Category Archives: religion
01. Gustaf Broms 02. Poor Things
Åsikter, yttranden och friheten
I can’t do that because of my religion. OK
You can’t do that because of my religion. NOT OK
Det borde inte vara svårare än så. Men tydligen är det extremt komplicerat…
Sex korta punkter:
1. Att ge terrorister tolkningsföreträde i yttrandefrihetsfrågor är helt rubbat.
2. Att yttrandefriheten kan utnyttjas är ett svagt argument för att inskränka den.
3. Folk som tycker att vi ska vika ner oss för krafter som anser det vara befogat att skjuta skallen av individer på grund av teckningar… Kom igen.
4. Att håna och kritisera en tro (att bränna en koran, att teckna profeten Muhammed som en karikatyr) är inte uppvigling mot människor – i Sverige.
5. Troende som verkar i det tysta är aldrig några problem. Tvärtom. Var glad för att de har hittat hem, för att de håller sig på sin kant och inte stör eller styr över någon.
6. Det sluttande planet: Vad blir nästa grej som förbjuds? Ska flickor som vill frigöra sig från ett patriarkalt förtryck och symboliskt vill bränna sin slöja också straffas med fängelse?
Jag har skrivit flera gånger om detta på instagram, och slänger in de inläggen här i lite omvänd kronologisk ordning, med tillägg och justeringar. Jag kanske återkommer och redigerar det här till en vettig, mer välskriven och genomtänkt artikel vid ett senare tillfälle. Det kan också bli ett levande dokument som ändras över tid. Nu kör vi.
Jag fick ett mess: “Jag trodde du var vänster?”
Ja, jag är mer vänster idag än jag någonsin varit, men jag undrar vad farao Vänstern håller på med? Vänsterpartiet Örebro demonstrerade mot koranbränning häromdagen… Detta är inte min vänster. Detta är naiva nollor.
Att vara vänster innebär självklart att man tar tydlig ställning när fascistiska islamister från skurkstater lägger sig i Sveriges lagar medelst hot och våld. Folk som tycker att vi ska vika ner oss för krafter som anser det vara befogat att skjuta skallen av individer på grund av teckningar kan dra åt helvete.
Den som bränner en koran hindrar ingen från att utöva sin tro. Ingen behöver ens bevittna handlingen (de minst sämsta koranbränningarna är de som inte äger rum, de näst minst sämsta är de som inte får någon som helst uppmärksamhet). Det är ingen som hotar den troendes frihet, däremot hotas den icke-troendes frihet om man väljer att inskränka yttrandefriheten.
Utan yttrandefrihet ingen religionsfrihet. Ska vi inskränka religionsfriheten också, med tanke på hur mycket skit religion uppenbarligen ställer till med? Självklart ska vi inte det. Det är sällan religionen det är fel på. Det är människorna som utövar den.
Själv är jag agnostiker. I ett svagt ögonblick för tjugofem år sedan trodde jag att jag var ateist, men jag vill aldrig någonsin förknippas med Dawkins, Hitchens eller Harris. Ateism har i sig i mångt och mycket blivit en religion, och i flera fall en korkad sådan som tycks utgå från att människan är centrum i universum. En slags egocentrisk geocentrism som hör medeltiden till. Människan får ofta hybris i sådana här frågor.
Det talas frekvent om syftet med koranbränningarna. Blandar man in syfte och motiv, då är steget inte långt till att man blandar in känslor. Jag blir kränkt, rädd osv. Helt ohållbart att resonera så i juridisk mening. Det är den enskilda handlingen (brännandet av en bok) som ska bedömas. Nästa steg är HMF vid behov, men då ska något annat utöver brännandet av en bok ha hänt.
Tar man hänsyn till motiv så måste alla behandlas lika, och då får man såklart stänga ner alla religiösa församlingar som predikar hat mot homosexuella, exempelvis, och det lär de som åtnjuter religionsfrihet knappast vara särskilt pepp på…
Och vem är det som står för våldet? Knappast de som bränner Koranen. Det är de som reagerar med känslor som står för våldet. Och ändå diskuteras det hur man ska straffa idioterna som bränner en bok, istället för att handskas med “religiösa” våldsverkare som inte kan acceptera att någon utför en fullkomligt laglig handling. Helt absurt. Var är vänstern i dessa frågor?
En sekulär stat ska heller inte se vissa religioner som viktigare än andra. Särskild hänsyn ska inte tas beroende på vad folk tror på. Staten måste vara blind inför religion.
Apropå regeringens förslag om att ändra i ordningslagen (tjena Nato-processen!) och Danmarks förslag om att förbjuda koran- och bibelbränning (men att skända kors ska fortfarande vara tillåtet?! Ni ser ju hur sjukt detta kommer bli. När, var och hur ska gränsen dras? Snacka om att Danmark försätter sig i en rävsax…).
Sadaf Ahmadi, exiliransk konstnär som kämpar för kvinnors rättigheter, får delar av sin utställning stoppad av Borås Kulturhus. Människor kan känna sig sårade av att se hennes konst, enligt kulturchef Ida Burén, så för säkerhets skull – med tanke på oron som råder i världen – censureras Ahmadis konstverk. Hennes utställning skildrar kvinnoförtrycket i hemlandet Iran. Mullorna i regimen har därmed vunnit ännu en seger och Borås kulturhus och kommun pissar på denna otroligt modiga dissident.
I Frankrike har samma utställning visats flera gånger, och efter dåden mot Charlie Hebdo 2015 projicerades karikatyrerna på rådhuset i flera städer i Frankrike – statligt sanktionerat – för att visa vad yttrandefrihet innebär. En tydlig markering: Vi viker oss inte.
Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin måste numera anpassa sitt konstnärliga uttryck för att idioter hotar med våld. Galleriet Blå Hallen valde nyligen bort Vilks anskrämliga rondellhund pga rädsla för hot. Varken Ahmadi, Ohlson eller gallerierna får polisbeskydd.
Svensk polis har redan idag rätt att flytta en demonstration (saxat från polisen.se: “polisen har möjlighet att bestämma villkor om bland annat tid och plats för den allmänna sammankomsten, om det behövs för att upprätthålla ordningen och säkerheten”. NMR fick inte marschera förbi synagogan i Göteborg 2017 under Jom kippur, judarnas heligaste dag, men 2023, mitt under brinnande korankris (pun intended), tillåts miffot Salwan Momika skända Koranen i Rinkeby under fredagsbönen – med polisbeskydd. Att både nazister och islamister vill polarisera Sverige är välkänt, men gäller det även poliser? Konspirera i smågrupper.
Tid och rum är viktigt här. Man kanske inte måste protestera just där och då. Men att förbjuda hädelse? Aldrig i livet. Nästa gång kanske Ryssland blir arga för att vi håller Prideparad. Ska vi vika oss då också? Nej, vi ska aldrig böja oss för hot eller fatta beslut baserade på rädsla. De med våldskapital får aldrig sätta normen för vilken bok som kan brännas. Fundamentalister kommer inte nöja sig med att Sverige ändrar ordningslagen. Vi skyddar varken riket eller befolkningen genom att ändra i lagen efter påtryckningar. Och vem fan ska bestämma vad som är heligt?
Om vi exempelvis använder lagen om hets mot folkgrupp är det vi som bestämmer vad som är olagligt eller inte. Vi behöver inte bry oss om vad folk i andra länder utövar för påtryckningar osv. Men med ändringar i ordningslagen och snack om rikets säkerhet så blir det reaktionen och inte handlingen som blir kriminaliserad. Då kan vad som helst bli förbjudet.
Samtidigt demonstrerar Vänsterpartiet Örebro mot koranbränning. Vad i helvete är det som händer? Detta är inte min vänster, och då är jag ändå mer vänster idag än någonsin tidigare.
Prästen, konstnären och satirikern Kent Wistis spinn på “där man bränner böcker bränner man snart människor”-snacket är hård, men relevant. “Där man förbjuder människor att häda bränner man snart också människor” är hans ord. Tortyren i vissa av de 57 muslimska länder som fördömer koranbränningar innefattar just brännandet av människor.
Ja, att bränna en bok som anses helig av andra är definitivt förargelseväckande beteende. Men i relation: Att bränna en bok jämfört med att vilja skada, fängsla eller mörda någon som bränner en bok…
Att håna och kritisera en tro (att bränna en koran, att teckna profeten Muhammed som en karikatyr) är inte uppvigling mot människor – i Sverige. Att det är annorlunda i exempelvis Iran är en helt annan grej. Där hängdes nyligen två män som hade kritiserat religion. De hade dessförinnan suttit fängslade på death row i sex år.
Jag tycker självklart inte att koranbränning eller att rita karikatyrer av judar, svarta, bögar, whatever nödvändigtvis måste vara ok (även om jag kan tycka att karikatyrer är roliga), men det måste få vara tillåtet.
Den gravt socialistiska vänstertidningen Flamman uppmanar ständigt till satirteckningar av Erdogan. Även en sådan handling måste självklart få vara tillåten.
Återigen, för att visa hur bananas det är:
Är black metal (som hädar och hetsar mot kristna) hets mot folkgrupp?
Är det hets mot folkgruppen jurister att bränna lagboken?
Ska vi förbjuda bibelbränning också, eller rent av förbjuda hån av alla heliga skrifter, eller varför pratas det endast om Koranen och islamofobi när det här diskuteras? Varför ska religion ens undantas i lagen? Och varför ska Sverige böja sig för länder som själva förtrycker minoriteter?
Att yttrandefriheten kan utnyttjas är ett svagt argument för att inskränka den.
I skrivande stund verkar regeringens förslag om ändring i ordningslagen inte ha majoritet i riksdagen. Än finns det hopp om mänskligheten.
Nathan Hamelberg gjorde mig uppmärksam på följande: Terrorhotet i samtiden kommer inte enbart från det högerreaktionära islamistiska hållet. Mycket viktig påminnelse!
Nu när al-Qaida hetsar mot Sverige pga de idiotiska koranbränningarna och det faktiskt finns konkreta säkerhetshot mot oss är det läge att påminna om följande:
Varför ska vi vika oss när totalitära stater hotar med repressalier? “Visa hänsyn till utrikesmakt” som det talas om med så fina ord = krypa för diktaturer.
Det är inte fel på oss i det här läget. Det är de som hotar med våld, de som piskar upp den typen av stämningar, som är det verkliga problemet. Så länge det finns diktaturer, terrorister och teokratier så kommer den här typen av hot att fortsätta.
Om det räknas som hets mot folkgrupp att bränna en bok, ska vi även förbjuda att man ritar eller publicerar bilder av profeten Mohammed (Vilks)? Ska satir förbjudas (Charlie Hebdo)? Skriva en roman (Salman Rushdie)? Vad blir nästa steg? Ska Iran få tysta kvinnorättskämpar även i Sverige?
Att ge terrorister tolkningsföreträde i yttrandefrihetsfrågor är helt rubbat.
De länder som nu har haft krismöten om koranbränningar borde ha krismöten om sina egna länders bristande mänskliga rättigheter. Och den som vill värna om muslimers rättigheter bör lobba för att införa yttrandefrihet och andra demokratiska rättigheter i den muslimska världen, istället för att inskränka dem i Sverige.
Att kritisera, håna eller häda en av världens största religioner är heller inte att sparka nedåt. Att dessa 57 muslimska länder som fördömer koranbränningar ger sig på det lilla skitlandet Sverige, det är väl att sparka nedåt om något…
Hur agerar Sveriges regering när skurkskaterna diskuterar koranbränningar och kräver en massa skit från Sverige? Jo, Uffe bjuder på fika. Betänk att Nordiska Motståndsrörelsen var i lika stor majoritet som de här staterna, och att NMR hotade regeringen. Skulle Uffe, Billström och company bjuda in NMR på saft och bulle? Knappast. Men på något konstigt vänster så står “religion” över allt annat i detta krisskede (även känt som Nato-processen…). Jag skriver “religion” för det handlar snarare om politik och makt än om tro. Troende som verkar i det tysta är aldrig några problem, så all heder åt dessa. Det är knappast fromma muslimer som kastar sten på polisen.
Kom också ihåg att arabiska länder inte har några nämnvärda problem med att handla med Kina, ett land som sedan väldigt långt tillbaka fängslar, torterar och mördar muslimska uigurer i väldig hög utsträckning (googla “muslimer Kina”). Varför utfärdas inga fördömanden eller hot mot Kina? Fundera på det.
Sverige är ett enkelt offer. Just därför måste vi stå emot nu och inte krypa som vi gjorde och gör i Nato-frågan. Uffe gömde sig under sängen och bad en totalitär stat om ursäkt för våra medborgerliga rättigheter…
Kommer ni ihåg när Kristersson, Billström och övriga i Moderat-ligan flippade över en docka? Det var förvisso ett smaklöst tilltag att så brutalt göra narr av (dvs protestera mot) en islamistisk diktator (aka Billströms chef) och en militär allians i ett känsligt läge, men fullt legitimt i en demokrati.
När turkisk polis satte stopp för Pride-firandet häromveckan, enligt helt andra demokratiska regler som bara gäller i Erdogans Turkiet, var det knäpptyst från de blå. Erdo hatade mot HBTQ-personer under hela valrörelsen. Inte ett ord från de svenska regeringspamparna. De försökte väl fortfarande återhämta sig från sin dockchock…
För några år sedan lät det radikalt annorlunda, särskilt från Romina Pourmokhtari, som äcklades av Erdo.
Lyssna gärna på avsnittet “Erdogans hemliga agenter” i P3 Konflikt. Dagarna efter att det sändes så vann diktatorn valet och Kristersson gratulerade honom på Twitter. För att han måste. Han måste krypa för ett asshole som fängslar politiska meningsmotståndare, som kräver att Sverige ska lämna ut dessa – samtidigt som assholet huserar Den Kurdiska Räven, ett annat asshole som tillsammans med sina gäng och sina fiender förstör Sverige. Samtidigt som Tidelaget förstör och drar ner på allt som kan förhindra att en kommande generation går i Rävens spår. Redan nu vill de sänka straffåldern till 12 år.
Det går snabbt utför med den här korrupta ligan vid rodret. Och deras kulturslakt har bara börjat. Det riktigt sorgliga är att Socialdemokraterna är av samma skrot och korn, vilket knappast kan vara förvånande om man följt politiken sedan efter Palme.
Love Flowers Best In Openness And Freedom
A meditation on the state of civilization and nature by Mattias Indy Pettersson
Edward Abbey (1927-1989) was an American author whose works reflect an uncompromising environmentalist philosophy. His love for the natural and his distrust of machines stayed with him until his death. He was buried as he had requested: in a sleeping bag, without a casket, in an unmarked desert grave somewhere in Arizona.
The title of this essay is a quote from Abbey’s ”Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness” (1968), a book that made me want to give up on civilization and retreat into nature. Too bad I’m such a self-made slave to this so called civilized living that I don’t even know how to start a fire without a lighter… I would probably not last a week in the wilderness. But I do love all things natural, it’s just that I’m super-civilized, i.e. lazy and brainless, and therefore unable to survive without my gadgets. Let’s explore why I am so stupid, and let’s start with a simple definition of the word ”nature”.
Nature: The natural world as it exists without human beings or civilization.
Our love for nature violently clashes with our love for civilization. Apparently, we can’t have both. Common sense is not common, and it takes experts to convince us of what we already know (this planet is deteriorating and so are we). Earth is our home, and what we do to it, we do to ourselves. We cannot live without Earth, but Earth will do just fine without us. Edward O. Wilson, biologist and researcher, once said that ”if all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”
Chaos: The confused unorganized state of primordial matter and infinite space before the creation of distinct forms.
Or, if we take it down a notch to a more human level:
A state of utter confusion, a total lack of order.
Civilization has been in a state of chaos for quite some time, so what else is new? Well, let’s talk about the aspect of time for a while. We’ve accomplished amazing things over the last couple of years. In the morning you get in your car, you drive through the city, you get on the subway, you scroll through your feeds on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and you subscribe to yet another podcast… It all seems normal, right? But it’s so far removed from every single aspect of our history. It’s so new, it’s so recent, this thing with cities and electronics, and it’s pretty far from a natural state.
Take a look at the nearest clock and understand that since this exact time yesterday, 13 million tons of toxic chemicals were released across the globe, and 200 000 acres of rainforest have been destroyed (an acre is approximately the same size as one football pitch or 16 tennis courts). Every two seconds a human being starves to death. Every day 150-200 animal and plant species are driven extinct. Every 90 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease. Civilization seems kind of bad. And even if those numbers aren’t 100 % correct at the time of writing, I think most of us understand that we’re in deep shit. The biodiversity crisis is real.
*
Lewis Mumford, historian and sociologist, defined civilization in his book ”The Myth of the Machine” (1967-70) as ”the group of institutions that first took form under kingship. Its chief features, constant in varying proportions throughout history, are the centralization of political power, the separation of classes, the lifetime division of labor, the mechanization of production, the magnification of military power, the economic exploitation of the weak, and the universal introduction of slavery and forced labor for both industrial and military purposes.”
Was Mumford cynical? Depends on whom you ask. Industrial civilization is destroying the planet and creating unprecedented human suffering. Do you agree? Maybe not wholeheartedly, but if you deny mankind’s destructive impact upon this Earth, you are not here. You are lost.
”How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.” Paul Bowles wrote that 1949 in ”The Sheltering Sky”.
”Woe to you, oh Earth and sea, for the Devil sends the Beast with wrath, because he knows the time is short.” Steve Harris wrote this adaptation of the Book of Revelations in ”The Number of the Beast” (1982).
Conclusion? The time aspect reveals what we’ve created in just the blink of an eye. Chaos. And compared to the time span of one full second, a blink of an eye is an eternity. Lots of chaos.
Derrick Jensen, philosopher: ”We have a social system based on the use of non-renewable sources. If you take more from your surroundings than you give back, sooner or later there will be nothing left. If fewer ancient forests stand each year than the year before, sooner or later none will stand.”
This is all very easy to understand. Cities, the defining feature of civilization, have always relied on taking resources from the surrounding countryside. Civilization thrives in artificially created environments, these huge urban centers that breed a mindless mob and suck the vitality out of the countryside. Spirituality starts in the open, transfers to the cities where it loses its gist and then dies in the megacities, engulfed in the flames of materialism.
Journalist Eduardo Galeano writes that ”the majority must resign itself to the consumption of fantasy. Illusions of wealth are sold to the poor, illusions of freedom to the oppressed, dreams of victory to the defeated and of power to the weak.” These are the central themes of modern political culture. How can this be a good thing? What have we made of ourselves?
Deep down, we know. Everybody knows that we’re in great need of new, sustainable systems to make this world a better place. Everybody knows that global hunger is man made and preventable. But these monumental problems are hardly being addressed at all. At least not by those in power, the responsible leaders who are able to make a difference. The power of the grassroots campaigns and small-scale activism is simply not enough, and we seem unable to grasp the magnitude of the challenges that face us.
Man will not live forever. Man will die off, it’s just a question of when, and I say the sooner the better. We know what’s wrong with us, so the question is: do we have the bravery to confront it? I think not. Therefore, the best humanity can hope for is to eventually be crushed by nature. I wish us all a peaceful, painless death when somebody finally pushes the button and closes the switch. Maybe, in a near future, all it will take is one click.
*
”The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”
H.P. Lovecraft, ”The Call of Cthulhu” (1928).
Technology most certainly will continue to develop at an exponential rate, as our development of sustainable agricultural and environmental issues lags behind. Some people claim that technology still lacks what separates tech from Man: a sense of morality, compassion, love, empathy… In my mind, I don’t see how we make good use of our morality, compassion, love and empathy. In my mind, we’ve forgotten everything about the soul, the spirits, and our emotions. There’s a spiritual void at the heart of our culture. Superhuman intelligence is all about the brain, and nothing about the soul, hence I see no difference between Man and Machine. The singularity is here.
Singularity: The state when humans will transcend the limitations of our biological bodies and brains. Where machine intelligence is more powerful than all human intelligence combined.
The way we use our mobile phones, activity wristbands and whatnot (or rather, the way technology uses us), tracking our every step even when we sleep, I’d say technology is already a part of our actual bodies. American terrorist and mathematics prodigy Theodore Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber (his early victims were associated with universities or airlines), was a man who lived for his idea, who was prepared to sacrifice everything for his idea, and especially everybody.
Dubbed ”the most intellectual serial killer the nation has ever produced” by one criminologist, his ideas about the evils of technology and his desire to leave civilization and escape into the wild ultimately drove him to murder. The Unabomber was active between 1978 and 1995, way before activity wristbands. Was his anti-technology philosophy sufficient to explain his crimes? Of course not. But let’s talk about violence.
Civilization is based on a rarely questioned hierarchy. Violence done by those up high to those down low is standard operating procedure, while reversing this structure is almost unthinkable. When violence from below occasionally strike against the upper elite it is regarded with shock, and stricken down hard by those in power, all according to the law of retaliation. ”And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.” (Leviticus 26:18). Violence has become the default of our culture.
*
”The Decline of the West”, is a two-volume tome written by historian and philosopher Oswald Spengler in 1918-1923. Spengler looks upon history as an organic cycle (rather than linear) that has to pass through the stages of Birth, Development, Fulfillment, Decay and Death. In the West we tend to look upon history as something always moving forward, evolving to the better. This, according to Spengler, is the result of the Western man’s ego, thinking that everything in the past pointed to him, making him the center of the world.
The cyclical movements of history are not those of nations, states, races and events, but of High Cultures, each and every one of equal importance. So when Spengler speaks of the decline of the West, he speaks of the decline of its culture. Thus, the people live on, but their culture is destroyed. The eight High Cultures so far are the Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, Mexican (Mayan/Aztec), Classical (Greece/Rome), Arabian and Western (European-American). These eight cultures have all had a life span of 1000 years, and every culture has collapsed. Why should ours be any different?
Spengler uses seasons as an analogy to elaborate. Spring is the birth of religion and where the basic principles of this culture are being formed. Summer is when acts of lasting value and great accomplishments are being made (this is the peak and the cultural prime). Autumn is when all this start to break down and turn into Winter. We’re there already, in the Kali Yuga.
Political propaganda is mistaken for ideology, feelings are mistaken for knowledge, science no longer reaches certainties. There is much cultural confusion, and the arts do not speak from or to the soul of the people, but rather follow materialistic fashion with lots of changes of styles, not asking much from neither the artist nor the people. Spengler is confident that after a moment of atheism the people will turn to a renewal of religion and spiritual faith, based on the religion developed in the Spring of the culture. And so we’ve entered what Spengler refers to as the Civilization phase which is – as opposed to the Culture phase we’ve just left behind – occupied with materialism, continual wars, mass movements of people, environmental crises, rootlessness and lack of vitality, strength and intellect.
The history of High Culture is the only history that counts, according to Spengler, because pre- and post-Cultural man is simply without history: as man plunges into materialism and advocates the degeneration of his mentality, he loses his historical weight.
Charles Eisenstein writes in ”Sacred Economics” (2011) about our culture’s notion of spirit as ”that of something separate and non-worldly, that yet can miraculously intervene in material affairs”, and concludes that this divine, godlike spirit of today is simply named Money; the hidden hand that directs and controls pretty much everything in our existence.
Wu-Tang Clan has a song, ”C.R.E.A.M.”, Cash Rules Everything Around Me, which the wolves of Wall Street surely cannot relate to. Cash? Most money don’t even exist in physical form. Most money is an abstraction disconnected from the real world.
Eisenstein on the early years of the 21st century economic crises: ”Looking down from Olympian heights, the financiers called themselves ‘masters of the universe’, channeling the power of the god they served to bring fortune or ruin upon the masses, to literally move mountains, raze forests, change the course of rivers, cause the rise and fall of nations. But money soon proved to be a capricious god.
As I write these words, it seems that the increasingly frantic rituals that the financial priesthood uses to placate the god money are in vain. Like the clergy of a dying religion, they exhort their followers to greater sacrifices while blaming their misfortunes either on sin (greedy bankers, irresponsible consumers) or on the mysterious whims of God (the financial markets). Soon, perhaps, we will blame the priests themselves.
What we call deflation, an earlier culture might have called, ‘God abandoning the world’. Money is disappearing, and with it a third property of spirit, the animating force of the human realm. [Money …], so insubstantial (in the form of electrons in computers) that it can hardly be said to exist at all, yet so powerful that without it, human productivity grinds to a halt. It is as if God had forsaken the world.”
He continues:
”We do not realize that our concept of the divine has attracted to it a god that fits that concept, and given it sovereignty over the earth. By divorcing the soul from the flesh, spirit from matter, and God from nature, we have installed a ruling power that is soulless, alienating, ungodly and unnatural.”
Our children will have to pay. They are the ones being left with the pollution, the wreckage, the ruin, the debt and the collapse of human industrial civilization. Our children will look up and whisper ”no”…
*
Edward Abbey again:
”…I go outside and close the switch on the generator. The light bulbs dim and disappear, the furious gnashing of pistons whimpers to a halt. Standing by the inert and helpless engine, I hear its last vibrations die like ripples on a pool somewhere far out on the tranquil sea of desert, somewhere beyond Delicate Arch, beyond the Yellow Cat badlands, beyond the shadow line. I wait.
Now the night flows back, the mighty stillness embraces and includes me; I can see the stars again and the world of starlight. I am twenty miles or more from the nearest fellow human, but instead of loneliness I feel loveliness. Loveliness and a quiet exultation.”
So let’s gently close the switch on civilization and let nature prevail. Don’t worry, it’ll be beautiful. Everything will be fine once we are all gone.
//
This essay is part of EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE ONCE WE ARE ALL GONE, a so-called self published artist’s book, created by Björn Engberg 2017. Proofread by Hannes Rubaszkin. Photos by Björn Engberg.
Revelation and Deuteronomy
Funeral Mist: Blessed Curse from the Maranatha album (2009).
They scoffed at his feast of love, now they shall be dragged to his table of justice and made to drink their due deserts.*
They scoffed!…at the feast of the Lord and now they will be made to drink of their due deserts. Those of you that are away from God, I’m warning you, there’s coming a time, you would give anything for the cup of salvation, you would give anything to follow in the Lord’s steps and take up your cup and drink it whenever he calls you to do with the Christians; but it’s too late! So you were an angry man on the Earth? I’m an angry god in heaven.
Don’t forget our test tonight, for in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture and he poureth out of the same. But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. (Psalm 75:8)
Friends, the judgment. The punishment of the wicked is prepared, God holds it in his hand, in the chalice of his wrath he holds it.
…The wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and the presence of God.** (Revelation 14:10)
Take the wine cup of the fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me. (Jeremiah 25:15-17)
Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body,
And cursed shall be the fruit of thy land,
Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in,
And cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. (Deuteronomy 28:18-19)
I gave you everything —-. He will force you as a parent forces a child to take medicine, he’s gonna force you to take the cup of the Lord…The wine is red! That signifies, my friends, the retribution! The payment! Vengeance! Blood for blood!
And thou shalt grope at noon-day, as the blind gropeth in darkness,
And thou shalt not prosper in thy ways:
And thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore,
And no man shall save thee. (Deuteronomy 28:29)
The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high;
And thou shalt come down very low.
He shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. (Deuteronomy 28:43-44)
And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass,
And the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust:
From heaven shall it come down upon thee,
Until thou be destroyed (Deuteronomy 28:23-24)
You’ll cry! You’ll cough! You’ll choke! And you will be…trapped. You’ll see the dregs, you’ll see the bottom of the cup, you’ll see the soupy mixture but you’ll keep drinking it and drinking it and drinking it and drinking it; my friends, Hell is forever! Damnation is forever!
It’s not a day in Hell, it’s eternity. When the Rapture takes place all hell is gonna explode. Then you will be within the sodomite hordes, when the Rapture takes place, you will not make it…you’re not going up. Why? You made a choice. You made a choice. It’s a horrible tempest! This shall be the cup, the portent of their cup. Death! Every last sin —. Don’t hold back at me; ‘cause when you hold back, friend, you’re dropping into the cup, it’s being stored up. And you will be forced to drink it, it will stand over you. And judge you.
The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee,
Until he have consumed thee from off the land,
Whither thou goest to possess it.
The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption,
And with a fever; and with an inflammation and with an extreme burning,
And with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew;
And they shall pursue thee until thou perish,
Because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God. (Deuteronomy 28:21-22, 62)
— It sayeth in the — saying with a loud voice: If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or his hand, the same shall drink of the cup… (Revelation 14:9-10) …It is full of mixture, and this represents, friends: spices of anger, justice and repeated rejections of mercy. How many times has God tried to warn you?
You’re mixing the cup! You’re the ones dropping every ingredient in! You’ve stirred up wrath! And if you don’t believe what I’m speaking then you read the word! You’ve mixed his wrath! And it’s poisonous. It’s not the church that is causing the wrath to come down, it’s you! Drink it! Drink it! Not only will you have no choice, you’ll never reach the —.
You won’t — to do it. He will —-
—
*The first four paragraphs of the sample are partly from the exposition by Charles H. Spurgeon of Psalm 75:8 in the book The Treasury of David.
** It’s “presence of the Lamb” in the original verse.
—
All the dirty work done by Aceres, used with kind permission. Thank you!
The Holy Mountain – Part One
Alejando Jodorowsky‘s The Holy Mountain (1973) is one of my all time favourites. It’s about symbolism, mainly focused on spirituality and the occult, death, rebirth, mysticism and the extramundane, but also on capitalist production, militarism and the absurd. The visual vocabulary is unique and absolutely stunning. Press pause in any frame at any time throughout the whole film, and you will get an image that constitutes the most amazing art. After all, Jodorowsky was trying with all his soul to make a sacred film. He wanted to change mankind with it, make it a source of enlightenment for the audience, and he believed that cinema was better than LSD…
The Holy Mountain has certainly changed me and the way I look at things, and most importantly the way I look at movies. In my eyes, this is pure gold/excrements. It operates on so many levels and is filled with so much detail, I believe you need to experience it several times to grasp its universal themes. Knowledge of the occult, religion and its’ most basic symbols is essential for understanding. Sometimes it comes out deep as fuck, and sometimes it does not (to put it simply, haha!)… That’s what I love with this piece of art: It rules even when it sucks!
These posts are based on Jodorowsky’s commentary track for the Anchor Bay DVD edition, as well as the book The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky. You may want to watch the movie while you read this text, and hopefully, a deeper kind of understanding will emerge on your highway to hell/nirvana or whatever you may fancy.
Here are the first three minutes of the film, as explained by Jodorowsky in the commentary track:
First, a set decorated without furniture. It’s clean, like a hospital, with crosses on the wall to convey a sense of mysticism. There are only essential objects, like a sacred ceremony. The master’s outfit conceals his face. He hides his face, like Mohammed. He is an essential being, without ego.
These are the actual movements of a Japanese tea ceremony. All the movements are conscious.
These two girls weren’t actresses. They wanted to have a spiritual experience. They were searching for their own truth, their naked truth.
[the camera sweeps across different images]
The inner God that opens in circles towards a greater consciousness.
A heart that opens towards a greater consciousness.
The target that the arrow must hit.
The eye of Buddha.
The pearl, the soul that must be polished.
When the door is opened, a key is found with the trilogy.
Now, descend into the world of the dead, to the world of the dreamless dreams.
Descending…
Butterfly wings symbolize metamorphosis.
Back up through the serpent, Kundalini… the pearls of Eros, until it arrives at a geometric figure, which is the interior consciousness.
After this three minute introduction filled to the brim with symbols of the occult, we meet the protagonist, the Christ like figure, the Thief, lying on the ground, and who through the course of the film will experience moments of enlightenment. Jodorowsky continues:
He’s ”The Fool” of the tarot. His face is covered with flies, symbolizing useless thoughts. He is urinating on himself. He’s drunk and lost. This is the card that defines him, the tarot’s Fool card. The Fool is always represented by an animal that is his ego. The frog is the ego.
To be continued in Part Two.
The World Tomorrow
It must be considered impossible to solve the position we’ve placed ourselves in. The level of humanity’s consciousness is way too low. Our children will have to pay. They are the ones being left with the pollution, the wreckage, the ruin, the debt and the collapse of human industrial civilization. That’s not pessimism, but realism. Consider this: What if realists were in charge of U.S. foreign policy?
Now all the gods are dead, except the god of war. And the god of war is money.
Charles Eisenstein, in Sacred Economics, states:
Our culture’s notion of spirit is that of something separate and non-worldly, that yet can miraculously intervene in material affairs, and that even animates and directs them in some mysterious way.
It is hugely ironic and hugely significant that the one thing on the planet most closely resembling the forgoing conception of the divine is money! It is an invisible, immortal force that surrounds and steers all things, omnipotent and limitless, an ‘invisible hand’ that, it is said, makes the world go ’round. Yet, money today is an abstraction, at most symbols on a piece of paper, but usually mere bits in a computer.
[…]Money’s divine property of abstraction, of disconnection from the real world of things, reached its extreme in the early years of the 21st century as the financial economy lost its mooring in the real economy and took on a life of its own. The vast fortunes of Wall Street were unconnected to any material production, seeming to exist in a separate realm.
Looking down from Olympian heights, the financiers called themselves ‘masters of the universe’, channeling the power of the god they served to bring fortune or ruin upon the masses, to literally move mountains, raze forests, change the course of rivers, cause the rise and fall of nations. But money soon proved to be a capricious god. As I write these words, it seems that the increasingly frantic rituals that the financial priesthood uses to placate the god money are in vain. Like the clergy of a dying religion, they exhort their followers to greater sacrifices while blaming their misfortunes either on sin (greedy bankers, irresponsible consumers) or on the mysterious whims of God (the financial markets). Soon, perhaps, we will blame the priests themselves.
What we call deflation, an earlier culture might have called, ‘God abandoning the world’. Money is disappearing, and with it a third property of spirit, the animating force of the human realm. At this writing, all over the world machines stand idle. Factories have ground to a halt, construction equipment sits derelict in the yard. Yet all the human and material inputs to operate them still exist. There is still fuel, there are still raw materials, and there are still human beings in abundance who know how to operate the machines. It is rather something immaterial, that animating spirit, which has fled. What has fled is money. That is the only thing missing, so insubstantial (in the form of electrons in computers) that it can hardly be said to exist at all, yet so powerful that without it, human productivity grinds to a halt. It is as if God had forsaken the world.
Even beyond the mechanical realm, we can see the demotivating effects of lack of money. Consider the stereotype of the unemployed man, nearly broke, slouched in front of the TV in his undershirt, drinking a beer, hardly able to rise from his chair. Money, it seems, animates people as well as machines. Without it we are dispirited.
We do not realize that our concept of the divine has attracted to it a god that fits that concept, and given it sovereignty over the earth. By divorcing the soul from the flesh, spirit from matter, and God from nature, we have installed a ruling power that is soulless, alienating, ungodly and unnatural.
Obviously, God must be killed. Watch Michael C. Ruppert’s speech about this (it’s edited with pompous music, new age imagery etc, but as always: listen to the message, ignore the cosmetics).
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In a world where almost every news channel is owned by major Western corporations and governments, Julian Assange’s TV-show The World Tomorrow might bring something new to the table. Yep, it’s run by Russia Today, which is funded by the Russian state, but there still is a difference.
And yeah, Assange’s ”show” looks and behaves like an amateur video podcast, but of course, looks are completely irrelevant. Idiots will always have a hang up on Assange’s haircut, his smile, the way he speaks or whatever, but don’t bother with idiots – it’s the message that counts. Assange is executing what mainstream media so often fails to do: he breaks stories, lets interesting people talk, tries to find the missing link, exposes the truth and the lies. At least with Wikileaks. As for the show, it’s too early to tell.
Unfortunately, the program is much too short. Episode #2 would have been much better if David Horowitz (Zionist) and Slavoj Žižek (Communist) could’ve talked for one or two hours, instead of 25 minutes. But I guess that’s because the platform is owned by Russia Today, and after all, it’s supposed to be a TV-show, not a video podcast.
Still, it’s great compared to the totally worthless debates on national television in Sweden. They cram twenty people together in a studio, everybody’s talking over the top of each other, it’s just mindless and meaningless to watch. Mainstream media really, really sucks. Sure, every now and then there are good articles to be found even in the crappiest of papers, but if you want the real deal you have to go somewhere else. The World Tomorrow might be a good place to start, even though they seem to be struggling with the same problems as mentioned above. Just look at Horowitz and Žižek going crazy in the studio! At least they’re trying…
However, as people start to dig a bit deeper than Dagens Nyheter and The Guardian, the power freaks are trying to take control over the Internet with PIPA, SOPA, ACTA, CISPA, FRA, Datalagringsdirektivet… You know how it goes. If people had paid more attention to The Pirate Party we probably wouldn’t be so utterly fucked already. Now it’s pretty damn close to 1984, and we won’t even realize it until we’re cut off. And not even then will we do anything about it. That’s the sad but true story of humanity right there. We know what’s wrong, but we’re too fucked to care. We might have heard about CISPA in the news, but we don’t bother to check what it’s all about. In so many ways, we truly deserve this collapse.
The World Tomorrow might not be the most balanced show on earth, but at least it’s something different, working to make a change. Hopefully Assange and Russia Today will have the courage and honesty to invite their ”enemies” as well, further on.
Let’s start looking at the puppet masters – for real – and stop being their puppets.