Francis Berger
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The Birdemic; It Blurs

3/22/2022

12 Comments

 
Last year at around this time, a young professor colleague stopped me in the hallway and gleefully informed me about his decision to get pecked. When I nonchalantly asked him why he felt it necessary, he looked at me as if I were simpleton and curtly muttered something about protecting himself and the students. A few months later he revealed that he had also gone in for the third peck. Yesterday he notified me of his recent birdemic bug infection.

"I had to stay home, but it was no big deal. A mild fever and some cold symptoms." 

"I thought you got pecked to protect yourself," I said. 

"I did protect myself!" he proclaimed with relief. "I mean, it would have been much worse if I hadn't been pecked. I probably would have ended up in the hospital or worse. I'm sure of it."

I nodded and let him get back to going wherever he had been planning to go. After he had turned the corner, I silently added him to the growing list of pecked colleagues who have recently fallen ill. As far as I know, none of them have expressed any disappointment. Getting the birdemic bug after two or three pecks is now simply par for the course. 

The birdemic. On the one hand, it clarifies. On the other hand, it blurs. It all comes down to a matter of perspective. Positioning. Vantage points. 

The birdemic has made many things evidently clear to me. At the same time, it also befogs many things. The current hysteria over the invaded country is a good example of the latter. 

The motives and differences between the two sides are detectable and meaningful as long as the birdemic is kept out of the assessment. However, add the birdemic into the mix and the detectable, meaningful differences immediately fade and blur. 

Or perhaps it is more a matter of supersession. The detectable, meaningful distinctions remain, but the birdemic displaces these and casts them aside.

​If the conflict -- or anything in the external world -- is to have any deeper meaning for me in the present, it must reveal itself as a spiritual position against the birdemic. Moreover, as a spiritual position for God and Creation.

Until then, the birdemic remains. And as long as it remains, it blurs; or, more precisely, it supersedes.   
12 Comments
Hari Seldon
3/22/2022 22:00:33

The Babylon Bee has a fake-news headline that seems appropriate here: "Restaurants Now Requiring Proof of Ukraine Support." Coming soon?

On a related note, I wonder if you saw the poll from Canada that showed an extraordinary correlation between the number of pecks one has received and one's propensity to support aggressive measures against the invading country.

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Francis Berger
3/23/2022 09:41:23

@ Hari - Yes, I saw that. Wm Jas posted it on From the Narrow Desert.

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bruce charlton
3/22/2022 22:20:34

If people were able and willing to check for consistency among official statements, or their own beliefs - they would realize that they are repeatedly being lied to, and are repeatedly believing all the lies.

But in practice, people simply believe whatever is being told them today, and all inconsistencies due to lying are put down to some mixture of incompetence and honest-error.

Once someone has decided to stay inside The System - it's easy. Just consume todays's news... and Believe.

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Francis Berger
3/23/2022 09:45:32

@ Bruce - What gets me is how easy it is to go back and check inconsistencies today. All it takes is a few clicks of a mouse. Either people aren't doing it, or they refuse to "accept" the inconsistencies when they do go back and check. Apparently, people love to be lied to; the more the better. And yes, people would rather believe than accept the freedom that comes with acknowledging truth.

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lea
3/23/2022 02:36:57

The hate towards the regular people in the west is palpable but is probably 'just' geopolitics at the surface. Interesting to see a form of manipulation of karma derived from the evil acts 'done in our name'. Making us responsible for things by way of signaling and language. Fairness will supersede all of this nonsense, we did not kill people during the imperial age even if our grand-grand fathers actually did. We cannot be held continually responsible for our lineage, that is unfair. The club is constantly abusing notions like this and acting vampirically upon the public discourse about them, shifting the blame and the energetic weight, Meanwhile they commit unspeakable acts to extend life in this realm that should banish them to the proverbial hellfire instantly. Evil postulates and shows but it also conceals itself at the same time, the good guys work in the shadows. In any case, as long as people are convinced of the model based computerized vision of reality they will always opt to save their physical instances rather then anything else. Brain in a vat in philosophy class, where can i put it in?

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Francis Berger
3/23/2022 09:47:54

@ lea - Leftism was built largely on the premise of defending the interests of the working class. Now, leftism regards working-class people as the enemy. It will do the same with its current "favored" groups.

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lea
3/24/2022 22:12:39

Indeed. The theme that keeps popping up throughout this whole show is inversion.

Anthony Probst
3/23/2022 04:57:25

https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/03/11

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Francis Berger
3/23/2022 09:51:14

@ Anthony - Funny stuff!

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Adam link
3/23/2022 06:40:52

"The birdemic. On the one hand, it clarifies. On the other hand, it blurs. It all comes down to a matter of perspective. Positioning. Vantage points."

Indeed. I too have had many interactions such as your example. What strikes me is the total confidence that they hold that you are not only on their side but are also pecked. It does not enter into their world view that the possibility exists that you may not only be unpecked but diametrically opposed to their position.

This world event has for the first time in my life brought home to me in a completely unqualified manner that I am apart from the vast majority of those around me. It is a strange sensation to come to terms with.

Reply
Francis Berger
3/23/2022 09:49:59

@ Adam - "It is a strange sensation to come to terms with." Yes, that puts it well -- and we have no choice but to embrace it.

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Todd
3/24/2022 14:29:45

I actually got into a rather heated argument at the local brew pub last week while I was trying to work on an essay about the invasion of all things.
I overheard the bartender and the only other two people in the room - an odd couple with a masculine, domineering millennial woman and her thin, mousy boyfriend.

I overheard the woman say that her father had stupidly gone to the gym and taken a sauna, and then got the birdemic. He survived, of course, but she condemned him for his stupidity.

I mildly (I think) interjected (as we often due at this place and why we go), "Maybe your father didn't want to be isolated for the rest of his life."

Oh boy.
I was even told that the birdemic would have been eradicated by now if it weren't for people like us. The bartender, who's mother is a PhD in nursing, said that he wished that the USA had locked us down more hardly, like in New Zealand.
I stated that I had survived the birdemic just fine, with alternative early treatments. They sneeringly asked what I took?

I'm not sure why I interjected when I did and how I did. I think I needed to find out what would happen. Boy, did I find out!

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