Francis Berger
  • Blog
  • My Work

So, How's That Liberty Working Out For Ya?

10/29/2020

13 Comments

 
My posts on religious themes over the years have occasionally drawn scoffing critical comments from smug libertarian-atheist types who, after having roundly dismissed my belief in a sky-god, have contemptuously informed me that the only thing that matters in life is liberty.

Ah, yes. 

So, how's that liberty thing been working out for you this year? 
13 Comments

Gulácsy's Dreamlike Visions

10/27/2020

4 Comments

 
Lajos Gulácsy (1882-1932) is regarded as a great painter here in Hungary and his works are included in the Hungarian National Gallery. I personally don't see any 'greatness' in Gulácsy's oeuvre, but I do have a soft spot for the dreamlike quality of his work, as exemplified in the two paintings below. 
Picture
Picture
4 Comments

Nietzsche The Composer

10/25/2020

0 Comments

 
Friend and fellow blogger S.K. Orr recently learned that philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche composed music. Unlike S.K., I knew Nietzsche composed music, but (also unlike S.K.) I had never taken the time to listen to any of the philosopher's compositions.

My music knowledge is embarrassingly unsophisticated, which makes me oblivious to the likely flaws and shortcomings of Nietzsche's musical creations. Having said that, I rather enjoyed the selections featured in the clip below as well as the selections S.K has featured on his blog here. 
0 Comments

Budapest 1938

10/23/2020

4 Comments

 
Below is a great Traveltalks newsreel from 1938 featuring Budapest. You Tube appears to be "suggesting" the video to everyone who lives in Hungary (I haven't searched for anything related to Hungary on You Tube for over a year, yet was suggested this video all the same).

Most of the comments for the video are run-of-the-mill You Tube comments, but a few note the ominous timing of the suggestion. For example:
  • "The saddest thing for me is that one seems aware of the hell and misery that would befall Budapest in a few years time."
  • "That's why this video was featured! We're going to be crying, too. A couple of years (or months) from now, we will face misery and hell, too."
  • "I had the same thought I was watching this." 
I can't help but agree to a certain extent, but I would argue our 1938 is already behind us. It ended somewhere in March or April. The whole world is well into 1939 now, closing in fast on 1940.

Note added: The analogy I draw at the end is an extremely loose one. What we are currently experiencing defies historical comparisons. 
4 Comments

Lockdown Redux?

10/21/2020

8 Comments

 
Back in March I received an email from the Austrian university where I work part-time. The email informed me that the institution had basically locked its doors and that I was to continue my classes in a purely online format until further notice. A week later I received a similar message from the Hungarian university where I hold a full-time position. I ended up teaching the rest of the semester online for both of my jobs. 

In September I was allowed to physically return to work in Austria and Hungary and have been teaching most of my classes "live" since then. Anyway, this afternoon the Austrian university sent me a notification that all instruction was being reverted back online for the remainder of the semester.

The email did not surprise me much, but I do consider it ominous. I suspect I will receive a similar communication from my Hungarian employer in the coming week. Moreover, I very much doubt these new measures will be limited to institutions of higher education, which means Austria and Hungary might be teetering on the edge of another round of hard national lockdowns.

Hey, why not? Just yesterday Ireland declared it was locking down for a minimum of six weeks. 

The worse I had anticipated earlier this week has arrived much sooner than I expected. 

At this point, all I can say is 'bring it.'
8 Comments

We Are In a Spiritual War - An Excellent Post by William Wildblood

10/19/2020

3 Comments

 
Yesterday I published a rather bleak post in which I argued that the successful implementation of the Great Reset agenda would require conditions to become considerably worse than those we are currently experiencing. 

Coincidentally enough, William Wildblood has addressed this likelihood in a recent post published on his Meeting the Masters blog. In the post, William delineates our current situation and offers some much-needed perspective about where our focus must be -- more importantly, where it must remain if and when things do take a turn for the worse. 


It is obvious that we live in very dangerous times. Clearly, I am not referring to Covid-19 which I assume all readers of this blog realise is just a more or less conventional virus that is being used as a means to an end, that end being control and dominance. The virus is really the least of our worries. It will kill off some elderly people just as flu and pneumonia regularly do but it will not do much harm to the great majority. By all means, we should protect the vulnerable but it should be apparent to anyone by now who bothers to look beyond the official propaganda that our reaction has been totally disproportionate to the threat. Whether that is because of fear and panic or politicians, administrators and other figures of the establishment wanting to hold onto power or even something deliberate and planned is another matter. Whatever the cause of it all, the reality is that we have been deceived into giving up freedom.

The real danger is spiritual and this, I fear, is only the beginning. The groundwork has been carefully laid over the last few decades, centuries even. We have been gradually led away from the knowledge that our life is centred in God to a worldview which is totally materialistic and atheistic. This to the extent that even many people who think they are spiritual or religious still adapt most of their thinking to the materialistic ethos. I am not always exempt from this myself. It's the water in which we swim and it can be difficult to throw it off completely. But look at Christ and the prophets of old. They did not compromise with the worldly powers and worldly wisdom one iota. They grounded themselves totally in spiritual knowledge without any concession to the world. We too must do this. There can be no compromise with lies, even lies plausibly dressed up to look like partial truths. Why bother with partial truths when you have the truth? They are usually just means to smuggle in the lie anyway.
​

I say the danger is spiritual. What I mean by this is that we will be asked to give up more and more of our personal integrity. 

Read the rest of William's post here. 
3 Comments

It Will Have To Get Worse - Here's Why

10/18/2020

7 Comments

 
Picture
The title of this post is a parody of the kind of article titles one comes across on the World Economic Forum's website. The formula is a simple one -- an outlandish declaration followed by a teaser that promises to explain why the outlandish declaration not only makes sense, but is absolutely necessary for world survival.

The range of topics these sorts of articles address is both vast and comprehensive, but the same overarching message underpins them all: everything -- yes, everything including your job, your lifestyle, your nation, your outdated social views, your concept of money, your consumption habits, everything you believe, do, and are -- needs to be "reset".

I don't spend a great of deal time reading WEF articles anymore, but I happened to peruse a few recent ones today after I finished lunch. As I was doing so, I was struck by a rather obvious thought. For the Great Reset agenda to succeed, things will have to get worse -- much worse. Yes, things are bad enough as it is, and yes, you could argue that some of the initial Great Reset agenda points have already been implemented, but at the same time any full-scale implementation of the WEF's inconceivably all-encompassing initiatives will require conditions that are considerably worse than anything we have experienced in the past six or seven months.

Not a happy thought, I'm afraid, but I believe it is imperative to steel ourselves against the probability of things getting much worse in the near future.  
7 Comments

So, What Should We Make Of This?

10/17/2020

10 Comments

 
The Thinking Housewife recently shared a short video by a group calling themselves the World Doctors Alliance. Awful globalist-sounding name aside, the organization declares itself to be "an independent non-profit alliance of doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals and staff around the world who have united in the wake of the Covid-19 response chapter to share experiences with a view to ending all lockdowns and related damaging measures and to re-establish universal health determinance of psychological and physical wellbeing for all humanity." 

The WDA includes the following on its website:

We were told initially that the premise for lockdown was to ‘flatten the curve’ and therefore protect the NHS from being overwhelmed.

It is clear that at no point was the National Health Service (NHS) in any danger of being overwhelmed, and since May 2020 covid wards have been largely empty; and crucially the death toll from covid has remained extremely low.

We now have hundreds of thousands of so-called ‘cases’, ‘infections’ and ‘positive tests’ but hardly any sick people. Recall that four fifths (80%) of ‘infections’ are asymptomatic (1) Covid wards have been by and large empty throughout June, July, August and September 2020. Most importantly covid deaths are at an all-time low. It is clear that these ‘cases’ are in fact not ‘cases’ but rather they are normal healthy people.

So-called asymptomatic cases have never in the history of respiratory disease been the driver for spread of infection. Rather it is symptomatic people who spread respiratory infections - not asymptomatic people.(2)

It is also abundantly clear that the ‘pandemic’ is basically over and has been since June 2020. 

We have very highly likely reached herd immunity and therefore have no need for a vaccine.
We have safe and very effective treatments and preventative treatments for covid, we therefore call for an immediate end to all lockdown measures, social distancing, mask wearing, testing of healthy individuals, track and trace, immunity passports, the vaccination program and so on.

There has been a catalogue of unscientific, non-sensical policies enacted which infringe our inalienable rights, such as - freedom of movement, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. These draconian totalitarian measures must never be repeated. 

The site contains many other observations and insights concerning the birdemic; the same sorts of observations and insights many bloggers (including yours truly) have voiced since about March 2020. These include: 

  • Covid has proved less deadly than previous influenza seasons – There were 50,100 flu deaths from December 2017 to March 2018 in England and Wales. There were 80,000 flu deaths in 1969. To date we have circa 42,000 covid related deaths in the UK.
  • We have never locked down society for a respiratory virus before.
  • The basis for lockdown was a mathematical model by Professor Neil Ferguson. His modelling which predicted half a million deaths in the UK has been roundly condemned as being not fit for purpose. His estimated death figures were clearly wrong by a factor of 10 or 12 times. 
  • The vast majority of deaths occurred in elderly and very elderly people
  • The vast majority of deaths occurred in people with pre-existing serious health issues such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes etc.

And so on . . . 

Now I am not a medical doctor, but back in March I argued that the birdemic scare should never have made the news, and that it was being used a pretext for something far more sinister. This organization of doctors appears to agree with that notion. The only questions I have concerning this organization of medical professionals:


  • Is it sincere/honest/legitimate?
  • Will it have any impact at all on the birdemic? 

I am doubtful on both points.  

As Bruce Charlton noted very early on, the birdemic is not about the birdemic. In this regard, the birdemic has achieved its purpose. The coup has happened; the totalitarians are in control. I very much doubt the general public of any nation will be moved by organizations like the World Doctors Alliance. 
10 Comments

A Few Gentle Reminders Concerning Heaven

10/17/2020

2 Comments

 
  • Heaven cannot exist if God does not exist.
  • You cannot believe in heaven if you do not believe in God.
  • You will never experience a prolonged "feeling" of heaven in this mortal life, regardless of how good or comfortable or exciting your life happens to be.
  • Despite arguments to the contrary, heaven has never been and will never be established on earth.
  • All attempts to establish heaven on earth will fail, regardless of whether you believe in God in or not. ​ 
  • The desire to establish heaven on earth is ultimately Satanic in nature; this applies regardless of your belief or non-belief in the existence of Satan.
2 Comments

The Endless Drone of Unapologetic Incoherence

10/15/2020

7 Comments

 
Incoherence. An endless drone of incoherence from all sides and from every conceivable angle. With each passing day it becomes more intense, more inconsistent, and more unintelligible. Running parallel with this is the unwillingness to acknowledge the incoherence - the constant acting as if the lack of orderly continuity is actually orderly continuity. Framing all of this is the total lack of penitence displayed by those who actively generate, distribute, and promote the incoherence. 

Don't get me wrong - I don't expect anyone who actively opposes God to fall to his or her knees and publicly cry out in repentance, but at the same time I imagined I would catch a glimpse of remorse every once in a while; that I would pick up the faint scent of compunction here and there; that I would detect nervous whispers of regret beneath the droning. At the very least I anticipated mild expressions of doubt seeping through now and again. But I have yet to sense anything of the kind, and I doubt I will see much of it in the future.

Look, the evil we face now is unabashedly unapologetic. And why not? Relentless and unmerciful, it simply does not care about what anyone thinks because it has come to the perfectly correct conclusion that barely anyone thinks at all.  
7 Comments
<<Previous
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Blog and Comments

    Blog posts tend to be spontaneous, unpolished, first draft entries ranging from the insightful and periodically profound to the poorly-argued and occasionally disparaging.
     

    Comments are moderated. Anonymous comments are never published (please use your name or a pseudonym). 

    Emails welcome:

    f er en c ber g er (at) h otm   ail (dot) co m
    Blogs/Sites I Read
    Bruce Charlton's Notions
    Meeting the Masters
    From The Narrow Desert
    Synlogos ✞ Aggregator
    New World Island  
    New World Island YouTube
    ​Steeple Tea
    Berdyaev.com
    Adam Piggott
    Fourth Gospel Blog
    The Orthosphere
    Junior Ganymede

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Picture
    A free PDF is also available in My Work. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.