Blog Posts

The Upside of Being an Obscure Writer

5/4/2019

(Clickety-clack)

What? What's this? Aw, no not again. Please tell me you're not writing another novel and thinking of self-publishing it again. Boy, are you a sucker for punishment! What's the point? Barely anyone read your first one. What's that? You say at least you can get your work out there and what happens to your work once it is out there is anyone's guess. Come on man, be honest - your chances won't be any better the second time around.

Unless of course you drop your pretensions and become a mercenary hack churning out gay romance novels or epic tales of lovelorn vampires incomprehensibly infatuated with vacuous teen-aged girls. If you do that, then you might stand a chance out there, but you won't be the only one chasing that rabbit, my friend, so you'd better have some new angle or bend - something to separate your schlock from the other cobbled tales of lycanthropic lusting and sybaritic swooning.

What do you mean you aren't interested in that? You're lying if you claim you aren't interested in fame or money. Johnson said no man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money, and the last time I checked, your fridge was half-empty and your driveway, Porsche-free. So why bother? What good is your work out there if it brings no return on investment, no passive income, and no compounded yields?

You hear that, sunshine? That's Johnson mocking you from the beyond with a loud, ponderous, jowelly laugh. So loud, poor Boswell is going to include it in the biography - even in the beyond. So, what's the deal blockhead? Why are you wasting your time? The work you put out there is a baitless hook; an empty tin cup in the quivering hand of an invisible beggar; a mere grain of sand on a vast expanse of beach; the faintest, barely-perceptible star in the starry ocean above.

What's that? Out there is better than in here? How do you figure? Don't go pulling all that mystical stuff on me again now, talking about higher things and consciousness. That's just defensive gibberish on your part, blockhead. Trying to justify the unjustifiable with noble visions of ascension, but who do you think you're kidding? You can't pay the power bill with consciousness!

Like it or not, this is show business, pal, and if you're not giving the people what they want, they won't give you what you want. It ain't rocket science, cupcake. So drop the noble artist schtick. That only works in here. No one gives a rat's ass out there.

Reality? That's what I'm trying to talk to you about, genius. Thinking? Creativity? Transcendence? Aw, give it a rest already. Hanging around you with you is getting embarrassing. You're cramping my style. I'm trying to do what's good for you - what's good for us. There's a whole world out there, damn it! Cut it with the metaphysical and get back into the physical. Oh, that's what you're doing, you say? What's that? Transcribing the metaphysical into the physical? Is that what it comes down to for you, Skippy? Some kind of spiritual alignment gimmick? No, you say? It's just a small part of it? Big or small, that's all it is, you know. A gimmick. A lie. A pipe dream extraordinaire. You're deluding yourself if you think otherwise.

Well, I got news for you, Shakespeare. I'm not putting it up with your delusions any longer. If you want to waste your life on wisps and shadows, that's your prerogative. Me? I got better things, to do. So here's the deal, friendo. You stop clickety-clacking on that computer right now or I swear, I'll get up and go. I ain't kidding this time. You see, I got my suitcases all packed and everything. Are you listening to me?

Voice? What voice? The voice is telling you to do it? Listen here, buddy. I'm the only voice that counts around here! Hearing any voice besides mine qualifies you as insane, you know. Don't pretend to ignore me! I mean it this time. You stop that typing or, so help me, I'm out of here. For good, too! Last chance! I'll count to three. One. Two.

Aw, that's it! I'm blowing out of this candy stand. You hear that? That's the cab I called. Once I walk out that door, I'm never looking back. You won't turn me into a pillar of salt with your pious creativity and wasted efforts. Well, I guess that's it then, huh? I'd like to say it was fun, but I can't. Yeah, go on ignore me. All those years, and this is the thanks I get. You no good bum! I hope the flesh falls from your fingers! Squandering your life away by dipping your quill into nothing but tears and blood. I'm better off without you, you selfish bastard. Heaven have mercy on your soul if I ever catch a glimpse of you out there.

(Angry stomping followed by door slamming.)

(Silence, followed by a sigh of relief.)

(Clickety-clack.)

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Voices in Dark Skies - S.K. Orr

5/4/2019

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S.K. Orr is an American writer, poet, and former marine who maintains Steeple Tea, a well-written and thought-provoking blog filled with stories, poems, and reflections. I became aware of S.K after he left a comment on my blog a few months ago. Since then, I have become a regular reader of what he refers to as his obscure little blog. I am particularly fond of Orr's reflective pieces, which often contain penetrating and poignant insights into life, religion, and human nature.

In an excerpt from his most recent post, Voices in Dark Skies, a low-flying mallard inspires S.K. to examine why most people rarely take the time to think before they speak:
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For some years now, I have been hyper-aware of how few people take the time to truly think about things before they try to formulate opinions. If you stand in a group and ask a question out of nowhere — “Why do you suppose women with red hair really do seem to be more gregarious? — the answers will come quickly and in battalions. But when the question is of more weight and substance than hair color — “Can we know that our sufferings have meaning, even aside from the pat answers we’ve been taught?” — the responses are no less swift and no less numerous.

But have the people tossing out the answers really stopped to think about these things? I do not believe they have. I believe people in this age have become convinced that to be unable or unwilling to articulate an instantaneous and reasonable-sounding response is a gross sin. It doesn’t matter that most snap-back answers are verbal Cool Whip. To be without a quick answer is much worse than simply offering a stupid response with boldness.

When is the last time you heard a person, after being asked an out-of-the-blue question, answer, “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about that?”

I deliberately answer in just this way when I am asked a question that catches me off-guard, and I can attest that the people doing the asking do not like it. Not one bit. To deflect a question with a stated intention to ponder carefully what the other person has asked is to say, “I’m going to slow things down, and I’m going to dissect what you asked, and why you asked, and I’m going to draw my own conclusions.” Oh, no…they’re not going to have any of that.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Read the whole thing here.

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Resistance or Collaboration?

4/4/2019

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Imagine you are a sixteen-year-old aspiring painter living in communist Hungary in the early sixties. You are talented, ambitious, and yearn to have your art recognized and celebrated.

What are your options?

You could attempt to escape the country.
Or you could abandon your ambitions or just create art privately.
Or you could pursue your ambition within the communist system.

The first option would be dangerous, perhaps deadly.
The second will not fulfill your ambitions and perhaps make you miserable.
The third would amount to collaboration, but what other choice do you have? Communism is the only system open to you, and it controls everything including education and the art world.

And would it be genuine collaboration if you secretly resisted the ideology in your own mind and thoughts?

Are those who quietly resist merely deluding themselves or is resistance, regardless of how subtle, an act of immense spiritual courage?

I explored these ideas in a brief scene I have excerpted from my novel below. I invite you to read it if you feel so inclined.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Under the watchful eye of Ms. Kálmán, Reinhardt spent several months slaving over paintings and drawings for the portfolio he would submit as part of his application to the University of Fine Arts in Budapest.

“The essence of socialism must permeate every last detail,” Ms. Kálmán said. She withdrew a large book from her desk and propped it open. Examples of socialist-realist art decorated the pages. “You see here,” she said pointing to an unnatural and idealized painting of a field with mountains in the background. “You see the pent up energy beneath the surface? The principals of socialism should be evident even in the composition of landscapes.”

Reinhardt took the book home and studied it meticulously. He absorbed the basic rules of socialist art and began sketching out some rough ideas of his own.

“What are these monstrosities?” Gertrude asked after Reinhardt had filled the table with sketch after sketch of robust, angular figures striding through fields of grain or striking grand poses before factories, shipyards, and train stations.

“Ms. Kálmán said I should idealize the human form and make every person I draw or paint should look like they had eaten communism for dinner.”

“Communism for dinner?” Gertrude said incredulously. She picked up a sketch of a masculine woman wielding a pitchfork. “In the morning, I bet this one shits nothing but red stars.”

A strange blend of shock and amusement overcame Reinhardt; it was the first time in his life he had heard his mother curse.

“I don’t approve of any of this,” she said as she placed the sketch back on the table. “It’s all lies.”

“It’s just a style of art.”

“It’s nonsense. If they accept you into this school, they’ll have you churning out this rubbish day and night until they turn your brain inside out and make you believe all of it is true.”

“I don’t believe any of this,” Reinhardt offered, his voice calm as he gingerly countered his mother’s objections. “I’m drawing these so I can get into the school.”

“This is a bad idea. I don’t know why I agreed to it. What will happen to you once you get up there?” Gertrude asked. She turned her back on Reinhardt and looked at the embroidered cloth containing the old town emblem. “Do you think they’re going to just let you do whatever your heart desires?”

“They’re going to teach me how to be an artist.”

“They’re going to teach you how to become one of them.”

“I won’t let them do that.”

“It is easy to say that now, but once you get up there they’ll figure out a way to put a red star in your head the same way the Germans who came to the village during the war succeeded in putting the crooked cross in the heads of so many. And what good did that do? Within a few months they rounded up the Jews in Pécs. Later, it was our turn.”

“I’ll pretend I have a red star in my head. I’ll play along so I can get what I need, the same way you do, the same way everyone does.” He paused for a second; Gertrude did not appear to be assuaged. “What other choice do I have? We all have to make compromises. And it’s not as bad as it used to be. You’ve said so yourself.”

“Will you be able to sleep at night knowing you’ve created nothing but lies and absurdities?”

“Will I be able to sleep at night if I don’t become an artist?” Reinhardt cried. “What will I do if I turn this down? Become a bricklayer and build garish eyesores for party members or the proletariat? It doesn’t matter because in the end I’d still be working for them, building up the world the way they want it built. You’re no different. Every morning you go out into the fields that used to be ours and you toil to fill the stomachs and fuel the hearts of true-believers and party members and Russian soldiers.” Reinhardt paused to regain his composure. He continued, in a softer voice, “Don’t you see, Mother? We like to think we’re not a part of it and that hanging a white stag on the wall and keeping our Swabian names somehow puts us above it all, but it doesn’t. We are all accomplices. Every last one of us.”

Gertrude became pale as she stared at the white stag in the old town emblem. Reinhardt shook his head and tried to refocus on his work. It took him less than a minute to realize he would be unable to do anymore that day. He dropped his pencil and grabbed his coat.

“I’m going for a walk,” he called back to his mother. “I need to clear my head.”

12 Comments

Today's Special is Lost in Translation Because of Cut Corners

3/4/2019

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When I visited Hungary thirty years ago, the only places I encountered English were hotels, tourist attractions, and the airport. A great deal has changed since then. English is ubiquitous in Hungary now and, together with German, could be considered one of the country's unofficial languages. You hear it on the streets and in the schools, and see it on street signs and restaurant menus.

Thirty years ago, English translations in Hungary were mostly awkward and amusing; today they are mostly accurate and effective. The country's development since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the rapid advancements in computer technology are the primary reasons behind the improvement in quality. Though Hungarian-to-English translation has progressed significantly since the 1990s, you can still encounter some baffling examples of mistranslated text from time to time.

Unskilled translators are the reason behind some of the bad translations, but more often than not, mistranslated or ludicrously worded translations are the direct result of corner-cutting in an effort to save money. Bigger companies and well-to-do business people can afford the high cost of professional translation services, but spending several hundred or perhaps thousands of euros to translate texts and websites is beyond the reach of many smaller businesses, particularly family-run enterprises.

Consequently, many small enterprises forgo professional translators and take matters into their own hands by uploading their business texts into online translators like Google Translate. This is a fine strategy provided the translation Google provides is then checked over by a native speaker or someone with good proofreading skills in the target language. I am not a tech expert, but to my knowledge programs like Google Translate are based on statistical machine translation. Essentially, Google Translate gathers a great deal of text, as much as it can find that seems to be parallel between the source and target languages, and then reduces this data statistically and uses algorithms to find the probability of matching words and phrases. Put bluntly, it is statistical rather than a rule-based translation, which opens up the possibility for a considerable amount of misinterpretation.

Case and point, a small restaurant in Hungary uploaded their entire menu into Google Translate and printed out the resulting translation without getting a proofreader to check it first. Needless to say, the end product contained the rather perplexing menu selection shown below:

The original Hungarian haltál két fő részére simply means fish platter for two. Yet, Google Translate somehow interpreted it to mean dead for two people - an unsavory menu selection to say the least. I thought about this for a little while and quickly realized the problem was with the first word. Google Translate likely disregarded the Hungarian word for fish platter because it was statistically underrepresented when compared to similar sounding words like meghaltál (you died) and halál (death). Hence, its algorithms chose dead over fish as the best possible match.

Now, I have not written this to mock the restaurateurs who created this menu. My family was in the restaurant business for years, so I understand how tight money can be in that industry. Nor am I merely poking fun at the mistakes people make in writing, translating, and editing, which are difficult tasks in any language. When it comes to language, errors are rather common and usually forgivable. For example, my blog posts sometimes contain errors and typos (maybe this one does, too) - not because I am ignorant of the rules, but because I am human.

The overall intent of this post is to draw attention to the unforeseen negative consequences of corner-cutting and compromises. The restaurateurs who Google Translated their menu likely did so to save money, and they succeeded in this regard. Nevertheless, the corner they cut has probably cost them dearly as I cannot imagine any foreign diner ever ordered the dead for two people. In addition, the menu faux pas brought the restaurant in question a considerable amount of negative publicity. Bad press can sometimes bring unexpected benefits, but somehow I can't imagine the negative publicity did anything more than make a laughing stock of the people who run this little eatery.

All the same, I empathize with the people who own the restaurant featuring the dead for two people dish because I have been in similar situations myself. When I finished writing my novel in 2012, I did not have the money to hire a professional editor or proofreader, so I completed the work myself.

After I published the book, I was appalled by all the errors and typos I had left in it. A few early reviews mention the many errors the text contained. Embarrassed, I gave the book to a few friends who helped proofread it. Our efforts improved the novel immensely and subsequent reviews make no mention of grammatical or typographical errors. Nonetheless, the current version of the book still contains the odd error here and there.

At one level, I am untroubled by this because you can find typos and errors in professionally edited and published books as well. Yet at another level, I know the first error-filled edition of the novel I had put on the market was entirely the fault of cut corners. I had compromised somewhere I should not have. If I had hired an editor/proofreader, I could have avoided all the trouble and the lingering doubts I still have concerning the quality of the finished product.

We do not always have a choice when it comes to getting things done. In certain circumstances, we simply must make due with certain constraints and console ourselves with the notion that poorly done is better than not done at all. At the same time, allowing for the possibility of poorly done when the means for well done are available seems both risky and foolish.

This is the cruel crux of the cut corner. In essence, it is corruption - and it is bound to have negative consequences in the end.

I wonder if the restaurateurs who created the menu above experienced the same flash of revelation once they finally understood why no Russian, German, or English-speaking guest ever ordered the delicious fish platter for two.

6 Comments

Ordinary People as Collaborators

2/4/2019

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The question of how and why ordinary citizens allowed evil to manifest on such a grand scale is a common and recurring one in the study of totalitarian regimes such as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Bookshelves and databases abound with psychological studies, sociological hypotheses, cultural conjectures, and historical documents dedicated to answering the question of how and why decent, ordinary, everyday people could permit the development of oppressive political and economic systems that culminated in the horrific mass murder of the death camps and gulags.

A great deal of the horror we experience when examining the development of murderous regimes comes from knowing that ordinary citizens from all walks of life were, to varying degrees, in on it. It does not take a doctorate in history to recognize the totalitarian regimes in question could not have succeeded if a certain percentage of the population had not, at bare minimum, indirectly supported or endorsed the noxious ideologies or succumbed to the poisonous propaganda the regimes in question spewed.

Yet, what of the people who did not support these regimes in any way shape or form? Why did they not rise up and challenge the evil en masse? A cursory look at history reveals some did, indeed, resist, but these were dealt with ruthlessly. As for the rest, they either ducked their heads in fear or remained passive as the revolting developments unfolded before them.

Analyzing the expansion of political and social evil in retrospect warps our perspective. To begin with, we tend to look back at the Nazi and Soviet regimes from what I would classify as, for lack of a better phrase, a privileged position. As citizens of the contemporary West, we feel we have evolved above and beyond the kind of evil the Nazis and Soviets epitomized. We have learned from our history and have built a civilization in which such atrocities simply could not develop or occur. We are better people possessing higher virtues, ethics, and morals. Thus, when we analyze the terrible past, we do so with considerable condescension and mild scorn.

There must have been something innately evil in them all, we conclude. Otherwise, how could it have happened? How could they have supported it? Collaborated with it? Allowed it?

As mentioned above, the answers to these questions are extremely complex, but I am going to go out on a limb and simplify the matter knowing full well that this generalized simplification does not address nor do justice to the totality of the questions raised.

As far as I can tell, the answer to the question of how and why ordinary citizens allowed or supported the strategic evil inherent in Nazism and Communism can essentially reduced to the following - they had forgotten God; they believed they were doing good.

Most modern people imagine they would have acted differently had they been alive in Hitler's Germany or Lenin and Stalin's Soviet Union. They imagine they would have recognized the ominous signs well in advance and would have resisted immediately even under the threat of possible death. Perhaps a few of them would have, but I imagine most modern people who nurse these delusions would have acted as badly or worse than the ordinary German or Russian living under the Nazis or the Soviets.

On what do I base this conjecture? On a simple premise, one encapsulated by the question below:

How many modern people are actively resisting the development of evil in our contemporary world?

Comparing our contemporary world with Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union is ridiculous! We live in a free world! We have democracies! We elect our leaders! No one oppresses us! There's no propaganda or surveillance and even if there is, it is mostly innocuous and transparent! We have human rights, diversity, inclusivity, and rule of law!

I will let the scoffs clear from the air for a moment before continuing.

You are right. It is a bit of a stretch to compare the contemporary West to two bloody dictatorships of the twentieth century. It really is a matter of apples and oranges, but I made no mention of either the Nazis or the Soviets in my question. What I wanted to know is the number of people actively resisting the development of evil in our contemporary world.

What kind of question is that? Only a few deplorables collaborate with evil now! The rest of us are all actively fighting against it! We fight against nationalism, which we label fascism! We shut down offensive hate speech! We don't allow anyone to oppress anyone else! We support open borders and safe and orderly mass migration! We abolish cruel reality and replace it with compassionate and altruistic unreality! We provide safe spaces for everyone! We endorse men who claim to be women and women who claim to be men and use legal and punitive means to punish anyone who dares to challenge this reality! We fight against the evil patriarchy and the oppression of Christianity and the family! We hire people based on everything but ability and competence! We adjust science to fit our ideological molds! We punish wasteful people to fight climate change! We rewrite history to make sure everything opposing our ideas is regarded as evil! We make a point of never allowing any evil views into the media, and if they do seep in, we attack them with the vitriol of a pack of savage dogs! We encourage children to be their real selves by giving them hormone treatments! We liberate women through abortions! We make sure children learn to be good citizens by thoroughly indoctrinating them into our narrative at schools! We only bomb evil people in the name of goodness! We hold white people accountable for their racist crimes! We have John Lennon's Imagine as our anthem! We . . .

Okay, okay. I get the point. You are right. You are resisting evil now and you certainly would have resisted the development of evil in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had you lived then.

Oh, if only you had lived then, you upright, moral, secular citizens! Your resistance and actions would have spared the world from a great deal of evil indeed!

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Nearly Four Months of Daily Blogging

1/4/2019

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Back on December 9, 2018, I sat down at the computer and wrote a post called My Blog: A Series of False Starts, in which I briefly outlined the original purpose of this blog, its inconsistent stop-and-start history, and my rather lackluster and inconsistent efforts at maintaining it. Before I wrote the blog post mentioned above, I had seriously considered killing the blog altogether, but something prevented me from doing so. In the post, I wrote the following:

Over the past six months, I have contemplated abandoning the blog altogether, but something prevents me from doing so. Though I doubt it will lead to much, I have instead decided continuing the blog, but only after I establishing a clear sense of purpose.

What is this purpose?
Truth. Beauty. Goodness.
The posts following this one will focus almost exclusively on the transcendentals.

A few days later I began posting on a daily basis with this renewed purpose in the forefront of my mind. With a few minor exceptions, I have been posting daily since then and it has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I find it difficult to describe what inspired and motivated me to write that "Series of False Starts" blog post and the consequent daily blogging that followed. I simply needed to do it, is all I can say.

Once the purpose of the blog became clear to me I had little trouble writing daily. I no longer cared about the blog's obscurity, or whether or not it was effectively promoting the novel I had written. All I cared about was writing something every day about Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.

As the weeks slipped by I noticed the blog was attracting an increasing number of readers and had caught the attention of a few fellow bloggers. Simply put, my efforts had lead to something. For the first time since I began this blog in 2012, I knew I was doing the right thing - the thing I probably should have been doing all along.

Hence, I would like to take a moment to thank those who read or have read my posts, especially those who have taken the time to post comments and interact with some of the issues and ideas I have touched upon.

I would also like to thank fellow bloggers who have shared some of my material on their sites. I feel as if I am in the orbit of a talented and inspiring group of individuals whose outlook and focus has both inspired and strengthened me. I sincerely hope this continues for a long time to come.

Most of all I would like to thank Bruce Charlton for his support and the generous efforts he has undertaken to draw attention to this blog. It has meant the world to me.

Revitalizing this blog was definitely the right thing to do. I will keep blogging daily into the foreseeable future - it seems I still have much to say concerning Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.

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Too Asinine to Be Tragic

31/3/2019

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For years I considered the current decline of the West and Western Civilization to be a tremendous historical, cultural, societal, and civilizational tragedy. Regardless of where the beginning is placed, there have been many civilizational rises and falls within the umbrella term "Western Civilization." From the ancient Greek city states to the Roman Empire to the more recent falls of dynastic royal empires in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Europe and the crumbling of the Soviet empire in the twentieth, the history of the West is filled with the ebbs and flows of rising and collapsing empires, kingdoms, and republics.

Civilizations within the West collapsed for a variety of reasons: natural disasters, invasions, over-extension, fatigue, decadence, or a combination of some or all of these factors and dozens more not mentioned. The history of the West demonstrates a simple truth - regardless of the cause or causes, all civilizations eventually collapse.

For all intents and purposes, it appears the current liberal-democratic civilization that has its roots in the Enlightenment and French and American Revolutions of the eighteenth century is rushing headlong toward collapse. This obvious deterioration once caused me a great deal of consternation because, despite all of its innate paradoxes and contradictions, I firmly believed the liberal democratic model had been and continued to be a force of good in the world.

Yet, when I take stock of the absurd and idiotic cultural and civilization pathologies liberal democracies have embraced and promulgate, I have come to one rather obvious conclusion - there is very little good in what accounts for Western Civilization today. Rather than lament the eventual collapse of this current manifestation of civilization in the West, I have come to the point where I welcome it.

Liberal democracies in the West have spun too far away from Reality in their beliefs, policies, and behaviors to make any kind of restoration or return to the real impossible. Our current liberal democratic model distinguishes itself from other fallen civilizations by being the only one that actively seeks its own destruction. The causes for Rome's decadence were many and there were elites who undermined the Empire for their own personal gain, but not to the extent our current liberal, leftist, democratic elite undermines the foundations of their own society and culture. Simply put, our rulers today follow the same strategy a deadly virus follows when it infects its host. Like a deadly virus, our current rulers will not stop until they have destroyed the thing keeping the civilization alive. Culturecide. Civilizationcide. Call it what you will - our elites will simply refer to it as progress.

Now this in itself could be regarded as tragic if the host, that is our current form of Western Civilization, was an ascending one filled with a vigorous strength of the mind and soul inspired by Reality, propelled by faith and reason, and fueled by a sincere desire for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.

Our current liberal democracies are the complete antithesis of that. In my humble opinion, things are so bad we can no longer even classify our current liberal democratic model as an example of a descending civilization. What is called Western civilization today fell out of the sky and hit the water long ago. Our civilization is submerged and sinking fast, with no bottom in sight. Yet, it will hit bottom one day, and when it does, that will officially mark the end.

What will take its place is a matter of speculation, but one must assume the worst. Our current elite are revolutionary in spirit. Their destruction of liberal democracy serves a higher purpose - the implementation of a new civilization. One can easily assume the likely form this new civilization will take.

In the future, historians will undoubtedly sift through artifacts and records from our collapsed civilization in an attempt to understand what caused our technologically advanced and materially-abundant civilization to fall apart so swiftly and dramatically and give way to the totalitarian nightmare that followed. I am certain what they discover will both puzzle and amuse them.

As unbelievable as it will seem to them, future historians will inescapably conclude that our liberal democracies were brought down by little more than a laughable assortment of hare-brained irrationalities and idiotic suppositions defiantly and hubristically imposed upon the people and Reality in the derisory name of altruism and human rights. Simply put, future historians will write us off as irrational fools because we allowed ourselves to be destroyed and enslaved by nothing more than preposterous notions and absurd political correctness.

This is why I no longer lament the eventual death of our current form of civilization. The causes leading to its eventual collapse are too asinine to categorize as tragic. Laughable? Sure. Senseless? Indeed. Silly? You bet.

Tragic? No way.

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Time Change Sunday and the Welcome End of Daylight Savings Time

31/3/2019

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I sat through Mass this morning in a comatose state; the same comatose state I experience every year when daylight savings time comes into effect in spring. The annoying, back-to-the-future habit of setting clocks ahead one hour every spring is lauded, among other things, as an amazing energy saving scheme that benefits various business sectors and improves quality of life by extending the hours of sunlight into the evening. Personally, I believe the whole affair is a ridiculous, annoying, and mildly harmful waste of time (pun very much intended)!

Readers of this blog probably know I have an extremely low opinion of the European Union, but I fully support and endorse one thing the EU has done - the eradication of daylight savings time. Last week, EU lawmakers, bless their little demonic minds, passed legislation to effectively stick a fork into the perplexing and idiotic habit of changing the clock twice a year. As of 2021, member states within the EU will have the opportunity to opt out of daylight savings time altogether, putting an end to the unnerving biannual time travel missions. Thankfully, it appears Hungary is on board, which means when I wake up in the spring of 2021, I will permanently return to being my true age after having become magically one hour younger over the course of an autumn night six months earlier.

This is likely the only time I shall ever express the sentiment I am about to express (so you might want to bookmark this page as it may gather historical significance over time), but it would be ignoble of me to not give credit where credit is due. Thusly, I congratulate the legislators at the EU - the vast majority of whom I consider evil incarnate - for passing the one good piece of legislation their poisoned little souls have ever drafted. It just goes to show, even the murky depths of evil are sometimes capable of good.

In any event, now that the EU has passed the only beneficial legislation it will ever generate, it has my full permission to collapse with all the destructive glory of an imploding star (or, more appropriately, a collapsing circle of yellow stars). After that, more good will have the opportunity to rush in and fill the vacuum the EU's Babylonian maliciousness will likely leave in its wake.

Note: Studies have shown the daylight savings time change increases the risk of heart attacks in men by 10%. I am planning to go for a 10 kilometer jog after I finish writing this blog post. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, it will be because I probably became one of these daylight savings time heart attack statistics.

Get well messages may be sent via this site.

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Check Your Resentment. Check Your Despair

30/3/2019

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"Check your privilege" has become one of Leftism's favorite go-to platitudes. Many interpret the idea in the phrase as a call for compassion - a reminder that the body and life you enter the world with possesses specific privileges that should not or do not apply to all arguments or circumstances. The phrase also challenges you to become aware of your own inherent privileges and make an effort to cast them aside to better grasp or comprehend the circumstances of another person.

The apparent compassion within the phrase is merely a thin veneer. Strip it away, and you are left with a statement saturated in resentment. The phrase is not a call for compassion, but an accusation - one demanding the accused immediately shut their mouths and keep it shut.

In an ideal world, the phrase "check your privilege" would immediately be countered with something like "check your resentment", but this is not an ideal world, and I very much doubt Leftists could ever understand the phrase "check your resentment" if they were ever confronted by it. There is no such thing as resentment in Leftism, for the Leftist interprets resentment as nothing more than a rational call for justice.

Getting Leftists to acknowledge their intrinsic resentment is probably a futile endeavor, and it seems pointless to even try. A more fruitful and necessary undertaking for those of us opposed to Leftism should be to focus on ridding ourselves of any and all resentment. This does not imply we should never feel displeased, annoyed, or outraged, but we should express these feelings with strength, nobility, and dignity untinged by weakness, vulgarity or inferiority.

We must oppose the Left. Nevertheless, we should avoid wielding the same sword the Left employs. The Left's resentment is fermented spite, contempt, and envy, and their compulsive reactions are the results of long periods of bitter contemplation. We who oppose the Left should aim to display a more dynamic confidence and fullness of being, one free of envy and malice. When we react against threats to our well-being, we must ensure our being remains grounded in and supported by ultimate Being and Reality.

In addition, we should never indulge in despair. Regardless of how hopeless and futile circumstances in the world appear. When we lose hope, even for a moment, we become cowards, and we lose that grounding and support in ultimate Being and Reality. If we lose that, we are nothing.

When the Left demands we check our privilege, we should concentrate instead on checking our resentment and despair. If we possess either, we will defeat ourselves long before the Left ever could.

Note: This post is more a note to self than it is general advice. A self-reminder, if you will.

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It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken

29/3/2019

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On what has become a day rife with disappointment, I thought a little melancholic music with an overall positive message might be in order.

Those who live or have lived in Canada will immediately recognize The Tragically Hip, an iconic rock band famous in their own country, but barely known outside its borders.

In any event, the lyrics of this song turn the title on its head by claiming "for a good life we just might have to weaken, and find somewhere to go. Go somewhere we're needed. Grow somewhere we needed."

This sounds negative at first, but it all depends on what "weakens" for the good life to become manifest. Whatever it might be, it involves going somewhere we are needed and growing once we reach that place. Hence, it is a weakening that generates purpose and growth. Whether taken literally or figuratively, I find the idea both inspiring and comforting.

Lyrics - It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken

When the color of the night
And all the smoke for one life
Gives way to shaky movements
Improvisational skills
A forest of whispering speakers
Let's swear that we will
Get with the times
In a current health to stay
Let's get friendship right
Get life day-to-day
In the forget-yer-skates dream
Full of countervailing woes
Its diverse-as-ever seen
Proceeding on a need-to-know
In a face so full of meaning
As to almost make it glow
For a good life we just might have to weaken
And find somewhere to go
Go somewhere we're needed
Find somewhere to grow
Grow somewhere we're needed

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Self-Sufficiency Daydreams

28/3/2019

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I spent most of my adult life living and working in big cities where I indulged in a recurring daydream – self-sufficient living. The grime, smog, and overcrowding of modern cities were probable sources of this yearning, but as I reflect upon it now, I realize my desire to pack it all in, move to the countryside, and establish a self-reliant form of living had more to do with my frustration and disillusionment with the modern world and my place in it than it did with any real yearning to become a self-reliant smallholder.

I nursed the self-sufficiency daydream for the better part of twenty years. Though it flared up inconstantly and intermittently – usually when I felt particularly demotivated and disillusioned by events in my day-to-day life – it was always there in the back of my mind, simmering away like a small pot of gravy on the back burner.

The daydream involved buying a parcel of land, building an off-the-grid house, learning how to farm and tend animals, and living a life in peace and tranquility far away from the maddening world. Occasionally, I invested small chunks of time into researching all of the previously mentioned points. Yet as the years ticked by, I remained in big cities and my self-sufficiency daydream remained bubbling on the back burner.

When we moved to Hungary four years ago, we spent the first year in an apartment in downtown Sopron. With a population of approximately 90,000, Sopron is a village compared to the cities we used to live in, but my wife and I had grown tired of living in apartments and urban settings, and we began to look around for a house in the countryside.

We went to view an old house with a 1500 square meter garden in a small village thirty kilometers away from Sopron. The house came complete with a well, pigsties, a small barn, a chicken coop, a smokehouse, rabbit hutches, raspberry bushes, fruit trees, and a large, neglected vegetable garden. Though the self-sufficiency daydream was more-or-less dormant in my head during this time, it did not take me long to realize the previous owner had succeeded in establishing, at bare minimum, a semi self-sufficient life for himself on the property. This recognition became a major buying point for me despite my overall abandonment of the self-sufficiency daydream years before.

Over the past three years, I have invested time and money into renovating the house, but I have left the pigsties, chicken coop, and all the rest of it neglected and unused. My wife plants a small vegetable garden every spring, enough for a few fresh tomatoes and peppers in July and August, but the vast majority of the yard remains uncultivated. The other day I experienced the following flash realization - I possess the thing for which I had yearned most of my adult life, yet I feel little motivation to utilize the potential the property offers.

As I thought about this, I slowly realized my self-sufficiency daydream always had more to do with my past situations than it did with any authentic desire to construct an independent, agrarian-based lifestyle. I now know that the self-sufficiency daydream roared like a hot fire whenever I was in situations that went against my person and destiny, and cooled considerably when circumstances aligned closer to my being.

It appears my being aligns well with my current circumstances and, for the most part, I must be doing what I should be doing because I never feel the yearning to create the kind of self-sufficient life I had daydreamed about in the past. That the means to do so are now firmly within my possession makes it all the more ironic.

In any case, I plan to fix the chicken coop this summer and landscape the yard to create a place for a huge vegetable patch I would like to plant next spring. I may not feel like becoming self-sufficient or semi self-sufficient now, but one never knows what the future may hold. One thing is certain – if I ever again feel the need to disentangle myself from the maddening world, I will not have to waste any more time daydreaming about it.

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Everybody Must Get Stoned

27/3/2019

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I don’t use recreational drugs and do not have a high opinion of them. When it comes to other people’s choices regarding their own drug use, I am somewhat indifferent and regard the matter much the same way I regard a person’s drinking habits. Having said that, I am a little uneasy about all the cannabis deregulation happening in places like Canada and the United States.

Smoking pot has long been a continental pastime in North America. A great portion of the population was getting high on pot even when it was illegal and somewhat difficult to procure. Now that it has been legalized to some degree, I imagine a greater portion of the population will indulge in weed on a consistent basis, which is all fine and well if you see no harm in a vast segment of the population being high regularly. I have no desire to wade into the “alcohol is worse than pot” debate or embroil myself in any individual rights arguments, but regardless of the substance, I do find it alarming that getting wasted has become an acceptable, perhaps even necessary, precondition for living in our modern world.

On the one hand, I see the legalization of cannabis as nothing more than an enterprising ploy to collect more taxes for national coffers as governments around the world scramble to get in on what is proving to be a formidable cash cow. On the other hand, I suspect governments in the West are using the liberalization of pot as another means through which to keep populations placated and docile. When I imagine Westerners smoking a good joint after a hard day’s work, I cannot help but think of Huxley’s soma in Brave New World. A few puffs and all problems dissolve. Everything is swell again and the world becomes a happy, peaceful place – at least until the following morning beyond which another hard day awaits.

Once again, I must stress that I am rather indifferent to the whole topic of drugs. My general view of drug use is disapproval, but I believe the choice to indulge or not indulge in drugs, or even alcohol for that matter, rests at the level of the individual. For example, I drink alcohol occasionally, but rarely to the point of total inebriation. Sure, my past is filled with its fair share of benders, but over the years, I have learned that getting sauced on a consistent basis is less than optimal and has profound negative effects on every aspect of life. In addition, I have seen my fair share of alcohol-related tragedy to recognize the danger embedded in booze. At the same time, I am somewhat perturbed by the casual belief that cannabis is essentially an innocuous drug. Perhaps it is if used infrequently it might be, but the chronic pot smokers I have known all displayed signs of weed’s adverse effects. Most prominent among these was a pronounced dulling of the mind.

Being high or inebriated alters consciousness, and perhaps there are times when an altered state of consciousness brought about by intoxication may feel good or put one in the right mood for celebration or relaxation, but I have never really understood the persistent need to alter the state of one’s consciousness through drugs or alcohol. To be sure, addiction comes into play, but in my mind, the constant desire to be drunk or high reveals something has gone terribly wrong at the spiritual level.

New streams of income aside, I suspect the Establishment is using the deregulation of banned substances as further means of population control. A “high” population is a docile and happy one, and docile, “happy” people is exactly what the Establishment is aiming for short-term. In the long-term, the Establishment is primarily interested in the destruction of souls. With increased legalized drugs, the Establishment can essentially kill two birds with one stone. It can help people cast themselves further into the pits of spiritual crisis while simultaneously and beneficently offering the populace a hedonistic means through which to escape the suffering and emptiness inherent in individual and national spiritual crises.

Stoned people are much easier to stone.

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Hungary Refuses to Get With the Program

26/3/2019

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The UN Global Compact for Migration declares migration to be "inevitable, necessary, and desirable." To a certain extent, I agree. At the level of individuals and in small numbers, migration is inevitable and, occasionally, even necessary and desirable.

Whether it is for marriage, business, job offers, travel, study, or countless other reasons people have been leaving their home countries and moving to other countries for centuries. Done correctly, legally, and in manageable numbers, this type of migration can benefit both migrants and the country accepting them.

Ideally, migrants of these kind will choose to integrate into their host countries and the host countries in turn will welcome them into their respective societies. What level of individual-based migration a given country desires or can cope with should be left up the host country to decide. So, at this level, migration is indeed inevitable and can even be necessary or desirable if the host country can accommodate migrants without destabilizing or radically altering its existing society

Yet this is not the kind of migration the UN Global Compact for Migration refers to as inevitable, necessary, and desirable. For the UN, it is mass migration that is inevitable, necessary, desirable. Those in Europe who think the mass migration event of 2015 was a one-off because of the Syrian refugee crisis are in for a rather rude awakening. Through the incorporation of the UN Global Compact for Migration, the EU has no intention of ever taking its foot from the gas pedal of mass migration. On the contrary, it intends to keep the pedal to the metal and rev the migration engine into the red zone for perpetuity.

Recent developments reveal the EU is drafting legislation to make the non-binding UN Global Compact for Migration binding for all EU states, even for countries that withdrew from the compact altogether. Several EU leaders have candidly observed that they could not conceive of any EU country not participating in some kind of migrant-sharing program, and they brand as xenophobic and racist any EU country that refuses to participate .

In a nutshell - there is a Program. That Program is mass migration to Europe. As stated above, it is being sold as inevitable, necessary, and desirable. This immediately begs a few questions.

For one, why is it inevitable? As far as I could tell, the vast majority of the migrants who successfully entered Europe only managed to do so because they were actively being transported onto the continent through one means or another. When those means were stopped, migration was reduced to a trickle. Imagine what might happen if borders were actually enforced?

Secondly, why is it necessary and desirable? Or perhaps the better question would be - for whom or what is it necessary and desirable? What necessities and desires do mass migration into Europe fulfill? The answer lies with the same people pushing the mantra of the inherent goodness of mass migration. They know exactly why it is needed and what makes it so desirable.

One thing is certain, the EU cares not one ounce for Christianity or the native European populations it pretends to represent, and it treats Europeans who express a love for their nation, culture, or Christianity with contempt and scorn.

Hungary has been at the epicenter of the EU's contempt for nearly four years because it refuses to get with the mass migration Program as demonstrated in a recent parliamentary address where the Hungarian foreign minister frankly declared the country would never allow itself to be pressured into accepting mass migration.

To some extent, Hungary already is, and always has been, an immigrant country. For example, my ancestors were of German stock. Most of the people in my village are of Croatian descent. Two or three Austrian families also make the village home and I am originally from New York City. A popular television talk show host moved to Hungary from India. Two half-Chinese brothers have been winning gold at speed-skating competitions. Walk down any street in Budapest and you are bound to encounter a few non-Hungarians who have made their home in Hungary. In most cases, these individuals have chosen to settle here and have, more or less, adapted to the culture of the country. The number who have not adapted to Hungarian culture are too few to pressure the social cohesion and traditions of the country.

Hungary's current immigration policies are designed for migration at the individual level. It accepts people through marriage to a citizen, naturalizes some citizenship applications, accepts "golden visa" applications for wealthier individuals (something I don't agree with), recently granted refugee asylum for 300 Venezuelans of Hungarian descent and, yes, even grants refuge for some who claim asylum at its borders. So in this sense, Hungary is not an anti-immigration country. What Hungary is vehemently against is the mass migration it witnessed in 2015 when over 400,000 people illegally poured over its borders as they made their way toward Germany and other EU nations.

Hungary's anti-mass migration stance is in complete opposition the UN and the EU. Unlike these two international bureaucracies, Hungary sees nothing inevitable, necessary, or desirable in mass migration. Much to the chagrin of the UN and EU, Hungary does not view mass migration as an opportunity, but as an existential threat. A small landlocked nation of fewer than ten million, Hungary's current government understands that admitting several hundred thousand or more migrants from foreign countries within a relatively short period of time would pose serious risks for the country's social stability and cohesion and, in the long term, would pose a challenge to Hungary's unique culture, traditions, and Christianity.

Hungary does not oppose mass migration because it hates people from other lands, but rather because it loves its own land and the people who live on it. A half-century ago, this sentiment would have been understood as commonsense and logical. Sadly, today it is viewed only as an admission of hatred and intolerance. The Establishment has successful inverted all values associated with patriotism. Loving your country and its people is bigoted and hateful. True love lies in sacrificing your country to the other and loving the other instead of your own. Unfortunately, many Christians have come to believe this is also the Christian thing to do.

This is value delusion of the highest kind and it has infected a great deal of people in the West. The mere thought of preferring one's countryman or woman to the outsider is enough to cast a sheen of guilt upon the hearts of many. Nevertheless, it is hardly surprising considering the half-century of indoctrination to which the nations of the West have submitted. As a consequence, many in the West see nothing wrong with the Program and are incapable of viewing mass migration as anything but inevitable, necessary, and desirable. They are also incapable of regarding anyone who objects to mass migration as anything but ignorant, racist, or simply evil as demonstrated in the short video below between CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour and Hungary's Foreign Minister, Péter Szijártó.

When Szijártó explains Hungary's wish to retain its sovereignty, homogeneity, and Christianity, Amanpour winces and snaps that she understands that, but what she really wants is to get to the bottom of that sentiment.

Translation: Your claim that you wish to preserve your country, culture, and religion is just a ruse for racism, xenophobia, and intolerance. In a word - white supremacy.

And this is the trick that keeps everyone cowering in fear of saying something deemed unacceptable. The grand value delusion of mass migration has made cowards of most of us, which is why I rather admire the upfront, blunt, honest, and unapologetic manner in which the Hungarians address the issue.

Hungary refuses to get with the Program, no matter how inevitable, necessary, and desirable it is deemed to be.

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Who is the Main Threat to the Future of Europe?

25/3/2019

1 Comment

On January 27, 2017, Viktor Orbán published an article titled "Hungary and the Crisis in Europe" in which he outlined Hungary's position on mass migration. The excerpts below are still as relevant today as they were two years ago. Say what you will about Orbán, but he is one of the few politicians in Europe who addresses mass migration with any level of honesty. He also has no qualms clearly stating where the blame for mass migration lies.

I generally do not care much for politics, but current events in Britain and Europe have imposed themselves on the spiritual in ways that simply cannot be ignored. I am convinced Brexit and the upcoming European Parliamentary elections will be critical turning points in European history, complete with spiritual repercussions that will impact future generations.

I have posted the excerpt from Orbán's article below because I doubt it received any coverage in the West outside of Hungary when it was first published. If you feel so inclined, I encourage you to read the whole article in the link above.

It is not impossible to put the brakes on mass migration. Europe is a 500-million-strong community in possession of sufficiently advanced technology, strategy, and economy to defend itself. That Brussels is incapable of organising the ranks of defence for Europe is bad news, but that it has no intention to do so is worse still. In Budapest, Warsaw, Prague or Bratislava, we find it difficult to comprehend how we have ended up in a position where we are supposed to allow anyone from another continent and culture to enter without any measure of control. How was it possible that the natural, indeed elemental, instinct to defend ourselves, our families, our homes, and our lands should atrophy in our civilization? Yet apparently it had done so.

And we discovered the fact in 2015 when everything changed overnight. The former consensus was shattered to pieces, and we awoke one morning to voices clamouring for Willkommenskultur and for changing all the previous rules and agreements in order to make good on the promise. The leaders of Europe keep telling us we must help. From the highest echelons of power, we are being entreated to open our homes in the name of solidarity.
If we hesitate to do so, we cannot be accused of callousness. We have learned the principal law of assistance: If we help them where we are, they will flock here; if we help them where they are, they will stay at home, in their native land.

Instead of recognising this truth, Brussels began to encourage people living in some of the most impoverished and hapless parts of the planet to come to Europe, trading the life they knew for something different. How could this happen?

I for one am convinced that, in Brussels and a few other European capitals, the political and intellectual elite is pitted against the majority of the people, who still nourish patriotic and commonsense sympathies. Indeed, as far as I can see, the leading politicians are aware that this division exists. If indeed that is so, it means that the real problem is not on the outside but inside Europe. The main threat to the future of Europe are not those who want to come here to live, but our own political, economic and intellectual elites bent on transforming Europe against the will of the European people.

Read the rest here.

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Plum Blossom Sunday

24/3/2019

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Wild Plum Blossoms - Stefan Conka - 2017

Blossoming wild plum trees blanket the landscape in white tufts. From a distance, the hills appear shrouded in anachronistic snow. The rest is either dormant or just awakening, leaving the plum trees to reign immaculately over the still, barren landscape.

It was the most glorious of Sundays, perfectly fitting for the first Sunday after the equinox and the full moon. In the fields, forests, and hills the plum blossoms heralded the promise of resurrected life. Wayward clouds descended to the earth singing voicelessly in a color encompassing all colors. If you listened carefully, you could hear their white whispers waft through the still air, manifesting a new symbol the first rough winds will surely dispel.

Yet, even the roughest of winds cannot shake the promise the blossoms have revealed, not even after their petals are scattered mercilessly across the land – the confetti remnants of a feast few noticed, let alone celebrated.

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