Madness in an Empire of Lies

Conspiracies are strange things. On one level, they're simple. On another, they're complex. In its essence, a conspiracy is merely two or more people coming together for the purpose of defrauding others. Any deceptive plan based on lies and half truths is a conspiracy. However, conspiracies have a tendency to hook up with other conspiracies. When two convenient lies align to the advantage of both conspiring parties, we get connections. These beget further connections, and pretty soon, there's a network of conspiracies.

When this happens, various interested parties are only in charge of a fraction of the total lie. No single person knows the totality of the conspiracy. They only know their own lies. The other lies are convenient connections that may be viewed as true.

Falsely assuming some convenient lie to be true will often make it easier to keep up one's own lies, so there's a tendency for conspirators to genuinely believe much of the overall narrative. They know that their part is a lie, but comfort themselves in the false belief that the overall narrative is for the better of everyone.

This leads to a self propelling narrative where conspirators promote the lies of others. Everyone is an expert, especially in things they know little about.

Those who are duped into the overall narrative are often the loudest promoters of the lies. Victims become promoters of the narrative in the false belief that the unease they feel will go away if only a sufficiently large number of people go along with it. Anyone pointing out some inconvenient truth is viewed as a threat. Truth tellers are avoided and demonized.

This is why it's so hard to figure out who benefits from the lies that circulate in times of  universal deceit. There's no single beneficiary, and victims are often as passionate about the overall narrative as the ones who benefit.

No-one is in a position of control. Not even the highest political office is fully informed about the narrative. Hence, we get bizarre displays of madness in people like Nancy Pelosi, a woman who has dedicated her life to government power and greed. Of all people, she should know that there's nothing true in anything coming from government. However, she behaves as if she's taken the vaccine.

People who have dedicated their lives to deceit and power often become excessively paranoid towards the end of their lives. They know from their own actions that there's no limit to how low people will go in order to dethrone them. No-one can be trusted, and there's nothing to look forward to. There's either no afterlife at all, or there's hell. There's no glory. Nothing of lasting value was achieved. Death becomes a truly frightening spectre.

This would explain Pelosi's recent rant about science being the solution to everything. It would also explain her insistence on mandatory mask wearing. Having turned her back to God, Pelosi has found religion in science. Pelosi talks of science in the same way that Christian zealots talk of Jesus. Whatever ails her, science is the answer, and nothing says science quite like the vaccine.

But the vaccine isn't the answer to anything, and Pelosi is likely to know this by now. Hence, her descent into madness.

Nancy Pelosi

By US Department of Labor - L-15-04-14-A.569, Public Domain, Link

Rule by Decree

My wife has had the TV tuned to the national news channel all afternoon. Apparently, it's decision day once again. The latest laws and regulations are broadcast to the masses. It's an absurd bit of political theatre in which everyone pretends there's a real debate going on. First, the president talked endlessly about how we have to get the economy going. Journalists sit with bated breath through the charade. Then there are questions, followed by a studio debate in preparation for the main event.

This time, the prime minister presented the new rules and regulations under which we have to live through the summer. It was as if Nicolae Ceaușescu himself was speaking to us. Except, he made it clear on several occasions that the decrees were backed by science, to which my wife cynically commented that it could not possibly have anything to do with upcoming elections.

The latest decrees contained no further restrictions to our freedoms. The only change of note was a plan to remove the mask mandate for public roads on September 1, a move I have long anticipated due to waning commitment. Compliance dropped in response to the draconian decrees made public three weeks ago, and I suspect the politicians got the memo. They have to tone things down before applying more force.

However, this may signal a turning point. It will be hard to reinstate mask mandates once they are officially abandoned. There's too little conviction and trust to put them back in place. I suspect compliance will drop steadily from now until September. We'll likely see less than 50% compliance in August. Few will wear their masks after September 1.

With vaccines only getting lip service this time around, we can hope this too will be abandoned shortly. My wife will be able to visit hospitals by taking a test. With rumours of adverse effects related to vaccines gaining ground, it will become increasingly difficult to push the herd further. There might even be a backlash. Once politicians sense that vaccines are morphing into a medical disaster, they'll claim they had nothing to do with it, that they were sceptical all along, and that they were deceived by bad science. Then they'll hang a few scientists, hoping to placate the public in the process.

Nicolae Ceaușescu

By not credited - Fototeca online a comunismului românesc, Photo no. #E594,, Attribution, Link

Not Merely a Matter of Principle

It's been two months since my wife declared she's taking the vaccine. I talked her out of it back then, but she brought it up again today. She told me that there's no way out of this. Everybody will have to take the vaccine at some point. "What if we need to visit somebody in the hospital? Practicalities trump principles."

Apparently, my wife still think the vaccine is largely harmless and that our refusal to take it is merely a matter of principle. But that's not how I see it. I believe this is going to end up as the biggest medical disaster in history, so I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to postpone any decision to participate for at least two more years. Only then will we know enough about the vaccines to make a decision, and I suspect the cons will greatly outweigh the pros. If there ever was a time when a two year vacation was in order, it's now.

We're in the privileged position that we can afford up to twenty year of vacation, so a two year break is well within our means. Besides, things are changing so rapidly that I doubt any real inconvenience will be thrown our way. If there is a need to visit someone in a hospital, we have plenty of vaccinated friends and family that we can ask for help. My wife's imagined hurdles are not nearly so difficult to live with as she believes.

My guess is that none of us will suffer much inconvenience by remaining unvaccinated. The Delta is already in decline, and may be a thing of the past in a month from now. Who then will insist on vaccination passports and tests? Adverse effects from vaccines will emerge, and it will become increasingly clear that the vaccine was a bad idea. There may even be so many sick people that my wife and her daughter get extra job offers simply for being in good health.

The worst that can happen if we stay low for two years is that my son gets a smaller inheritance. My wife will face some inconveniences. Her daughter may have to stay away from acting for a while, but that will give her opportunities to explore other avenues. There are other ways to make a living as an actress than standing on stage or in a TV studio.

However, in a worst case scenario for the vaccinated, most of them will be dead in a few years. That's unlikely to happen, but the fact that this cannot be dismissed presents us with a simple cost benefit analysis, and this analysis remains unchanged no matter how many of our friends and relatives end up vaccinated. In fact, the more friends and relatives take the vaccine, the more important it will be to remain unvaccinated. Somebody must remain unvaccinated in the event of a catastrophe. Otherwise, there will be no-one to take care of the children.

However, the most likely scenario is much less extreme. My guess is that the vaccine will be proven counterproductive, and that this will be generally accepted within two years from now. That will take the pressure off the unvaccinated, and may even end up to our advantage because of the generally good health enjoyed by the unvaccinated relative to the vaccinated.

Liberty

Comforting Lies

Things are moving ahead at a brisk pace. What was only a prediction in May is now becoming reality. The world is being segregated based on vaccination status. A medical apartheid is being implemented. However, the consequences of this are likely to be different from what most people expect, because the narrative behind this push is based on a lie, and lies don't hold up against reality.

The idea is that vaccinated people are clean, and hence incapable of spreading viruses or other diseases. However, this isn't true. Vaccinated people spread diseases too, and the fact that they are all weakened by their vaccines will make it easy for viruses to spread among the vaccinated. All sorts of other diseases will also spread among them for the same reason. Nature is ruthless when it comes to weaknesses and uniformity. Such conditions act like super highways when it comes to the spread of diseases. Hence, we can expect bacterial and fungus infections to take a toll on the vaccinated going forward, followed by heart disease and cancer.

None of this will dawn on vaccine enthusiasts any time soon. They will remain blissfully ignorant until things become blindingly obvious, and that may be as much as 18 months into the future. In the meantime, they will go about their business and enjoy their licensed freedoms, showing off their passports whenever they go out to enjoy their strictly segregated safe spaces.

Little will they know that they are about to be hit by waves of diseases, many of which have nothing to do with viruses, but everything to do with their vaccines and fondness for masks. This will at first be under-reported. There will be contrived efforts to blame outbreaks on the unvaccinated. However, this will be difficult to do for diseases that aren't variants of the flu. In the case of respiratory diseases, doctors will point out the dangers of wearing masks. The evidence will start piling up against the mandates. There will be a growing sense of unease among the vaccinated. The experts were wrong about the masks. Could they have been wrong about other things too?

My guess is that this coming winter will be hard on the unvaccinated in practical terms. However, it will turn out to be just as hard on the vaccinated in terms of health and peace of mind. Some time next year, the vaccinated will start suffering more than the unvaccinated, despite their licensed freedoms and safe places. Once that happens, things will unravel in earnest. Come next winter, only the unvaccinated will sleep soundly at night. Regret and despair will set in among the vaccinated, followed by resignation and a sense of defeat.

Guantanamo Bay detention camp

By Shane T. McCoy, U.S. Navy - (copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Camp_x-ray_detainees.jpg so that the image can be used on Wikinews.), Public Domain, Link

Slaves to Convenience

Delta is already in decline in England. From the looks of it, the numbers will follow the same pattern as in India where Delta had its first major outbreak. There was a 36 day period of increasing numbers followed by 36 days of falling numbers. That's a perfect bell curve, which is the textbook example of how diseases come and go. If this keeps up, there won't be much talk of Delta in England a month from now. Something else must take its place in order to keep the population scared and easily led.

An interesting aspect of this is that I used the bell curve as my reference model when I was tracking the 2020 outbreak in its early days. I noted down the numbers as they came in, and I made predictions for the future. This worked well until mid March when the numbers suddenly started to deviate. Soon, it became clear that the disease was no longer tracking the bell curve, and I concluded from this that the numbers were manipulated. By April 2020, I no longer believed the scaremongering related to the disease.

Having figured out the scam, I expected this soon to be widely understood by everyone. However, here we are more than a year later, and people are covering their airways in fear and lining up to take the experimental vaccine, just in case. To me, this is pure madness, because everybody should know by now that something nefarious is going on.

I've long known that I'm a bit of an eccentric. But it wasn't before the plague struck that I fully realized to what extent I'm different from most people.

Most people don't think. They listen to talking heads on TV and they take decisions based on how they feel. Thinking is too much bother. It's much easier to defer this to experts, and simply respond to whatever primitive emotions are stirred in the moment. But this cannot possibly have been the typical mind-set in the past. It must be something new, and I'm merely blessed with a personality that has retained the old habit of forward planning.

Imagine a farm where no-one thinks of next year's crops, or a ship where no-one cares about the clouds on the horizon or the destination of the ship. Such enterprises will soon end in disaster. Hence, forward planning must have been common in the past. Just about everyone would do some risk-reward analysis, and try to avoid high time preference situations. Only bums and whores would take excessive risks in the now with little to no regards for what tomorrow might bring.

But things have changed over the last hundred years. Enterprises have become larger. There are fewer farmers and captains. Forward planning and risk analysis are now done by experts only. Everybody else is free to gamble and waste. There's always a safety net. Nothing can go truly wrong. Hardly any action is so stupid that it ends in disaster.

People have become slaves to convenience. Even the slightest inconvenience will trigger compliance with some suggested action. Hence, people flock to vaccination centres the moment they learn that it will make life more convenient than if they remain unvaccinated. No-one thinks of the future. There's no awareness about the brisk pace of change that we see everywhere. What was news a few weeks back is already forgotten. No-one can imagine the future. Least of all a future where things don't sort themselves out on their own. The prospect of potentially horrendous side-effects from the vaccine are simply not considered.

This may sound terribly grim. However, there's a silver lining. The fact that minor inconveniences work so well as incentives makes it less likely that harsher measures will be put into effect. We're not likely to see much brute force being employed as long as things move along without it. Furthermore, there's little conviction behind any of the measures. Hotel staff don't care if someone puts a flu test all the way up their nose or merely moves it around its edge. An unvaccinated friend of mine did the latter under cover of his hand, and no-one blinked an eye.

Enforcement of regulations are made by individuals who are just as much slaves to convenience as are the ones rushing off to get the vaccine. There's no zeal. I can't imagine any of these people going door to door to root out the unvaccinated, because such work would be unpleasant and tiresome. Hence, we can remain unvaccinated, provided we're willing to put up with whatever inconveniences the authorities decide to implement.

There's also a time limit to how long people will put up with restrictions before finding ways around them. The restrictions may stay around for years, but the loopholes will appear almost immediately. After a few weeks, things adjust to new rules, and everybody remain provided for. No-one will starve for lack of a vaccine passport. Any famine coming our way will be due to high food prices. Vaccine status will be the least of anyone's concern.

There's no need to despair. Things are seriously messed up. But things are also unfolding at a rapid pace. Some kind of reckoning is on its way. My guess is that we'll see some weird stuff happening this coming winter. It will become increasingly evident that masks and vaccines are counterproductive. But it won't be before a year later that the evidence will be so clear that no-one can deny it. A few months later, the whole sham will implode. That's two years into the future. But the rewards in the form of integrity and peace of mind will present themselves shortly. Everything else will be theatre for the unvaccinated, while deadly serious for the vaccinated.

Four horsemen of the apocalypse

By Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov - http://lj.rossia.org/users/john_petrov/166993.html, Public Domain, Link

Short Squeeze in Bitcoin

We've just seen a short squeeze in Bitcoin, with a subsequent rush of useful idiots buying into Bitcoin on the belief that this is a turning point, and that we'll soon see new highs. But a short squeeze is rarely a turning point. It's merely a tactical move employed by whales. It forces the shorts to cover, thereby creating a sudden demand for whatever is being squeezed. However, this does nothing to support prices over time. It merely pulls forward potential buyers. The shorts buy into the asset now rather than later.

Short squeezes typically happen in assets that are in decline. After the squeeze, the decline continues unabated. A short squeeze is not a reason for optimism. Rather, the opposite. It indicates fundamental weakness in the asset. In the case of Bitcoin, we can see that there's been no increase in search interest due to the squeeze.

The squeeze itself only looks impressive in the short to medium term chart. However, it hardly registers in the six month chart. There's a long way to go before we're nearing previous highs, and the required conviction to get there doesn't appear to be present. With a great number of potential buyers now gone due to the squeeze, the outlook is bleak.

As for gold, nothing much is happening. We're back to $1800 per ounce, which is by now a key support level, together with $1750 and $1675. There's plenty of support, so gold remains a safe bet for those primarily concerned about wealth preservation. There's also plenty of upside potential. $2100 by the end of the year and $3000 some time next year still look feasible. Gold looks good from a risk reward perspective.

Whale

By Michaël CATANZARITI - by Michaël CATANZARITI, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Fungus and Bacteria

One of the most astonishing things about composts is the way healthy organic matter can survive the entire composting process. This is particularly true for seeds, but it's also true for carrots, potatoes, garlic and the like. Anything viable for further growth is spared.

Living matter is constructed in such a way that it repels pests like fungus and bacteria, but turns immediately attractive for the same pests as soon as it dies. My interpretation of this is that it's the higher level organisms that evolve in this direction. The pests merely respond to the signals given off from dead material. In their fight for survival, higher level organisms evolve in such a way that they repel pests while alive, but attract pests when dead. The result of this is that composting can take place around a healthy clove of garlic without ever attacking it. Quite the opposite happens. The garlic sprouts and thrives in the compost.

I make a point of splitting the top part of carrots into pieces before throwing them into my compost. This is to prevent them from sprouting. It's like I have to properly kill carrots in order to set the composting process going.

But pests are under no obligation to stay away from healthy organic matter. They can evolve in such a way that they go after living tissue. When this happens, we use the word disease to describe the process. However, it never happens that the healthiest tissue is preferred over less healthy tissue. Diseases are composting events that happen prematurely. Tissue that's weakened but not dead is targeted by pests.

The obvious lesson from this is that we must stay as healthy and fit as possible so that pests don't mistake us for something that's about to die. Anything that may weaken us should be shunned. There has to be clear and obvious reasons for any treatment we choose to undertake. If there's isn't, we should avoid it.

This is why we should check the mortality rates of diseases before taking medication against them. We should also refrain from covering our airways, or do other things that may weaken our lungs, heart and other vital organs. Healthy food, exercise, fresh air and sun have always been the prescribed solution to weaknesses that may invite disease.

With the world having gone mad over the last 18 months, we've done the opposite of what we should have done, and my prediction is that mortality rates are going to go up by quite a bit over the next 24 months. Illnesses related to lungs and airways will be particularly dominant, followed by heart disease and cancer.

With this in mind, I found this latest news interesting. There's a drug resistant fungus doing the rounds in Texas and Washington DC. This is the very sort of thing that I'm expecting to see more of, and the only way to properly protect ourselves from this is the age old recipe for healthy living. At the very least, we must stop doing things that negatively impact our health. Don't take the vaccine. Don't use the mask, and don't huddle up inside all day without fresh air and exercise.

The mask of the beast

Did Something Just Snap in Norway?

Something unexpected just happened on my Facebook wall. Friends in Norway are sharing articles from Norwegian mainstream news channels, all relating to the Delta variant. A total of three different articles came up while I was scrolling, and they are all surprisingly frank about what's going on.

There's a surge in cases among vaccinated people. So much so that some hospitals are full. The articles go on to state that the Delta variant is relatively harmless, both for the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. However, from reading between the lines we can conclude that it's mainly the vaccinated that are being rushed to hospitals. There's an implicit message to people about the vaccine. The journalists aren't saying it straight out, but it's clear from the context that people should avoid getting stabbed. So, what's going on? Is this just a glitch in the matrix, or is something significant about to happen?

On reading the articles, I got a distinct feeling that journalists in Norway are about to revolt, which would be catastrophic for the official narrative. Journalists have played a key role as propaganda machines. Without them, lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccination rollouts and vaccine passports would be impossible. If they suddenly start revolting, the narrative will implode and the ruling class will be stripped of its powers.

It appears that history might once again be about to repeat itself. This time with journalists playing a key role. As is often the case, the political elite has miscalculated their grip on the executive layer of their bureaucratic machine. This miscalculation is tied to the fact that the executive layer is generally well educated, but not a part of the elite. Hence, they know full well that they act to the advantage of a group to whom they do not belong, and at the same time to the detriment of the group to which they do belong. Making things worse is the fact that they are likely to receive much of the ire of the general public in case of an open revolt.

The executive layer of any bureaucracy is always its weakest link, and the specific branch of most importance in the power grab currently under way is the mainstream media which acts like a corporate extension to the state. It's not technically a part of the bureaucracy, but functions nevertheless as its propaganda unit.

The situation is thus the following: Journalists play an essential role in deceiving the public. But they are themselves members of this public. Family, friends and loved ones stand to lose from their activities. They are also exposed to any blowback that may occur. Being well informed, they know the full story, and they may at this point realize that they are in danger of great losses to both health and liberties. Why then act according to the plan laid out by the elite? Why not return to honest reporting?

Journalists have been pushed to their breaking point, and some may already have snapped. It's too early to say anything for sure, and my hopes a muted. But if this keeps up, the narrative will unravel, and when that happens, it's game over for the elite; at least for a few years before they once again return to their usual shenanigans.

This may not amount to much of anything this time around. However, it illustrates how fragile the elite's grip on power actually is. It's nowhere near as ironclad as many believe. There are all sorts of weak links, and if one breaks, others tend to follow until the whole system collapses in on itself. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic, and this latest unexpected turn of events is one of them.

Fake news

By IFLA

http://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11174, CC BY 4.0, Link

Giving Aid to the Enemy

The vaccination hysteria is unfolding like a slow moving horror show. The feeling of relief that many newly vaccinated felt on leaving the clinic is morphing into doubt and concern. This is evident everywhere, with the vaccinated far more likely to obsess about mask wearing than are the unvaccinated. But the mask is no more effective in stopping the spread of the virus than trousers are in stopping the spread of a fart. Everybody knows this by now. Hence, denial is setting in among the vaccinated. Facts are deliberately ignored in order to keep their false sense of safety going a little longer.

An interesting consequence of this is that trust in government is about to fall off a cliff. Trust in politicians is already very low, but this latest hoax hoisted upon the public by professional liars is going to send trust into negative territory. The anarchist world view, as expressed in the Bible, will take off in a big way.

Nowhere in the New Testament are we told to trust the Great Merchants, the Beast or Great Babylon. They are our enemies, and must be treated as such. The exact same holds for libertarian anarchy. Corporations, the state and politicians are not to be trusted. They are our enemies, not our friends. The two ideologies are two sides of the same coin. Liberty is mentioned in the book of Revelation as the child of Europe, and is protected by God. The same book is also clear about the distinction between true Christians and people who are only Christian in name. True Christians don't cooperate with the evils of the world. They fight it in the exact same way that libertarian anarchists go about it.

Recommended strategies include evasion, non-compliance, and white lies. Direct confrontation and brute force are not recommended because the Beast is so much bigger than any one individual, and will simply crush whoever comes in its way. Much better to stay out of its reach and focus on community, friends and family instead.

I've followed this strategy for most of my adult life, and I wrote a book about it a few years ago when I finally managed to put it all together into a complete system. The book is secular with no mention of God. However, true Christians will find nothing to object about. There's no conflict between what I recommend and what the Bible prescribes.

The benefits to me personally have been great. I've achieved much personal freedom and saved myself a great deal of expenses through my low profile strategy. But the greatest benefit may be yet to come, because the strategy implies much suspicion towards anything vigorously pushed by the state. It was therefore easy for me to remain unimpressed by the vaccine hysteria. I'm not vaccinated, nor is my wife, stepdaughter and two of my sons. The reward for this may turn out to be immense. That all depends on how horrific things turn out to be as the true scope of side-effects become apparent. But even now, the benefits are real. We sleep soundly at night in the knowledge that we haven't injected ourselves with something that may potentially kill us.

A further benefit to the anarchist model is that we know what to do when confronted with strangers at our door. Anyone coming to us on behalf of the state are immediately recognized as enemy scouts. They don't deserve our cooperation. There's no moral obligation to treat them well, or to answer their question honestly. On the contrary, we need to keep these people as clueless as possible. Deception is therefore the best strategy. Be friendly and polite. Praise their work if need be. Tell a white lie or two. Refrain from giving them any more information than what they already have.

Faced with a census here in Portugal, in the middle of the pandemic, we decided to give honest answers. The census didn't contain questions that warranted any white lies, partly because my status as a foreigner living legitimately in Porto is confusing in itself. Bureaucrats are used to dealing with locals. Foreigners, on the other hand, are difficult. They are affiliated with other states. Things can get complicated if they decide to challenge me. Suddenly, they have to deal with bureaucrats of a different state, and that's the last thing the average coffee drinking desk-fascist wants to get involved in.

However, had the census contained any questions about our intentions and opinions on matters related to politics or the vaccine, we would have answered in ways that would have made us blend into the general population as much as possible. There's no point in marking ourselves as targets for further observations. The last thing we should do in this war waged against non-conformists is to give aid to our enemies. Truth and honesty are reserved exclusively for our allies, much in the same way that politicians talk honestly among themselves while lying to the public.

Boris Johnson

By Ben Shread / Cabinet Office, OGL 3, Link

The Opposite of Fear

It follows from what I wrote yesterday that the opposite of fear is love. That may sound odd. But on closer scrutiny, it appears to be right. The opposite of fear is of course fearlessness. However, fearlessness comes in two flavours. One which is truly fearless, and the other that's merely reckless. Jumping out of airplanes and climbing steep rocky surfaces is more often than not a way to cover up for deep seated fear than a real sign of fearlessness. I have a friend that does this type of things. Yet he walks diligently around with his mask on for fear of the virus.

On the other hand, I've started wearing my mask around my arm to signal opposition to the mask mandate. It's a statement. I'm not afraid of the virus, and I'm not afraid of any hobby fascist that may feel tempted to put me in my place. While this would have provoked the ire of many back in the days when most people still believed in the hype, I'm now being approached by people in friendly and inquisitive tones. People engage me in small talk. They know from my signal that I'm not going to react to them in fear or anger. Hungry for human interaction, they latch onto my signal.

People long for a return to the good old days when everybody did their little "good morning" and "good day" thing, and asked strangers for the time of day or the nearest hardware store, etc. That was a time of little to no fear. Everybody minded their own business in a framework of love and respect for other.

This insight may come in handy as we go forward, because I sense the imminent arrival of something sinister, and I've been wondering how people will react when they realize the mess we've made of everything. The vaccinated will almost certainly become ill in large numbers, and the economy is in similar trouble. We may get the double whammy of a real plague and hyperinflation. If so, how will people react? If they were close to panic by something as harmless as the fake plague, won't they go completely bananas in the face of a real plague?

The answer may at first seem obvious. Everybody will go nuts. However, this misses an important point. The fear we've seen so far has been artificially generated and promoted by politicians and journalists. A real plague may well be toned down rather than hyped, especially if there's a link between the fake scare and the real plague. This means that we may end up skipping the fear part and go directly to despair.

Imagine a worst case scenario where Monkeypox spreads like wildfire through the vaccinated part of the population, and this happens in the midst of a hyperinflationary meltdown. Mass media will no doubt downplay what's going on. They will claim that things are under control and that there's nothing to worry about. To the extent that there's something sinister going on, it's all due to greedy capitalist store owners and the unvaccinated.

People will first react to this with a mix of relief and renewed scepticism towards unvaccinated people. But mounting evidence to the contrary will break the spell. The vaccinated get sick and prices keep going up despite restrictions of all kinds. Once the situation becomes obvious, fear will turn to despair. Everybody will long for the fearless to save the day, and that's when we step in to help our nearest and dearest. That's when the fearless prove that the opposite of fear is in fact love.

Liberty

The Opposite of Love

There's a woman who calls herself Ingunn Sigurdsdatter. She's quite an eccentric, and I follow her on Facebook because of the things she says and does. It's as if she's my spiritual mirror image. Her angle of observation is often opposite to mine, yet she keeps coming to conclusions identical to what I've arrived at. She's an anarchist. She's also Christian leaning in her world views.

She made herself famous in Norway for her anti-state activities, which were rather loud and antagonistic. I found it all a bit silly. Why bother with the fight? It's not like the average bureaucrat is interested in the anarchist viewpoint. My approach to the same problem was simply to pull my support in silence.

She has since toned down her fighting spirit by a lot. She's more of a mellow hippy by now. But she's no less sincere and well reflected. She's as well spoken and clear as ever. Her posts are well worth reading.

I was especially impressed by her latest post. It read like a sermon written by a sincere and well meaning priest. She encouraged people to stop arguing, and start living instead. That's an idea I can relate to. She mentioned sin as merely another word for missing the target. That too, I can wholeheartedly agree with. Then, she wrote about love, and what it really means. That's when she said something interesting that I hadn't fully considered. The opposite of love is not hate, but fear.

Hate is a passion. It's similar to love, and is at times an element of it, especially in situations where loved ones are threatened. Hate doesn't inhibit love. However, fear does. That's why we need to master our fears, and learn to distinguish between legitimate fear and irrational fear. If we let ourselves be controlled by irrational fear, we end up unable to live with enthusiasm. We become dead inside, and that numbness to life is the opposite of love.

Once we know this, we can more readily relate to the fear that surrounds us. The answer to this fear is simple. It's love. Living life fully and bravely without fear begets admiration and love. That's the essence of it, and the solution to the current spiritual crisis. No arguments are needed. No verbal or physical fighting is required. Force must only be used in self defence, and always as limited as possible. If at all possible, avoid conflicts of all kinds. Nothing is gained through constant bickering.

Liberty

Beating Down Open Doors

My Norwegian friends and relatives are updating their profile pictures with a "We'll never forget July 22" sticker. It's a reference to the terrorist attack that took place ten years ago today. It was a lone wolf thing that exposed Norway's police and security services as completely inept. However, the narrative quickly morphed into one of us against them. Us being the good guys and them being right wing extremists.

I find this kind of virtue signalling both pathetic and a little disturbing. What exactly are these people trying to say? Who exactly are these blood thirsty terrorists that we have to keep an eye on? Or is it all about virtue signalling? "Look at me! I too find it terrible. I too cannot forget."

Does the other position even exist? Are there anyone out there thinking "Hey! let's kill a bunch of people to make a statement." I don't think so, and if they are, it's hardly a big group of people.

There's a saying in Norway: "To beat down open doors." It refers to this kind of behaviour, where people bravely state what everyone else agrees on. It's down right pathetic, and it leaves the door wide open for power hungry bureaucrats to step in and monitor adversaries under the guise of wanting to prevent another terrorist attack.

31 minutes into the attack

By User:N.Andersen - Private collection, CC0, Link

Fear of Facts

We've come to a point now where people have gone from thinking about what they will do to actually doing it. Those who've taken the vaccine have placed their bets. Those who haven't are increasingly reluctant to participate. A strategy has been chosen, and for the vaccinated, there's no way back. What has been taken cannot be untaken.

A consequence of this is that the vaccinated don't want to hear anything negative about the vaccine. I first noticed this two week ago when I pointed out that a post on Facebook was merely missing context, and therefore factually correct. That statement didn't go down well with the vaccinated because the post was down right scary in its implications.

A few days ago, I talked to my parents in Norway. They think me a bit of a nutter, which must be particularly painful for my mother since I happen to be her favourite child. My father on his side is protective of my mother and resentful of me for upsetting both of them with my unorthodox ideas. I'm the black sheep of the family, which goes a long way towards explaining why I live in Portugal rather than Norway.

I'm in turn less than enthusiastic about the way my family in Norway talks about me behind my back. I know they think me a little mad because it shines through in conversations. They've created quite a straw man out of me, and this straw man is something of a flat earth loony. This is particularly irritating because I know that they are less informed than me. They are by and large a bunch of complicity theorists, the lot of them. So when my parents once again expressed dismay over my refusal to vaccinate myself, I couldn't help pointing out that the Delta variant is quite harmless, and that the vaccinated get more sick than the unvaccinated. That made my father snap. He challenged me to prove it. My mother cut in and changed the topic. The rest of the conversation was about the weather and micro-composts and other less political topics. Of course, I had to once again defend my scepticism about global manmade warming. But they are so used to this that it didn't provoke any anger. Besides, they are not personally invested in it, unlike the vaccine that they took.

The conversation ended on a positive note, as always. We're good friends despite our differences in opinion. However, I didn't want to leave my claim about the vaccine undefended, so I sent my father a link to the NHS document from which my claim was based. I also did the calculations. All of which was easy to do because of the way I've archived things on this blog. I opened the post containing all the information, narrowed it down and sent it to them as an e-mail.

I didn't expect any answer to my e-mail. However, I received a reply from my mother a few days later. She sounded concerned, emphasizing the good news about Delta being relatively harmless, and toning down the bad news about the vaccine being counterproductive. Her concluding sentences were telling. She feels personally comforted by the fact that she's vaccinated, and is therefore happy with her decision. As for us, our decision should be based on what we feel is more comforting. In other words; please stop worrying us.

On a similar note, we're going to have visitors from Lisbon in about a week from now. My wife's brother, wife and five year old son are coming up by car, as they do every year. But they aren't staying with us this time, and it's obvious that this has to do with my wife's refusal to cave to his peer pressure. They will no doubt deny this. If pressed they may say something about us being among the unclean. But they are too polite to do so, and we won't pressure them. However, their real concern is almost certainly not with our vaccine status. What they fear is the sort of conversations that may emerge during the hours we spend together. They don't want to know why my wife and I refuse to take the vaccine. They too fear what they may learn. As the saying goes: My mind is made up. Don't confuse me with the facts.

Together with family

So Much for Convenience

The couple I mentioned a few days ago are now facing an unexpected dilemma. They've taken their vaccine shots. They got everything in order to go on a vacation. But one of their kids were in contact with a two year old girl who tested positive for the flu. That means that they are stranded at home, and cannot go anywhere without breaking the latest self-quarantine laws.

The two year old girl had no symptoms, so somebody must have decided to stick a test up her nose for no good reason, which I think is pretty sick. The only thing achieved by this is that a whole bunch of people are now suddenly stranded.

So much for a return to normal, and the convenience of vaccine passports. It's all a ploy. The liberties that were taken away aren't coming back any time soon.

Dangerous shelf cloud

By NOAA - http://www.spc.ncep.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/derechofacts.htm, Public Domain, Link

Healthy Living

My wife and I are holding a dinner party this coming Sunday. However, one of our invitees is not coming. Her son was in contact with a relative that tested positive for Delta. Her son tested negative, but they are taking no chances, so she's staying home.

This is how deep the paranoia is these days. To be in contact with someone who was in contact with someone that caught the sniffles is sufficient reason for self-isolation. With this level of fragility, I wonder how people will cope when things really turn nasty?

Now is clearly not the time to depend on our fellow men and women to keep us safe. I'd hate to go to a hospital with this nonsense going on. Only vaccinated people are allowed to visit, and they will no doubt treat any unvaccinated patient like scum.

There's also the spectre of a real plague coming our way. The signs are everywhere. We're living in times similar to those leading up to the Black Death. The climate is turning nasty and people are weak and frail. Only the strong and fit survived the great plague, and even they were decimated. Those stuck in crowded places were much worse off than the ones who moved out to the country in time.

Two things are essential for survival through times of pestilence. A healthy buffer of savings, and generally good health. If we don't stay warm and comfortable, our odds of survival go down. If we don't have liquid assets, we're limited in our options, which can be fatal in a time of crisis.  However, we don't have to be apocalyptic in our outlook in order to take this advice. Taking care of ourselves and our personal finances make sense under any condition. Nothing is lost in doing this.

I'm 57 years old, and I'm starting to sense the onset of old age. It's right there at the periphery. Little things that never bothered me are starting to wear on me, and I better start taking this seriously. I can't go on ignoring them for ever. They won't go away on their own, and the last thing I want is to find myself forced to go to a hospital.

In some ways, I'm more fit now than I was some 15 years ago, thanks to my wonderful wife who've fattened me up and made me more robust, both physically and mentally. A great spouse is key to a long and healthy life. I'm sure about that. I used to be constantly on edge and nervous. That's all gone. Funny thing about nerves is that they tend to act on our skin. I used to have all sorts of skin problems before I met my wife. That too is gone. However, there are some habits I have to change.

My liver has been talking to me for years now. I've ignored the faint feeling of numbness. But I know perfectly well what it's telling me, so I've cut back on alcohol, and the numbness is already subsiding. I'm no alcoholic, so it doesn't cost me any effort to reduce my alcohol consumption. I just have to get used to drinking water at meal times. It's a little sad compared to wine. But my body seems to appreciate my change in habit, so it's worth it.

Coffee gives me haemorrhoids. That's always been the case with me, and all I need to do to get rid of it is to stop drinking coffee. I like coffee, so it's a bit of a loss. But I better stop now. However, I'm prone to coffee addiction. Unlike alcohol, which I can stop drinking any time without any noticeable reaction, I develop abstinence symptoms when quitting coffee. I get muscle aches and head aches. My lower back can give me some real pain. Since I know this to be the case, I compensate with an aspirin every now and again during the first week of abstinence.

I'm also prone to constipation. I eat too little fibre. My solution to this is oat meal porridge, mixed with cooked apple and honey, cooked fresh every morning. I like this particular dish, and my stomach loves it. I get the dual benefit of a nice meal and a healthy, light feeling. The result of this has been quite remarkable. My belly has become flatter. My belt is now worn one notch tighter, and I'm only a few weeks into this new regime. Apparently, my belly was not fat but bloated. The porridge has done me a lot of good, and I haven't sacrificed anything in the process. But the benefit hasn't come completely without pain.

The relatively rapid change to my digestion has led to a painful itch from my now non-existent haemorrhoids. It's especially bad in the evenings for some reason. But I interpret this as merely a reaction to the changes that I've hoisted onto myself. Our bodies get used to certain things. Me cutting back on alcohol and coffee while piling up on fibres was just too much to handle without some pain. I'm sure the itch will disappear as soon as my new regime has been in place for a little longer. All in all, I feel better, so there's no point in going back just to cure an itch that comes and goes.

Finally, I've decided to deal with a persistent fungus problem I've had on my right foot ever since my late teens. Having initially tried a few pharmaceuticals without any luck, I gave up on it, and I haven't thought much about it until quite recently when it started spreading.

The remedy for the problem may be simple. Inspired by our wax plant which I keep free from pests by physically removing them from the plant, I figure I should do the same with my foot. That which is visibly wrong is treated with whatever is required to make it look better. Dry skin is oiled. Nails are kept tidy. Excess dead skin is cut and removed. This type of strategy works wonders for my wax plant, and it looks like my foot is improving as well. When it comes to this kind of visible problems, fake it till you make it may be the right strategy. If nothing else, my foot looks better.

Growing old will probably require this kind of discipline. I might as well get used to it. And in the end, there's nothing sacrificed. I will still enjoy the odd glass of wine. I'll drink a cup of coffee now and again, and I'll eat my porridge with pleasure. For the rest, I'll stick to the diet my wife has been feeding me ever since we met. Her wonderful cooking will keep me alive for ever.

A roast lamb dinner

By Acabashi - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Time Preferences in an Age of Pestilence

Time preference is an economic concept related to psychology and circumstances. People who have a sense of urgency are said to have a high time preference. Those who are in no hurry have a low time preference.

My two sons in Norway will serve well as examples of how personality plays into this. The oldest is an outgoing young man, always with friends, and always ready for fun. His younger brother is more of a loner. He too has friends, but they are not as important to him. He can spend hours training juggling tricks. Both have relatively well paying jobs.

One of my sons owns an apartment. The other doesn't. One is going to take the vaccine. The other isn't. The reader may already know who is doing what from the above description. As a hint, I'll point out that owning an apartment require low time preference, because there's a need to save money up front. Taking the vaccine is more of a high time preference thing because it will give immediate praise and convenience at the expense of possible problems in the future.

Not surprisingly, my oldest son owns no apartment, but will take the vaccine. His brother owns an apartment, and will not take the vaccine. With exterior conditions pretty much exactly the same for them both, the differences in their decisions and life achievements can be written down to personality. However, exterior factors can and will influence time preferences as well.

A calamity will increase people's time preferences. Times of plenty will reduce time preferences. Being constantly on edge due to shortages and uncertainties increases time preferences. Stress and fear make us increasingly prone to reach for quick and immediate fixes.

This is why policy makers have a tendency to exaggerate disasters. When there's fear, we tend to accept quick solutions without much worry about long term consequences. Those most prone to this are the ones with a natural tendency towards high time preferences. However, by learning how to manage fear we can lower our time preferences. As a consequence, we will be less accepting of quick fixes, and more likely to succeed in life. But few people are willing to learn that lesson. They can't be bothered to look into this, and so we have the situation we are in today.

The current vaccine mania is tied to high time preferences. We demand instant gratification. Investments must pay off within weeks. Fixes must be made immediately. Desires must be satisfied now. There's no time to reflect on anything, and hence we accept whatever solution is presented to us. If it sounds good, and others agree, we go with the flow. There's no resistance. The idea that some sacrifices are worth it if it brings a better future is dismissed as old-fashioned nonsense.

Clock

By Mettness, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Lessons from the Black Death

With everyone obsessing about the flu, some words about the biggest plague in recorded history may come in handy. Not only will this set the current state of things in perspective, it may help us predict, prepare for, and ultimately take advantage of any real plague that may strike in a not too distant future.

The Black Death wrought havoc in Europe from 1346 to 1353, and cities in Europe were subsequently struck by this disease from time to time for centuries thereafter. The last outbreak took place in Porto about a hundred years ago. The initial wave in the mid 1300s was particularly severe. Europe's population was halved. In some places, 70% of the population perished.

To understand how this could happen, it's important to note that the Black Death coincides with the end of the Medieval Warm Period. Prior to the plague, Scandinavians grew wheat as far north as Trondheim. They settled in Greenland, and they harvested wild grapes on Newfound Land. There were oak forests growing on Hardangervidda. The weather was stable and predictable.

In the years before the Black Death, harvests had been terrible. The weather was suddenly much less stable. There were great floods in Germany and Belgium. Scandinavia was hit by cold wet summers. Wheat could no longer be grown in Norway. Grapes could no longer be grown in Austria and Germany. Everywhere, farmers had to change their ways, and many suffered starvation and misery in the process.

The plague hit a severely weakened population. However, no-one was spared. Kings and noblemen suffered as much as the commoners. The entire royal court of Norway perished together with so many noblemen that Denmark took control of Norway without any opposition. Some 70% of the Norwegian population perished.

The complete obliteration of the Norwegian nobility is noteworthy. It indicates that the Black Death was so severe that it hit even the fittest of people. However, the nobility may not have been all that well off either. Cold and damp houses, and little access to fruits and vegetables due to general food shortages may have weakened them too. Besides, nobility have to show up in places with particularly bad outbreaks in order to show support and concern for the population. They could not very well run off and hide in the countryside. That would have exposed them as frauds.

Interestingly, children were less likely to catch the disease than adults. As a result, entire villages and farms were for a while run by children. Once the plague died down, people went up the valleys to find communities organized by ten to twelve year old kids. The oldest ones were just old enough to have figured out how the farms worked, and were running the establishments with the help of kids as young as five years of age. The encounters were bizarre to the extreme. Many farms were completely abandoned. Others were run by kids. Dead corpses were found in their beds. No-one had come to take care of the dead.

For anyone wondering what a complete collapse of society might look like, the Black Death, as it unfolded in Norway and many other places in Europe, serve as great examples. It was not war and strife that brought on the collapse. Rather, it was climate change followed by famine and plague. There was a weakening of the population before the great culling.

What followed was a rapid restoration of order. The nobility was quick to regain control of the courts and the corporate economy. The Hanseatic League was down, but not out. They bounced back and continued their corporate exploits until the 17th century. The plague did not put an end to their monopoly powers. Danish nobility stepped in where Norwegian nobility had disappeared, and the Hanseatic League adopted to the new reality. However, the shift in demographics greatly weakened the corporate grip on the population.

With capital, in the form of mills and farms suddenly freely available, people could choose to work for themselves rather than a boss. They could go up a valley somewhere, find a "ghost farm", clean it out and farm for themselves. Ghost farms were so widely available in Norway that a new surname appeared. Ødegård is a common surname both in Norway and Denmark. It literally means abandoned farm, and was the name often taken on by individuals who chose to re-settle such places.

Food was suddenly plentiful, in spite of adverse climatic conditions. There was a shift from grain to cattle. All over Europe, the price of meat fell together with the price of most other foods.

With capital available free of charge, labour costs went up. People were no longer desperate to find employment. If the pay was too low, people could simply go up a valley to find a place for themselves. Nobody made any investments into capital. Machines and equipment could be had for free. Only gold and silver were coveted. The great economic winners were those with practical skills and precious metals. The big losers were owners of capital and land.

We can conclude from this that a great culling of the population will result in great opportunities for whomever is correctly positioned for such an event. The ideal position before the Black Death was gold and silver, as well as a pragmatic and down to earth skill set related to labour. A skilled labourer with a health stack of precious metals would have been something of a lord after the culling.

On the other hand, capital, real-estate and land are terrible investments before a culling. Skills that cannot be used for practical purposes will also be worthless. An arts degree isn't going to earn anyone a living after a culling.

With things becoming increasingly insane these days, I'm no longer eager to buy any land. I got a feeling that a great culling is near. Prices of land, real-estate and capital are in other words about to drop. Even if the culling is a mere 10% of the population, we'll see a drop in prices relative to gold. However, we may see prices for foods and essentials peak in the short term. We're still in the initial phase of the culling. Famines have yet to occur. But they seem increasingly likely to come about, so we better put away some savings for that as well. We won't magically be transported from where we are at the moment to the aftermath of the culling. We have to live trough it, and we have to make sure we're not caught short of essentials.

The climate changes that I've observed locally here in Porto over the last four years indicate an onset of a little ice age, and from what I can gather, the changes observed other places confirm this. We're about to see food shortages in places where this hasn't happened for centuries. Furthermore, a large portion of the population is currently busy weakening their immune system with an experimental vaccine. The combination of bad harvests and compromised health can easily set the stage for a real plague.

In the event of a plague, the wise keep away from people as much as possible. They keep up a healthy life style, and spend whatever it takes to get the required foods to do so. Having access to an isolated place somewhere in the country will be valuable. Keeping a low profile for however long it takes to get through the plague is essential. People get grumpy and edgy when desperate, and we don't want to make ourselves targets of their ire. However, once the culling is complete, things will look positively sunny for the survivors, no matter what the weather may be.

Great plague of London

By unknown - http://theloveforhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/plague_380x529_712060a.jpg, Public Domain, Link

Vaccines, Insurances and Licenses

Vaccines are similar to insurances in that they protect us from adverse events. There's a similar logic to how they should be applied, and I suspect that the people rushing out to get themselves vaccinated are the same ones who overpay for their insurances.

The only insurances we ever need are the ones covering catastrophic loss of some kind. If an expense can be covered by our personal savings, there's no need for an insurance. This is especially true if we are prudent and generally shy of risk taking. On adding up the costs incurred through minor accidents over a lifetime, the total will come out far below what it would have cost us to buy insurance for it all. Paying directly for minor accidents also has the advantage of control. There's no need to call a third party. There's no humiliating interview required. Everything can be sorted out without the middle man, and the savings made through a lifetime can be significant.

Similarly with vaccines. There's no point in vaccinating healthy and fit individuals against diseases with mortality rates below 3%. When the risk of death or injury is small, vaccines serve no purpose. They can in fact be counter productive. All injections cause some degree of stress to the body. This is only worth while if the reward in terms of safety is correspondingly high.

In the case of the current vaccine mania, it's already clear that the price exceeds the reward. Most people take the vaccine out of convenience rather than a deep seated conviction that it brings health to the vaccinated. But this reveals a deeply pessimistic world view.

People who take the vaccine out of convenience are looking for a license from the state. They want a document that allows them the liberties that the state took away from them at a prior time. To accept this is to accept that freedom comes from government and not form nature, aka God. It's the mentality of serfs, and the fact that so many go along with it is a sad testament to the godless nature of today's society.

Reeve and serfs

By anonymous (Queen Mary Master) - this file: scan dated 2009, uploaded (without identification of the source) 12 May 2010 by Ann Scott (medievalminds.comReeve-and-Serfs.original1.jpg), Public Domain, Link

Freedom Day

My wife asked my opinion on the decision in the UK to open up after 17 months of lockdowns. She seemed optimistic about it. Imagine if things could go back to normal here too? she said. However, I gave her my cynic view on the matter, partly to curb her enthusiasm. While I hope for the best, I can't say I'm all that optimistic.

"They're merely covering their asses for when the Delta variant blows out in the UK," I said. "Opening up now gives them an alibi. Instead of admitting that the vaccine made things worse, they can blame the rise in cases on the liberties they returned to the people. They can claim that it was a mistake to allow people to once again taste freedom, and that they will refrain from making this mistake again. They can then go on to lock down the economy extra hard for good measure."

I half expected my wife to protest my cynicism, but she didn't. She too has lost faith in government. She expects nothing but misery from them and their corporate backers. Still, we remain hopeful. Compliance and conviction are down. People are getting fed up. 

Apparently, I'm not the only one feeling cynical these days. This article in Zerohedge conveys my sentiment perfectly.

Boris Johnson

By Ben Shread / Cabinet Office, OGL 3, Link

About Those Booster Shots

We had friends over for a short chat yesterday. They came over to say goodbye before leaving for the airport.

The episode was quite surreal. They came into our apartment with their masks on, and they didn't take them off. They must have thought that we would put on our masks, but we didn't, and this made them visibly worried. One broke out in a rash from the stress.

Imagine if I told a story like this two years ago. People would think me mad. Yet, here we are.

If not already vaccinated, our friends will no doubt be so shortly, and I'm sure they will take every booster shot going forward.

A large part of the population is going to let itself be tagged every six months or so, which opens for mischief of all sorts. With such an obedient herd, bureaucrats can choose to include ingredients to fit their agenda. Undesirables can be sterilized. Useless eaters can be culled. Old people can be euthanized. It can all be done for the greater good, and there are plenty of economic incentives for this to happen.

Social security is underfunded. The welfare state is close to collapse. Something has to be done, and the problem, as seen from the perspective of bureaucrats, is as always the people they claim to serve.

However, there's a problem with this plan. The people most likely to get vaccinated and subsequently boosted every six months are the ones most in favour of the system. The ones that the bureaucrats want to control for political reasons are the ones not taking the shots. But this may not deter the bureaucrats who tend to think as much in economic terms as in political terms. There are a lot of "useless eaters" in the pro-science camp, and a thorough culling of this group will give economic relief to the welfare state. That may be sufficient incentive to cull the herd regardless of political affiliations.

Time will tell if this dystopian vision of the future will unfold. It may seem hyperbole. But then again, things that seemed crazy two years ago are now quite normal.

Smallpox vaccine

By Photo Credit: James Gathany Content Providers(s): CDC - This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library (PHIL), with identification number #2674. Note: Not all PHIL images are public domain; be sure to check copyright status and credit authors and content providers. Deutsch | English | македонски | slovenščina | +/−, Public Domain, Link

Monkey Business

We're one and a half year into the plague, and I suspect the hysteria will last another two years before it ends. This would fit the shortest of the time scales mentioned in the Revelation, and would also correspond to a likely future timeline in which we'll be confronted with increasingly adverse effects to the policies implemented.

After a year with a drop in mortality, we're likely to face two winters with higher mortality. The coming winter will see unusually high numbers of pneumonia. Next up will be heart failures. Additionally, we're likely to see increasing economic hardships.

Something quite unexpected may also transpire. We may be hit by a real plague. Constant talk of the devil has a sad tendency to summon this demon, so when I found this article on Monkeypox in Zerohedge, I decided to give it a read. Turns out, someone contracted this rare disease in Nigeria, and brought it with them to the US.

To properly decipher the article, we need to know a few things about the disease. According to Wikipedia, the disease incubates for about 10 days before there are any symptoms. Rashes don't appear before five days later. The time leading up to a visit to a hospital is in other word about 14 days.

With this in mind, we can note that the Zerohedge article was written on July 17, indicating that the case was discovered a few days earlier. The flight from Nigeria to Atlanta took place on July 8. The most likely timeline is therefore that the man caught the disease around July 1, flew home to the US on July 8, and went to hospital with rashes on July 15.

However, the name of the disease gives associations to 12 Monkeys, an action film centred around a man made epidemic. That may indicate that there's something deliberate about the whole thing, because deliberate scares tend to exploit this kind of associations in order to create as much fear as possible.

There's also something strange about the history of the disease itself. It was first discovered in a bio-lab back in 1958. The name of the disease doesn't reflect a natural origin. Rather, the opposite. The monkeys involved were lab animals. Cases since have spontaneously occurred in west Africa, just like Ebola and Aids.

The disease isn't believed to be very contagious. However, it has a mortality rate close to 10%, and it has tremendous visual impact. It also has a long incubation time. It's the perfect scare. Lockdowns, mask mandates and social distancing can easily be argued for in light of this disease. That would require it to be more transmissible than what it has been so far, but that may well be the case.

Having weakened the population through lockdowns, masks and vaccines, Monkeypox may turn out to be the real plague, enabled through bad policies. However, with only one case currently in the US, we're still a long way from such a scenario. The most likely outcome is that this fizzles away with nothing further reported.

Monkeypox

By not listed - http://phil.cdc.gov (CDC's Public Health Image Library) Media ID #2329, Public Domain, Link

Hypnotized by Science

One of my wife's friends made the observation the other day that the world seems hypnotized. People do things that make no sense. They act against their own judgement. They know that they are being fed a bunch of lies, yet they persist in their actions, as if they have no say in the matter themselves.

This reminded me of the surreal encounter my wife and I had a few months back with our upstairs neighbour. Our neighbour is fully aware of the manipulation, yet unable to resist the grip of fear. He seems to be under a spell of sorts.

The same applies to my older brother. He decided to take the vaccine for practical reasons, despite having been vocally against it for months on end. Suddenly, he simply gave into the hypnosis.

My wife and I know a couple who have expressed doubt about the vaccine all along. Yet, they too decided all of a sudden to get themselves vaccinated. Then they tell everyone quite merrily how absurd and down right frightening the whole ritual was. The husband came into the vaccination room with two people unconscious on the floor. He had to step over them in order to get his shot. He had no say in which vaccine he was given, and was only told afterwards that it was J&J.

What makes this even weirder is that the wife recently lost her father to cancer due to the new prioritizing of patients. Getting healthy people vaccinated takes precedence over cancer treatment. Her father had to wait for his treatments, and ended up dead while waiting on what should have been a fairly routine job. Her husband's father is currently sick with pneumonia, some four months after his vaccination. There's no official link between his pneumonia and his vaccine, but our friends suspect that there is. Yet, in the face of this direct evidence of malpractice, the couple decided to take their shots. It's down right weird.

People have been so impressed by the sheer determination and will by the establishment that they've given up. People everywhere are accepted their lot as helpless individuals who for ever onwards will have to live in fear and simply accept whatever they're told. They have in truth been hypnotized. However, there's a remedy to this that's been around for eons.

There is a type of people who do not give in to fear and against whom even the strongest spells don't work. Stories about them are found in fairy tales and religious texts. We also find these people in history books. What they have in common is their unwavering belief in God, aka Nature. They don't believe that their adversaries are anywhere near as powerful as they make themselves out to be.

Fear is the domain of the godless. This is a key insight found in all heroic tales. Heroes are for this reason next to impossible to spellbind. They also have a tendency to reverse spells. Medusa learned this the hard way in her encounter with Perseus.

The Bible tells us to trust in God and his creation. If we do so with conviction, we will feel very little fear. We will also be rewarded with all sorts of blessings such as good health, good friends and a life full of wonder and love. However, if we indulge ourselves in false religions, the opposite will happen. Fear will be more dominant. There will be less joy, and life will seem wasted and meaningless.

The false religion of our time is "science", which must not be confused with true science. This false religion promises omnipotence to those in charge, and the way it's presented is devious. It's laid out as inevitable regardless of what we may think of it. We may be opposed to it, or we may love it. It doesn't matter, because it will happen anyway. But this is a fallacy. It's hubris. The world is way more complex than anyone can ever comprehend, let alone calculate and control. It's sheer nonsense to believe that a small group of people can control everybody centrally through technology. Yet, herein lies the key to the hypnosis. The godless believe this to be true, and they submit in fear.

Ventilator

By National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NIH) - National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NIH), Public Domain, Link