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Don't Bind Yourself To Joy, But Kiss It As It Flies

7/30/2020

I spent a bit of time contemplating the nature of joy today and arrived at the following thoughts:

1. Christianity is a religion of joy. How could it not be? But the joy permeating Christianity extends well beyond the joy we experience during our transitory mortal lives.

2. Christians must not limit their experience and comprehension of joy to this world in much the same way they must not limit their experience and comprehension of life to this world. To do so would entail restriction and over-attachment to the joys of this world, nearly all of which are ephemeral. Over-attachment to temporal joys could perhaps even lead to the pursuit of hedonism and a subsequent weakening of Christian life.

3. Detachment from and denial of temporal joy is not the answer. Christians should embrace all worldly joys that are aligned with Divine Will and Creation, but they should do so from the perspective of love. In other words, allow themselves to 'enjoy' worldly joy as an unenduring blessing/experience. They should not try to trap, preserve, or cling to the blessing/experience, but grant it the freedom to live out its course. Doing so should provide a glimpse of the enduring joy of eternal life based in freedom.

As I finished thinking about these things, it quickly dawned on me that the thoughts were not my own (which is the case with about 99.7635% of my thoughts), but rather the reformulated lines of William Blake's short poem, Eternity:

He who binds himself to joy
Does the winged life destroy
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise

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Magyars Make A Mockery of Mask Wearing

7/29/2020

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Nearly every school I worked in back in my high school teaching days had some form of mandatory uniform policy in effect; and nearly every student at every one of those schools made a point of violating the policy every chance he or she could. Ties were loosened or lost, shirts were wrinkled or untucked, school crest patches were vandalized or blotted out, skirts were hiked or cut along the sides, and inappropriate leggings or jewelry were worn. Though some of these infractions could be attributed to teenager slovenliness, most were the result of a quiet, premeditated, but glaringly obvious form of protest and rebellion against authority.

I see the same phenomenon in play here in western Hungary with the mandatory wearing of face masks. As is the case elsewhere, Hungarians are required to wear face masks every time they enter a public place or private business. This includes most stores, offices, and forms of public transport. Hungarians in this area technically abide by the face mask rules, but like the uniform-wearing high school students I used to teach, the vast majority of Hungarians here make an absolute mockery of the mandatory policy that has been forced upon them.

The illustration above offers a good visual representation of what I tend to encounter whenever I enter a grocery store. For every person who properly wears a mask there are five others doggedly making a mess of it. The most common purposive mask fail is the exposed nose, which is quite popular among the elderly and women. A lot of men - yours truly among them - opt for the 'mask the chin' look, which keeps the mask somewhat on the face while simultaneously keeping the appearance of machismo and toughness intact. The masking of the nose but leaving the mouth exposed is a hit among smokers and the loquacious. A great many employees within the stores are big fans of the 'mask hanging from my neck like a chain' style. If there is an improper way to wear a mask, you can bet your bottom dollar a Magyar will take advantage of it.

Though I'm sure this sort of mask semi-compliance/disobedience is universal to some degree, here in Hungary it has taken on a luster all its own. Improper mask wearing has become a sort of duty abiding by some unwritten code of honor. Yes, I have seen store employees and security guards scold others for not having masks, but I have yet to hear anyone criticize anyone else for improper mask wearing. Moreover, scornful looks tend to be reserved for those who have the audacity to wear a mask properly in public. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a nation full of surly, uniform-hating teenagers.

I occasionally wonder if this blatant form of pretending to follow the rules while simultaneously breaking them can be traced to the residual effects of communism. Then again, it might run much deeper than that. After all, Hungary has a long history of enduring and somehow surviving foreign occupations and totalitarian regimes. I have heard some refer to Hungary's history as 'a long tale of victory through defeat.' Maybe this is an example of that dynamic in action. Perhaps the quiet refusal of obedience I witness now with masks is something that has hardwired itself into the Magyar DNA over the millenia.

Who knows? Whatever the case, it's fun to see and experience even if it does nothing to nullify the reality of the successful global totalitarian coup under which we are all currently living.

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I Have Some Strange (But Great) Friends

7/28/2020

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So yesterday was my birthday, and here's the greeting I received from one of oldest and dearest friends.

Thanks, Tom! (No, that's not Tom in the video.)

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No Utopias, Please

7/27/2020

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"Utopias now appear much more realizable than one used to think. We are now faced with a different new worry: How to prevent their realization."
- Nikolai Berdyaev

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The World's Greatest Threat Is Not A Virus or Racism- It's Affluence

7/25/2020

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Back in March, the birdemic was the greatest threat in the world, and it was uniformly heralded as a harbinger of unprecedented destruction and death. This in turn prompted the implementation of an unprecedented series of draconian measures meant to save the world from imminent doom.

A mere two months later in May, racism suddenly and unexpectedly eclipsed the birdemic as the world's greatest threat. The global threat of racism was so immediate and profound that anyone rallying for cause of anti-racism was immediately exempted from having to follow and obey the social distancing and lockdown measures that had, until then, kept the world safe from unimaginable megadeth. The menace racism posed back in May also required the granting of special privileges and powers such as the right to loot, riot, vandalize, and terrorize with wild abandon.

We are now in July, and there's a new (actually, old) greatest threat in town - affluence. Make no mistake - the birdemic virus is scary and racism is evil, but the biggest danger the world faces today is people possessing a deal of money and accumulated wealth.

How is this a threat?

Well, a person with money buys things, and the more money a person has, the more things he or she will buy.

I still don't get it. How is this a bad thing? People with money buying things are called consumers and consumers are the engine of the economy.

Yes, yes, but most people with money are not really consumers, but over-consumers; hence, our economy is not really about consumption, but over-consumption. Overconsumption is killing the environment and creates global inequality - and we can't have that now, can we?

Before going any further, it is important to recall that the birdemic was never primarily about providing protection from a virus, but was instead a cover the Establishment utilized to obscure their successful de facto global totalitarian takeover.

Now at first glance, this defacto totalitarian takeover seems superfluous. After all, the global elite represents the famous top 1% of the world's population who control 50% of the world's wealth. This top 1% not only outrightly own half the world, but they effectively 'control' the 30% of the world population that effectively 'owns' the other half of the world. This, in essence, is the System.

The remaining 70% of the world's population - those who earn less than about 8000 euros annually - essentially owns less than 1% of the world's wealth. Though the people in this portion of the world's population have seen their standards of living and life expectancies improve in the past half-century, they continue to exist on the fringes of the System. In a set up such as this, what possible advantage could the Establishment gain from an outright global takeover? More importantly, why would these global dictators actively seek to transform the System that has served them so effectively and well?

From a purely material perspective, the global dictatorship's rallying cries against affluence and consumption make no sense at all. After all, the global elite owes a great deal of its accumulated wealth and power to the mass consumerism it has created and generated. On top of that, the Establishment has invested an inestimable amount of time, energy, and resources into encouraging people of the world to acquire goods and services in ever increasing amounts. This, in turn, has allowed the Establishment to grow even more wealthy and powerful. Following this logic, it would be in the Establishment's best interest to intensify consumerism rather than dampen it, especially since the bulk of the world's population are on the cusp of becoming functional consumers themselves.

Many argue the Establishment have recognized that post-World War II levels of consumption are no longer sustainable, and that the environment simply cannot sustain another two or three billion rabid, Western-style consumers. The Establishment are quick to push this narrative as well, as evident in a recent post in one of its premiere public relations outlets, the World Economic Forum (bold added):

Affluence is the biggest threat to our world, according to a new scientific report.
True sustainability will only be achieved through drastic lifestyle changes, it argues.
The World Economic Forum has called for a great reset of capitalism in the wake of the pandemic.

A detailed analysis of environmental research has revealed the greatest threat to the world: affluence.

That one of the main conclusions of a team of scientists from Australia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, who have warned that tackling overconsumption has to become a priority. Their report, titled Scientists' Warning on Affluence, explains that true sustainability calls for significant lifestyle changes, rather than hoping for efficient use of resources will be enough.

The irony in all of the above is too glaring to dismiss or ignore. To begin with, it immediately dispels any notions of an eventual return to normal so many are counting on. Secondly, it lays bare the Establishment's main objectives in this birdemic era. The birdemic is not a temporary blip, but a turning point.

For decades the Establishment have promulgated affluence and consumption as a veritable panacea for mortal life. 'Getting and spending' was not only promoted as an ultimate virtue, but was deemed a genuine duty; the highest mark of success; a grand expression of personal freedom. It formed the foundation upon which everything else was measured. Though affluence and consumption were not without benefits, the Establishment has wielded both as weapons to ground man in the material and coax him to reject the spiritual, as the Elder Zosima so accurately observes in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (bold added):

Look at the worldly and all who set themselves up above the people of God, has not God's image and His truth been distorted in them? They have science; but in science there is nothing but what is the object of sense. The spiritual world, the higher part of man's being is rejected altogether, dismissed with a sort of triumph, even with hatred. The world has proclaimed the reign of freedom, especially of late, but what do we see in this freedom of theirs? Nothing but slavery and self-destruction! For the world says:

“You have desires and so satisfy them, for you have the same rights as the most rich and powerful. Don't be afraid of satisfying them and even multiply your desires.” That is the modern doctrine of the world. In that they see freedom. And what follows from this right of multiplication of desires? In the rich, isolation and spiritual suicide; in the poor, envy and murder; for they have been given rights, but have not been shown the means of satisfying their wants. They maintain that the world is getting more and more united, more and more bound together in brotherly community, as it overcomes distance and sets thoughts flying through the air.

Alas, put no faith in such a bond of union. Interpreting freedom as the multiplication and rapid satisfaction of desires, men distort their own nature, for many senseless and foolish desires and habits and ridiculous fancies are fostered in them. They live only for mutual envy, for luxury and ostentation. To have dinners, visits, carriages, rank and slaves to wait on one is looked upon as a necessity, for which life, honor and human feeling are sacrificed, and men even commit suicide if they are unable to satisfy it. We see the same thing among those who are not rich, while the poor drown their unsatisfied need and their envy in drunkenness. But soon they will drink blood instead of wine, they are being led on to it. I ask you is such a man free?

Zosima's insights shed light on the metaphysical confusion caused by the dissemination of affluence and consumption. Demonic forces have used this metaphysical confusion to reap damnation for centuries. Our own contemporary world demonstrates that affluence and consumption alone cause malaise, as exemplified by the term affluenza, which refers to a lack of motivation, a sense of guilt, and a feeling of isolation among those who have acquired a certain degree of wealth. On the whole, all of Western civilization is currently suffering from this malaise, which, at its core, is spiritual in nature. In this sense, the obsessive push of the affluence/consumption agenda has been extremely effective tactic for soul damnation. Despite its success, this tactic is now coming to an end.

The Establishment have flipped their stance. What was once considered virtue will now be treated as vice. More metaphysical confusion will ensue. Having said that, I do not believe this alone will be enough to convince most modern people to abandon their materialist/hedonistic ways. As a result, I expect the needed lifestyle changes the Establishment are advertising will be forced upon us in the same manner social distancing, mask-wearing, and lockdowns were forced upon us. It will become extremely difficult to maintain affluence and consumption when the mechanisms that create affluence and consumption are systematically dismantled and destroyed, which is exactly what the Establishment is currently doing within the fog of the birdemic and subsequent racism nonsense.

Despite entire ideologies erected in opposition to it, capitalism - another word for affluence and consumption - is not a wholly negative phenomenon. Utilized in the proper manner, with the correct moral and ethical (ultimately, spiritual) foundations in place, capitalism can provide individuals and society at large certain degrees of personal autonomy and freedom. The demonic forces guiding our global dictators are now working to eliminate this autonomy and freedom altogether.

Needless to say, the lifestyle changes the Establishment will demand of average citizens in the West - changes like the expectation of air travel, car-driving, dairy and meat consumption (check the linked essay above for more details) - will certainly not apply to them. I simply cannot imagine any of our elite giving up their affluence, their private jets, multiple homes, or animal-protein rich dinners for the sake of anything, but they will insist we give up our cars, houses, and overseas vacations for the good of humanity and the planet.

Then again, they won't to need to insist. They will simply remove the mechanisms that make those things possible. Thus, the influenza will cure us of our affluenza and help establish a 'safe and just space for humanity', which to me sounds like thinly-veiled code for hell on earth followed by eternal damnation.

Note added: A single blog post is not enough to cover this topic. I will have to return to it many times in the near future in order to properly flesh out the implications, but the general thrust of what has been outlined above must not be callously dismissed. The powers-that-should-not-be are insisting there will be no return to normal. As always, the spiritual aspects of these developments should be our primary focus.

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László Paál - Seeing The Forest For The Trees

7/23/2020

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Being unable to see the forest for the trees refers to the state of being caught up in details of a situation or problem to the point that it renders one unable to see the situation or problem as a whole. I generally agree with this sentiment of being blinded by details, but I have found the opposite can also be true - that involvement with details might actually shed more light on the whole than a general awareness of the whole ever could.

László Paál (1846-1879) is a good example of a painter whose involvement with detail - contrary to the popular expression - tended to add to the whole rather than detract from it. Appropriately enough, the details Paál became involved with were trees, but this thorough treatment of trees did not blind him to the existence of the forest.

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The Cuckoos Are Gone

7/23/2020

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Being locked down in rural western Hungary this spring provided me the opportunity to assess the accuracy of the old nursery rhyme regarding the spring/summer cuckoo cycle.

Cuckoo, cuckoo, what do you do?
In April I open my bill;
In May I sing all day;
In June I change my tune;
In July away I fly
In August away I must.

Adhering to the formula above, the cuckoos in my area began singing in April, filled the air with their calls all through May and early June, and changed their tune in the latter part of June and early July. Moreover, I have not heard any cuckoo calls at all in the past two weeks, which suggests the cuckoos here have flown away, just as the nursery rhyme said they would. The last line in the rhyme is still a bit of a mystery to me. Perhaps it refers to the young cuckoos leaving the nests of their host parents?

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Bruegel's Hunters in the Snow - The Hungarian Edition

7/21/2020

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István Szőnyi (1894-1960) was a member of the famous Nagybána artist colony and was tutored under the mastership of Károly Ferenczy and István Réti. The influence of both masters is apparent in Szőnyi's work, particularly in his early paintings; but Szőnyi's influences were certainly not confined to Hungarian artists.

A good example of this is his painting Funeral in Zebegény (Zebegény being the small settlement the painter called home in the second half of his life).

There's a reason why the composition of this painting seems so familiar. A *little* touch of Bruegel the Elder perhaps?

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The Irony of The Great Reset . . .

7/20/2020

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Is that we do actually need a Great Reset, but as has been the case so many times in the past century or so, the reset the global totalitarian regime plans to implement around the world will be utterly opposed to the kind of reset the world, more specifically the West, so desperately needs.

The basic conclusion of The Great Reset initiative the World Economic Forum and other globalist organizations have embraced and are promulgating can be reduced the following premises. To begin with, the birdemic has exposed the inadequacy and fragility of the current System. On top of that, the birdemic has also laid bare the glaring global inequalities and injustices the System has created. These revelations entail that the 'normal' the current System has championed can no longer be justified, supported, endorsed, demanded, or maintained. On the contrary, the old normal must be willingly (or forcefully, take your pick) relegated to the dustbin of history in order to usher in a kinder better, fairer, more efficient, and more equitable societal, economic, financial, and human health arrangement known as the 'new normal', which will be led by the engine of 'stakeholder capitalism' that will measure its success according to well-being rather than cold, draconian measurements like GDP.

The irony of The Great Reset initiative is that its conclusion is ultimately accurate. Our world - particularly the Western World - is broken and has been broken for quite some time. In this sense, a reset is definitely needed. The problem with The Great Reset plan lies in its premises, none of which address that which is needed most, especially in the West - namely a spiritual reawakening leading to a Christian revival aligned with and oriented toward salvation and, ultimately, theosis. The Great Reset our totalitarian overlords have planned for the world, particularly for the West, is not only utterly unaligned with salvation and theosis, but will serve to actively orient individuals and society further away from any semblance of Christianity and the Divine, to the point that the very existence of serious Christianity becomes well nigh impossible at the collective level.

If this sounds like exaggeration or overreaction, then take a moment to consider some of the more significant 'resets' the global establishment implemented over the past century and the devastating results these various reboots and reorganizations had not only on Christianity, but also on Western Civilization in general.

A common theme runs through all previous reset initiatives - the denial of the spiritual in favor of the material. Every globalist-inspired reset over the past century has pushed the West further away from the Divine and closer to a world of pure materialism and spiritual desolation. Think about the bloody conclusion of "The War to End All Wars" for a moment. The sheer scale of death and destruction in Europe should have inspired an enormous collective outpouring of realization and repentance. Instead, the end of the Great War led to the forced collapse of empires and the Christian monarchical system in Europe and the rise of the League of Nations whose sole purpose was to ensure international cooperation to guarantee that a bloody conflict like The Great War - which was blamed primarily on traditionalism coupled with arrogant nationalism - could never again occur.

For me, the conclusion of the First World War does not mark the beginning of leftism in the West, but it certainly marks the solidification of leftism as the primary and dominant force fueling Western Civilization. Christianity was pushed to the fringes, replaced by purely material ideologies like humanism, utilitarianism, communism, capitalism, and nationalism. The rise of these ideologies not only devastated Christianity, but also laid the groundwork for more conflict. Rather than end all wars, the wrong turns taken at the conclusion of the First World War inevitably created the conditions for a larger and more destructive Second World War. Once again, the West was presented an opportunity to repent and choose a different path. Once again, the West declined this opportunity and barrelled headlong deeper into materialism. The prime objective of the reset following World War Two was global in scope and led to the formation of the United Nations. The world basically separated into two ideological halves - atheistic communism and atheistic capitalist democracies.

The conclusion of the Second World war created a period of enslavement for those stuck behind the Iron Curtain and a period of relative peace and prosperity for the average person in the West. From a purely material perspective, Western people had never had it so good, yet material abundance and endless consumerism quickly proved to be inadequate. Something was missing. People became restless and rebellious. Despite their riches and personal freedoms, they demanded revolution. Once again, the spiritual was denied and ignored. In its place the West embraced the Sexual Revolution, Vatican II, hedonistic rights - anything and everything that was diametrically opposed to Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.

I could go on and on, but the basic point I want to make is this - the Global Establishment has reset the West and the world many times in the past. Every one of these resets was driven by the need to tackle a crisis and the ambition to alleviate suffering, increase happiness, and make the world a better place. Yet each one of these resets inevitably failed in the end because they were all based exclusively on temporal considerations that outright denied and worked against the Divine origins of Man.

The current Great Reset the global establishment is implementing at the moment is cut from the same cloth. Warm fuzzy rhetoric about equity and equality and well-being and kinder forms of this and that, but not a peep about the Divine or the spiritual or what is truly needed. If you find this criticism harsh, take a moment and visit the World Economic Forum's website and explore the issues that are all intrinsic to their planned reset: global governance, gay rights, the trans agenda, anti-racism, climate change, anti-nationalism, anti-populism, sustainability through financial and economic equity, transhumanism, and so forth.

So, what makes the current Great Reset initiative different from past reorganization efforts?

Its totality.

No past reset has ever attempted to achieve the totality contained within the current plan. I'm no fortune teller. I don't know for certain what the coming months and years will bring, but I do know this - should the Great Reset succeed - and it very well could because the Establishment has already gained complete control of practically all global mechanisms of power - it will mark yet another missed opportunity for the kind of reset the West really needs.

And from the way The Great Reset is shaping up, this latest missed opportunity could end up being the last one the West encounters.

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Challenge The Totalitarian Coup By Keeping All The States of Your Existence Energized and Elevated

7/17/2020

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This is Captain Obvious territory, but I think it's important to keep in mind that everything we are experiencing today in relation to the birdemic crisis is purposively designed to demoralize, depress, devitalize, destroy, and de-spirit in pursuit of one objective - damnation. (Yes, I like alliteration; sue me.)

Our new totalitarian overlords want to break us because they want to break God. The campaign they have unleashed comes at us from multiple fronts and from every conceivable angle. It attacks the mind, restricts the body, and, most significantly tempts the soul. What we are currently experiencing, ladies and gentlemen, is intense spiritual warfare. This is what it looks like. This is what it feels like.

Our overlords have pressurized everything and they are working to make this pressure ubiquitous and inescapable. This relentless demonic pressure is our new normal. With it, they wish to make the pain threshold the sole measure of our existence.

How much can you take? How far are you willing to go? Everyone's got a breaking point. What's yours?

I am ambivalent about what can be done to effectively push back against this new totalitarian world. At the same time, I am confident that the most effective push back rests in keeping our states of existence - state of mind, state of body, and state of soul - energized and elevated, especially when it appears there is nothing left to feel energized and elevated about.

Energy and elevation is the natural default setting for all serious Christians. How can it not be? After all, consciously recognizing and freely accepting the Truth is an energizing and elevating metaphysical phenomenon - a metaphysical phenomenon the forces of darkness hate with their entire being. Is it any wonder that they seek to deaden this energy and prevent this elevation?

The nature of this energy and elevation is dual. One element consists of the energy and elevation that exists at all times all around us, made perceptible by Holy Spirit and concretized by the reality of eternal life. The other element comprises of our own state of existence - the quality and perceptiveness of our minds, bodies, and souls. The fusion of these two elements represents the foundation of Christian Reality.

An elevated state of existence is not a call to happy-happy, joy-joy bliss and hedonism, but a determined and steadfast adherence to remaining aligned with the Divine and creating conditions in which the Divine remains aligned with us. This alignment brings forth the potential for the fusion that reveals Christian Reality; and it is this Reality the demonic powers are working hard to disrupt and, ultimately, destroy.

Whenever the demonic powers succeed in dragging us down, they succeed in dragging down the Divine. Whenever we succeed in energizing and elevating our state of existence, we succeed in energizing and elevating the Divine.

Energy and elevation are the last things the demonic powers wish to see or confront. Our duty is to ensure the demonic powers are forced to contend with an endless supply of both.

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