Saturday, September 30th 2023

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Author iconFrancis Berger - Blog
Francis Berger

I don't know, but I suspect it will only come after the

"What are you going to do to protect me in this world?"

question becomes anathema in Christian discourse.

Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

🖼️

At the start of the birdemic global coup in March 2020, I predicted that the Christian churches would (intentionally) be extremely hard hit by the lockdowns. The Church of England Bishops ensured maximum harm of their institution, by imposing what I think were the most extreme and irrational set of ...

1m (330 words)
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Author iconFrom the Narrow Desert
Wm Jas Tychonievich

This evening I was about to go to a particular coffee shop to read, but the thought suddenly popped into my head, "No, go to the night market first" -- even though that was very much out of my way. I tend to follow these random whims unless I have some good reason not to, so off to the night market I went.

On my way ...

3m (950 words)
Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

I become more convinced that "direct knowing" is required of us (unmediated intuiting, the sharing of common thoughts...); and indeed the only way of knowing that 'works' in a world where language, symbols, visions, and all kinds of perceptual experience are corrupted as well as weakened.

Furthermore that this ...

2.5m (730 words)
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Author iconMeeting The Masters
William Wildblood

Bruce Charlton has a recent piece on the subject of AI, something about which, I must confess, I know next to nothing. But I do know a little about computer technology which is the basis of AI, and I also have enough spiritual understanding to realise that AI is just another poisoned chalice, something that will suck ...

1.5m (390 words)

Friday, September 29th 2023

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Author iconFrancis Berger - Blog
Francis Berger

I have just learned that Cologero Salvo, the man behind the Gornahoor blog and site that was a part of the Synlogos feed, passed away on Ascension Eve -- May 17.

Salvo's metaphysics were not exactly my metaphysics, but he possessed a remarkable depth of knowledge when it came to metaphysical matters. He was an ...

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Author iconFrom the Narrow Desert
Wm Jas Tychonievich

On August 29, I changed the wallpaper image on my phone from the Ace of Swords to the White Tree of Gondor. The next day, I happened to pick up my phone at precisely 5:55 p.m., which struck me as significant, so I took a screenshot. One week later -- and I mean exactly one week later, to the minute -- it happened ...

2.5m (740 words)

Thursday, September 28th 2023

Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

AI - so-called Artificial Intelligence - is (just) the latest version of a phenomenon I have spent most of my working life understanding and arguing against: that phenomenon appears in various guises including bureaucracy, voting, statistics applied to understanding, quality management, guidelines...

I have given-up ...

1.5m (520 words)

Wednesday, September 27th 2023

Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

What I look for in evaluating the 'success' or 'effectiveness' of an 'ideology' or religion or any kind of spiritual activity; is that it is strengthening.

All the rest of the indices are pretty useless as of 2023; although they may well have been valid at various points in the past.

A thriving institution is ...

2m (610 words)
Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

I have been contemplating again (albeit not yet re-reading) the highly suggestive series of World War I lectures by Rudolf Steiner entitled The Karma of Untruthfulness - which might be translated as "the spiritual consequences of truth-indifference".

One of Steiner's core ideas is that the Great War was a direct ...

Tuesday, September 26th 2023

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Author iconMeeting The Masters
William Wildblood

Here is the Contents page for By No Means Equal to give potential readers an idea of what's inside the book. It can now be pre-ordered on Kindle as well as paperback. Kindle versions are here and here.ContentsIntroduction

Part ILiberty and EqualityNo Rational Basis for EqualityWe Are All OneQuality and EqualityDon't ...

1.5m (390 words)

Monday, September 25th 2023

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Author iconFrancis Berger - Blog
Francis Berger

The Collins English Dictionary Word of the Year for 2022 was permacrisis. I’m not sure what words the fine folks at Harper Collins have shortlisted for the 2023 Word of the Year, but here is my suggestion for their expert consideration – permaincompetence (that is, permanent incompetence).

Sure, ...

1.5m (500 words)
Author iconSecret Fire
John Fitzgerald

… to reframe and recharge. Back when the gods decree.

Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

Over at my Notion Club Papers blog, I review a recent book that focuses on the Tolkien Phenomenon (and Tolkien Industry) as it developed over the past decades since the publication of The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.

Sunday, September 24th 2023

Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

I recently watched yet another (this time video) presentation on the wonders and dangers of the "new" kinds of AI ("Artificial Intelligence") - and yet again felt that this phenomenon mostly reveals how degraded, and unhuman, has our world become over the past thirty years...

Degraded, bureaucritized, dehumanized, ...

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Author iconFrom the Narrow Desert
Wm Jas Tychonievich

Yesterday, September 23, I happened to see a bright blue scooter with the license plate MDY-0098. I thought that MDY-00 was the best way of encoding the word moody in the ABC-1234 format (keeping in mind that there are no Os on license plates, only zeroes), and this combined with the color of the scooter made me think ...

4.5m (1,300 words)

Saturday, September 23rd 2023

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Author iconFrancis Berger - Blog
Francis Berger

Conservatives, nationalists, Christians, and other individuals holding "rightist" views continue to heap respect and adulation upon the Hungarian government, often elevating Orbán et al. to lofty heights verging on hero-worship.

In reality, Orbán and his government craftily manoeuvre within an illusion ...

1.5m (430 words)
Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

The three professions of which I was member have, in reality, long since ceased to exist; but this can now be seen objectively since they are perpetually "on strike".

Striking means hurting the general public (i.e. patients and students - because nearly all scientists are employed by educational establishments) - ...

2m (530 words)
Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

Modern adult Men are not spontaneously religious or (seriously) spiritual - and we are trapped in the alienated state of purposelessness and meaninglessness by our fundamental assumptions concerning the nature of reality.

Any Westerner who is a real Christian, has had to achieve this by his own efforts.

Whereas, ...

2m (640 words)
Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

I have little doubt that for most people in the modern world, evil is defined in terms of inflicting suffering upon other people.

Modern attitudes to abortion and euthanasia suggest that the infliction of suffering is regarded as worse than killing*; and even the grossest harms of the transagenda - mutilation, ...

2m (580 words)
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Author iconFrom the Narrow Desert
Wm Jas Tychonievich

Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles, right?

Maybe not. I propose an alternative reading in the second installment of my notes on the Book of Mormon.

Friday, September 22nd 2023

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Author iconFrancis Berger - Blog
Francis Berger

Discovering oneself – one’s true self, real self, divine self, call it what you will – is one of the underlying purposes of Creation. With that in mind, it is clear that this journey of self-discovery involves other Beings.

If it didn’t, God, as a Being, as the primary Creator, and as a loving ...

1.5m (470 words)
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Author iconMeeting The Masters
William Wildblood

I have written on several occasions about the need for a radical revision of our ideas about good and evil and what these fundamental things might be. This gets more important by the day because the current understanding of goodness has become completely distorted with the corresponding sense of evil and what it ...

2.5m (800 words)
Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

The Litmus Tests* may seem crude and formulaic as a way of discernment applied to a person or institutions; but in reality they are almost the opposite.

The Litmus Tests include the birdemic-peck 'healthism' agenda; support of the opponents of the Fire Nation in the ongoing war; antiracism; pro-sexual revolution; ...

2.5m (760 words)

Thursday, September 21st 2023

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Author iconFrom the Narrow Desert
Wm Jas Tychonievich

It occurred to me today that I hadn't checked The Babylon Bee in a good long time, so I opened it up in a new tab. Then I realized that I hadn't checked the last generation's Bee, the original Onion, in even longer -- because it hasn't been funny in ages, but who knows, maybe today -- so I opened that up, too. And ...

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Author iconFrom the Narrow Desert
Wm Jas Tychonievich

I've decided I need to figure out what I believe about the Book of Mormon -- rather than more-or-less ignoring it while still maintaining that Joseph Smith was a genuine prophet -- and to that end I've started a new blog for recording my notes as I go through it. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but as it ...

Wednesday, September 20th 2023

Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

Most people, probably nearly everybody who contributes to mainstream public discourse, are on-board with the Establishment-woke-totalitarian agenda - especially when it comes to the sexual revolution, antiracism, carbon-climate and the other Litmus Test issues that provide the means for top-down strategic ...

1.5m (500 words)
Author iconBruce Charlton's Notions
Bruce Charlton

At the time of the late sixties and early 1970s; there was a general feeling that - even if the specific content of the counter-culture (e.g. mysticism, radical politics, 'mind-expanding' drugs, astrology, tarot, magic, neopaganism andwitchcraft, crystals, geomancy, flying saucers etc.) was not valid, and was risky to ...