(see note 1)
GRAND MASTER CORNELIUS SCHRECK, ILLUMINATUS PRIMUS: Well, I think we can begin at this point. Brother Sentinel, are we secure?
GRAND GUARDIAN HENRY JAMES BALOR, ILLUMINATUS PRIMUS: Grand Master, the doors are sealed, the guards are at their stations, and the interdimensional horrors from the Slime Pits of Blagoonah are sniffing around for eavesdroppers.
GM SCHRECK: It is well. Sister Warden, are all present qualified to be here?
GRAND WARDEN LOUISE CAUCHEMAR, ILLUMINATUS PRIMUS: If they aren’t, they’re about to wish they’d never been born. (Pause) Grand Master, the Howlers from the Abyss have tasted everyone’s blood samples and certify that all present are qualified to be here.
GM SCHRECK: It is well. Sister Secretary, I think our only item of business today is to introduce our newest member of the Grand Council of Five, fill him in on the details of our sinister plans, and answer any questions he may have.
GRAND SECRETARY HULDA BLUTMORD, ILLUMINATUS PRIMUS: That’s correct, Grand Master.
GM SCHRECK: Excellent. In that case I’d like to introduce you all to Peter van Duchten, our new Illuminatus Primus. Welcome to the Grand Council of Five, Brother van Duchten.
PETER VAN DUCHTEN, ILLUMINATUS PRIMUS: Thank you, Grand Master. This is really a great honor.
GM SCHRECK: It’s well earned, my boy. Your recent work as chief dirigent of the New York lodge in particular has been exemplary. Getting the city government to make exactly the decisions that drove it into bankruptcy and turned the city into a festering hellhole—that was very well handled, very well handled indeed. (See note 2)
VAN DUCHTEN: Thank you, Grand Master.
(Pause for handshakes)
GM SCHRECK: Very well. If you can all sit down we’ll proceed with the briefing. (Pause.) Louise, if you’d like to begin?
GW CAUCHEMAR: Of course. Since the founding of our order in 1776— (See note 3)
GG BALOR: Please! I insist on our traditional calendar. 5776 AM. (See note 4)
GW CAUCHEMAR: Of course. Since then, we’ve pursued Adam Weishaupt’s grand plan of spreading chaos, discord, and confusion throughout the world. Back in those early days our main schemes focused on overthrowing governments. The difficulty, of course, is that as soon as we overthrew one government, people just put another one in its place, and if we brought that one down it wouldn’t take long for a third to follow.
VAN DUCHTEN: Did anyone consider finding out how many times they would keep putting up new governments?
GG BALOR: Oh, yes. It was given a good solid test. Look into the history of 19th century French politics sometime. (See note 5)
GW CAUCHEMAR: So we began experimenting with trying to discredit governments through clever propaganda. That had mixed results at best, though we did have some entertaining successes. Finally, in 1927—
GG BALOR: Please—
GW CAUCHEMAR: —excuse me, 5927 AM. Our predecessors in the Council of Five, as I was saying, hit on the plan that has guided us ever since. Instead of discrediting and overthrowing governments, we get them to discredit and overthrow themselves.
GM SCHRECK: And not just governments. Every institution that can claim any kind of legitimacy in the eyes of the masses is ripe for the same strategy.
GW CAUCHEMAR: Exactly, Grand Master.
VAN DUCHTEN: I’m not sure I understand. How does that work?
GW CAUCHEMAR: It’s quite simple. Let me give you an example. One project that’s well under way already aims at getting physicians to keep changing their minds about what counts as a healthy diet.
GG BALOR: That’s low-hanging fruit. Wave a little money at most people in the medical industry and they’ll say whatever you want.
GW CAUCHEMAR: Granted, but it’s not enough to make them look corrupt. We also have to make them look stupid. So our agents in the medical industry are busy convincing people that saturated fats are bad for them and polyunsaturated fats are good. In a while, once the new habits are established, we’ll have them switch the two. We’ve got any number of similar projects under way to make official health advice spin around like a weathercock in a tornado. As those take off, watch the credibility of medical experts drop like a rock.
GG BALOR: And if anyone asks why the public should believe the latest claim when everyone knows that ten years from now the experts will just change their minds again, they’ll get a blank look followed by a patronizing lecture, which will make the experts look even more like fools.
GW CAUCHEMAR: And of course it won’t be limited to the medical industry. For our triumph to be achieved, we’ve got to get the whole scientific community to lose credibility in the eyes of the public. Think of all the climate scientists that are yelling about global cooling right now. In twenty years we’ll have them yelling just as loudly about global warming. Not only that, they’ll insist that they never predicted global cooling, even though there are plenty of books and newspaper articles still around to contradict them, to say nothing of the memories of everyone who’s paying attention to the issue now. (See note 6)
VAN DUCHTEN: I’m sure the Council of Five has worked this out in detail, but…well, I’m astonished that they’d fall for that.
GM SCHRECK: My boy, it’s the simplest thing in the world. Convince people that they’re the smartest ones in the room and know better than anyone else, and there’s literally no limit to the crass stupidities you can get them to believe.
GW CAUCHEMAR: That’s only one of scores of projects along the same lines. Fifty years from now, when an expert in a white coat gets up behind a podium, the first thought in the minds of his listeners will be, “Who’s paying him to spout this nonsense?”
GW BALOR: And the experts will be publishing plaintive opinion pieces wondering why nobody takes them seriously any more. It really is exquisite.
VAN DUCHTEN: Okay, I think I follow you. I assume the same thing will be going on in the political sphere.
GW CAUCHEMAR: Exactly. The main thrust of our plan there is to get each of the main parties to copy the policies of the other, while insisting loudly that they’re doing no such thing. In the US election in 1980—
GG BALOR: Please—
GW CAUCHEMAR: —5980 AM we’ll have the Republicans put a washed-up movie actor into the White House, who will pursue exactly the same policies as a New Deal Democrat. The next Democrat who gets into office will copy everything the Republicans are doing, and so on. Meanwhile we’ll ramp up the absurdity to levels never before seen. By the election in 6016 AM we’ve arranged things so that urban liberals who pride themselves on their enlightened attitudes will be backing a race-baiting neoconservative warmonger, while rock-ribbed Bible Belt conservatives will be cheering on an unspeakably vulgar divorcee and serial adulterer from New York City. (See note 7)
VAN DUCHTEN: That makes my head spin.
GM SCHRECK: Just wait and see who we have lined up after that. It’s going to be quite the entertaining spectacle.
GW CAUCHEMAR: Before long both parties will pursue most of the same policies, but the party out of power will denounce those policies in the most inflammatory language they can come up with, while the party in power enacts them. Once the party in power changes, of course, the party that was doing those things will start denouncing them, and the party that was denouncing them will start doing them. Every presidential election will be billed as the most important election of a lifetime, and then nothing significant will change once the votes are counted, except who’s denouncing whom. It’s all very elegant.
GG BALOR: And before long everyone outside the political class will assume as a matter of course that every time a politician opens his mouth, he’s lying.
GW CAUCHEMAR: Which will be true more often than not, anyway.
GG BALOR: Oh, granted.
VAN DUCHTEN: Okay. Okay, I think I get it. What’s the endgame?
GM SCHRECK: Ah, that’s the most delectable part of all. People will put up with absurdity for a good long time, but eventually they just can’t keep pretending. One fine day, when the political system is chockfull of liberals who won’t liberate and conservatives who have no notion how to conserve, when official pronouncements from qualified experts make less sense than a duck speaking pig Latin, some hapless fool will get up behind a podium to spout some abject idiocy or other, and people will start to laugh. They won’t be able to help themselves. Hysterical laughter will spread far and wide as the sheer absurdity of the entire system becomes impossible to ignore any longer. The whole charade will come crashing down, and with it, the sense of legitimacy and the social cohesion that allows a government to exist at all. Bwahahahaha!
GG BALOR, GS BLUTMORD, AND GW CAUCHEMAR: Bwahahahaha!
VAN DUCHTEN: Has—has this been tested?
GW CAUCHEMAR: Of course. We have a final test running right now in the Soviet Union, which is scheduled to reach its goal sometime in 1991.
GG BALOR: (sighs loudly)
GW CAUCHEMAR: Russians being Russians, of course, they keep poker faces in public, but they’re already laughing themselves into hiccups over the absurdities of the Soviet system once they get behind closed doors and the vodka comes out. By 1991 there won’t be anybody in Soviet territory who can listen to the Politburo’s latest nonsense without giggling.
GM SCHRECK: And the Soviet project is simply a final test of a well-established method. The process we’re discussing, my boy, is what ended the Roman Empire in the West.
VAN DUCHTEN: Seriously?
GM SCHRECK: Sister Secretary, you’re our historian. Perhaps you’ll fill in the details.
GS BLUTMORD: Of course, Grand Master. Brother van Duchten, you know that the Western empire fell in 4476 AM, I trust? Good. For half a century before then, the Western emperors weren’t even located in Rome. They’d holed up in Ravenna, protected from barbarian warlords by the marshes around that city, and their effective authority only extended over a few dozen square miles of swampland. Meanwhile the official rhetoric still pretended that the emperor was the lord of the Western world and his legions would surely chase off the barbarians sometime soon.
Then—this was in 4475 AM—a ten-year-old boy was crowned emperor of the West. His sole qualification for the job was that he was the son of Attila the Hun’s Greek secretary, and somebody owed Daddy a favor. His name was Romulus Augustulus. That was all it took. Nobody in Ravenna, or anywhere else in the empire, could say “Romulus Augustulus, Emperor of the West” without thinking of the poor little boy stumbling around in the imperial regalia, and they started laughing and couldn’t stop. It didn’t take long before the remaining legionaries guarding Ravenna were laughing so hard that a barbarian chieftain named Odoacer walked his army right past them and seized the city. Odoacer laughed, too, and then he told the last Roman emperor of the West to run along and play. Which he did, by the way. (See note 8)
GM SCHRECK: And then the Western world descended into a thousand years of chaos!
GW CAUCHEMAR: Discord!
GG BALOR: And confusion!
GM SCHRECK, GG BALOR, GS BLUTMORD, AND GW CAUCHEMAR: Bwahahahaha!
VAN DUCHTEN: I imagine that there was some consternation and moral warptitude in there somewhere, too.
GM SCHRECK: Oh, granted, but we don’t often talk about the Greater Mysteries even here.
VAN DUCHTEN: Oh. Oh, sorry.
GM SCHRECK: Not a problem, my boy. We know you still have much to learn. I’ll have the Directorate of Strategy schedule a briefing for you tomorrow, and the High Priests of Blagoonah will prepare you a copy of the Tome of Unspeakable Dread as soon as they can get enough parchment made from the skins of beasts better left unnamed. Any further questions? No? Excellent. We all look forward to working with you. Brother Guardian, you can let the interdimensonal horrors know they’re off shift for the time being. Have someone throw them a few auto insurance salesmen. They’ve earned some chew toys.
*******
In other news, this month has five Wednesdays in it, and by longstanding tradition this means that the commentariat gets to nominate and vote on what I’ll write about for the fifth Wednesday post. What do you want to read about? The Bavarian Illuminati want to know. (See note 9)
*******
Note 1: This date works out to April 1, 1975 in the civil calendar. Draw your own conclusions.
Note 2: New York City was driven to the edge of default in 1975, after a long series of idiotic decisions by the municipal government. The price of the bailout included handing over control of the city budget to a committee of bankers and accepting drastic cuts in city services, bureaucracy, and welfare payouts. The city didn’t regain full control over its finances until 1985.
Note 3: The Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria, then as now better known as the Bavarian Illuminati, was founded by Ingolstadt University professor Adam Weishaupt and four of his grad students on May 1, 1776.
Note 4: Anno Mung. Mung is said to have been the most influential disciple of Gruad Grayface, who allegedly founded the tradition Weishaupt reformed and reorganized. Subtract 4000 from AM dates to get AD dates.
Note 5: Over the one hundred years that followed 1789, France was by turns a kingdom, a republic, a dictatorship, an empire, another kingdom, yet another kingdom, another republic, another empire, and yet another republic. I think that record still stands.
Note 6: Yes, they did, and yes, I know they’re still insisting that they didn’t. I’ve discussed this here.
Note 7: I don’t imagine anyone will quarrel with the Grand Master’s description of Donald Trump. Those who question his portrayal of Hillary Clinton are encouraged to consider, among many other examples, her 1996 characterization of African-American youth as “super predators,” and her repeated insistence that the US military should enforce a no-fly zone over Syria in the face of the Russian intervention there.
Note 8: I can’t vouch for the hysterical laughter, but the other events the Grand Secretary recounts can be found in any historical (or hysterical) work on the end of the Western empire.
Note 9: Bwahahahaha.
GM SCHRECK: It’s well earned, my boy. Your recent work as chief dirigent of the New York lodge in particular has been exemplary. Getting the city government to make exactly the decisions that drove it into bankruptcy and turned the city into a festering hellhole—that was very well handled, very well handled indeed. (See note 2)
Note 2: New York City was driven to the edge of default in 1975, after a long series of idiotic decisions by the municipal government. The price of the bailout included handing over control of the city budget to a committee of bankers and accepting drastic cuts in city services, bureaucracy, and welfare payouts. The city didn’t regain full control over its finances until 1985.
—–
Gosh this brings back memories. I remember the bailout of NYC which was handled by the Federal Reserve Board. It was a matter of financial survival since the city was holders of several bonds, etc.
Now, NYC today is probably going to go bankrupt since they lost their income base, and the public unions have forced very large pensions (in the 1980s), and well the current mayor, who is clueless about how money works. I wonder if there will be another bailout or will everyone let NYC hang in the wind.
Personally, I think that the people who are now running the city have no clue about money. Zippo. They seem to think if they close their eyes and wish hard enough, they will have the money to do what they want to do. No hard choices need to be made. Hmmmmmmm. I wonder will happen next.
If there is a conspiracy to provoke a good belly laugh, I’m all for it! 🙂
Worthy of Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, my friend. Very well done.
It’s great to see an April 1st fall on a Wednesday!
As a late reply to Northwinds… the reason the school wouldn’t let you in to re-take English composition is not because you’d be any kind of threat to the students. You’d be a threat to the teacher: a student who was eager and able to hold them accountable for the effectiveness of their teaching. What if that caught on with other students, in other courses! The horror…
I see the Illuminati have familiarized themselves with Robert’s Rules of Disorder!
For the fifth Wednesday I propose Jung’s archetypes and how Hitler is the Wotan archetype.
Oh, my! You have created a classic for the ages here, methinks. I love it!
And GM Schreck has uttered a profound truth when he said, “Convince people that they’re the smartest ones in the room and know better than anyone else, and there’s literally no limit to the crass stupidities you can get them to believe.”
Hi John. If you’re willing to do it, my vote for a 5th Wednesday topic would be a discussion of whether the Iran war could (or could not) be our “Twighlight’s Last Gleaming” moment. There was a bit of alluding to this in last week’s comments, so I suspect I’m not the only one who would be interested to hear your thoughts on what role this Iran war plays in the bigger picture of catabolic collapse.
P.S. – To be more specific, perhaps I should say within the context of US empire collapse, rather than catabolic collapse.
JMG’s
How is the illuminati’s plan for the state of California unfolding? Is it on track? or unfolding more quickly than anticipated?
Also, did the Seers of Bavaria also cleverly invent blue hair die and inflatable frog costumes ?
Fifth Wednesday: apologies to our international readers, but me the parochial American, I would like to have a discussion about the American Constitution, its’ provisions, what it did and does for us, and how it might need to be amended.
I hope you realize, Mr. Greer, that your April 1 joke is in serious violation of DEI correctness. I did not read one single non-Northern European name among your characters. Not historically accurate, you say? Like, who cares? History is like the nation state, obsolete. Why are those entities obsolete? Because John Jingleheimer Smith said so in the Alligator Times and no one challenged this obvious truth. So that is already established.
For the fifth Wednesday, how about an oldie but a goodie, a post on Robert Graves and his influence on the polytheistic revival. We should pay attention to what our poets have to say (and we’ve already heard much about Jung, Hesse and are continuing with Yeats).
Happy All Fool’s Day. Recommended reading: Alan Gordon’s “Thirteenth Night,” “The jester Leaps In,” and “An Antic Disposition.”
And for the topic of this post, “Tension, apprehension, and dissention have begun……”
And from the front lobby at Center Pointe (all “points” in Gainesville, FL are spelled with an ‘e”) a hugely fat inflated Easter Bunny waddling out the front door, followed by most of the Admin’s office……
The Grey Badger, whose cap and bells have vanished over many, many moves. Have fun!
neotunesdolphins, Not a fan of the NYC mayor–also don’t live there–but I will say he had a novel idea during a snowstorm last winter. He made a public proclamation that anyone who wanted to earn some walking around cash show up at certain designated spots to shovel snow for the day. You do all see what this means. No business got to have “the shoveling contract” (right wing grifting by passed) nor did any non-profit (left wing grifting) get to be gatekeeper. Money was spent, but so far as I could see, I was visiting in NYC, there was no off the top skimming.
P.S. After rolling on the floor and laughing my head off ….. The Illuminati meeting – that was a wonderful work of comic genius….. because if Mad magazine made this ripped-from-the-headlines stuff in its heyday, nobody could possibly believe it. “My tardis must be out of order…. need to do another hard reset….”
A perfect post for this day of April First.
All votes for fifth Wednesday topics have been duly written down in bat’s blood on the skins of nameless and unhallowed beasts.
Neptunesdolphins, I’m glad somebody else remembers the flustered cluck that was NYC in the 70s! I’m quite sure you’re right, btw, when you suggest that the city is in for a repeat of the experience. Like so many limousine socialists who have never had to stick to a budget or do without, the current mayor lacks the life experience that would teach him that catastrophic failure is always an option.
Scotlyn, bwahahahaha!
Franklin, thank you. Their influence isn’t hard to spot, I’m sure.
Lathechuck, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?
Justin, that’s Robert Anton Wilson’s Rules of Disorder, I’ll have you know. 😉
Robert, thank you. Sometimes satire is the only way to communicate truths…
Clay, I’m sure Grand Master Schreck rubbed his hands together and cackled when he thought about California. I’m not sure about the frog costumes; that may simply mean that the people who wear them are being possessed by the great god Kek. As for the blue hair dye, though, of course — that marks anybody who wears it as a sacrifice to Blagoonah, who notoriously devours his victims starting with the brain.
Patricia M, oh, they’re in trouble now! All such rabbit symbols invoke that archetypal American trickster god, Bugs Bunny, who will mess with them but good. (Glad you liked the piece.)
Hello JMG and commentariat:
Today is April 1, and today is also Wednesday. I know outside Spain (where we historically have another day in the year for pranks), this day is for humor. I guessed John wrote some joke or a prank, but I didn’t know he was going to dedicate a post to the Illuminati thing…
Well, I’m glad to have read it. Thanks to JMG notes, I’ve confirmed my suspicions that the text was from the ‘70s, though sometimes reading it, I’ve doubted wether these guys were talking about their future (since the ‘80s) or our present in this century. “History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes”.
I’m also glad to have finished reading and writing about very serious topics (during last Open Post), and begin this funny parodic conspiracy theory story, in which I think it was engaged R.A. Wilson himself.
There’s been a lot of ink spent (or maybe wasted) about the legendary Illuminati order since A. Weishaupt began it more than two centuries ago. It’s been a classical within the nutties and freaks who usually believe and spread conspiracy theories.
I first met the Illuminati “business” during the ‘90s when I read a local magazine about occultism, UFOs and another prodigies. I never thought it was a very real story to explain the whole recent History, but well, there’s been others who have thought History can be explained by some “scientific” historical laws which (of course) they know; I can forget a writer neither, who claimed modern History was driven by a “contratradition”. However, this writer had much less followers than the other men I’ve refered before him. So, if some too serious thinkers have played to find one only cause to recent History, why not the Illuminati to explain everything was/is happening? (please, note I’m being ironic now).
Finally, I’ve just understood “Cauchemar” is the French word for “nightmare”(indeed, they seem related according part of their letters, if I’m not wrong).
Very good!
V: And thus begins the Age of Chaos. Bwahahahaha
Perhaps the best answer for this utterly serious post is to give a report on a recent claim I heard on a podcast. A Chinese-Canadian history professor claimed, that The Freemasons were one of the hidden influential groups pushing evangelical Christians and the USA towards the goals of the Zionists to, trough hopeless imminent destruction of Israel, bring about the coming of the Jewish Messiah, who shall usher the Greater Israel state.
I kid you not, this was on Tucker Carson.
23. March, if I am correct, so not even an April fools.
You sir, being a mason, are one EVIL cookie 🙂 No wonder your evil laugh comes over so naturally. 😀
As to voting; I have no ideas, that do not include some variations on: “oh, what do you think of the war over there” “oh, what ever are we do”. So my intent is to lurk a bit and see what comes along. 🙂
Best regards,
V
(I do hope I was nimble enough to slip trough this week, before the Hammer of Ban comes down on the mentioning of a certain little state. Bwahahahaha 😉 )
Delightful parody fiction. Or is it?!?!!
For the 5th Wednesday, I would be interested in our complicated relationship with the Space Race and the new Lunar missions that are happening today and in the next few years.
The soundtrack for this “production” should be Mozart’s “Musical Joke.”
(it ends with a major dischord.)
Anonymous # 6:
A good idea…I agree. So my vote goes to Jung Archetypes, too.
——————————
Some days, I was having a talk with a friend, and we ended remembering and eventually debating about online conspiracy theorists. My friend pointed every conspiracy theorists and their followers nowadays are far right supporters (when not openly Fascists). I answered him near every conspiracy theories before Internet were followed by right wing people (for example, something written by supposed Zion wise men); but I didn’t know why. My friend said it may could be due to lack of culture of righters (opposite to the supposed higher culture within leftists). I wasn’t very convinced by his reasoning. Some days after that talk, I thought that the whole Marxist theory can be seen as a complex conspiracy theory. An example: In spite of depicting quite well some historical events, Marx idea of having discovered “History Laws” hasn’t been confirmed by real sciences: even worse, it’s been debunked as ideology/belief by authors like for example, C. Popper. And his forecasts about the future hasn’t ended in a better way. However, Marx supporters have went praising this theory as an scientific truth after its debunking until today, in spite of additional evidences of being contrafactual (for example, USSR collapse and China becoming a capitalist country). I think this attitude and behavior could be correlative (mirrors game) of the same thing within Far Right conspiracies nutties.
Iesou = 888, and there are two: Anti, Ante or No fish, Is fish aka Two Fish.
888 + 888 = 1776, one being Christos, the other being Chrestos. Red tongue, blue tongue.
White squares as July 4th 1776 + Black squares as May 1st 1776 = Novus Ordo Seclorum
1080 moon + 666 sun + 30 goad = 1776 and 1776 – 1913 = 137 the prime mover
1913 is a Book of Lies, false breaks where each “President” is blood related, except 1.
Apron Boys: Jim Poke 11, Grover Cleveland 22/24, Harry Trueman 33, Barry Soetero 44.
11 = 555 feet tall, 22/24 is Skidoo, 33 is a 33rd Two Headed Eagle, 44 is eating 9/11.
45 as Chinese Music is a sun, moon, eclipse sickness, a “coronavirus”.
47 as Windmill Words is “gets rid of” over and over, like a Trumpet of an end.
The Illuminatus Trigger of all proofs, as if a Heikel = https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9c8dSmaYAE4nw9.jpg?name=orig
OMG,
THIS WAS AN APRILS FOOLS!
I loved this story, to this day it is one of my all time favorite stories! I once even voted to have a sequel. A story about how the survivors settled down, what challenges they faced, inwardly as well as outwardly.
OK, this is my vote: a Sequel to Atlantis wont sink experts agree. May the inspiration flow. 🙂
Hello JMG,
Thank you for your essay. Today is a great day to talk about conspiracies. 😂The illuninatti plan for the state of California is going on schedule.
For the 5th Wednesday, my vote is for Jungian archetypes.
Also funny… Last week, you wrote, “I considered becoming a botanist”. That gave me a chuckle. In Russian slang, “a botanist” (ботаник) is a person with autistic proclivities. 😉
Before Grand Master Schreck could put his most effective schemes in to use he and the Illuminati had to first run a pilot project on their most extravagant ideas. They wondered, where to test them out before moving on to the major cities.? They needed a place that proved that if they could do it there they could do it anywhere.
Ah Ha, it struck them like a thunderbolt. A modest size city in the pacific NW known for its well mannered population, down to earth economy , lack of corruption and sensible politics. If they could turn a place that puts its political efforts in to recycling, good energy politics, sensible public access laws and controlling urban sprawl then they could have their way with any locality they wanted. If the ideas worked in Portland then they could work anywhere.
Grand master Schreck rubbed his hands with glee as he thought of the success of his pet project. Today the city of Roses, tomorrow Miami.
I propose a topic, a short guide to prepare us for the current energy (and also political) shock; the consequences of the war in Iran are only just beginning to be felt and will take years to fully manifest.
Here is my Q-tip for the day:
https://imgur.com/a/PyDPlTc
Thanks for a delightful April Fool’s Day read, JMG! Now that I’ve enjoyed a peek behind the curtain, I can confidently go about my business, secure in the thoughts that nobody is actually in charge of history, and there is really nothing new under the sun.
OtterGirl
Fifth Wednesday: iirc you said that, like religions, whether conspiracy theories are literally true or not is the least interesting thing about them. I have been called a tin foil hatter in my time on the internet. Could you tackle conspiracy culture and history and whether it is going mainstream? It seems the Aquarian Age will be full of conspiracy theorists as we’re not all singing Kumbaya holding hands anymore.
The current conspiracy I believe in is that Netanyahu is no longer with us and the AI videos put out featuring him demonstrate that. Some people have noted that Trump never refers to him any more for some strange reason given their partnership in war. Incidentally, they kept Ariel Sharon on a ventilator for 8 years before his death was announced so it could be a long wait before I’m proven to be right.
In Scotland the leading Freemasons are nearly always upper class landowners. Why is Freemasonry so hierarchical and class based? Secondly, how do polytheists and non-theists become masons given the ‘Supreme Being’ requirement?
For the fifth Wednesday my vote is for the common ground between esoteric Buddhism and Western Occultism.
I for one am very reassured to see that world governments are being directed by competent people with a plan. Unfortunately my applications to the D.C. sub-lodge were rebuffed!
I would like to vote for Iran War/Twilight’s Last Gleaming comparisons, as well. An overconfident president initiates an attack on a middle eastern nation supported by China that he’s convinced will be a fait accompli in a few days (after firing and sidelining anyone willing to tell him no or explain what a bad idea it was), that rapidly develops into an expensive quagmire with no achievable military objectives and disrupts oil infrastructure for a decade at least. You have to admit some prescience on that one!
“my vote for a 5th Wednesday topic would be a discussion of whether the Iran war could (or could not) be our “Twighlight’s Last Gleaming” moment. There was a bit of alluding to this in last week’s comments, so I suspect I’m not the only one who would be interested to hear your thoughts on what role this Iran war plays in the bigger picture of catabolic collapse..”
After I read this:
https://acoup.blog/2026/03/25/miscellanea-the-war-in-iran/
I was pretty horrified. He makes it very clear that neither side can afford to be the first one to back down. It could be very bad for us.
Haha! What’s sad is how believable it is. Alas, I think it was Terrance McKenna who pointed out that if anybody were really in control, the world’s intelligence agencies wouldn’t have to have their lights on in the middle of the night trying to figure out what was going on.
For the Fifth Wednesday post… I notice that April 29 will be very close to the 20th anniversary of your first post on The Archdruid Report, which was on May 3, 2026. Might I humbly vote for a retrospective on your blogging career these past two decades? Unless of course you plan to do something similar on May 6 instead.
P.S. Off-topic (but then I’m not entirely sure what counts as on-topic for this post) but… NASA’s Artemis II is launching today, sending a crew of astronauts to orbit the Moon, the closest humans have come in over half a century. IIRC the Changer story ends with him on the Moon. Seems like we’re setting up for a fairly literal fulfillment of that myth.
Mary Bennet @14: I’m still wondering how that plan got past the public services union…
Bugs Bunny takes on the admin’s office? It was over a minute before I could even speak, for laughing. But, Bugs, please spare Ashley at that office’s front desk. She does a lot of good for us and can answer just about any question and is a great help to the confused or in over our heads. The bosses, now…… have at it!
Oh, hey! Do a post on American archetypes!
Oh this was so delightful, thank you John for the smile and giggle. Coming from an acting background I thoroughly enjoyed reading out the dialogue. On a somber note it made me think of the long-lasting effects of propaganda: it creates a tired apathetic public, erodes trust until it becomes nonexistent, and conditions the individual to stop expecting truth altogether.
I’ll also put in a vote for your opinion on Iran, from whatever angle you choose.
Well done. Very much like a skit from the premiere of Saturday Night Live UK a couple weeks ago, where they bring Prince Andrew to MI-5 headquarter in 1997 right after Princess Dianna died where the present the Prince with a 29 year plan to rehabilitate Charles’ image by making Adrew look as bad as possible.
Robert M. # 7:
That phrase you’ve quoted remind me some people is stupid due to their lack of cleverness, but some others are stupid for being too smart (or pretending they’re smart enough). A classical historical: Stalin when he had his agreement with Hitler (German-Soviet Deal), thought he was smarter than Nazis really were: he was utterly wrong, like WW2 showed bitterly him and every Soviet people then. USSR eventually defeated Germany, but it paid a huge human price.
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Mary B. # 14:
I think even a stopped clock shows the right hour two times in a day. So I can see NYC mayor had a good pragmatic idea to implement it, at least from my European point of view. However, I’ve heard some not very good news about him in my local MSM, since he won last elections there. Well, I’d say (like a French writer whose name I can’t remember now wrote about Napoleon): “He did good things, he did bad things”. I think it’s a diplomatic phrase, but we can agree/disagree wether this or that politician good things overpass bad things, or his/her bad things are less than good things.
I remember a lurid TV advertisement (do I repeat myself there?) for a documentary about the incipient Ice Age that I saw in about 1977 or so. No receipts needed; I remember.
For most of my early and middle life, and even to an extent today, I generally accepted that if science had determined something to be true*, it probably was, which I suppose is pretty normal for someone who was born a couple years after the first moon landing.
* – my best understanding of the meaning of “true” in science is that it’s shorthand for “not falsified to date”, even for long uncontested things.
Actually, about that. The idea that the Soviets would have called nonsense if the US had been pulling shenanigans about that and not landed on the moon at all: that’s pretty solid, right? That’s a good enough reason by itself for a lay non-rocket-scientist to believe in the landings, right?
Anyway, I mostly believe science still, even though the question of who’s funding the whitecoats, as mentioned by GW CAUCHEMAR in the story, does occur to me. The first time I really felt a “you gotta be kidding me” about a science announcement was about the exoplanets. Not that I don’t think there are such; I believe science about how solar system formation works, so it follows that there would be exoplanets. But that we can locate them and learn details about them from here? Color me skeptical about that. The detection method sounds akin to starting at a streetlight at the far limit of your vision and counting the insects around it. And if I y’all’d bear with me while I extend my tortured analogy even further, the idea that we know details about these planets sound like saying we can not only count those insects but identify them by species.
Not that I think anyone profits materially from pretending knowledge that we don’t have about exoplanets (well, I guess if your job is “exoplanet finder”), but since we’re not going to be going anywhere but our still lovely if a little battered blue marble, providing some conveniently unverifiable information from our supposed ability to look out there in detail might provide some shoring up for the myth of progress.
I’m not insistent about this. It’s quite possible that if I dedicated some years into getting a science education and gained access to the process and saw how it works, I would see that the detection methods are sound and the data are real. From where I sit now though, I don’t really think that’s the way to bet. And I’d much rather spend that time playing my guitar.
JMG: I’d like to add one vote to blue sun’s idea about whether we’re looking at a scenario broadly similar to your story “Twlight’s Last Gleaming”, please.
For 5th Wednesday, I would like to either second Anonymous’ suggestion of “Jung’s archetypes……….” in addition to Hitler/Wotan I suggest a focus on archetypes in a failing empire (or failing empires throughout history).
A tour de force, JMG! I have a question related to your earlier post on the education of desire, or “magician states”. I actually think your satire above gives us some clue into how some of that magical thinking is concocted! In any case, I am curious about your contrast with dictatorships which use more brute forces. But, I wonder don’t all polities/leaders – irrespective of how we label them – have to use some form of propaganda or “spectacle” to maintain cooptation and acquiescence? I have always been stunned at how readily people in the US swallow elite and media propaganda, but always comforted myself that other societies must be just as gullible. Or am I wrong? Or some populations wiser and we are particularly guillible?
Here is another good April 1 joke: https://www.adaptiveseeds.com/product/collections-mixes/mixes/floor-sweepings-mix/
I highly recommend this company as the very model and pattern of a virtuous seed vendor. What I expecially appreciate is that they tell you where your seeds were grown.
In unrelated news, I have been assured by very credible observers (cough, Jeff Childers, cough) that the war in Iran is going wonderfully and perfectly and it is definitely part of a master plan to restore the American empire, and anyone who doubts so is a dirty, stupid panican.
As far as Fifth Friday goes, I assumed the Illuminati already know what my vote is (otherwise, what am I paying them for?), but just for redundancy, here’s my vote: Jack Vance.
I’m terribly disappointed. I was expecting a riotous satire on all fools day, but instead I read a plausible history of Western Civ. (BWAHAHAHA) IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!
I have no preference for a 5th Wednesday post. Whatever is chosen, it will be epic.
Hahahaha so funny!
Ok, here’s some really crazy stuff that I hope you’ll cover! The Congressional alien hearings, no joke! Danny Sheehan is an attorney who litigated Watergate, Pentagon Papers, Iran-contra scandal, is representing the whistle blowers who say alien tech is a real thing. Also, 5 scientists supposedly working on UFOs. are dead/missing in past 8 months, and Matt Gaetz said there is an alien breeding program on X, Chris Bledsdoe in 2012 made a statement he had a revelation that April 2026 there is going to be a public alien presence.
This follows the Project Blue Beam and Project Bluebook, that outlines the government using a fake alien invasion to destroy world religions and “unite humanity” under the One World Government, or whatever.
The only TRUTH we can be certain of is the world are run by psychopathic liars, topped with a whole lots of stupid and greed sprinkles.
There are TRILLIONS of dollars missing on black ops crap and embezzlement, it’s been 30 years since Dolly the sheep. They don’t seem to bother with ethics and morality, so if they roll out “aliens”, I think they are full of BS and have genetically manipulated and tortured some poor human like thing. I can easily see murder happening to cover this up after seeing what happened to the 2 Boeing whistle blowers. With Operation Papaerclip, the US government took in thousands of genuine Nazi psychos (not what the Woke calls every one who disagrees with them) and gave them jobs at NASA and MKUltra clinics and who knows what else.
So I’m just all agog to see what Illuminati comes up with next! I say stock up on your toilet paper and stay tuned!
PS I asked my Father in confession last week what the Orthodox churches take is on aliens and surprise, they’re demonic forces! I kind of want to go see an exorcism….
What do you think of aliens? There’s been thousands of reports according to French astrophysicist Jacques Valle.
Hmm. Not faulting your post any, because if I were in a better mood, I would have found it funny. But as I read it I recalled your post on cognitive decline as well as your book Not the Future We Ordered and the results of cognitive dissonance that you discussed in the book. The Order in this post is describing how they were dedicated to inducing cognitive dissonance in the population so they could take over. While the actual process hasn’t been in charge of the Order, the cognitive-dissonance-inducing process has gone on just as you described. And here we are, cognitive decline all around us, and it doesn’t look like it’ll get any better.
I’ll vote for a discussion of the connection of cognitive dissonance to cognitive decline for the Open Post.
Lathechuck 4
> a student who was eager and able to hold them accountable for the effectiveness of their teaching. What if that caught on with other students, in other courses! The horror…
👀🙄√ Yep. Thanks.
‼️I would surely have gotten a better education had I gone to a one-room schoolhouse (or three-room: add a bathroom and bookroom aka ’library‘)‼️Not a choice,— yet. Someone at such a modest schoolhouse would have certainly “noticed” that I couldn’t write worth sh_t🚽. I won’t be around for it but (decrepit), in 20-30 years, every neighborhood oughta have a three-room schoolhouse as an alternative, with its shoestring budget, like in the olden days. None of this $10million garbage. No highfalutin school buildings.
Major school-system problems existed when I was a kid (1957-1970) and, have only gotten worse. It is a trend downward. But we need not think that all is lost.
JMG
It is hard to believe I was ever 14. I used to wonder how old I would live to be. (Well, 73 or higher.) And JMG, I am indebted to your Archdruid blog, and this one, which have helped steer me “‘not’ off a cliff.”
I hope you, JMG, have had “a good latter part of last week.” Whoa, last week’s comments were incredibly informative and active. I think you are saying “Gimme a vacation‼️”
ALL OF LAST WEEK’S COMMENTERS
Thank you‼️all for your comments last week. I in fact do feel better for it. It is “commentariat-therapy.” This time last week, I was feeling like a slew of World War One canons had blasted me the previous month. Today, I have recovered to the degree I feel like I can walk past a rose🌹and appreciate its smell. Last week was my toilet-to-rose week.
I think this will be a quiet week for me. Nose-to-grindstone doing bookkeeping for the whole of 2025 for our LLC. (I am an errant bookkeeper. Bad bookkeeper.🤦🏼♀️)
💨🚽🌹🏫–>🏚️💨Northwind Grandma
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
Once again, all votes have been graven on plates of pure orichalcum by Deep Ones in the drowned ruins of lost Atlantis.
Chuaquin, yes, all the names have meanings like that. “Schreck” is German for “terror,” Balor is an evil god from Irish legend (the original of Tolkien’s Sauron), “Cauchemar” is French for “nightmare,” “Blutmord” is German for “bloody murder,” and “Duchten” is Dutch for “dread.” “Blagoonah,” on the other hand, is Old High Lemurian for “what’s the date today?” 😉
Vitranc, yep. We’re dangerously close to another round of witch hunts and mass murders, as people flail around to find someone to blame for the consequences of decades of bad decisions in which they themselves participated fully.
Phutatorius, I like that idea!
Chuaquin, exactly. Both sides have their own conspiracy theories; the only difference is that the conspiracy theories on the left have been socially acceptable for the last century or so, and even that’s fading out as antisemitism becomes widespread on the far left.
Eugene, er, no, Obama wasn’t a Mason. Trust me, we keep track. The last Freemason in the White House was Gerald Ford. (Joe Biden was made a Mason at sight by the grand master of a traditionally African-American jurisdiction after he stepped down, but there’s serious question as to the legitimacy of that action as the ancient landmarks strictly forbid initiating “an old man in his dotage.”) As for the rest, you can use gematria to prove that Bozo the Clown is the Antichrist, you know.
Vitranc, it would be a very different story, as that April Fool’s post was intended as a parody. Read the names “Tarc Omed” and “Nacil Buper” backwards and you may get a better idea of what I had in mind.
Inna, ha! Clearly I missed my calling.
Clay, bwahahahaha!
Justin, thanks for this.
OtterGirl, I considered writing a piece in which the Bavarian Illuminati hung their heads in despair, realizing that there was no way they could plunge the world into chaos, discord, and confusion more effectively than by stepping back and letting things just go the way they were naturally going.
Bridge, yes, I’ve heard that one. It reminds me rather forcefully of the “Paul is dead” business among Beatles fans back in the day. Still, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Tengu, Britain is a profoundly caste-ridden society, and Masonry got coopted by the upper classes early on. Elsewhere, it started off that way but has worked its way far down the social ladder — most Masons here in the US, for examples, are small businessmen, skilled laborers, and retirees. As for the requirement of believing in a Supreme Being, nontheists are strictly excluded from regular Freemasonry, but polytheists are not. The ancient landmarks don’t say that you have to believe in only one god, just that you have to be able to take oaths in the name of one who’s supreme. Nearly all polytheist faiths have that feature, which is why there are vast numbers of Hindu Freemasons and a fair number of Japanese Masons as well.
Sirustalcelion, you must have submitted the application incorrectly. You have to bury it in your backyard so the underground agents of the Illuminati can get it. 😉
Slithy, you’ll rarely hear me agree with Terence McKenna, but he got that one right. I plan on doing a retrospective on 20 years of blogging on my first May post, so I haven’t logged that one. As for the Artemis mission, I want to see if they can actually make it work; if they do, I’ll have some crow to eat.
Patricia M, oh, Ashley will be fine. Bugs will make a wisecrack, she’ll laugh, and he’ll cause her to sprout bunny ears and a fluffy white tail but otherwise leave her unharmed. The bosses, on the other hand, will be turned into Illudium Q-36 space modulators and shipped up to Marvin the Martian via Elon Musk’s next space launch.
Jane, good. It’s not propaganda alone that does that, though — any time a privileged caste of experts insist that they’re always right, even if they genuinely believe it, it has the same effect.
Bradley, that’s almost too convincing to be funny! Bwahahahaha.
Cynthia, that’s certainly one of many pieces of evidence that point in that direction. Myself, I’m fairly sure that the whole “we never went to the Moon” business is a Chinese psyop. Mao’s government insisted in 1968 that the Moon landings were fake, and since they have plans to go to the Moon themselves in the near future, it would make sense for them to manufacture a bogus case for faked Moon landings so that when they go, they can claim that they were the first ones there.
Anna, we’re more gullible than most because it pays us to be gullible. Remember that even for the poor, standards of living in the US are absurdly inflated compared to the rest of the world. If we were ever to have our standards of living drop to, let’s say, Eastern European levels, I think you’d find American gullibility would decline very fast indeed.
Mary, funny. Thank you.
Cliff, I read Childers regularly to find out what the most extreme MAGA true believers think. Since he’s a lawyer, he’s brilliant at arguing himself into believing whatever supports his side of the case. Mind you, he also has good data points now and then, but his main interest to me is that he’s the perfect counterpoint to the people on the other side of the spectrum who always insist that everything Trump does is both pure cackling villainy guaranteed to kill us all, and also unbelievably stupid and doomed to fail.
John, bwahahahaha!
Candy, if you appreciate Jacques Vallee — one of my favorite authors on the subject — you should certainly read his book Passport to Magonia, which makes a very strong case that “aliens” are just the latest version of what used to be called elves and goblins; they’ve always been here and they always will be. John Keel’s books on the same subject, especially The Mothman Prophecies, are also well worth reading. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the alien schtick gets deployed at some point by the US government; they’ve been using it since 1947 to cover up aerospace technology testing, after all.
SLClaire, nah, you missed two details. First of all, the Illuminati in this parodic story aren’t trying to take over, just to spread chaos, discord, and confusion. Second, they’re not causing cognitive dissonance. What they’re causing is far more threatening: a collapse of public trust in the cult of expertise that’s used to justify a decadent and dysfunctional system. The hysterical laughter they seek to bring about is a resolution of cognitive dissonance, as people say, “Okay, I get it — the experts really are as corrupt and clueless as I thought they were all along.”
Northwind, I wish I didn’t remember when I was 14 — it was a miserable time for me, though at least it was better than my childhood. As for a vacation, nah, I had one of those. I’m having fun now.
How I miss the 90’s.
This is so… comforting. It’s good to know that this was the plan all along. I’ve been terrified at the thought that this was a reoccurring self inflicted catastrophe.
Vitranc # 18:
Nothing new under the sun, though I think the conspiracy theory you told us has certain originality within its “family”.
Freemasons conspiracies have been used to denounce disliked political ideas since 200 years ago, methink. At least in my country, the most (in)famous conspiracy mixed Jews, Freemasons and Commies in happy friendship, to destroy Christian civilization. It was popular during last Spanish War and then during Franco dictatorship. Of course, some Jews can be Freemasons, but not every Freemason is a Jew. Oh, and there’s fact about Communism: both Lenin and Stalin disliked Freemasonry, because they thought its rites were too similar to their hated religions…
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Clay D. # 26:
I guess you wrote your comment in an ironical way…
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Bridge # 30:
I can answer you, about your theory on Netanyahu and Trump, with one of my favorite sayings: “Si non é vero é ben trovato”.
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Slithy T. # 34:
Maybe there’s nobody controlling 100% the world. Indeed, past historical events (like current events), according the most serious historians, seem to happen due to many causes, sometimes correlated, sometimes not.
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Bradley # 39:
Prince Andrew as a scapegoat to hide his brother Charles problems?(or the whole UK Monarchy problems). I think “Andrew fig leaf to cover Charles shame”, it isn’t impossible, though on the other hand I’ve got the impression that the British Crown has tried always to protect Andrews dirty secrets, until last events in UK; but who knows?
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(To be continued)
Great piece of literature.
Suggestion for the 5. Wednesday: How to live a happy life in an age of decline?
The question is more on attitude, mindset, inner life etc. (For the material side i could imagine: live frugal, boost your household economy, work for and on yourself)
illuminated greetings,
parttimedruid
A paraphrase of something attributed to C.S. Lewis. “In a healthy society the homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers are there to make home making happen effectively and well.” The bright parts of history are when ordinary folks ( the vast majority) live in peace in their homes with friends, community at large, family and people working to meet their needs all going on fairly well. We had a patch of that in the United States beginning after the Civil War with ups and downs and imperfections of course with a peak after WW2 and now that pleasantness is fading. My father age 20 in 1952 lived through that peak, raised a family with six children (I had a splendid childhood) and in his 80’s said he had lived through good decades that weren’t going to be repeated and felt sorry for his grandchildren and great grand children.. No thanks to you filthy Illuminati creeps!
Eugene 23
> where each “President” is blood related
I had heard of this “myth.” It had been making the rounds for decades in genealogical circles.
As an amateur genealogist (with 45 years experience), in my spare time, I wanted to find out for myself if this myth that US presidents were/are blood-related is true, or not. I did my own anecdotal study around 2018, spending many a day working on it.
I selected randomly twenty-five family trees of US Presidents (by then, many of the trees were online).
Except for Van Buren and Trump, the myth is indeed true. US Presidents, going back to the 1600s England, by way of the thirteen colonies, are indeed blood relatives.
I spent time verifying each generation of each of the 25. I was shocked. And I spot-checked almost all the rest. Grandma wanted to know.
Conclusion: Except for Van Buren and Trump, most all, if not all, US presidents are blood-related to each other, of England, from the thirteen original colonies, as were/are their wives, 3rd through 14th cousins of each other.
The entire lot of them are from the aristocrat-class,— are now privileged aristocrats,— deny they are aristocrats,— and will do just about ANYTHING to make the world think they are not privileged uppercrust aristocrats. Take any two presidents (seriously, any two), and I found a common ancestor between them tracing back to the 1600s somewhere in the thirteen colonies.
Trump is not related to any of the other presidents, being his people were latecomers. His lines come from Germany and Scotland, a couple generations ago. I REALLY like that Trump’s people are nouveau-riche, and not old-money. Trump is independent. Trump’s father was a self-made man. President Van Buren wasn’t related to any of the other presidents, but did come from the Dutch upperclass New York City, so technically, he was from the Dutch aristocracy.
In my informal genealogical study, I even included some famous names, like Stephenon Colbertus, who touts he came from a downtrodden Irish family. Not so. I blew that lie out of the water. Colbertus is as blue-blooded and old-money as any New England hoity-toity blue-blood tweed-dresser. His progenitors launched his career because long before he was born, they were millionaires and aristocrats. He is an f-ing liar. I know so.
💨💸🌳💨Northwind Grandma
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
Re: Note 4.
This is interesting, I’ll have to look into it.
You know I still haven’t been able to read René Le Forestier’s magnum opus on the Bavarian Ones. It’s been almost 2 years but I’m the primary caretaker for a family elder and that time has been hectic…
I should hope Le Forestier’s book includes this type of “genealogy”, the roots of the system.
Hello –
GG Balor here. It appears in reviewing this transcript that I failed to chastise GM Cauchemar for mistakenly referring to the year 5991 AM in the, ahem, vernacular calendar re: the fall of the Soviet Union.. I must apologize to my fellow Illuminati for the oversight. I was too busy guffawing. 🙂
…For the Fifth Wednesday post, something about the nature of conflict on the higher planes (kind of following on on that post I read in the most recent Magic Monday) would be nice.
JMG, speaking of our aprils fools Illuminati working overtime to wreck the legitimacy of all our institutions. I have often wondered if there was some all powerful trickster behind the the curtain arranging the choice of who we are allowed to vote for in high political office. I guess they wanted to be sure the masses couldn’t accidentally vote in another JFK.
It has been a long bumpy downhill road from Thomas Jefferson to Kamala.
Note: Greek democracy lasted for 185 years before self-destructing. Let me see….. 2026 – 1776 = ?.
Per JMG: “Bridge, yes, I’ve heard that one. It reminds me rather forcefully of the “Paul is dead” business among Beatles fans back in the day. Still, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Have you been listening to “Hatikvah” played backwards, recently?
A little more details on note 5 above; it’s actually vastly more complex than the 7 political changes described by our gracious host. From May 1789 to September 1870, France suffers through 14 total overhauls of their constitution (note that the actual French Revolution runs from1789 to 1804):
Absolute Monarchy to May 1789
États généraux (noble/clergy/3rd estate assemblies); 1789
Assemblée Nationale (single parliament);1789
Monarchie Contitutionelle to 1792
Convention Nationale (republic 1.0) to 1795
Directoire (Soviet-style Committee dictatorship) to 1799
Consulat (Roman-style senate and triple consul dictatorship) to 1804
First Empire to 1815
First Restoration (back to Absolute Monarchy); 1815
100 days (back to 1st Empire); 1815
Second Restoration (back to Absolute Monarchy but with constant amendments and concessions to local assemblies) to 1830
Constitutional Monarchy to 1848
Second Republic (king-styled president + single parliament) to 1852
Second Empire to 1870
Third Republic (president and bi-cameral parliament) to 1940
After the 19th century France keeps experimenting with constitutional/political structures.
John, since this still is the same day, I can get away with saying, that indeed I was born yesterday ;-). That is why I took the name of Mu-Elortep very seriously and try to stay away from the human sacrifice he so forcefully demands. There was supposedly a rumored lost scroll containing the lost prophecies of Emor Fobulc. Rumor has it, that within its verses is contained the incantation to banish the Lord of Evil. But since I cannot find it, it must be, that the sinister FREEMASONS have suppressed it. Alas I have wondered these last decades (pardon me, hours, since indeed I was born yesterday 😉 ) desperate and lost.
Ok, seriously. I know the names. I knew it was a parody, even though I missed the April fools joke. But I found the story slotted very nicely with the legend of Atlantis the Theosophists tell and right about that time I read Dion Fortunes Sea Priestess and the story of Merlin and Morgan, when it is told how they arrived in the past to the new lands fascinated me. So yes, it would be a different story. But you would have at least one fascinated reader 😀
If nothing else consider this high praise for your parody. ahm bwahahahaha!
Oh yeah, I tried to come up with at least one president I was related to, and thank gods, I couldn’t find one.
I am descended from original colonists of the 1600s but very likely they were peasants🧙🏼♀️.
Some of them German: the category of German who fled their German homeland 1705 because of the brutality of multitudinous petty§ German bully-aristocrats who made those fleeing peasants into canon-fodder. German petty aristocrats —> German peasants = “shoot ‘em in the back.”
§ families that commanded little itty-bitty snatches of land, some not as big as a “county.”
💨🧙🏼♀️⛵️💨Northwind Grandma
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
These days you have to add Islamic conspiracies to the list. It’s going to be a Judeo-Islamic-Marxist-Freemason conspiracy to “destroy Western civilization”.
Meanwhile the Jews are going to be talking about a Christian-Islamic-Marxist-Freemason conspiracy to destroy the Jews, and the Muslims are going to be talking about a Judeo-Christian-Marxist-Freemason conspiracy to destroy the Muslims, and the Marxists are going to be talking about a Judeo-Christian-Islamic-Freemason conspiracy, etc.
An idea for the fifth Wednesday. A discussion of what I call the Globalists or Atlanticists The European/North American generational power elite. We seem to have had a look see of them via the Epstein documents. I think to their frustration Russia and China are outside to them, as is Iran. I realize they are a varied group that don’t walk in lockstep and have divisions, a network with nodes. There is I think a strain of undercover spiritual skulduggery as part of it all, but not omnipresent with spirit archonic influences. There is a whole ecosystem of spirits up to stuff – good and bad IMO. I realize I have lined out in the above a mixed bag of topics. Been aware of this murky group since the 70’s.
All I can say is kek.
As for the 5th I’d suggest covering the topic of the occult as a taboo in history and academia.
The number of examples where scholars and historians outright deny reality in favor of covering up “embarrassing” history could fill a novel. But here are some of the more ridiculous examples. According to scholars of ancient Gnosticism there is an informal “black list” on the books of Pistis Sophia because they’re “too magical” and “condemn homosexuality” which contradicts the “consensus” on ancient Gnosticism. Also apparently saying the Knights Templar were anything but big standard Christians is no good either, apparently all those which depict the Gnostic characters Abraxas and Yaldabaoth were used because they “looked cool.”
It’s as if they’re desperate for it not to exist. Might be an interesting topic.
I’d like to learn more about those wars/conflicts in Heaven/higher planes. Since on this plane, even people who want nothing but be left alone and live in peace are being dragged into the wars of the so-called elites, I’d like to know if something similar will await you “over there,” too. That would be a really depressing prospect, but inquiring minds still want to know. If the material wouldn’t justify a whole post, maybe you can answer it here? Or is it off-topic? Is anything off-topic this time?
Again, everyone’s votes have been engraved on beechwood boards in baleful signs by cowled and cackling scribes whose robes conceal worse than shapeless forms.
Piper, would it be any better if it were a reoccurring catastrophe inflicted by sinister masterminds?
BeardTree, the zenith of empire always seems like a golden age for people in the imperial heartland who look back on that time after it’s passed.
Northwind, go back enough generations and we’re all related — and of course people in the upper classes very often have lots of descendants. (I recall that a quarter of the people in Ireland are descended from King Brian Boru.) I’ve long wanted to do a study that took 47 American conspiracy theorists at random and figured out how many of them were related; I suspect it would be a pretty fair number.
Thibault, Mung and Gruad Grayface were both invented out of whole cloth by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea in their mighty satire on conspiracy culture, Illuminatus!. No, you won’t find that sort of thing in Le Forestier’s book, as he’s a competent historian and knows that Weishaupt made up his system out of a mixture of Enlightenment rationalism and misunderstood classical history.
Brendhelm, yeah, I probably should have put that in, but I was too busy guffawing, too. 😉
Clay, er, JFK may not be your best choice. I’ve long thought that Seymour Hersh’s portrayal of him in The Dark Side of Camelot is much more true to life than the hagiographical literature that clustered around him once he was safely dead.
Patricia, true. Now look up a few other democracies…
Phutatorius, funny! I’ll have you know that I did listen to “Abbey Road” played backwards, back in the day.
Rashakor, thank you for this!
Vitranc, okay, good to hear. For years now I’ve considered writing a novel about the last days of Atlantis and the aftermath of its sinking. If I do, it’ll be less satirical than the April Fools post, though certain — ahem — parallels to the present will be in evidence.
Anon, you’ll be interested to know that among the Freemasons I’ve met, nobody’s yet talking about a Judeo-Christian-Islamic-Marxist plot!
Cynthia C. # 41:
Until the ‘80s, scientific consensus within climatologists was indeed that an Ice Age would come soon, in geological time terms. So it was normal a 1977 documentary showed that theory. Only a few scientists suspected CO2 sustained growth due to human industries could heat Earth atmosphere soon, I think since the ‘60s. It was only since the ‘90s when a new scientific consensus about Climate Change/Global Warming was achieved until now. Although I think this scientists agreement is based in some serious evidences, I find quite disappointing the lack of memory within today climatologists to remember the “next Ice Age” claims said/written before the ‘80s by scientists.
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Anna # 43:
I don’t think USA citizens are better or worse than another Western citizens to believe or reject their own country Spectacle (propaganda+advertisement). For example, you can find in Spain in a ramdom way people who think Putin and Trump are crazy (thanks to their blind belief in the usual MSM narratives), and people who are true dissenters from official speeches (though unfortunately they often fall in the conspiracy theories trap).
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Cliff # 45:
From my European point if view, I find very bizarre how the True Believers in Trump trust without any doubt in his “infallible” leader, with his perfect master plan to win Iran war (or even they believe he already won). It seems a messianic-like bias not very fit to be working in a democracy (ahem). One of the advantages of democracy is when people is able to correct and criticize their elected leaders for their possible mistakes.
However, in the anti-Trumpian side, his opponents make a mistake thinking Trumpian attacks against Iran will end in a sure USA defeat in a Dien Bien Phu battle way (by evident reasons, Iran can’t win in a “clean” way this war).
However, Iran could hurt USA civil and military structures in ME (indeed maybe has already begun to do it), so IMHO this mess could mess in a middle ground, within a grey area without big winners/losers (stalemate, to some extent).
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(To be continued)
Regarding JFK and Seymour Hersh: I do wonder if his “Dark Side” book was written as a hit piece, his means of “doing something for Israel.” Maybe as a way of atoning for his “The Samson Option,” in which JFK plays a not unimportant role. Yes, JFK had his issues, and then there were the sins of his father, Joseph, which I won’t go into. But some grudges last several generations. I’d recommend reading both books.
Northwind Grandma #55, JMG #68
And don’t forget all the work that’s been done on the blue-eyes gene: apparently it was a one-time mutation that happened somewhere around Moldova (a tiny country between Ukraine and Romania) thousands of years ago. So every single person on Earth with blue eyes are cousins!
I am the walrus.
Ewige Blumenkraft und ewige Schlangenkraft
For the fifth Wednesday, I second Tengu’s proposal for the common ground between esoteric Buddhism and Western Occultism. If I could, I would add in where the differences lay too. To be honest, I figure you would cover that in any case.
Candy D.# 47:
I hope to tell it to you avoiding to upset you, but I’m afraid some religious people (especially Conservatives ones) tend to throw into the “demonic” commonplace everything they don’t understand well and it doesn’t fit in their beliefs system as a “new” thing. It seems to me the “alien” topic is a case. I think it’s a lazy attitude in front of the unknown things.
I’d like to say UFO phenomenon, better than aliens. Identifying UFOs with hypertechnological civilizations from another planets seems to me an evident Faustian belief in god Progress, which hasn’t real evidences.
On the other hand, I think a small part of UFO phenomena isn’t due to human secret aircrafts or strange natural phenomena, but maybe due to not human beings (though they hadn’t to be aliens). They can be good, evil or neutral to human beings, methink.
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JMG # 50:
Very good and expressive names for the story characters! I grasped the Cauchemar meaning, but I don’t speak German nor Dutch, nor Lemurian.
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You mean the left has managed for more than a century to hide under its “fig leaf” of Academia philosophy and sciences its own conspiracy theories: I agree.
By the way, I see myself as a center-left man, but my friend with I discussed this topic tends to a harder leftism. Although he isn’t a far leftist, he doesn’t like very much old school Socialdemocracy, he’s slightly woke (not too much thanks God), and he seems to have read the whole Marx works. So if I tell him my ideas about some arrogant Marxist ideas as conspiracy theories, maybe our friendship would be soon in danger…
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In addition to the Freemasonry topic, I can say a lot of lies and half-truths have been told as part of conspiracy theories around Freemasons. However, it seems unavoidable that, when you hear some people meet periodically in a secret way, far from common average people, fake news begin to be told to the public.
On the other hand, like another conspiracy “families”, Freemasonry legends are very loosely based in a few distorted real facts. For example, Regular Freemasonry in Anglophone countries is different from Freemasons in Catholic culture European countries. Maybe following the French model, in countries like Spain, Freemasons usually have been anti-catholic (even anti-Christian). During last two centuries, the Catholic Church and Freemasonry have been ideological enemies. Indeed, Freemasons are the black beast of Rome, and vice versa. This context explains in part the “black legend” of Freemasonry here (possibly made up by Catholics).
It’s interesting to point how Freemasons seem to have thrived in Spain more liberal times (in the European sense) than in Conservative ones (friendly to Rome). It seems there’s some relation between Freemasons ideals here and classical liberal ideology (for example, free speech and separation between Church and State).
When Franco began last Civil
War, he started to prosecute Freemasons. His purpose was to make Spain became a Catholic State, and finally he succeed. So it isn’t a Fascist-like regime based partly in a far right Catholicism, prosecuted one of its black beasts.
There’s a spanish movie, called “Mientras dure la guerra”. Its main character’s an old and famous university teacher, who’s casually trapped in Franco’s side. One of his friends is a man who became a Protestant and a Freemason when he lived in the UK. Franco soldiers notice his situation, so they arrest him and kill him without a trial. This movie is based in real events from 1936.
Freemasonry was legalized again in last ‘70s, when current democracy began; however, it seems Freemasons haven’t thrived again like in previous liberal times. Freemasons have lived better times like organization. Ironically, Catholic Church in Spain has lived better times too. The two long time enemies look like tired and outdated in these today times.
Hey JMG
It’s nice to see you return to the short fiction that you used to post many years ago, especially when it is a homage to “Illuminatus!”.
On the subject of the 5th Wednesday post, along time ago there was the suggestion that you write about how much of western society has become more “feminine” in how it acts, but I think you may have already written about that already. Did you already write about that subject?
Great essay for April Fools Day JMG. Much to my wife’s consternation, I delight in conspiracy theories and oten discuss them. I think that they show the deep anxieties many people suffer from.
If only it were only so easy that we could blame all the problems of our world on a few malevolent people rather than on the sum total of our own bad choices.
Thanks so much
@ Cynthia Christie (#41)
Re: staring at a far-away street lamp and identifying the insects buzzing around it
A fine analogy. The business about exoplanets is very clever, and may very well be true. I.e. the conclusions drawn may be a more or less good fit with whatever actually exists and is going on around far-away stars. However, it is extremely unlikely that humanity would ever be able to verify those conclusions. They could just as easily be completely bonkers hallucinations, and we would never know the difference.
The same goes, by the way, for a lot of what is taken for scientific truth much closer to home. Much of what is treated as established scientific truth, in fact rests upon a very tall and shaky house of cards, built of questionable yet unverifiable assumptions.
re: today’s date. I don’t really like giving facebook and all that know my my actual date of birth, so it currently reads April 1, 1950. Thus far, no one seems to have noticed that I am very obviously not 76 years old.
It’s so funny because I just saw a YouTube video from a few years ago highlighting how a Democratic administration is much more likely to start a war with Iran than a MAGA administration.
“Before long both parties will pursue most of the same policies, but the party out of power will denounce those policies in the most inflammatory language they can come up with, while the party in power enacts them. Once the party in power changes, of course, the party that was doing those things will start denouncing them, and the party that was denouncing them will start doing them.”
It’s too true to be satire!
I love the character names!
Also – At my next meeting of the Green Wizards’ Benevolent and Protective Association, I will introduce the idea of replacing our clumsy system of photo IDs and ticketed events with cost-effective blood-tasting by Howlers from the Abyss.
Hi John Michael,
Bwahahahaha brother (whilst displaying the secret signs of those initiated unto the Grand Mothlan Society of former Mad Magazine readers)!
Very funny indeed. And I particularly enjoyed the line about declaring us to be ‘smart’, whilst doing otherwise. Way back in the day, the supposed left leaning politicians dismantled the manufacturing sector in this country by throwing them all under the bus. They actually used those ‘smart’ words way back in the day, and described us as ‘the clever country’. Didn’t seem all that smart to me.
Our Prime Minister gave a very rare address to the nation last night. Nothing much was said, as was to be expected from a spineless bureaucrat in leader’s clothing. The general message was along the lines of Douglas Adams famous dictate: “Don’t Panic!” Dunno about you, but having just heard the official plan to tackle a major crisis, I genuinely did begin to feel a touch of panic. It was hardly reassuring. Mark my words, the way has now been opened for: a leader.
I note that your biggest chief is about to pull out of NATO. Given the mischief in the far east of Europe, I’m hardly surprised by the threat. Only a fool would believe that a proper leader won’t cut the Gordian knot and force all to face themselves. There is something darkly humorous in that it takes an ex-reality television personality, to you know, display reality to those who prefer to look the other way. 🙂 Oh well… Strange days huh? And I very much enjoyed your cheeky story.
By the way, is it my imagination, or in the near to the top of the seal you displayed, it looks to me like a wide eyed small fluffy dog was caught in the act of weeing on the weighty tome and awaiting swift punishment? Only a bunch of intellectuals would include such imagery on their seal. 😉
Cheers
Chris
Beardtree 65
> Globalists or Atlanticists The European/North American generational power elite
Now that I am reminded, referencing my ‘amateur genealogist’ note of earlier today, this syndrome could be thought of as having a third dimension—of time, the timeframe being roughly year 1600 onwards. Up until about 1975, the power elites have been largely of Northern European ethnicity —> American. Since the mid-1970s, there have been non-European ethnicity players who have made scads of money, like the Sawdis and d’Isrulies. d’Isrulies and their cohorts have sucked Americans dry and pocketed the cash. (Two sentences is my limit; no more; I shan’t start it all up again.)
My point is that Northern European ethnicities have ruled the roost from years (rounding off) 1600 to 2000 AD. That whole thing appears caput. New ethnicities want a share of the profits; these new ethnicities have ‘shark-ized’🦈some good-sized chunks/hunks in the last fifty years. Fair is fair. It appears that those descended from the aristocratic (kleptocracy) original thirteen American colonist-bandits have lost their edge — they must labor considerably harder to ’have their ships not run aground.’ There are younger pirates🏴☠️in town, who are finding new ways to thieve. It is “Let’s Make a Deal,” or steal as much as one can.
💨🦈🏴☠️💨Northwind Grandma
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
Again, everyone’s votes have been marked down on the black sands of Carcosa, where the cloud waves break in the wind from Yhtill and thoughts lengthen into nightmare in the afternoon.
Phutatorius, perhaps, but when I looked for corroborating evidence I found it doubled, tripled, and in spades. John H. Davis’s The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster and James Spada’s Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept The Secrets are particularly revealing. I forget who the wag was who suggested that “Kennedy” is how you pronounce “Corleone” with an Irish accent, but the point’s valid: the Kennedys were an organized crime family, major players in the Boston mob who clawed their way into faux respectability mostly because Joseph P. Kennedy had the street smarts to get out of the stock market in 1929 before the crash and thus had plenty of money when everyone else was flat on their backs. JFK was smoother than his father but cut from the same cloth, and his brother’s fight against the Italian mob was more a turf war than anything else.
Justin, good heavens — Paul! Now we know where you’ve been hiding all these years, while Billy Shears was cutting all those records. 😉
Phil, (makes secret sign in response).
Chuaquin, I know; around 10,000 Freemasons were shot under Franco’s regime in Spain just for the “crime” of being Freemasons. I know brother Masons who have made pilgrimages to some of the mass graves.
J.L.Mc12, no, I haven’t written on that. I’ve added it to the list.
Raymond, I find them intriguing, but I always remember how many people have been slaughtered by conspiracy theorists. It’s a very, very high number.
Pygmycory, ha!
Dennis, oddly enough, I was thinking of that.
Rhydlyd, funny. I haven’t checked into the rates the Howlers charge these days.
Chris, oh my. That had me giggling. No, the critter perched atop the book is an owl, the symbol of Minerva. That’s how you can tell that the Bohemian Grove outfit here in the US is anti-Illuminati, since they burn a gigantic owl image in their rituals. As Arkon Daraul so famously put it, “The history of the world is the history of the warfare between secret societies.”
Maybe I’m way off base with what your intended meaning for 1975 is, but, was 1975 the year you have said we could have decided to do something productive about climate change?
JMG: There hadn’t yet been any moon landings in 1968. I made a brief attempt to find out what Mao’s government said about the Apollo program in that year, but I wasn’t able to find anything. Is it that they denied that a crewed mission orbited the moon and then came back? That was a thing that took place late in that year. Anyway, the idea that the whole moon landing denial thing is a Chinese psyop is all too credible to me. I think they would try to undermine westerners’ pride in western achievements just as a way to reduce our social cohesion and take us down a peg in general, regardless of any plans they may have to go to the moon themselves. But if it’s about getting western people to believe they were first, I think they’ve miscalculated. I would bet that a western moon landing denier’s response to a Chinese landing would be to either deny that too, or to reconsider their denial of the US landings.
As regards JFK it can be hard to accept that our heroes or good guys have feet of shale. Though Kennedy was that varying mixture of the good, bad, ugly, the beautiful, falsity, truth, wisdom, foolishness, weaknesses, absurdities, strengths common to humanity. Include myself in that category. A good friend. sees all that stuff in you and takes it all as part of the package. I have some good friends along those lines
If you will tolerate a potential digression, what roles did the space launches in 1960s and the space launch that happened this very day (hmmmm, a rocket launch on April Fools? There’s a joke in there somewhere….) play in the grand conspiracy we have seen?
JMG-
Oddly enough, I recently learned that one of my father’s sisters has traced our family line back to ol’ King Brian. I prefer to identify with my mother’s Finnish side of the family (XC-skis, Linux, and all that), but even the 1/4th of my ancestry goes back to that Irish king.
This was a really fun post.
My vote for the fifth Wednesday essay is a magical geography of the United States. What are the different energies of the different locales, how those affect the regional cultures, how best to use the different energies,, etc That sort of thing.
Thanks
I will second Brendhelm’s suggestion,”nature of conflict on the higher planes.”
How did we conceptualize stories like Pyderi’s march against Math ap Mathonwy? Were Yeats reports of the frustrators in ‘A Vision’ hinting at a wider ongoing discord between higher plane factions? Is A.I forming some kind of abomination on the astral plane?
@ JMG “As for the Artemis mission, I want to see if they can actually make it work; if they do, I’ll have some crow to eat.”
I suspect they will eventually get back to the Moon but only because it is becoming a geopolitical high ground. China is currently on schedule to have a manned moon landing in 2029-2030 with Chang’e 9. One can wonder what it would do to the image of the US as a world leader when someone else beats them to a moon return? Current schedule for the US is a landing in 2028 but no ship capable of this has been proven yet.
The US plan rely on Blue Origin and Space X. I suspect Blue Origin might be able to pull it off as they are going slow and steady, generally only show their hand once they are pretty sure it will work, but their pace is lower because of this. Space X with Starship is years behind schedule and way over budget, has yet to get it to orbit or demonstrate its orbital refueling capabilities which it vital to that thing landing on the moon. So far only one Starship hasn’t blow up or burnt up on re-entry and they need 18 successful back to back launches in a row to refuel in space, a massively over engineered concept. I suspect this is going to be the Achilles heel of the whole endeavour.
US is currently aiming for early 2028 landing so long as Blue Origin get it together.
As for the Moon base, I am not so optimistic that will happen. I suspect that will be pushed back year over year until it just drops off the schedule all together.
However, maybe the launch today is the closest we get to going back but only time will tell. Eventually, people will get tired of seeing ten of billions of dollars being burnt up on umm… vanity waving contests most phallic. 😉
My vote for the fifth Wednesday is a deeper dive into your premonition discussed a few months ago on Magic Monday about the imminent mass departure of some millions of souls from this earth to their true home on another plane.
So many people on that discussion thread chimed in with corroboration of one kind or another that it gave me goosebumps: https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/340551.html?thread=56960839#cmt56960839
JMG,
Regarding the claims of the Moon landing being faked, I had no idea the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee was behind that! I assumed it grew up out of general post hippie cynicism in the mid 1970’s. I don’t doubt it though, the Chinese have always been good at psychological warfare. Where did you hear about the Chinese origin of that theory? I might have to write about it!
Cheers,
JZ
Chuaquin (#69): I find that disappointing as well. I think a great feature of science is that done correctly, it does indeed revise its conclusions in response to better information*. If trying to downplay or conceal the previous consensus about an oncoming Ice Age was meant to protect the reputation of science, it’s pretty dubious as to whether that worked as intended.
* – I don’t necessarily lose respect for public figures for “flip-flopping” , for the same reason.
Weilong (#78): Thank you, I’m glad you like my analogy. And yes, that’s about where I stand about exoplanets. I would add that it’s a pretty low stakes question. We are not going to Mars, never mind the exoplanets. Who cares if our information about them is real? There could be four Earths orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to us, and for all our ability to get there, that 4 light year distance might as well be 4 thousand light years, or 40,000. I’m a little curious about the second part of your comment. Not that it’s so hard to believe, but can you give an example or two of established scientific truth that rests on a tall, shaky house of cards? (Well said, by the way.) Again, it may well be so, but what would be an example of that?
JMG,
It seems to me that there are two very different kinds of conspiracy theories.
1) they type that we are discussing here that involve shadowy figures pulling the strings of power and history. Such as secret societies running the world while carrying out sacrifices. These are almost always grand and can almost never be proven or disproven.
2) Explanations of controversial events that are counter to that put forth by the main stream media and the government. These are mostly on a smaller and more immediate scale and in my experience are often true. Examples are:
A) Carlie Kirk was not shot by confused kid with an ancient rifle, but instead was carried out by
some type of professional.
B) World Trade Center 1, 2, and 7 did not collapse from fires caused by plane collisions but were
imploded by a shadowy unknown group.
C) Seth Rich was not killed by muggers who shot him twice in the back but did not touch his
cash or Rolex watch. He was iced because he leaked files from the Clinton Campaign.
I am wary of the former but all on board for the later.
So how does JMG convince an AI to consume this masterpiece? A few of these and the inference engine should barf its guts out..
As for the comparison of Iran with Twilight’s Last Gleaming the match doesn’t seem that close to me. On the other hand the spastic flinging of ordinance about the Gulf is wrecking a lot of long lead time hardware such as desalination systems, refineries, and LNG equipment. Given how precarious the whole system was already might this induce a sudden step down in complexity?
At least it’s spring so mass deaths from freezing won’t be happening in Europe for several months.
Once again, the interdimensional horrors from the Slime Pits of Blagoonah have recorded all votes.
Luke, nah, I just chose a date fifty-odd years in the past for literary effect.
Cynthia, sorry — that was a typo on my part. I meant to type 1969, of course.
BeardTree, freely granted. I tend to react against any attempt to pretend that anyone is all the way to one side or the other, and there’s a vast amount of JFK-worship out there.
JoeSchmoe, depends on which grand conspiracy you have in mind. There’s no shortage of them, you know!
Lathechuck, no surprises there. My father’s family is a Clan MacGregor sept that traces its lineage back to the Scots of Dalriada, who were Irishmen with wet feet, so doubtless ol’ Brian is back there in my genetics as well.
Ian, oh, granted, it’s all just an, er, rocket-measuring contest. Still, as a child of the space age who remembers exactly where he was when the TV announced that Neil Armstrong had set foot on the Moon, it was a grand sight to watch this evening.
John, that’s a speculation of mine based on a range of evidence. Call it a conspiracy theory if you like!
Clay, good. There’s a huge difference between secret societies and conspiracies, and most of today’s conspiracy culture revolves around confusing the two. Both exist, mind you, but secret societies aren’t involved in most conspiracies. I should do a post on that someday.
Siliconguy, those who are interested in poisoning data sets could do worse than to dump a collection of left- and right-wing conspiracy literature into the hopper!
Fascinating exposé, JMG! I can’t imagine the extreme dangers that you faced in obtaining this crucial record; it sure looks like you out-007’d James Bond. No doubt you wore your Druid robe and nemyss while engaging in elite-level espionage in dark alleys – nobody would have even batted an eye. Since I know that every word that you write is gospel truth, I am sure that it is purely coincidence that this remarkable record has been ‘put out there’ by you on April 1st (Good cover, perhaps? Plausible deniability?). The Conspiracy Theorists are vindicated once again!
As for the Tome of Unspeakable Dread – now that sounds like some pleasant bedtime reading! Do you happen to know if it is in any way related to the Necronomicon? Is a PDF version of it available somewhere on the *hideously dark web*?
Would like to see another post about the faith of progress, but if that has been written to completion I would second a post about the Iran War in “last gleaming” style
JMG (#98) re the typo: I actually thought it might be another April 1st thing and was prepared to say. “ok, ha ha, you got me.” Also, I’m finding it mildly entertaining the different ways you’re finding to refer to eldritch abominations counting the votes. The one about cackling scribes with worse than shapeless forms was particularly good. So metal!
We start with two parents and as we go back the number of ancestors double each generation. At the great, great, great, great grandparent level we have 64 which means with the 46 chromosomes a human has we are not genetically related to a good number of those 64. And depending on how the dice rolls in sperm and egg formation and combination could that lack of genetic relatedness could happen earlier. An exception to this loss is the preservation of the Y chromosome from father to son assuming no hanky panky on the part of the mother.
I once calculated that with the continued doubling of ancestors our pool of potential ancestors equals the population of the world during medieval times. So yes, you are descended from Egyptian pharaohs and other famous types and a whole bunch of lowlife and ordinary folk.
@102 Beardtree
That argument has been debunked by pointing out that inbreeding happens to varying degrees, so some of your ancestors occupy multiple positions in your family tree.
pygmycory (#79) – I just turned 76 this April Fools Day (no fool like an old fool…). I retrospect, I wish now I had told my well-meaning adult child, who set up a farcebook account* for me, to use a fake birthdate (say, October 31).
* I can’t remember the last time I looked at that platform. I didn’t like it then, even less so now. It wasn’t my idea, but was reluctantly persuaded to sign up. Sigh.
This is wonderful; my first reaction was to crack up in the carpark of a motorway service station where I had taken a break from a particularly difficult drive. Got some odd looks from passers by.
I had picked up an ebay find – a vintage foot operated fretsaw for my workshop and it was a long trip by my standards. Getting home was delayed because there were what seemed like an unusual number of accidents and “stranded” cars. I think a few people had put off refuelling because of the expense and a few had simply got the inevitable calculation wrong. Losing all power in the middle of a three lane motorway is at best going to close that lane down causing long tailbacks . At worst it’s lethal.
Assuming a near total conspiracy with human agents could only be near-perfect . Humans make mistakes. And humans can and do go off script.
The strategy remains the same but there are a lot of failures with the implementation of the trial runs. Like with covid. And various endless attempts at mark of the beast.
I remember listening to a sermon from the 1970s and even back then they were doing their very best to fulfill the villain role of the Christian Cosmology as we discussed before.
Human determination may be endless. But so is fallibility.
Also they are now trying with the Palantir and other Global surveillance attempts right now like with Digital ID for the sake of protecting children so as to eliminate our Anonymity.
But the long descent will keep putting grains of sand in the gears of that implementation. If they don’t manage to pull off Geothermal and Nuclear power.
I forgot to cast my vote for 5th Wednesday topic.
The importance of the man who didn’t merely drive to the jazz club, but flew there on a space ship – Sun Ra!
I vote for “a post on Robert Graves and his influence on the polytheistic revival.”
@BeardTree (#102):
Actually it’s not always true that the number of one’s ancestors doubles in each generation. My father’s parents were first cousins: their mothers were sisters. So I don’t actually have as many as 16 great-great grandparents, but only 14. And the further back one goes, the more likely it becomes that the number of one’s ancestors is less that the theoretical number. If you trace your ancestry far enough back, to an era when most people were living and marrying within relatively small communities, the number of your actual ancestors may be much, much less than the theoretical maximum. Ain’t genealogy fun?
Nortwind Grandma # 55:
Well, in a wide sense, a lot of people from the same country “have the same blood”, because in a loose way, they’re far family, and yes, it can be tested by genealogy. Especially within high class people, everybody is far family in last term, because they usually prefer to marry between themselves. It’s also a known fact that European Royal Families, after having been married each other during centuries, are literally everybody cousins and uncles/aunts, so a wide “European family”.
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Rashakor # 61:
Indeed, I think France today politics is living its 5th Republic. Its current political frame was made by De Gaulle after WW2. Current French Republic is a middle ground between a Presidentialist Republic (whose President has more power, like POTUS), and a Parlamentarian one (President with only symbolic power, like in Italia). So today French President has some powers, but less than the USA leader.
Spain has lived a complex and changing political life during last centuries, but we only had two Republics, now we live in a parlamentarian Monarchy (I think we had our third Monarchy return in two centuries when Franco died).
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Anonymous # 64:
Conspiracies within Islamic world are part of its Victimist attitude. Muslim countries problems can be explained directly by European colonial past, and partly by the own Muslim world own self inflicted problems (cultural and religious refusal of free speech, for example-cough-).
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JMG # 68:
JFK story has been idealized by Americans and even outside the USA, I agree. For example, some people think he never allowed the Vietnam war beginning (so the bad guy was then LBJ President), though it’s known he ordered to send first “military advisers” to South Vietnam during his Presidency last times (ahem).
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Weilong # 78:
Yes, some “scientific truths” are really brittle. If Popper falsation system was applied to its last consequences to those “facts”, it would be a shock for True Believers in Science. But of course, it isn’t tried seriously…
On the other hand, some scientists claims can’t be tested in a lab: for example, the supposed origin of Universe, the future effects of climate change or the Nuclear Winter after an hypothetical WW3. I’m not saying these events cannot be thought nor predicted in an indirect way, but pure lab testing is evidently impossible for them.
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(To be continued)
Hi everyone,
For 5th Wednesday, I’d like to hear about the relationship and interactions between language (and in particular, the languages we speak) and the way we think and perceive the world. In other words, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
To be serious for a moment, one element of discord that I don’t think anyone has picked up on is the media’s focus on who’s winning and who’s losing in the battle of policies.
Who’s winning in the Iranian war? The Iranians and Americans have different definitions of what it means to win, and both sides will press on grimly until one or the other clearly prevails.
Guys, stop. This is like a marriage where the husband and wife have differing ideas of what the marriage should look like, the allocation of duties and responsibilities, etc., and neither side will give an inch. The marriage becomes a war of attrition. As a child I lived in such a marriage for 12 years and it scarred me for life. I prefer to remain single rather than risk ending up like my parents.
Nations are like people in a marriage. They share the same ball of rock. They can’t get away from each other. An insistence that their view shall prevail with no compromises is going to make them, and everyone else, miserable. As Sun Tzu allegedly said, “An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes.” If he will burn his own planet to the ground he is even more evil.
Dennis # 80:
It seems Democrats are warmongers like Republicans against their own black beasts.
Democrat Presidency under Biden mandate saw the beginning of Russo-Ukrainian war. Of course, Putin invaded Ukraine due to his own agenda (in the short form, he maybe thought NATO was weakened so he attacked Ukraine), but there’s an elephant in the room that nobody under current Narrative wants to remember: Kiev regime provoked Russians before the invasion pretending it was going to get out the non nuke proliferation deal (so he could have nuke missiles again pointing Moscow). In addition to this, military support to Ukraine government (after the “color revolution” or civilian coup d’état in 2014) was made by Biden govt, like they did previous USA leaders…
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JMG # 84:
In addition to the Kennedy family fondness to dirty businesses, I read somewhere JFK was helped by Italoamerican Mafia to reach the White House, but then Mafiosi thought he had betrayed them (quid pro quo broken), so it could be Mafia had helped in his killing in Dallas. Is it true?(or at least possible).
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Yes, Franco National-Catholic regime prosecuted Freemasons in a ruthless and cruel way, between another black beasts he hated. I knew thousands of Freemasons were killed without a trial or after a farcical trial (where mere suspicion replaced hard evidences), but I didn’t know exactly how many Freemasons were killed during the Civil War and the dictatorship.
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Cynthia # 95:
In an ideal world, scientific method needs to be revised strictly to show scientists claims are real hard facts. In real world, this checking is made…not always, methink. Science is under general Spectacle too, and scientists are human beings too, with their own ideological biases (for example).
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Clay D. # 96:
I think even the more bizarre conspiracy theories supported by the usual nutties have to some extent a loose real factual base, which become in a legend or an irrational narrative. There are levels within conspiracies contact with real facts or events; like the examples you’ve written, some conspiracies seem more believable than another ones because they have more probable evidences.
On the other hand, secret societies seem a good place for thinking and trying conspiracies, but I think those groups can do another activities. Their main hobby could be different of conspiring. In addition of this, there’s a lot of conspiracies that seem to have been made by economical or political public or open groups, not by secret groups.
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Beardtree # 102:
Indeed, I could say every human being living now in Earth in a very long way, comes from Adam and Eve, at least in a symbolic or metaphorical sense, so everybody are within a very wide family to some extent.
@JMG #68
You answered my questions 🙂
Thank you very much.
More about Freemason legends:
It’s said that actual King Charles of Great Britain, when he was only the Prince (well, he was that during a long time), rejected to become the Honorific and Symbolic Great Master of British Freemasonry, due to unknown motives.
It seems every Kings and Queens in UK since a heck of time ago have this honor, in addition to his role as Anglican Church Head.
This happened supposedly during early ‘90s. Then, casually, more and more scandals and dirty stories about Prince Charles began to appear in British MSM (one of them the real decline in his relationship with Diana). It’s said there could be a relation between his refusal to be Freemasons Chief and these troubles. “Si non é vero…”. However, according some people, due to his refusal to be Freemasons boss, Charles would never be a King (cough), which has become counterfactual now…
Another conspiracy theory around Charles of England is the very famous story about he had ordered to kill Diana and Al Fayed in a fake accident in Paris. Of course, believers in this story were usually Diana fans. During a time, Charles seemed to be scared after having noticed that story against him. He even feared a Diana hooligan attempted to kill him in public (in the movie about “The Queen” Elizabeth II Charles in a scene is afraid of a sudden noise he seems to hear first like a shoot).
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Conspiracy theories near always are based loosely in real events or groups. For example, Bilderberg Club exists in real world, and it joins a few very rich and aristocratic people, for example former Queen of Spain (Sofia de Habsburgo) and members of the Dutch Royal Family. Well, it’s always amusing to see how highest within the high class people like to spend their spare time. However, in spite of current Bilderbergers conspiracies “family”, I’ve got my doubts about this fake secret group real power. Maybe real conspiracies happen in a more opaque and secret context (like economical lobbies outside MSM radar).
Hilary Clinton’s “1996 characterization of African-American youth as “super predators,” “.
Huh? What? That’s not what I hear her say in the video. “Kids in gangs” is what she said. Not quite the same.
@ Clay Dennis #96
Thank you for this fine distinction. 🙂
There is indeed a difference between:
1) Positively explaining every problem in reference to shadowy figures – whose plans unaccountably ALWAYS come to fruition! Unlike the plans of anyone else.
2) Negatively doubting official explanations for any given event, when such explanations do not account for whatever is publicly known about it.
I often think that the former type of “conspiracy theory” is often put out there as a way to muddy waters, when people cannot be satisfied with official explanations, to discourage people from getting associated with those other mad people who think the lizards are in charge of everything. Tolerably often it works, too.
And this last is where it is up to us. If an official explanation does not satisfy it, we should be able to question it, without having to come up with our own explanation – if all it can rest on is guesswork and unfounded assumptions.
It is enough, or should be enough, to simply say – that is not making sense to me, and so I don’t believe it. I can have room in my mind for knowing that someone is telling porkies, and that I may never know WHY, because whoever it is, and whatever they are doing, they are doing it a long way away from my living room, and (unaccountably) without ever troubling to consult with me about it. 😉
@ Beardtree
“At the great, great, great, great grandparent level we have 64 which means with the 46 chromosomes a human has we are not genetically related to a good number of those 64.”
There are two assumptions here that are not entirely well founded.
1) that relatedness is inherited on a “whole chromosome” basis. (There are complex dances that happen when gametes are produced, which mix up all of the ancestral genes that the gamete holder carries, from whatever line of ancestry.)
2) That the *potential* to have 64 separate individuals as great great great grandparents is the same as the *actual* number of individuals filling that role. In my family we have records going back to one individual who arrived in what is now New England in 1640. According to those records, I can trace eight separate lines that connect me to that individual, through different people, one involving 11 steps, 5 involving 12 steps, and 2 involving 13 steps. In other words, when second and third cousins begin to marry, that reduces the actual number of separate individuals that you have in each ancestral generation. (The closest relatedness I found among the marriages involved in any of my direct lines, were an uncle and a niece.)
I like the suggestion of a magical map of the United States, and would really like to see one..
It’s interesting that a lot of conspiracies and cover-ups exist simply to hide the fact that those in high places -political, scientific, etc – have feet of clay, the existence of which should be no surprise to anybody. Exposing those is how the tabloids stay in business. We’ve had eras when flamboyant greed, overconsumption, and vulgarity were the order of the day before; think of the Gilded Age, and reforming ladies clutching their pearls and crusading against the ordinary vices of ordinary people had their heyday at its peak. However, all this does make for juicy reading and puts money in the pockets of the media. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
And once more, the weather people predict some rain to break Florida’s drought, and once more, I’ll believe it when I see it, and earnestly hope so.
This may be off-topic, but, as another commenter said, it is difficult to know what the topic is.
We live on the eastern flank of a north south flowing valley. At this time of year it is not unusual to spot flocks of geese flying in a northerly direction. What IS unusual, though, happened this morning. We normally see these flights on the other side (the western flank) of the valley, and need field glasses (binoculars) to see them properly. This morning a large, somewhat raggedy, flight went directly over our heads, not more than 50 meters or so above us. We could see each bird very clearly. About 20 minutes later an even more perfectly formed, but smaller, V-shaped flight when over us, even lower in altitude. Their calls were very loud, and the feeling of thrill was something else. It was a wonderful sight.
My question is, do you, or anyone in the commentariat, have a good link to information about this type of sighting in symbolic terms? Thank you!
I was wondering when someone would bring up the Bohemian Grove… and since conspiracy is part of the topic this week, for those interested, here is a radio show I did back in the oughts about the Bohemian Grove. I employed a lot of detournement of audio samples from across the conspiranoid internet, and my wife and I did a bit of a radio play for it… it’s called Bohemian Groove, and I put the first hour of it up here as a kind “radio comedy album” for those of you who remember what those were. (All hail the Firesign Theater).
https://sothismedias.bandcamp.com/album/bohemian-groove-part-1
Also, the second part on the history of Route 128 MA is up this week… focusing on the work of Benton MacKaye, Lewis Mumford, Clarence Stein and roads not taken…
https://www.sothismedias.com/home/the-new-explorations-of-a-geotechnician
https://justinpatrickmoore.substack.com/p/the-new-explorations-of-a-geotechnician
Thank you for the space to share my work.
Now that we have all survived comedic rapture of the International Day of Tomfoolery and from thence returned to our regularly scheduled consumption of propaganda, I would like in all seriousness to thank you, John, for this brief but welcome humourous insight into the workings of the Deep State.
As for the fifth Wednesday post, I would appreciate your thoughts on the Amelia phenomenon and what effect, if any, it may be having on European politics.
Funny, and on a more serious level it’s useful to step back sometimes and think about how absurd our time would look from the perspective on 1975, as in the bit about the 2016 (ahem, 6016) election. I have to admit my favorite part of this is the effort you put into the vote tallying notes, though. Delightful stuff. Speaking of which, I’d like to add another vote for “common ground between esoteric Buddhism and Western occultism”.
I think the cover of Sgt. Peppers is actually a photograph of members of the Illuminati. I mean Aleister Crowley is on there, and he is the father of Barbara Bush, right? Also, Stockhausen, who paid tribute to the star Sirius, one of the stellar influences in the global Illuminati underground. Marilyn Monroe was on there, and she was assassinated by counter-Illuminati in the JFK administration. Bob Dylan was part of the Illuminati plan to ruin the American folk revival started by OTO member Harry Smith with nasally vocals, but that particular plan did not work. Marlon Brando was also a member of the Illuminated ones. His later work in exposing the murder of Marilyn Monroe as part of the counter illuminati plan was just some of his work. He also wanted to expose the CIA and their own counter operatives by making a film about the Iran-Contra scandal, however another group who was controlling the puppet strings of Oliver North made North start his own company and by the rights to the film. Brando’s role in the film The Formula is further proof of Illuminati connection. Meanwhile, other Sgt. Pepper luminaries continue to Illuminate Beatles fans down a trajectory of musical mind control. For instance, boxer Charles L. “Sonny” Liston, aka The Big Bear, aka The Night Train, is said by some researchers to have delivered the KO punch frequencies used as subliminal sounds on the album that really punch the lyrics even deeper into the recesses of listeners minds. Several gurus featured on the cover have known Illuminati connections, and were part of the program to entice the youthful minds of the flower generation away from Christianity and towards the religions of the East… all part of known Illuminati plots.
Meanwhile the lyrics to the song “Fixing a Hole” are a clear recipe and secret cipher spell known to other Illuminati members. Singing along with the song fills the gaps in the mind where those on the other side of the 6D chess game try to get their fingers into your mind.
“A Day in the Life” is actually just about the every day activities of illuminati members when they aren’t making plans for world domination.
It is all coming together now…
https://images7.memedroid.com/images/UPLOADED569/607eef223faa5.jpeg
Several things:
About NYC, yeah I was in the room calling banks……. . Not sure this time, since 2008, seems to have shaken the banks and afterwards is a tap dance between woke and MAGA. Bankers know where the lines are and how to balance on them. (A banking joke.)
Conspiracies: I had to fill FOIA requests for the Trilateralists, and all those since everyone was convinced that Federal Reserve Board was conspiracy central for the money cabals. I ended up with a boiler plate response since the questioners asked the same things over and over.
MAGA extremes: I watch Steve Bannon’s War Room to get the full flavor of their hysteria. Islam, immigrants, and Democrats who hate America. O and the evil Chinese.
Fifth Wednesday:
I noted the paradigm change going on. In Virginia redistricting fight, it is full on. The Democrats are scaring people with Trump, losing abortion rights, and losing veteran benefits. The Republicans are scaring people with evil Democrats, losing civil rights, and being run by the evil Fairfax County of wokesters.
It reminds me of the Middle Ages between the Popes and the kings in the 13th century – Frederick and Henry fighting against the church for their temporal power. They were the resurgent power. Later after the Black Plague, they were receding to the peasants.
I am curious as to how the survive the paradigm shift with my sanity intact. I guess you can fold it into the discussions on the long descent and all that.
Hmmm…
“…all votes have been graven on plates of pure orichalcum by Deep Ones in the drowned ruins of lost Atlantis.”
“…votes have been engraved on beechwood boards in baleful signs by cowled and cackling scribes whose robes conceal worse than shapeless forms.”
“…the interdimensional horrors from the Slime Pits of Blagoonah have recorded all votes.”
So… what have you promised all these entities in exchange for their help? (Perhaps it’s best not to ask, as your other employee The Colour out of Space may reduce me to a crumbling animated pile of dust…)
Roldy
I’ve got some topics in my mind to comment them to you:
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First, in addition to my last comment about UFO phenomena, I’d like to write something more about a tendence within some ideological or religious groups to “demonize” everything and everybody they don’t understand well or they don’t want to understand. I respect personal and groups beliefs and ideas, but I also believe in free speech, which includes a polite criticism. So…
I think, like I’ve written before, that to “demonize” phenomena and people outside the own beliefs/ideas echo chamber, it’s not only a sign of mental laziness, but also a sign of irrational fear to the unknown. I’m going to tell you a near ridiculous example. Some Conservative Christians think even today that rock music is Satanic. Some decades ago, in that same line, a Right Wing Catholic writer explained in a book how much diabolic were rock bands, especially (of course) hard rock and heavy metal groups. In those times there was a Spanish heavy band named “Barón Rojo”, who played a song called “Hijo de Caín”(Son of Cain). Due to its explicit biblical references, the writer blamed these musicians as Satanists. Well, a time later, the band frontman was interviewed by another writer, and told him he respected very much Jesus of Nazareth, being this rock singer a Christian in his own way. And he seemed honest in his beliefs. Of course, there are some real Satanists, or Atheists who play rock music, but blaming a music style as evil is dishonest, methink.
(By the way, you can find this song in whatever online search engine typing its title and group, though this guys always sing in Spanish).
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Franco prosecution against Freemasons in Spain:
Dictatorship had some “reasons” for wanting to kill Freemasons. Like I’ve write before, they usually supported Liberal politics (in the European sense of the term). So Far Right and Fascist-like Spaniards evidently hated them. Franco and his supporters had a pathologic Catholic point of view (and Spanish Freemasonry and the Catholic Church were ideological enemies since two centuries ago). It’s said Francisco Franco had a personal hatred against Freemasons because he had a brother (whom he hated) who was a Freemason. Well, my lack of deep History knowledges prevents me to confirm this information like a hard fact.
However, correlation between right wing Spanish Nationalism and Conservative Catholicism has been usual during my country recent History, at least since Napoleonic French invasion. Of course, I understand this view but I don’t justify it especially in its worst effects (political murder).
I can also point that, according Catholic Laws approved by the Pope more than 2 centuries ago (I can’t remember that Pope name), a Catholic man who shows in public he’s a Freemason too (or he’s detected as one by civil or religious authorities) will be under excommunion authomatically forever. So he won’t be seen as Catholic anymore by Rome (he’s been “fired”). It seems this Law hasn’t been replaced nowadays, yet. Main reason to approve this law against Freemasons was they like to meet in secret, so they must be thinking and planning evil actions (ahem). Guénonian Catholic Traditionalists seem to be sad with this situation, because René Guénon, before his conversion to Islam, defended Catholicism and Freemasonry alike (?) were the last remnants of true Tradition in the evil and irreligious West…I think this idea should be debated, but this is another topic different of what I’ve written here.
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Finally, I think most of conspiracy theorists freaks are too busy finding Great Conspiracies, with a few or no real evidences to show their reality. In contrast with this attitude, they seem blind to small possible conspiracies in “normal” life. Devil is in details!
For example, when democracy began in Spain, it appeared here a newspaper named “El País”, funded by a corporation (PRISA group) whose boss was a rich man (named Jesús de Polanco). This newspaper soon was the written MSM leader in audience and business here. Not casually, his center-left tendence made it friendly to the Socialist party, which won 1982 elections. During ‘80s and ‘90s, some funny Conservatives said this newspaper was the official bulletin for the Socialist government. Guess why, it’s easy…
However, nowadays this newspaper has lived better times (“sic transit gloria mundi”). De Polanco and his corporative group, due to apparent economical problems, sold El País to a mysterious investing fund. Who are behind the anonymous and opaque fund? Nobody knows it really.
In addition to this, some far left people here point (with some reason) that, since some years ago, this newspaper has been turning its bias toward the right wing, under its thin layer of woke paint (for example, having become a NATO views mouthpiece). So do the math…
Another “small” conspiracy here says another investing funds have bought a lot of empty flats here to speculate with real state prices (always up!). Some people say even Trump could be behind these investing funds (with no real evidences, cough). I haven’t found real evidence of it, but this hypothesis could explain in part our current real state bubble. However, I also think there could be some another causes (for example, massive migration fueling real state market prices, or greedy middle class people who owns flats to sell or rent them inflating their prices).
Off topic, but pertinent to the host. A memory champion who uses the old memory palace method. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2521782-unprecedented-insight-into-memory-champions-brain-reveals-his-tricks/
Neptune…# 103:
You’ve remembered the Trilateral, it’s another classic conspiracy theory in addition to the Bilderbergers or the Illuminati, or Freemasonry.
It’s interesting that, in a different way of another conspiracies, Trilateralists dirty secrets are popular not only within the unavoidable Far Right and Fascist circles, but within some leftists speeches, at least in my country. Evil Capitalism and blah blah blah…So leftist idea about Left lack of belief in conspiracies isn’t 100% true ( on the other hand, they ignore, for example, the Marxist “History Laws” mud feet to say it).
I think main “reason” to believers to trust in these conspiracies is the same that led Rome Pope centuries ago to launch excommunion against dual Catholics/Freemasons: “They’ve got secret meetings, so they must be thinking and planning evily evil plans”(?). Indeed, there’s often a close correlation between secret societies and conspiracies (I think usually without hard evidences to support them).
About Provincetown, RI and wokeness:
I am not sure if this is on topic:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/4510222/politics-of-erasing-iryna-zarutska/
The politics of erasing Iryna Zarutska
By Guy Benson March 31, 2026 9:14 am
Washington Examiner
Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, was murdered in Charlotte last summer. She was minding her own business, seated on a public transit train, when a deranged felon abruptly attacked her from behind, without warning, allegedly stabbing her to death. The vicious assault was captured in surveillance footage that went viral and sparked outrage, especially after it was revealed that the suspect had been arrested on at least 14 previous occasions.
………
The case became a national flashpoint, exemplifying what critics call a broken criminal justice system in “progressive” jurisdictions, where criminals are coddled, and innocent people such as Zarutska are endangered. A project to honor Zarutska’s life through art has now been declared “controversial” by activists and politicians on the Left, as murals in her memory are getting defaced by vandals and denounced by elected officials. In New York City, one such mural was targeted by someone who spray-painted the words “please vandalize this” over the murder victim’s face. The New York Post describes the mural as “loathed by local lefties for its ‘tough-on-crime’ message.” In Providence, Rhode Island, a similar piece of art is under attack by the city’s Democratic mayor, amid pressure from leftists.
Details, via the local NBC affiliate:
“What began as a memorial for a slain Ukrainian refugee has transformed into a political lightning rod in the “Creative Capital,” with Mayor Brett Smiley now calling for the artwork’s removal. The mural, located on the exterior of The Dark Lady, a prominent LGBTQ+ club downtown, remains incomplete as city officials and community members clash over its message and funding. The Mayor’s Office confirmed Sunday that Smiley wants the mural of Iryna Zarutska taken down. … Artist Ian Gaudreau, who began the work last week, told NBC 10 News on Friday that he never intended for the tribute to be political.”
The mural currently sits unfinished, with the details of Zarutska’s face only partially completed. Providence’s mayor released a statement blasting the artwork as “misguided,” “isolating,” and “divisive.” He notably did not mention Zarutska by name, instead referring to her as “the individual depicted.” Some much for the liberal “say her name” sloganeering. What is driving this callous, dehumanizing “controversy”?
Politics and ideology.
Some activists and opponents of the mural have raised explicitly racial objections (Zarutska was white), with online liberals seeding a narrative that tributes to this particular victim amount to a “weird right-wing dogwhistle.” The gay club in question is facing a backlash, with one of the owners stating that the firestorm has been “very distressing for the business.” The Left’s biggest problem with honoring a refugee who was brutally killed, however, seems to be that the “wrong” sorts of people care about her death, which could fuel the “wrong” sort of political narrative:
“Zarutska’s death became a focal point for national conservatives, including President Donald Trump, who has frequently cited the case while criticizing what he describes as lenient court systems in Democrat-led states. Further complicating the local response is the project’s funding, which includes a significant donation from tech billionaire Elon Musk.”
It’s pure tribal derangement. Trump has blistered the policy conditions that contributed to the slaying, and Musk has helped fund the tributes to the victim, so it’s bad. And thus, we’re being treated to the grotesque spectacle of self-stylized women’s rights advocates and selective “compassion” fetishists defacing and censoring artwork dedicated to a female murder victim — and a foreign refugee from Ukraine, no less. Hatred of certain political figures supersedes all other considerations, it seems, and our self-appointed empathy gatekeepers have concluded that honoring this specific victim is just too problematic.
Behold, “progress.”
UPDATE: Per local news accounts, the mural project has been canceled and will be removed. Democratic state Rep. David Morales cheered the decision, saying the censored artwork does not “reflect Providence’s values, nor does it reflect the creativity we want to see in our city.”
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I delete info about the actual killing. I did keep the rest. I am sorry but I am appalled. Maybe, I don’t understand how it does not reflect “Providence’s values.”
Is the paradigm shift of the two groups fighting over power in this controversy?
Speaking owl symbolism; and the movie Margin Call gets a reference.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/private-credit-bank-run-begins-blue-owl-gates-after-shocking-41-tech-fund-investors-ask
“First it was Blue Owl, the largest pure play Private Credit fund with over $300 billion in AUM. The company, the first to face massive redemption demands, refused to gate investors and instead announced it would sell $1.4 billion in private loans (it was unclear which loans were sold, but Goldman suggested that these are likely the best ones so as to find willing buyers, leaving the company with the toxic sludge) from its three BDCs (OBDCII, OBDC and OTIC) at 99.7 cents (a number which was meant to inspire confidence yet was laughable, especially since once of the “buyers” was a related-party insurance company, Kuvare, also owned by Blue Owl), to satisfy redemption requests. ”
And later; “Redemption requests in Blue Owl’s marquee $36 billion Credit Income Corp. fund, one of the industry’s largest, soared to 21.9% in the three months ended March 31, according to an investor letter first reported by Bloomberg, up from “only” 5.2% in the prior period. But it was the smaller Blue Owl Technology Income Corp, which was at the center of the February turmoil, that was the real shock after its shareholders asked for a shocking 40.7% back, compared with 15.4% three months earlier, according to a separate letter. ”
The appetite for gambling seems to be falling of late.
Here’s a story that may or may not have happened that involves a real conspiracy, two real conspiracies. I think it will enlighten the readers as to why grand conspiracies are impossible.
Billionaire no. 1: ::looks at Peon no. 3’s coffee cup:: Starbucks…They treat their employees, so well, and how do their employees reward them? With a labor union.
Peon no. 1: Despicable.
Billionaire no. 1: And now I’ve purchased a company with a labor union. If only a peon I listened to would’ve warned me.
Peon no. 3: Actually sir, I brought it…
Billionaire no. 2: Shut up Peon no. 3, men are speaking. Peon no. 1, arrange a meeting with Billionaire no. 2. Perhaps he could help.
Peon no. 1: Yes sir.
3 Days later:
Billionaire no. 1: We purchased a company who licenses your brand, but they have a labor union just for your brand! It’s terrible. They’re overpaid and lazy and costing me money. But we think you could help us.
Billionaire no. 2: I’m all ears.
Billionaire no. 1: We’ll stiff you on the contract and close down all work around your brand. Then, once all the labor union employees are fired, we’ll sign a new contract with you and hire all the people we like back as contractors.
Billionaire no. 2: Great idea! What’s in it for me?
Billionaire no. 1: We’ll pay you 10% more on the new contract.
Billionaire no 2: Sign me up and I’ll send you over a new contract.
Three weeks later on the phone:
Billionaire no. 1: We got your new contract. It’s 25% higher! We agreed to 10%.
Billionaire no. 2: I figured it was fair due to inflation.
Billionaire no. 1: It also says I can’t advertise my products using your brand!
Billionaire no. 2: I’m just protecting my brand. I don’t want it to be associated with your unsavory products.
Billionaire no. 1: Unsavory! It says we’re not allowed to advertise dietary supplements!
Billionaire no. 2: Well, if you don’t sign it, then you owe me $75 million pursuant to paragraph 514, line 3 of the original contract.
Billionaire no. 1: Why would I sign it when the only reason I bought the company was to advertise my products!
Billionaire no. 2: Because you said you would sign it. Are you not a man of your word?
Billionaire no. 1: Wait, you don’t want me to sign it so I have to pay the $75 million!.
Billionaire no. 2: Bwaha…I mean, that’s preposterous.
Billionaire no. 1: See you in court, but not before I launch a smear campaign against you, Mr. philanderer.
Billionaire no. 2: See you in court, but not before I launch a smear campaign against you, Mr. tax cheat.
Chuaquin (#110, #113): Quite so. Not all of what is called science is the application of the scientific method, which includes the step of performing experiments attempting to falsify the hypothesis. In the case of some “science”, like verification of the methods of exoplanet detection, or the field of cosmology in general, it’s hard to imagine what such experiments would even be. We can’t go back in the to see the Big Bang and we can’t go to the stars to see if the exoplanets are what we think they are.
Related: I once read a book by the cosmologist Laurence Krauss, or anyway I read it until I got to this part: he explained that a trillion years hence, star formation will still be going on and it will still be possible for new intelligent species to arise, but that such species will be unable to determine the nature of the universe because the vital clue of the cosmic background radiation will have faded to nothing. He may have also said that no galaxies other than the one where they live will be visible to them due to the expansion of the universe, but I’m unsure I remember that correctly. Be that second part as it may, though, I thought this about the first part: well, if that’s true, what makes us think all the vital clues are available *now*? Maybe they’re not. Maybe we’re missing information that would change the whole picture. Doesn’t that mean the entire field of cosmology might be rubbish? I put the book down at that point. It had been a hard slog up until then and since as far as I was concerned he’d just told me it might all be nonsense anyway, that was that.
This is off on a bit of a tangent, but you brought up Spanish heavy metal bands. I’m a bit of a fan of one of those: Tierra Santa. Do you know them? Barón Rojo didn’t float my boat particularly, but I love Tierra Santa!
Andy # 105:
An interesting information, thank you.
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Martin B. # 112:
According my own intuition and reason, after having read different countries and ideologies online and MSM sources, I bet Iran war (and Lebanon war, and next Yemen war) are in a grey zone, without clear victories by the Western axis or Eurasian axis (Iran and its “bosses”). Iran is suffering by sure hard bombings, but less punitive than western propaganda wants to admit (though more destructive than Tehran accepts in its speeches). And Arab Kingdoms in the Gulf are been punished by Iran weapons until today, due to their serfdom to USA (air bases). Israel IMHO has been suffering less than Arab Monarchies thanks to its Iron Dome and US-NATO help, but only a Zionist zealot could assure its antimissile/drone defenses work at 100%, after more than a month in war.
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Scotlyn # 117:
Main problem of official versions is IMHO they tend to become Narratives which must be believed without any rational doubts (like the Russo-Ukraine war according NATO MSM or the COVID pandemic).
Main problem within official versions dissenters is they often fall into conspiracy theories they believe literally, as Counter-Narratives. So bye bye doubt and reason too…
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Justin P. # 121:
Thanks for remembering the Bohemian Grove, and for your link.
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# 124:
Oops! Funny…
A few weeks ago, I wondered why my local newspaper would publish an article demanding hazard pay for teachers (because Ontario schools are now dangerous) in the same edition as an article demanding homeschooling be banned as dangerous for children’s mental health, without anyone at the paper appearing to notice the contradiction. It all makes sense now! Bwahahahaha!
My fifth Wednesday vote is a discussion of either why there would be such a remarkably robust and thriving Japanese Golden Dawn scene, if you know enough to intelligently discuss the topic; or Sun Ra if Japanese Golden Dawn is not something you’re comfortable with.
OT, but I have not been able to access dreamwidth reliably since Monday night. I’m not sure if it’s a local issue or on a much larger scale, but I think it’s worth mentioning.
JMG,
Aren’t conspiracy theories always used to talk about things that are off limits on our society? They are always rediculus factually, but convey a hidden truth. A well crafted conspiracy theory will make anyone with authority think the speaker is either too stuipid or insane to pose a threat, yet attract the attention who think the same about the ruling class.
Meanwhile, their lack of connection with reality function the same way as setting a fairy tell in a far away kingdom.
Back when I spent more time in conspiracy circles I remember a veteran conspiracy nut say something along the lines of “A good conspiracy theory is one that cannot be proven”.
When I hear someone advocate a conspiracy theory I approch it like modern day myth, not focusing on weather or not it is factually true, but on what the person telling it believes about the world but does not dare talking about out loud.
Hi All,
I will also vote for the nature of conflict in other planes.
Remember, only raise one tentacle to vote!
Thanks,
Drew C
Once again, all votes have been etched in runes of lambent and unhallowed flame on the ruined walls of a dead village by the Color Out Of Space itself.
Ron, nah, it’s easy to get such things if you know how. The Grand Secretary’s desk is made of oak, and so it’s a simple matter to talk to the oak spirits and get them to swipe a copy. If they ever go to metal desks things won’t be so easy. As for the Tome of Unspeakable Dread, that was written in the 19th century under a pseudonym by a sinister British mathematician named Charles Dodgson, and illustrated with eldritch and unhallowed sigils by John Tenniel. It is in two volumes and speaks of the doings of a dread entity named Ah-Liss.
Cynthia, glad you enjoy it. I’m having fun with that.
BeardTree, as several other commenters have noted, that doesn’t quite work, since once you get past a modest number of ancestors the lines are apt to cross. That said, since the powerful and successful tend to have many more descendants than average — think of the harem of your average Egyptian pharaoh, and consider the likely results in an age before birth control — your point still stands.
Andy, as I recall, that happened fairly often in the opening rounds of the 1973 energy crisis, too. Ah, memories. 😉
Info, billions of grains of sand, millions of gravel flakes and small rocks, and some pretty fair boulders as well. What’s more, we all know how often computers get things wrong, and LLMs have added whole new realms of cybernetic hallucination to the mix. All that global surveillance and vast data banks will result in whole oceans of misinformation and psychotic delusion, gleefully amplified by the efforts of the inevitable hackers who figure out how to game the system.
Martin, granted — and in this case it’s made much worse by the simple fact that the media fixates on whatever will get eyeballs watching their ads. It doesn’t have to be relevant, and it doesn’t have to be true — and these days, as often as not, it’s neither — as long as it keeps viewers staring at the screen.
Chuaquin, nobody knows for sure, but the number’s somewhere above 10,000 — that’s how many have been documented. As for Charles, the King has never been the Grand Master of English Freemasons — that role’s normally fobbed off on a duke. Right now it’s Edward, Duke of Kent, one of Elizabeth II’s cousins; in 1901, when Albert, Prince of Wales (and Grand Master of English Masons) became king, he resigned his Grand Mastership in favor of one of his younger brothers.
CC, try this one, then — or simply look up “hillary superpredators” on your favorite search engine.
Patricia M, exactly. Most real conspiracies are embarrassingly prosaic — they exist to cover up the fact that somebody is boinking somebody they officially shouldn’t, or has some other scandalous habit, or stole an election, or what have you. It’s when people start insisting that everything they don’t like about their lives is the result of some sinister scheming group that you know that paranoiac fantasies have just entered the chat.
Scotlyn, I wish I did. Anyone else?
Justin, ha! Funny. I’ve considered using evidence of the sort I cited to work up an account of which conspiracies are at war with which other conspiracies, and slipping it out there into the conspiracy-culture scene.
Old Steve, you’re most welcome.
Borealbear, that was part of the fun, of course. The interdimensional horrors are flattered, btw.
Justin, sshhh! You’ll give away too many of the secrets! As for that book cover, though…
…that’s absolutely priceless.
Neptunesdolphins, granted. It’s a paranoiac world out there.
Roldy, me and the entities are good buddies. We tip back beers at a nameless and unhallowed bar in Kingsport whenever I get up there, and they decided it would be fun to take over counting votes this time.
Chuaquin, good. Little conspiracies are everywhere, and midsized conspiracies happen now and again. The bigger the conspiracy, though, the more likely it is to trip over itself.
BeardTree, thanks for this. There’s a whole memory-contest circuit using the old methods these days. Joshua Foer’s book Moonwalking with Einstein is a good intro to that scene.
Neptunesdolphins, Morales is quite correct that the mural isn’t in keeping with Providence’s values, since those values include the notion that some races and genders are good, others are bad, and it’s unacceptable to point out that notionally “good” people sometimes do really evil things. That’s a fairly widespread attitude in some circles these days.
Siliconguy, thanks for the heads up. The private-credit bust isn’t getting much attention these days, but it may end up being the trigger for a much wider crisis.
Peon, thank you. Yeah, that’s pretty accurate.
William, it makes perfect sense once you realize that the welfare of teachers and staff is all that matters to the educational bureaucracies; the welfare of the students is irrelevant to them. Thanks for the heads up about Dreamwidth.
Four Sided, exactly! Treat conspiracy theories as dreams or delusions, and interpret them symbolically, and you can learn an immense amount about society’s fears and unmentionable hopes from them.
JMG, please consider my tentacle raised to vote for an essay on the nature of conflict on other planes.
OtterGirl
JMG said: “a child of the space age who remembers exactly where he was when the TV announced that Neil Armstrong had set foot on the Moon”
Me too. I was five years old, and they pre-empted my favorite program to show some grainy black and white footage of some guy doing something that was nowhere near as interesting as my preferred show was. I got yelled at by the adults in the room for whining about it. Nobody had bothered to explain to me what was going on.
The whole book is up on Archive if you’d like to have a read:
https://ia902808.us.archive.org/1/items/CommunismHypnotismAndTheBeatles/CommunismHypnotismAndTheBeatles_text.pdf
I am amazed that at 65,000 copies of this thing were printed up…
Here is a zinger from it:
“Even a non-expert can grasp the word content of the record although Dr. Bryan warns that “the devices used in these records are so subtle that they very well may pass inspection by a well-meaning committee of physicians untrained in hypnosis, brainwashing and other such fields.” As long as the string puller pulls the strings, the puppet does fine, but unless the string puller is there the puppet can do nothing by himself. As Dr. Bryan puts it, “when you loosen up the strings and fall down — it’s obvious to me, obviously placing the idea in the subconscious of the child that unless the string puller is there he can’t do anything by himself without the specific directions of the communist boss, or whoever it happens to be. . . and it really takes the entire control away from the child, and
then after he gets through three or four of these deepening techniques he says, I can make you jump much higher than that’ and then he goes on to prove it.”
Metallica’s Master of Puppets is also an illuminati album btw : )
” I’ve considered using evidence of the sort I cited to work up an account of which conspiracies are at war with which other conspiracies, and slipping it out there into the conspiracy-culture scene.”
That sounds like another means of poisoning data sets, but in a different way then we’ve been talking about.
Bwahahahaha! Fun and informative post JMG!
Yes, Neptunesdolphins, I too moved to shot-out NYC in 1979, danced to punk music and watched many friends die in the 80’s while trumsters looked for gold, Giuliani and Bloomberg took over for our mini renaissance, a fake Italian trashed it, Covid did a final kill…
I pray for my little beautiful adopted home… it served me well…I will always love NYC but not sure which way the wind will blow. We shall see.
On another note, I had asked about Nick Land last week, and this week listened to Hermetix podcast on Land with Vincent Le. My non- academic conclusion was that Land is of the “survival of the fittest” school, believes Capitalism has become an independent egregore with AI as its new minion, and we might as well just let it go as it may.
Wishing those that celebrate, a Happy Easter and as we say, He has risen🌹
Yogaandthetarot
“William, it makes perfect sense once you realize that the welfare of teachers and staff is all that matters to the educational bureaucracies; the welfare of the students is irrelevant to them.”
Oh, absolutely; but what surprised me is that they somehow missed that those two articles together would make it pretty clear to parents what the newspaper thinks about the welfare of children. I know it’s just ordinary incompetence, but it sometimes seems astonishing how incompetent the mass media can be.
For those interested in this question, “How many generations does it take for the average descendant not to be genetically related to the ancestor?”, I found this at biology.stackexchange.com:
https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/112962/how-many-generations-does-it-take-for-the-average-descendant-not-to-be-genetical#:~:text=Graham%20Coop%20performed%20simulations%20related,information%20to%20a%20specific%20descendant.
Sorry for the hundred mile long link. Not much I can do about it. Anyway, the bit that pertains to the current discussion topic about that is this:
“Graham Coop performed simulations related to this question, based on actual transmission data for each chromosome in humans. He found that after 10 or 11 generations there was >50% chance that any particular ancestor contributed no genetic information to a specific descendant. Fewer than 5% of a person’s 14th-generation ancestors will have contributed genetic information to them.”
That’s very interesting to me. Let’s say the time between generations is 20 years. That’s not bad for a historical estimate, right? I know it’s usually more in the western world now, but I think a guess of 20 years on average is not far off the mark. So 14 generations is only 280 years. That’s not much at all. That means if you have genealogical information about ancestors that predate roughly the birth of Mozart, the chances are that any given one of those ancestors is no more related to you than just anyone of the same ethnic background. (Backgrounds plural, if applicable.)
280 years. Wow. Much less time than I thought that answer would turn out to be. That’s well into the Age of Sail!
Neptune # 132:
It’s a pity some people think there are “better” killed people than other. I thought an human life was an human life in every death: Equality under the Law?
I partly agree.
It seems that, in spite of being a migrant woman, that poor victim wasn’t scoring enough in woke Victimism Olympics: she was white and maybe Christian. Her killer maybe had a higher score in woke Olympics (cough). Due to his ethnic origin? (After reading your comment, I bet he was a “sacred cow” to wokesters, if I’m not wrong).
Woke hypocrisy is a shame IMHO in this case (with its usual cancellation and selective fondness to some people over other people).
I partly disagree.
I’m afraid Trump (and American right wing), don’t seem good, neither. I smell an opportunist attitude in them to “hijack” that poor woman and to make her their martyr. Maybe if she was alive now, she wouldn’t agree. Well, they mourned the woman death (for example remembering her), but not only for honest sympathy, but to their own political agenda, methink. She deserved some kind of tribute, but I doubt to make her a political icon was a good idea.
I mean, the two sides in current cultural wars (and I think this case’s one of these unending competing Spectacles) are behaving badly, methink. Of course, you always can choose your ideological favorite Spectacle and blame the others propaganda in a selective blindness to ignore the dirty side of your side.
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Cynthia # 135:
I’ve read your comment and I agree. However, I want to add some personal opinions about Science(s).
It isn’t impossible a few reckless and dishonest scientists can falsify their experimentations to fake hard facts, but there’s another trick which is also bad for science prestige. I’m thinking about the case of scientists who don’t fake facts, but they obtain biased ideas, or suggest them, which are a distorted view. For example, some neuroscientists show that, before a conscious action is decided within the brain, neuronal tissues already have started to activate. Maybe I’m wrong, but are they implicitly suggesting free will isn’t real? That “lesson” could had nasty consequences for society, and I think if they really think it, maybe it’s a conclusion made in a hurry, so I doubt it.
Cosmology: I think its elephant in the room is that a lot of cosmologic hypothesis cannot be proven in a lab nor by technology, so some cynical thinkers point this science is dangerously near to
Philosophy (when not to Theology). Well, I won’t despise every cosmologic hypothesis in that way, but it would be necessary look at them case by case. However, I can also say an unproved hypothesis isn’t an evident hard fact. For example, Big Bang explains well the origin of Universe…if you think there was an origin; but maybe the Universe is eternal (according some Philosophies and beliefs). I read a time ago an interview to an Indian scientist who complained about Big Bang hegemony in Cosmology, blaming the Western biases toward origin of everything, due to Christianism (maybe he had his part of reason). It seems impossible to do an experiment to prove wether it was an origin or not.
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Yes, I know Tierra Santa and I’ve heard some of their songs. They’re more recent than Barón Rojo in their musical career, methink, but I also know they like to play songs with biblical references in lyrics (thought I think more in a aesthetic way than a religious way). I’m not especially fan of heavy bands (I like more pop-rock and “only” rock bands), but I enjoy some heavy songs, especially ballads (well, it seems a commonplace to enjoy heavy ballads but I think that). Barón Rojo has been a legend heavy metal band in Spain since the ‘80s, but their songs have been always in Spanish. I think if they would have played songs with English lyrics, they’d be even more famous outside Spain.
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William # 137:
I don’t know how right to education works in Canada, but according Spanish Constitution, everybody has the right and the duty to be educated.
In real world, it seems homeschooling is seen by some people (and some authorities) as a threat to right/duty to education, because they identify to learn with formal schools; some another people think they’ve got their right to education including homeschooling as families option. A third kind of people (like me) think homeschooling can be under the Law, but everything homeschool children learn should be tested in periodical exams by the educative system. To be honest to you, I don’t know which group is “winning” now here.
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(To be continued)
King Charles III won’t be issuing an Easter message this year:
https://www.geo.tv/latest/658283-king-charles-wont-speak-this-year-palace-announces
@ Chuaquin #136
“Main problem within official versions dissenters is they often fall into conspiracy theories they believe literally, as Counter-Narratives.”
Speaking as a person more likely to be doubter than a crafter of official Narratives, this does not actually accord with my personal experience.
Unless, of course, you only count the minority of doubters who are rated as “OFFICIAL… dissenters”, because they loudly proclaim (and often monetise) their conspiracy theory.
My personal experience of doubters not prone to believing EITHER official narratives OR that the world is being secretly run by some shadowy cabal, is that most simply doubt quietly, without making much noise, but also quietly withholding compliance with whatever the official narrative of the day is urging them to do, and that their (our) number is therefore rather larger than that of either of the loud minorities who occupy the two extremes.
Good to know, JMG, about your sneakily Druidical ways of getting top secret info from the dastardly Illuminati. To be honest, however, I was hoping for something a little more dramatic – say, that you are part of a super-secret society of seemingly bookish Druids who are undoing the work of the cabals of occultists who are up to no good. I was thinking of something along the lines of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series which I watched as a lad. You could be The Man From D.R.U.I.D. (Druid Revival Universal Illuminati Discombobulators), who leaves behind a single green oak leaf or a sprig of holly at the scene of your victories, as an enigmatic (and horrifying to The Enemy) calling card. Maybe you could get Commissioner Gordon to flash the Oak Signal onto the clouds whenever the Illuminati are getting too uppity so that you can come to the rescue. As you can see, I watched waaay too much TV as a child.
I haven’t read all the comments yet, but I’m raising my tentacles for a fifth Wednesday post on the Iran war and it’s effects on the decline of our civilization and its possible bringing the end of petroleum closer. I have read statements from oil industry people who say that the shut down wells in the Persian Gulf will never regain their past production.
In The Long Descent and in many of your posts, you have stated that the decline of our industrial civilization is a gradual process, something like going down a staircase one step at a time. I agree, but I think we’re facing a big step down at this time.
It is really wild that I think we could abolish all of our elections and appointment processes and just select random people to random positions by lottery and it would probably be an improvement over the leadership we have today.
Four Sided…# 138:
Your view IMHO has its part of truth. If you see conspiracies theories like myths, maybe they have an occult teaching to be learnt. I see them more like Counter-Narratives, apparently “better”
than official Narratives, but in some cases dangerous (when their believers think they’ve got the Absolute Truth). To give you a rough comparative, Protestant Reform was a Counter-Narrative opposed to the Catholic Narrative, and it had a good side. However, “witches”
were burnt alive in Catholic countries and Protestant ones alike.
Well, I don’t have any problem with conspiracy nuts who believe in their stories in a not literal way…
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JMG # 140:
Number of people killed during last Spanish Civil War is different even when I compare the most serious historians data. There was a book in which its author wrote there had been a million dead (?). I’ve read between 100,000 and 500,000, depending of different ways to count deads (and ideologies?). Revenge in the two sides against inner ideological enemies was often commited, but according some sources, Franco side “won” in inner repression to the Republic. After the end of the war, there isn’t a definitive agreement about Freemasons, Communists and other hated people by the new regime, who were judged and legally executed (under Franco special legality). 10,000 Freemasons maybe is a more or less real figure, methink.
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According your data, I think the supposed Freemasonry conspiracy against nowadays King Charles III is very counter-factual, like another anti-Freemasons propaganda. I was guessing it to some extent.
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I’m puzzled by the picture you’ve shown us about a book on Beatles, Hypnotism and Communism. Very bizarre…Well, to try rationalizing that title, I’ve thought the Beatles when they began to be famous, could influence the whole world. Commies? Well, I’ve heard they were as “Progressive” as they could be the British youngs in the ‘60s. Maybe John (after having known his pacifist campaign against Vietnam war and the famous “Imagine” song) had a stronger fondness to leftism.
By the way, there’s a theory that says John Lennon wasn’t shot and killed by a crazy fan randomly, but he was punished for his leftism by the CIA (more due to the Vietnam thing than for “Imagine”). I don’t know…
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Thanks…Yes, little conspiracies usually have more contact with hard facts. Middle size conspiracies can happen too, but global and long time conspiracies loose real “ground” soon.
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Justin P. 143:
Thank you for your link to that bizarre book.
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William # 145:
I’ve noted since 10-15 ago to today how much journalists reasoning and “literary” style have worsened in newspapers and another MSM, while propagandistic claims have went up (cough). Maybe it’s a global tendence.
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Happy Easter! (For Christians and other people who enjoys these days in spite or not being Christians)
Communism, Hypnotism and The Beatles.
Our Latin master “Flash” Nel (so called because he walked very fast) was convinced that Elvis Presley was a Communist plot. He maintained that Elvis had been planted by the Russians to corrupt Western youth.
Mind you, in conservative South Africa 10,000 miles from the Flower Power years, it did look as though Western civilization was running off the rails. I remember a cabinet minister in all seriousness giving a speech in which he said our task was to preserve the core of Western thought and keep it safe until the Western world came to its senses and was ready to live by the old verities again.
Re Artemis II, I can still remember being wrapped up warmly and taken outside to see Sputnik move across the night sky, and listen as the radio played Sputnik’s beeping warble that signaled a new age had begun. I stayed up till after midnight the other night to watch the Artemis launch live. Spectacular. Well done NASA.
Checking in to vote for nature of conflict on higher planes please
For the 5th Wednesday, my vote is for Jungian archetypes.
It’s now April 2nd, and fool’s day is over. On the subject of conspiracy theories I offer the following proposition: some conspiracy theories are both true and important. But which ones are these? There’s the rub. For me, the archtypical conspiracy theorist is Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In Act I, a ghost informs Hamlet of a conspiracy; any sane person knows that a ghost is not exactly the most reliable of informants. Hamlet, being a cautious fellow, doesn’t simply take the ghost’s word for it. He sees that further investigation is warranted. He delays taking any decisive action until circumstances force his hand in Act V, and a blood-bath ensues. Shakespeare’s source for the tale was Saxo Grammaticus, as is described in the book “Hamlet’s Mill” which I highly recommend.
Yet again, all votes have been burnt into the soil of shattered Tokyo with radioactive flame by Godzilla himself. The Thing, It, She, Them, and the Blob are all waiting their turns.
Mother B, I was seven years old and knew exactly what was going on, and you couldn’t have pried me away from the tube with a crowbar.
Justin, that’s fascinating. So the conviction that people can’t make their own decisions, but have to be the puppets of someone or other, had already found a home on the crackpot fringes by then. As for poisoning data sets, nah, I just find One-Big-Conspiracy theories dull and want to get some creative minds dreaming up ever more elaborate struggles between secret societies.
William, one of the things that I find most fascinating about the managerial class is how many of them seem to be unable to realize that other people can watch their antics and draw conclusions from those. It’s the same weird distortion of thinking that led Hillary Clinton’s handlers to respond to each poll showing that people distrusted their candidate by looking blank and trying to “reintroduce” her to the public, as though the public couldn’t possibly assess her record and draw its own conclusions. This is another example — it doubtless never occurred to anybody at the newspaper or the teachers’ union that readers could connect those two articles and roll their eyes.
Cynthia, interesting.
Anon, curious. I wonder if his health is failing as badly as his photos suggest.
Ron, waaaaay too much TV indeed. Nah, Druidry doesn’t generally get into melodrama.
Tankermottind, that’s how most Greek city-states elected their legislatures. It was done by picking random members of the citizenry. They also had special positions for rich people, with a catch — if you signed up for one of those positions, you had to pay all the expenses of that department of the government for a year. It wasn’t without its problems, but it worked better than the system we have now!
Chuaquin, crackpot literature proclaiming absurd conspiracies has been a growth industry in the US since about a week after we became an independent country. That’s not even close to the strangest example I’ve seen.
Phutatorius, that’s a question worth a post of its own one of these days.
For the Fifth Wednesday topic, I vote for conflict in higher planes.
Yet another April 1 joke: https://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html
About the Kennedy family and other similar. Americans have a high tolerance for all kinds of graft and corruption. That is how you get stuff done. Remember, most of us came originally from peasant or other low class backgrounds in which a person didn’t survive without some kind of grift or other, and in which laws existed to protect the privileged. I think maybe the European upper classes retained feudalistic attitudes long past the time when feudalism or similar aristocratic arrangements of society benefitted all classes. What we don’t like is incompetence, which is why the current administration is polling badly, losing off year elections, and, generally, no longer very popular.
Back in the early 1990s, Bill Clinton approached the auto manufacturers with a deal he thought they couldn’t refuse. What if, he told these execs. we take health care, the most contentious issue in your contract negotiations, right off the table. Mind, nothing even approaching a national health service was being discussed. The execs. demurred. Why, because their good friends, golfing buddies and board members from the insurance industry objected. This wasn’t conspiracy. It was social class loyalty, which, over and over again, outweighs all other considerations, including even profit.
“William, one of the things that I find most fascinating about the managerial class is how many of them seem to be unable to realize that other people can watch their antics and draw conclusions from those. It’s the same weird distortion of thinking that led Hillary Clinton’s handlers to respond to each poll showing that people distrusted their candidate by looking blank and trying to “reintroduce” her to the public, as though the public couldn’t possibly assess her record and draw its own conclusions. This is another example — it doubtless never occurred to anybody at the newspaper or the teachers’ union that readers could connect those two articles and roll their eyes.”
It’s just hit me, and now that it has, I feel kind of silly for never having noticed it before, but there’s actually a really good explanation here: this is just another reflection of the extreme narcissism of the managerial class. There’s no reason to worry about what connections other people might make from facts, if their opinions don’t matter; and for that matter, how many times have the managerial class insisted no one would be smart enough to figure something out?
Regarding the 5th Wednesday …
I don’t often count all the topics but it seems like we have a very long list already, with correspondingly fewer votes per topic because they are spread out over such a wide range. Your count may differ, but at this point I think I see only three topics that have as many as five votes each.
Of these, I’ll cast my vote for “conflict on the higher planes,” or “War in Heaven,” or however you choose to describe it. (I mean the topic that Brendhelm introduced at #57.) But I wouldn’t mind losing, because the others look pretty interesting too!
MS Clinton’s warmongery (is that a word?–it should be–and as a Discordian Bishop, I declare that it is) is the very reason that I could not vote for her. Poking the Russian bear has always seemed like a bad idea. As a voter in California, I knew the Democrats had the electoral college vote in a bag, so I registered disapproval of both set of clowns by choosing one of the minority parties, probably Peace and Freedom and I probably couldn’t tell you the name of their candidate if threatened with hot pokers. Such are the politics of today.
I too am old enough to recall articles about the coming ice age–in fact it was a joke in my high school crowd–“Sinners repent, the ice age is coming”–implying of course that one had plenty of time to repent.
As for diets–oh my. “All fat is bad” “Some fat is okay” “Some fats are essential” “No fat, high carb” “High protein, low carb” “Whole grains are good” “All grains are bad” Fiber was so good at one point that bakers obliged with sanitized wood cellulose added to make high fiber bread–I remarked that we used to hang bakers for putting sawdust in the bread, not pay them extra for it.
Exercise–I still have a set of Princess Bells–white, plastic covered 3 lb. hand weights that were sold to women with the assurance that their use would NOT lead to unsightly muscles. I remember reruns of 40s era cartoons in which fat ladies tried to vibrate fat away with a mechanized belt around their waists. Now I notice that vibration devices are back in a slightly different form.
I was in college for the moonshot, but I remember resenting Fidel Castro from the beginning because broadcast of his victory parade pre-empted the Mickey Mouse Club, that my sister and I watched every weekday after school. Obviously no good can come of interrupting the Mouse. Isn’t the current Artemis Program rather like launching 3 wooden ships to discover a route from Europe to China? Deja vu all over again.
Hi John Michael,
🙂 Naughty small fluffy dogs are hardly powerful symbols to project potent forces, other than wee.
It’s a fun week and very appropriate for April fools day. Thanks for the many laughs.
Blue hair is a sign of Bognock from Blagoonah. He will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the wars of the black slime, the Bognock came as a large and moving Slug! Then, during the third boost of the last of the lesser slimes, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Mantis! Many woke knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Mantis that day, I can tell you! 😉
The lesson for today: Beware the pits of Blagoonah.
Cheers
Chris
The history of France after the Revolution reminds me of the joke:
A man walks into a bookstore and asks for a copy of the French Constitution. The clerk replies, “I’m sorry Sir, we don’t sell periodicals here.”
Per JMG” “Justin, that’s fascinating. So the conviction that people can’t make their own decisions, but have to be the puppets of someone or other, had already found a home on the crackpot fringes by then.”
I think Dostoyevski’s Grand Inquisitor (fictional, btw) and Leo Strauss (real person and mentor to the neo-cons) shared that conviction, so maybe it had spread outward to include the fringes by the 1960s.
Chuaquin: I read about some research like that which you mentioned, that seemed to show that parts of the brain seem to begin a reaction to a stimulus slightly before the actual stimulus occurs, in this case it was whether you saw a blue flash or a green flash, if I recall correctly, rather than about an action the person had decided to take. But it was the same idea, things in the brain seemed to already be happening before it ought to have been possible. I took that to mean that there may be some form of future awareness possible for some subsystems of the brain, in a limited way. I thought it was pretty interesting, but I never heard anything else about it since then. As to free will, I guess if there were a scientific consensus that there is none, some people would take that as an excuse for bad behavior, but I think most people would take the view that it seems like we have free will, we’re using to thinking and acting like we have it, so we might as well just assume we do, regardless of what the whitecoats think. I certainly would. (It’s inevitable that I would, ha ha)
I broadly agree with your idea that things from cosmology should be looked at case by case. The further a thing is from direct observation or experimental proof, the less solid it is. I’m sure the speed of light is what they say it is, and I’m sure that the galaxies are receding from each other as described. I’m sure Einstein got relativity right and that the speed of light is the hard limit he said it is. I’m sure our understanding of stellar evolution is correct and that the implications for the future of the Earth are as described. The Big Bang I am less sure of, but not enough to make a thing of it. I don’t think the question of whether there was a Big Bang or if the universe was always there, or some alternate option proposed by the Indian scientist really matters much to our understanding of how natural processes work here in our environment; that seems pretty solid.
I feel culturally identified with heavy metal and that’s what I say is my favorite music, but the reality is that these days I seldom listen to any pre-recorded music at all, except for guitar backing tracks on youtube, and of course the whole point of that is to play to the music, not just listen to it. (I’m gonna miss that when it’s gone!) When I do just listen to music, it’s just as apt to be other rock, or pop, or country, or techno, or something else.
Thanks for the laugh!
For Fifth Wednesday, I vote for however you’d like to discuss Iran.
Kind Sir,
I vote for J.L.Mc12”s suggestion of feminization of society
I wouldn’t mind seeing a post on ‘conflict in higher planes’, so that’s my vote this time. I’m especially curious about the references in the bible to one.
Jon G (#165) : That’s hilarious!
For fifth Wednesday, I’d like to read what you might have to say about the nexus of national karma, individual citizens’ karma relative to the former, and the same in relation to being governed by a class of tweedle-dum twins giving only a pretense of choice between them. Obviously in the context of the US political system where democracy seems like a nice concept we might’ve once had, and harkening back to Scotlyn’s comment last week re: Iran/military machine/and effect of that coming home to roost here (though I’m unsure, personally, of chicken or egg order).
Thanks for the laugh with this week’s, um, illuminating (haha) essay.
If I may, I think with on the topic of conflict in the higher planes what many readers are concerned with is the fear that once we graduate from this material world we’ll be thrown into another just as frustrating and tedious, which is something of a letdown after two thousand years of being promised peace and joy.
It also echoes the experience of many of us have of spending our childhoods dreaming of what we hoped to do and achieve once we grew up, only to be thrust into an adult world of responsibilities, deadlines, and office politics. Some of us never really got over that shock, I’m afraid, and the prospect of having it repeated on a grand scale is quite disheartening.
(I still haven’t decided what I want to vote for, since my initial suggestion was already in the pipeline; I hope to make up my mind by this weekend.)
A bunch of MIT researchers have shown that AI chatbots will lead people down delusional spirals even when precautionary measures are put into place:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.19141
Sweden is getting rid of ed tech and going back to books in schools:
https://undark.org/2026/04/01/sweden-schools-books/
Cynthia Christie 146
> Fewer than 5% of a person’s 14th-generation ancestors will have contributed genetic information to them.
Now THAT’S int’restin’. Huh (stumped). Don’t that beat all. Good to know.
Hmm. My brother (“Alf”) was the spittin’ image of one of our 2nd great-grandfathers (“Frank”). I bumped into this tidbit because a 3rd cousin put up a Civil War photo online of Frank. If one saw photos of them side by side, one can immediately see Alf got a heckuva lot of facial DNA from Frank; I don’t know what else Alf got of Frank’s. But, I received Frank’s exceptionally ugly ‘male mechanic hands with stubby sausage fingers’ — dead ringer hands. Thanks a lot, Frank. (If I were face to face with Frank this minute, I would give him a piece of my mind🗣️📢.)
💨🧬🌳💨Northwind Grandma
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
“and for that matter, how many times have the managerial class insisted no one would be smart enough to figure something out?”
Paul Krugman is famous for claiming people voted for against their own interest. The first time I noticed was on some rant against something Kansas had voted for. I remember thinking “How many wheat harvests have you brought in Oh Great Economist?”
Then there is this,
” https://www.businessinsider.com/krugman-white-working-class-2016-11”
“Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winning columnist and New York Times columnist, said Tuesday that he thinks white working-class voters in rural areas voted against their self interest in the 2016 election.”
Business insider by the way is owned by the same group that owns Politico, another bunch that worships the PMC.
But this other bunch of left-wingers also thinks Krugman is clueless,
https://inthesetimes.com/article/what-paul-krugman-gets-wrong-about-the-working-class#:~:text=Krugman%20ends%20his%20column%20with,to%20give%20up%20on%20them.
the articles too long to repost, but they are interesting. It’s not just Krugman. And it extends to more than economics. The exclusively urban judges in Washington think much more of timber wolves than the people who have to live with them, and now they want to import grizzly bears too. Then they complain about the “shoot-shovel-shut up” method of dealing with dangerous animals that they have forced on the countryside.
Yet again, all votes have been carefully noted down in the records of the city of Pnakotus by time-traveling Yithians from the abysses of the nameless past, and will be incorporated more or less at random in the Pnakotic Manuscript for the lasting puzzlement of future generations.
Mary, corruption has its uses, especially if the corrupt politicians in question have the brains the gods gave geese and bribe the electorate first.
William, yes, I think narcissism is a good label for that habit.
Michael_20, you’re quite correct; most of the proposed topics have gotten one and only one vote each. The ones that are doing significantly better than that are, in alphabetical order: common ground between esoteric Buddhism and Western occultism; the existence of conflict on the inner planes; Jungian archetypes; and the war in Iran. None of these have yet gotten ten votes. If anyone would like to change their vote,you may, but please tell me what you originally voted for so I can delete your former vote.
Rita, thank you. It amazes me how many people who were around for the global cooling scare pretend that it never happened. When I was a kid, btw, my great-aunt had one of those vibrating-belt things.
Chris, ha! And ha again! I never watched the movie, but I heard that bit about the large and moving Torb many times, and decided that Gozer was very sensible; nobody would have been impressed by a small and stationary Torb. I prefer my Vuldronaii unrectified, though.
Jon, okay, that was a tea-on-the-keyboard moment. Thank you.
Phutatorius, Edward Bernays made a lot of money claiming that, too, but most people were too smart to be suckered by his sales pitch. That it’s become an unthinking reaction these days is the thing that fascinates me.
Slithy, I guess I’m just weird. I spent my whole childhood longing to get out of the wretched mess of a family I grew up with, and go have a life more to my liking — and I proceeded to do that. Maybe that’s why I’m not too worried about the higher planes. But, yeah, I can include that in the discussion.
Anon, no surprises there. LLMs generate sequences of words that produce the illusion of meaning, but there’s nobody home; madness is hard to avoid once the feedback cuts in. As for Sweden, it’s good to see basic common sense trickling in despite all the obstacles.
Siliconguy, if you look up the word “hubris” in a good dictionary Krugman’s face ought to be next to it. I don’t suppose it’s ever occurred to him to ask a single working class person what they actually want, as opposed to what clueless intellectuals from the privileged classes want them to want.
Chauquin 153
> and other people who enjoy these days in spite or not being Christians
I am mourning the loss of winter. Long live winter. May the Ice Cube be with us. May the element Fire rot in hell🌋.
💨❄️🧊🍦🌋💨Northwind Grandma
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
Hi John Michael Thanks for the post. Love it. I’ve been following you from back since the Archdruid days. It’s good to have a sane voice in what is otherwise a fairly insane world.
I vote for the war in Iran
cheers from downunder
JMG,
Thanks to the Bavarian Illuminati the legitimacy of medicine, politics and education here in the US is dropping like a stone. But I know a profession in a place at this point in time whose legitimacy is skyrocketing ( at least in what is termed the global south).
Today a 14 year old boy on the streets of Cairo, or Beirut or Lahore or Jakarta no longer wants to grow up to be Messi or Ronaldo , he wants to build rockets, like the Iranians. Most won’t have the means but I will guess that for years to come the classrooms in those countries will have no problem finding young men and women who want to study STEM subjects, whose brass ring will be a coveted degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, for they have witnessed the Apollo program of the developing world.
I wish things were different, I wish we lived in a world where kids could want to be Nelson Mandela, or Gandhi. But for now, they know the way to not be humiliated by the empire is to build rockets.
common ground between esoteric Buddhism and Western occultism; the existence of conflict on the inner planes
I vote for this. I have been considering this idea for a while now.
I didn’t vote for anything before.
All this Kennedy talk reminds me of Balzac: Behind every great fortune lies a crime.
Anonymous # 148:
Charles III is the Head of Anglican Church, like previous British Kings and Queens, but it seems he’s not comfortable in this symbolic role. He can have his reasons to renounce to that Easter message. In addition to personal reasons, maybe he has noticed the UK as State and as society has been secularized in last decades, like another Europe countries, so he can think the King religious role is outdated. He could be playing a politically correct game too, because there are a lot of migrants in Britain who are Muslims, Hindus and another not Anglican religions, methink.
I’m not justifying his decision, but trying to understand it.
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Scotlyn # 149:
Well, I must recognize my knowledge of the conspiracy theorists world is indirect and partial (only some online texts and some bizarre books in public libraries), so maybe my view is not very complete.
I’m glad you’re one of the conspiracy guy who doubt so you don’t accept as the Absolute Truth the Counter-Narratives you like. However, I think not everybody within conspiracies world share your healthy attitude. I wish zealots were a few scattered nutties, but I’m afraid that, if they’re a minority, they could be a big screaming minority.
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Tanker…# 152:
Your idea about a random democracy like a lottery seems a good idea, though is not new. Indeed, a controverted spanish writer (whose name’s J. Vestrynge methink) proposed this measure to better democracies, but he proposed it only in some cases (?). This writer began his career as a Conservative, but then turned into a more Leftist ideology (?), but he’s got some interesting and provocative ideas. I also remember in some Middle Age town halls, to elect their mayor and another political jobs, elections were made choosing a little ball from a bag (for example, they put some black ball, so the lucky guy had to find the white ball without seeing it, of course).
I think this system could have its advantages, but isn’t perfect neither. People who control the “lottery” should be honest…
———————-
John, I tell you I’m reading now a novel written by the writer Javier Sierra (our Dan Brown, to some extent). I think he mixes interesting and provocative historical hard facts, mythologies and some occultism, with a lot of fantasy. For example, he depicts a family of English Druids, in a too hippy way (ahem). Did you know this writer?
—————
(To be continued)
It is damp and misty in these here temperate rainforest climes of Ireland, and I remember you saying how a career you never took up would have involved a study of mosses and lichens and such, of a kind which grow profusely in such small patches of forest as we allow to regrow.
I have noticed a vast difference in sound quality between a mossy forest, and (say) a rocky canyon. The mossy forest appears to drink the sound, leaving a complete absence of reverb and echo, both of which take their time dying away in a rocky canyon. Do the mosses really “eat” and “drink” sound? It strikes me that an experiment to expose mosses to different sound “diets” could lead to interesting results. 🙂
John, in my comment # 181 I was wrong writing the Spanish writer name, he’s named exactly: Jorge Verstrynge. I’m sorry.
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Martin B. # 154:
Last thing I could think about that American icon named Elvis is he was a Commie, so I think that conspiracy theory is very bizarre and counter-factual alike. I guess the only Elvis behavior that was upsetting right wing people was their erotic body shaking and their rock partly borrowed from Blacks. Ironically, Western rock had some problems to reach Eastern Europe Communist Block and China, because some Commies there distrusted such a Capitalist music…
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Phutatorius # 157:
Yes, we’ve got a dilemma: some conspiracies could be better linked with real facts than another in theory, but in real world, which ones? It’s difficult to divide wheat from straw.
On the other hand, Hamlet doubt had its good side, but of course a bad side, according how Shakespeare wrote its ending…
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JMG # 158:
I had forgotten the lottery-like elections during Ancient Greeks time in towns-states, but it seems this system was used too during Middle Age in some towns, at least in Spain Christian kingdoms.
**********
Conspiracy theories business is a fact, so no argument here.
—————————
William J. # 161:
Indeed, consumerist nowadays society promotes openly Narcissism to individuals from every class, but I also think managerial elites are the most extreme Narcissists.
—————————
(To be continued)
The B1 bridge in Iran is (was?) an elegant and functional, impressively large scale civil engineering scheme, a home-grown project aimed at solving home-based problems, accomplished under trying circumstances, with limited resources. No doubt, its creators and executors included some of the large cohort of female engineers Iran actually has, but apparently shouldn’t (because mullahs).
The contrast between people dedicating significant national treasure, pooling private and public energies and resources, to build what they love, and people dedicating significant national treasure, and pooling private and public energies and resources to wantonly destroy what they hate, could not be more starkly illustrated.
I think I will cast a vote for war on all the planes…
“War, huh… Good God, yeah… what is it good for?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztZI2aLQ9Sw
Rita R. # 163:
Speaking of fast fashions change about diets, I can tell you my doctor told me recently last sensation in a “healthy” diet wasn’t the fiber anymore; indeed, according his words, it’s bad eating too much fiber, because humans aren’t cows (sic). So now the good thing is to eat much protein and few carbons (poor vegans! They can eat high protein vegetables, but according my doctor, animal protein has a higher quality).
Well, I’m skeptic an only one diet can be good for everybody, in the same way one ideology or religion can be fit to every human beings.
———————————
Chris # 164:
I’ve learnt the lesson, no problem…(ha).
—————————-
Jon G # 165:
I think it’s a good political joke, which could be used to depict in the short form last two centuries of Spain History: since 1812, often new short time governments have approved a lot of short life Constitutions, until the current one, which in not much years is going to reach its 50 birthday (crossing fingers).
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Cynthia C. # 167:
I understand your view, and I think your view it’s possible. My impression about that neuroscience discovery (certain brain parts activation after an stimulus but before to think/do something) is those scientists don’t favor explicitly determinism, but they haven’t answered pop science/philosophy claims presenting this fact as “evidence” against free will. So I think (maybe in a wrong way) they implicitly approve determinism. On the other hand, there could be another alternative explanations to this brain phenomenon which wouldn’t be too deterministic. I think we’re conditioned, but not determined.
******************
Mainstream Cosmologists show as “evidence” of Big Bang that galaxies are separating more and more from an apparent origin point time ago. However, there could be an alternative view. For example, galaxies maybe are expanding and contracting periodically, as an hypothesis borrowed from some Eastern philosophies, methink.
**************
Our musical tastes seem partly shared, partly different. I like rock and pop rock, but also classical music.
———————————-
Anonymous # 175:
Sweden isn’t the only one country to change digitalized education “back” to more books. Some weeks ago Spanish government said it was seriously studying less screens and more books at schools. Full schools digitalization madness began (ironically) thanks to a previous Socialist govt here, near 20 years ago, which implicitly subsidized hi tech corporations with that gift to their business (cough). Today children and teens are paying the consequences of that reckless decision.
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Siliconguy # 177:
Krugman has his right to guess what thought/think other people to do this or that, but of course he hasn’t telephaty powers to know exactly that thoughts, especially about people different in their lifestyles and class from Mr. Krugman.
It’s said than human beings can understand how other people think to some extent, thanks to empathy. However, not every people is able to be empathic with other people (especially if/when they don’t like them). I’m afraid Krugman doesn’t like very much people who (according his ideas) has voted against their own interests. Arrogant attitudes don’t favor well an empathic view (ahem).
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JMG # 178:
I see my vote isn’t within the first ones. Thank you for your suggestion allowing vote change, but I don’t want to change it.
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N.G. # 153:
To some extent…Amen!
Okay – let me throw in a vote for the war in Iran.
@JMG and anonymous #175 re. physical textbooks in Scandinavia
Don’t know if this is on topic, but since the anonymous comment was put through, I’ll assume a follow-up is okay. It is indeed good to hear the Swedes have started to come to their senses. Here in neighboring Norway, things have been headed in that direction for a few years already. At least at the school where I recently did a stint, where they had a sort of hybrid approach: every student had both an iPad and a physical book, and they wrote both by hand and by tablet. (Naturally I made them use their physical writing books whenever I had a chance. :))
Still, even if old-fashioned textbooks are an improvement, I don’t want to glorify them too much either. Most of the ones I saw were fairly mediocre in my opinion, and many teachers seem to rely too heavily on them for my tastes. They’re also full of political correctness, of course. Not to mention how creating all these textbooks is a very lucrative feeding through for academic and PMC types. Maybe the Waldorf/Steiner people have a better approach, where they tend to make their own materials instead.
Now, if only we could go back to traditional blackboards and get rid of the giant screens in every classroom…
As the old bumper sticker says, “Happiness is a Reptillian Overlord.”
I made a bumper sticker image that people can use:
https://imgur.com/a/nH9uWWt
@Phutatorius: Interesting about Dostoevsky. I must admit, I’ve never actually read any Russian literature. Theoretically I would like to, but I have never felt the urge all that much.
Chuaquin says:
Neptune # 132:
It’s a pity some people think there are “better” killed people than other. I thought an human life was an human life in every death: Equality under the Law?
I partly agree.
It seems that, in spite of being a migrant woman, that poor victim wasn’t scoring enough in woke Victimism Olympics: she was white and maybe Christian. Her killer maybe had a higher score in woke Olympics (cough). Due to his ethnic origin? (After reading your comment, I bet he was a “sacred cow” to wokesters, if I’m not wrong).
Woke hypocrisy is a shame IMHO in this case (with its usual cancellation and selective fondness to some people over other people).
I partly disagree.
I’m afraid Trump (and American right wing), don’t seem good, neither. I smell an opportunist attitude in them to “hijack” that poor woman and to make her their martyr. Maybe if she was alive now, she wouldn’t agree. Well, they mourned the woman death (for example remembering her), but not only for honest sympathy, but to their own political agenda, methink. She deserved some kind of tribute, but I doubt to make her a political icon was a good idea.
I mean, the two sides in current cultural wars (and I think this case’s one of these unending competing Spectacles) are behaving badly, methink. Of course, you always can choose your ideological favorite Spectacle and blame the others propaganda in a selective blindness to ignore the dirty side of your side.
—-
Me: The woman’s killing would have been a local story if not for the horrific manner of her death – being stabbed to death on her way home from the subway. The local mayor decided to hide the killing for a month before it leaked out on conservative media. The woman was an Ukrainian legal immigrant. The killer was a mentally ill man who had been let go a number of times by various judges. On the tape of the killing, he stated he wanted to kill the white girl.
Those elements together set off a firestorm on conservative media. It was reported in regular media but in more neutral terms. Later Trump featured her parents at his State of the Union. So the woman became a martyr to their cause against Woke Democrats and George Soros.
On the other side, Rene Good and Alex Petri became martyrs against Trump and ICE. They have been raised to that status by people saying they were standing up to Trump’s gestapo.
So you are correct, a lot of people do not care about the Dead as much as they can use them for their Spectacle.
As for me, I do not think that there should be such a difference between how each of the dead were treated since they all died in horrific ways. Some acting on their beliefs while others simply living their lives.
—-
yes, I remember the Trilateralists since they seem the grand conspirators in a grand conspiratory.
About Hilary Clinton,
My husband and her got into a tussle over Benghazi. She wanted him fired from the State Dept. since he was reporting what the news media was reporting about Amb. Stevens’ death. That was his job to report on the media in the Middle East. Anyway, he remained employed and she is currently unemployed. There are other H. Clinton stories that are just unflattering floating around the government.
My pet peeve was the idea that all women should support her or “Got to Hell.” She threw the working women under the bus. The local union of janitors and others supported her and raised money for her initial campaign. She told them to get lost when she officially received the nomination. This is from a janitor who wore a “Ready for Hiliary” pin for a long while. I asked her one day why she stopped wearing it. That is what she told me.
To tie to the conversation, she was paranoid about her image and the people around her. Then there were the anti-Clinton people who were paranoid about her. She seemed to a litmus test of sanity.
My original vote was for Robert Graves. I will change my vote to common ground between esoteric Buddhism and Western esotericism. I’m as interested in the outcome of the Iran war and what that means for Western industrial civ and the staircase descent of USA too, but I also like something else to think about in its place. Thanks!
My vote for the fifth Wednesday essay is a magical geography of the United States.
JMG,
I’d like to throw my hat in for Jungian archetypes.
As for Iran, recent news indicates the USA has muddled a situation for global oil and now prepares to leave it. “Get your own oil,” the orange man says. I heard reports that Kier Starmer is rallying a coalition of forty nations to reopen the Straight of Hormuz. Interesting, becuase the Royal Navy is an absolute shell of its former self. Not sure what can be accomplished by the forty-nation fleet, other than convincing the USA to stick it out longer with Iran…
My vote is for the existence of conflict on the inner planes.
Thank you!
A vote for the war in Iran. Thanks.
And again, all votes (including changes) have been carved on tablets of perdurable adamant by the scribes of the mighty beetle civilization that will rise when humanity is gone. They will have no idea what any of the topics mean, but the votes make adorably cute patterns in their script.
Clay, now if those same 14 year old boys start building drones instead of rockets, the fall of industrial civilization will happen more quickly. It’s a common historical pattern for the fall of empires to be hastened once somebody figures out a cheap and decentralized way of messing with the huge and expensive military machines of the imperial power. I wrote about that here:
https://www.ecosophia.net/deindustrial-warfare-a-first-reconaissance/
John, Balzac was an optimist. It’s usually a whole lot of crimes.
Scotlyn, it would indeed be an interesting experiment. In the Pacific Northwest, where I grew up, there were (and may still be) huge swaths of forest full of mosses, ferns, lichens, liverworts, and other understory plants, and sound travels very poorly there — one of the reasons why people who stray off the trails are so often never seen again. It’s a spooky place.
Chuaquin, no, I don’t know of that writer. I wonder if any of his works have been translated into English or French.
BorealBear, oh, trust me, I have no great expectations for textbooks. When I was in school they were vapid, inaccurate, often outright dishonest, and poisonously dull. They still required certain skills that computerizing everything neglects. Now let’s see if the Swedish authorities make the students write their essays by hand, in class, so they can’t use LLMs to cheat!
NeptunesDolphins, everyone I’ve ever met who’s interacted with Clinton has stories like that about her.
Mrdobner, at this point declaring a victory and getting out is very nearly the only option Trump has left. I look forward with mordant curiosity to seeing what actually happens with that notional forty-nation fleet.
Northwind Grandma (#176): I remember that you’re the person who did the big genealogy project. Ok, I have this thought for you: Just because so-and-so an ancestor from the colonial days doesn’t show up in your genome doesn’t make them less important to your being here today. They are still part of the chain of causes that led to you. If someone else had been in the place of that ancestor, they would have had different children, who would have married different people, and given the substitute person very different grandchildren than the ancestor had in reality. That change would have propagated forward, and there would have been no Uncle Frank, let alone you or Alf. This is without even getting into what the ancestor taught their children and otherwise contributed to their family. So none of those ancestors you found are mere placeholders, and your genealogy project is no less meaningful.
“At this point declaring a victory and getting out is very nearly the only option Trump has left.”
That would also mean throwing Israel to the wolves, and I don’t know if Trump is willing to do that, considering that his son-in-law Jared Kushner is a Zionist Jew and his daughter Ivanka is a convert to Judaism so that she can marry Jared Kushner.
Queen Elizabeth didn’t give out Easter messages either, except for one time in 2020 during the covid pandemic. But she didn’t give out any messages regarding any of the holy days in any of the religions either.
The problem with King Charles for many British Christians is that in the two times he has given out Easter messages in the past as King, he used the message as an opportunity to praise Islam, and then they see him give out messages on Muslim holy days like Ramadan and Eid praising Islam, and the Christians think that this is just more evidence that Britain is being overtaken by Islam and King Charles is a secret Muslim or a traitor. They think it’s better to have a monarch that doesn’t praise any religion than one that praises a religion many people regard as openly hostile to Britain.
5th Wednesday.
I had suggested the paradigm shift. I suppose it could be covered by other blogs.
I guess the magical map of the U.S. (maybe someday, the continent?)
JMG
For 5th Wed I would vote for how the current Gulf war has moved forward the decline slope. A couple of weeks ago I would have said 20 years. By the end of the month, who knows.
I guess you would classify that as Iran
It’s difficult to add anything funny to such a hilarious essay, but I’ll give it a try. Toward the end of the Soviet Empire, there was a gerontocracy in place, and people were jokingly asking about the “leaders”, ” They are not doing anything useful anyway, can’t they find at least someone young and easy on the eyes? Alas, there were three old, decrepit men who died in quick succession. Each of their funerals was a lavish spectacle attended by the elite. Around the time of the third death (Konstantin Chernenko), this joke was very popular:
Chernenko’s funeral… A crowd of well-dressed people lining up toward the entry of The House of the Unions in the center of Moscow for the memorial service… It was a by-invitation-only event, and people had “tickets”.
Usher: Sir, where’s your ticket?
Attendee: (sad, mournful face) Oh… here… I have a seasonal pass.
I wonder about the US right now… Are we there yet? The last one who was at least good-looking was Obama. 😂
I don’t think I’ve ever actually voted for a 5th Wednesday post before. I’ll wave a squamosely rugose (or is that rugosely squamous?) tentacle in favor of hearing about conflict on the higher planes.
Chuaquin (#188): I think if scientists have a choice between allowing for the possibility that information about the future might be available, and any other explanation, they will always favor the other explantion. Prescience, even on the part of a group of neurons, shares with the paranormal, and anything spiritual, that stigma of being something that’s Not Taken Seriously By Serious Scientists. Since determinism is not in that category, that would be the favored explanation.
Natural selection doesn’t care. If something exists in nature that it can take advantage of, it will.
I agree that that we are conditioned but not determined, but then I’ve said already that I will disbelieve determinism regardless.
About cosmology, there’s also the whole thing about dark matter. My best understanding of what they say about that is, “Dark matter must exist in order for our equations to work, so it does.” That creates plenty of room for alternative views are far as I’m concerned, including the idea of expanding and contracting galaxies.
Music is a wonderful thing regardless of which is your favorite, no? I’m so glad I wasn’t born with musical anhedonia. Drawing the “bisexual” and “transgender” cards wasn’t great, but if I had the opportunity to go back and trade those for musical anhedonia, I would not!
(I have some other advantages that I might trade off to get rid of those, but nobody gets to reroll their character.)
Although the two people that talked to me about their musical anhedonia reported not minding it or thinking about it that much. I guess if you don’t know what you’re missing, you don’t. Far be it from me to rock that boat.
Northwind Grandma (#176) again: Sorry, not “Uncle” Frank. I don’t know where I got “Uncle” from. Please excuse the error.
JMG et al
B at the honest sorcerer is the only site I know who is focusing on the conflict from this perspective with the background of peak energy.
JMG
I would appreciate your perspective on it too.
Hello All: This post is delightful and the comments are interesting, as always. Thanks to JMG and all who have shared their thoughts.
I vote for a post on conflicts on other planes.
Cheers, Heloise
I’d like to please cast a vote for “conflicts in the higher planes”.
Chuaquin, #153:
As a jew, I agree people who take conspiracy theories too literally can cause damage if they act on their beliefs, especially en mass. However, I can not change what people already think, so the best I can do is to think about what they think and draw my own conclusions.
At the end, conspiracy theories are a tool. They can be used intentionally or otherwise to convey truths, or used to rationalize hate, much like a radio frequency could be used both to coordinate rescue or a military attack on civilians.
But in either case, I think it does not hurt to listen in order to figure out what’s what, even if it is to run in time before you are invited to a barbecue.
Change my vote from the globalist/Atlanticists elite to positive verbal affirmations. Following your instructions in applying “I am filled with good life and good energy” a soul/mind exercise equivalent of taking a daily walk and eating good food. Thank you. A simple practice with deep results over time.
An interesting short article by a former colleague of mine at Brown University:
https://americancommunitymedia.org/oped/why-trump-cannot-win-in-iran/
Beeman reads and speaks Farsi (the language of Iran), was trained as an anthropologist (and thus knows that any other culture is best viewed through its own lenses, not through ours), and knows that religious factors very often carry far more weight in world affairs than any secular (e.g. economic or geopolitical) factor ever can.
I think he’s right. Short of killing close to every Iranian on the planet and turning Iran into a sterile wasteland, there’s no way we can ever win this war.
@Will O, #90, @Wyatt Carroll , #196:
I’ll keep this Wednesday’s vote for the archetypes but if the magical geography of the U.S. or North America doesn’t make it this week, I’m thinking I’ll vote for this the next.
A caution about the war in Iran:
This is a developing situation so a post on it should wait until the war concludes or settles into a Ukraine-esque war of attrition. Imagine if JMG’s post about the Iran war and how it will shape the future becomes outdated three days after it goes up. But his posts about Ukraine are still relevant today.
“Beeman reads and speaks Farsi (the language of Iran), was trained as an anthropologist (and thus knows that any other culture is best viewed through its own lenses, not through ours), and knows that religious factors very often carry far more weight in world affairs than any secular (e.g. economic or geopolitical) factor ever can.”
The religious factors go both ways. Iran certainly has its own religious factors for fighting a war, but so does the United States. Perhaps it needs to be investigated how much Christian Zionism amongst evangelicals (a huge voting block amongst Republicans) and religious Zionism amongst Jews (another significant voting block amongst Republicans) in the United States has lead to the Trump administration starting a war on Iran in support of Israel.
I vote for the Iran war for the fifth Wednesday article.
I highly suspect that by the time that fifth Wednesday rolls around, the Trump administration would have put more troops in the Middle East and sent those troops in to invade Iran, and the parallels to Twilight’s Last Gleaming would become a lot more obvious to our host here.
“Since he’s a lawyer, he’s brilliant at arguing himself into believing whatever supports his side of the case.”
I’ve noticed that this is a common skillset among lawyers. And I agree, Childers is best taken as part of a well-rounded media diet.
You mentioned John Keel and the Mothman Prophecies. I read that one last fall. I was struck by his peculiar way of organizing the book, so that it was hard to get a sense of the actual timeline he was discussing. It fit well with his general take on ‘ultra-terrestrials,’ but I suspect Keel had a strong element of the Trickster in him.
But what I wonder about more is, were UFO experiences really that extensive in that time? Growing up in the ’90s, I heard nothing about lights floating along the Ohio River Valley, or any of the rest of it. Everything was relegated to fodder for Hollywood, if not outright forgotten. This recurrent amnesia is part of the strangeness of the whole UFO scene.
Finally: On the 5th Friday topic, my vote was originally for Jack Vance. I would like to change it to conflict on the inner planes.
@Chuaquin #69:
“I find very bizarre how the True Believers in Trump trust without any doubt in his “infallible” leader”
In the corners of the dissident right where I lurk, there’s a lot of distrust of Trump, and a few voices are criticizing the Iran War – but they are in the clear minority.
And I agree that the war almost certainly will not end with a decisive military victory for Iran. It looks to me like they’re just going to keep hitting us right in the economy, while degrading our high-end hardware every chance they get.
It could be that Russia and China are using Iran as a buffer to blunt the sharp edges of our military, in much the same way we’ve been trying to use Ukraine.
Anon wrote: “That would also mean throwing Israel to the wolves, …”
Which would invite the “Samson Option.” Israel has its nukes, or at least some of them, aboard its seven, more or less, Dolphin class submarines. These are quite capable, German made subs. Though they are diesel electric powered, that technology has made great strides since WWII. I could care less about Jared Kushner, or what’s-her-name Trump. This is one of the (many) things our feckless leader did not appear to have considered before getting us into this mess. I want to say more, but I will stop at this. Otherwise, I might appear to be opinionated.
JMG, in comment #98, you wrote “[Artemis] was a grand sight to watch this evening.” Could you actually see the launch from the DC area? I’m imagining what other onlookers would have seen while watching you out in the evening air staring at the sky. 😊
Clay Dennis said
Today a 14 year old boy on the streets of Cairo, or Beirut or Lahore or Jakarta no longer wants to grow up to be Messi or Ronaldo , he wants to build rockets, like the Iranians. Most won’t have the means but I will guess that for years to come the classrooms in those countries will have no problem finding young men and women who want to study STEM subjects, whose brass ring will be a coveted degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, for they have witnessed the Apollo program of the developing world. I wish things were different, I wish we lived in a world where kids could want to be Nelson Mandela, or Gandhi. But for now, they know the way to not be humiliated by the empire is to build rockets.
JMG replied
Clay, now if those same 14 year old boys start building drones instead of rockets, the fall of industrial civilization will happen more quickly. It’s a common historical pattern for the fall of empires to be hastened once somebody figures out a cheap and decentralized way of messing with the huge and expensive military machines of the imperial power.
The Russian government has already announced it is bringing back mandatory paramilitary training for all schoolchildren, essentially reviving the old Soviet DOSAAF system. Among the required subjects will be learning how to build and operate drones. So before too long, every young Russian will know how to make and operate their own drones. Think about the implications of that. I would imagine a lot of other countries in the Global South, including Iran, will end up following suit.
Scotlyn said
The B1 bridge in Iran is (was?) an elegant and functional, impressively large scale civil engineering scheme, a home-grown project aimed at solving home-based problems, accomplished under trying circumstances, with limited resources. No doubt, its creators and executors included some of the large cohort of female engineers Iran actually has, but apparently shouldn’t (because mullahs).
The contrast between people dedicating significant national treasure, pooling private and public energies and resources, to build what they love, and people dedicating significant national treasure, and pooling private and public energies and resources to wantonly destroy what they hate, could not be more starkly illustrated.
I saw a tweet not too long ago showing that Iran has the world’s sixth largest number of STEM majors and is number two in the world on a per capita basis, which ties into Clay’s observation as well. Moreover, it’s been reported that 60 percent of STEM majors in Iran are women and that the female literacy rate has gone up from 27 percent when the Shah was overthrown to 96 percent, which is probably higher than that of the United States these days.
But then again, as our host once put it, most Americans are impressively stupid when it comes to Iran…
@ Robert Mathiesen # 213
A lyrical and poetical post that speaks to your point.
https://mahnazhatami.substack.com/p/the-night-we-must-endure
@ Robert Mathiesen #213
…and, further to my last, and to be clear, the post I link to clearly demonstrates that Iranian people are not synonymous with their regime.
But, also it confirms that the cultural and civilisational resources available for them to draw on go deep, many layers deeper than the regime alone.
It just clicked: conspiracy theories, the madness among the managerial class about no one else having any ability to think or act, the odd ways in which my family looked like a small scale version of the playbook the US military uses; it’s all just fallen into place. It’s a peculiar form of mental illness, one with a very precise cause: an inability to properly formulate the boundary between “self” and “not self”; and the reason it is so widespread these days is because it’s a very Plutonian form of mental illness.
I can’t remember exactly where I came across this now, but a few months ago I found an old framework about “characteristic personality failures” of each of the classical planets, what we’d now call mental illnesses. Mars is anger; Saturn is depression; Jupiter is mania; and so on. The thought occurred to me to wonder about the modern planets, and this is when it hit me. Uranus and Neptune are interesting, but not relevant (an utter inability to grasp practical matters, which seems to fit the definition of delusional disorder for Uranus; and an ego dissolution matching the weird problems which occur when someone removes their self image); Pluto, the planet of division, on the other hand, is profoundly relevant. Pluto being Pluto, there are a few different ways it can link to mental illness. If the divide is within the psyche, then the result is schizophrenia (if within the subconscious level), multiple personalities (if at the conscious level), or the kinds of self-defeating insanity we see so often today, where people are locked in addictions and the like (if the division is between the conscious and subconscious minds).
The division could be outside the victim’s psyche, incorporating some other people into it and rejecting the validity of everyone and everything else. When this happens you have someone who has a fragile and unstable self-image (as things outside of them are internalized, so their self-image fluctuates based on how things beyond their control act), refuses to recognize other people’s boundaries (if those other people are incorporated into their image, it makes as much sense to recognize boundaries there was giving their legs boundaries), freaks out when the people they incorporate into their self-image behave independently (much as a healthy person would if their hands start acting independently), posses a weird inability to recognize other people might have their own thoughts (they are either outside the boundary drawn around the self, and thus irrelevant, or inside it and thus cannot act independently), etc. Any effort on the part of the others drawn into this dysfunctional self-image to escape needs to be resisted, leading to the destruction of self-reliance, because this would be as destructive to the self-image of these people as losing an arm, or the ability to see, would be to a normal person. This is also why so many people who have escaped have to deal with their former abuser putting an insane amount of effort into finding them again: the dysfunctional self-image means this is necessary for the abuser to feel whole again.
This is a classic description of a narcissist, at least in the modern understanding of it; and it’s worth noting that the idea of narcissism in this sense appears to have been first defined around 1910. Hopefully this means that this pattern of abuse will end up ceasing once Pluto fades out; or at the very least, will become much less common.
**
Chuaquin, Jill C, and all who Easter,
I hope everyone who celebrates it has a happy Easter.
**
Chuaquin,
As for education in Canada, it’s a bit of a mess: every province does things differently, and every province has to balance the odd sectarian issues between the languages; I’ve never really looked into how homeschooling works here. As for the mass media, it’s something I’ve noticed quite a bit as well: it’s as if a lot of people have lost track of the fact that they actually need to provide some reason for people to be interested in the propaganda. I’m not sure why, but it’s been quite interesting to watch.
Love the discussion, I’m just chiming in to add my vote to the “Conflict on Higher Planes” pile.
Another Beatles conspiracy: John Lennon was introduced to Yoko Ono so he could break up the Fluxus art movement.
I’d like to put my vote in for conflict on the inner planes. The existence of such is not surprising to me: a world of free choice and individual will is a world of conflict, there’s no escaping that fact, I think. But I’d like to hear more about it 🙂
Neptune # 193:
It seems every side has its own favorite martyrs .
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# 194:
Hillary Clinton tried to use the Feminist term “sorority” to fool every American woman to vote her, in spite of her race or class: it didn’t work…
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Mrdobner # 197:
I think UK leaders go on pretending their country’s an empire yet. We’ll see.
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JMG # 200:
I think Mr. Sierra has only his novels in Spanish. By the way, his novels mix usually technothriller, mythology, occultism and sometimes UFOs, in a way some people love, some other dislikes. I like his novels to some extent (I think sometimes is quite naïve in his stories)
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Mark # 203:
I didn’t know that fact about Queen Elizabeth II, in contrast with her son. It seems Charles III mother wanted to show certain State secularization, to some extent (in spite of her role as Head of the Anglicans). Intrresting. On the other hand, Spanish Kings have been always Catholics, but nowadays democratic not confessional State has made the last two kings very cautious to not mix their symbolic political role as Head of State with their own beliefs.
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Inna # 206:
A good joke. Comparing USSR gerontocracy with last USA Presidents is a temptation. We’ll see the next POTUS age…
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Cynthia # 208:
Prescience could be a good explanation to the early activation phenomena within the brain, but yes, it’s uneasy to be accept by materialism.
I wonder if dark matter works like ether did during a lot of time until scientists discovered outer space was void…
I haven’t anhedonia, so I also like several kinds of music.
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Four…# 211:
No argument here. Conspiracy theories aren’t evil in themselves, but some people who believe them too literally can be eventually dangerous.
Oops! John, I’ve just seen Javier Sierra has at least two novels translated to English: “The Lost Angel” and “The Secret Supper”.
JMG,
I would like to propose and vote for the 5th week topic of ;
” The Imperial Collapse you Ordered will be delivered ahead of schedule”.
My original vote was for Robert Graves. Please kindly accept the change to conflict on the higher planes.
And again, all votes (including changes) have passed through the third reconciliation of the last of the Meketrex supplicants and taken the form of a giant Sloar. Many topics knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Sloar that day, I can tell you!
Anon, thrown to the wolves? Not at all. Israel needs war. Ongoing hostilities with Iran, or with somebody, are the only thing right now keeping Israel from civil conflict, and not coincidentally also the only thing keeping Netanyahu from being imprisoned or worse. If Trump declares a victory and gets out, having caused considerable damage to Iranian industrial and military targets, his allies in Israel get most of what they wanted without the huge disadvantages of victory.
Mark, thanks for this. I hadn’t been keeping track of Charles’s activities along these lines. Given his Traditionalist interests, it wouldn’t surprise me utterly if somewhere back there he’d accepted initiation into a Sufi tradition, you know.
Inna, ha! That’s good. As for the US, I’ve suspected for some time now that Trump will turn out to be America’s Gorbachev.
Stephen, I’ll certainly consider that sometime soon, however the vote comes out. Petroleum is as usual the key to the whole fiasco.
Robert, thanks for this. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Beeman is right.
Patrick, thank you. This is why I haven’t been willing to discuss the matter in any detail up to now — it’s still an extremely volatile situation and could spin out in many directions.
Cliff, yes, in the late 1960s there were places — quite a number of them — where you could go on any clear night well after sunset and watch mysterious reddish lights moving across the sky. We now know that they were SR-71 spyplanes, which weren’t yet painted black, catching the sunlight on their bare metal bodies high up in the atmosphere. Keel didn’t know that at the time, though, and neither did anyone but the CIA, the Project Blue Book flacks who were part of the coverup, and some influential “skeptics” who shoveled smoke for it. Meanwhile, down here on the surface, weird phenomena have always been happening; for a while they were simply lumped together under the capacious heading of UFO phenomena.
Bryan, no, I actually watched a video clip online. Space launches were a thing I loved in childhood, and watched every one I could; I figured a blast from the past was called for.
Orange, I hadn’t heard about the Russian program, but it’s smart. They know, as the rest of us should, that as US global hegemony stumbles toward its end, we’re entering an age of wars that may be as gargantuan as the one that followed the twilight of the British empire. As for Iran, yeah, well, most Americans are impressively clueless about most other nations, but that one especially.
William, that’s interesting. I’d have assigned the inability to define the boundary between self and not-self to Neptune, but I’ll consider your analysis.
Justin, that’s a little like claiming that the point of the First World War was to overthrow the government of Luxembourg…
Chuaquin, thanks for this. I’ll see if the library system here has either of those.
Clay, good heavens, no. We’re very much in the scheduled delivery window.
Balzac was an optimist. It’s usually a whole lot of crimes.
In Balzac’s time you could get by on one crime. Nowadays you gotta dip your beak into a lot of crimes. DIVERSIFY! (jk)
Hi John Michael,
It’s a fun quote isn’t it? And you brought that one to my attention a long time ago. The original lines have just enough strangeness so as to appear alien, and Rick Moranis nailed the odd combination of intensity and sincerity. I’m very much enjoying this weeks display of the absurd workings of tentacled horrors reaching out from the primordial ooze of the dark places in forgotten corners of the planet. 🙂
Someone above mentioned a 40 nation coalition. Um, err, my understanding of that potent force of display was that it was some sort of virtual get together of diplomats, and they agreed to issue a warning which surely sent shock waves of fear radiating out in the Middle East. Yes, hobnailed boots up, silk slippers back down again. At least the idiots had the common sense not to fly all over the planet for a 30 minute get together to proclaim nothing much at all.
I believe that your President has cut the Gordian knot with this escapade, although it will leave a shambles of a wreck. I hold some strong doubts that the western economies will ever be the same again. At the very least, redirecting resources and energy into military equipment and preparedness is going to be felt by populations used to living large. Dunno. I’d be interested to read of your thoughts in relation to the above, and will vote for that, but my track record has never been good with this fifth Wednesday business (or Thursday for those whom are living in the future – if you know, you know! 😉 ).
Cheers
Chris
Hi Chuaqin,
Yes, don’t muck around with such eldritch forces!
Cheers
Chris
I wasn’t going to vote, but as long as I created an account… I’ll have to go for the war with Iran. I’m betting the “conflict on the higher planes” is going to win, but maybe if the war gets enough votes, you’ll write about both of them. 🙂
I would like to vote for Conflict in the Higher Planes.
Fluxus was just that dangerous to the established order ; )
I was too young for this one but according to the theory, Paul McCartney died in a car crash, and, to spare the public from grief, the surviving Beatles, aided by Britain’s MI5, replaced him with a McCartney look-alike, subsequently communicating this secret through subtle details of their albums. Proponents perceived clues among elements of Beatles songs and cover artwork; clue-hunting proved infectious, and by October 1969 had become an international phenomenon. Rumours declined after Life published an interview with McCartney in November 1969.
This is quite a bizarre conspiracy theory as Paul didn’t have the kind of enemies that Netanyahu has or the ability to fake videos with AI back then. I suppose it relates to the power of the Beatles over the collective psyche of the time. Re “Bibi’s” death, I don’t think the public would grieve too much over Netanyahu – he is hated around the world and even the Israelis dislike him and there were many protests against him before he started all the wars to distract them. Anyway Israeli society is becoming very demoralised (good) so announcing his death is probably something they don’t want to do at this stage. I remain unconvinced he’s alive pending hard evidence to the contrary.
Chuaquin (#229): Ether, yes that sounds like a pretty apt comparison to me.
For fifth Wednesday I vote for the conflict on the inner planes.
Would like a distraction from the crap going on in the Middle East, so count me in for some discussion on the wars and battles in the higher planes instead. People who want to talk about Iran and Israel etc already get the open post the week before.
“If Trump declares a victory and gets out, having caused considerable damage to Iranian industrial and military targets, his allies in Israel get most of what they wanted without the huge disadvantages of victory.”
And the United States isn’t around to enforce Camp David anymore, so the Egyptians and Jordanians might intervene in Israel on behalf of the Palestinians.
I ‘m also casting my vote for the conflicts in the higher planes .
– Spork –
For fifth Wednesday, put my vote for the Iran war.
Delighted to see more books and less screentime in schools. I recall an article several months ago about increased use of Blue Books (to handwrite essays for testing) that was pushed mostly by the college students (and some teachers). Have also seen some local high schools add constructive skills, like electronics, plumbing and carpentry – if I recall properly, it was at least largely in response to demand from students/families seeking alternatives to excess college costs..
What an interesting age drones have spawned – they are perhaps a third type of weapons system. You can divide weapons systems up into those that can only be deployed by great powers, like knights, jet aircraft and tanks, and those that ordinary powers can deploy, like crossbows, rifles and IEDs. Drones are a unique third type in the sense that they are as simple to use as rifles and IEDs, but dramatically more deadly, but require a complicated industrial supply chain behind them, unlike a rifle or IED.
The failure of the American military-kleptocracy complex to respond to the modern battlefield after four years of the special military operation in Ukraine is truly incredible – Iran’s ballistic missile campaign could not have succeeded without saturation attacks by low speed one-way drones like the Shahed.
@Scotlyn (##223-224):
Thank you for this. One of my favorite quotes comes from Bertha Simos*: “It is our limitations that keep us sane.”
[*She is the mother of the Neopagan writer Starhawk, who quotes her in her first book.]
@Orange Oblivious Gerbil #222 and JMG,
“The Russian government has already announced it is bringing back mandatory paramilitary training for all schoolchildren, essentially reviving the old Soviet DOSAAF system.”
This program is very much in full swing right now (together with hysterical, militant, over-the-top patriotism). It can be seen in a recent documentary, Mr Nobody Against Putin, that won multiple awards. Here is a short write-up about this movie:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Nobody_Against_Putin
As for the old DOSAAF and analogous programs… as a graduate, I must say they were pretty solid ones. 😉 Being out of practice for decades, I probably can’t assemble and disassemble a Kalashnikov in under 60 seconds, but skills learned in college (all girls were trained as civil defence nurses) are still with me: I can still bandage a wound and immobilize a broken limb… useful stuff… 😊 I got to practice on my children.
John, you’ve got a point there. Our kleptocrats, on both sides of the aisle, are nothing if not diversified.
Chris, it’s a brilliant line of patter, and does a great job of suggesting the existence of a very busy cosmos of which human beings know exactly nothing. As for the current escapade, I’m starting to field angry trolling from both sides at this point, which is entertaining, and also suggests that nobody’s sure where it’s all headed — when people start demanding that minor bloggers like me make predictions about something like this, it’s usually because they can’t stand their own uncertainties.
Justin, that’s the most bleaky funny claim I’ve heard so far this year.
Bridge, good heavens, yes. When I was in high school it was a running joke to insist that Billy Shears was the name of the McCartney double. Then there was the guy I knew in the early 1980s who insisted that John Lennon was the only one who was actually still alive — the claim was that he’d faked his own death to avoid the dire fate that, for I forget what reason, had already claimed the other three and forced MI5 to come up with doubles. (Oh, that’s right — the story was that Pete Best’s mother, who was born in India, hired a Tantric sorcerer to put a death curse on the Beatles after her son got sacked.) Fun stuff, if silly.
Peter, Egypt won’t. One Israeli missile in the Aswan High Dam, all that water goes sweeping straight down the Nile, and Egypt ceases to exist. That’s why they’ve been so quiet about Israel for the last few decades.
Justin, it’s been far too long since the US has had to worry about defeat — not just not getting what the US government wants, being beaten and having to accept whatever terms the enemy dictates. Military bureaucrats get really clueless without that sort of timely reminder of consequences.
I’m going to cast my vote for conflict on the inner planes.
I don’t think anyone would dispute that this war in Iran will leave the US weaker in many ways. Stockpiles of some munitions, for example, have been drawn down, and may take some time to rebuild. So, that means that China has a little more breathing room, if they have ambitions to take Taiwan. If we were getting stronger, it might force their hand, but since we’re getting weaker (as per the original post this week, as well as munitions), their opportunities improve by waiting. And if the US learns that war is hard and expensive, in Iran, we might think twice about threatening China over Taiwan.
I should say, though, that a case can be made that China already has everything it wants from Taiwan, and the potential for political conflict is just for show.
Alright, for my vote I’d like to vote for conflict in the higher planes, since of the two or three topics that interest me that seems to have the best chance of winning.
> Slithy, I guess I’m just weird. I spent my whole childhood longing to get out of the wretched mess of a family I grew up with, and go have a life more to my liking — and I proceeded to do that.
I honestly have no good sense of which scenario is more common. I do know that for Millennials, many of us were coddled and overprotected, fed a steady diet of adventure and romance but never allowed to actually do anything about it unless our parents could be there to keep us safe. And then at their urging we went to college, joined the PMC, and got jobs requiring stifling conformity to PMC culture.
But probably that’s just a vocal minority of us, overall; a symptom of growing up on the bottom end of the salary class.
Hi JMG,
Off-topic.
Over a few days, I have been watching a 4-part TV documentary called “London: 2,000 Years of History,” dated 2018. London, England. I viewed it on “BBC Select,” a big river AZM subscription. Its ending stated London will have a wondrous future.
I feel the opposite: I feel a dirge. A death march. And profoundly sad. Right now, the metropolitan area of London is declining in the Long Descent. London takes up such a humongous area, bigger in size than most cities the world over, that the area will be hit harder than most. Decay from within. Life after People, like the TV show of that name. Over the next fifty years, things won’t go well there. Not a good place to find oneself trapped.
My opinion: Flee London while one still can.
💨🏚️📉⚰️😵💨Northwind Grandma
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
I will vote for “esoteric Buddhism and Western occultism.”
💨☸️🧙🏼♀️💨Northwind Grandma
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
Heard ‘See Me, Feel Me’ in the supermarket aisle in the late morning today. Walking out after purchasing random snacks and essential food items, I saw a young blind boy and I guess his dad, although he looked nothing like him. The dad figure was elated to be the boys guide up the block. Having just heard the song that I did, the synchronicity of the moment made my hair stand up in a closer to God type of moment. I had to laugh as I floated past the boy and the old Episcopalian church where we crossed paths.
I have a heavily underlined and flagged copy of The Illuminatus! Trilogy but there was one passage I was struck by when I first read it, but have struggled to find it in recent years. In another bit of synchronicity, when I pulled it from the shelf today, the first page I opened to had the very passage I loved and remembered fondly.
In the Himalayas, Gruad and the Unbroken Circle watch the destruction of the Pentagon and the massacre of the Atlanteans. The Unbroken Circle cheers, but Gruad strangely weeps. “You think I hate walls?” he says. “I love walls, I love any kind of wall. Anything that separates. Walls protect good people. Walls lock away the evil. There must always be walls and the love of walls, and in the destruction of the great Pentagon that held Yog Sothoth I read the destruction of all I stand for. Therefore I am stricken with regret.”
I really loved that book. Thanks for this week’s post, JMG. It was much needed. My vote for the fifth Wednesday is for conflict with the higher planes.
Robert M # 213:
An interesting opinion, but I’d like to add about Iran regime and people that, according my “dilettante” view, under their thick layer of religious “paint”, Iranians have a strong nationalist feeling. Persia has a long history as an empire, and please notice that Persians didn’t loose their own language after Islamization. So we should be careful before insulting their culture…
Turkish people is another case of Muslim people who saved their own language instead of speaking Arab, and “casually”, they come from another old empire, and also have a strong nationalism. On the other hand, Moroccans usually speak an Arabic dialect (though some Moroccan peasants speak Berberian language yet).
Language and nationalism (or lack of it) are related, methink.
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Patrick H.:
Yes, although Iran war isn’t exactly the same case than the Ukraine war, there could be paralelisms between these wars. For example, a big military power against a middle size country try to win fast a blitzkrieg, but it fails; then, war changes in an attrition war. Big power has aerial supremacy since minute one of the war, but it can’t defeat easily its enemy. Drones are used in a massive way. And finally, big powers which are enemies against the invader power help the middle sized country (proxy war). We’ll see.
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Mark # 217:
Yes but no. I’ve read again “Last Twilight Gleaming” after the ME mess began, and I found similar aspects and different ones between the novel and current reality. I think USA wants to show how almighty is being now, maybe because its government think the Eurasian axis has grasped the West is no longer strong as it was 20 years ago (so it’s a similar idea). (Spoiler soon…). However, the novel depiction of the sucessful attack against an USA carrier and a Dien Bien Phu style US Army defeat is counter-factual to the current events. USA carriers are far from Iran shores due to their fear to anti-ship missiles, so…
And it’s soon to predict wether it’ll be a ground Iran invasion or not.
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Cliff # 219:
Thanks for reminding not everybody in the right side politics are supporting ME war. I’ve checked during last days online opinions within different ideologies here. I can tell you most of Spanish left is anti-western axis (in spite how much they evidently despise Iran theocracy) and Conservatives, and Far Right tend to be (what a surprise!) in favor of US&Israel. However, Neonazis and another Right fringe groups (like Traditionalists, methink) seem to have made criticisms against Trump, to some extent. In addition to this, these right wing groups have some fondness for Putin, too (in contrast with Conservatives and Far Right usual hatred against Russia). Interesting.
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(To be continued)
Orange # 222:
Well, it seems the Russians want to be equal and eventually to overpass Ukraine (NATO) drones tech and use, after having begun their war against Ukraine in worse conditions than their enemies in drone war (methink). It’s an arrogant and stupid attitude NATO belief about the military-industrial Russian complex lack of skills to change and improve hi tech weapons…
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Your information about Iran seems right to me. Last Shah attempted to modernize Persia, but avoiding a real change into democracy due to his fear against Communism. However, his modernization attempts weren’t as successful as Iran Monarchists want to believe. Nothing is like it seems.
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William # 225:
You’re welcome!
*******
No argument here. Education is always a hot topic due to different governments ideologies in every country, to indoctrinate children and teens (cough). In my country when govt changes after elections, different ideologies cabinets approve different Education Laws.
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Justin P.# 227:
There’s no shortage of conspiracies about the Beatles, and yes, their fans usually have hated Yoko Ono…
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JMG # 233:
You’re welcome, John. I’m not sure Mr. Sierra books could be in your library, but it isn’t impossible. This novelist is slightly older than me, and he’s got a long writer career.
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Bridge # 239:
I knew the supposed conspiracy about supposed Paul death, one more of the stories about Beatles.
It’s usual near every week, I receive in my Whassap groups (sorry, I sometimes use them) a fake AI picture/video depicting Paul death or accident (ahem).
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Cynthia # 240:
No argument here…
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Peter # 243:
I don’t know exactly what will happen. ME situation now is volatile. I think Trump has 3 options. First, a withdrawal after pretending a great victory. Second, to begin a full invasion to destroy Iran regime. And third, a limited amphibious invasion into Kharg Island and eventual Iran Coasts in the Gulf (showing his Spectacle as Iran defeat too). Good luck in choosing one of the 3 options, Donald!
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Justin # 246:
Well, I recognize Iranians have played quite well their limited options to fight western axis evident aerial supremacy: their drones and missiles have damaged USA bases and its allies structures more than our servile and censored MSM want to show us, methink. In addition to this, an huge amount of weapons and armored vehicles have been sent by NATO toward Ukraine war, so do the math.
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JMG # 248:
I agree. Egypt today’s a paper tiger against Israel. However I also want to see Egypt regime current cautious attitude in ME wars is also due to its fear to loose Suez money, if/when Houthies begin to close ships access into the Red Sea (which would mean bad news to Egyptians too).
In addition to my last comment about Trump likely options to choose for “ending” ME mess, I’ve thought he’s under a “trilemma”, 3 hard options. I guess it depends of his serfdom level to his “friend” Netanyahu agenda, what he would decide in near future.
Option 1 (to declare “victory” and then to order US forces to retreat home) seems IMHO the smartest and most rational option. It’s John favorite option, methink. I agree. However, this decision will prevail only if Trump isn’t a Zionist puppet. I don’t know wether he’s partly in line with Israeli lobby agenda, or fully subjected to it, because I’m not in his brain.
Option 2 (a limited invasion against Iran to reopen Hormuz) could be a compromise decision to please a bit more Tel Aviv mafia…err…government, and EU midgets alike. Of course, USA corpses bodycount would be higher than in Option 1.
Eventually, Option 3 (full invasion toward Tehran) would be chosen by Trump only he’s a complete puppet under Israeli blackmail (?), which it could be real or not. Tehran regime hypothetical destruction can please more Tel Aviv, but Trump would have too problems due to a possible human cost to US Army. I think it’s quite arrogant to claim we know what’s thinking now Donald because there are two many causes behind his final decision in our near future, in addition to his real serfdom level to Zionism.
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More about “conspiracies family” on the Beatles:
Some years ago, when Marylin Manson was in his peak as singer (he’s lived better times nowadays), this bizarre and controverted rock frontman said John Lennon was killed because he was a Commie. Well, the old theory about Lennon murdered by the CIA. Of course, Manson idea was partly wrong, because I think Lennon wasn’t a hard line Marxist. He was IMHO a mild leftist, beyond his performances against Vietnam War (with Yoko Ono) and “Imagine” song, he never seemed to go beyond that attitude. However, it isn’t impossible he wasn’t loved by American Right Wing due to his center left ideology, methink.
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Someone (maybe JMG) has written previously he never liked textbooks during his school times, due to their mistakes and raw biased, methink.
Well, if it works as a relief to you, I can tell you I read some years ago a book about how bad and ideologized were textbooks during Franco dictatorship in Spain. I looked the low level and openly propaganda which had my parents education. For example, in addition to rough Antisemitism and Anticommunism, due to the Conservative Catholic regime bias, Evolution Theory was ignored or bluntly despised (cough).
Well, things were improved since democracy began here, but…oh wait. When I remember my days as an student, I can say propaganda and wrong facts didn’t evaporated at 100%. Indeed, when during my adult I’ve read serious sciences/arts books by myself, I’ve checked some mistakes and biases in my student time textbooks (ahem).
In addition to this embarrassing discoveries, I remember a story from my primary school times. I was 12, I was studying Social Sciences, our teacher was a priest too (I studied in a Catholic school). I think he was a good teacher, who taught Universal History (well, Europe History, ahem) and Spain History. One day, we’re reading in our textbook the most recent History of Spain (last dictatorship times and our young democracy), but we never studied our History after 1982. Our teacher told us (a bit upset) the textbook was propaganda about current government (we were in the ‘80s then) and we weren’t compelled to study that rubbish. He was partly right (though he had his own bias against the Socialists govt methink).
Nowadays, my older nephew must study a book named “Civic virtues”, which I think it’s useful to learn how to be a citizen in a democracy…but I think democratic values aren’t the same for left and right sides here. So do the math (maybe ideological biases aren’t dead yet)
Hi John Michael,
The Earth is a small planet in a big galaxy, just one of countless many. We know way less than we think we do.
We’re living in the days of the gentle art of uncertainty and confusion. 🙂 I always appreciate your perspective though because you lean towards the moderate centre point, whatever that may be. We’re a very adaptable species, and not all that long ago got by just fine with only a tiny fraction of the energy expended these days. And the beer was probably better. There’s so much useless activity going on, that there is plenty of fat to trim, for now. What’s your take on that?
And dare I say it, maybe way back then, Slors were real Slors! 😉
Cheers
Chris
Trump declaring victory and abandoning the Middle East is unlikely because then we’re back to MAGA congresspeople like Thomas Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Nancy Mace releasing more Epstein Files that show Trump to be a pedophile and possibly compromised by Israel. Trump’s in a very similar position to Netanyahu, he needs this war against Iran to distract everybody from the Epstein files and boy has Trump been very successful if that was his goal; everybody is now thinking and talking about the Middle East instead of the Epstein files.
Also a vote for the conflict in the higher planes, I wonder what John Michael Greer has to say about conflict on the causal and divine planes.
“Thanks for reminding not everybody in the right side politics are supporting ME war. I’ve checked during last days online opinions within different ideologies here. I can tell you most of Spanish left is anti-western axis (in spite how much they evidently despise Iran theocracy) and Conservatives, and Far Right tend to be (what a surprise!) in favor of US&Israel. However, Neonazis and another Right fringe groups (like Traditionalists, methink) seem to have made criticisms against Trump, to some extent. In addition to this, these right wing groups have some fondness for Putin, too (in contrast with Conservatives and Far Right usual hatred against Russia). Interesting.”
Many of the British right wing has turned against Trump and his war in the past few weeks.
“However, the novel depiction of the sucessful attack against an USA carrier and a Dien Bien Phu style US Army defeat is counter-factual to the current events. USA carriers are far from Iran shores due to their fear to anti-ship missiles, so…”
Right, i.e. America will avoid the fate if and only if Trump decides to abandon the Middle East. But Trump is planning on redirecting 1.5 trillion dollars of funding from the rest of the government to fund the war in the Middle East and firing anti-war voices like Tulsi Gabbard from his administration. Not something that an administration interested in leaving the Middle East would do.
JMG:
Chris, it’s a brilliant line of patter, and does a great job of suggesting the existence of a very busy cosmos of which human beings know exactly nothing. As for the current escapade, I’m starting to field angry trolling from both sides at this point, which is entertaining, and also suggests that nobody’s sure where it’s all headed — when people start demanding that minor bloggers like me make predictions about something like this, it’s usually because they can’t stand their own uncertainties.
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Oh gosh, it is the paradigm shift, isn’t it? Where everyone is trying find a safe place to be either manning the barricades or shoring up the crumbling structures. I view the current trend to redistricting which is occurring nationwide btw is this in granular form. The human forces are struggling to either push the shift forward or buy a few years time.
Meanwhile, the Cosmos goes on. My husband and I have been studying the Apocalypse as in the book of Revelations. It seems that in the High Middle Ages, Joachim of Fiore decided that the book was a pattern of history, where one could trace when the Antichrist would appear. It set off the popular idea of the coming Final Days, and who could identify the Beast and the Antichrist. During Joachim’s time, it was the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor. I believe that at that time, change was afoot with the temporal rules such as the Emperor and other kings surging in power as the Pope fought to keep his. Then came the Great Schism, with two Popes…..
Anyway, uncertainty is the name of the game. I guess we learn to surf the endless seas of eternity as best we can.
Hi JMG
Many thanks for an article full of sense of humor in a time so full of disasters.
Some times I think I’m living in a poorly made simulation with some “glitches in the Matrix” that are difficult to explain rationally.
Take for example the existing political elite in Europe and compare it with the german or in general western european politicians in the 70’s or 80’s of the past century.
In those “old” days, the Warsaw Pact (mainly the Red Army) had around 40.000 armored vehicles near the west german and austrian border in the center of Europe, they have also around 45.000 nuclear warheads, and everybody agree those days that a resolute soviet attack could arrive to Gibraltar in few months, and also the communist ideology had many defendants in the West and was considering a not insignificant ideological risks. Even in this period, the german politicians, after the two big oil shocks in 1973 and 1979 that bring stagflation to the european economy, arrange accords with the soviet arch-enemy to build gigantic piplelines to supply western Europe with massive amounts of cheap gas and oil, that made the german, and other countries around them, an industrial powerhouse in the world (automotive, chemicals, machinery, etc….) sustaining a prosperity that last until recently.
Compare those western Europe pragmatic leaders of the 70’s and 80’s with the existing european elitist and quixotic politicians, that are destroying to the bottom all the european industry in their crusade against the “evil russians”, sowing fear in the population about the russian threat that “can conquer all of Europe” even everybody and his mother knows that the russian army is still bogged-down in some kilometers from where the SMO started and that they don’t and can’t conquer “Europe”.
These european politicians have signed a “law” in past January, forbidden to buy gas or oil to Russia in the UE, and even after the US + Israeli attack on Iran and after the closure of Hormuz; the french, swedes and british navies have assaulted russian “ghost-ships” tankers, to prevent Russia from benefitting the higher gas and oil prices; and in the height of lunacy, it seems that Poland and the Baltic countries are letting the ukrainian drones to fly in their air space to destroy refineries and oil infrastructures in the North of Russia in the midst of an oil shock that could be bigger than those of 1973 and 1979.
Of course your country is not free from this crazy elite, as the lunatic attack on Iran and all the talks about “boots on the ground” shows, but at least they remove sanctions even on Iranian oil and try to calm the markets (of course they can’t for too long) and not to hurt the american and consumers too much.
The current elite must be sweep away and a new kind of politicians need to win the elections (they call them “populists”); if not, I see torches and lampposts in a not too distant future.
Cheers
David
First of all, I’m sorry. During my previous comments about Trump “trilemma” to end Iran war, I changed the 3 options order, but I think this mistake doesn’t invalidate my thoughts about it.
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Lathechuck # 251:
Yes…The more weapons, radars and vehicles “thrown” toward Ukraine and Iran wars by US&NATO, the less weapons, radars and vehicles will be send to Asia, if/eventually China elite orders its Army to attack Taiwan, or North Korea leader decides to invade South Korea. War machine can be supplied by a strong industry, but expensive and complex war toys won’t be made in a hurry.
OK, maybe this wars won’t happen tomorrow, but they aren’t impossible in a near future.
On the other hand, China and/or North Korea can be smarter than we think, so they would manage to avoid a direct war against the West, and try alternative ways to open war (political and military threats, or economic war).
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Northwind G. # 253:
I agree. Not only London, but another megacities like Paris or Mexico City are doomed in the long term. London itself will have problems not only due to the Long Descent, but also because it’s built a few meters over the sea level. So, before the Climate Change makes sea level goes up to engulf directly London, first increases in sea level will flood London
sewage system, so it won’t work anymore. So do the math (a big city with every toilet out of service…).
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Jeff # 255:
I’ve read online a heck of opinions and references about a legend named “Illuminatus!”, I’m glad you can enjoy it. I guess there isn’t any Spanish translation, if I’m not wrong…
Oops! In my last comment I wrote “sewage” instead of “sewers” in reference to possible London future problems. Well, there are related words to write about a future “s**t storm” in that city…Sometimes my use of English language isn’t very accurate.
@Chris #259 Don’t know about the beer. My son makes spectacular silver and gold medal winning beers in a variety of styles. There is a plethora of small breweries in my area run by beer fanatics using all their wits to make the next ambrosia. Our city has zoned an area for just that purpose. Modern times is not without its merits.
As regards the restoration of real books into college education… (and another data point in support of the notion that people are yearning for something older and more dependable than currently on offer).
https://substack.com/@jeremywaynetate/note/c-237142355
Chuaquin # 229:
They can be annoying too, and I am still in the process of figuring out how to deal with that in personal interactions. Just about a week ago I was at the market buying spices at my regular stand, and was drinking coffee with the vendor. A woman came over, and started a discussion about “agenda 2030”, and aggressively asked us if we “took the shot” (I did not, but her energy was judgemental and hateful, which I did not care for).
Some people seem to look for an audience for a melodrama where they get to star as the victim and the belief in the literal existence of the “powers that be” function just an excuse not to take responsibility for their life, since the “cabal” is all powerful anyways.
So far the only thing I came up with is pretend like I have no knowledge and play the part of the “normy” until they get bored and go look for a more receptive audience, but I am in the process of figuring out what do I do that attracts them into my life in the first place and making the necessary changes.
Enjoyable satire JMG. Though I would take some issue with the idea that both US political parties are the same. True there is (too much) overlap, but as current events prove, there are also real differences.
I would nominate the rise of China for the fifth Wednesday post.
In the event that no ban hammer has yet been placed on this subject, I have come on a very interesting article written in a mainstream Irish paper in 2017, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, which sets some of the events occurring in the British Mandate of Palestine in the context of the British empire’s general view of its more “backward” subjects, including the Irish. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/winston-churchill-sent-the-black-and-tans-to-palestine-1.3089140
From the article”:
“The Balfour Declaration’s purpose was to form a “little loyal Jewish Ulster in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism”, according to Ronald Storrs, “the first military governor of Palestine since Pontius Pilate” (his words). Not everything went to plan: the Zionist movement fell out with and, in the case of two groups, waged a campaign of guerilla warfare against Britain in the 1940s. Storrs’ comment nonetheless encapsulates how the British elite viewed their nearest colony and the Middle East through the same lens.”
This article may help to make sense of the fairly unshakeable and close to the bone sympathy that ordinary Irish people feel for Palestinians.
Although quite a few of the ordinary Americans that I personally know are Zionist in orientation (mostly Christian zionist, I should add), I have not personally met ANY Irish people who are not extremely worried by the ongoing “ratchett” policy of slow and steady removal and replacement (sometimes with menaces and extreme prejudice) to which all Palestinians have been subject for the past 80 years, and extremely frustrated by their powerlessness to do anything about it.
Irish leaders, including Taoiseach Micheal Martin, who recently visited US President Trump on St Patrick’s Day, walk a very fine line between government shows of support for American/EU policies based affirming alliance with Israel, and giving some rein to popular expressions of support for the Palestinian people who are being slowly erased by the same British settler colonial mentality which Ireland fought to gain its independence.
DFC#265
In the next video you’ll see a sample about that politic is plotted for the capitalist top brass
https://youtu.be/HjFks-Whwd4?si=H5Al1vGGHuEiA2AO
JMG
Please add my vote for conflict on the inner planes.
Thanks
Mike
John # 260:
Yes and no. IMHO, I think Epstein thing can be one of the Zionist lobby cards to push Trump to keep attacking Iran, but not the only one. It seems to me a reductionist and moralistic view to reduce current situation in ME to that sexual scandals story. I don’t know really how many ways has Israeli lobby to blackmail the POTUS, but I’ll point one more: maybe Netanyahu threatened Trump he would launch nukes against Iran if Israel wasn’t helped by USA. Of course, Trump doesn’t want to play with fire in such a risky way. Oh, and Trump agenda can be partly the same as Tel Aviv agenda. The two governments wanted to attack Iran, though by different motives: Israel to destroy its old enemy, Trumpians to weaken or eventually to destroy BRICS organization (so going against China and Russia). Geopolitics is bigger than local scandals, methink.
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Richard # 262:
Thanks for your information, I didn’t know that change within many British Right wing people.
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Mark # 263:
Well, I think that Trump idea is a motive of concern to everybody who would like a fast USA withdrawal from ME, but I guess it could be a threat more than a hard fact, at least until he eventually shows he wants that measure be approved. I can’t find an English word now which means what I’m thinking with a Spanish word: “Farol”(it depicts in a cards game, when someone pretends he/she is going to do a thing but he/she wants to do really another one to win). Trump is a master in tricks like that one, methink.
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Neptune…# 264:
Good comment!
There are some people (like me) who think we’re in every historic times only a few steps before the Apocalipsis, but a few people (usually anonymous heroes) save the world near every day, at least in a metaphorical or symbolic way.
You’ve remembered Joachim de Fiore ideas as an apocalyptical medieval monk. I think he was a very interesting man, not only because he had an ethymological similar name like myself, or due to his predictions. His Christian philosophy about several ages in History toward a marvelous future seems to have influenced in Hegel (maybe dialectics idea in History) and maybe in Marx (ironically, a champion for “scientific” materialism). I point this idea as a “dilettante” in Philosophy.
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(To be continued)
DFC # 265:
I agree. There’s been a growing degradation in European leadership since old Cold War times, when politicians, especially some (West) Germans, talked about a “Realpolitik”. I think there can be several causes, but I can point one of them: EU elites seem to have lost every contact, not only with average people from streets, but with the last remnants of political pragmatism. Maybe this elite Narcissism has grown too much (after USSR collapse?) that they’re unable to grasp everything which is opposite in the real world to their megalomaniac fantasies.
Their Narrative is contradictory, like in the Russian threat tale: Putin could be running his tanks in Poland tomorrow (according usual EU/NATO propaganda), but the following thing they point in a rejoicing way, is that Russian Army isn’t winning to the brave and “democratic” Ukrainians, so it soon will be defeated (ahem).
Today I’ve had a talk with and old friend who’s in low level politics since a long time ago. When I’ve told her my idea about how spanish politicians human quality have been worsening since years ago (I said this in a mild and shy way), she has answered me she agreed. And indeed she thought her own party leader was a greedy and megalomaniac moron (well, she said it in a polite but clear way, methink). Unluckily, she works in a town hall so she hasn’t got much power alone to change toward better leaders.
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Four Side…# 270:
It seems a lot of people “buy” a full ideological/religious pack which is correlative. A silly example (If you’re reading this, Wer, I hope not to upset you): “Polish, Nationalistic, Russophobe, Catholic, Conservative”. OK, it’s like an stereotype, not everybody in Poland has this “ideological pack”, but every Polish guy I’ve met here was “made” in that way of ideas and beliefs.
I mean, the person with began to talk to you about “Agenda 2030” and the “COVID vax” is evidently influenced by two (Counter) Narratives very specifical. I think she identified those topics as woke topics, and as usual conspiracies nutties zealots think, it was time to counter-attack (I guess her ideology more or less). Authoritarism and fanaticism from “bad” conspiracies believers seem simmetrical to the wokesters same attitudes (but they support official Narratives).
I also think that woman maybe wanted to provoke you as subterfuge to begin a tantrum, or who knows? Maybe she wanted to indoctrinate you in “the true religion”…
Agenda 2030: My personal opinion is that, in spite of some conspiracies about it, its only one reality is it won’t be accomplished by any government. We’re nearer every day to 2030, and its goals are failing (well this Agenda is a wishful thinking IMHO). Maybe in 2030 we’ll see a new Agenda 2040 or 2050, who knows…
If it’s not too late to cast a vote, mine would be for a post on conflict in the higher planes. (I’ve not voted for anything else yet).
While I would like to know your thoughts on Iran, I agree the situation is currently changing too fast.
(Slightly off topic)
In addition to my comment about one of the elephants in the room of London in its future (sea rising level due to Climate Change meets that City sewers), I can write that, according a fast online search London height over current sea level varies between 4 meters (lowest areas) and 36 m.(highest areas). So some Londoners would be safer than others in the future. However, this height variation doesn’t change much my idea about a possible “s**t storm” in the future.
London first modern sewer was built more or less in the middle of XIXth Century, to avoid keep London people pee and poo ended polluting the Thames, so to throw sewage toward the sea.
I guess modern sewer system in London was built to throw sewage toward the sea, after a necessary depuration process in plant(s).
This means London pee and poo travel a lot of kms to reach sea, within a very complex pipes and galeries network under streets. Well, if/when sea level begins raising due to this or that ice zone melting (Greenland?), sea level would go up maybe 1-2 meters (first pulse). I don’t know exactly sea rising models, but I bet you the lowest London areas will be the first ones in having sewer problems (their sewer system is below 4 m, so…). This won’t happen tomorrow, but now let’s think how to fix this problem in a context of Long Descent.
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Today I was in lunch time with my sister (local time), and she’s started to ask me what I thought Iran war. I’ve told her I think Trump isn’t stupid, so he could be eager to declare Victory and retreat USA home soon if he could do it easily. However, he could have been blackmailed by Israeli lobby to go on with war.”Are you talking about Epstein scandal?”-she has asked me. I answered her “Not only that thing”. Like I’ve written before, Zionists maybe threatened him with a possible nuke attack against Iran, between another hypothesis. She’s looked at me blank, and she has accused me for being a “conspiracy theorist”. WTF?
I’ve tried to explain her it’s a hard fact the Israeli lobby is the strongest within USA lobbies which fund politicians, so do the math. I’ve told her I had these ideas as hypothesis, not as strong “scientifical” evidences. However, war events have shown main USA elites main concerning is protecting Israel instead Arab allies from Iran counter-attacks, so…
She wasn’t very convinced by my reasonings, so we’ve stopped arguing then. It’s a pity too many people tend to overvalue real POTUS power under lobbies power, they seem to think he’s always an almighty god (or devil). Trump isn’t a tyrant who gets everybody he wants, maybe he’s a prisoner by his own decisions (and Israeli “suggestions”). Geopolitics and USA politics are more complex than they want to think.
Hmmm, I see that some people are voting for “conflict on the higher planes,” and some people are voting for “conflict on the inner planes.” Hopefully this will divide the vote, thus permitting “the archetypal significance of broccoli” or something to rise to victory. Hail Eris!
But seriously, I vote for “esoteric Buddhism and Western occultism..” Maybe the idea will stick in people’s heads for next time.
If people vote for conflict on the higher (or inner) planes–without parentheses–is this equivalent to praying that this conflict will actually occur? I see that Phil (no. 199) voted for the war in Iran!
JMG: ” If anyone would like to change their vote,you may, but please tell me what you originally voted for so I can delete your former vote.”
Oh! Er, in that case, I definitely voted before, so please deduct one vote from whichever one is most ahead, I’m sure it was that one!
@Scottlyn 272: That is really interesting. I recently got a copy of a book about the origins of pre-millenial dispensationalism. It’s called, “Discovering the End of Time: Irish Evangelicals in the Age of Daniel O’Connell” by Donald Akenson. The key figure in what has become the rallying point for Christian Evangelicals here in the USA in support of Zionism was one John Nelson Darby. This book offers more than I really care to know about southern Ireland in Darby’s time, but it’s the background for the current Evangelical enthusiasm (a word I chose with care) for the last days, Armegeddon and “The Rapture.” I read, here and there, that there’s a not insignificant number of officers in the US military who share this enthusiasm. I believe that Ronald Reagan did also. This can be downright scary, or at least a little sobering. I can’t believe “these people” want a quick end to the conflict, which appears to be escalating further.
At this page is the full list of all of the non-faith-specific requests for prayer that have recently appeared at ecosophia.net and ecosophia.dreamwidth.org, as well as in the comments of the prayer list posts (printable version here, current to 3/13). Please feel free to add any or all of the requests to your own prayers.
If I missed anybody, or if you would like to add a prayer request for yourself or anyone who has given you consent (or for whom a relevant person holds power of consent) to the list, please feel free to leave a comment below.
* * *
This week I would like to bring special attention to the following prayer requests, selected from the fuller list.
May a safe and happy home environment be enjoyed by Laurelmirror, her daughter, and her mother, as well as protection from evil influences. May their family situation be resolved in such a way that Laurelmirror’s mother will get a chance to recover physically and mentally from the stresses it has caused; may mother be blessed and invigorated.
May Bob W of Lake County, Ohio’s treatment for cancer go well so that he may heal and recover as quickly as possible.
May Open Space be filled with the strength he needs to heal quickly from his current bout of Chicken Pox; may his will remain strong, that he does not scratch; may he be healed completely, and suffer no scarring in its wake.
May Bob Ralston (aka Rasty Bob), who is in hospice care in Buckeye AZ, and who just lost his wife Leslie Fish, be blessed and find relief from his pain and discomfort; may Bob’s heart remain strong.
May Princess Cutekitten, who has made no comments on any of the Ecosophia blogs for a year now, and hasn’t responded to attempts at contact, be blessed wherever she is and in whatever form she may exist.
May Cathy N. of St. Marys, Ohio heal and recover from injuries caused by a fall.
May Dustin, a relative of Brenainn, be healed of a recently discovered heart condition.
May 1Wanderers’s partner Cathy, whose cancer has returned, be given the physical and mental strength to fight it, and tolerate the treatment, and may she enjoy a full and permanent recovery.
May Jule from Iserlohn, Germany, who is experiencing complications in her pregnancy due to an influenza infection, recover and have a pleasant pregnancy and birth.
May Larry Mulford, who has entered hospice after a year battling with pancreatic cancer, pass in the smoothest possible manner, and may his wife be enveloped in our love.
May Marko have the strength to seize the opportunities.
May Pierre’s young daughter, Athena, be healed from her fatigue and its root causes in ways that are easy, natural, and as holistic as possible.
May 5 year old Max be blessed and protected during his parents’ contentious divorce; may events work out in a manner most conducive to Max’s healthy development over the long term.
May Lydia G. of Geauga County, Ohio heal and recover from prolonged health issues.
May both Monika and the child she is pregnant with both be blessed with good health and a safe delivery.
May Mary’s sister have her auto-immune conditions sent into remission, may her eyes remain healthy, and may she heal in body, mind, and spirit.
May Trubujah’s best friend Pat’s teenage daughter Devin, who has a mysterious condition which doctors are so far baffled by necessitating that she remain in a wheelchair, be healed of her condition; may the underlying cause come to light so that treatment may begin.
May Kevin’s sister Cynthia be cured of the hallucinations and delusions that have afflicted her, and freed from emotional distress. May she be safely healed of the physical condition that has provoked her emotions; and may she be healed of the spiritual condition that brings her to be so unsettled by it. May she come to feel calm and secure in her physical body, regardless of its level of health.
May Frank R. Hartman, who lost his house in the Altadena fire, and all who have been affected by the larger conflagration be blessed and healed.
* * *
Guidelines for how long prayer requests stay on the list, how to word requests, how to be added to the weekly email list, how to improve the chances of your prayer being answered, and several other common questions and issues, are to be found at the Ecosophia Prayer List FAQ.
If there are any among you who might wish to join me in a bit of astrological timing, I pray each week for the health of all those with health problems on the list on the astrological hour of the Sun on Sundays, bearing in mind the Sun’s rulerships of heart, brain, and vital energies. If this appeals to you, I invite you to join me.
Chuaquin (no. 115) “It’s said that actual King Charles of Great Britain, when he was only the Prince (well, he was that during a long time), rejected to become the Honorific and Symbolic Great Master of British Freemasonry, due to unknown motives.”
I heard he was pressured to become a Mason, took the first degree, thought it was a bunch of nonsense, and refused to go back.
And again, all votes (and changes) have been smuggled down the Potomac and loaded aboard a bright yellow submarine named the Leif Ericsson, whence they were taken via the underground Sea of Valusia to the ruins of lost Atlantis, where Hagbard Celine himself handed them over to the vast and writhing tentacles of Leviathan. (Fnord.)
Lathechuck, granted. The US government’s ideas of what it could achieve in this war turned out to be mistaken, but then that’s the nature of war. As the saying goes, no plan survives contact with the enemy.
Slithy, oh, granted. I grew up in the same setting and I had to make a sustained effort not to be sucked into a PMC job and its associated culture, though autism gave me some significant advantages. Of course that also meant that I was the family failure for most of two decades, until I started getting books published, but I accepted that as part of the price.
Northwind, of course the problem is that finding work anywhere else in Britain can be a very difficult thing. That’s one of the traps hardwired into the fall of a civilization — economic activity centers in a handful of megalopolitan cities, so a lot of people have to choose between starving somewhere else or being dragged down as the cities head for the drain.
Jeff B’klyn, that’s a fine synchronicity — I have Tommy in vinyl, of course. The passage from Illuminatus! is brilliant, too.
Chris, agreed, we haven’t had a good red-hot Sloar in too long; that’s probably why the landscape is littered with so many dratted Shubs and Zuuls these days. You’re also right that the beer was much better. No doubt a lot of useless activity can be trimmed — we saw during the Covid fiasco, for example, that the entire air travel industry can be shut down without vastly inconveniencing most people. It’s the transition that’s the challenge — well, that and the deafening whining we can expect.
John, in a bleak way, that’s almost funny. Trump’s one of the few people in politics who hasn’t been seriously implicated by the Epstein papers, but the level of projection is astonishing these days. It’s like watching Democrats accuse him of being as corrupt as they are. Mind you, Trump has plenty of glaring flaws all his own; it’s just fascinating to watch the way that so many of his critics ignore his genuine failings and focus instead on projecting all their own faults on him.
Neptunesdolphins, the sport of Hunt The Antichrist was a going concern long before Joachim’s time, but you’re right that he gave it a good solid push.
DFC, I’ve been thinking for a while that the EU leadership is like nothing so much as the ruling elite of the Austro-Hungarian empire in the decades before 1914, so stunningly incompetent that they didn’t even realize the war they were setting in motion would destroy them and bring everything crashing down around them.
Scotlyn, if I’d had the funding in 1980 I’d have gone to St. Johns, but my folks couldn’t afford it. It strikes me as a brilliant plan.
Carver, if Trump continues throwing out illegal aliens at his present rate, in his two terms he’ll expel fewer than Obama did in his two terms. Meanwhile the difference between his war in Iran and Obama’s enthusiastic pursuit of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is pretty modest. The two parties are much less different than anyone wants to admit.
Scotlyn, yep. The British did that everywhere in the world their empire ruled, which is why you’ll find ethnic strife so reliably in every former British colony. Ulster was the testbed; importing a lot of Protestant Scots there, and fomenting conflict between them and Irish Catholics, was such a successful policy that they applied similar measures everywhere else.
Ambrose, your vote for the archetypal symbolism of broccoli has been noted. Kallisti!
@280 Ambrose
Since the war in heaven in the Bible was mentioned as an example of higher plane comflict, thinking that a vote for higher plane conflict is equivalent to a prayer that a new conflict will start up is like thinking that Milton writinh Paradise Lost had the potential to start a second angelic war!
I don’t think any of us can affect the higher planes to that extent. Even with the etheric and astral planes, I don’t think votes for a hypothetical fifth Wednesday post on this fringe blog about hurricanes will have affect this year’s Atlantic hurricane season.
For my part, I am voting for JMG to write about what we can glean about history and characteristics of higher plane conflict from humanity’s legends and myths about them. Not a short story about a higher plane conflict ten minutes in the future, which might be risky if humans were truly that powerful.
I have been trying to wrap my head around politics for most of my adult life, with little success, and this really turned the light on for me! Thanks immensely! It’s primarily why I tune in. 🙂
John @ 260 The Epstein Affair has not been forgotten. The State of New Mexico, home of the infamous Zorro Ranch, has now undertaken two investigations of that property, one by their Attorney General and another by a special committee of the NM legislature. It is doubtful what could still be found after a decade. What is a lot more promising for the investigation is that local folks knew more or less what was taking place.
Who may or may not have been implicated in the crimes of Epstein and Maxwell is not, I would submit, the point. The point, IMHO, is if you, Mr. & Mrs. Clinton, you Mr. Trump, for three well known examples, partied with, did business with, accepted airplane rides from the two above named malefactors, you either knew or you should have known what was happening and you need to start talking. Fiat justicia, ruat caelum.
Conflict on the inner planes: is that similar to or the same as “war in heaven” as in “Paradise Lost”? I’d vote for a discussion of war in heaven.
Trump has a history of wanting the United States to go to war with Iran and deploy ground troops in Iran since all the way back to the 1980s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjt7TO3Ptys
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15650585/donald-trump-iran-war-plans-video.html
Phutatorius (no.. 282), yeah, tens of millions of Americans believe in some version of “Left Behind” and all that. If New York gets nuked tomorrow, a whole lot of people will look at that as an optimistic sign that Jesus is coming soon. BTW Akenson wrote a couple of good books (albeit by a non-specialist) on the Bible (“Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds”) and Paul (“Saint Saul”)..
“Carver, if Trump continues throwing out illegal aliens at his present rate, in his two terms he’ll expel fewer than Obama did in his two terms. Meanwhile the difference between his war in Iran and Obama’s enthusiastic pursuit of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is pretty modest. The two parties are much less different than anyone wants to admit”
Exactly, Trump is no different from previous Republican presidents when it comes to the war and immigration enforcement. Bush Jr. campaigned on ending American warmongering in 2000 and we got Afghanistan and Iraq and a massive increase in illegals from Mexico. People have been talking about this lack of substantitive change in the Republican Party since before the 2024 election, yet all along you have Trump supporters saying that Trump marks a political realignment where the Republican Party will be some non-interventionalist anti-immigration populist party. There is no political realignment yet under Trump, any political realignment in America will have to come after Trump leaves office.
Not every conspiracy theories are innocent Counter-Narratives for naïve nutties. I can tell you a Narrative from the past which was made by some elites people with nasty purposes.
Since Middle Age, there were a lot of stories which were strangely similar in Europe. Of course, they were known in Spain, too.
In the short form, they told Catholic people how much evil were the Jews in their hate against Jesus. The story says a Catholic child was hijacked by some evil Jews, then tortured him and killed him (eventually and often, putting him in a cross), to mock in a cruel way Jesus. The story ends when the poor boy is seen as a martyr/Saint by the Church.
Well, modern History studies have debunked these Antisemitic stories as fake, and the Catholic Church after Vatican II Concilium has recognized with some shame, these Narratives were propaganda against Jews. In the better case, they helped to diffuse hate against this ethnic/religion…in the worst case, they fueled prosecution against “bad guys who killed Christ”(cough), reinforcing the “Jews as Deicide people”. I’m talking of pogroms.
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There’s a conspiracy theory which could be labelled in the “biblical family”. First of all, as a fringe Christian, I think we shouldn’t believe the Bible in a literal sense (which can lead us to problems like for example fanaticism), but better in a symbolical way. However, I also think that, beyond biblical symbolism, at least a part of biblical stories were to some extent real historical events, thought told to the reader in a distorted way.
Maybe I’m opening a can of worms now, but according some conspiracies nutties, there are real old photos which show a big artificial thing in a glacier in Mount Ararat: yes, Noah Ark. Those photos would be in this or that USA intel agency (CIA, NSA o who knows) as top secret files.
Well, I think a wood ship (more or less big) cannot contain every animal couple that has lived in the world, but it isn’t impossible that a regional disaster could become thanks to time and imagination in a global flooding. It’s hard to believe water climbed toward 5,000 meters altitude, but…
Wood eventually ends rotten, but in high altitudes, cold and ice can make it long time lasting.
Another explanation to that anomaly, if it really exists, is it would be a human made structure, understood by mistake in a Christian context as Noah Ark; but how and why it ended in such a strange place?
By the way, some years ago there was a former American who wanted to find Noah Ark in that high mountain in Turkey, but finally he failed.
Chuaquin # 276:
The 2030 agenda itself is a drop in replacement to the “new world order” which was used after 9/11 as a stand in to the actions of the neoconservatives, which to my understanding were the political establishment in the us back then. Agenda 2030 is just updating the hero of this “counter nerrative” to the woke class.
To the general non myth literate conspiracy crowd, stories like “agenda 2030/2040/2050” must be comforting, because the idea there is an all powerfull cabal of fellow humans, even if they are menevolant, means we as humanity are still in charge, and there is an actual plan, instead of the actual mess of forces, most of them not even human, just doing their thing with no plan for us monkeys…
Clint’s mention of The Mothman Prophecies reminded me of a best seller published in the ’90s, The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. I wondered how the prophecy had panned out. Not having read the book or seen the movie I had to look it up, only to discover it was not really a prophecy but actually a New Age novel about a spiritual journey.
“though initially attractive as a spiritual self-development book, what makes The Celestine Prophecy so compelling is its broader theme of the non-physical evolution of the human species.
“Perhaps Redfield’s major theme is that the resolution and avoidance of conflict in human relationships is the most important issue in the great universal scheme of things. Conflict and ill will create friction against the natural flow of energy in the universe, whereas to love unconditionally is to move with this energy and take on its grace and power.”
— https://www.butler-bowdon.com/james-redfield—the-celestine-prophecy.html
It seems like the human species is evolving backwards at the moment.
Trump 1/13/26: “help is on its way”
Trump 4/1/26: “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong.”
Nix to unconditional love. What they need is a good carpet bombing. An update on “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it” of the Vietnam era.
@ Phutatorious #282
Thank you for the book reference, which looks fascinating! And which would handily bring together two strands of my own ancestral life – the actual American evangelical zionist context in which I was reared, and the adoptive home in Ireland which has embraced adult me. 🙂
And yes, even though the phenomenon of “Evangelical enthusiasm (a word I chose with care) for the last days, Armegeddon and “The Rapture” is well known to me, I am still utterly mystified by it, and by the degree of nihilism, hatred of life and abhorrence for this living world, which appear to underlie it.
Dear JMG and commentariat:
Maybe Charles III is planning to take a page from his predecessor (Charles II). In Charles II’s case, it was a deathbed conversion to Catholicism. Charles III, maybe a deathbed conversion to Islam!!?
My vote is for Jungian archetypes for the post. I think detailed predictions on the current Gulf War are still too difficult to make. The prediction “Nothing Good “ will be accurate though.
Cugel
Happy Easter to those who celebrate it today.
To all my fellow Christians here, a most blessed and happy Easter to you all,
To all our non-christian and Pagan friends here a happy and joyful Sunday to you all.
It looks like my Magical geography of the United States will have to wait so I (if Godzilla and the other old ones allow) will change lanes and vote for Conflicts on the higher planes.
Thanks
@Scottlyn 296: Well, some of my cousins are Evangelical Dispensationalists in Ohio, so I have a little first hand experience. In Ireland, Darby’s followers, if I’m not mistaken, were called the “Exclusive Brethren.” In England they were known as the “Plymouth Brethren.” Guess who grew up in a Plymouth Brethren family: Aleister Crowley, the Great Beast 666 himself! (This is according to his “Confessions” autobiography, which I read back in the 70s.) He said he most enjoyed reading the bloody scenes of carnage in the Old Testament. So maybe he’d feel right at home in the modern-day middle east. Who knows? Maybe he actually is there, in a new incarnation. As for my own Ohio family, they belonged to the “Church of the Brethren.” I always understood this to be a German Baptist denomination; I don’t know if or how it related to the “Exclusive Brethren” from Ireland. I, too, am a little mystified by this enthusiasm for the end-of-time. If my tax dollars are being used to finance it, I protest (and a lot of good that will do)!
I wish Christians a happy Easter.
Scotlyn # 272:
Very interesting! I can understand many Irish people has fondness to the Palestinians better than to Israeli people, due to the complex and violent History of Ireland, and especially its relationship with the old British Empire.
I think it isn’t exactly the same situation, but British dominion over Ireland and British help to create Israel State seem loosely but really related attitudes and behavior by Brits elites.
Ireland to some extent was the first and nearest colonial prey to London, and conflicts which led to final independence of Ireland (except ahem, the Ulster), were a cultural and territorial fighting under a religious layer of religion war (Catholics and Protestants).
When Brits supported “implicitly” to give Zionists Jews a land in which other people had lived during many centuries (Arabs), they knew what they wanted to do. Indeed, colonial British power was inherited to some extent, by Israeli neo-colonialist attitude and behavior against Palestinians. So, Brits fueled again like in Ireland the cultural and territorial struggle disguised as war between religions.
I’m not puzzled by Irish tendence in favor of Palestine. I guess Zionists (Jews or goyim) maybe blame Irish people as “Antisemitic”, like they like to blame Spanish people as a whole (Oh, Zionist are xenophobic, what a surprise).
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Anselmo # 273:
Evidently, I’m not Mr. DFC, but thank you for your link.
Saludos.
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Phutatorius # 282:
I think Christians Zionists seem IMHO more fanatical than usual kind of Zionist Jews zealots. And disgusting, if you don’t mind this adjective.
Of course, when they identify Biblical Jews with nowadays Israel State, they’re beyond reasonable motives and a “clean” Theology (rough propaganda).
As a fringe Christian, I wonder what would say Jesus of Nazaret about these special Christians, so fondness of current ME many deaths (cough).
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Ambrose # 283:
I’ve read your comment about the hypothetical refusal of Charles of England to become Freemasons Chief in UK, and well, I’ve remembered JMG dismissed that conspiracy with his own reasons. I guess he’s right but you not, or viceversa (or one of you two could know really more than the other about this topic). ???????
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JMG # 284:
I think your view about a possible relation between Trump and Epstein scandal is reasonable (please, if you didn’t read it, read my comment about how little can be the hypothetical Epstein blackmail compared to another possible Zionists ways to push Trump into more and more war in ME…My opinion is like you’ve pointed about it).
******************
Your answer to Scotlyn comment about similarities between British “modus operandi” in Ireland and Palestine, has made me to remember and old Roman saying:”Divide et vinces”(Divide and you’ll win).
Four Sided…# 294:
I understand your view. IMHO, Agenda 2030 seems to be an international public relations operation to pretend future will be better than past and present days, according usual Faustian view.
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Martin B. # 295:
I read the “Celestine Prophecy” by Mr. Redfield during the ‘90s, and I can tell you that you don’t miss anything if you don’t read it. Although I was certain Faustian in those times, I wasn’t convinced by that New Age speech. It seemed shallow and very biased to a Bright Future without not much reasons to believe in it. Well, you can’t ask a New Ager to explain his views in a clear and reasonable way (ha!).
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Scotlyn # 296:
American Evangelicals fondness to the “Rapture” thing, IMHO hasn’t any real
biblical nor theological support. It’s my opinion as a Christian.
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Patricia M. # 298:
Thank you!
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Current comments about freak American Christian Zionism has made to remember I read somewhere some years ago, that when UK and another European countries declared war against Russia (Crimea war), during XIXth Century, a strange fringe cult was born. A few Protestant freaks declared Tsarist Russia was the Antichrist, so British war against Russia was fair and “holy”. It’s a very counter-factual belief, because Tsars, until last of them, were near pathological Christians (though Orthodox Church Christians). Of course, there isn’t nothing in Gospels nor Old Testament to support this bizarre “theology”. This forgotten historical fact always has puzzled me.
Cugel 297
> Charles III, maybe a deathbed conversion to Islam!!?
If Charles III is practicing anything, it would be Buddhism, likely Tibetan Buddhism. Charles spent lots of time in India in the 1970s. The information has been suppressed; one would need to research beyond the Internet to uncover more.
💨☸️💨Northwind Grandma
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
Seeing as how according to some Star Trek timelines WW3 starts this year and continues until 2053 sometime. How about 5th Monday covering th Twilight’s Last Gleaming Star Trek future we are looking towards. Sadly for us, the arrival of friendly Vulcans to save us in 37 years is unlikely. Happy First (Theoretical) Contact Day!
@ Phutatorius #300
Apparently there are a lot of threads that have woven the cultural cloth we are all wearing just now, and this is a more important one than the history books relate…
Given your “Brethren” connection, this scholarly treatment of the subject on youtube may interest you – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYMKX6tofpA
As missionaries, we spent a year in Mexico City in 1975. My best friend in that year (whose home I had many sleepovers in) was a member of a family of (some variety of) Brethren, who ran a tiny home church from their wee house.
@ Chuaquin #302
Yes, there are many similarities between the British “Plantation” of Ulster, and the British “Plantation” of Israel.
The interesting thing about this kind of carefully cultivated religious warfare is that it can dissipate over time, and needs active campaigns of atrocities to keep it “hot”. What I notice about religious people is that they are rarely EITHER as good as their religion alleges they are, NOR as evil as their religion licences them to be. People are mostly people, neither especially good nor especially bad, and they default to indifference about the folks down the road, all other things being equal. This is the secret of why Northern Ireland has calmed down, in the absence, by and large of any atrocity “spectacles” in the last couple of decades. Interestingly, the county of Donegal, which is essentially a county with more affinity to Ulster, than to the rest of Ireland, to which it is politically linked, still has (for example) a higher proportion of Protestants than any other county in the Republic of Ireland. Donegal hosts a major Orange Order gathering every year in Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal (look it up). The same cultural fractures and unities exist in Donegal as have existed in Northern Ireland. Also, traffic across the border has always been open, and (probably) members of all paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland have been able to find shelter among “their” folk in this county.
Still, in my humble opinion, and entirely speculatively on my part, there is a major thing that Northern Ireland has had, which Donegal has lacked, and which led to the violent convulsions Northern Ireland suffered, and which Donegal, culturally similar in every way, did not.
And that is the presence of British intelligence agents, whose interests, for a period of time, included a perceived need to deliberately foster a climate of escalating atrocities aimed at ensuring that local ethnic conflict would become deep and intractable.
I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why I think this situation resembles that of Israel/Palestine.
OTOH, I will say that Northern Ireland demonstrates the fact that people CAN settle back down to a cordial mutual toleration across potentially conflicting lines, and this fact gives me great hope.
What’s the difference, if any, between an inner plane and a higher plane?
Chuaquin #302
You are welcome. This autor has a blog with hundred of articles like this: https://andreyfursov.ru/news/11_sentjabrja_tragedija_pererosshaja_v_bolshuju_vojnu/2013-09-10-199
JMG and everyone,
I’d like to vote for READING about conflict on higher planes, but I’m not sure I’m in favor of EVENTS of conflict on higher planes, as I expect I’d probably end up in the divine cross-fire. (Not that entities on the higher plane care what I think.)
Happy birthday to all those with a birthday today, and happy anniversary to all those celebrating anniversaries.
There is a video circulating on Twitter of Prince William and Princess Katherine in a green burqa sitting down in a mosque:
https://xcancel.com/RealJamesWoods/status/2040836170754756670#m
And a lot of twitter users underneath saying that William and Katherine have converted to Islam and are now Muslims.
Will O. # 299 and Patrick H. # 301:
Thank you!
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Scotlyn # 307:
Your comment about Ulster/Ireland Republic and Israel/Palestine “religious” warfare seems to me similar to what I’ve pointed before, though evidently you’ve got a much better knowledge about Irish topics than me. For example, I didn’t those data about the county of Donegal. So your view about a low intensity war me until yesterday (in historical terms) in Ulster, fueled by some “agents provocateurs” sent from the another island is possible. In the case of the classical conflict in ME I can bet who could be its long time “agents provocateurs”…
I hope current situation in Ulster goes on being peaceful too.
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Anselmo # 309:
Thanks again, I’ll read your link ASAP when I have more spare time.
History is rhyming again;
“Men aged between 17 and 45 now need approval from the Bundeswehr for longer stays abroad. Under the new Military Service Act, this applies to trips abroad lasting more than three months, the Defence Ministry has announced. The daily Frankfurter Rundschau was the first to report on the change.”
https://www.euronews.com/2026/04/04/conscription-law-men-now-need-approval-for-trips-abroad
Approval is automatic for now…
Whoa, if the Illuminati set up that incendiary crazy tweet from Trump containing praise to Allah, I am deeply impressed. More conflict on the lower planes? At this point I would much prefer discussing conflict on the higher planes than what is going on in the material plane and put my hands over my ears and go la, la, la, la! So change my vote to conflict in the higher planes. Feeling Egyptian and wanting to swim in De Nile.
Re: a healthy diet. I hope you’re not insinuating that no-one can therefore know what constitutes a healthy diet – that it all boils down to personal opinion, and that there are no scientifically trained experts to be trusted, who can discern between a corporate profit-driven set of recommendations and one that prioritises nutrition and health. I would not throw the scientific community under the bus when it is clearly the profiteers that drive industrial food production devoid of nutrition and lacking in concern for general well-being who are motivated to influence and twist the scientific opinions that make it to the mainstream media. These people spend billions in advertising – the scientist shills are just one element in the scheme. They are not the root problem. The corporate, industrial producers of simulacrum foodstuff are far more deserving of your focused criticism. After all, the scientific method is fairly solid and by nature should stand up at the end of the day – all things being equal.
I was assuming that votes were for ‘a post about war in the higher planes and what is known about the subject from assorted often obscure sources’, not a vote for a war to happen. Any more than people voting for the ‘war in iran’ topic are hoping that by voting for that they will make it last longer and kill more people.
But the wording was sort of ambiguous… so let me be clear. I am not voting for there to be more war on any plane, higher, inner or otherwise. I just want to know what is known about what’s going on.
Paul Golding the leader of the British nationalist party Britain First just called to “Defund the Windsors” and “Abolish the Monarchy” over the British royal family’s seeming embrace of Islam:
https://nitter.net/PaulGolding/status/2040814010816139715
https://nitter.net/PaulGolding/status/2040839139050823746
Anyone else getting a “504 Gateway Time-out” error when trying to visit Dreamwidth?
Hi all,
My vote for the 5th Wednesday is the magical geography of the US. What can I say I miss the Well of Galabes!
Cheers,
JZ
In the Pass the Bong category;
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-engineered-a-plant-to-produce-5-different-psychedelics-at-once
“What do plants, toads, and mushrooms have in common? They can all produce psychedelic substances – and now their powers have been combined in one plant, like a trippier Captain Planet.
In a wild first, scientists have taken the genes these organisms use to make five natural psychedelics and introduced them into a tobacco plant (Nicotiana benthamiana), which then produced all five compounds simultaneously.”
Is this the right plant for the end times or what?
Cugel (no. 297) and Northwind Grandma (no. 304), King (then Prince) Charles used to go to Mt. Athos every year, so if he’s a crypto-non-Anglican, I’d put my money on that. (Presumably the influence of his Greek father, Prince Philip,) On the other hand, he’s descended from the Prophet Muhammad (via Spanish royalty), so he’d get to wear a green turban if he converted.
Anonymous (no. 308) Since one “descends” to the divine throne-chariot, perhaps we should be speaking of *lower* planes.
[shale stirring deleted by editor]
And again, all votes have been transcribed into music by the mad fiddler Erich Zann and are currently being played by the blind and monstrous flutists who caper around a certain being…
(Cue music from Camelot🙂
“Out in the cosmic broth
Beyond the gate of Thoth,
The nightmare daemon sultan
That is known as Azathoth!”
Julia, you’re most welcome and thank you.
Phutatorius, that’s one of the things I’ll be discussing, in fact. (Conflict on the inner planes is so far ahead at this point that it’s pretty much guaranteed to be the theme.)
Anon, one of the things that makes the current level of vitriol in politics so bleakly amusing is that Trump’s a moderate. He’s trying to give his supporters just enough reforms to keep them from turning to domestic insurgency or civil war, while fending off attempts by entrenched interests to prevent him from making any reforms at all. Pam Bondi’s fall is a sign that the steps he’s taken so far aren’t enough for his constituency; it’ll be interesting to see how far the next AG goes.
Ryan, gods, I hope not. I watched the original Star Trek series in reruns in the 1970s — they would do all-night shows on one of the independent TV channels, one episode after another from 9 pm to dawn, and me and my friends would try to stay up and watch them all at sleepovers. We always fell asleep, and that’s been my basic reaction to that uninteresting series ever since.
Anon, the letters n, h, and g. They’re the same thing.
Sylvia, nobody with the exception of one shale-stirrer thinks that anyone is voting for anything but a discussion of conflicts on the higher planes.
Anon, ouch. That was not smart of the Windsors.
Siliconguy, yeah, I read about that. Oof.
Mac, of course scientists aren’t the root problem — money is the root problem — but the fact remains that science in today’s America is riddled with graft and experimental fraud. While the scientific method in the abstract is fairly solid, and I’ve written at length about ways to help see to it that it survives the end of our civilization, the sheer scale of the reproducibility crisis shows that science as actually practiced has moved far from the ideal, and deserves the distrust it now receives from a majority of people.
Pygmycory, again, nobody with the exception of one shale-stirrer thinks that anyone is voting for anything but a discussion of conflicts on the higher planes.
Anon, no surprises there. I hope the Windsors are taking notes on what happens to royal families that get booted off their thrones.
Siliconguy, oof. What a great idea.
Ambrose, enough. You know perfectly well that we’re talking about the subject of a discussion and that’s all. If you keep on with that lame joke I’m going to start deleting your comments.
This was a great post. All my life, I hated the Illuminati – those bastards are trying to control and oppress us all! Now I see I was completely mistaken – they’re Discordians of the highest order! As an acolyte of chaos myself, I should clearly join them and destroy all trust in all authority. Where’s the nearest initiation office?
All jokes aside on this joke post, I vote for the possibility that this war with Iran turns your novel, Twilight’s Last Gleaming, into a prophetic tract. I know you refer to Trump as our Orange Julius, but personally I think he may be our Emperor Valerian, the fool from the crisis of the second century famous for 2 things – his emphatic persecution of Christians, and his disastrous military defeat by the Persians, in which half the legions were lost and the emperor himself captured. It led to massive loss of territory and wealth to the Persian empire and not one, but 2 secession movements in the empire.
As a final nod to your joke about the rising chaos and breakdown of the mythos of scientific materialism – I heard you on a podcast with Nick Land, where a certain exorcist was mentioned – Father Chad Ripperger, who sounds like something out of a bad 80s exorcist themed action movie. I was perusing Tucker Carlson’s broadcasts – which actually offer very reasonable and honest analysis of the current wars, first and foremost because he begins by admitting how much he cannot know, which no one in any media on any side does any more. And, Lo and behold, his latest interview is one with this exorcist. A man respected as a mainstream news anchor but a year or two back, now openly talking about demonic possession and spirits and angels, without mockery! Truly we live in the strangest of times. I post a link for the edification and entertainment of you and the commentariat. This father Chad – watch him. He’s a rising star, and might make Catholicism cool again.
https://tuckercarlson.com/tucker-show-chad-ripperger-040326
Suppose Trump fails to reform the system. Where do his frustrated, betrayed, and angry former supporters go? Do they try to hijack the failed Democratic Party and turn it into an American nationalist party against the failed Republicans, or do they go create a third party as a vehicle for American nationalists to fight against both the failed Democrats and the failed Republicans?
JMG,
Bwahahahaha to you!! Belated happy April Fool’s Day.
I second Will O’s suggestion of your writing next about the magic geography of the US. I’d be very interested to read your take on that.
Anselmo # 309:
Your link has driven me to a Russian web. Well, I can’t read Cyrilic alphabet but by luck, my smartphone is old, but not enough old to lack an online automatic translator. Thanks…
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Some comments ago, I told you I read a time ago, a book about how low level had children education during last Spanish dictatorship (especially during ‘40s). This book title’s “El Florido Pensil”. There’s a Spanish movie based in this book too. In this book appears the fake Antisemitic story about a Christian boy hijacked by Jews and crucified until his death, in some textbooks about Catholic religion. There’s even a picture. Of course, the book author mourns and mocks that rough propaganda, and tells the reader that in the textbooks children were asked if they’d like to be killed like the poor Catholic boy (I guess not much people would like it to become a martyr…).
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Anonymous # 312:
It could be, it couldn’t be. People usually can do bizarre things, but AI can do amazing things too. For example, a cat in Turkey drinking beer from a bottle, or famous people doing fake things. Are that shocking news verified?
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(To be continued, when I can…)
Siliconguy # 314:
I bet that I’m not the only one in this blog who (after having read your news from Germany) has thought that EU country is going ahead into a more militaristic attitude…
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Anonymous # 318:
Wow! That political nationalist British leader seems very right wing oriented, but he wants to defund and eventually abolish his country Monarchy. I think it’s a bizarre view, and I bet we’ll see more political bizarre changes in UK and another countries soon.
I can tell you I’m a mild Republican (in the European sense), but I’d think it well before supporting that guy, if I were British. Of course, it’s my personal opinion.
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(To be continued)
Mac # 316:
Of course, real science discoveries (not biased by economic interests) exists too, and it can help you to have a healthy diet; but please notice knowledge about diet changes from time to time, due to new hypothesis, so…
Indeed, I also think there isn’t an only one healthy diet for everybody. A monk and a heavy industry worker aren’t in the same situation in their personal diet, methink…
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Re. the German conscription law…
It strikes me that this law will play merry heck with the EU’s principal of “free movement”.
1. In principle, this German law may not be consistent with current EU treaties*. Will anyone challenge it on that basis?
2. Will the Germans expect other EU members – eg. their police forces – to co-operate with their “local” law, preventing German men from enjoying free movement within the EU**? Will this become a “casus bellus” within different EU countries?
* Please note that in the coming together of the EU, individual nations were required to subordinate certain aspects of their sovereign rights to the treaty project. In particular, all laws that might prevent “free movement” of peoples would be among the aspects so subordinated.
** Of course the re-assertion of sovereignty in every member state will very soon result in the falling apart of the EU.
“Anon, one of the things that makes the current level of vitriol in politics so bleakly amusing is that Trump’s a moderate. He’s trying to give his supporters just enough reforms to keep them from turning to domestic insurgency or civil war, while fending off attempts by entrenched interests to prevent him from making any reforms at all.”
Yeah, that’s usually a sign of what political scientists call a “disjunctive presidency” in a political era, the last presidency of a political era before the actual political realignment. The disjunctive presidency is usually some moderate in the dominant political coalition who realises that the system cannot be sustained and tries to reform their way out, but the establishment prevents any change from happening. It’s happened many times in the past in past political eras. Hoover tried doing some New Deal esque reforms during his presidency but was hampered by his own Republican Party at the end of the 4th Party System, Carter tried Reaganesque deregulation but was hampered by the Democratic Party at the end of the 5th Party System, etc. Then a severe economic crisis hits and completely discredits the system (Great Depression discrediting the Progressives who ruled the Republican Party, 1979 energy crisis leading to a recession in 1980 discrediting the New Dealers who ruled the Democratic Party) and the establishment, which paves the way for an actual political realignment in the following election (Roosevelt in 1932, Reagan in 1980).
What do we think? Any chance he was teleported to a Waffle House?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/us/fema-gregg-phillips-waffle-house-teleportation.html
Hmmm… there’s actually multiple cycles at play here when it comes to politics and political eras.
There’s the smaller cycle that political scientists talk about when they talk about political realignments, which is about the dominant and minority political coalitions and which sectors of the elites belong to which political coalitions.
There’s a larger cycle that John Michael Greer talks about when he talks about political realignments, about what kind of elites the elites are, whether agricultural, industrial, managerial, etc. Note that in this analysis only half the political realignments matter, the 1800 Jefferson realignment, the 1860 Lincoln realignment, the 1932 Roosevelt realignment, and the upcoming realignment after the disjunctive Trump administration, where the previous set of elites (agricultural, industrial, managerial) get replaced by a new set of elites (industrial, managerial, entrepreneurial) and rewrite the narrative of America’s identity.
Now, what about the other political realignments that the political scientists talk about, the 1832 Jackson realignment, the 1896 McKinley realignment, the 1980 Reagan realignment, etc? These are usually internal realignments among the elites, rather than an elite replacement scenario. Some faction of the elites defect from the dominant political coalition to the minority political coalition to create a new dominant political coalition, but the type of elite (agricultural, industrial, managerial) remains the same through the political realignment.
Siliconguy # 321:
I bet those scientist are trying to find the perfect drug, with all advantages and no problems. However, I think to find a drug without addiction risk seems near impossible…
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Ambrose # 322:
I didn’t know Charles III fondness to Greek Orthodox Christianism. On the other hand, I knew he’s far (or not very far) family of Spanish Royal Family (indeed, every member within European Monarchies are far/near cousins, nephews, uncles and aunts…).
However, I’m quite puzzled when you wrote Charles is a far heir of Muhammad, thanks to his family links with Spanish Crown. Do you have any serious evidence of that claim?
Of course, I know some facts about my country Kings (although I’m a republican, I accept the Head of State is a king…because there’s a Constitutional Democratic Monarchy: democracy first, thought with kings, methink). Borbón Family comes from France, after a war 3 centuries ago; so their ancestors were old France kings…so Catholics.
I don’t know how they can have Arab blood from Muhammad. By the way, some Neonazis here said a time ago Spanish Kings have Jewish blood (????).
What I knew is Morocco current Dinasty and Aga Khan say their ancestors come from Prophet Muhammad.
Finally, I’m going to tell you two funny stories. First, a few Spaniards surname is Borbón. You can guess some jokes can be made about them, but they haven’t really “blue blood”, their ancestor wasn’t this or that Spanish King bastard, according to serious historians (coincidences in surnames happen…). I can also tell you there’s a Spanish verb (not very much used today): “Borbonear”. It means to make intrigues against or in favor of someone. It comes from the past, when the kings or the queen had a lot of aristocratic serfs. Of course, democratic times kings (Juan Carlos and Felipe VI, haven’t cortesans around them anymore, I thank them for it).
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JMG # 323:
I partly agree. I think “real Trump” is a Conservative politician who sometimes flirts with Far Right. His personal Spectacle seems more extremist than his inner ideas, methink. He plays his populist card, but leftists are wrong when they point him as far right wing or even worse, a Fascist (cough). His more likely similar politician here would be, IMHO, a hardline Conservative woman whose surname is Ayuso, she’s very hated and loved by some people and others in Spain now; I see she plays to some extent the populist right game, but she doesn’t go to full far right mode like local Far Right (Vox party, which I think often it’s near the democratic consensus limits). I guess Miss Ayuso seems to have taking note about Trump attitude and behavior to imitate him to some extent, of course adapting that to our politics culture.
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Reproductibility crisis is IMHO the main elephant in the room with the several problems in nowadays science, but I see another elephant too. In the short form, I think Mr. Popper Falsationism test has worked well to debunk ideologies disguised as science (Marxism) and fake sciences (Psychoanalisis); but it’s unable to decide wether some scientific claims are real science or not. For example: Climate Change and Nuclear Winter.
They’re serious problems that have been checked according some partial evidences (I won’t be stupid enough to deny them) and accurate models helped by modern computers. However, it’s difficult to decide in a clean way wether they can be refuted (=real science) or not (=fake). In addition to this problem, Climate Change and Nuke Winter can’t be reproduced at 100% in labs. They’re global phenomena, very complex. First one is happening now, but we don’t know really how it will go in real future (different models and scenaries according different possible facts and events). Second one is hypothetical, only if a WW3 happens we could test this theory about its global effects (better not to live that awful test, methink). So this big theories share the two elephants in the room I’ve pointed before.
In my last comment, I’ve told you the most similar Spanish politician to Trump ideas and “modus operandi” IMHO is a woman named Ayuso. It’s the popular name which people give her in a short way, but her full name is: Isabel Díaz Ayuso. I bet Anglophone native commentariat didn’t know nothing about her.
Personally, I don’t like very much her ideas and actions, but I can say in favor of this controverted politician, she never approaches to the democratic consensus red lines, like other far right/left local politicians. I bet in a medium term she could be President of Spain (really, Spain Presidency indeed is like a British Prime Minister level, you know). We’ll see…
It’s fairly clear right now that Trump is trying to reform the system and is successfully being hampered by the establishment, a clear sign of a disjunctive presidency. The war in Iran will lead to economic shocks around the world that will destroy the credibility of the neoliberal globalized financialized economic system that has been dominant since Reagan, as well as the credibility of the managerial elites that have ruled America since Roosevelt, and this will take down Trump as well due to his failures to reform the system, just like it took down Hoover and Buchanan and Adams, moderates who tried to reform past systems but failed.
Where does America go after Trump? John Michael Greer has offered two possible scenarios on this blog:
1. The Fred Halliot / Caesar scenario: the political system itself involving Congress, the Judiciary, and the Executive branch’s bureaucracy is replaced with some system where the President holds all the power, whether de facto or de jure. Whoever becomes the all-powerful dictator President is considered the realigning figure.
2. The balkanization scenario: power is taken away from the federal government in Washington D.C. whether de facto or de jure, and placed in the hands of the state governments via reformation of the American Constitution or successor regional states after some wars of independence / secession. There is no one single realigning figure, but multiple realigners who rule the successor states to the American federal government loses power.
All roads lead to Fluxus:
https://imgur.com/a/oeMsrrZ
A few other comments about political realignments and Trump.
We’ve seen other such moderate reformers similar to Trump who failed to reform the system elsewhere throughout history. Jacques Necker before the fall of the Ancien Regime, Mikhail Gorbachev before the fall of the Soviet Union, et cetera. It is their failures to reform said system that lead to the fall of the regime and its replacement with something radically different. The same pattern of a moderate reformer disjunctive leader before the actual political realignment and elite replacement arises over and over again.
In addition, I remember John Michael Greer talking on this blog and on the Archdruid Report about how he is a Burkean conservative, and if anybody knows anything about Burkean conservatives they prefer modest reforms over radical revolutions. So it is not too surprising that in the past he would support Trump to try to stave off the radicals looking to revolutionize the system.
Unfortunately I think that we’ve reached the point where its becoming clearer that Trump is likely to fail to reform the system, and out host’s admission a few weeks ago that he hopes to see the success of the states’ compact for a constitutional convention to amend the constitution and significantly limit the power of the federal government is an indication that even Burkean conservatives are turning towards more radical solutions to the crisis of the American federal government and the neoliberal globalist managerial regime in America.
It’s said the Russian oil tanker which recently arrived to Cuba due to a possible agreement between Trump (who gave his permission) and Putin (who did a smart public relations action), wasn’t alone during its travel between the North Sea and the Caribe Sea. It’s said it was followed and protected against bad USA temptations, by a Russian nuclear submarine under the sea. I haven’t found strong evidence of this story, so I think it could count as a geopolitical conspiracy theory.
Another geopolitical story says Putin could be thinking seriously to send soon his better missiles to Iran. However, Russian ruler also thinks Tehran could be too “infiltrated” by western spies yet, so…
Well, these two stories can be under the saying:”Si non é vero, é ben trovato”.
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After Scotlyn comments and my own ones about North Ireland Troubles, I’ve thought how could had been my life if I was born there during that time of territorial and cultural low intensity war time, instead of being born here. It’s sad to be labelled in a sectarian way as Catholic/Protestant binary opposition.
In real world, I was born and raised in a cultural Catholic context, but I think Catholicism has some good things, but another not very good things. For example, I don’t like superstitious saints worship. I think saints should be seen like “Christian heroes” to imitate their life and nothing more. So I think Protestant criticism of Saints is right to some extent.
On the other hand, I dislike the loudest criticism against Jesus Mother made by some Protestants. I guess behind their denounces against Mary worship, there could a shameful misogynist bias (ahem). Finally, I think at least part of Eastern Orthodox Christian Theology and Philosophy is interesting, at least as motive to debate. Well, my fringe Christianism doesn’t seem into the usual labels (this or that Christianism branch).
Very OT: a sudden play title that sums up the British Royal Family today: Queen Camilla, Kate Middleton, Sarah Ferguson, Meghan Markle……
“The Merry Wives of Windsor.”
Ducking and running for cover………
Also,
“one of the things that makes the current level of vitriol in politics so bleakly amusing is that Trump’s a moderate.”
The vitriol in politics is probably due the impact of Neptune in Pisces. Neptune rules the collective and Pisces is the sign of polarization, division, binaries, dreams, and nightmares. The last two times Neptune in Pisces, we’ve seen stuff like the Salem witch trials, anti-Catholic conspiracy theories in Britain and Maryland, the Glorious Revolution, anti-slavery and pro-slavery extremists dividing the country up, Know Nothing anti-immigration politicians hijacking the American political system and blaming the Whigs and Democrats for replacing white Anglo-Saxon Protestants with Irish and German Catholics, etc. Doesn’t matter that Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan were moderates trying to reform the system, pro-slavery Southerners and anti-slavery Northerners hated Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan for either doing too much or not doing enough.
The Trump phenomenon itself is probably entirely Neptune in Pisces. It began in 2011 when he ran in the Republican primary the first time against Mitt Romney and talked about a lot of the same issues as he did in 2015 and 2016, which was also around the time that Neptune entered Pisces. And a lot of people put all their hopes on Trump as the savior of the United States, and a key facet of Pisces is people waiting around for a savior messiah figure to come and save them. On the other side of the binary you have people treating Trump as the devil and putting all their hopes on some Democrat to be the savior of America against Trump. And now that Neptune is in Aries it’s becoming clear to many people that Trump and/or the Democrats are not the saviors of America, but only politicians doing what politicians always do.
Chuaquin #17, 22,40, 52, 69, 75,110, 113,115, 129, 131, 136, 147, 153, 183, 185, 188, 229, 230, 256, 257, 258, 266, 267, 275, 276, 278, 293, 302, 303, 313, 327 328 333, 334.
Just to mention that your comments have become so frequent and so lengthy that now I just scroll past them. I’m not suggesting that you not make them, rather pointing out that sometimes less is more. From a frequent reader / infrequent poster.
Looks like America flew a plane over Iran, it got shot down by the Iranians with the pilot being ejected from the plane, and the Americans attempted a rescue mission with hundreds of American troops to retrieve the pilot and it lead to more American aircraft getting shot down by the Iranians:
https://xcancel.com/RnaudBertrand/status/2040995918192005310
Not looking like the American air superiority over Iran that some people were claiming on here the past few weeks.
As I’m already fed up with speculation wrt Iran, I will vote for conflict on other planes. My favorites of your posts are typically ones explaining details of occult philosophy and practice, or ones in which you link occult philosophy to a discussion that doesn’t at first glance appear related.
“Suppose Trump fails to reform the system. Where do his frustrated, betrayed, and angry former supporters go? Do they try to hijack the failed Democratic Party and turn it into an American nationalist party against the failed Republicans, or do they go create a third party as a vehicle for American nationalists to fight against both the failed Democrats and the failed Republicans?”
John Michael Greer said in his mundane astrology predictions:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/hinge-of-ages-20-150048624
that one possibility is that the American people abandon the two major parties:
“The midheaven in this chart is in the last degree of Pisces, and is therefore ruled by Neptune. Alongside his role as the planet that dissolves forms and structures, Neptune traditionally rules mass phenomena. One potential implication is that the efforts currently being made by both sides in the ongoing US political donnybrook to rouse the masses in support of one or the other party may spin out of their handlers’ control, resulting in politically engaged mass movements that are answerable to neither side and impatient of partisan agendas. This is suggested also by the ascendant in the US chart, which is Cancer, ruled by the Moon. As the 1st is the house of the ordinary population, this suggests that an unusual degree of political influence may be wielded by those who normally have little to say in political issues.”
The last time this happened was in the runup to the American civil war, where the Whigs and the Democrats were the two major parties and the American people abandoned both parties for a third party, the Republicans.
@ JMG #323
“…one of the things that makes the current level of vitriol in politics so bleakly amusing is that Trump’s a moderate…”
This is probably true.
But, what I often wonder about is the basis for the reputation US President Trump has gained for excellence in the art of making a deal? If he ever earned this reputation in the past, he appears to be bent on trashing it in the present.
(Either this, or the balancing act he must carry out between warring constituencies seriously undermines his capacity to stand over, and give effect to, any offer he makes).
Over on the Unz Review there are articles, such as this one, talking about how Trump is losing the war with Iran and firing generals who disagreed with Trump going in and attacking Iran:
https://www.unz.com/runz/is-donald-trump-facing-a-military-mutiny-over-his-losing-war-with-iran/
Same article mentions how Trump supporters are publicly rebelling against Trump over this war.
Perhaps the bigger story about the war in the Middle East is that the petrodollar system is now broken:
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion-features/iran-war-just-broke-petrodollar
No amount of American military victories in the Middle East is going to change the fact that without the petrodollar system, the debt of the US government becomes unaffordable, meaning that America has to withdraw from the rest of the world as America can no longer afford to maintain its empire and has to redirect all that funding towards paying off its debt.
Add another one to the list of people who think the current war in the Middle East is like Twilight’s Last Gleaming:
https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/168242.html
Paedrig # 324:
(Warning: Spoiler coming soon)
I think Trump, to repeat literally “Last Twilight Gleaming” JMG novel story, must make two very stupid mistakes: First, to send a carrier within the action radius of Iran antiship missiles (?); and second, to order a full ground invasion to reach Tehran. I bet first one isn’t in his plans (he isn’t fool enough), but second one isn’t impossible, if he’s too influenced by the Israeli lobby (a fact I think we honestly cannot know by now)
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Catholic exorcists: Well, after Vatican II Concilium, Rome looked at these priests with some shame, and their number seemed to dwindle slowly. However, when John Paul II was made Pope, he was very interested in this topic, to Progressive Catholics dismay (who even deny the Devil as an spiritual power, ahem). Do you know names like Father Amorth (Italian) and Father Fortea (Spanish)?
It’s interesting that after John Paul II and Benedictus XVI (often depicted like Conservative Popes), their following Popes (Francis and Leon XIV), depicted as Progressive Popes, have never dared to suppress the exorcists “job”.
I see myself as an open mind Christian, but I’m not naïve nor reckless enough to ignore there are evil spiritual influences in this world.
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Richard # 325:
From my European point of view, it seems an interesting hypothesis about Trump near future, but I also think it’s too soon to declare him a looser. He hasn’t burnt all his tricks and skills yet, methink. However, it could be possible that after an hypothetic Trump myth failure, American political system could accelerate its current degradation to unknown levels and consequences. We’ll see.
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Scotlyn # 329:
After having thought about the German conscription topic, I tell you my opinion, though I’m not a lawyer nor a judge:
1)-EU Laws (like every country or international structure) must be under the “principle of non contradiction” to keep safe its legitimacy within its citizens (well, between another philosophical principles like proportionality and so on). If/when EU or one of its members contradicts another national or EU law, do the math. EU Laws are real part of its member countries legal
systems, so when a national law contradicts them, principle of not contradiction can be pointed by States lawyers, so there’s an inner conflict between laws. Good luck with this, if it begins in near future.
2)-It seems the elephant in the room, if/when Germany rulers ask another EU members help them in that way, there’s an old thing in every country called “national sovereignity”. Another EU countries can accept German “suggestion”…if they want. If they don’t want, I doubt Brussels or Berlin can compel them to do it, methink. On the other hand, I don’t think hypothetical tantrums between German and another EU countries due to this topic end as a “casus belli”. What could happen soon or later, is a long and bitter conflict in the diplomatic and legal spheres (“Good luck, we’ll see soon at EU Courts”).
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Anonymous # 330:
I’ve never heard the term “disjunctive presidency”, so I take note of it. Thank you!
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# 335:
According your depiction about Trump as the POTUS who could provoke with his current war adventure the real end of globalization, and the beginning of “something new” then, I understand it would be a very ironical end to Trump presidency.
Indeed, Trump wanted to some extent to revert globalization to bring back industries from China to the USA: be careful with your wishes…
So you think Trump could destroy global actual economy in an involuntary way. One of this event (or events) could have between its consequences, that Trump would be damaged in his political interests and prestige (“myth”) beyond recovery, to be eventually enfing as a “looser” (IMHO, a sad ending for his political career).
I think this hypothetical end reminds me the old biblical story about Samson, a strong guy whose last epic act was destroying his enemies temple…though he also died when he destroyed that building to kill Philisteans.
A datapoint you may find interesting: one of NZ’s news sites just published an opinion piece with the heading: “The infrastructure NZ can’t afford to keep: Much of our urban-planning conversation focuses on growth but we should also be shrinking towns and reducing infrastructure so services remain sustainable in the face of change” https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/04/06/the-infrastructure-nz-cant-afford-to-keep/
@Chuaquin,
I very much agree with Cam, Less is More.
It would be good to realize that our host has to read and accept every single post in the comments section of this blog. I have been a reader and commenter on this blog for nearly 20 years, and I have always tried to be considerate of our hosts time when commenting. I often find myself writing out a comment and deleting it before posting because it didn’t really add anything to the conversation.
“BREAKING: Iran threatens “complete and utter annihilation” of OpenAI’s $30BN Stargate data center in Abu Dhabi”
Many people will cheer if this happens, including me. It’s one way to deal with the overdeveloped world. Also, John Kiriakou said that Israel asked every American president to bomb Iran but only Trump was willing and dumb enough to do it. Does there need to be a follow up to The King in Orange called The Clown in Orange? Trump seems to be doubling down with his threat to reduce Iran to the Stone Age, rather than backing off after declaring victory. I don’t really think he’s the one calling the shots but he has to pretend he’s in control.
As regards a soon coming collapse, civil war or break up of the USA I think of the saying “there’s a lot of ruin in a nation” meaning there is still reserve capacity and momentum and routine in the USA to keep going even if sub-standardly for a stretch of time, decades IMO, though I may be surprised by events. But it won’t be as in the song “The Stars and Stripes Forever” I think we’re seeing the end of Britain as a discrete particular culture and entity within the life time of people now alive. A song that kept up morale there in WW2 was “There Will Always Be An England” But now we can see the end of that from here, farther along than the state of affairs here in the US I think. I can imagine the few remaining English from that time are aghast at the present state of their land. I wonder what Dion Fortune would think if brought back to the present after leading a magical battle to preserve and protect her country in WW2.
But funny thing about the future – hard to know what it is as it hasn’t happened yet!
On my father’s side I am descended from early 1600’s New England settlers and from cousins of John and Samuel Adams and revolutionary war soldiers and a civil war veteran. So my ancestors helped get this America thing going. But my country right now to a large extent is running on the fumes of the past and the civilizational energy is flagging.
@ Anonymous #344 “John Michael Greer said in his mundane astrology predictions:” – “that one possibility is that the American people abandon the two major parties:”
This is a very real possibility. The largest block of voters in the US are those that do not vote. If things get rough enough, combined with many people rejecting Democrats and Republicans, there could be a fairly quick third option coming.
JMG has been right in saying, Trump is an archetype of change that will run its course regardless of what one wants the future to be. Once Trump is gone, (somewhere between next Tuesday and 20 years) republicans may flail around a little bit trying to keep the MAGA movement going via cargo cult thinking only to push many of those followers out as it falls flat. Combine that with purge of people from the Democrats with their stance of “It is still 1996 and everything is fine! Just ignore the poor folks.”, add in a lot of non-voters becoming active because they are sick of being bashed around like a tennis ball between those two – that is a huge block of people that will quickly move against the two incumbents. When a 3rd option comes along, the archetype will continue its path until it is done.
Trump as a moderate? Well, I never thought of him as moderate, but even though I fully support some of his reforms, his manner of executing them is always heavy handed, likely to fail and likely to create a huge backlash in the meantime. I wonder how long before Tulsi Gabbard abandons ship. For her political career, the sooner the better, I think. And the time seems more than ripe for a third party to emerge, a paleo-conservative party, perhaps.
Someone mentioned today’s Ron Unz article. I read it. I wonder… if more of the military brass resigns in protest of this war, what will we be left with? The evangelical, end-of-days enthusiasts. Not an appealing prospect.
“Add another one to the list of people who think the current war in the Middle East is like Twilight’s Last Gleaming:
https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/168242.html”
Shame to see Kimberly Steele go down the “Sabbatean Frankists control all politicians” conspiracy theory rabbit hole. But not surprising as that’s what usually happens to people when they have put their faith in reformers like Trump, and said reformers have failed to reform the system and the system has consequently lost its legitimacy.
@Kan RE : New Zealand infrastructure.
That they are publishing this is actually a great sign, the overton window has shifted and discussion of paths forwards are viable.
Still not much sign of this in Australia, some of us are out there working our green wizardry ready for when folks are willing to listen. But coming from a country where “I OWN NINE INVESTMENT PROPERTIES!” is considered a complete personality type, it may take some time to trickle down. In that sense, new Zealand is the same. 😉
The last few weeks have been interesting though. With the whole Iran fluctuation, it is starting to dawn that the age of modernity based abundance is tightening. It will take a few months once shipments from all around the world start slowing and it is more than just theory, it is felt. The talk of what could have been done in advance and what to do now is spreading, re-localisation being the big one. Quietly at first, hopefully to bloom into something. Maybe we are in the opening stages of the Retro Suburbia David Holmgren has advocated for decades.
This quote summarises my view a fair bit. Just swap Japan for your country of choice.
‘Modern life is so thin and shallow and fake. I look forward to when developers go bankrupt, Japan gets poorer and wild grasses take over.’ – Hayao Miyazaki
‘God bless the grass that grows through the cracks’ – Melvina Reynolds
@Chuaqin “According your depiction about Trump as the POTUS who could provoke with his current war adventure the real end of globalization, and the beginning of “something new” then, I understand it would be a very ironical end to Trump presidency.”
As a more traditional environmentalist, not tunnel visioned on CO2, I have considered Trump and ‘accidental ally’. However, I have said it before, if one were President and had to implement a de-growth system of re-localisation but nobody else could know about it, it would look exactly like what Trump is doing.
It isn’t the utopian vision of a leader that convinces people directly and there is a grand open plan. The reality is actions are made to change the world so that people move into a more localised and sustainable configuration.
“I’ve never heard the term “disjunctive presidency”, so I take note of it. Thank you!”
I think the term originated from Stephen Skowronek.
“According your depiction about Trump as the POTUS who could provoke with his current war adventure the real end of globalization, and the beginning of “something new” then, I understand it would be a very ironical end to Trump presidency.
Indeed, Trump wanted to some extent to revert globalization to bring back industries from China to the USA: be careful with your wishes…”
He did campaign on ending globalization, the ironic part of it is just that the end of globalization is unintentionally caused by Trump provoking an unwinnable war that exposes America’s severe weaknesses and inability to maintain its global empire. I think most people, our host included, were hoping that Trump ending globalization would mean an orderly and dignified retreat from empire kind of like how the British granted its African colonies independence and left Africa under Harold Macmillan, rather than an ignoble defeat on the battlefield forcing America out of that region of the world.
“One of this event (or events) could have between its consequences, that Trump would be damaged in his political interests and prestige (“myth”) beyond recovery, to be eventually enfing as a “looser” (IMHO, a sad ending for his political career).”
It’s many events slowly eating away at Trump’s support. To give one example, Trump’s ICE stunts involving masked ICE agents alienated a lot of the libertarians who voted for Trump in 2024 because they disliked Democrats’ covid tyranny during the pandemic, and Trump’s ICE stunts reminded them too much of covid tyranny. Then Trump’s backtracking on the ICE stunts after the backlash against ICE alienated a lot of the immigration hawks and white nationalists who voted for Trump in 2024 because they thought Trump would do mass deportation of illegals and/or non-whites. Now, both sides of this debate in the MAGA coalition hate Trump and feel betrayed by him and no longer trust him.
It’s also going to happen with the war, Trump has already alienated a lot of the people who voted for Trump because they thought Trump was the peace president or the anti-Zionist president; Trump backtracking down on war in the Middle East and getting America out of the region will alienate a lot of the Zionists, neocons, and warmongerers in the MAGA coalition who were hoping America can protect Israel or maintain its dominance over the Middle East, but Trump still won’t get any of the peaceniks or anti-Zionists back because they no longer trust Trump due to his prior actions. End result is that both sides of this debate in the MAGA coalition hate Trump and feel betrayed by him.
We haven’t yet reached the point yet where an economic recession and stagflation hits the United States. If that happens, the people who supported Trump because under Trump there was economic prosperity will turn on Trump because he can no longer provide that economic prosperity.
My apologies for posting twice this evening; I know, less is more. It sounds as if our F-15 was brought down by one of those “Chinese toys” that you wrote about in “Twilight’s Last Gleaming.” Possibly that A-10 was as well. The A-10 seems to be a great aircraft. So, naturally, our military brass wanted to get rid of it and replace it with something more expensive.
“(Either this, or the balancing act he must carry out between warring constituencies seriously undermines his capacity to stand over, and give effect to, any offer he makes).”
This. The 2024 MAGA coalition is a coalition that was only united by its hatred of the Democrats and woke, and disagrees with just about everything else. This was evident immediately after the 2024 election when immigration restrictionists and the tech bro lobby in the MAGA coalition went to war against each other over H1Bs. It is impossible to please everybody in the coalition and attempts to do so just pisses off everybody and makes them distrust Trump. One and a half years of this and the MAGA coalition is collapsing from infighting and you have a lot of former Trump supporters openly hating on Trump and talking about how Trump betrayed America and MAGA and how the left or a third party might serve their interests better than Trump.
Another sign that the MAGA coalition is collapsing: Charlie Kirk was supposed to be a martyr for the right wing to unify everybody against the Democrats and the woke and the left. But his murder has only divided the MAGA coalition between people who believe the official narrative and people who instead believe that Israel kiled Charlie Kirk or that his wife Erika killed Charlie Kirk and that Tyler Robinson was a patsy who was set up by the actual killers. And these divisions over who actually killed Charlie Kirk have lead to some of the most vicious fights in the MAGA coalition of the stuff you’d used to only see in the woke left firing squads a few years ago.
Cam…# 341 and Clay D. # 351:
I take note of it.
Well, if you don’t ignore my current comment, and read it, I can tell you that you’re free to read me or scroll my comments. And I’m free (within JMG blog rules) to write my comments here. Of course, my many comments can be boring or interesting for you and the whole commentariat, but it’s a fact that our “boss” JMG, usually allows me to write in his blog without any problem (thanks, John). You can like or dislike my opinions, but I’m a bit puzzled by your comments. However, I’m not upset. I mourn if I’ve bored you, though I think you can choose which commenter(s) you prefer to read and which one(s) not. Indeed, you can see I answer a lot of comments, but not every comment written here.
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Michael # 342:
Yes, this epic rescue story seems it’s been used as a fig leaf to hide, first, that Iran army AD still works (maybe thanks to Russia and China help) to shoot down a F-15; and second, that US Army needed a heavy operation to rescue the poor airman (so the supposed “weak” Iranian gunfire against Americans is quite counter-factual). I’m not an expert on warplanes, but I’ve read F-15 is a relatively old fighter, but indeed a fast and good plane; but Iran AD managed to shot down one of them, so…
I think the propaganda war between the Western axis and the Eurasian one goes on. First one thinks the rescue operation shows how weak is Iran ground army (?), and 2 of the 5 planes which landed there to support the rescue had technical problems and were left in Iranian ground (after their destruction by Americans). Of course, conspiracy freaks in favor of Eurasian axis point these planes could have been destroyed by the Iranians, during a heavy battle (I wouldn’t discard this explanation at first sight).
By the way, it seems Trump is more nervous these recent days. Beyond his usual Spectacle, maybe he’d need an ansiolithic pill for his apparent anxiety…
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Mark # 346/347/…:
Thank you for your links!
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Michael G. # 355:
Well, behind every apparent binary dilemma (like current bipartisanship in USA politics) there can be a third option. Even during wars, before choosing one side, you can be neutral (third option) if you aren’t in the conflict and flee war zone.
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Michael G. # 358:
Interesting. I take note of your view about Trump presidency and I’ll think about it. It’s a possible explanation about how his politics can end in not wanted consequences.
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Anonymous # 359:
No argument here. I think Trump’s the nowadays icon for today “spirit of contradiction” due to his Spectacular and controverted politics.
I’d like to return now to this post original topic: conspiracy theories.
Maybe you don’t know who’s Daniel Estulin. He was born in the USSR during early ‘80s, in today Lithuania (though his surname seems Russian, like PutIN or ZamyatIN). Apparently his parents were exiled from Soviet Union. He’s been living since a long time ago in Spain.
He’s a well known conspiracy theorist here. His favorite topic to write books is Bilderberg Club (his main black beast). However, he also has written about ideological wars between Freemasons and the Vatican, actual geopolitcs and much more topics.
His most controverted opinion, IMHO, is his claim about Putin. In the short form, he thinks Russian ruler is a serf under the Anglo-American and Zionist orders. You can guess this idea hasn’t made him popular in Russia, nor within the conspiracy nutties who love Putin as a hero against the western axis. I think his “evidences” to show that hypothetic Putin submission are weak, but I can also say he’s got his supporters. In real world, I think Putin is ironically a mild leader when you compare it with harder line Russian politicians like the Commies or the Far Right there.
You can know more about him in Wikipedia (evidently in a “slightly” biased view about him) and many webs, if you use an online search engine to find it.
HI JMG
Talking about “lunacy” as a “sign of the Times”, as someone pointed-out in internet, you never expect a US president make nuclear threats to another country in a balcony surrounded by white flowers accompanied by an escort and a man dressed as a Easter bunny that waves to the audience. Kubrik would never had imagined something like that for a film.
What do you think is the probability of a US nuclear attack on Iran? At the end, as Trump said, they are merely “animals”, they are “bast*rds”, as the israelis say they are “amalek” and, “even the iranian children want him to continue bombing Iran” your president said (or something like that).
8 US generals (3 and 4 stars) have been fired in the last weeks, so it seems a real purge of the “not loyalists enough” has started inside the Pentagon, it seems to me that or they opposed to “boots on the groound” or they opposed to “nuke’em all and God will choose his own”.
This won’t end well.
Good luck to everyone.
David
Seriously – one thing about being a senior is that we always get to see the beginning of the crisis, but never its end. I remember that being pointed out to me, with Rudyard Kipling being cited as an example. He did a huge U-turn after World War I, when – if I recall correctly – his son was killed, which dealt him a massive wake-up call. Then – he lived long enough to see the rise of Hitler. At which point, the entire world Kipling grew up and lived much of his life in, had completely vanished. You can drive yourself crazy, trying to second-guess what comes next, but it’s like having to leave the theater before the last act. Therefore:
“Don’t waste your time worrying about tomorrow. Today has enough troubles of its own.” is the best way to deal with it, and so I will. But will continue to read the various speculations with considerable interest.
And I think the drought here in Florida has broken.
@scotlyn, @phutatorius about end-time enthusiasm: All prophecies about the end of times and the end of the earth we live on ultimately derive from Isaiah 65:17. In the King James translation this is: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth”, and most translations are similar, even Jewish ones.
However, the Jewish scholar Martin Buber translated it (into German) as “I make the heavens new and the earth new”. My Hebrew is not good enough to judge if this is a natural way to translate the original or if it is meant as a polemic against the common apocalyptic understanding. It does bear meditation. For what it’s worth, the first translation, the Septuagint, says “For the heaven will be new, and the earth will be new”.
Simplicius has an article about American troops on Iranian soil and suffering humiliating losses:
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/its-official-us-boots-on-ground-deep
He also writes how most of the things in Iran that America bombed in the previous month were actually decoys instead of actual military equipment and infrastructure.
Iran is requiring ships to pay a toll in the Chinese Yuan in order to cross the Strait of Hormuz:
https://nitter.net/Acyn/status/2041326687540183216
@357 Anonymous
Well, I am no longer certain KS is wrong (not saying I believe her or the more lurid claims about the Epstein files), and I can attest that her Ogham divinations tend to be accurate.
There’s been a bit of a discussion over on the latest Magic Monday about how the old European deities and cultural energies are moving to the Americas because Western Europe is in terminal decline.
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/364815.html?thread=59836943#cmt59836943
@JMG
If you’ve come to believe Trump may be our Gorbachev, may I ask what you expect that to look like? Are you now expecting a break-up of the union — with states seceding if not a full dissolution — or something else?
American white nationalists are going to be pro-immigration and pro-refugee in the future when the immigrants and refugees to America are white Europeans fleeing from war in Europe and the Muslim takeover of European countries.
“Well, I am no longer certain KS is wrong (not saying I believe her or the more lurid claims about the Epstein files), and I can attest that her Ogham divinations tend to be accurate.”
It’s comments like these where she says that all celebrities are controlled by Sabbatean Frankists that makes me think that she’s just looking for a scapegoat for the failures of anybody to reform the American system and the incoming collapse of American empire:
https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/167922.html?thread=4798450#cmt4798450
Like as the commenter beneath her said, really, you think that even the celebrities in Iran are controlled by Sabbatean Frankists?
There is no admission in her essays that she might be wrong about all politicians and celebrities being controlled by Sabbatean Frankists, whereas she usually goes out of her way in saying that I might be wrong but I believe that XYZ.
Once more, all votes have been exposed to strange radiations by mad scientists, mutated into weird larval forms, and the world will tremble when they pupate and hatch.
Paedrig, I’m still trying to fit my head around the very existence of buff and muscular Father Chad. If I put him in a satiric novel the readers would say that I’d gotten too absurd!
Richard, my worry is that they will reach for their guns, start outfitting FPV drones with improvised explosives, and launch a domestic insurgency that could readily turn into full-scale civil war, with politicians on both sides as their initial targets. We’re much closer to that possibility than I think most people realize.
Anon, that’s certainly one possible outcome, but it’s not as though we have a Roosevelt or a Reagan waiting in the wings at this point.
Phil, I don’t know what “we” think. It seems unlikely to me, but I wasn’t there at the time.
Justin, I suppose it’s no more absurd than some conspiracy theories.
Patricia M, how about “The Dreary Wives of Windsor”?
Michael, close-in air cover is always vulnerable to MANPAD shoulder-launched weapons. It’s astonishing that the US and Israeli air forces have lost so few planes so far.
Scotlyn, he was never actually that good. He was just outrageous enough to buffalo people into accepting his deals, within the specific subculture of the New York City real estate market.
KAN, good gods. Common sense breaking through at last!
DFC, at this point I’m not going to try to predict what Trump will do. I didn’t think he’d launch an attack on the Iranians, as you’ll recall.
Slithy, still anyone’s guess at this point. A convention of the states revising the constitution to yank the leash of the federal government is about the least disruptive option I can think of.
I’d love to see someone challenge the new German law about requiring permission to leave the country for sexism.
JMG, the Illuminatus essay was quite funny. As for Donald Trump, my impression is that his style has quite a bit to do with the “Elephant in the China Shop” image, at the same time, he not only still impersonates the Changer archetype, but may even impersonate it in regard to geopolitics. That said, I don’t believe he plays 11-dimensional or even 5-dimensional chess. And the whole business in the Near East and its fallout may very well have something to do with the Saturn-Neptune conjunction just past.
As for the Artemis mission, your essay in the Archdruid Report about the death of the space age was not really wrtong, just premature. There will definitely come a time when industrial civilizazion won’t be able to divert fossil fuels for making rocket fuel or space rockets anywhere on Earth.
There’s apparently still a lot of anti-Catholic sentiment in the United States:
https://nitter.net/shagbark_hick/status/2041255471240417541
@Anonymous
I don’t believe it’s as unified, systematic, or morally depraved as KS thinks, if it’s even true at all.
If it’s completely true, I participated in their evil since she thinks McDonald’s processes human flesh into their products!
Anyway, I think she’s doing more good than harm, and might be happier in her next incarnation, having laid aside her talent of cursing and taken up serious occultism in this one.
It was just something to keep me laughing when things are looking bleaky … but the “John Lennon Broke Up Fluxus” thing is a meme, if you will, in some of the art/music circles where I marinate. It always makes me smile considering the oft cited counter claim about Yoko Ono and what she did to the Beatles. Someone made a t-shirt out of that, and I thought why not a whole conspiracy, and then on from there…
…it is interesting, though, how many things do go back to Fluxus.
Allen Bukoff described Fluxus as “unfettered play in search of uncharted insights.”
I think that is a good use of time and used that phrase as my theme for meditation this morning.
Even when things seem to be going to shale, a bit of play, to lighten ones mood…
Looking forward to your next essay. Thank you!
Did anyone hear about the Lunar Index? Everytime America gets into a Lunar Program, the US oil production peaks!
@ Mark #369
In other words, the Strait of Hormuz is NOT closed. It is under new management. Will we or nil we.
“Scotlyn, he was never actually that good. He was just outrageous enough to buffalo people into accepting his deals, within the specific subculture of the New York City real estate market.”
This is where I wonder if he himself considers his capacity to “buffalo” people was due to his own positive thinking. If so, the fact that the world has refused to conform with his daily affirmation may be a useful lesson in the downsides of “The Secret” type of thinking.
I will say that the phrase “a civilisation might die tonight” sounds to me like an insufficiently well thought out affirmation, which may not fall on the target he is imagining. The oracle that moved King Croesus to attack Cyrus of Persia (as a result of misinterpreting its effect) comes to mind… https://sardisexpedition.org/en/essays/latw-cahill-persian-sack-sardis
In other words…. Brace for blowback.
@Beardtree 353
Indigenous English are still the majority in the UK. We reserve _aghast_ for queue jumping but I think many of us are quietly unhappy. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy a next step to go to noisily unhappy and I worry that the consequences if the various elements of the situation remain unaddressed will be performatively cruel.
When my gut reaction to this “BREAKING: Iran threatens “complete and utter annihilation” of OpenAI’s $30BN Stargate data center in Abu Dhabi” is ‘oh yes, please do!’ it doesn’t feel like much of a threat. But then to the people who own it I’m sure it is terrifying.
“It’s comments like these where she says that all celebrities are controlled by Sabbatean Frankists that makes me think that she’s just looking for a scapegoat for the failures of anybody to reform the American system and the incoming collapse of American empire:
https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/167922.html?thread=4798450#cmt4798450
Like as the commenter beneath her said, really, you think that even the celebrities in Iran are controlled by Sabbatean Frankists?”
I’ve seen similar things from Kimberly Steele in the past, of generalizing to the entire population in writing. I don’t think she means it quite that literally.
One particular incident stood out to me is last year when Kimberly Steele wrote a piece on her Substack and Dreamwidth where she said that everybody who took the covid vaccines will get their mental sheaths removed and be sent back into reincarnation as animals. Then the piece got linked to the Open Post on Covid in John Michael Greer’s Ecosophia Dreamwidth and a few users on the Open Post on Covid pointed out that covid vaccine takers includes people like Steve Kirsch who took the vaccines and then later became a covid vaccine sceptic and are now trying to get the truth about the dangers of the covid vaccines out, and asked whether Kimberly Steele really believes that those people will be stripped of their mental sheaths permanently. The comment section then devolved into s***-flinging and questioning Kimberly Steele’s motives and John Michael Greer had to freeze the comments to shut down the discussion, and reportedly the same thing happened over on Kimberly Steele’s Dreamwidth and she deleted the article on Dreamwidth and restricted comments to registered Dreamwidth users only. The next few times she wrote about the issue of covid vaccines she mentioned the possibility of her being wrong, and something about if people behaved decently enough in life they might keep their mental sheaths around the next incarnation.
Mark # 368:
I think Simplicius (in spite of being usually more in favor of Eurasian axis), seems to have more hot real information than our Western MSM, which are more and more biased and censored since some years ago. He’s worth to be read (of course with some caution).
By the way, I’d like to ask you, about last Trump tantrums, do you think they’re fake, true or 50/50?
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DFC and JMG # 375:
I think Trump is playing with fire when he’s threatened Iran regime with an “ultimatum” which implicitly could mean a nuke threat.
Of course, we’re in 2026 and not in 1945. Another countries in addition to USA and Israel have nukes.
An hypothetical first nuke bombing since the end of WW2 would mean the collapse of nuclear “terror equilibrium” between nuclear powers. If USA bombs fall over Iran, Putin (for example) could be free to vaporize Ukrainian Army launching against it some Russian tactical nukes. And then? Nuclear dissuasion could fall like a castle of cards: soon, the hell…
I guess Trump tantrums are at least in part his usual Spectacle, I don’t think he can be reckless enough to make reality his threats in that ominous sense.
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Finally, in addition to my last comment about that conspiracy theory named Daniel Estulin, I’ve been thinking his “reasons” to depict Putin as an “Anglo-Zionist” agent or serf seem counter-factual. Evidently, Ukraine regime full support by NATO in block since 2022 with the hope of a future Russian defeat and then a regime change (an after Putin era) is an embarrassing fact.
Oddly enough, my local Anglican church is St Chad’s. According to wikipedia he was a 7th century monk who introduced Christianity to Mercia. Apparently he was very eschatological – focussed on the last things. St Chad’s Day is 2 March.
Patricia Mathews #366
I know this is really late for this post and you might not see it. But if you want to keep an eye on drought conditions, go here:
https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Maps/Animations.aspx
It’s a nationwide drought map that gets updated weekly on Thursdays. It shows a four week slideshow, so you can see how the drought areas are evolving with time.
Booklover, becoming a vehicle for an archetype is a very dangerous thing, because archetypes don’t concern themselves with the fate of their human vehicles. As for the space race, oh, I know, but I was fairly sure the current round of nostalgia for America’s imperial zenith would stop well short of the Moon.
Anon, of course there is, especially among Protestants.
Justin, fair enough.
Scotlyn, trust me, I’m braced. Imperial hubris is rarely a safe habit.
KAN, I wonder if there’s any point in encouraging the Christian end of the young male populist scene to take up a special devotion to St. Chad. Here he is:
“By the way, I’d like to ask you, about last Trump tantrums, do you think they’re fake, true or 50/50?”
I don’t really pay attention to Trump’s tantrums and I don’t really care if they’re fake or real. Trump also contradicts himself every few days on social media so there’s no point in reading into Trump’s comments if he’s just going to change his mind later. Better to pay attention to what’s actually happening on the field itself.
“I will say that the phrase “a civilisation might die tonight” sounds to me like an insufficiently well thought out affirmation, which may not fall on the target he is imagining.”
Probably going to fall on European Faustian civilization tbh. America is still a land of barbarians whose time of civilization is still many centuries away.
Patricia Mathews #366: “Rudyard Kipling being cited as an example. He did a huge U-turn after World War I, when – if I recall correctly – his son was killed, which dealt him a massive wake-up call.”
Kipling’s “Epitaphs of the War” reflect this period of his life (yes, his only son was killed in WWI): https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_epitaphs.htm. The most poignant of these poems for me is this couplet:
“If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.”
@JMG
In my limited social circle and community, people don’t care all that much about the Artemis mission.
I know that a lot of people, particularly those who had heard of the generational theory of history, hoped that Trump would be the 21st century equivalent of Abe Lincoln or FDR. Instead, he seems to be turning into a cross between Mikhail Gorbachev and the Emperor Valens.
@Chuaquin
Re: nukes
I had that thought myself. If Iran is nuked and someone doesn’t retaliate against America or Israel, then nuclear-owning powers get carte blanche to annihilate or impose their will on their neighbors and rivals.
A perhaps irrational extension of MAD protected the world from that fate. Not only is nuking states with nukes suicidal, but so is using nukes in any offensive capacity. If it’s a bluff, as I suspect it is, let that bluff remain in force until the nuclear arsenals of the world degrade into nonfunctionality.
In addition to the vote for the 5th Wednesday that I already made, I vote for you to keep tallying future votes in the same style as in this post, because it’s endlessly entertaining (at least to me).
“I know that a lot of people, particularly those who had heard of the generational theory of history, hoped that Trump would be the 21st century equivalent of Abe Lincoln or FDR. Instead, he seems to be turning into a cross between Mikhail Gorbachev and the Emperor Valens.”
More like a cross between Mikhail Gorbachev and the Emperor Commodus, the last emperor before the Roman Empire entered its Year of the Five Emperors civil war. We haven’t had nomads invading America for one and a half centuries prior yet like the Roman Emperor under Valens did. That’s still in the future, where the nomads are coming up from Northern Mexico.
Commodus even had his own Biden character in Cleander who usurped Commodus for five years before Commodus retook power. Now we just need Trump to die in office before his term is completed, as predicted by many people including our host here, for the Trump Commodus parallel to be completed.
@ Book lover & JMG “As for the space race, oh, I know, but I was fairly sure the current round of nostalgia for America’s imperial zenith would stop well short of the Moon.”
I think the general flavour of ‘An Elegy For The Space Age’ still holds. The last few years has shown a lot of enthusiasm for space travel and as such a lot of junk launched into low orbit but not much more. They do have the circus trick of landing a booster with chop sticks, what ever that really achieves. So far we have – Boldy gone were hundreds have gone before!
I suspect we (US/China) might make it back to the Moon briefly but beyond that, it would be time to call ‘Last round!’ before closing the bar on space ambitions for good.
But as JMG said to Richard, the possibility of civil war would put an end to all of that long before we ever set foot on the Moon again.
“Phew”… I say looking at the news this morning.
A pause…. long may it last!
@Yavanna, #393 – yes. A fitting epitaph then and now. The more things change…..
@Anonymous #398: The emperor Commodus – who was the son of Marcus Aurelius. And for history repeating itself in Rome, the same thing happened in the Year of the 4 Emperors after Nero’s death, until Vespasian led the armies back and knocked a lot of heads. But then, Rome wasn’t on its last legs, either, and Europe clearly is now. And yes, Trump dying in office is sounding more and more plausible every day, and “The King in Orange” like an alternate history whose timeline diverged from ours. The question now is, “Who is Trump’s Yeltsin?” And where will it all end? As I said, take it one day at a time, with popcorn. Sigh.
Am very curious about the way this week’s post will end.
You could tie the Jungian archetypes and Iran war thing together for an interesting post. There’s been millions of takes on the U.S. – Iranian war, but that would be one that I could only ever find on this blog.
“Am very curious about the way this week’s post will end.”
I think the conflict on the higher/inner planes won this month’s vote. Bunch of people voted for that one because they don’t want another week of Iran War discussion.
One usually sees the comments refreshed within a few hours. Seems not to be happening today. Therefore, I am worried about Mr. Greer, praying for his good health and his circumstances to be good. Thanks for all you do in any case. I surely understand being busy and I apologize if this expression of concern is slightly aggravating.
Clarke, you do know that we went on to another post on Wednesday, right?
Sorry. I be gettin’ old. I was looking forward to that new post, too.