Francis Berger's Blog, page 95
June 8, 2021
What If It Hadn't Made the News?
I've spent the last few days working in my yard and helping my father renovate the house he bought in the village. During this time, I barely gave any thought to the birdemic, or the 2020 global coup, or the peck, or any other Satanic evil. Yes, my father talked about these things a little here and there as we knocked out walls and gutted his kitchen, but we spent far more time speaking about other, better things.
Today just before sunset I spent about an hour watering the vegetable garden, fruit trees, and rose bushes on my property. The cuckoo who frequents the poplars by the old mill near my house filled the air with his calls. The blackbird who usually perches in my plum tree followed me around the yard, opportunistically hopping around in search of worms and grubs in the spots I had already watered. Laying upon a pile of old roof tiles on the opposite side of the garden, my cat eagerly eyed the blackbird, but was too comfortable and lazy to give it chase.
As I watched the sun sink toward the horizon, I found myself wondering how different the world would be if the birdemic had never made the news. I came to the swift conclusion that most people probably would not have noticed anything strange or different about their lives. I certainly wouldn't have because if the birdemic had not made the news there would have been nothing strange or different about my life.
Before the birdemic broke in Hungary, I described the "irrational hysteria" taking hold of the West as a "non-crisis crisis" and a "crisis that shouldn't be crisis" and even went as far as to say that the whole thing shouldn't have even made the news.
More than a year later, I stand by that remark. Based on the statistics I've followed and the experiences I have gathered living through sixteen months of a seemingly endless "crisis", the birdemic never should have made the news. Full stop.
But the birdemic did make the news. Not only did it make the news, but it has been the news for well over a year now, which brings me to the conclusion that the news is all the birdemic ever was, and news is all it will ever be.
There is no birdemic without the news - only cuckoos, blackbirds, lazy cats, gardens overgrown with weeds, and sunsets that melt into the horizon like butter.
Those things are still there. They have always been there. And they don't need the news to make them real or give them life.
Today just before sunset I spent about an hour watering the vegetable garden, fruit trees, and rose bushes on my property. The cuckoo who frequents the poplars by the old mill near my house filled the air with his calls. The blackbird who usually perches in my plum tree followed me around the yard, opportunistically hopping around in search of worms and grubs in the spots I had already watered. Laying upon a pile of old roof tiles on the opposite side of the garden, my cat eagerly eyed the blackbird, but was too comfortable and lazy to give it chase.
As I watched the sun sink toward the horizon, I found myself wondering how different the world would be if the birdemic had never made the news. I came to the swift conclusion that most people probably would not have noticed anything strange or different about their lives. I certainly wouldn't have because if the birdemic had not made the news there would have been nothing strange or different about my life.
Before the birdemic broke in Hungary, I described the "irrational hysteria" taking hold of the West as a "non-crisis crisis" and a "crisis that shouldn't be crisis" and even went as far as to say that the whole thing shouldn't have even made the news.
More than a year later, I stand by that remark. Based on the statistics I've followed and the experiences I have gathered living through sixteen months of a seemingly endless "crisis", the birdemic never should have made the news. Full stop.
But the birdemic did make the news. Not only did it make the news, but it has been the news for well over a year now, which brings me to the conclusion that the news is all the birdemic ever was, and news is all it will ever be.
There is no birdemic without the news - only cuckoos, blackbirds, lazy cats, gardens overgrown with weeds, and sunsets that melt into the horizon like butter.
Those things are still there. They have always been there. And they don't need the news to make them real or give them life.
June 6, 2021
An Interesting Meme
The gentleman who runs Dark Brightness has posted an interesting meme at his site. 
The meme works for me personally because it contains what many refer to as a "truth bomb."
The fact that the truth bomber is Bruce Charlton only makes the meme work that much more.
To top it all off, the meme features a portrait of St. Eustace carrying a flag emblazoned with the symbol of the crucifix perched between the antlers of a stag, (see header at top of blog or link above).
An interesting and meaningful amalgam of words, images, and symbols.
The meme works for me personally because it contains what many refer to as a "truth bomb."The fact that the truth bomber is Bruce Charlton only makes the meme work that much more.
To top it all off, the meme features a portrait of St. Eustace carrying a flag emblazoned with the symbol of the crucifix perched between the antlers of a stag, (see header at top of blog or link above).
An interesting and meaningful amalgam of words, images, and symbols.
June 5, 2021
I Excel at Growing Weeds
The medium-sized vegetable garden I had envisioned in early spring has become far bigger than originally planned. After my wife and I planted the potatoes, tomatoes, squash, pumpkin, and beets, we realized we did not have enough room for the peas, onions, peppers, herbs, and watermelon - so, I ended up extending the garden by about fifty square meters.
On the upside, this means I have less lawn to cut. On the downside, I have another fifty square meters of weeds to pull. Though I'm still new to gardening, I've become a total pro when it comes to fine art of growing weeds, to the point that I spend most of my time gathering in the bountiful harvest of unwanted vegetation.
I'll get the hang of this one day. At least I hope I will.
Effective weeding tips that do not involve spraying the garden with Agent Orange are welcome!
On the upside, this means I have less lawn to cut. On the downside, I have another fifty square meters of weeds to pull. Though I'm still new to gardening, I've become a total pro when it comes to fine art of growing weeds, to the point that I spend most of my time gathering in the bountiful harvest of unwanted vegetation.
I'll get the hang of this one day. At least I hope I will.
Effective weeding tips that do not involve spraying the garden with Agent Orange are welcome!
June 4, 2021
The System Attempts to Redeem Itself
The Freedom of Information Act is a peculiar thing. Some sought after documents and emails never get released. Others get dumped on the public seemingly out of nowhere and without anyone asking for them.
As far as I can tell, the Establishment is currently engaged in lively game of "throw the faithful servants under the bus" as it attempts to re-calibrate the birdemic narrative. The objective is simple - restore the public's faith in the System as a force for good.
How? By hanging a few System apparatchiks out to dry:
Any sudden media blitz that overtly criticizes, scrutinizes, re-evaluates, or condemns a System apparatchik should be treated with caution and suspicion. More often than not, all such media campaigns do is offer false beacons of hope.
When the System hangs one of its own out to dry, it does so primarily to maintain or rebuild the public's trust in the System itself.
When the System puts one of its own in a difficult or vulnerable situation, it is working to persuade the public that, despite everything, the System remains a force for good - that it is and will actively deal with its corrupt and reprehensible elements whenever and wherever it happens to find them.
These sorts of campaigns - broadcast far and wide and splashed across the System's ubiquitous media - are meant to instill a sense of justice being served. They are meant to comfort. They are meant to re-cajole complacency.
Don't be taken in. The System is evil irrespective of who it throws under the bus.
As far as I can tell, the Establishment is currently engaged in lively game of "throw the faithful servants under the bus" as it attempts to re-calibrate the birdemic narrative. The objective is simple - restore the public's faith in the System as a force for good.
How? By hanging a few System apparatchiks out to dry:
Any sudden media blitz that overtly criticizes, scrutinizes, re-evaluates, or condemns a System apparatchik should be treated with caution and suspicion. More often than not, all such media campaigns do is offer false beacons of hope.
When the System hangs one of its own out to dry, it does so primarily to maintain or rebuild the public's trust in the System itself.
When the System puts one of its own in a difficult or vulnerable situation, it is working to persuade the public that, despite everything, the System remains a force for good - that it is and will actively deal with its corrupt and reprehensible elements whenever and wherever it happens to find them.
These sorts of campaigns - broadcast far and wide and splashed across the System's ubiquitous media - are meant to instill a sense of justice being served. They are meant to comfort. They are meant to re-cajole complacency.
Don't be taken in. The System is evil irrespective of who it throws under the bus.
June 3, 2021
The Birds, 1; My Father, 0
My father is currently visiting us from Canada, which has been delightful. Last year, he purchased a small house in the village a few doors down from mine, but he didn't have the opportunity to really see what he had purchased until now. Thankfully, he likes the place, especially the backyard, which has three long rows of grapes, a few currant bushes, a couple of walnut trees, some pear trees, and a big sour cherry tree.
Over the past two weeks, he has been keeping an eye on the sour cherries. When they began turning red, he happily announced that he would pick the fruit the second it ripened so that he could bake some cherry strudel. Unfortunately, my father was not the only one to take note of the ripening sour cherries in his backyard.
A couple of days ago my father barged through my gate, his eyes wide and frantic.
"They're eating them all!" he exclaimed.
"Calm down. Who's eating what?" I asked.
"The birds! They're eating all the cherries!"
I followed my father to his house half-expecting to see a couple of sparrows pecking away at a few cherries in the grass, but when I walked into the backyard I was confronted with something straight out of Alfred Hitchcock. The cherry tree throbbed with birds. Every branch was full. And when I say full, I mean full. I'd never seen anything like it. Dozens of birds, from a variety of species, all ravaging my father's precious sour cherry tree in unison.
We promptly purchased a plastic eagle and placed it in the tree to deter further marauding and salvage my father's dream of baking cherry strudel. It's too early to know if the plastic eagle in the tree will work. If it does, I will ceremoniously grant my father a point and call the cherry match a draw, but as of now the birds are up one to zip.
On a side note, during the cherry apocalypse I happened to catch a glimpse of a bird I had never seen before - a yellow bird with black wings. Turns out it was an Orioulus orioulus, known more plainly as the Eurasian golden oriole.
Over the past two weeks, he has been keeping an eye on the sour cherries. When they began turning red, he happily announced that he would pick the fruit the second it ripened so that he could bake some cherry strudel. Unfortunately, my father was not the only one to take note of the ripening sour cherries in his backyard.
A couple of days ago my father barged through my gate, his eyes wide and frantic.
"They're eating them all!" he exclaimed.
"Calm down. Who's eating what?" I asked.
"The birds! They're eating all the cherries!"
I followed my father to his house half-expecting to see a couple of sparrows pecking away at a few cherries in the grass, but when I walked into the backyard I was confronted with something straight out of Alfred Hitchcock. The cherry tree throbbed with birds. Every branch was full. And when I say full, I mean full. I'd never seen anything like it. Dozens of birds, from a variety of species, all ravaging my father's precious sour cherry tree in unison.
We promptly purchased a plastic eagle and placed it in the tree to deter further marauding and salvage my father's dream of baking cherry strudel. It's too early to know if the plastic eagle in the tree will work. If it does, I will ceremoniously grant my father a point and call the cherry match a draw, but as of now the birds are up one to zip.
On a side note, during the cherry apocalypse I happened to catch a glimpse of a bird I had never seen before - a yellow bird with black wings. Turns out it was an Orioulus orioulus, known more plainly as the Eurasian golden oriole.
June 1, 2021
The Needle and the Damage Done?
The title of this famous Neil Young song refers to the dangers of heroin addiction. I have a sinking feeling that it may soon become readily applicable to current events for entirely different reasons . . .
May 31, 2021
Clickety-Click, Birdemic Trick
Barbapapa - a cartoon series from the 1970s featuring a family of shape-shifting blobs that could alter their forms by simply saying "clickety-click, barba trick" - was quite popular when I was a kid. I hadn't thought about Barbapapa for decades, but the seemingly magical transformations the birdemic is undergoing at the moment suddenly reminded me of the series. For example, a little less than ten weeks ago, Hungary was in the grips of its second hard lockdown and apparently on the brink of a national catastrophe. Birdemic deaths were among the highest in the world and birdemic cases increased on a daily basis, almost exponentially.
The peck program, which had been initiated here in January 2020, swung into full effect shortly after the second lockdown. The government presented the people with a stark choice - the peck or death. About two million chose the peck.
A few weeks later, the government rolled out its lockout plan. Pecked people would get to go to the movies and the zoo. They would also be issued peck passports to facilitate travel to holiday destinations abroad. Another two million quickly chose the peck. Then the Hungarian authorities offered the peck to teenagers. About another million chose the peck.
As the number of pecked people inched closer to five million, the apocalyptic birdemic numbers suddenly reversed. Cases and deaths plummeted, sometimes overnight. This coaxed a few hundred thousand more to choose the peck. Cases and deaths fell even further.
The government unceremoniously lifted most of the birdemic restrictions it had imposed on the populace for the better part of a year, maintained that the unpecked would continue to be locked out of "the return to normal", and then announced that the dreaded third wave of the birdemic had been defeated.
Five million "perfectly safe and effective" experimental pecks and tens weeks had brought the dreaded plague to heel.
Clickety-click, birdemic trick.
Of course, we're not out of the woods yet. There are still five million unpecked people in this country - and as everyone knows, none are safe until all are safe.
But hang on! New birdemic varieties are flying in from Asia as we speak. It goes without saying that the pecked are perfectly protected from any and every novel variant and mutation - but the unpecked? Not so much. Regardless, most of the unpecked are choosing to remain unpecked, which is a big problem because herd immunity.
And to top it all off, it turns out the birdemic might be a bioweapon after all - at least that's the narrative the mainstream media is now pushing.
Clickety-click, birdemic trick.
While some parts of the world appear to be emerging from the plague, other parts are plunging into birdemic chaos, some for the very first time.
Clickety click, birdemic trick.
Like Barbapapa, the birdemic is a changeling. Those who control it can transmogrify it, seemingly at will. Unlike the Barbapapa characters - who changed shapes mostly for good - any forthcoming transformations the birdemic undergoes will serve everything but the Good.
Clickety-click . . .
May 30, 2021
The Heroism of Overcoming
Fearlessness and courage are not necessarily synonymous.
Fearlessness cannot fully respond to fear because it does not recognize fear as fear.
Courage, on the other hand, is a more active response to fear. Those who display courage recognize and feel fear, but work to overcome it.
In terms of heroism, the courageous strike me as more heroic than the fearless.
Then again, perhaps the fearless have simply mastered and refined the overcoming of fear to such a degree that they have transcended it altogether.
Fearlessness cannot fully respond to fear because it does not recognize fear as fear.
Courage, on the other hand, is a more active response to fear. Those who display courage recognize and feel fear, but work to overcome it.
In terms of heroism, the courageous strike me as more heroic than the fearless.
Then again, perhaps the fearless have simply mastered and refined the overcoming of fear to such a degree that they have transcended it altogether.
May 29, 2021
Shepherd and Peasant Woman
This painting by Béla Iványi-Grünwald contains nothing remarkable or special, but for some reason, I find it quite engaging.
For example, the figures in the foreground appear as if they were stuck onto the canvas after the background had been painted. They weren't, of course, but the white accents, particularly on the shepherd's face, makes it appear as if they were.
The subdued color choices blend and unify everything to the point where figures become almost indistinguishable from their surroundings (note the flock of sheep behind the two figures).
The peasant woman's black and white striped skirt - which is a strange choice of pattern for a peasant woman to be wearing - is the only notable point of contrast in this canvas of muted earth tones.
Shepherd and Peasant Woman - Béla Iványi-Grünwald - 1892
For example, the figures in the foreground appear as if they were stuck onto the canvas after the background had been painted. They weren't, of course, but the white accents, particularly on the shepherd's face, makes it appear as if they were.
The subdued color choices blend and unify everything to the point where figures become almost indistinguishable from their surroundings (note the flock of sheep behind the two figures).
The peasant woman's black and white striped skirt - which is a strange choice of pattern for a peasant woman to be wearing - is the only notable point of contrast in this canvas of muted earth tones.
Shepherd and Peasant Woman - Béla Iványi-Grünwald - 1892
May 28, 2021
Resource Scarcity and Abundance In A Totalitarian World
A neighbor of mine - who is an independent roofing contractor - recently complained he could not purchase fiberglass anywhere in the region. He also mentioned he often struggled to procure the kinds of beams and planks he needed to properly complete the projects he had taken on.
Another neighbor revealed he was having a difficult time locating new spare parts for his son's bicycle.
The local plumber has had to postpone several jobs because he cannot find the appropriate pipes and fittings at any of his usual supply stores. The odd time he does, he ends up paying double or triple the usual prices for them.
Shortages of all sorts are apparently popping up all over the place at the macro level. Gasoline. Microchips. Automobile tires. Appliances. You name it.
Some of this is to be expected, I suppose. After all, the entire world was more or less shut down for the better part of a year. A wrench was thrown into the well-lubricated machine the world had come to know as global trade. Intricate supply chains and logistics networks intermittently ran on glue and tar - if they ran at all. Supply and demand gyrated left and right. Everything was thrown out of kilter.
All the same, it's incorrect to attribute current shortages and scarcity solely to "market forces". If 2020 has shown us anything, it is this - the so-called "free market" is little more than a massive control and scam mechanism calibrated to accelerate and finalize the biggest wealth transfer in the history of the world - preparing the ground for an aimed for Ahrimanic technocratic globalist vision of life in which "you will own nothing and be happy."
Whatever.
I don't want to blather on about economics. Suffice it to say that world run by a global Satanic elite will use every material weapon at its disposal to achieve its spiritual aims of damnation - and for the time being, every material weapon literally means practically every and any material thing in the world.
Since the Establishment now control nearly every material thing via their expansive and interconnected System, they can use almost any material thing to pursue their aims. And the Establishment will use every material weapon at its disposal to achieve their aims - primarily because they have no spiritual weapons at their disposal.
Let me reiterate that.
The Satanic elite now possesses the power to fully weaponize anything and everything in the material world, and over the past year or so, they have fully weaponized practically everything - politics, economics, society, law, media, and so forth. They can inflict vast amounts of discomfort and suffering, varying the degrees of both to suit their needs and objectives.
More specifically, the demonic forces can unleash all sorts of material hell on us. They can inconvenience us, confine us, restrict us, mistreat us, torment us, persecute us, hound us, abuse us, impoverish us, starve us, and - yes - they can even kill us . . . seemingly at their leisure.
Yet despite this palpable and real worldly totalitarian power, there is one thing the Satanic Establishment cannot do - they cannot damn us.
Only we have the power to do that - and that is exactly where we are more powerful than them.
If we are properly aligned with God and Creation, are fully aware of our own spiritual natures, and freely accept Christ's gift of everlasting life, then we possess the spiritual resources needed to withstand and conquer any temporal hell the Establishment raises.
If we are not aligned with God and Creation, reject the reality of our own spiritual natures, and refuse Christ's gift of everlasting life, we forfeit the spiritual resources needed to withstand and conquer any and every temporal hell the Establishment raises - and we will, inevitably, secure our own damnation.
There may be many more material shortages in the offing, but the only resources that matter now are spiritual resources. Unfortunately, these resources appear very scarce at the moment, but this scarcity has nothing to do with supply and everything to do with demand.
Spirit is always in abundance, but the despiritualized consciousness of modern man is unable or unwilling to access it. Cut off from the Divine, the vast majority of modern men are wholly occupied with and only respond to external forces. Alienated from God and his own spiritual nature, modern man no longer recognizes or understands Creation he is in and chooses instead to react solely to the deterministic material forces of the "given world", which is largely external to himself. As a result, he offers no resistance to damnation, mostly because he has allowed himself to be convinced that such a thing cannot exist.
In one of his more recent posts, William Wildblood addressed this problem lucidly and succinctly:
We have been too spiritually weak to control the forces unleashed and they are, quite simply, destroying us.
We must not return to the past but we must return to basics. That means the fundamental realities of life. These are spiritual and nothing can be understood from a non-spiritual perspective. The further we are from that, the more we will fall into darkness and chaos. This is happening now. We have no roots in anything and so drift wherever the dominant forces in the world with to take us. We must find the strength to resist this within ourselves and the only reliable and lasting place is in God, the Creator whose spiritual purpose is for us to become like him.
Understanding that the fundamental realities of life are spiritual will not save us from material resource scarcity, but it will ensure that we never experience the sort of resource scarcity that matters most.
Another neighbor revealed he was having a difficult time locating new spare parts for his son's bicycle.
The local plumber has had to postpone several jobs because he cannot find the appropriate pipes and fittings at any of his usual supply stores. The odd time he does, he ends up paying double or triple the usual prices for them.
Shortages of all sorts are apparently popping up all over the place at the macro level. Gasoline. Microchips. Automobile tires. Appliances. You name it.
Some of this is to be expected, I suppose. After all, the entire world was more or less shut down for the better part of a year. A wrench was thrown into the well-lubricated machine the world had come to know as global trade. Intricate supply chains and logistics networks intermittently ran on glue and tar - if they ran at all. Supply and demand gyrated left and right. Everything was thrown out of kilter.
All the same, it's incorrect to attribute current shortages and scarcity solely to "market forces". If 2020 has shown us anything, it is this - the so-called "free market" is little more than a massive control and scam mechanism calibrated to accelerate and finalize the biggest wealth transfer in the history of the world - preparing the ground for an aimed for Ahrimanic technocratic globalist vision of life in which "you will own nothing and be happy."
Whatever.
I don't want to blather on about economics. Suffice it to say that world run by a global Satanic elite will use every material weapon at its disposal to achieve its spiritual aims of damnation - and for the time being, every material weapon literally means practically every and any material thing in the world.
Since the Establishment now control nearly every material thing via their expansive and interconnected System, they can use almost any material thing to pursue their aims. And the Establishment will use every material weapon at its disposal to achieve their aims - primarily because they have no spiritual weapons at their disposal.
Let me reiterate that.
The Satanic elite now possesses the power to fully weaponize anything and everything in the material world, and over the past year or so, they have fully weaponized practically everything - politics, economics, society, law, media, and so forth. They can inflict vast amounts of discomfort and suffering, varying the degrees of both to suit their needs and objectives.
More specifically, the demonic forces can unleash all sorts of material hell on us. They can inconvenience us, confine us, restrict us, mistreat us, torment us, persecute us, hound us, abuse us, impoverish us, starve us, and - yes - they can even kill us . . . seemingly at their leisure.
Yet despite this palpable and real worldly totalitarian power, there is one thing the Satanic Establishment cannot do - they cannot damn us.
Only we have the power to do that - and that is exactly where we are more powerful than them.
If we are properly aligned with God and Creation, are fully aware of our own spiritual natures, and freely accept Christ's gift of everlasting life, then we possess the spiritual resources needed to withstand and conquer any temporal hell the Establishment raises.
If we are not aligned with God and Creation, reject the reality of our own spiritual natures, and refuse Christ's gift of everlasting life, we forfeit the spiritual resources needed to withstand and conquer any and every temporal hell the Establishment raises - and we will, inevitably, secure our own damnation.
There may be many more material shortages in the offing, but the only resources that matter now are spiritual resources. Unfortunately, these resources appear very scarce at the moment, but this scarcity has nothing to do with supply and everything to do with demand.
Spirit is always in abundance, but the despiritualized consciousness of modern man is unable or unwilling to access it. Cut off from the Divine, the vast majority of modern men are wholly occupied with and only respond to external forces. Alienated from God and his own spiritual nature, modern man no longer recognizes or understands Creation he is in and chooses instead to react solely to the deterministic material forces of the "given world", which is largely external to himself. As a result, he offers no resistance to damnation, mostly because he has allowed himself to be convinced that such a thing cannot exist.
In one of his more recent posts, William Wildblood addressed this problem lucidly and succinctly:
We have been too spiritually weak to control the forces unleashed and they are, quite simply, destroying us.
We must not return to the past but we must return to basics. That means the fundamental realities of life. These are spiritual and nothing can be understood from a non-spiritual perspective. The further we are from that, the more we will fall into darkness and chaos. This is happening now. We have no roots in anything and so drift wherever the dominant forces in the world with to take us. We must find the strength to resist this within ourselves and the only reliable and lasting place is in God, the Creator whose spiritual purpose is for us to become like him.
Understanding that the fundamental realities of life are spiritual will not save us from material resource scarcity, but it will ensure that we never experience the sort of resource scarcity that matters most.
