lot or A Little?

"I ask a lot of those who follow me, but I ask little of those who do not." 

The line is from an episode of The Chosen. Jesus speaks these words to Kafni after the latter agrees to let his daughter Ramah join Jesus's ministry. 

Now I know The Chosen is just a series, and I know Jesus likely did not speak these exact words. And even if He did, it is unlikely that he spoke them to the vintner Kafni. As far as I know, the Gospels make no mention of any woman named Ramah let alone provide any details about her involvement in Jesus's ministry. 

But none of that is really relevant concerning the line above. 

Even if Jesus never said these exact words, He certainly did speak words containing a similar message, and I believe this message is of the utmost importance today. 

So let's ask ourselves the following question, here, now:

Is Christ asking a lot of us or is He asking little? 

If we find He is asking little of us, perhaps we need to re-evaluate what it means to follow Him.

Note: The line appears at the 1:53 mark of the scene below.  

The Conservative Carousel of Complicity

The conservative love affair with Hungary continues to bloom. Both Rod Dreher and Tucker Carlson are thoroughly enamored by the Hungarian government's staunch stances against illegal mass migration and the ongoing sexual-pedo-trans revolution and both men sincerely wish the United States would be more like Hungary on both fronts.

Furthermore, both Dreher and Carlson are convinced that the kind of national Christian-democrat conservatism Hungary espouses is a viable way forward in the perpetual culture war against the leftism, wokeness, and general insanity tearing away at the very fabric of Western civilization. Concerning the matter noted above, Dreher notes the following:    

Orban understands clearly that the globalist, consumerist, secularist, anti-family ideology that is now dominant in the West will wipe out all the things that conservatives should be eager to conserve. Someone tweeted yesterday that they never imagined that American politics would come down to Team Soros vs. Team Orban. Actually, it does: you can have an aggressively globalist, woke progressive, secular, free-market ideology, or you can have an aggressively nationalistic, anti-woke conservative, religion-friendly (but not sectarian) ideology that believes in the free market, but not at the expense of more important values. The middle ground is fast decreasing. The “principled Madisonian conservatives” and their sort cannot stand against woke militancy. You are going to have to decide, or your stance will be decided for you by circumstances.

I get where Dreher and Carlson are coming from. I really do. When I moved to Hungary from the Anglo world, I was very much inspired by Orbán and his stance against the "aggressively globalist, woke progressive, secular, free-market ideology." I thought I had moved to a country whose leaders seriously believe in important values steeped in Christianity. In many ways, I did move to a country like that, for even now it would be false to claim that Hungary is not a better place when it comes to the evils that have thoroughly saturated other Western countries, but Dreher's remark concerning a fast decreasing middle ground is revelatory in terms of exactly what kind of country Hungary is at the moment. 

"The middle ground is fast decreasing" is simply another way of describing the phenomenon of things coming to a point. Things effectively came to a point in 2020 with the Satanic global totalitarian coup, which was implemented via the birdemic. The overarching point about Hungary is that conservatives like Dreher and Carlson refuse to report upon the point in Hungary. 

Any conservative pundit who lauds Hungary's government for its anti-wokeness but fails to acknowledge the Hungarian government's complete and utter surrender to the 2020 global birdemic coup and its global diktat of "none are safe until all are safe" has not only demonstrated a total and inexplicable lack of discernment of evil, but has also revealed himself or herself to be complicit with the aims and objectives of the birdemic coup and, consequently, on the wrong side of the spiritual war. 

Here is a short list of items conservatives like Dreher and Carlson fail to mention in their gushing praise of Hungary as a beacon of goodness and conservatism:The birdemic measures Hungary implemented in 2020/2021 were among the most draconian and heavy-handed in the world. Hungary was one of the first countries in Europe to push the peck program AND the peck passport program. Hungary was one of the first countries in the world to initiate a discrimination policy against the unpecked, effectively banning unpecked people from many public spaces. Though the Hungarian government professes to protect children's welfare at all costs, it has no reservations about mandating the peck for children. Plans are currently being drafted to mandate the peck for 12-16 year olds. The Hungarian government has been saturating the country with pro-peck propaganda since January, flooding the airwaves and news with some of the biggest lies and manipulations I have ever personally encountered. The conservative Hungarian government has fined many individuals and organizations for spreading "fake news" about the peck program. The Hungarian government has blamed the leftist-liberals for any anti-peck stance in the public.The Hungarian government has encouraged Hungarian citizens to sign up for a third peck dose.   And I could go on and on  . . . 

The birdemic has waned in Hungary for the time being. All restrictions and measures were lifted about six weeks ago. Since then, things have returned to what would some would refer to as normal - no face masks, no social distancing, no unpecked discrimination, no peck mandates. On the surface, life looks and feels very much like it did before the birdemic appeared in country in March 2020. At the same time, the media continues to issue faint but ominous warnings of an impending fourth wave sparked by the latest Greek letter variant. 

Here's my prediction. The fourth wave hits Hungary in a few weeks' time. The government blames the fourth wave exclusively on the unpecked - including unpecked children - and unleashes a viscious propaganda campaign to turn the pecked portion of the population against their unpecked brothers and sisters. The government will then institute a series of "offers that cannot be refused", including peck mandates that are tied to employment and access to essential social and health services.

I wonder if conservatives like Dreher and Carlson will report on any of that. 

​Unlikely. 

Note added: I'm not sure how complicit Carlson really is. I am not all that familiar with him. He has, apparently, been critical of the birdemic and the peck. Nevertheless, he totally ignores the issue in his recent interview with Orbán, posted below for anyone who may be interested. 

V. Rev. Stephen Janos - Create With Passion

Father Stephen Janos passed away yesterday. Father Steve was a retired Orthodox priest, a prolific English translator of great works of Russian philosophy and literature, a friend of this blog, and my own personal pen friend and faithful correspondent. 

Though it is customary to wish that our deceased friends and loved ones "rest in peace" once they leave their mortal lives behind, I will resist the urge to do so here. For starters, I very much doubt Father Steve has embraced any notion of resting in peace now that he has followed Christ into life everlasting, and I am certain he would greet any condolence attesting to either rest or peace with polite awkwardness. 

I never had the pleasure of meeting Father Steve personally, but through our years of correspondence I became well acquainted with his passion and his energy. As an Orthodox priest, he was rather unorthodox. A devout and serious Christian, Father Steve dedicated a great deal of his life and work to the thought of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev whose books and articles he translated into engaging, sincere, and illuminating English prose. Many of his full-length book translations are available on Amazon and his translations of Berdyaev's shorter pieces are available at the outstanding Berdyaev.com he maintained (see side bar for link; ignore warning). 

As a Christian, Father Steve recognized and understood the importance of relationships - the relationship of individuals with God, and the relationship of individuals with each other through Christ - and worked hard to nurture and develop such relationships, primarily through the Berdyaev Discussion Group, which I had the honor of joining (a group in which I have, regrettably, not made much of a concerted effort to connect).

Father Steve was a fiery, outspoken Christian who faced his own failing health with what can only be described as a saintly sense of cheer and humor. His emails were often lucid and enigmatic, but they were always honest, always thought-provoking, and always aligned with God and Creation.

I will miss Father Steve. More accurately, I already miss Father Steve, but I do not wish that he rest in peace. On the contrary, now that he is with God, I encourage him to create with passion. If he demonstrates even a fraction of the enthusiasm and zeal he displayed during his mortal life, he will add something to Creation that will inevitably enrich us all, including God. 

Create with passion, Father Steve. Create with passion. 

The Motivation Disconnect

One thing that continues to amaze me sixteen months into the Satanic global totalitarian coup is the disconnect people harbor concerning the motivations of the power players propagating the birdemic.

Despite sixteen months of lies, terror, humiliation, denigration, condescension, abuse, censure, and condemnation, a great many people apparently continue to believe that those who have implemented and, in many cases, continue to implement the lockdowns, masks, and social distancing measures are guided by good motivations. The same applies to the peck, which is increasingly being pushed as mandatory. Nothing but good motivations all around. 

That anyone at all still believes that the people leading and managing the System are inherently good pushes me to the edge of comprehension. But then I remember that for many people, the System is all there IS. For most moderns, the very concept of mortal life begins with the System and ends with the System, with no possibility of anything purposeful or meaning existing outside the System.

I get the impression that deep-down most people recognize that the System is intrinsically evil, but they lack the metaphysical scales upon which to weigh the recognition. As a result, they file away the dim recognition as wrong think, silliness, weakness, evil, or stupidity before plunging back into their external reality of all System, all the time. 

I imagine it is rather difficult to accept the reality of an evil System if the System marks the boundaries of every aspect of your existence - your feelings, your actions, your thinking. All of it. Much better to be lulled and tugged into the delusion that the people leading and managing the System are motivated to do good. 

Vox Day noted the following concerning people who willingly submitted to the peck (bold added): 

The problem with Ann's analysis is that most of the vaccinated, at this point, don't see themselves as having made the wrong choice. They may be mildly concerned that they did, but given the overwhelming magnitude of the media propaganda, their concerns are little more than a niggling doubt at this point.

That's why they don't want to hear that you're still fully human, still unsterilized, and that you have not submitted to the experimental gene therapy. They simply don't want any doubt cast on their preferred narrative where scientists are good and worthy of trust, where governments act for the benefit of their citizens, and where life and liberties are essentially safe.

It's very scary to step outside that narrative, just as it would be very hard for the average cow heading for the slaughterhouse to step outside the herd. It's not spite or misery loving company that causes them to put pressure upon you, it's merely an understandable preference for a belief in a nice, easy, and essentially good world instead of the fallen planet ruled by evil sociopathy that it actually is.
​
Leave them to their ignorant bliss. There is nothing you can do for them now, except permit them to live in peaceful, unthinking tranquility until the brutality of the real world forcibly intrudes upon it.

The inability to discern evil is not technically an inability, but a choice. Anyone who sees good motivations behind anything connected to the birdemic and its peck has made a choice.

A wrong choice.

The glaring motivation disconnect stems from this wrong choice, which makes the chooser's own motivations clearly discernible as well.  

Side Project - Slow Going But Making Progress

The renovation project I embarked upon at the end of July is proceeding much slower than I anticipated. After the delayed lumber delivery, I have had to deal with the weather, which has hindered my work. I've also made many small mistakes that have slowed things down considerably. Regardless, I am making progress and, more significantly, I am enjoying the process.  

The building is still very much in its "ugly phase", but the higher walls and roof beams for the larger part of the structure are now in place. Weather permitting, I should have the entire roof completed by early next week. 

Patience and Fortitude

When I lived in New York City, I was immensely impressed by Patience and Fortitude, a pair of marble lions situated before the Beaux-Arts building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan.

According to local history, the lions got their names in the 1930s when then Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia suggested New Yorkers needed to nurture patience and fortitude to make it through the Great Depression.

As I thought about these two New York City landmarks today, it occurred to me that patience and fortitude are even more crucial today than they had been during LaGuardia's time.

Fortitude is among the seven Biblical virtues. Patience, on the other hand, is not.  Nevertheless, patience has become a veritable virtue itself via the commonly used proverb, which apparently first appeared in the Middle English poem Piers Plowman, presumably written by William Langland. Biblical or not, I consider both patience and fortitude to be essential virtues today - virtues every serious Christian should strive to espouse and project. 

To be virtuous is to think and act in a way that clearly shows high moral standards and integrity, particularly when confronted by temptation or adversity. To be virtuous is to declare goodness, righteousness, honesty, and dignity to be non-negotiables, especially when confronted by a world that has become inherently evil, wicked, dishonest, and subjugated.

Patience attests to the ability to maintain a positive perspective on mortal life, to resist the urge to reaction, and to hold off on the making of impulsive and, therefore, potentially bad decisions, while fortitude affirms strength of spirit in the face of adversity, danger, and discomfort.

The ramped up demonic pressure we are experiencing today is a direct challenge to both patience and fortitude. At one end we face an increasingly uncertain and unpredictable future, one wrought with increased levels of negative stress, disconcerting events, and unsettling options. At the other end, we live in a time when the forces of evil continuously work at the dissolution of our resolve, courage, and endurance. 

The best way to counter all of the above is to fortify our patience, which in turn will fortify our prudence - the ability to control and govern our thoughts and actions. The more we are able to resist push-button tactics, the more we will be able to draw on discernment and wisdom. The more we are able to withstand external triggers, manipulations, coercion, and persuasion, the more we will be able to embrace internal Divine communication.

Any demonstration of patience in response to demonic pressure will inevitably test our fortitude - our ability to courageously and resolutely face danger and difficulty with perseverance and determination.

Those orchestrating the demonic pressure want nothing more than for us to rush out and do something rash, or - even better - just cave in upon ourselves and throw up our hands in surrender. 

The best way to beat the pressure is to do neither, and the best way to do neither is to exhibit patience and fortitude.

Patience and fortitude are not only essential virtues, they are also potential spiritual weapons for the side of Good. Consistent patience and fortitude in the face demonic pressure throws the pressure back upon the demons - which is exactly where it should be and exactly where it should remain.  

Crows and Sunflowers

Sunflowers are a common crop here in the northwestern part of Hungary. Experienced farmers protect their fields against birds in some manner or other. If nothing else, they utilize good old-fashioned scarecrows to keep opportunistic birds at bay, but sometimes even the best deterrence efforts fail. 

I had to drive into town today, and as I left the roundabout and traveled toward Sopron, I happened to pass a massive flock of crows plundering an expansive field of sunflowers.

​On the surface there was nothing exceptional about this scene, but the sight of over a hundred of the black corvids swooping in on the field, perching atop the withering sunflowers, and pecking away at the seeds within made quite an impression on me.

I wanted to stop to take a photo, but I didn't have the time to turn around and go back. Thus, the best I can do here is offer two similar images I managed to find on the internet.  On the one hand, crows in sunflower fields are a somewhat common sight in this part of the world. On the other hand, there was something peculiarly uncommon about my seeing the crows in a sunflower field today.

Crows are corvids and both have been a subject of symbolism and discussion within my blogging circle, so this probably has something to do the impression factor of seeing a flock of crows ravage a sunflower field.

​I'm not the most adept when it comes to symbol interpretation, but the scene certainly felt symbolic. 

Though I found the scene striking, I did not perceive anything particularly negative about it, so I would not say the crows in the sunflower field were necessarily an omen. On the contrary, they could symbolize the approach of something positive.

Time will tell . . .  

Delta Force: Pecked Versus Unpecked

Back in April, I shared the following thought in a post: 

Speaking of turning, how long before the System begins to actively begin turn pecked humanity against unpecked humanity? 

Well, the answer is about three months.

Operation Delta Force is now in full effect. Welcome to Part One: The Siege.

During the Siege, the Establishment and their demonic overlords will unleash the full force of the battle-ready System on those individuals who have chosen to remain unpecked.

A vast array of weaponry has been and will continue to be deployed by every functioning unit of System including the media, the law, the science, System Christianity, government, corporations, NGOs, and international organizations of every shape and size.

The following is a brief list of some of the tactics that have been or will be used against the unpecked:

Fear - terrorizing or the unpecked into believing they will suffer horribly and/or die if they continue to refuse the peck. Agitating the pecked into believing they will suffer horribly and die if the unpecked continue to refuse the peck.Social segregation, lock out, and exclusion - banning the unpecked from fully taking part in society by effectively banning them from parks, zoos, theaters, restaurants, travel, etc. Shame - Repeated and prolonged public humiliation of the unpecked, including visible markers and identifiers that will allow people to distinguish the pecked from the unpecked.Denigration - Belittling the unpecked by ceaselessly attacking their apparent lack of morality, ethics, common sense, intelligence, compassion, sense of civic responsibility, etc. The Science - continuously droning on about how beneficial, effective, and necessary the peck is (even though it is actually the opposite) Potential unemployment; financial penalties - workplace peck mandates, higher insurance rates, higher banking fees, etc.Restricted access to essential services - increased bureaucratic hurdles and hoops to visit medical practitioners and facilities; potential restrictions on public transports; delays and difficulties in renewing licenses and documentsScorn - publicly inciting scorn and derision against those who have the audacity to remain unpecked. Encouraging the general public to join in the outrage and contempt.Sob stories, tales of regret, schadenfreude - Filling the media with stories of vehement anti-peckers who caught the delta and have either died or are suffering in excruciating agony. Justifying glee at the expense of those who have apparently died or are suffering terribly due to their peck refusal.Selfishness, lack of concern for the "public good" - presenting anti-peckers are not "nice" people who do not give a damn about anyone but themselves.Scapegoating/demonization - laying the blame of any future birdemic calamity squarely on the shoulder of the unpecked. Convincing the pecked that the unpecked are standing in the way of a "return to normal" Encouraging the general public to take up the scapegoating banner. Referring to the unpecked as evil.  And so on . . . 
Pay close attention to everything that unfolds in the coming days and weeks, and mentally/spiritually prepare yourself for some or all of the above if you have chosen to remain unpecked.

At the same time, it is imperative to not adopt a siege mentality during the Siege. 

At the most fundamental level, the Siege is an instrument of demonic pressure. Though the surface-level aims appear purely material, the real goals of this demonic pressure are spiritual. Intense attacks, oppression, and isolation should not be countered with defensive and fearful attitudes, thinking, or action, but rather as a call to adventure. 

On the flip side, simply giving in to the demonic pressure will not bring any promised relief. Quite the contrary. 

We are entering a new phase of the spiritual war - and at its core, the spiritual war is a battle for souls.

Our mortal lives are transitory, but our souls are eternal. Of what good is the protection of our mortal comfort and security if we lose our souls in the process?

In light of this, we should face the potential challenges before us creatively because what we think and do in the coming weeks and months could have unimaginably positive outcomes both in the temporal world and in eternity.

Note added: The unpecked should also take comfort in the apparent desperation driving the current peck push. What's the rush all of the sudden? Also, hot air does not equal done deal, which means the current siege to peck the world may not pan out as desired. 

A Victim of Your Freedom

Excerpted from the New York Times, July 27, 2021: 

There is a straightforward ethical argument to be made for vaccine mandates: Herd immunity is a collective good and its absence a collective harm, so vaccination cannot be a matter solely of personal choice.

“What is your liberty worth if you tell me you don’t want to get vaccinated?” President Emmanuel Macron of France told reporters recently. “And tomorrow, you infect your father, your mother or myself. I am a victim of your freedom.” 

One of the overarching goals of the global diktat of "none are safe until all are safe" is the elimination of human freedom, particularly spiritual freedom.

As events of the past sixteen months or so have shown, the Establishment and their System can curtail material freedom quite effectively, but they have no means through which to stamp out spiritual freedom. 

And they know it. 

The only thing they can do is continuously attempt to persuade and manipulate us into surrendering our spiritual freedom to them. 

But if we reject their persuasions and rebuff their manipulations . . . well, then there isn't a much they can do except ratchet up the demonic pressure in the material world in the hope that the increased pressure will finally convince us to submissively hand over our spiritual freedom in exchange for safety, peace, security, health, comfort, etc. 

Unfortunately, surrendering spiritual freedom will not enhance material freedom, safety, security, and all the rest of it. On the contrary, when we willingly surrender our spiritual freedom, we willingly consent to enslavement and, ultimately damnation.

I can guarantee you that those opposed to God and Creation are delighted to dish out hearty servings of both. 

So let the totalitarian apparatchiks groan on about being victims of freedom. Better that than allowing ourselves to become willing victims of the spiritual un-freedom they espouse.