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The Most Poignant Pieta Painting?

4/21/2020

Full disclosure, nearly every representation of the Virgin Mary holding the body of Christ in her arms or lap I have ever encountered has moved me in some way. The Pieta just has a heartrending affect on me. I'm not ashamed to admit the image usually chokes me up - sometimes it even moves me to tears (which is exactly what pietas are meant to do).

The Pieta is most often a subject for sculpture - the most famous example being Michelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Nonetheless, countless painters have tackled the theme as well. Which one of these pieta paintings is the most poignant?

In my humble and uneducated opinion, this would have to be William Adolphe Bouguereau's Pieta painted in 1876.

The word pieta means pity or compassion; hence, a pieta image is meant to evoke pity or compassion (or both) in the viewer. Bouguereau accomplishes these objectives in a most effective and touching manner. The color contrast between Mary and Christ is superb. Note the motherly manner in which Mary holds Jesus, her hands clasped together around his body indicating not only her deep love but her seeming refusal to let him go.

Bouguereau places Mary and Jesus directly in the middle of the canvas and frames them in an arch of grieving angels. The mourning angels amplify the pity and sadness of the scene. Bouguereau eschews any background. Only blackness exists behind the figures. The items placed in the foreground - the crown of thorns, a bowl, jug, and sponge - remind the viewer of the crucifixion and the agony Mary must have suffered on that day as she watched her son die before her and the heartbreaking tasks that awaited her once he was taken from the cross.

The ornate, almost Byzantine-style halo draw the viewer's eye Mary's face, and this is where Bouguereau's genius in evoking pity and compassion become evident. Mary's expression is what makes Bouguereau's Pieta the most poignant. While other pietas usually feature Mary looking upon Christ or looking forlorn towards the sky, Bouguereau chooses to have Mary stare straight ahead from the canvas directly at the viewer.

As Mary fixes her mournful gaze on the viewer, the viewer is left no escape. A mere look at Mary's face is all it takes for the compassion to materialize - the viewer is practically forced into a position where he or she cannot help but feel Mary's pain and suffering. Truly affecting.

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To Those In Despair - William James Tychonievich

4/21/2020

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Pen friend and fellow blogger William James Tychonievich has a message for those who are tempted to succumb to despair - toughen up, cupcake.

Others are posting messages of comfort, but I get the distinct feeling that what some people really need is a message of discomfort -- a swift kick in the seat of the pants. So, never being one to dismiss distinct feelings, here goes.

Ahem.

Listen. You were always going to suffer and die. Everyone in your family was always going to suffer and die. Everyone you know was always going to suffer and die. All your earthly efforts were going to come to nought, your country and culture -- and, least we forget, "the economy" -- were going to degenerate and disappear, and the sun was going to expand into a red giant and consume the earth as though it had never existed. All that was always going to happen, and you knew it all along, or would have if you had been paying attention.

If you are in despair now but weren't before, you're an idiot. You do realize this game you signed up for is called mortal life, right? Did someone not explain that to you? Were you expecting something different? I don't know anything about your situation, but I know it hasn't fundamentally changed. You were born on death row. Don't you think that should have made you a little tougher than this?

As for the all the dupes and caitiffs and hypocrites and quislings you suddenly find yourself surrounded by -- I hate to break it to you, but they were already like that. All you're seeing now is what their true colors were all along. That's what the word apocalypse actually means, you know: Revelation. Revealing. Uncovering. The green field coming off like a lid. For just a second, you get a glimpse of all the men behind all the curtains in the world. The whited sepulchers may have looked nicer before they were opened, but they were full of dead men's bones all along.

Read the rest of Wm's swift kick to the seat of the pants here.

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The Double Sin of Despair Over the System

4/20/2020

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The first sin is simply the sin of despair. For any serious Christian, the mere notion of despair should be anathema. After all, how could any serious Christian ever lose hope in the example of Christ? Above all else, the Resurrection is a testament against hopelessness. When Jesus defeated death, he proved, beyond all doubt, that we have nothing to fear or feel hopeless about, neither in this world nor in life everlasting. The trials and tribulations of this world cannot destroy the next world if we follow His example and believe on Him.

The second sin is the nurturing of hope for a System that is inherently antithetical to God - that is, diametrically opposed to Truth, Beauty, and Virtue. The System is not only anti-Good, it has been meticulously engineered to actively wage war against the Good. Any experienced beneficial side effects of the System are either remnants from an earlier time (when the System itself may have been less inherently evil) or purely material by-products that offer nothing above the level of physical comfort, convenience, or pleasure.

To lose hope over a System that was designed to generate perpetual hopelessness, a System whose sole purpose in the past century (at least) has been to deny and destroy the Truth at every possible turn is akin to a Gulag prisoner losing hope in the proper, effective functioning of the Gulag that tortures him and keeps him captive.

The manner in which the System is faltering or collapsing (take your pick) is not something we should be celebrating or embracing. By the same token, it is also not something we should be resisting or despairing over. The System should have faltered or collapsed decades, nay centuries ago, but this development should have been achieved through our own willed decision to turn away from the System and establish a new mode of Being.

Yet we resisted and rejected that much needed shift of consciousness every time the opportunity to take it up arose. Instead of committing to this much-needed and, at times, sorely overdue consciousness shift we chose instead to double-down on our hope in the System. What we are experiencing now is an epic case of reaping what we have sown. Rather than despair, we should be feeling sorrow and shame - sorrow and shame that we collectively ever allowed ourselves to become materially-enslaved to such evil.

The faltering or total collapse of the System will undoubtedly generate much discomfort, hardship, and pain . . . perhaps even death. It is difficult and unsettling to consider what may await us all - our family, friends, loved ones, and the countless people we don't know - as the System continues to crumble, but we must never forget that all hope in the System is fundamentally sinful and misguided. The System was designed to abandon us. The System was designed to work against us. Hope in the System is, at best, hope invested in totalitarian, bureaucratic tyranny; at worse, it is hope invested in something even more sinister.

Any feeling of despair over the System is a declaration of the victory of evil. Hope, faith, and love are crucial in the here and now, but we should remain vigilant about where we place our hope, faith, and love.

God is a loving Creator. He will never abandon you. He will never work against you. He will arrange the material world in such a way that it becomes what each of us needs to nurture our continued spiritual growth and development. Our continued spiritual growth and development may not necessarily entail our continued material growth and development. This is a difficult pill to swallow for some Christians, but swallowed it must be.

God will never abandon us. God will never work against us. We must remember not to abandon or work against Him. In fact, the time has come to take up the cause our ancestors neglected to take up and begin working with Him creatively. That requires a total shift in consciousness, but that is what is needed, now more than ever.

Note added: Any feeling of despair, especially despair for the System, must be repented. We are all bound to taste despair in the weeks and months ahead. Having said that, it is one thing to taste despair and repent it; it is quite another thing to taste despair and then voluntarily feast on it.

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Some Spiritual Implications of Project Despair

4/19/2020

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When the birdemic 'crisis' broke, Bruce Charlton published a post in which he implored people not to succumb to fear and despair. Since then, we have witnessed and experienced the unbelievable success of the Fear Regime, which evil has utilized to pull of the greatest totalitarian coup the world has ever seen. Though the Fear Regime is still going strong, it has begun making room on the global stage for the next phase in the demonic strategy of mass soul damnation. Dr. Charlton has referred to this next phase as Project Despair.

Despair is a state of hopelessness. It can be triggered by a variety of factors and exists at the individual or small group level even during the best of times. But these are anything but the best of times. For the first time in my living memory, the stage has been set for potential mass despair at the global level; and by mass despair I mean millions or billions of people all across the world becoming simultaneously infected by hopelessness.

At its core, despair is a spiritual problem, but the vast majority of people in our despiritualized world refuse to recognize it as such and tend to attribute despair solely to various biological, psychological, social, or economic factors. For the sake of consideration, let's follow this line of thinking and focus almost exclusively on material factors.

As alluded to above, the vast majority of modern people are materialists; that is, they wholeheartedly adhere to the theory that fundamental reality is restricted to physical matter and the various interactions and movements of physical matter. As a result, modern people generally reject spiritual values and stress the value of physical comfort and material possessions.

Materialism is essentially a theory of meaninglessness for it can provide no answer to the question of the underlying purpose for the existence of the material world. For the materialist, everything - including consciousness and emotions like love - is just the result of stuff interacting with other stuff. Therefore, the only meaning a materialist can hope to find in world made of nothing but stuff is to divide the world into good stuff and bad stuff. As a result, materialists strive to accumulate or enjoy the good stuff - possessions, property, pleasure, status, and so forth - while simultaneously avoiding as much of the bad staff - poverty, illness, depression, disempowerment, etc. - as possible.

Despair is a tricky issue for materialists because the fundamental meaninglessness of their philosophy is inherently despair-inducing to begin with. The only hope materialism can offer its worshippers are the physical possibilities of possessions, power, and pleasure. In theory, hope remains viable as long as the possibility for material gain remains viable.

The problem with materialism is that physical possessions, power, and pleasure rarely provide lasting fulfillment; the kind of fulfillment that can only stem from true meaning and purpose. The accumulation of possessions only breeds a desire to accumulate more possessions. The acquisition of power often leads to the motivation to expand power or, conversely, to the fear of losing power already obtained. Pleasures rooted purely in the physical tend to fade rather quickly, spurring the need for new pleasures more exciting or exotic pleasures. This is the only real hope materialism can offer.

Sounds good, right? Well it must because over the past two or three centuries it has become the dominant theory driving our civilization. Simply put - as far as most modern people are concerned, materialism has triumphed. Despite this, there is one thing over which materialism cannot triumph - death. For materialists, death is an outrage - the ultimate insult. It nullifies the shining beacon of hope materialism projects. In the end, the power, pleasures, and possessions a person has accumulated and experienced are rendered null and void. The person simply ends. Nevertheless, the beacon of materialist hope remains as long as the person remains - in theory at least.

Put another way, hope for materialists is delicately tied to the prospect of acquiring or enjoying stuff. But what happens to this hope when all prospects fade or disappear? Even worse, what happens when these diminishing prospects coincide with actual material losses? Well, if history is any guide, such conditions offer a severe challenge to the hope materialism extends to its followers. Of course, these challenges occur all the time at the individual level even during the best of times. A lost job or a bad investment or a divorce are all stress tests to a materialist's hope. If hope begins to fade, the materialist can always seek distraction through pleasure or intoxication, which is a go-to strategy for many a materialist. But if hope continues to fade, the materialist is ultimately left in a state of despair.

Because materialists reject the existence of the other-wordly (supernatural), any hope they can nurture is inevitably tied to this-world (natural). Consequently, their hope and faith in materialism is put to the test every time the world turns against them. Under these conditions, clinging to hope becomes a real challenge for materialists, and whatever hope they manage to sustain depends heavily on their ability to locate further material possibilities - comfort, pleasure, gain, etc.

I mention this all of this because the birdemic lockdown has turned the material world against us all in these past five or six weeks. People have just recently started waking up to the economic devastation the lockdown is causing. Over 20 million people have been thrust into unemployment in the United States alone. Goodness only knows what these numbers might be in other countries. Add a potential avalanche of destroyed small businesses, loan defaults, and other calamities to the list and you have all the ingredients needed for mass suffering at the material level - mass suffering that may very well precipitate mass despair.

As mentioned earlier, despair is fundamentally a spiritual problem. The fact that most modern people do not recognize it as such is a major victory for the forces of evil (of course, the fact that most people are materialists is also a major victory for evil). People who regard despair as a purely material phenomenon and seek to escape despair by purely material means have already potentially damned themselves because they refuse to accept two inescapable truths: despair is a sin; despair can only be avoided by belief in something beyond the worldy.

For people like this, despair becomes a pain threshold. Their ability to endure despair will depend heavily on purely biological, psychological, and physical survival instincts. Under these conditions, materialists will be perpetually alert to the existence of anything that might offer the slimmest glimmer of hope - anything that might be able to alleviate their material suffering and restore their faith in the material world.

The forces of evil are keenly aware of this and will work hard to formulate a purely material panacea that promises to remedy a great deal of the physical discomfort and material hardships people are experiencing or will experience. Of course, this panacea will come with a price. That price will be the total surrender of human freedom and, more significantly, the surrender of the soul.

Materialists damn themselves by refusing or rejecting all notions of a spiritual solution to their material suffering. By repudiating the existence of the other-worldy and making this repudiation the basis of their hope in this-world, materialists effectively fall into the despair deathtrap evil has set for them for they become eternally blinded by the borders of biological death.

Evil uses the trick of materialism to negate the Truth. Evil then uses materially-induced despair to veil the spiritual hope Reality offers through Christ and the Promise of Heaven. Nevertheless, not all materialists are not lost cases. There is a chance some may discover true hope within the depths of despair. If they do, they will take the first step out of the worldly deathtrap and begin their journey toward everlasting life.

Understanding the obvious limits, those of us who believe in the primacy of the spiritual must do all we can to inspire those caught in the deathtrap of despair, even if this inspiration comes only through the form of prayer. At the same time, Serious Christians must find ways to help people out of the deathtrap. They also must remain vigilant about succumbing to despair themselves. After all, despair is a grievous sin - but I'll leave that for another post.

Note added: This post was partly inspired by my previous post on the subject, the comments Bruce Charlton left on that post, and the many posts Dr. Charlton has published on the subject over the past few months.

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Despair is a Deathtrap

4/18/2020

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We are experiencing how a materialist culture and civilization that has turned its back on God responds to calamity.

Emboldened by a demonically-possessed elite, our civilization has rejected all meaning, religion, and tradition in the blind belief that materialism and the pursuit of pleasure alone would provide for and fulfill all of humanity's needs.

The problem is they don't.

And they never will.

Possessions and pleasure serve a purpose in life, but are not and cannot ever be the sole purpose of life. The irony of possessions is this: you start off possessing them, but they end up possessing you. And no matter how much you love them, they do not and cannot love you.

Pleasures, though quixotically addictive and fun, tend to fade rather quickly if they are not supported by the primacy of the spiritual. The void left behind immediately demands newer and newer pleasures until the idea of pleasure recoils back upon itself, becomes utterly perverted, and becomes saturated with sadism.

What remains after possessions turn cold and pleasures run black? More to the point, what remains after these possessions vanish and pleasures are withdrawn? What is left when the material is snatched from the materialists?

Not much. Nothing, in fact - as many of us are about to discover.

This point marks the border of nihilism, the vast poisonous belief desert of nothingness which inevitably leads to despair.

What is despair?

The complete loss of hope; the anguish of believing all has been lost; the torture of believing nothing can be done to save the present or the future. Poisonous whispers of crossing vast, hostile deserts without water; of being trapped in limitless oceans with no land in sight.

Despair is ultimate surrender; bitter capitulation; agonizing renunciation. The abandonment of hope. The rejection of faith. The refusal of love.

Against Good, a grievous sin. For evil, a most-coveted prize.

Past societies had built-in safety mechanisms to combat such torment, but our modern society has contemptuously cast these aside thinking, rather foolishly, that the fight against despair is one it would never have to fight. And in the unforeseen event that it would, it was assured that materialism and pleasure alone would provide it with all the weapons needed to win the battle.

Our modern society has been misled - and it has been misled in the most reprehensible and sinful manner it could possibly be misled.

People will be encouraged to despair as the wave of material catastrophe crashes over them - and many will find no other response than to despair. As their material worlds recede, they will allow the darkness of despair to corrode them until they crater like imploding stars and meekly surrender to evil the prize it seeks.

This why the rediscovery of faith, hope, and love are crucial - here; now. Faith, hope, and love are purpose and meaning and give us lives worth living and dying for.

Faith, hope, and love confirm that we can never be defeated even when it appears that we have been. All three are crucial and all three are needed; perhaps now more than ever.

Note added: This is a slightly modified re-post of an earlier post from this blog.

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There is Virtue in Fighting - S.K. Orr

4/16/2020

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For over week I have wanted to write a blog post about the virtue of toughness; more specifically, the Christian virtue of toughness - but my mind got tugged into other concerns and issues. Well, pen friend, blogger, and writer par excellence S.K. Orr has beaten me to the punch (pun very much intended).

In a suggestively titled post called Pugilistic-19, S.K. very perceptively criticizes the aversion most modern men show for standing their ground and throwing down. Though S.K. focuses specifically on physical fighting in this piece, the analogy he draws as he explores modern man's distaste for fisticuffs and self-defence requires no great effort of the imagination to unearth (bold added by me):

It seems to me in today’s soft culture, most men have no idea how to fight nor any inclination to do so, except when they’re adequately beered-up and someone insults their favorite sports team or catcalls the provocatively-dressed female they might be escorting at the moment.

The church and/or Christianity seems to have been very influential in this denaturing of male aggression during my lifetime. Indeed, most Christian men I know seem deeply uncomfortable discussing the topic of fighting or personal violence. This is a profound mystery to me.

Rail-thin as a teenager, I learned to fight early and got pretty handy at it. Violence was a natural part of my world, though the type of violence was a universe away from what transpires on the streets today. Most of my friends owned firearms; it was quite common to receive a .22 rifle or .410 shotgun as a twelfth birthday gift, whether new or handed down from father or grandfather. But not one incident of gun violence was ever recorded in my hometown when I was a teenager, even though we were all normal, healthy redneck boys. Nor were knives common. Almost all boys carried a pocketknife, but the idea of pulling one out during a fight was seen as cowardly, the sort of thing some oily Yankee hoodlum in Noo Yowrk City would do. The ability — and willingness — to dust knuckles was a mark of masculine virtue in the shaded, sidewalk-belted streets where I came of age.

And though I am old now, and if physically attacked would have to seriously harm the other person instead of just testing my abilities to put him on his backside (“fighting” per se is a young man’s game, as opposed to true physical combat), I often size up other men, watching how they move, how they carry themselves, where their eyes go, how focused or frivolous they seem to be, and I think, “I could take him,” or “That guy would fold me up and put me in his pocket if we buckled right here.”

But I don’t sense this in most men these days, even those near my age. They seem to have been…bled out in some fashion. And younger men seem positively neutered. I watch men and wonder what they would do if someone menaced their woman or their children. I sincerely hope I’m wrong about my conclusions and assumptions.

There is a thrill, a savage kind of joy that overtakes a man in a real fight. The oft-repeated descriptions of tunnel vision in combat, that narrowing down of focus to the point where only the opponent exists –this is in my experience generally accurate. When that first blow is attempted and landed, the entire body seems to fill with blood and spirit, and time slows down, and all things become clear. When the first blow is received, the spirit fights its own instantaneous battle – do I fold, do I flee, do I counterattack? – and then that remarkable brew of experience, instinct, and bloodlust floods the body and seems to take over. Japan’s greatest feudal swordsman, the incomparable Miyamoto Musashi, once wrote,

“When I stand with my sword in hand against a foe, I become utterly unconscious of the enemy before me or even of my own self, in truth filled with the spirit of subjugating even earth and heaven.”

While I have never experienced a complete disconnect from the opponent before me, I have known something of the transport, the transcendence Musashi described. And those who have been taught or have somehow come to believe that violence is per se wrong and unChristian can only see physical combat as a negative thing, even sinful. This baffles me.

The genetic delicacy and preserve-my-life-and-health-at-all-costs mentality of today’s man is a pure impediment to his wholeness as a child of God. I believe this with my whole heart. But how to remedy it? I have no answers. Having lived a life full of conflict and having accepted it as natural and even good, my attempts to rouse a man’s interior martial spirit would be like trying to tell a deaf man to listen up.

Today’s men, those who have eschewed the martial spirit, are a curious, alien bunch to me. They lack something that I honestly didn’t think a man could live without. They worry me. But I worry even more about their women and their children. No man should ever fight another man over a sports team, or an insult, or a casual date. Likewise, wives and children should know absolutely for certain that their husband, their father, will maim any man who tries to harm them, or be maimed himself in the attempt. This is not phony-tough talk. This should be the reality of all those with a Y-chromosome into whom the living God has breathed His breath. It should be as natural as raised hackles.

I hesitate to add anything to what S.K. has written. Partly because he has pretty much said all there is to say on the topic, and partly because he has said it all very effectively.

Nevertheless, I think S.K. would agree with me when I say his post is not meant to be taken as a reckless incitement to aggressive physical violence. This isn't about running around and randomly knocking heads or starting fight clubs. Nor is it a call to arms, so to speak.

It is, however, to be taken as an acerbic but completely accurate assessment of the seeming unwillingness of Christians, Christian men in particular, to take a stand and defend themselves, their loved ones, and their faith when required. Taking a stand and defending also extends beyond the physical.

True Christians accept the primacy of the spiritual, but accepting this primacy should not involve utter passivity and timidity in the physical world. In fact, displaying nothing but passivity and timidity in the physical is a sure sign that one has not accepted the primacy of the spiritual at all because such acceptance entails a certain degree of moral, physical, and spiritual courage.

Note added: I have never had the pleasure of meeting S.K. in person, but our correspondence and the work he posts on Steeple Tea have revealed him to be one of the humblest and gentlest souls I have ever known. By the same token, he is also an ex-marine and possesses a considerable martial arts background. I'm no slouch myself, but I have a feeling S.K. could kick my ass without breaking much of a sweat. Simply put - despite his external mannerisms and innate sensitivity, S.K. is one tough customer - both physically and spiritually. We should strive to be tough customers as well - especially now, in this time and place. To do otherwise is un-Christian.

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Bodies or Souls? William Wildblood Explores A Crucial 'Corona 'Crisis' Question

4/15/2020

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Pen-friend and fellow blogger William Wildblood published a great post today, one in which he asks a crucial question most people, self-professed Christians and organized Christian institutions among them, have all but sidestepped or ignored:

There is much debate, though not in the mainstream media, about whether the severity of the Covid 19 coronavirus is sufficient to justify the current global lockdown with the disastrous effect that will have on the economy. Are the death rates so bad, or could they potentially be so bad, that we should cripple ourselves for what might be the foreseeable future?

I have come to believe that this is irrelevant. The coronavirus is not important. Whether it is just a bad flu or something more serious is really just a secondary issue. What is important is our reaction to it on a spiritual level. The fact is that we, the collective we, have no real spiritual beliefs at all and that applies to us whether we are the typical modern agnostic or the conventional religious believer or the 'spiritual' New Age type (or whatever the current version of that is). We all react to this crisis on a purely materialistic level, thinking only of the safety of our bodies. That is why we are so easily persuaded that protection, of ourselves and our medical systems, is paramount and everything else must be subordinated to that. It is why we willingly hand ourselves over to state supervision.

But what about our souls? Where do these come in?

Good question. Where do souls come in to all of this? For the answer, read the rest of William's excellent post here.

For my own part, I have been harping on about the importance of the spiritual in all of this for a better part of a month. The spiritual level - your soul - is the only level at which anything that is happening now matters.

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A Beautiful Sight Reminds Me of a Fundamental Spiritual Truth

4/15/2020

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Madonna and Child - Il Sassoferrato

Over the past month I have been working from home, and during this time I have been privy to observing, on an almost daily basis, one of the most beautiful sights the world has to offer - young mothers caring for and playing with their small children. Several young women in the village I call home are mothers to toddlers and preschoolers, and on sunny, warm days - of which we have had many - I see them out in front yards or in the street, playing, walking, laughing, exploring, singing.

Occasionally I'll see an entire family walking hand-in-hand or out on bicycles. Sometimes the little ones are up on their fathers' shoulders or nestled in prams. Cherry blossoms bloom quietly in the background and the sound of birdsong fills the air. If the lockdown has had any positive effects, seeing the happiness of families being together is foremost among them. I have certainly enjoyed the extra time I have been able to spend with my wife and son, and when I see the young mothers with their children outside my window, I am reminded of those sacred, tender times when my little guy was still a baby.

The lockdown and everything associated with it did not originate from Good, but this does not entail that Good cannot arise from it. If any Good has arisen from the birdemic crisis and stay at home measures, I hope it will be in the form of renewed and fortified love within families.

The war against family has been vicious and prolonged, yet the lockdown and stay at home measures appear to have offered some moments of reprieve - a chance for individuals to strip away temporal stupidities and evils plaguing them and deepen their connection to a crucial and fundamental metaphysical and spiritual reality - a crucial and fundamental metaphysical and spiritual reality William Arkle addresses with great clarity in his work, Letter From a Father:

One of the most important ways I have chosen for you to learn what is vital for your understanding is to find yourself a part of a family situation on earth, for here you are able to go through the experience in one single lifetime, and with unbroken continuity, the experience of being a child, a mature individual and a parent.

In this situation, if you will only learn to pay close attention to it, are all the mysteries of the universe that matter to you.

If you take the trouble to stand apart and observe closely all the relationships that exist in your family situations, you will be able to observe as completely as you will how the problems of life arise, why they arise and how they are solved.

The family situation is a very special gift to you and one day you will be surprised that you took it so for granted.

The family situation is veritably a very special gift, and it is my deepest hope that many have used the events of the past month of 'staying at home' to rediscover this profound truth. Everyone seems to understand the temporal and material justifications for family - procreation, protection, economic benefit, etc. - but it seems an increasing number of us are forgetting the spiritual aspects of family, which is precisely what Arkle draws our attention to in the passage above.

The family situation is the foundation of spiritual learning for it contains all the mysteries of the universe that matter to you as an individual. Even individuals who have no family of their own can harken back to their childhoods, to their experiences of being children, of having parents or a parent.

Put simply - the family is the bedrock of Truth, Beauty, and Virtue. It has been and remains the foundation of Goodness. I am reminded of this everyday when I see the young mothers and children or families outside my window or when I spend a sunny afternoon with my wife and son.

Evil is working feverishly to foment chaos in the world, but its efforts have generated a most unexpected and, likely, unintended side effect - the potential strengthening of families. I take this as a sign of grace, and I hope people are taking full advantage of it because I have a feeling family will play an even more vital role going forward. In fact, I would go as far as to say family (and some trusted close friendships) may be all that matters in the months and years ahead. The seed of any future worth having is nested inside these close, concrete interpersonal relationships based on love.

Of course, not everyone thinks the potential strengthening and deepening of families during the birdemic is a good thing. On the contrary, some believe the birdemic crisis presents the perfect opportunity to do away with family once and for all, as demonstrated by this erudite "family-abolition scholar" who has recently been making the rounds after having completed a book on the subject.

Some of my readers are averse to considering the reality of demons and demonic possession. This short interview might just inspire some of these readers revisit their assumptions.

Evil hates families and thinks we deserve more.

I don't know about you, but I find Arkle's vision far more inspiring and beautiful.

To say nothing of true.

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The Effectiveness of the Fear Regime Nullifies "That Will Never Happen"

4/14/2020

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The birdemic virus is real. I know a few people who have contracted it and recovered from it. Their experiences of being infected ranged from "nothing worse than a common cold" all the way to "I've never been so sick in my life." Yes, the birdemic virus is real and, yes, it can make you ill. If you are elderly and/or suffer from other health issues, the virus can even precipitate death. So there you have it - the birdemic virus is definitely real.

Taking the above into account, I have found the level of concern elites the world over have broadcast during the birdemic crisis to be unreal. That is not to say that none of them care about the well-being of their citizens; perhap a few of them actually do. Notwithstanding, it strikes me as odd that this concern would express itself in what amounts to prison and terror tactics.

Let's be honest, the swift implementation of a fear regime has been the most common response to the birdemic virus. The ruling class and the media have essentially scared the population into total submission, which is rather troubling considering the perceived threat the birdemic virus poses and the subsequent responses to this perceived threat have both been wrong.

The fear regime has managed to grind the world to a halt instantly and has kept it in what amounts to suspended animation ever since. But even fear has its limits, which might help explain why some countries around the world are considering lifting their lockdowns, fully or partially, in the very near future. Either way, a tidal wave of unimaginable and unthinkable actions and events have transpired over the past month, events and actions with which most of us are still struggling to come to terms.

The big question on everyone's mind is what happens next? Will things return to normal as some pundits claim? Or will a new outbreak send us all scurrying back to our homes after a week or two? Or will we emerge from our homes only to face an unimaginable economic and financial cataclysm?

No one knows for sure. Despite this, and after all that has happened, I am still amazed by the things people claim to be sure about. I am not an overly pessimistic person, nor I am a paranoid, but if the lockdown and the fear regime that inspired it has taught me anything this month it's this - I now live in a world which the inconceivable has become perfectly conceivable.

I mean, who among us would have believed we would be spending most of Lent in what amounts to a state-enforced curfew and lockdown? Who among us could have guessed all major professional sports leagues would suspend their seasons for weeks on end with no plans to restart them in sight? Who could have fathomed churches around the world would be forbidden from holding services within the confines of their walls?

If I told you a month ago that in a month's time half the people you would encounter in the street or a grocery store would be wearing face masks, you would have smirked and said, "What? That will never happen!" I would have been inclined to express the same notion. Yet here we are. That will never happen has happened. And as far as I'm concerned, the success of the fear regime ensures "that will never happen" will keep happening until each day is reduced to the level of a mind-numbing surprise.

At a deep level, I feel the successful implementation of the fear regime was a massive test whose main purpose was to gauge our collective reactions to a series of inconceivable "that will never happen" events.

If the birdemic was a collective test, we failed - epically.

Despite this massive failure, most people I encounter continue to cling to "that will never happen" notions. For example, I was speaking to a neighbor the other day and we got to talking about jobs and unemployment. I expressed doubt about my part-time job in Austria. True, I teach online at the moment, but I have no idea what September may bring. After all, the university is closed. The border between Austria and Hungary is closed. The economies of both countries are set to take massive hits. Taking all this into account, there's a chance I might be let go come September, but when I told my neighbor as much he dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand, "Aw, that'll never happen," he said.

At first I thought he was just trying to comfort me, but as we continued speaking it became clear that he really believed my job would be secure in September. In all fairness, I hope he's right, and I appreciate his optimism, but his certainty about the future - especially set against the backdrop of what we have just experienced - started me thinking.

How can people who have experienced a month of prolonged Establishment-sanctioned hysteria and terror continue to have faith in the Establishment's integrity? How can they be so assured of things the Establishment will never do? How can they still believe in lines the Establishment won't cross? How can they still believe in a return to normal in a few weeks' time?

The answer? Simple. They don't see the evil unfolding before them. Bruce Charlton elaborated this point on his blog today. His insights penetrate into what fuels the "that will never happen mindset":

Indeed, most people cannot conceive that the largest, most powerful, most influential people and organisations can have evil intent - except perhaps some of the large corporations. When it comes to Western Governments, mainstream mass media, charities and NGOs, Global Establishments such as the United Nations and its World Health Organisation - people will not recognise evil intent; and no amount of evidence will ever change their minds; because they assume (metaphysically) that these organsations are necessarily well-motivated.

Well, for better or for worse, I don't fall into that category; which is why I remain perfectly open to the possibility of things "that will never happen" happening. In fact, over the past month, I have almost come to expect it.

If "that will never happen" still exists, it exists only within ourselves now - within our own thoughts, beliefs, and actions. I imagine the day will come when all of us will have the chance to show evil what "that will never happen" truly means. I pray we all possess the faith, hope, and love required to ensure whatever these "thats" end up being "will truly never happen."

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A World of Eyes Without Faces - Systematic Dehumanization During the Birdemic Crisis

4/13/2020

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It's early days yet, but I posit the face/surgical mask will become the lasting symbol of the birdemic totalitarian takeover.

For a while it appeared toilet paper might take the prize, but the desperation over clean backsides appears to have abated. By the same token, an obsession for wearing face masks in public has become more intense and widespread. Some clever companies have even begun creating stylish face masks for fashionistas who simply refuse go out into the street unless their masks match their shoes.

As far as I know, the wearing of face masks was already an established custom in countries like China, Japan, and South Korea well before the birdemic takeover, but the trend never really caught on in the West. Well, the birdemic appears to have changed all of that. I can't say for sure, but I have a feeling face masks will remain a part of everyday life in Western countries long after the ridiculous panic and fear subsides.

In some circumstances I am sure a face mask can offer the wearer some protection against airborne viruses or help protect others against the wearer's germs, but as is the case with almost everything in life, certain criteria and methods need to be in place in order for the practice to prove effective. I am no medical expert, but I am under the impression that only a few of the masks out there offer any real protection. I also suspect face masks often offer no protection or do more harm than good. For example, people don't always wear the masks properly or end up touching their faces far more than they would under normal circumstances.

The effectiveness of face masks is debatable. What is not debatable is the sense of security it appears to provide the wearer. Let's face it, the birdemic has struck abject terror in the general population. People appear willing to do anything to reduce their risk of being infected by the virus. Some countries have mandated people wear face masks when they go out in public. Perhaps they believe masking everyone will create an aura of safety and responsibility. I don't know.

But I do know this - I don't like face masks in public. There is something inherently dehumanizing about masking the human face. A crucial channel of communication and existence is denied when the human face is hidden. True, eyes are the windows to souls, but faces are windows to human personality.

Stop and think about all the non-verbal communication a human face is capable of transmitting; this non-verbal communication is a vital part of the human experience. Facial expressions often reveal as much if not more than mere words can, especially when it comes to emotions. A deep frown or a gentle smile broadcasts far more than a verbal expression of sadness or pleasure ever could. The human face is an important and powerful channel, one we all use to interact with others and the world. Faces contain critical reservoirs of information that help us read and interact with others; that important channel is now being veiled from sight.

This may sound overly dramatic to some, but I believe the measures taken in response to the birdemic crisis all contain purposive dehumanizing elements. In fact, I would go as far as to claim that the entire process has been intentionally dehumanizing right from the start. Put another way, the mandated responses are deliberately and systematically humiliating us and depriving us of essential positive human qualities and rights, both individually and collectively.

Lockdowns, social-distancing, work-from-home, church closures, face masks, and all the rest of it can all be rationally explained away at the temporal level; and this is exactly what most people appear to be doing as they passively accept whatever restrictions are imposed upon them. But can the same be said for the spiritual level?

I view the birdemic response as an intrinsic part of our current spiritual war. Seen from this perspective, the demonically-inspired dehumanizing elements within most of the measures we have all been ordered to take become glaringly obvious. A trace of humiliation stains all of it. Humans are social creatures, yet we are being ordered to social distance; to limit all non-essential travel and meetings with others; to avoid gathering in groups of more than two or three. Even when we are in public, we are being mandated to keep a two meter distance between ourselves and others. And when we are out in public, what do we see? Masked people. Eyes without faces. All the while, less visible forms of pernicious dehumanization are quietly taking place in the background as people are deprived of their jobs, businesses, and livelihoods.

As I have already stated, there is something fundamentally dehumanizing about all of it - but I find the masked faces particularly troubling. We are made in God's image and faces are a big part of that image, yet that image is being masked and hidden from view. When we hide the human face, we are, in essence, hiding God.

That might sound a little over the top, but that's how I feel about it. The other restrictions may eventually be eased or lifted to some extent, but I have a feeling the face masks will stay even after the supposed danger has passed.

George Orwell said that if we wanted to see a vision of the future, we should imagine a boot stomping on the human face forever, but Orwell never could have imagined the human face would be masked.

A boot stomping on a masked human face forever - that will become the symbol of the birdemic totalitarian takeover. Count on it.

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On a somewhat silly side note, Billy Idol's song Eyes Without a Face takes on a whole new dimension within the context of a permanently masked public. The song obviously has no direct connection to the birdemic crisis or face masks, but some of the lyrics extend beyond the song's original framework of detailing a betrayed/tainted love relationship:

Eyes without a face
Got no human grace
You're eyes without a face
Such a human waste
You're eyes without a face

And now it's getting worse

Note added: The only humanizing effect of the current lockdown I can think of is increased family time at home. Let's hope and pray that is not disrupted while the lockdown measures are in effect.

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