tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43428111333288003882024-02-22T06:36:04.229-08:00 Cassandra's Legacy<br> <br> <br><br> <b> Always plan for the <br> worst case hypothesis </b>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comBlogger983125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-13059691810016074432023-10-09T11:55:00.003-07:002023-10-09T12:13:50.907-07:00Cassandra is Dead. Long Live Cassandra! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1987" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigfwbhDj2lepryQjE_IeFKhz6kc5du19SurYZo2ehbt9Xfu_ncSaCmc9IKE25FJM4IxuYtsW_kYTXOPoffA_totzNerWebok-oFm_ervjWA9RrtK6ybY7flP-eidMmKeLQ_Lq8Ll3BLzw/w476-h492/CassandraDeath.jpg" width="476" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>After the fall of Troy, Cassandra was taken as Agamemnon's "pallake" (concubine) and taken to </i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span class="ILfuVd"><span class="hgKElc">Mycenae, where she was </span></span>killed by Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife. The destiny of prophetesses is never so bright, especially when they turn out to have been right. Something similar, although fortunately much less tragic, happened to the Cassandra blog, <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2021/02/censorship-how-west-is-becoming-more.html" target="_blank">censored on Facebook</a> by the powers that be. So, it is time to call it quits. But Cassandra is not dead! She reincarnated in the form of the Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Click on the image below to link to the new blog "<a href="https://senecaeffect.substack.com/">The Seneca Effect</a>" on Substack. <br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://senecaeffect.substack.com/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="616" data-original-width="1711" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkOvQ9rzy4jc0JXftO8U-Mk_6V2cO1XHp1eOcBhRlF3HCKuDKVkeHRypf3xyG5Beq_V3aT_zLK2JQu6CiUbK4tQzi5W4e5zxp2vFFIgjMU9jSzCu3BnvfYeV18deB-LFZG9Qa91qRga7eeFhPMgd-9cZEBmv5-HBDyaFAqqtTrAp6fY_y3Ob161LJUd-M/w489-h176/SenecaBanner.png" width="489" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;">On March 2, 2011, I started the blog that I titled "<a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Cassandra's Legacy.</a>" 10 years later, the blog had accumulated 974 posts, 332 followers, and <span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">more than 5 million visualizations<b> </b>(5289.929). Recently, the blog had stabilized at around 2,000-3,000 views per day. <b>It is now moving to a different site with a different title: "<a href="https://senecaeffect.substack.com/">The Seneca Effect</a>"</b><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">The reasons for this move are not because I wanted to. <b>I was forced to change</b>. Cassandra was a small blog, by all means, but
I always had the sensation that it was not without an impact on the
nebulous constellation of the people, high up, whom we call <b>"the powers
that be"</b> (the PTBs).</span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">It is a story that reminds me of the legend that </span></span></span></span><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">George W. Bush decided to invade Iraq in 2003 after he had learned about
peak oil from something written by people belonging to ASPO (the Association for the Study of Peak Oil). Apparently, <b>he was impressed by the concept of "peak oil,"</b> so much that he decided to invade Iraq to secure the oil reserves there. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">Reasonably, it can't be but a legend, but are we sure? After
all, <b>the people who make decisions are not smarter than us, just richer. </b>And they can misunderstand things just like we all do. Of course, their blunders make much more noise. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">And so, it may well be that many things that we are seeing around us have a logic. Certainly, <b>it is past the time when a certain kind of message could be eliminated simply by ignoring it. Now, it has to be actively suppressed. </b>And that is what's happening with censorship rampant in the social media. Even the</span></span> Cassandra blog, even though not important in itself, attracted the wrath of the powers that be.<a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2021/02/censorship-how-west-is-becoming-more.html" target="_blank"> It was censored on Facebook</a>, and it is also kept nearly invisible in the search engines. As I discussed <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2021/02/censorship-how-west-is-becoming-more.html" target="_blank">in a previous post on Cassandra</a>, we knew it would happen and it did. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">Of course, this blog could survive even while boycotted by Facebook, but when you discover that you are in the crosshairs of someone big and powerful, it is better to duck down and take cover. </span></span><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">It makes little sense to insist on keeping an indefensible position.<b> </b></span></span><b>It is time for Cassandra to fold. </b></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">But this is not a defeat. <b>It is a badge of honor</b> <b>that the PTBs noticed this blog</b> and acted against it (O.K., maybe it was just a glitch of some complicated AI program, who knows?). In any case, closing the blog means recognizing that the memetic war follows the standard rules of war. It is all about movement. And that's what Cassandra is doing. It is moving. We all do. The only things that never move are the dead, and we are still very much alive! And <b>"Cassandra's Legacy" will remain online, </b>although it won't be updated anymore.<br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">So, I moved to a blog with a different title, called, <a href="https://senecaeffect.substack.com/"><b>"The Seneca Effect"</b></a>. It was also targeted by the powers that be and it had to move away from the blogger platform. Right now, it found refuge on Substack. We'll see how it fares there</span></span><span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">!</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #302b2b; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 15.4px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #302b2b; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 15.4px;">And now, no more shall my prophecy peer forth from behind a veil</span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #302b2b; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 15.4px;">like a new-wedded bride<div><div>But it will rush upon me clear as a fresh wind </div><div>blowing against the sun's uprising so as to dash against its rays, </div><div>like a wave, a woe far mightier than mine. </div><div>No more by riddles will I instruct you. </div><div>And bear me witness, as, running close behind, </div><div>I scent the track of crimes done long ago. </div><div>For from this roof never departs a choir chanting in unison, </div><div>but singing no harmonious tune; </div><div>for it tells of no good.<div><div><br /></div><div>Aeschilus, Agamemnon</div></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Below, Cassandra as interpreted by the AI Dezgo.com</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkYWxN4MiTiXyeinTCuCqP_ZcT7Qs7DmYnPsByOp45JLh1Hey9B0V1IdeUTLOpYme4OXdqnTTapvM1R3UmEj77aPX3OKDtJH7bT7AA7MgQHCxZHHxz1NkIsHvdIyQQeD9dwOdfocZj4o__7hxSo5Wr8Ld5edCt-fSRgGRJcXJxLPM01bd0LmCXOD5Sag/s576/Cassandra!.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="448" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkYWxN4MiTiXyeinTCuCqP_ZcT7Qs7DmYnPsByOp45JLh1Hey9B0V1IdeUTLOpYme4OXdqnTTapvM1R3UmEj77aPX3OKDtJH7bT7AA7MgQHCxZHHxz1NkIsHvdIyQQeD9dwOdfocZj4o__7hxSo5Wr8Ld5edCt-fSRgGRJcXJxLPM01bd0LmCXOD5Sag/w392-h504/Cassandra!.png" width="392" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-62321816543499529202023-08-11T23:25:00.001-07:002023-08-11T23:25:29.061-07:00Margherita Sarfatti: the Woman Who Destroyed Mussolini<p><span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizMTbD9RA2mvOWGbZ07L0b2STsfqJCnTNEVX4KoIqs8UWKNgYCmDfK18Z12CaqRoZjMC0Tfr2H3wr02t_KIYITa-DBb8SUNrFTwZ67WZaJXM_1ZNreOslwCJ5tl2g4gy47Ms-__V8Ml4qKvO9m34bvqO8lFp4DolaPLC5hgtRWiYoWITh4z44c3OTBBRc/s296/Sarfatti.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="220" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizMTbD9RA2mvOWGbZ07L0b2STsfqJCnTNEVX4KoIqs8UWKNgYCmDfK18Z12CaqRoZjMC0Tfr2H3wr02t_KIYITa-DBb8SUNrFTwZ67WZaJXM_1ZNreOslwCJ5tl2g4gy47Ms-__V8Ml4qKvO9m34bvqO8lFp4DolaPLC5hgtRWiYoWITh4z44c3OTBBRc/w318-h428/Sarfatti.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i>A ghostly image of Margherita Sarfatti (1880-1961), a remarkably interesting Italian intellectual, known mostly because she was the lover of the Duce, Benito Mussolini, at the beginning of his career. She might have been much more than just a lover, and she may have played an important part both in Mussolini's successes and in his eventual downfall. Margherita Sarfatti makes a cameo appearance in my novel <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Etruscan-Quest-Mysteries-Ancient-Tuscany/dp/8897556477/ref=sr_1_1">"The Etruscan Quest"</a> and, here, I expand my interpretation of her role in history by proposing that she may have been one of the causes, perhaps the main one, of the doom of her former lover. Of course, I cannot prove this interpretation, but I can at least say that it cannot be disproven, either. As for many things in history, truth is now with the ghosts who lived the events that we read about. So, why not try to ask them?</i></p><p style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://ugobardi.blogspot.com/2023/08/margherita-sarfatti-la-donna-che.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Italian Version</span></a></p><p><br /></p><p>Ah.... sorry, Ugo, I didn't want to scare you.</p><p>No... no, I am not scared. Just a little surprised. Who are you? </p><p>Don't you recognize me? I know that I am all white and a little transparent, but maybe you can.</p><p>Hmmm.... not sure. Did we ever meet before?</p><p>In a way, yes. I am a character in your novel, "<i>The Etruscan Quest</i>" Actually, not just a character. But I do appear in your story.</p><p>Now that I look at you, well, maybe yes. You look like... a lot like.... a portrait I saw. Are you Margherita Sarfatti?</p><p>Yes! That was very good, Ugo! </p><p>Well, as I said, I am surprised, but I do recognize you. It is a pleasure to meet you, Donna Margherita. </p><p>You don't have to call me 'Donna Margherita.' Just Margherita is fine. Where I am now, certain things are not important.</p><p>I imagine not. But I hope you were not displeased by what I wrote about you in my book.</p><p>Not displeased, Ugo. I liked what you wrote. So, I thought I could pay you a visit.</p><p>Ah... thanks, Margherita. It was a pleasure to write about you. Although, of course, it was just a cameo role in my novel. </p><p>I know. Yes, but it was nice of you. You wrote good things about me. Though, I think you were missing something. </p><p>Mmm.... maybe I understand. But I didn't know if I had the right answer to the questions I had. </p><p>Well, now you can ask me. Wouldn't you?</p><p>Yes, it is a remarkable chance. Even though I guess you are just a mental projection of mine. </p><p>Maybe. Or maybe I am a real ghost; how can you tell?</p><p>Whatever you are, Margherita, there is this nagging question that I have had in mind for a long time. And I think I can ask you about it. What happened to Mussolini that made him change so much in the 1930s? I mean, from a shrewd leader to a stumbling boor? How did he get involved in this mad idea of rebuilding the Roman Empire? </p><p>And, Ugo, if you are asking me, I think you believe I have the answer, right?</p><p>Well, yes. After all, you were placed in a position where you could know things nobody else knew. The lover of the Duce; you had access to the highest ranks of the government. And you were even received by President Roosevelt in 1934..... </p><p>But if I am just a projection of your mind.....</p><p>You are teasing me, Margherita. </p><p>Ah, sorry, Ugo. Well, after all, it doesn't matter if I am a ghost or just part of your mind. You never know what the boundaries of one's mind are. And in Hades, we may know things that living people can't know. So, let me see if I can answer your question. For that, I have to start from the beginning. And, please understand that this story is still painful for me. So far, I never told it completely to anyone. </p><p>It is an honor, Margherita. I appreciate it. </p><p>Thanks, Ugo. I know that you do. So, you know that I was Mussolini’s mistress for more than 20 years; from when he was an unknown journalist up to when he became the "<i>Duce degli Italiani</i>". He changed so much in those 20 years. And then he dumped me for a younger woman. I think it was in 1932 that he met her, Claretta Petacci was her name. See? Even as a ghost, you can be upset. That is why ghosts are said to howl in desolate places, clank chains, and things like that. I am not doing anything like that, but if I remember this story.... well. Think about how many things I did for Benito. I found money for him, invented slogans for him, taught him how to deal with powerful people, even table manners. And do you know who invented the term "<i>Duce</i>"?</p><p>But wasn't it invented by Gabriele D'Annunzio? </p><p>Yes, D'Annunzio used it. But the idea that Benito should use it as a title was mine. And it was so successful! Incredibly so. By the 1930s, everyone was using it in Italy. And that was bad for several reasons. Anyhow, let me go back to your question. Yes, Mussolini was a shrew leader when he became Prime Minister in 1922. Everything he touched seemed to be a success. And then, everything changed. But to explain how it happened, I must tell you a few things about earlier times. First of all, do you know that Mussolini was a shill for the British Secret Service?</p><p>It is known. Historians agree that he was paid by the British as a propagandist to push Italy into the war against the Central Empires.</p><p>Yes, he did. And have you ever wondered why the British came to choose him?</p><p>Good point, Margherita. I hadn't thought about this. </p><p>Well, you should have. The story is that in 1912 I met Benito for the first time when he was the director of the "Popolo d'Italia." He was a fascinating man; he had an inner force; unusual. I have to tell you that I fell in love with him. Desperately in love, it happens. But I also thought that all that force could be directed to something useful. So, in 1914, when the Services contacted me....</p><p>The British Secret Service? But why you, Margherita?</p><p>Shouldn't it be obvious? Don't you know that I can speak five languages?</p><p>Yes, I knew that, but....</p><p>My family. They were international bankers, industrialists, traders... We had connections everywhere. And you also know that we were a Jewish family. </p><p>I knew that, too. </p><p>Well, so, no surprise that I had many connections. In business, and also in politics. So, you could say that I was a shill for the British, too. But don't misunderstand me. I am Italian; I did what I did because I thought that it could help Italy -- but also Britain. Britain and Italy were sister countries at that time. I saw nothing wrong with helping the British get a little help from Italy in their fight against Germany. And so I told them of this young journalist, a smart man, a person who could help them.</p><p>I see.... this is not written in the history books. </p><p>Of course not. But if you ask yourself the right questions, you can find good answers. Benito spoke no English; he wasn't known at all outside Italy. He was, by all means, a small player in the great game. There had to be a good reason why the Services looked for him. </p><p>And that was you, Margherita. I am amazed, but it sounds true. </p><p>Indeed, Ugo, indeed. Benito accepted to work for the British. He did that for the money, but it was also a shrewd decision for him. He knew that he could use the support of the Services to make a political career in Italy. Shrewd and lucky at the same time. You know that he was drafted into the army in 1915, right?</p><p>I know, yes. He wrote a diary of his experience in the war. </p><p>The army treated him as a useful asset -- they didn't want him to die. So, they sent him to a quiet area of the front. But it was still dangerous, and he was lucky enough that he was wounded by an Italian gun that exploded near him. It gave him the fame of a war hero. Shrewd and lucky, as I said. </p><p>Yes. Lucky, but only up to a certain point. </p><p>Ah, in life, it is not such a good thing to be lucky. If you are, you arrive to think that you deserve to be lucky.... and that's what happened to Benito. But let me go in order. You know what happened after the war was over, right?</p><p>Of course I know. The years of civil strife, then the March on Rome. Mussolini taking power....</p><p>Yes. And the Services played a role in that, too. Obviously, they didn't want Italy to fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks, and they didn't want it to collapse again into statelets. We arrived close to that. So, they helped Benito to take over. It was part of my task, too. You know, my family was rich, but still I needed money. And the Services were not stingy. They understood that Benito badly needed me to set up his plan.</p><p>You won't find that written in the history books. </p><p>No, of course not. But there are many things not written in history books that are true, nevertheless. But let me continue. The March on Rome was a success; the King of Italy made Benito Prime Minister, then he gradually gained more and more power. Things were going well. Italy was recovering from the disaster of the Great War, the economy was expanding, the civil strife had disappeared, and many good things were done by the Fascist government. Yes, they had not been light-handed when they took power, but it could have been much worse. I had no official position in the government, but as the Duce's lover, I had a lot of influence in many things. And I could indulge in my passion: art. I was collecting artwork, setting up a coterie of top-level artists; I could say that life for me was fine in the best of words, or almost so. And I was still in love with Benito. Yet, I could see that something was not so well. Dark clouds at the horizon, if I am to use the imagery I read in your novel. </p><p>Oh... sure, in my novel, there is a discussion on the haruspices being able to interpret the signs in the sky. </p><p>Yes. I could say that I was seeing ominous signs in the sky. At some point, I started thinking that there was something wrong with the whole story. Simply said, Benito was gathering too much power. There was this idea that "Mussolini is Always Right" -- it started as a joke, but then people started believing in it for real. And then there were the elections of 1929, where there was only one party you could vote for, and there was a "yes" already printed on the ballot. No wonder the Fascists won with more than 99% of the votes. But that wasn't the way to go. It was a dangerous road, too much power in the hands of a single person. I tried to tell Benito, but he won't listen to me. By this time, he was already changing. He had always been.... how to say, "strong-willed," maybe. By then, he was simply stubborn and believing only in himself. </p><p>The way he is often described....</p><p>He had not always been like that, Ugo. But yes, things were going down a slippery road. In parallel, there was that odious man, Adolf Hitler, who was taking power in Germany. And the British were starting to understand that, with Mussolini, they had created a golem that they couldn't control anymore. Do you know the story of the Golem, right?</p><p>Of course. The monster created by the Rabbi of Prague. </p><p>So it is. When people have power, they tend to create monsters that they can't control. Maybe I had that power when I created the <i>Duce</i>...</p><p>Margherita, I do think you did that with good intentions....</p><p>.... and the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Anyway, let me continue with the story. In 1932, I turned 50, and I discovered that I had become too old for Benito. He was three years younger than me. He met that woman, Clara Petacci, and he wasn't interested in me any longer. But that wasn't the worst thing. I was losing him -- sometimes he was still listening to me, but mostly he would just do what he wanted. Any idiocy that came to his mind was immediately hailed by his coterie as a great strategic insight. And he was fascinated by that other golem in Germany, Hitler. At that time, I met my contacts in the Services, and they told me about their plan. Just like the Rabbi of Prague destroyed his golem, the British had concocted a plan to destroy the golem called Benito Mussolini. </p><p>Ah... Margherita, that sounds fascinating. And what was the plan?</p><p>It was simple, but well thought out. These people, you could say that they were evil, but you can't say they are not smart. So, they started with the fact that Italy had a small colony in the Horn of Africa, Somalia; they had conquered it in the 19th century. But the region also had a British colony and a French one. And the only African land that was not in European hands, Ethiopia, was right there, at the border with Somalia. It was still ruled by the king of kings, the <i>Negus Neghesti</i>. Italy had tried, once, to expand in Ethiopia, but they had been defeated at the battle of Adua, back in 1886.</p><p>I know this story. I guess the Italians wanted revenge for that defeat, right?</p><p>Yes, there was this idea of getting revenge, but it wasn't considered an important thing. Ethiopia had never been part of the propaganda baggage of the Fascist party. Benito barely knew it existed, and he had never mentioned the story of Adua in his writings. It was something dormant. I would call it a dormant evil. But the British had focused on that. I think they specialize in evil. See, the idea was to convince Benito to seek revenge for the defeat of Adua. </p><p>And how would that be useful to them?</p><p>Simple, as I said. The idea was to push the Duce to attack Ethiopia. And for that, he would have had to assemble a large force: men, equipment, and resources committed to a remote land. Then, of course, the Ethiopians would resist, and Italy would be forced to commit even more resources to the task. And, while the fight was going on, the British would intervene with a naval blockade. They could do that easily; the British rule the waves, don't they? No way for the Italian navy to contest that. And, without the possibility of resupplying the army in Ethiopia, the Italians would have had to surrender. Maybe the British would have graciously intervened to save the poor Italians from being exterminated by the angry Ethiopians. And that was the basic idea: the Duce would lose face; then, he would have had to resign. Job done.</p><p>The Perfidious Albion; as they say about Britain. </p><p>Indeed, perfidious. But that's the way they operate. There is a reason why Britain has been ruling the waves for so long. There are things I know that you can know only from this side.... But I think it is better if I don't tell you. Anyway, let me continue with this story. I thought the plan was elegant. It implied some bloodshed, of course, but it might have prevented a much worse disaster later on. So, I enthusiastically accepted to cooperate. And you may ask now who had this idea of the new Roman Empire that would be created by the conquest of Ethiopia. </p><p>I can guess that, Margherita.....</p><p>Yes. I concocted this absurd idea that Italy could rebuild the Roman Empire by conquering a country that had never been part of the Roman Empire. I thought of it mostly as a joke, but people believed it! It was all over the place. Everyone was saying that, and everyone was convinced of that. You have that thing you call "Ngrams," don't you? </p><p>We have that. I am surprised that you know about that, Margherita.</p><p>Why surprised? We ghost know a lot of things. But never mind that. You can use Ngrams to see how certain ideas penetrate the public consciousness. And if you look up the word "Ethiopia," you'll see how it picked up interest all of a sudden around 1932. At my time, I didn't need Ngrams. I was one of the sources of this propaganda operation and I could see how things were moving. I had the Italian secret service passing to me their reports. They were going to the Duce, too, but he wouldn't read them, and if he did, he didn't care so much. But I did. The idea of attacking Ethiopia truly exploded with the public. You have a term for this kind of thing, right?</p><p>Yes, we call them "psyops." </p><p>That is a nice term. We didn't have it, but we knew how to set certain things in motion. I was not the only one working at that, of course. The British government did a good job by signing a memorandum of understanding with the Italians, where they said that if Italy attacked Ethiopia, Britain wouldn't move a finger to help the Ethiopians. The Perfidious Albion, indeed. Anyway, I do think I played a role in convincing Benito that conquering Ethiopia was a good idea. I even hinted that he could become the new Roman Emperor. 'Benito Caesar,' or something like that. And I think he believed me! How silly men can be! I wrote a lot of propaganda to favor the intervention; you can still find what I wrote. You have this thing you call "The Web."</p><p>Yes, Margherita. I read something you wrote about Ethiopia. I commented by saying that it was the best piece of propaganda ever written. </p><p>That was kind of you. </p><p>No.... you were really great. Although I would say....</p><p>.... a little evil, maybe?</p><p>I wouldn't say exactly that, but....</p><p>Ah... Ugo, I am ashamed of some of the things I wrote. But I did believe that I was acting for a good purpose. Anyway, I was heavily engaged in this propaganda operation. In a sense, it was fun: these things get you engrossed. I even went to meet President Roosevelt in 1934. You may have wondered how it was that he received me as if I were a head of state, even though I had no official role in the Italian Government. It was because of the plan. In 1934, it was in full swing, and Roosevelt wanted to know about it from me. Not that I was the only source of information for him. But he asked me a lot of things, and I understood that there were things that I had not been told about the plan. Much darker things than what I knew. But Roosevelt didn't tell me much. I was dismissed, and I went back to Italy. I went to see Benito, and he was suspicious about me, about the British, about the Americans, about everyone. It was a critical moment... </p><p>Maybe you could have told him about the plan?</p><p>Sure: the perfect way to have me shot by a firing squad as a traitoress. But I could have done that if I thought he would have believed me. But, no. He has already arrived at the stage where he would believe only the things he wanted to believe. I found that my propaganda operation had gone so well that it had affected him, too. He was convinced that Italy could become an Empire again by conquering Ethiopia. Fully convinced. He had swallowed that, as they say in Britain, "lock, stock, and barrel." In a sense, it was a success for me. But it was one of those successes that count as defeats. That day, I saw myself as a relic. Whatever I had done was done; from then on, there was nothing anymore I could do. I remember I left Benito's Palace, "<i>Palazzo Venezia,</i>" thinking I would never set foot there again. And I didn't. I came to know that he had instructed the guards at the entrance to deny me entrance if I were to appear. </p><p>Again, Margherita, a fascinating story. But the plan didn't work as it was supposed to work, right?</p><p>No, it worked exactly the way it was supposed to work. Just not the way I was told it would. In 1935, Italy attacked Ethiopia, and the war started. I was expecting -- hoping -- that the British navy would start the blockade, but I knew that the plan was more devilish than that. The British did nothing to help the Ethiopians, but they enacted economic sanctions against Italy. It had no effect on the war, but it was as if they wanted Italians to get mad at them. And they succeeded at that: The Italians were raving mad at the British. You should have been there to understand. </p><p>I read something about that, yes. </p><p>Then, Ethiopia surrendered in 1936, and the king of Italy became "Emperor of Ethiopia," and no one found that silly. It was an incredible success for Benito. He was loved, adored, nearly worshipped. People really believed that Italy had become an Empire again. And that Italians were going to trash those decadent plutocracies of Northern Europe, including their Jewish masters. </p><p>It was hard on you, right?</p><p>Yes, even though I had converted to Christianity, I was still considered a Jew. Even by Benito himself. You know what he wrote about me? That I was smelling bad because I was a Jewess.... that kind of man, he was. </p><p>I am sorry about that, Margherita. </p><p>You don't have to be sorry, Ugo. It is the way things went. Anyway, the naval blockade of Ethiopia was still part of the plan; it was just postponed. It was enacted in 1941, after Italy declared war on France and Britain. And things went as planned. Italy had 250,000 troops in Ethiopia, they couldn't be resupplied from the mainland. They soon surrendered; what else could they have done? An easy victory for the British, and a terrible loss for Italy. Those troops could have changed how the war went if they had been available in Europe. </p><p>So, it was a plan.... I hadn't thought about that, but it makes a lot of sense. It was a truly devilish plan by the Perfidious Albion.</p><p>Yes, you see, they didn't just want to get rid of Mussolini. They wanted to destroy him and make sure that Italy was thoroughly destroyed, too. No more a threat to the British Empire. It worked incredibly well. Of course, it was possible only because Benito was so dumb. But it was not just him. You see, propaganda is a beast that's nearly impossible to control. You sell dreams to people, and people become enamored with their dreams. And every attempt to wake them up fails or, worse, makes them angry at you. </p><p>I know. You risked your life in 1938.</p><p>Yes, it was very hard for me. With the racial laws, I was targeted directly as a Jew. Fortunately, I could run away from Italy fast enough. And you may wonder how I could do that.</p><p>Your friends in the British Secret Service, right?</p><p>Yes. They helped me run away to France and from there to Argentina. They gave me a pension, and the agreement was that I shouldn't tell anything to anyone about the plan. The Italians agreed that that was the best way to get rid of me. Better than a bullet into my head -- it could have raised suspicions. And it was fine for me, too. Even if I had told the story of the plan, who would have believed me? I can do that only now, when I am a ghost. I was lucky, most of the Italian Jews were not so lucky. My sister Nella was deported to Auschwitz in Germany, and she was killed there. </p><p>I am sorry about that. But can I ask you a question, Margherita?</p><p>Of course, you can.</p><p>Did you really believe in what you were doing, Margherita? I mean, propaganda? Or was it because you were....</p><p>.... paid?</p><p>Yes, I mean, I don't want to offend you, but....</p><p>Let me answer you with another question, Ugo. I know that your career was as a scientist, right?</p><p>Right. </p><p>And you were paid to be a scientist, right? </p><p>Of course, yes. </p><p>But you believed in science, right?</p><p>I still do, Margherita..... Even though....</p><p>I understand. I know something about what's happening in your world. Yes, and I am sorry for the people like you who believed in science and were so badly betrayed by it. It was the same for me with Benito and the Fascist party. But, in the beginning, I believed in him. I deeply believed that Italy needed a man like him. How things change! He changed so much. It was as if a cancer devoured him from the inside. Yet, something of the old Benito remained. And, in a way, I can understand how that woman, Petacci, loved him to the point of following him to the end. A sad story; she didn't have to. I am sorry for her. But so things are. Sooner or later, everyone ends up where I am, in Hades. </p><p>Yes, you know, Margherita. I was wondering. It is not often that I see ghosts... are you some kind of....</p><p>You make me laugh, Ugo. No, I am not a psychopomp. I am not announcing your death!</p><p>Ah... that's nice to know! </p><p>I am happy to see that you are relieved! Anyway, it was a pleasure to speak with you. I understand that you are writing another novel, right?</p><p>Yes, it is about Mata Hari. </p><p>Oh, such a nice woman. I met her a few times here in Hades. </p><p>The way you say it, it seems that Hades is a nice place. </p><p>Not really, You'll find it boring, I think. </p><p>Well, so things are, I guess. </p><p>So things are. And have nice writing, Ugo. Maybe Mata Hari will come to visit you as a ghost, too. Let me disappear the way ghosts know how to do.......</p><p>______________________________________________________________________</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQzi40aEkADxuwQ8-UfJ3Bn6oFjrl8S7eUTlMy5MIJmAL56PKEoU77vpFS28w1ZtHqbmDoDNu4jUWmkGHz0xJfQSpYqcvGLgLTDePn2idaoZAhsm3NcgU40RYK5T32-nZJVM-AiAKZftjytnJUO-tg2M05vBBhu-TOPzsY1wM0351mrocvZe-QBlbTnkU/s346/EtruscanQuest.jpg" style="color: #2288bb; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="230" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQzi40aEkADxuwQ8-UfJ3Bn6oFjrl8S7eUTlMy5MIJmAL56PKEoU77vpFS28w1ZtHqbmDoDNu4jUWmkGHz0xJfQSpYqcvGLgLTDePn2idaoZAhsm3NcgU40RYK5T32-nZJVM-AiAKZftjytnJUO-tg2M05vBBhu-TOPzsY1wM0351mrocvZe-QBlbTnkU/w209-h311/EtruscanQuest.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="209" /></a></div><p><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px; text-align: center;">Ugo Bardi's novel, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Etruscan-Quest-Mysteries-Ancient-Tuscany/dp/8897556477/ref=sr_1_1" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">The Etruscan Quest,</a>" was published in 2023 by "<a href="https://luce-edizioni.it/" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">Lu::Ce Edizioni</a>". The story told in the novel takes place during the time of Fascism in Italy, and it touches many of the elements of madness that overcame the country at that time. Margherita Sarfatti, a real historical figure, makes a cameo appearance in the novel. </i></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">Here is <a href="https://chimeramyth.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-best-piece-of-propaganda-ever.html">Sarfatti's text </a>that I described as "The Best Piece of Propaganda Ever Written"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">More details about the Italian adventure in Ethiopia can be found in <a href="https://www.senecaeffect.com/2022/09/who-controls-those-who-control-us-why.html">this post</a> and <a href="https://www.senecaeffect.com/2022/04/when-country-is-destroyed-by-its-own.html">this one</a>. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">This post was in part inspired by a conversation with <a href="https://www.planetcritical.com/p/save-the-forests-to-save-the-planet#details">Anastassia Makarieva</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-50311793040505831802023-06-28T09:48:00.014-07:002023-06-29T03:30:44.315-07:00Are Mercenary Armies Evil? From Malatesta Baglioni to Evgeny Prighozyn: <div class="separator"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU6Mu26dEmX-JKo9yAkbLrwQakfi7DHpgWNQd3GKc_lF6bc5aABfkOI4_PXuBvao9QZlV-oakf0yxj95VDHtR1MJGcXz4-_C9xk9OCbiQtqJSTBOSBcRkU89CA0b4JqAdOTeU9hCTy8bzrI4Yaw9i4z9nfw8wgpx_KCajoXUZhAmhKRRKgTNkbXhencz0/s681/michelangelo-florence-secret-room.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="681" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU6Mu26dEmX-JKo9yAkbLrwQakfi7DHpgWNQd3GKc_lF6bc5aABfkOI4_PXuBvao9QZlV-oakf0yxj95VDHtR1MJGcXz4-_C9xk9OCbiQtqJSTBOSBcRkU89CA0b4JqAdOTeU9hCTy8bzrI4Yaw9i4z9nfw8wgpx_KCajoXUZhAmhKRRKgTNkbXhencz0/w545-h307/michelangelo-florence-secret-room.jpg" width="545" /></a></div><br /> </span></i><i><span style="text-align: left;">During the siege of Florence in 1530, Michelangelo Buonarroti was actively fighting with the Florentine army. When the city fell, someone hid him </span><a href="https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/florence-to-open-michelangelos-secret-room.html" style="text-align: left;">in a secret room</a><span style="text-align: left;"> under the Santo Spirito Church. It is not open to the public, but I had a chance to visit it a few years ago. It is impressive to see the trapdoor built nearly 500 years ago still perfectly functioning. And when you walk into the secret room, you can see Michelangelo's drawings on the walls; the sensation is that he had left just a few days before. If these drawings still exist, and als</span><span style="text-align: left;">o other masterpieces by Michelangelo, is a merit of the "Condottiere" Malatesta Baglioni, who avoided a bloodshed by forcing Florence to surrender.</span></i></div> <br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>During the War of the League of Cognac (1526-1530), the <i>condottiere </i>Malatesta Baglioni was hired by the Florentine Republic to defend the city against the Imperial Army. In 1530, he switched sides. He ordered to turn the cannons of his army against his employers and to open the doors of the city to the besiegers. It was a quick fall for the Florentine Republic that, from that moment, ceased to exist. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was a typical behavior of mercenary armies, one of the reasons why they have bad fame from the time of Machiavelli's "<i>The Prince.</i>" (1517). Machiavelli didn't see the siege of Florence in 1530 (he died in 1527), but what he wrote was prophetic. </div><div><blockquote><div>"Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous, and
any ruler who relies on them to defend his state will be
insecure and in peril ... Why? Because they have
no affection for you, and no reason to go to battle except the
small wages you pay them, and those aren’t enough to make
them willing to die for you! </div></blockquote><div>Correct, but wait one moment. Does that mean that mercenary armies are an evil to be stamped out from the surface of the Earth? If we look at the details, Malatesta Baglioni switching sides in 1530 was not so much a betrayal as a masterpiece of diplomacy. It came one week after the main army of the Florentine Republic was decisively defeated by the Imperials. At that point, the war was over, Florence had lost. And Baglioni acted in consequence. He avoided further bloodshed and, among other things, if you can still see the city of Florence in its full Renaissance glory, it is because the agreements that led to the surrender in 1530 were honored by all the parties involved. The city was not sacked, and the citizens' lives were spared. </div><div><br /></div><div>Not that mercenaries won't occasionally engage in sacking cities and massacring civilians (there are a few examples in history) but <b>if you can pay them to fight, you can also pay them to stop fighting. </b>That's unlike the behavior of soldiers of national armies, often motivated by propaganda to hate their enemies. They will often fight to the end, which is bad for them and for everyone. </div><div><br /></div>So, let's try to compare the actions of Malatesta Baglioni with those of a much more recent mercenary <i>condottiere, </i>Yevgeny Prighozyn, and his "Wagner" troops in Russia. There is a clear similarity between Baglioni turning his cannons against Florence and Prighozyn directing his tanks against Moscow. In both cases, we have a mercenary captain betraying his employers. </div><div><br /></div><div>Baglioni acted on the perception that the Florentine Republic was already defeated, and he was correct. The Florentines didn't attempt to resist, choosing instead the path of least damage. Prighozyn may have acted on the basis of a similar perception, but he was completely wrong. We may speculate that he was banking on promises that he would be helped by forces inside or outside Russia. Maybe he expected a major Ukraine offensive, or an uprising in Moscow, or he simply was handsomely paid to do what he did. We'll never know for sure who pushed Prighozyn to rebel but, whoever they were, they betrayed him and left him and his soldiers alone against a much more powerful enemy: the whole Russian army. </div><div><br /></div><div>The interesting part of this story is how the attempted uprising was relatively bloodless. Prighozyn's men found themselves facing annihilation a few hundred miles from Moscow. Even if their boss hadn't told them to turn tail, they would have surrendered. That must have been clear to the Moscow authorities, too, and they didn't try to annihilate the mercenary column. They have better uses for a few thousand trained soldiers than exterminating them. The whole story ended, if not satisfactorily, at least without bloodshed. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is the good thing about mercenary armies. They are, in a sense, a step in the direction of purely robotic armies which will be the only ones fighting in the future. Robots don't fight for glory or for "the country;" they fight because they are programmed to fight. And their programmers probably think and behave like the "<i>condottieri</i>" of mercenary armies: they care mostly for money. War is never a good thing, but if it can be a little less bloody, it is at least an improvement. </div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-14696652175159135122023-06-23T13:26:00.010-07:002023-10-09T12:21:40.845-07:00The Lucky Demons that Rule us. Why Pay to Risk Your Life?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg17M_8Ap5RbLbhkYUz6VjAHnMc8RI8CJ4lssfbWDYRV3UIYqkTap9crVBW2x5LNBQtiQ01GpO6x8TNhkKF1pAlYC7hmaXzAlTiRF-XaS70Xn0wxY63JeD13CcUXOhznTWiMt5IkzTIuGLgcvCZ-vTEl7VirpIArqngh-UURgwtgAkSElkbTz-0bE2783k/s1380/glass_dome_triton_submarines.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="1380" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg17M_8Ap5RbLbhkYUz6VjAHnMc8RI8CJ4lssfbWDYRV3UIYqkTap9crVBW2x5LNBQtiQ01GpO6x8TNhkKF1pAlYC7hmaXzAlTiRF-XaS70Xn0wxY63JeD13CcUXOhznTWiMt5IkzTIuGLgcvCZ-vTEl7VirpIArqngh-UURgwtgAkSElkbTz-0bE2783k/w529-h254/glass_dome_triton_submarines.jpg" width="529" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>The acrylic plexiglass dome of a modern submersible is a technological marvel, but it is also extremely dangerous. A small crack, and it is gone. </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In his "<i>The World Until Yesterday</i>" (2012), Jared Diamond tells how he seriously risked his life having boarded a boat that sunk, managed by an incompetent crew. It is a story that resonates with the recent case of the wreck of the Titan submersible and its passengers. How could it be that they had accepted to embark on such a risky enterprise? And paying a lot of money for it, too. It can only be explained by considerations about how the mind of rich and powerful people works.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In Diamond's book, you can find a fascinating discussion of how traditional societies deal with risk. Diamond makes a convincing argument that our ancestors, just like people living in modern traditional societies, were much more careful, even paranoid, in comparison with most of us. He tells us how his Papua friends spent an inordinate amount of time discussing whether a broken twig was the result of someone having been there before or just an effect of the wind. It is paranoia, yes, but if they reasoned in that way, it had to be because that attitude helped their ancestors to survive. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now, think of our society. It is true that we encourage risk-taking and that it has a certain logic. Risks are risks, but the rewards you can reap in our world are enormously larger than anything a person living in a tribal society could hope to obtain. By acting crazy, you may become the local big man, maybe, but the rewards are not so large: there is no money to accumulate in a small village </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But, in our world, rewards can be enormous if you are enormously lucky. Think of Benito Mussolini: an elementary school teacher with political ambitions. When he was wounded by the explosion of an artillery piece in his own trench, it was a double stroke of luck for him. Not only he survived, but he also avoided being caught in the rout of the Italian army after the defeat of Kobarid. Actually, it was a triple stroke of luck because he gained the fame of a war hero due to his light wounds. After the war, he set up a political party, and he launched his followers marching on Rome. They could have been crushed by the Italian army, and Mussolini himself was ready to escape to Switzerland. But the King of Italy refused to give the order, and then Mussolini became the absolute ruler of Italy for more than 20 years. He was also lucky enough that some of his initial military adventures were successful. It is true that eventually, his luck ran out, but from a genetic viewpoint, Mussolini was hugely successful. Some sources say he had at least 11 illegitimate children plus five legitimate ones.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It is not just a question of having been lucky once. Mussolini came to think that his luck was not just a random event but a feature of his life. You can read about this attitude <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-mind-of-evil-ruler-what-goes-on.html">in the diary</a> that Mussolini's son-in-law kept. He really thought he was infallible and even immortal. Late in his career, Mussolini thought he could get away with murder -- actually with genocide. He did, until he didn't anymore. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are other cases of rulers who interpreted their luck as a manifestation of supernatural benevolence toward them by the almighty powers. Hitler was one. He barely survived the trenches of WWI, and it is said that he thought he was immortal. Until he discovered he wasn't. Probably, Saddam Hussein reasoned in the same way when he launched the ill-fated attack on Kuwait in 1991.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The case of the four rich passengers who boarded the Titan submarine in 2023 is probably similar. They may have been thinking they were immortal, enough to make them engage in this reckless idea. Apart from the human tragedy of their death, the point this story raises is that they may well be representative of the elites ruling us today. They are reckless and convinced to be always right and even immortal. It is a deadly combination for people who control enormously powerful weapons: from nuclear warheads to propaganda. Deadly for them, but not just for them. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-73145420497821887482023-06-23T07:52:00.005-07:002023-10-09T11:53:34.578-07:00Cassandra: singing no harmonious tune; for it tells of no good<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsFNq9QR5ZELIxAl310MDVd34Y-TR22oeFCy2p-L9LBvI7l2bnqvtpTyyhHNlH7z4kbIqB58U1YuyU9DtWVwOkNwnj48Qw1BSBpnXHs78uIYVWgUSqZUmKf5kAIcMr8k0n6yALsBj1vVPyee6vINJxWba8D_bLs9LnLWzWox0pRFHOSWmOkfTAy8EFgX4/s1280/2000+_year_global_temperature_including_Medieval_Warm_Period_and_Little_Ice_Age_-_Ed_Hawkins.svg.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsFNq9QR5ZELIxAl310MDVd34Y-TR22oeFCy2p-L9LBvI7l2bnqvtpTyyhHNlH7z4kbIqB58U1YuyU9DtWVwOkNwnj48Qw1BSBpnXHs78uIYVWgUSqZUmKf5kAIcMr8k0n6yALsBj1vVPyee6vINJxWba8D_bLs9LnLWzWox0pRFHOSWmOkfTAy8EFgX4/w572-h322/2000+_year_global_temperature_including_Medieval_Warm_Period_and_Little_Ice_Age_-_Ed_Hawkins.svg.png" width="572" /></a></div><br /><p></p>And now, no more shall my prophecy peer forth from behind a veil<div>like a new-wedded bride<div><div>But it will rush upon me clear as a fresh wind </div><div>blowing against the sun's uprising so as to dash against its rays, </div><div>like a wave, a woe far mightier than mine. </div><div>No more by riddles will I instruct you. </div><div>And bear me witness, as, running close behind, </div><div>I scent the track of crimes done long ago. </div><div>For from this roof never departs a choir chanting in unison, </div><div>but singing no harmonious tune; </div><div>for it tells of no good.<div><div><br /></div><div>Aeschilus, Agamemnon</div></div></div></div></div>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-18583804590653856122021-04-12T12:03:00.001-07:002021-04-17T12:05:40.667-07:00Ugo Bardi's Latest Post on "The Seneca Effect": The Collapse of Saudi Arabia's Water Supply<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/04/saudi-arabia-goes-way-of-garamantes.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="741" data-original-width="787" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNUkUAe6pzjdyOw2CsbWM5DKRZvrAq8UYnsxi_0NU5_fso8vYJnCUcdHrPU_FUHpKzxL1ZQlulz6QU90W_KQw2bAn52DBWVJXawQ8nEHTEGRm68s9cO8PTzv74-gNgBuMSpx14lHlXkt4/w389-h366/SaudiGaramantes.PNG" width="389" /></a></div><p></p><p><a href="https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/04/saudi-arabia-goes-way-of-garamantes.html">https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/04/saudi-arabia-goes-way-of-garamantes.html</a></p><p><br /></p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-78218726435240793142021-04-05T14:09:00.000-07:002021-04-05T14:09:02.629-07:00Ugo Bardi's Latest Post on "The Seneca Effect"<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/04/empress-placidia-mother-of-middle-ages.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="562" height="510" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuMollMFCtcmVAihl6iiG3H7Uo92SoO_oKDE3L09Bvxh3RofVVe0yZPkAHNf3lWMQE5zHXQZiTLa8cccqHMH0K2MwQlXWsFEaJDmi8xSaAxafoB-X5wRBb2WsfR28SadsSr7EE9-gLUqA/w424-h510/MotherPlacidia.PNG" width="424" /></a></div><a href="https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/04/empress-placidia-mother-of-middle-ages.html">https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/04/empress-placidia-mother-of-middle-ages.html</a><p></p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-29705943074808121562021-04-01T13:28:00.001-07:002021-04-01T13:28:06.498-07:00Ugo Bardi's Latest post on "The Seneca Effect"<p> </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/03/running-out-of-ice-on-moon-path-of.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="704" height="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJf_mXSdWFV4Gxkzx3gICNxbv8IhqmIhRQyOBOAXHughJKOgQw9repBCQUooc7lMROu4Fj6BhpnE99bTkYUN6CD9JAyVbdNZOY_TwMYGOSdu5kJmR4Ncsq_0PnEVa1WNFoN-BgYE6umsY/w557-h402/MoonHarshMistress.PNG" width="557" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p> <a href="https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/03/running-out-of-ice-on-moon-path-of.html">https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/03/running-out-of-ice-on-moon-path-of.html</a> <br /></p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-73515953390941326442021-03-22T10:34:00.003-07:002021-03-22T10:35:01.165-07:00Ugo Bardi's Latest Post on "The Seneca Effect". The Hydrogen Myth<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSuYLiqNc7f3LGPKG0QzYvFnN1SfVjQ-0Xa43jPkO0Q79TnK6lsqNasAAV0zQc9mqvXM6HSgHZikqexWuybqEombD7YwPQ3PZlf1X4eBnm21TooNN8EhVLsyBcADwQts1UQPPlJTpa3aM/s960/SenecaDark%252Bcaption.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="960" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSuYLiqNc7f3LGPKG0QzYvFnN1SfVjQ-0Xa43jPkO0Q79TnK6lsqNasAAV0zQc9mqvXM6HSgHZikqexWuybqEombD7YwPQ3PZlf1X4eBnm21TooNN8EhVLsyBcADwQts1UQPPlJTpa3aM/w394-h125/SenecaDark%252Bcaption.png" width="394" /></a></div><p></p><p>Ugo Bardi's latest post on "The Seneca Effect" <br /></p><div class="region-inner header-inner">
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</div><a href="https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-hydrogen-myth-technology-and.html">The Hydrogen Myth: Technology and Religion in the Decline of Civilizations</a>
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<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://thehydrogenskeptics.blogspot.com/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="980" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZR8l00k0gzI7ZQ7i-GEO4Ug-5qK7XhP_g5rLaURy2gyo_iyAYPtGY_DJ_PjElFeI9G-HqM5rvH2K_WonfY_rAqO-pIFVzle3A3qk7d41GRidAL58eMHXo9MLv-ZFKc2lUQ-wMVQDX_5jL/w341-h135/Hydrogen+Skeptics.jpg" width="341" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>I just started a new blog titled "<a href="https://thehydrogenskeptics.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Hydrogen Skeptics</a>."
It is about the hydrogen economy and hydrogen as a fuel and it is a
little technical as a subject. So I thought it was not appropriate to
discuss it in a somewhat philosophical blog like "<a href="http://www.thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com">The Seneca Effect.</a>"
Yet, there are points in common, as I am arguing in this post. Above:
the nuclear-powered car "Ford Nucleon", unfortunate technological
prodigy of the 1950s, that never was turned into anything practical.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /><br /></i></span></p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-84891970860034462162021-03-18T11:25:00.004-07:002021-03-18T11:25:43.006-07:00Ugo Bardi's Latest Post on "The Seneca Effect." The Tunnel Vision Problem<p></p><p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxB-6HGgUHfLczRuAZ-xyiSgnX3Hr4CDnHEYm-SenEyoeHrKxhF7YqLVJOG5XMCzCE0rZIYMIZLDmQSzoeWuouiyydPtoXhDJO_rX8uutra6aXwqklkHPwN2ENDqcMpVfvUNLlmOwYTv0/s628/TunnelVision.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="418" data-original-width="628" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxB-6HGgUHfLczRuAZ-xyiSgnX3Hr4CDnHEYm-SenEyoeHrKxhF7YqLVJOG5XMCzCE0rZIYMIZLDmQSzoeWuouiyydPtoXhDJO_rX8uutra6aXwqklkHPwN2ENDqcMpVfvUNLlmOwYTv0/w449-h299/TunnelVision.PNG" width="449" /></a></p><p><br /><a href="https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-tunnel-vision-problem-how-mineral.html"> https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-tunnel-vision-problem-how-mineral.html</a></p><p> </p><p></p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-49086694645878019742021-02-12T03:20:00.001-08:002021-02-12T08:30:03.798-08:00Cassandra has Moved<p> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="443" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7BkZ1gXqYy4" width="533" youtube-src-id="7BkZ1gXqYy4"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Professor Sabine Hossenfelder engages in a performance about Cassandra. Nice song, well sung, and it catches something of Cassandra's story and character. Although I am reasonably sure that Cassandra would not wear that kind of clothes. </i></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Cassandra's blog is closed. It will remain on line, but it will not be updated anymore. Ugo Bardi has moved to a new site called "<a href="https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Seneca Effect.</a>" It may be a bit more philosophical than the old Cassandra blog, but it will not be very different. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="970" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJCgxcufBllLxXD4Q0pFCAyyvd5X9y7Z1Cci4HuIDUpLj0EDVpcyYKN2p7muChbWGEgW-3S5OLY3s1DaisfKRCp14G1SbWlTsOSHofyU7gTCEb8oD-vEoOMH925spIJwsCK08fHUnTaWI/w436-h173/SenecaBlog.png" width="436" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;">You may also follow Ugo Bardi at "<a href="https://theproudholobionts.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Proud Holobionts</a>" blog, a more optimistic blog dedicated to -- you guess to what! -- holobionts! A new concept that favors collaboration over competition in the evolution of the biosphere. </p><p style="text-align: left;">And don't forget Ugo Bardis' musings about history and myths at the<a href="https://chimeramyth.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"> Chimera</a> blog, with some fictional interpretations of Cassandra's story: <a href="https://chimeramyth.blogspot.com/2015/04/an-interview-with-cassandra_9.html" target="_blank"><i>An Interview with Cassandra</i></a> and "<a href="https://chimeramyth.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-fall-of-troy-according-to-cassandra.html" target="_blank"><i>The True Story of the Fall of Troy</i></a>"<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Finally, if you like to hear Ugo Bardi rather than reading what he writes, you can find his<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/UgoBardi/playlists" target="_blank"> youtube channel</a>. It is still al little experimental, but it may grow to something interesting in the future. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Thank you to all those who followed this blog for nearly ten years. It was a pleasure, but things keep moving and we have to move, too!</p><p style="text-align: left;">UB <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p><br /></p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-76615412525171045822021-02-01T13:56:00.013-08:002021-03-01T14:54:49.039-08:00Censorship: How the West is becoming more and more like the old Soviet Union<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaR27MU613fKYFGgVMfaio7Dp0tit34cyzJboX2neEaYy6eMFGbFoW58CvCskar6sv575XVpxVvXHBKtNbNMEq9cjRy1DqhISVu1HxP1FM_zJp1dmPKpXwzee4hqzMv5oNxZsGm7VIJI0/s657/FacebookCensorship.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="657" data-original-width="642" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaR27MU613fKYFGgVMfaio7Dp0tit34cyzJboX2neEaYy6eMFGbFoW58CvCskar6sv575XVpxVvXHBKtNbNMEq9cjRy1DqhISVu1HxP1FM_zJp1dmPKpXwzee4hqzMv5oNxZsGm7VIJI0/w386-h394/FacebookCensorship.png" width="386" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>A message I received from Facebook on Jan 29, 2021. Five of my posts were deemed "spam" and erased. Some were somewhat "political" although non-partisan, but two were purely technical. That these posts were erased is an indication that censorship is by now applied to all forms of dissent, not just political ones. It was not unexpected, but it was still somewhat shocking after decades of propaganda that had convinced most of us that the Western world was a place where you could enjoy "freedom of expression." But we are quickly moving toward a Soviet-style management of public information, as Dmitry Orlov noted already in 2013. </i><i><i>It had to happen and it did. </i></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p style="text-align: left;">Last year, a Spanish climatologist, a friend of mine, had his Facebook page erased. Apparently, it was because <b>it was deemed as too "catastrophistic"</b> (or for whatever reason had caused the opaque fact-checkers of Facebook to take it as a target). He protested and he also tried to convince other
climatologists to start a boycott of Facebook. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The answer was a little disappointing, to say the least. It may be best described as <b>a resounding worldwide "meh."</b> Those climatologists who bothered to reply to him expressed the concept that, yes, censorship is bad,
but, you know, you can't allow deniers to diffuse their fake science around. </p><p style="text-align: left;">It was on
that occasion that I discovered that <b>most people <i>like </i>censorship</b>. It is just that it should be applied to those they disagree with. In that case, they actually love it and protest because Facebook doesn't censor enough (you can read that, for instance, <a href="https://heated.world/p/should-climate-groups-boycott-facebook" target="_blank">here</a>).</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The problem with censorship is that it is a little like playing the apprentice sorcerer</b>: once you start the mechanism, you don't know how to stop it. What's happening now is that censorship is becoming widespread, wide-ranging, and pervasive. Everyone can be affected and it takes unexpected forms. I was surprised when Facebook decided to erase two rather technical posts of mine, apparently because they were critical of the concept of a hydrogen-based economy. Apparently, censoring doesn't just apply to political dissent.<b> Any dissent is now considered bad</b>. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Of course, Facebook is not the government, but it would be silly to dismiss the whole story by saying "it is a private company." <b>Facebook has now almost 3 billion users</b>, close to half of the world's population. No other entity in the world -- governments included --has such a reach over so many people. Do governments have any power on Facebook? Or does Facebook own the governments?<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">It was expected, we knew that it was coming. Already in 2009, Dmitry Orlov had noted in his book "<i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2367427.Reinventing_Collapse" target="_blank">Reinventing Collapse</a></i>" how <b>the Soviet and the American Empires had been moving along parallel tracks</b>, with the American Empire poised for collapse just a few decades after the Soviet one. In a later book, "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16057204-the-five-stages-of-collapse" target="_blank"><i>The Five Stages of Collapse</i></a>" (2013), Orlov described the mechanisms of censorship in the Soviet Union and discussed many remarkably prescient concepts on how
electronic surveillance in the West would dwarf anything that the old
and clumsy Soviet system could do to spy their citizens. <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">And so, there we are. Covering the whole story of the Soviet censorship would be very interesting exercise that not even Orlov attempted in his books. I can't claim to be an expert in these matters (*), but let me just note that <b>censorship in Russia was a nuanced story, </b>not just a clumsy dictatorship dictating to people what they had to believe. In part, yes, censorship was imposed by the government but, in part, it was also enforced "from below." Russian newspapers often carried comments by the "<i>korrespondents</i>" (Корреспондент), people who were not professional journalists. They seem to have had a certain leeway in criticizing the government, of course only as long as they didn't express doubts about the founding myths that kept the state together. They were similar to our commenters on newspapers and social media who have a list of no-no's that's probably as long as they had. <b>The Soviet Union had an efficient trolling system that could demolish a dissenter, just like our trolls can. </b>(the story of how Boris Pasternak was demonized for his "<i>Doctor Zhivago</i>" novel is a good example of the mechanism) <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Overall, it is clear that <b>censorship is developed by societies under stress</b> to try to keep the social fabric together as much as possible. <span class="aCOpRe"><span>If you think that Russia had been invaded 4
times by powerful Western armies over less than two centuries,</span></span><span class="aCOpRe"><span> you can also understand that the fear of the West was not paranoia, but a
reasonable attitude for Russians. And many of them preferred to support a bad government rather than risking that the US would bring democracy to them</span></span> by the usual methods. <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">About the West, nowadays, I don't think we need to note how stressed we are. And, as a result, we are clearly heading in the direction of a Soviet-style management of public information. Is it unavoidable? Most likely yes. <b>It is a desperate, last-ditch effort</b> to keep together a political system that's rapidly crumbling away, but which is doomed in the long run (perhaps even in the short run). But it is probably unavoidable: we'll have to live with censorship because it is the simplest way to try to stop the forces that lead to the disintegration of society.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">So, what should we expect for the future? The analogy with the Soviet Union holds only up to a certain point. In Soviet times there was no Internet, or it was in its infancy. The <b>new communication technologies are disrupting everything</b>, as we saw in the recent "Gamestop" story (see <a href="https://empathy.guru/2021/01/31/gamestop-and-the-new-power-law-information-landscape/" target="_blank">this interesting discussion by Chuck Pezeshky</a>) and we may well be moving toward some completely different information exchange system that, for the time being, remains difficult for us to understand. Maybe it would be something like the <i>glasnost </i>(transparency), that Mikhail Gorbachev introduced in the Soviet Union in 1986. But glasnost didn't prevent (and perhaps eased) the collapse of the Union. Eventually, <b>if collapse has to come, it comes. </b><br /></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span> </span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span><i>Additional note: </i>A commenter defined this post as a simplistic way to cry, "but free speech!" I understand his point, but that was not what I wanted to say. By comparing the US with the old Soviet Union in terms of censorship, I noted that the experience of the Soviet Union can tell us a lot on what is in store for us in the future. They did suppress dissent rather efficiently. But the result was a rigid society that eventually crashed very quickly. It is always the same story: <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2011/08/seneca-effect-origins-of-collapse.html" target="_blank">The Seneca Effect</a>. The more you try to stave off collapse, the faster it is when it arrives. </span></span><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> </i></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(*) Russians and people from other areas formerly being part of the Soviet Union are welcome to correct my interpretation of censorship on the other side of what once was called the "Iron Curtain." I did my best to inform myself, but I never lived there. </i></span><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-33529436067153109322021-01-29T05:46:00.002-08:002023-06-23T08:17:53.326-07:00The Sacrifice of the Sacred King<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8aoCNJTySI0YBG7UwCY_CcqOzk3APtNNMlwYMGLrLIBj77Cdh6G19ehm6goHtKpFnWt21H0IS0UDvviuW0ElxSXirS-ODeRwwADHQMvjQOoOD8V_y2iuNqIh-t6YcPCfZe5CUvlDT36E/s523/Golden+Bough.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="523" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8aoCNJTySI0YBG7UwCY_CcqOzk3APtNNMlwYMGLrLIBj77Cdh6G19ehm6goHtKpFnWt21H0IS0UDvviuW0ElxSXirS-ODeRwwADHQMvjQOoOD8V_y2iuNqIh-t6YcPCfZe5CUvlDT36E/w430-h320/Golden+Bough.PNG" width="430" /></a></div><blockquote><i><br />"In antiquity this sylvan landscape was the scene of a strange and recurring tragedy. On the northern shore of the lake, right under the precipitous cliffs on which the modern village of Nemi is perched, stood the sacred grove and sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis, or Diana of the Wood. .. In this sacred grove there grew a certain tree round which at any time of the day, and probably far into the night, a grim figure might be seen to prowl. In his hand he carried a drawn sword, and he kept peering warily about him as if at every instant he expected to be set upon by an enemy. He was a priest and a murderer; and the man for whom he looked was sooner or later to murder him and hold the priesthood in his stead. Such was the rule of the sanctuary. A candidate for the priesthood could only succeed to office by slaying the priest, and having slain him, he retained office till he was himself slain by a stronger or a craftier."</i></blockquote> <p></p><p>From "The Golden Bough" - by James G. Frazer<br /></p><p><br /> <i><b>Post by "Mon Seul Desir"<br /></b></i><br /> Hello Ugo </p><p>You once asked, what was the meaning of Trump, it crossed my mind that without anybody’s planning or intentions, Trump became an immense collective scapegoating ritual where all the sins and impurities of the tribe are placed upon the king, who is then ceremonially driven out to purify the tribe. Since the 1960s this seems to have increasingly become the function of the American Presidency superseding its previous role which it has held since the days of George Washington, that of a near omnipotent God-Emperor who incarnates American collective power. It’s certainly corresponds to the sacred geometry of Washington DC, enclosed by its pomerium, the sacred regalias on display, the Temples to the Divine Emperors, the Axis Mundi rising through the centre of the Capitol’s rotunda. I personally visited the place a decade ago and was absolutely struck by the mystical religious layout of the place. It was effectively the centre of a secular City of God, destined to extend to, and redeem the entire world. I would say that Americanism is in fact the world’s dominant religious system, erecting its theocracy over the ruins of the British World Empire just as the theocracy of Diocletian Jovius was erected over the ruins of the Roman-Hellenistic Mediterranean Empire. </p><p>Now I must point to the Ancients warnings against hubris and the prophecies of Christian mystics that the reign of God can only come with the return of Christ. When one pushes too hard against the Cosmos, it pushes back. Alexander declared himself greater than Hercules, he was assassinated, his family exterminated and Ptolemy Soter was one of the few of his Companions who lived to found a dynasty and die in his bed. </p><p> I think that when the history of the USA over the past century is written several generations from now, it will describe not the March of Progress towards the future, the description will be of an ever increasing surrender to hubris culminating in overreach and collapse. </p><p>This is the consequence of giving the powers of an advanced culture to an archaic one, they see what they can do with the new powers, not what they shouldn’t do. The social structure is overwhelmed by the new powers, the effect is that of Dr Erskine’s Supersoldier Serum, what is good becomes better, what is bad, worse. </p><p>Homeric society started out as heroic warrior communities ruled by chiefs and freemen’s councils, their cosmology was of Primordial Chaos forged into Order by the Will of the Gods, the earthly rulers were shades of the Gods, ordering the human community as the Gods ordered the Cosmos. As their knowledge advanced, they studied the Order imposed by the Gods, the regularities they shaped, the ordered structures, from this they developed basic mechanics, observations of nature and the skills to create ordered organizations of their own, the concepts of objective law and disciplined organizations led to basic state bureaucracy and when merged with the fury of the Iron Age warrior led to the Greek Phalanx and the Roman Legion. The Homeric kings who in the past had commanded a few thousands warriors who were the freemen of his kingdom became massively powerful monarchs who had armies of tens to hundreds of thousands supported by workshops and officials who could undertake campaigns for years and where bound to absolute obedience. They became the Incredible Hulk’s of the Ancient World capable of smashing through everything in their paths, the humanistic ethic of the original Homeric world was overwhelmed by a power system stronger than it, the exercise of power became increasingly arbitrary, society turned into a regime of slavery and terror, the lacks of ancient culture became evident, the lack of a deep sense of ethics, no real work ethic, the absence of culturally integrated large scale structures, even the rulers enjoyed no security, any courtier could be a possible assassin, simply eating lunch was a terrifying adventure, their own relatives couldn’t be trusted, the guards who protected them one day could butcher them the next... </p><p>One sees this in Seneca who discussed the ethics of committing suicide under a despotism, of Boudicca who revolted and was massacred after she and her daughters were tortured by petty officials who had the power of life and death over even provincial aristocrats, the Gospels can be read as the testimony of common people living under the arbitrary will of the powerful. Boudicca could torture and kill any commoner under her power, imperial officials could do the same to her, the officials could be ordered by the Emperor to kill themselves on a whim and the Emperor themselves had to watch everyone... The Homeric values of personal freedom and dignity had lost any meaning and increasingly it became impossible to do science under the constraints of Hesiod’s metaphysics, the whole concept of a civilization ordered under its own collective will was dying. </p><p>Ultimately this became unsustainable, the reaction came, the Christians stated power comes only from God, the Cosmos is not ordered by the Emperor or any God he represents, it was created by God as an intrinsically ordered structure, there no law of Man, only the law of God which Man can only discover and interpret, all this apparatus of temporal power is just the product of ambition and greed, there is no divine purpose here, a counterfeit of the true City of God. The theology of the Glory of Rome died, abandoned by a people that could not bear its weight anymore and just wanted to breathe freely. Deprived of the faith that sustained it, Rome collapsed under its weight its ruins to become spolia to its heirs who had turned to the City of God. </p><p>Now Medieval Man stepped into the world with the certainty that it was God’s and that he had to live by His rules. Everything moved by His eternal laws, that could be understood and applied to both the human and natural realms. Rulers were as completely under God’s law as the beggar, a new institution was born, Medieval Kingship and Feudalism organized with the support of God’s Church, a massive body of law and customs was created to modulate, contain and control power, lord and vassal relationships, knighthood, the Estates, the Guilds, the Communes, ultimately reaching its fullest development in the great Medieval Courts like Versailles, war was codified into the sport of Kings instead of the genocidal total wars of the late Classical world. The much ridiculed Versailles functioned as a containment structure for power, the King could reign without ruling, he didn’t need to constantly torture and kill people to show he was in charge, he simply distributed perks and honours, he had great fringe benefits compared to a Classical ruler, greater personal comforts, minimal risks of assassination, eating his meals in peace, no worries about his guards, outside the palace a massive array of autonomous institutions ran the whole society without royal intervention, the king’s subjects lived in security and prosperity, the much maligned costs of Versailles were insignificant compared to the costs of despotism. The so-called Enlightenment pseudo philosophers could never have survived in Ancient Rome, they would have been lion food, in a 20th century tyranny it would have been concentration camps and bullets in the back of the head, they were in fact free because the containment structures of the Versailles system protected them, they thought France could be made into a better country if it was ruled by a Caesar, they got Napoleon who used up the wealth and manpower of France the way Alexander used up Macedon, people don’t realize what they have until they lose it... </p><p>Now armed with the concept of God’s law, the development of philosophy took new directions first under the scholastics and then under the natural philosophers taking the development of science well beyond that of ancient world, a new Christian work ethic fostered the Guilds of free craftsman who took technology beyond that the classical era with the clock, navigation skills, new architecture and art and eventually an Italian named Volta but together the first electric battery, opening a new unsuspected realm to science, knowledge that would overturn the Medieval metaphysics and lead to the Quantum Realm and the world of Relativity. </p><p> By the 19th century the world saw the emergence of a new form of organization, Technocracy, to manage the new railways and telegraph system, the first components that would grow into the Technosphere and a schizophrenic type of Man, Medieval Man in family and public life and Technospheric Man at the railway station, telegraph office and engineering and science lab. </p><p>The concept of regularity and intrinsic order in Homeric society lead to technologies and forms of organization that overwhelmed its ethics and social structure, the Roman Empire was a supersized Homeric chiefdom with the bureaucracy and military of King Philippe the Second but without the customs and institutions that restrained and stabilized his regime, before the power system Homeric society was completely helpless, only the replacement of its values by Medieval ones, accompanied by the collapse of the Roman system allowed the people to become free. </p><p>Today Technospheric Man has carried out a similar revolution, Technocracy, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, it’s technology, it’s conception of Man as taught by Freud and Jung, its achievements that have obliterated the old sense of limits, the Atomic bombs that can level mountains in minutes, the contraceptives that have removed immemorial fundamentals of the relations between the sexes, the medical advances, the communication systems and so much more. Today’s Western system is simply a collection of decayed Medieval courts surrounded by the modern equivalent of the Fuggers and Medecis in the corporate lobbyists attempting to use structures taken from Black Panther’s Wakanda and Doom’s Latveria to create some sort of City of God on Earth, they’re as completely overwhelmed as the Classical rulers were, they wanted absolute power, they have it and everything that goes with it, they’re afraid of each other and of the people they rule, they’re quickly finding that absolute power burns the hands that attempt to wield it. But do they even truly understand what they’re attempting to wield? Does their Medieval mentalities even contains the concepts and cognitive patterns that would allow them to understand? </p><p>That the problems the world is facing are problems in managing the Technosphere, they’re not political and the accepted techniques of financial and legal manipulation don’t work, traditional assumptions are obsolete, essentially what is required is Apollo Mission Control style technocratic management. Do these skills even exist in the current elites? Or they will simply persist in enforcing superstitious rituals of purity and redemption? </p><p>Today I point out the Internet, consider what the printing press did to the power of the Medieval Church, the first printed books came in 1455, 62 years later in 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 theses and the rest is history. The Internet is the printing press on gamma rays, it’s Big, Mean and Green, consider that the properties of any substance is dependent on the nature of its bonding patterns whether its chemical or social bonds, the current system is dependent on vertical bonds converging on small groups of people, the Internet allows the creation of very large numbers of horizontal bonds across this structure, eventually sufficient to overwhelm the vertical structure and cause it to collapse. I don’t think their pathetic attempts at censorship will work anymore than burning printed tracts and heretics worked for the Church. Can the current governments even survive into the age of the Internet? </p><p>Now this was a long one Ugo, when I start writing I’m never sure how it’s going to come out! <br /><br /> </p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-58414982973802039672021-01-25T06:52:00.019-08:002021-01-27T06:42:32.156-08:00The Ghost Shirt Rituals: Preparing for the End of the World<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsV-3hOU2VacsSzp8A7_TyWo6EcMIMS9_0B_NnKo-h7jxlL70jKV8nHp88ELOK2hT6ddkkH5xSForcnZ_CKb1zHuGCiUNjmuqCgRXsqQvmr_8XoI5v4PtTJSD72QKLv-bi4AzzyMP7LKc/s1328/Ishi-at-the-Oroville-jail.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1328" data-original-width="850" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsV-3hOU2VacsSzp8A7_TyWo6EcMIMS9_0B_NnKo-h7jxlL70jKV8nHp88ELOK2hT6ddkkH5xSForcnZ_CKb1zHuGCiUNjmuqCgRXsqQvmr_8XoI5v4PtTJSD72QKLv-bi4AzzyMP7LKc/w233-h364/Ishi-at-the-Oroville-jail.png" width="233" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Ishi, (<span style="white-space: nowrap;">c. 1861</span> – 1916), the last member of the Native American Yahi people, photographed as he was in 1911 when he came out of the woods<span class="aCOpRe"><span> in California. How did the Yahi react when they saw that the Whites were going to exterminate them? Perhaps not differently from the way we are reacting to the prospect of the collapse of our civilization: going crazy. The overreaction to the current Covid pandemic is just the first stage of the wave of madness that's engulfing humankind.<br /></span></span></i></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span> </span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span><b>Imagine you are a Native American</b> living before the arrival of the Whites. Maybe you are a Lakota, hunter of the central plains. Or maybe a Yahi, living in the thick forests of California. Or a member of any of the many Native American nations that existed back then. </span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span>As a Native American, you have your family, your friends, your day-to-day routine of things and tasks. And you are busy with that, except for one thing: you know that there is a big problem. A VERY big problem. <b>There is an entire nation, out there, bent on exterminating you</b> and your people: the Whites. </span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span>At first, you try to ignore the problem: those Whites are far away. Or maybe you'll deny that they are coming, or that they are so many as they are said to be. But, at some moment, the truth cannot be anymore ignored or denied. T</span></span>he Whites are there. <b>They are coming for you,</b> for your family, your children, your friends, your people. And you know that there is really no way to stop them. So, what do you do? </p><p><b>You go crazy</b>. And so does everyone. <b>Suddenly,</b> <b>you are catapulted into a "new normal,"</b> a world where the routines of everyday life have disappeared. You are now into a sort of "heroic space" where you are supposed to go through mystic rituals that involve dancing yourself to a trance, wearing "ghost shirts" that are supposed to protect you from the Whites' bullets. Even more extreme dances, called "sun dances," involve hanging oneself to a pole with a rope with hooks at the end that pierce one's breast. That is supposed to make warriors braver in the coming fight</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzoRaRPHyzUcEDbwS3m-caozhJtbuuGCrt73kR0mGqkz6doyXJQwGAtlOrPvWIwV8aZczUHqhh6OMBUsioQ8PYycoPygTHq_wmiiqgEXi9VlUcJRjpB5DfNsCl598OtRyvPSDvs8KIGbU/s564/SunDance2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="564" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzoRaRPHyzUcEDbwS3m-caozhJtbuuGCrt73kR0mGqkz6doyXJQwGAtlOrPvWIwV8aZczUHqhh6OMBUsioQ8PYycoPygTHq_wmiiqgEXi9VlUcJRjpB5DfNsCl598OtRyvPSDvs8KIGbU/w467-h311/SunDance2.jpg" width="467" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>A contemporary representation of the "sun dance" involving people hanging themselves to poles with metal hooks stuck inside their breasts and other forms of self-inflicted tortures. This image was probably made to emphasize the "barbaric" aspect of these rituals, but it is true that the Native American society, under heavy stress, had developed these bloody self-punishing dances. </i></span><br /></p><p></p><p>We don't know how exactly the Native Americans of those times saw these bloody rituals. <b>Did they really believe that ghost shirts made them invulnerable?</b> Did they really think that their problem was that their warriors were not brave enough and that to become braver they needed to hang themselves to poles by the breasts? We can't know, and we can't know if someone understood <span class="aCOpRe"><span>that it was way too late, that the Native American peoples should have acted much earlier to face the Whites as a united nation, instead of scattered tribes. But so moves the great wheel of history, mercilessly crushing everything and everyone when their time has come. After <b>the massacre of Wounded Knee</b> (</span></span><span class="aCOpRe"><span><span class="gyWzne">1890)</span>, nobody could anymore think that ghost shirts were a solution. </span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span>The Native Americans were not the only culture that went crazy when facing their own demise: Mon Seul Desir (see the text below) calls this phenomenon the "<b>Indian Reservation Syndrome</b>" and he lists other cases of societies gone into a frenzy of mysticism and rituals when they faced problems that they could not solve. One was the </span></span>Nongqawuse cattle-killing cult in South Africa, another was the Boxer Rebellion in China (the latter also believed that their spiritual powers made them invulnerable to bullets). </p><p>And then, of course, there is our civilization. We are facing a disaster even worse than anything the Native Americans ever faced: the collapse of the whole planetary ecosystem. <b>And, like them, we are going crazy. </b></p><p>You can see the ongoing craziness everywhere in its many forms, but <b>the overreaction to the Covid-19 pandemic</b> is perhaps the most pervasive, the most destructive, and the most misunderstood form of craziness that has hit us. The parallels with the rituals of the Native Americans are evident, with the role of the ghost shirts taken by the face masks as a visible garment signaling the beliefs of the wearer, and by vaccines as magic tools making people invulnerable to the enemy. </p><p>The most evident parallel is how the current <b>rituals include various forms of penance</b>. Westerners are not hanging themselves by the breasts, but they undergo segregation, limitations to movement, loss of personal freedom, economic ruin, and more. The idea is to turn the whole story into an obsessive-compulsive ritual carried out with the same stoicism and indifference that Native Americans showed in their bloody rituals. </p><p><b>It is part of the way the human mind works</b>: when things go bad, the first reaction is to look for someone to blame. But, sometimes, when things go not just bad but truly rotten, then the culprit may turn out to be yourself. So, with the Covid pandemic, that's the reason for the general acceptance of rules and laws that, in other times, would have been unthinkable. It explains the demonization and the mistreatment of those who are the victims and not the perpetrators of what's happening: single human beings, treated as the one cause of the pandemic.</p><p>It was probably unavoidable. The Covid is not the real problem, we all know that. The problem is another: it lurks in the background, but it is there. <b>No ghost shirt (and no vaccine) will send away the ecosystem collapse that we are facing</b>. </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Note: What I wrote is not meant to disparage the Native Americans, nor their beliefs. The Sun Dance was a deeply felt ritual developed by people who were trying to cope with an impossible challenge and I am sure that they genuinely believed in what they were doing. I personally met some Lakota men who were still doing the dance and, years ago, even an Italian man who had converted to the rituals and was doing the dance, including the metal hooks stuck in his breast. These people deserve our respect for their courage and their dedication. About the current Covid rituals, I am sure that many people in the West </i><i><i> genuinely believe that they are doing something good and useful by </i>punishing themselves with </i><i><i>masks, distancing, home segregation, and all the rest. </i>But there are differences. One is that the Sun Dance was meant to unite the people, whereas the Covid rituals are explicitly meant to separate them. Also, the Sun Dance rituals originated from the people, while the Covid rituals, no matter how sincere are the believers, have been inflicted on the people, not developed by the people. </i></span> <br /></p><p>_________________________________________________________________</p><p></p><p><br /></p><p><i>The message from "Mon Seul Desir" that inspired this post</i><br /></p><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: x-small;">Hello Ugo, </span><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: x-small;">Thanks for the data, it confirms what I’ve was perceiving through feel and anecdotes, you’ve put hard numbers on it. It’s something I’ve been observing building up for a number of years, increasing drug use, alcoholism, and mental illness, I call it the Indian Reservation Syndrome, it’s the product of cultural collapse. I think you have heard of how primitive people can leave themselves to die when they lose their traditional way of life, it was hubris to say that this is confined to allegedly primitive tribes. Any culture can collapse when it comes into contact with a more advanced one. </span><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: x-small;">A couple of years ago I started having the feeling that collapse would start with massive mass psychoses, like the Nongqawuse cattle-killing cult, the Ghost dance, the Boxers, and the Cargo cults, I’ve been amazed by the Covid cult, it has turned into a collective obsessive-compulsive disorder, disconnected from any reality and resembling witchcraft and demonic possession hysteria, it has the common factor of having been embraced by the elites and much of the educated, with Mr. Fauci and Ferguson in the role of Herr Kramer and Sprenger. And it’s not isolated but part of a massive collective frenzy extending into every aspect of society. The processes that led to this, I’ll take up in a later message... </span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: x-small;">Now for the Galla Placidia text, I see you as pointing to a non-linear transition, a complete change of state of the system, where the Homeric world gave way to the Medieval World, the City of God replacing the Glory of Rome. For this to occur implies that Medieval potentialities already existed in Late Rome, the collapse of the Empire allowed actualization of them.
We are all chimeras, modernity is a chimera with a younger culture as a ghost in the shell of an older one. The Late Bronze Age had the Homeric world growing within itself, the Roman Empire had the Medieval world within and the modern West which is simply Medievalism in its late form has the Technospheric world growing within itself.
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: x-small;">How do you recognize the new culture? When its mythology emerges in a recognizable form, in pagan Rome the Gospels were regarded as crude tales for the credulous and uneducated, in the Bronze Age, Homer was probably seen as folklore for simple soldiers and sailors. I needed to find something similar, in December 2017 Me and my wife purchased movie tickets and sat down to watch Thor Ragnarok and I found it, Technospheric Mythology right in front of my eyes, it’s regarded as just entertainment for children, I thought about the utterly alien feel compared to movies from the 1950s like the 1959 Ben Hur movie. That earlier movie represents the Medieval Myth, you could show it to an audience from centuries ago and it would be fully comprehensible, but show Thor to even a 1959 audience and it would be surreal and insane, the motivations and morality of the characters would be mostly incomprehensible. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: x-small;">I’ve seen the way many people react to it, it’s just special effects, it’s action, they can’t see why these movies are so popular.
The Christian Myths are the Neoplatonic- Aristotlean weltanschauung turned into a narrative, the Marvel, DC, Inception and so on are the Relativistic-Quantum-Jungian weltanschauung similarity turned into narrative.
<br /></span><br />_____________________________________________________________<br /><p><i><span class="aCOpRe"><span>This is a moving and beautiful song by the Italian singer Fabrizio de Andre (</span></span><span class="aCOpRe"><span><span class="Eq0J8 LrzXr kno-fv">1940, </span></span></span></i><span class="Eq0J8 LrzXr kno-fv"><i>1999) inspired by the massacre of Sand Creek of 1864 where some 700 </i></span><span class="Eq0J8 LrzXr kno-fv"><i>Cheyenne and Arapaho people were killed, most of them women and children. <br /></i></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span><div class="bbVIQb"><div class="ujudUb"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="396" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YSSRD40upac" width="477" youtube-src-id="YSSRD40upac"></iframe><span> </span></div><div class="ujudUb"><span> </span></div><div class="ujudUb"><span> </span></div><div class="ujudUb"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div class="PZPZlf" data-lyricid="Lyricfind002-714994"><div class="y yf" data-async-type="lyrics_translate" data-jiis="up" data-ved="2ahUKEwiCgb6_srfuAhUPHewKHQuBBocQqP0CKAAwAXoECAUQAQ" id="gws-plugins-knowledge-verticals-music__translated-lyrics-container"><div class="bbVIQb"><div class="ujudUb"><span><span>They took our hearts under a dark blanket
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Si son presi il nostro cuore sotto una coperta scura
</span></i><br /><br /><span><span>Under a small dead moon we slept without fear</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Sotto una luna morta piccola dormivamo senza paura
</span><br /></i><br /><span><span>He was a twenty year old general
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Fu un generale di vent'anni
</span><br /></i><br /><span><span>Blue eyes and the same jacket
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Occhi turchini e giacca uguale
</span></i><br /><br /><span><span>He was a twenty year old general
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Fu un generale di vent'anni
</span><br /></i><br /><span><span>Son of a storm</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Figlio d'un temporale</span></i></div><div class="ujudUb"><span class="gOGZsb"> </span></div><div class="ujudUb"><span><span>There is a silver dollar at the bottom of Sand Creek.
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">C'è un dollaro d'argento sul fondo del Sand Creek.
</span></i><br /><br /><span><span>Our warriors too far on the bison trail
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">I nostri guerrieri troppo lontani sulla pista del bisonte
</span><br /></i><br /><span><span>And that distant music got louder and louder
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">E quella musica distante diventò sempre più forte
</span><br /></i><br /><span><span>I closed my eyes three times
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Chiusi gli occhi per tre volte
</span></i><br /><br /><span><span>I found myself still there
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Mi ritrovai ancora lì
</span></i><br /><br /><span><span>I asked my grandfather. is it just a dream?</span><br /></span><span class="gOGZsb">Chiesi a mio nonno è solo un sogno?</span><br /><br /><span><span>My grandfather said yes</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Mio nonno disse sì</span></i></div><div class="ujudUb"><span class="gOGZsb"> </span></div><div class="ujudUb"><span><span>Sometimes the fish sing at the bottom of Sand Creek
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">A volte i pesci cantano sul fondo del Sand Creek
</span><br /></i><br /><span><span>I dreamed so hard that my nose bleed
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Sognai talmente forte che mi uscì il sangue dal naso
</span><br /></i><br /><span><span>Lightning in one ear in the other heaven
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Il lampo in un orecchio nell'altro il paradiso
</span><br /></i><br /><span><span>The smallest tears
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Le lacrime più piccole
</span></i><br /><br /><span><span>The biggest tears
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Le lacrime più grosse
</span></i><br /><br /><span><span>When the snow tree
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Quando l'albero della neve
</span><br /></i><br /><span><span>Bloomed with red stars</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Fiorì di stelle rosse</span></i></div><div class="ujudUb"><span class="gOGZsb"> </span></div></div><div class="bbVIQb"><div class="ujudUb u7wWjf" data-mh="-1"><span><span>Now the children sleep in the Sand Creek bed
</span><br /></span><span class="gOGZsb"><i>Ora i bambini dormono nel letto del Sand Creek</i>
</span><br /><br /><span><span>When the sun raised its head between the shoulders of the night
</span><br /></span><span class="gOGZsb"><i>Quando il sole alzò la testa tra le spalle della notte</i>
</span><br /><br /><span><span>It was just dogs and smoke and upturned tents
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">C'erano solo cani e fumo e tende capovolte
</span></i><br /><br /><span><span>I shot an arrow in the sky
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Tirai una freccia in cielo
</span><br /></i><br /><span><span>To make it breathe
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Per farlo respirare
</span></i><br /><br /><span><span>I shot an arrow in the wind
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Tirai una freccia al vento
</span></i><br /><br /><span><span>To make it bleed</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">Per farlo sanguinare</span></i></div><div class="ujudUb u7wWjf" data-mh="-1"><i><span class="gOGZsb"> </span></i></div><div class="ujudUb xpdxpnd" data-mh="442" data-mhc="1" style="max-height: 442px;"><span><span>Look for the third arrow at the bottom of Sand Creek
</span><br /></span><i><span class="gOGZsb">La terza freccia cercala sul fondo del Sand Creek
</span><br /></i><br /><span><span>They took our hearts under a dark blanket
</span><br /></span><span class="gOGZsb">Si son presi il nostro cuore sotto una coperta scura
</span><br /></div></div><div class="bbVIQb">.......<br /></div></div></div></span></div></div></span></div></div>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-32281475170376576172021-01-22T03:59:00.011-08:002021-01-22T07:44:11.978-08:00Requiem for Universities: A Historical Cycle is Over<p> <br /></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="495" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GibiNy4d4gc" width="594" youtube-src-id="GibiNy4d4gc"></iframe></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span><i>After some 10 centuries of existence, universities have arrived to the end of their historical cycle. I<span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto">t
is the way things are: it
is the great cycle of life. The
universities will be gone, something else will come that will help
people who want to learn and people who love to teach to find each
other. And the cycle of
life will continue. Even Simba the Lion knew that. </span></i></span></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span><i><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto">Here,</span></i></span> Sinéad Murphy </i><i><i>has kindly given me the permission to reproduce <a href="https://lockdownsceptics.org/requiem-for-universities/" target="_blank">her recent post</a>
"Requiem for Universities" on "Cassandra's Legacy." Her conclusions are </i>similar to mine, as expressed in the post I wrote </i><i><i>with the title of "<a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-fall-of-citadels-of-science.html" target="_blank">The Fall of the Citadels of Science</a>."</i></i></span> <br /></p><header class="entry-header ast-no-thumbnail ast-no-meta"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline"> </h1><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline">Requiem For Universities</h1> </header>
<a href="https://lockdownsceptics.org/requiem-for-universities/" target="_blank"><span class="lsPublicationDate">Published 21 January 2021 on "Lockdown Sceptics"</span></a>
<p><b><i>by Sinéad Murphy</i></b></p>Universities have been dying for some time. As their prospectuses
have grown glossier, their gateway buildings more spectacular and their
accommodation for students more stunningly luxurious, the Humanities
subjects have been gradually hollowed out.
<p>Academics’ intellectual work has been streamlined by the auditing
procedures of the ‘Research Excellence Framework’ and by growing
pressure to bid for outside funding, which is distributed to projects
that address a narrow range of approved themes – Sustainability, Ageing,
Energy, Inequality…</p>
<p>Student achievement has been dumbed down by the inculcation of a thoughtless relativism – <i>Everybody’s different</i>; <i>That’s just my interpretation</i> – and by the annual inflation of grades.</p>
<p>The curriculum has begun to be tamed by continual revision – never
broad enough, never representative enough – and by the drive for
‘equality and diversity’.And teaching has been marginalized by the heavy requirements that it
represent itself on ever proliferating platforms and review itself in
endless feedback loops.</p>
<p>Universities, in short, have been gradually transforming into what they proudly trumpet as a <i>Safe Space</i>,
a space that has been cleared at greatest expense to Humanities
subjects, a space in which the slightest risk – that a thought might
lead nowhere, that a student might be uninterested, that an idea might
offend or that a teacher might really persuade – has been mitigated by
so many layers of bureaucratic procedure that most of everyone’s time is
spent in wading through them.</p>
<p>S<i>afe Space </i>universities have been divesting themselves of
real educational content, their plush marketing ploys concealing the
decline – of their Humanities subjects at least – into little more than
holding patterns for directionless youths.</p>
<p>But up until March of last year, there was still some space and time to <i>act as if</i>. To attempt, in the midst of the decline, to teach, to learn, to think, <i>as if</i> it were really possible to do so.</p>
<p>Because you could still meet your students, and use the small chance
you had to teach them to introduce ideas which they might just be taken
by and which you, in the process, might deepen your understanding of.
And because students could still meet each other, form friendships,
gather together, lift themselves out of the lives they grew up with, if
only as a temporary reprieve.</p>
<p>It was not much, that is true. And <i>acting as if</i> can too
easily collapse into the corruption of an all-out cynicism – quoting
Heidegger in the original German to students who are visibly disengaged.</p>
<p>But <i>acting as if</i> can also, sometimes, work; the pretence can actually catch on. Two centuries and a half ago, Kant urged us to <i>act as if</i> human beings are rational, convinced that that would eventually make us so; and it did seem to work… for a while, at least.</p>
<p>But even the pretence is over now; even <i>acting as if</i>, no longer an option. <i>Safe Space</i>
universities have come to their culmination. No space is safer than an
empty space. And universities are empty at last. The shell has cracked
and fallen away. The university is no more.</p>
<hr /><p>A couple of weeks ago, following a year’s leave, I stood in a tiny office on the tenth floor of a university tower.</p>
<p>From here, all teaching for the coming semester was to be done.</p>
<p>Lectures were to be given into the void, recorded for access in a
space and at a time of students’ choosing. Hour-long tirades, with only
your Panopto reflection for your guide, without even commonplace
reference points to scaffold the event – the time of day, the weather
outside, the furnishings, quirks in the technology: no experience
shared, nothing to bind you to your crowd.</p>
<p>Seminars were to be run from here too. These, at least, were to be
‘live’; when it was morning for you, it would be morning for everyone
else too. But – open and earnest discussion with students locked up in
their family home, sitting on the bed they tossed in as a child? I am
told that they turn off their video, sometimes their audio too,
attending the class in name only, suspended in a box on the screen.</p>
<p>A brand new desktop computer blighted the tiny office on the tenth
floor. Its oversized screen: the black hole into which teaching and
learning were set to disappear.</p>
<p>For how long? Long enough, I am sure, for the sheer implausibility of
the prospect to lose its edge. Long enough for what is now deemed
necessary – the remote university – to begin, at last, to seem possible.</p>
<p>But it is not possible. Philosophy, at least, cannot be taught by
giving a speech to yourself in a room on the tenth floor. Philosophy
cannot be taught by orchestrating a grid of nametags. Philosophy cannot
be taught on a screen.</p>
<p>The classic model of Western Philosophy is Socrates, who wandered
about asking questions of those who would listen, inviting his fellow
citizens to discussion of the good life. The gadfly method, it is called
– meant to get under your skin. Exactly the opposite of
Covid-compliant.</p>
<p>Philosophy does have other models – the grand treatise, or, most
suitable now, the solitary meditation. But for teaching Philosophy,
dialogue has never been bettered. And dialogue is live, up close, and
between bodies.</p>
<p>In any dialogue, most of what is communicated is non-verbal, even if
the dialogue is formal, even if it is aimed at instruction. You pause
for effect, your muscles stilled. You raise your eyebrows in scepticism.
You circle your hands in approximation. You deepen your tone for
emphasis. You move from side to side to keep your thoughts in train. You
repeat yourself at the sight of a furrowed brow. You re-energise at
slumped shoulders. You play for laughs. You stop for hands in the air.</p>
<p>And philosophical dialogue goes even deeper, making your stomach
churn with existential abandon, your heart beat at the reason of
humanity, your head throb at the nature of the sublime.</p>
<p>Add to this the surface body-language of dialogue generally – the
still muscles, the raised eyebrows, the circling hands and the rest –
and the room in which Philosophy is taught should be a theatre of bodied
intensity, a far cry from the tenth floor with its grotesque blank
screen.</p>
<p>In the tiny office on the tenth floor, you cannot begin your lecture
with a question, or an accusation, or a taunt, or anything else that
might get your students involved. There is no one there and you cannot
be a gadfly alone. You must speak instead as if from the podium, body
hemmed in, a talking head. Except that, from the podium, you might still
at least feel your audience there, and what you say might still have a
chance of sinking in.</p>
<p>In the tiny office on the tenth floor, you cannot <i>act as if</i>. There is no one to play to, nothing to get the show on the road.</p>
<p>And what must it be like, to sit on your bed in a room in your
parents’ house and switch on a tirade-from-nowhere? With your social
life (or what passes for it) pulsing through competing portals, does the
window to your Philosophy class let in any light at all?</p>
<p>Real learning is done by our bodies – <i>by heart</i>, it used to be said, though the phrase is out of favour. An argument should be <i>grasped</i>, rhetoric should be <i>savoured</i>, and metaphysical truths should make our hairs stand on end. Anything else is just words.</p>
<p>And just words are not only lifeless and cold; they suck the life
from you, they leave you cold. Remote teaching and learning actually do
you harm.</p>
<p>The university now continually directs its students to its
twenty-four-hour support service, in implicit acknowledgement of the
harmful effects of its remote provision, which does not merely fall
short of the mark but imposes the kind of out-of-body experience that
most students find disheartening and many cannot cope with at all.</p>
<p>We are told that it is necessary, the <i>Safe Space </i>university of just words – to <i>save lives.</i>
(Our union has just invited us all to an event called “Saving Lives At
Work”.) But that something is deemed necessary does not suffice to make
it possible – of all lessons, that is the one we ought most to learn
from this past year.</p>
<p>We are told also that it is temporary. But we will only ensure that it is temporary if we do not <i>act as if</i>
it is possible. We should refuse to carry out their exceptional
arrangements, or their exceptional arrangements have a chance of
becoming the rule.</p>
<p>The Italian philosopher, Giorgio Agamben, as early as May of last
year, wrote what he titled a “Requiem For Students”, in which he
described very well the impossibly corrupted character of the Covid
university, whose technological barbarism he called out for what it is,
and whose students he exhorted to refuse to enroll.</p>
<p>As educators, we are supposed to lead forth. We should go first, and refuse to teach on screens.</p>
<p>It is time to stop <i>acting as if</i>.</p><p>_________________________________________________________________________</p><p></p><p> </p><p><i><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRW_0XJZb2QGRC_rLERoSqofK90ppQ86Xfe0EFjPS55jw5RHTUXqKWeH7r_UMvPRpT9SE53XBnJ3d4VqrjuCr1t92oUfswrgULBkDD2YqSkgmWG-8Ppq_eV4crGD6qj6-HVXStsvxLMvs/s667/SineadMurphy.PNG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="534" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRW_0XJZb2QGRC_rLERoSqofK90ppQ86Xfe0EFjPS55jw5RHTUXqKWeH7r_UMvPRpT9SE53XBnJ3d4VqrjuCr1t92oUfswrgULBkDD2YqSkgmWG-8Ppq_eV4crGD6qj6-HVXStsvxLMvs/w154-h194/SineadMurphy.PNG" width="154" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><i>Sinéad Murphy teaches philosophy at Newcastle University. She is the
author of "<a href="https://repeaterbooks.com/product/zombie-university-thinking-under-control/" target="_blank">Zombie University</a>" </i></p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-70300335338408164152021-01-18T10:44:00.002-08:002021-01-18T12:32:53.001-08:00Eco-fascism and Overpopulation <p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCztJHPHiCpZrbxgmBjKfQPYwiXqY5sQxuyxlwLh77bkwZTWTi5Bk49mvnBupJ51yeZO2spjxdFcaCEdDxsCEd6cxFnRIvEGIJpH1mXoc1gAHhStcWLhHNZMtamXd_NX2B6xJwp59iGTw/s999/ecofascist.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="751" data-original-width="999" height="369" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCztJHPHiCpZrbxgmBjKfQPYwiXqY5sQxuyxlwLh77bkwZTWTi5Bk49mvnBupJ51yeZO2spjxdFcaCEdDxsCEd6cxFnRIvEGIJpH1mXoc1gAHhStcWLhHNZMtamXd_NX2B6xJwp59iGTw/w489-h369/ecofascist.png" width="489" /></a></div> <p></p><p><b>A post by Jacopo Simonetta</b> <br /></p><p> </p><p>"<i>Eco-fascist</i>" is the usual insult directed at anyone who dares to mention overpopulation. This is funny to me because, as far as I know, fascists are usually concerned with denatality, race purity and similar morbid fantasies, but not with overpopulation who is just about the number of persons and not about skin color and so on.</p><div><p>Here, I will not go back over the purely demographic aspects of the issue to which several posts have already been devoted (on "<i>Effetto Cassandra</i>" and on "<i>Apocalottimismo</i>", both in Italian). Instead, I would like to talk about this singular cultural taboo, characteristic (though not exclusive) of industrial civilization.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">To begin with.</h3><p>To understand what we are talking about, let us consider that today there are almost 8 billion of us with a growth rate of about 80 million per year, it means 220,000 per day, over 9000 per hour, 75 per second. This means an estimated human mass of about 400 million tons. The world's average human population density is 55 people per square kilometer (excluding Antarctica), which means a square of not much over one hundred steps per side per head. In Italy we are about 200 per square kilometer, which means half a hectare per person, but if we consider only the agricultural surface the square becomes only 40 steps per side (about 2000 square meters).</p><p>However, the number of people is only one of the factors involved because we use livestock, fields, industrial structures, buildings and much more to live. All in all, the 'anthroposphere' (i.e. us with all the trappings) weighs about 40 trillion tons, which is something like 4,000 tons of concrete, metal, plastic, plants, livestock and so on for each of us. On average and very roughly.</p><p>But number is not the only element. Since 1800 the population has increased 8 times, but total consumption 140 times, and if it has started to fall in some countries, like ours, it is still growing globally.</p><p>The third determining factor, which is related to the other two, is technology, the effects of which are complex, but which, on the whole, makes the most of the remaining resources, but cannot create new ones. Ultimately therefore, technology increases rather than to reduces both consumption and the degradation of the planet. A fact already empirically observed by many authors (starting with Jevons as early as 1865) and scientifically demonstrated by Glansdorff and Prigogine in 1971.</p><p>The result is that the biomes, i.e. the great ecological systems into which the Biosphere was divided and which maintained climatic and environmental conditions on the planet compatible with life (including our own), no longer exist and today we speak about Anthromes.</p><p>Of the 21 anthromes identified, only 3 are considered "wildlands", i.e. deserts, tundra, and the remains of primary tropical forests, for a total of just over 20% of the earth's surface (excluding Antarctica). </p><p>But even these territories are subject to severe and very serious degradation phenomena such as wildfires, melting permafrost, droughts and so on. </p><p>All the rest, about 80% of the dry land, is occupied by totally artificial ecosystems, such as towns and countryside, or heavily modified ones, such as almost all the surviving forests and grasslands. In the sea it is even worse.</p><p>This means that properly 'natural' ecosystems are practically vanished and that what scattered remains of wildlife survives in the interstices of our 'global anthill'. In fact, it is miraculous that so much life still exists on Earth.</p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The 'Demographic Transition”</h3><p>The father of the '<i>Demographic Transition</i>' was Adolphe Landry, a French politician of the radical left, who was repeatedly member of parliament and minister. Decidedly in favor of natalist policies and a staunch detractor of Malthus's work, Landry actually espoused his assumptions, but came to the conclusion that there was no need to reduce the birth rate because a large and dynamic population was a nation's main asset. Instead, economic prosperity should be increased and spread so as to cause a gradual stabilization of the population, but at much higher levels than at the outset. In other words, compared to Malthus, he reversed cause with effect.</p><p>Originating in the early 1900s and then reworked by numerous authors, in a nutshell, this theory maintains that there exists a 'traditional' condition in which misery, disease and war lead to a high mortality rate, compensated by a high birth rate, so that the population remains substantially stable. Progress and industrialization increase prosperity and reduce mortality, so that the population increases while, at a later stage, the birth rate decreases until a substantial balance is restored, but at a much higher population levels. Factors such as the availability of resources, the resilience of ecosystems, pollution, etc. have no substantial relevance.</p><p>On the basis of the scientific and historical knowledge available until the 1970s, the theory seemed to explain well what had happened in Europe and the USA over the last two centuries, so that it became a reference point for all demographic models.</p><p>So far, nothing strange. The point is, however, that over the last 50 years the best knowledge, especially historical and anthropological, has amply demonstrated that there has never been a something such a 'traditional' state similar to that assumed by the theory. On the contrary, populations have adopted very different reproductive strategies in different places and at different times. In very many cases, even in Christian Europe, more or less effective forms of demographic control were practiced, either by limiting the birth rate (with various combinations of infertile ways of having sex, condoms, prolonged breastfeeding, abstinence, abortion, infanticide and abandonment), or by increasing the mortality of the elderly (abandonment and killing).</p><p>Those who did not do so earned a place in the history books because they triggered invasions, or died out, crushed by their own numbers. If anything, it was the very special combination of historical and environmental factors that allowed Capitalism to take hold that created the cultural, social and economic conditions that led to two centuries of unprecedented birth and population growth in Europe and the USA. </p><p>Looking at the rest of the world, it has been amply documented that, almost always, it was European colonization that first led to a demographic decline, sometimes considerable, and then to the frenzied increase that in some cases still lasts today.</p><p>In short, the 'demographic transition' began as a political proposal, grew as a scientific hypothesis and finally became a 'pious legend' in the etymological sense of the term.</p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">So what?</h3><p>So why is this model still used today, not only in school books, but also in the work of the UN and other political bodies, till to a large part of academia? To put it very brutally: <b>because it suits everyone.</b></p><p>It suits the capitalists because it is an excellent viaticum for claiming that capitalism has done a great deal of good and that economic growth must be pushed to the maximum, "<i>conditio sine qua non</i>" for the definitive solution to human problems.</p><p>It suits governments because it exempts them from taking difficult and often unpopular measures.</p><p>It suits the "right wing", which is obsessed with denatality and the possible extinction of the hypothetical "white race". But also the nationalists of every country and ethnic group, because it denies that the high birth rate they hold dear is a harbinger of disaster.</p><p>It appeals to the clergy of the dominant religions, all of them more or less misogynistic and more or less obsessed with sexuality, regarded as intrinsically sinful. The reproductive goal is thus indicated, sometimes openly and sometimes subtly, as the justification for sexual intercourse. The fact that the consequent burden and risk falls entirely, or almost entirely, on women does not seem to be a problem, if anything the opposite.</p><p>It appeals alzo to supporters of left-wing ideologies, such as the aforementioned Landry, because it supports the idea that progress is a natural and irreversible phenomenon, as well as exempting the proletariat from any responsibility for any mishaps.</p><p>Western racists like it because it makes them feel they are in the vanguard of progress, and other ethnic racists like it because it promises them revenge. And it appeals to militarist and fascists because they like large mass of “cannon fodder”, but like it also to pacifists who don’t want accept that crisis, violence and war are unavoidable parts of human behavior. </p><p>It also appeals to the variegated environmentalist world because it allows them to overlook the most difficult and deadly of our actual predicaments, thinking that it will sort itself out while we deal with renewable energy and recycling.</p><p>The advocates of mass immigration like it because it allows them to think that there may be no limits to the number of people living on a given territory, but so do those who oppose it because it allows them to say that the cause of overpopulation is the 10% of people that are coming, rather than the 90% that are already here.</p><p>Many feminists even like it, despite the fact that it is women who bear the heavy burden that the lack of anti-natalist policies of governments places on their shoulders. The Third-Worlders like it too, despite the fact that, among the consequences of colonization, high population growth is the one that, more than any other, has by now condemned many populations to centuries of misery, social unrest, wars, etc.<br />Yes, because overpopulation means environmental degradation and pollution, unemployment, misery and exploitation, competition and conflict. It is never the only factor at play, of course, but it just so happens that it has always been one of the main drivers of the most serious crises in human history. But it is the first time that it has appeared, albeit in different forms, all over the planet at the same time.</p><p>Then “<i>Demographic transition theory</i>” suits those who have power and affluence, but at the same time pleases to people sincerely involved with the poor and the weak. And is very useful for those who want to rise to political power or, more modestly, to please their readers. Real poor, women and weak pay for all of them, but nobody care, not even themselves because it is very difficult for facts to make people change their minds when it goes against their feelings, identity believes and personal interests.<br />However, overpopulation it is not an invention of some eccentric eco-fascist or of a sect of pathological misanthropes, but an objective reality and to have ignored it is, by far, the most formidable obstacle now on the road to a hypothetical transition towards a "sustainable" society in the proper sense, and not just propaganda.</p><p>How will it end? This is one of the few safe forecasts: we don't know how or when, but humanity will come back within the carrying capacity of the planet. It certainly will, no questions. Just it is a pity that every day that passes, every mouth and every kWh more contribute to reducing this carrying capacity. So the longer we wait, the worse it will be because in a world where there is no space available for new colonization, migration is not either a solution because it only shifts the acme of the crisis from one place to another.</p><p><b><i>Where the birth rate and consumption do not fall fast enough, mortality will rise and that is all.</i></b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>Jacopo Simonettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14268136236769367204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-75955849980697834362021-01-15T10:19:00.003-08:002021-01-15T10:37:01.044-08:00The Hydrogen-Based Economy: Is it Enough to Paint Something Blue to Make it Green?<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtlSXCDTt6KxUa8KMw68_8sWw2ny_1NeLdGun39OBLUmjw-1zFWK6DpORP2mEUsYtq1Y5INPfJEbVyANpFPcan7BB1TNhh2hRg7tIY4Af54VYQ_5bVIUbs2w5D82iZ0hDEVc9jWoFxPjk/s966/HydrogenZero.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="966" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtlSXCDTt6KxUa8KMw68_8sWw2ny_1NeLdGun39OBLUmjw-1zFWK6DpORP2mEUsYtq1Y5INPfJEbVyANpFPcan7BB1TNhh2hRg7tIY4Af54VYQ_5bVIUbs2w5D82iZ0hDEVc9jWoFxPjk/w543-h305/HydrogenZero.jpg" width="543" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>A hopeful image for a hopeful article by<a href="https://solarimpulse.com/news/hydrogen-the-great-unifier" target="_blank"> Bertrand Piccard</a>. "Blue Hydrogen" seems to be popular, nowadays. But is it enough to paint something blue to make it green? It turns out that "green" hydrogen, assuming it exists, is too expensive for what we need to do now in order to move away from fossil fuels and stabilize Earth's climate. <br /></i></span></p><p><br /><br />Hydrogen has come a long way since the time when it was discovered by Henry Cavendish as a component of the water molecule in the 1700s and then given its name of “creator of water” by Henry Lavoisier in 1783. It was later discovered that hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and the main component of stars. <br /><br />Using hydrogen as a fuel is an old idea. It was, again, Cavendish who discovered that it can burn. The idea that hydrogen could be cycled as an energy storage medium is probably as old as the “fuel cell,” developed by William Grove in the early 1800s. In the 1950s and 1960s, the dream of "energy too cheap to meter" associated with nuclear technologies made it possible to think of hydrogen as an energy vector able to carry energy to the points of use, even vehicles, from a limited number of large nuclear plants. The first explicit mention of the concept of “hydrogen economy” was made by John Bockris in 1970. The nuclear promise never materialized, but the concept of the hydrogen economy was later linked to renewable energy. </p><p>The idea of the hydrogen economy gained a lot of traction with the 2002 book by Jeremy Rifkin, titled “The Hydrogen Economy.” Conferences were held, research contracts were awarded, and prototypes were built. Sometimes, we saw lavishly illustrated pamphlets of the hydrogen-based world of the future, often depicted as something reminding the science fiction of the 1950s, except that it was quieter and greener. Then, it waned again when it became clear that the promises of clean prosperity could not be maintained except at stellar prices that no one was willing to pay. Today, we may be seeing a "third wave" of interest in the hydrogen economy. But is it a real possibility, or does it still remain in the domain of dreams?</p><p>Today, 50 years after the first mention of the concept of the hydrogen economy, and 20 years after Rifkin’s book, not a single application of the concept of cycling hydrogen as a fuel is present in the world’s economy. The “Hydrogen Car,” the fulcrum of the idea, found a recent incarnation in the form of the Toyota Mirai, but that’s hardly the kind of car that will replace conventional or battery-operated cars. After 6 years after having been introduced in the world market, there are maybe ten thousand Mirais running today in the world against some 10 million electric cars. Not a good performance for something that was touted to change the way people move in the world. <br /><br />Things are not better for other facets of the hydrogen economy. Of all the prototype buses that would have used hydrogen as fuel, most can be found today in museums or have been scrapped – just a few seems to be still operational. The idea of using hydrogen as a large-scale storage system for the intermittent energy generated by renewable technology is too expensive to make sense. It simply doesn’t exist at present. We lack the network of hydrogen distribution stations envisaged as a necessity: there are maybe a hundred of them in Japan, maybe 30 in California. In the rest of the world, owning a Mirai is not a good idea. And nothing has happened of Rifkin’s grand idea that people would exchange hydrogen with each other using pipelines in the same way as people are exchanging data with each other using fiber optics cables. <br /><br />In short, the hydrogen economy turned out to be 20 years (or even 50 years) of hype, but nothing that helped us to solve the problems that we face in terms of the desperate need we have to decarbonize the economy. It was at best a naïve idea. The costs and the problems involved were evident to everyone who looked at the matter in some depth. <br /> <br /> What went wrong, then? A lot of things. Perhaps the main one was a basic misunderstanding in the way the idea was presented to the public. Free hydrogen is not an energy source; it is an energy carrier. Free hydrogen does not exist on this planet, so to create free hydrogen we must break the hydrogen bond in water molecules. That can be done using a technology carried electrolysis. It works, but it is not very efficient, it will always involve an energy loss that depends on various factors, but that is typically around 30%. So, hydrogen is a fuel, but it doesn’t come for free. You must pay for it and not so little. In practice, all the commercial hydrogen you buy today comes from the decomposition of natural gas, another process of limited efficiency. And that can’t help us much to get rid of fossil fuels since you start with a fossil fuel! <br /> <br /> Then, there are lots of problems relative to how to store hydrogen. It is possible but expensive. Conventional steel tanks in which you store gaseous hydrogen suffer from the problem of embrittlement. Hydrogen atoms are so small that they diffuse into the steel making it fragile. You need different materials, typically more expensive ones. But, in any case, high-pressure hydrogen is not a good idea in terms of storage, especially in a vehicle. The tank would be huge, expensive, and dangerous. So, you can use cryogenic liquefied hydrogen that would still require a fuel tank of four times the size of a gasoline tank. In other words, a 30-liter tank of gasoline would be equivalent to a 120-liter tank of hydrogen. And you need to consider the energy needed to compress and liquefy the hydrogen, to say nothing of the unavoidable gradual loss from the tank, and from the danger that it poses. Hydrogen can leak from any container, no matter how well sealed it is. And liquid hydrogen will evaporate at a rate of around 2% per day. <br /> <br /> Finally, there is a problem with the opposite side of the cycle, where you turn hydrogen back into water and energy. You can do that by burning hydrogen in a conventional thermal engine, but that’s so inefficient that it would make no sense. Indeed, the idea was, from the beginning, to use “fuel cells” – electrochemical devices that turn fuels into electric power. Fuel cells are normally efficient than thermal engines, but their efficiency is still limited, much lower than that of batteries. And fuel cells are expensive, the standard model that works at room temperature (PEM) need platinum as a catalyst at the electrodes. Platinum is a rare element, not only expensive, but that would be impossible to produce in amounts sufficient to replace even a fraction of the current park of road vehicles. <br /><br />All that doesn’t mean that there are no niche applications of hydrogen that could be profitably used in the future. Maybe hydrogen could be a good fuel for ships, which have no problems with the need for a large and heavy tank. Or, hydrogen may be used for planes, although it would be impossible to couple with the current generation of planes that would need to be completely redesigned – not a task for the near future. And perhaps hydrogen could be used for large-scale energy storage. But all this is far away from the dreams of a prosperous and non-polluting hydrogen-based economy that were proposed in the early 2000s. <br /><br />All this is – or should be – known. Already in 2004, Joe Romm published a book titled “The Hydrogen Hype” directly conceived as a rebuttal of Rifkin’s 2002 book. Indeed, by the end of the first decade of the 20th century, the hydrogen economy seemed to be a dead duck. The collapse of the oil prices of 2009 and the advent of the apparently limitless “shale oil” in the US had convinced everyone that there were no problems with the oil supply for the near- and medium-term future. The idea of the hydrogen economy didn’t really die but went dormant, disappearing from the horizon of the energy events. <br /><br />But, today, the situation has changed again. Depletion is making the extraction of fossil fuels more and more expensive. At the same time, we see the pressing need of decarbonizing the economy before it is too late to avoid a disastrous climate change. The fossil fuel industry is under heavy stress and the former miracle of shale oil is turning to be a canard. These are the probable reasons for the evident return of the hydrogen idea that we are witnessing today. It is not because new technologies made possible things that were not possible 20 years ago. It is, mostly a last attempt of the oil industry to propose a pie in the sky to retard the unavoidable demise of the polluting and unsustainable fossil fuels. The fossil lobby hopes that hydrogen will provide a niche for their products, counting on the fact that hydrogen – if we want it in large amounts – will have to come from fossil fuels for a long time. </p><p>In short, hydrogen is not a good idea for the world of today. We need first to build up a real renewable infrastructure to produce energy. Only after that's accomplished, we could think of the luxury of using hydrogen to power cars and planes. For the time being, limited numbers of battery-powered vehicles, the concept of “smart grid,” and higher efficiency in every field, are the best way to go. We must move in that direction as soon as possible, without waiting for a pie in the sky that might never be within our reach. <br /><br /><br /><br /> </p><p></p><p>
</p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-45718113189178774642021-01-11T06:57:00.009-08:002021-01-14T13:37:38.113-08:00The Great Reset: The Western Path to Dekulakization<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd4KDvlDsNIj9rbZw_ANrrEh93YWUoKk4V2eNWHGGzTXTklkiI7ZC7lOcjGeOqr59nv_hXqDaj850-raGF8ck4r0V66SkBhrv3EgRdJHME9rP2V0eL6qsdU-yDbrKb3hICjg3mopWPADk/s800/soviet_collective_farmers_against_capitalism.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="800" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd4KDvlDsNIj9rbZw_ANrrEh93YWUoKk4V2eNWHGGzTXTklkiI7ZC7lOcjGeOqr59nv_hXqDaj850-raGF8ck4r0V66SkBhrv3EgRdJHME9rP2V0eL6qsdU-yDbrKb3hICjg3mopWPADk/w474-h338/soviet_collective_farmers_against_capitalism.webp" width="474" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>One of the Soviet propaganda posters promoting the collectivization of agriculture in the 1930s. On the lower right, you can see a small man opposing the line of the marching peasants, He is recognizable as a "Kulak," one of the local independent farmers who were dispossessed and partly exterminated to leave space for collectivized farms, considered more efficient. There exist several similarities between the fall of the Kulaki and the current "Great Reset" that sees the destruction of a number of economic activities, such as retail commerce, seen as inefficient in comparison to modern electronic commerce. </i></span><br /></p><p> </p><p>In the 1930s, the Soviet Union carried out the<b> "<i>dekulakization</i>"</b> (<span lang="ru" title="Russian language text">раскулачивание) </span>of Ukraine. It was the term given to the removal of the relatively wealthy, independent farmers ("<i>kulaki</i>"), to be replaced by collective farms. Their properties were confiscated, many of them were relocated to remote regions, and some were exterminated. We don't know the exact numbers, but surely we are in the range of a few million people. The transition to collectivized farms may have been one of the causes of the
great Ukrainian famine of the early 1930s, known as the <b>"Holodomor,"</b> </p><p>The reasons for the dekulakization are several. In part, they were related to the belief that large-scale, <b>centrally planned enterprises </b>were the most efficient way to organize production. Then, the Kulaki were seen as a potential enemy for the Soviet Government, while the region they occupied was a strategic asset in terms of food production in an age when <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2020/09/famines-as-military-weapon-is-europe-in.html" target="_blank">famines were an effective war weapon</a>. </p><p>But these considerations are not enough to explain why the Kulaki were so ruthlessly destroyed in just a few years. It was, rather, just <b>a simple power game</b>: the Soviet Government aimed at controlling all the means of production of the state. It couldn't tolerate that an important section of the economy, food production in Ukraine, was independently managed. And so it intervened with all the might it could muster.</p><p>The most interesting part of this story is how the removal/extermination was an early example of a successful propaganda-based demonization campaign. The Kulaki were consistently portrayed as inefficient and unreliable "<b>enemies of the
people.</b>" Once it was established that an independent farmer was an enemy of the people, then any attempt to defend the Kulaki would automatically turn defenders into enemies of the people. So, <b>the Kulaki were completely overwhelmed</b>, unable to organize any kind of collective resistance. The best they could do was some degree of passive resistance, for instance by hiding food rather than delivering it to the Soviet authorities. Of course, propaganda exploited that to reinforce the message that they were, indeed, enemies of the people. This is the way propaganda works.<br /></p><p>At this point, I guess you understand the point I am making: the similarity of the current situation with the dekulakization of nearly a century ago. Also this time, an entire sector of the economy (actually more than one) <b>is being crushed</b> to leave space for different economic entities, believed to be more efficient with providing the same services: mainly the "new economy" of the Silicon Valley companies. This shift is sometimes called <b>"The Great Reset."</b> An appropriate name that could also be applied to the dekulakization. <br /></p><p></p><p>The first victim of the Great Reset has been <b>retail commerce</b>. Mom and pop shops everywhere are the modern Kulaki, replaced by the onward marching militias of virtual commerce under the Amazon banner. But also franchises and shopping malls have been badly hit. It is impressive how nobody in the field dared to oppose the destruction of the source of their livelihood -- <b>they were overwhelmed</b> by propaganda, just like the Kulaki. </p><p>Other victims are waiting for the axe: Universities and schools are going to be defunded, obsolete against the onrush of e-learning. Public transport has become nearly useless with the triumph of virtual work and the fear of boarding a crowded bus: it will be replaced by the smart cars and using AI software. Mass tourism and mass air travel are already relics of the past, resources that can be saved and used for other purposes. And the pervasive control of everyone is advancing: now just as at the time of the Soviet Union, those who control the message control everything. In comparison with Soviet times, <b>the modern propaganda effort is similar</b>. Most propaganda is based on demonizing someone and, today, those opposing the Great Reset are labeled as "deniers" (the equivalent of the "enemies of the people" of Soviet times). </p><p>All that doesn't mean that the Great Reset was planned in advance, nor
that the virus was manufactured on purpose. It
simply means that the various actors in the economic arena saw how they could gain an advantage by acting in a certain way, and they did. <b>These large organizations do not really plan in advance, </b>they have no "brain," but -- like amoebas -- they move in the direction of the food they need. And they act on the principle that says, "never let a good crisis go wasted." </p><p>Of course, the Silicon Valley Companies of our times are not the same thing as the Soviet Government of the 1930s. But there are similarities. Those companies that dominate the management of information on the Web <b>operate very much Soviet-style: </b>they are large, pyramidal organizations, often dominated by a charismatic leader (Zuckerberg, Gates, Bezos, etc.). In terms of size and planning style, they are not different from the <b>People's Commissariat for Agriculture</b> (<span lang="ru">Народный комиссариат земледелия</span>) (<i>Narkomzem</i>), established in 1917, the entity that carried out the dekulakization. And they reason mainly in terms of power balance: they don't like and they don't tolerate competition. </p><p>The difference is that the <i>Narkomzem</i> was part of the state, whereas the Silicon Valley companies are not. They do control large swats of the American government but, on the whole, they are best seen as feudal lords. You can call them "<b>Web Barons."</b> <br /></p><p>The current situation looks not unlike when <b>King John of England signed the Magna Carta</b> at Runnymede in 1215, forced to do so by England's Barons. Right now, the US government seems to be overwhelmed by the Barons of the Web, not unlike King John of England was. At least, when you hear that Twitter can cancel the account of the President of the United States, <b>then you understand who is the boss</b>. </p><p>And here we stand: we are seeing a classic situation in history:<b> a central government being challenged by feudal lords.</b> It is typical of when a state starts its downward path toward collapse, it is what's happening with the Western Empire. So, what's going to happen, now? Can history serve as a guide for us?</p><p>History, we know, always rhymes, but never repeats itself. In the 1930s, the Kulaki were destroyed by superior powers and that was the end of the story. Today,<b> the situation is much more fluid.</b> </p><p>For one thing, there is not a single, monolithic entity involved. We have several Barons who temporarily found a common goal, but which are <b>potentially in conflict with each other</b>. Then, the US government is not so weak yet. It still controls (and is controlled by) the military, and that's the crucial element that may change many things. </p><p>It is not clear what the military think of the current situation. Probably they don't have special objections about the elimination of retail commerce and other obsolete economic activities. But <b>they also understand who is paying them: </b>they get their money not from the Web Barons, but from the Government. And they may decide to do something to avoid going the same way as mom and pop shops. <b>A few tanks in front of the Capitol Building </b>would send a much clearer message to the Web Barons than that conveyed by a half-naked, horned shaman. </p><p>If the government is backed by a credible military force, then it would be possible to reduce the power of the monopolies of the Web: <b>Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and the others could be nationalized and/or broken down </b>into less powerful entities. On the other hand, nothing prevents the Web Barons from building up their own military forces. Fluid situation, indeed. </p><p>The only sure thing is that <b>the decline of the West is ongoing. </b>There is little that can be done about that. <br /></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">After publishing this post, I discovered that the same concept had been developed by another Cassandra, on the "<a href="https://www.cassandratimes.com/the-war-on-americas-kulaks" target="_blank">The Cassandra Times</a>" blog. That post came before mine, and it has therefore the honor of being the first having noted that the modern small business owners are the equivalent of the Kulaks of Soviet times. </span><br /></p><br />Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-90604685865121612352021-01-08T10:45:00.014-08:002021-01-11T03:52:58.711-08:00The Deification of Emperor Trump: Following Caligula's Path<p style="text-align: center;"></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i></i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYicCeX-tmY1oNPzum4girnp-_5MjmtHJZE8YQYF0GWxvi9WecyK9omv_kfpS8aFVceV_4UgAMMJiKofvz00c9ZB7RFkFB8HJu5QtUtxOipdVcTnOzBRCls3-aGh8-wwL_mRz86bQ8lBA/s1200/Jake+Angeli.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYicCeX-tmY1oNPzum4girnp-_5MjmtHJZE8YQYF0GWxvi9WecyK9omv_kfpS8aFVceV_4UgAMMJiKofvz00c9ZB7RFkFB8HJu5QtUtxOipdVcTnOzBRCls3-aGh8-wwL_mRz86bQ8lBA/w520-h345/Jake+Angeli.jpg" width="520" /></a></i></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Jake Angeli, high priest of the growing cult of Emperor Donald Trump, dressed as the horned God Cernunnos. The deification of Emperor Trump in Washington, yesterday, didn't go so well, but we are moving along a path that the Romans already followed during the decline of their empire, including the deification of emperors, starting with Caligula. So, comparing Roman history to our current conditions may tell us something about the future. <br /></i></span></p><p></p><br />I <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2016/11/which-roman-emperor-would-donald-trump.html" target="_blank">already speculated</a> on what kind of Roman Emperor Donald Trump could have been and I concluded that he might have been the equivalent of Hadrian. The comparison turned out to be not very appropriate.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj492MbcLucFY27Et8G-bY29Wb9lXxdeo-cypWLUY1D1WCXWUHYZ8vTobaWrebpIE6h64vwT1js3eWq6JExcF1H59rQj58B98rsLPqlES4SCOdXKNC-gBW-VRe6_NxoaNGtdNphimd5DKc/s1200/caligula-9235253-2-402.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> <img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj492MbcLucFY27Et8G-bY29Wb9lXxdeo-cypWLUY1D1WCXWUHYZ8vTobaWrebpIE6h64vwT1js3eWq6JExcF1H59rQj58B98rsLPqlES4SCOdXKNC-gBW-VRe6_NxoaNGtdNphimd5DKc/w116-h116/caligula-9235253-2-402.jpg" width="116" /></a> Clearly, <b>Trump was no Hadrian </b>(a successful emperor, by all means). But, after four years, and after the recent events in Washington, I think Trump may be seen as a reasonably good <b>equivalent of Caligula,</b> or <span class="aCOpRe"><span>Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, who also reigned for 4 years, from 37 to 41 AD. <br /></span></span><p></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span><b>Caligula was the prototypical mad emperor</b> -- you probably heard that he nominated his horse consul. And he was not just mad, he was said to be a cruel, homicidal psychopath, and a sexual pervert to boot. In addition, he tried to present himself as a living god and pretended to be worshipped. He even claimed to have <b>waged a war against the Sea God Poseidon</b>, and having won it!<br /></span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span>But, really, we know little about Caligula's reign, and most of it from people who had plenty of reasons to slander his memory, including our old friend Lucius Annaeus Seneca (he of the "<a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319572062" target="_blank">Seneca Effect</a>") who was a contemporary of Caligula and who seriously risked being executed by him. <b>The Romans knew and</b> <b>practiced the same rules of propaganda we use today</b>. And one typical way to slander an emperor was to accuse him to be a sexual pervert. <br /></span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span>But it really doesn't matter so much if Caligula really was so bad as we are told he was. The point is that there is a certain logic in his actions. In Rome, just as in almost every ancient empire in history, <b>Emperors were far from being warmongers. </b>And that was for perfectly good reasons: imagine you are the emperor: you are the richest person in the world, you can have everything you want, you may order people to do whatever you want to do, and if they refuse you can have them killed. You can even force people to worship you like a God and many will do that without any need of forcing them. Then, why should you risk all that for the mere pleasure of slaughtering a bunch of bad-smelling barbarians? </span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span><span class="aCOpRe"><span><b>That put emperors in a quandary:</b> their power was based on military might, but the soldiers needed to be paid. And in order to pay them, military adventures needed to be undertaken. But military adventures, then as now, are risky and you never know who will win a war unless you fight it. This problem was the reason why many Roman emperors didn't end their careers in their death bed. Either they were reckless and then defeated, or too prudent, and they were killed by their own troops. The latter was the destiny of Caligula, who refused to engage in the invasion of Britannia. </span></span></span></span><span class="aCOpRe"><span>No invasion meant no booty and no bonus for the troops. And the troops were not happy. In the end, <b>Caligula was killed by officers of the Praetorian Guard</b>, a military corps that was supposed to protect him. <br /></span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYD_8aL_k_3DWndJ1Jg-N4pyH7HtdyK3VTwZIPlsCcwPmZ9HH0osRKAOM-lvADQd7DqntJXWYH8r8iDPOIMxnWhUVGwARdV91kT9GlX0vSo23iQBUHmxyoSR7iwDKnuJ1BVgt1kKWjUjI/s1181/Cernunnos.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="979" data-original-width="1181" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYD_8aL_k_3DWndJ1Jg-N4pyH7HtdyK3VTwZIPlsCcwPmZ9HH0osRKAOM-lvADQd7DqntJXWYH8r8iDPOIMxnWhUVGwARdV91kT9GlX0vSo23iQBUHmxyoSR7iwDKnuJ1BVgt1kKWjUjI/w257-h213/Cernunnos.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><span class="aCOpRe"><span>At this point, I think you can see how Trump's rule can be seen as similar to that of Caligula. Of course, <b>Trump never made senator a horse,</b> but he surely had stormy relations with the US congress -- as you saw in the recent events in Washington. As for considering himself a God, well, Trump may not have gone as far as Caligula, but surely he tended to aggrandize himself more than a little! The apparition of <b>Trump's follower, Jake Angeli, dressed as the horned God Cernunnos,</b> even gave a certain theological meaning to the occupation of the Capitol building in 2021.<br /></span></span><p></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span></span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span>The main point in the similarity, then, is that <b>both Caligula and Trump did their best to avoid major wars</b> and succeeded, at least in part. Trump had to compromise with the military, providing huge financing for the military apparatus. We don't know if Caligula did the same, but his fake campaign against Britannia may have been an attempt to appease the military without risking a real invasion. Whatever the case, Caligula was eliminated and <b>replaced with an older and more pliant Emperor</b>, Claudius. </span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span>Something similar occurred with Donald Trump, replaced by an older and more pliant emperor because he clearly showed that he did not plan any major military campaigns. Unlike Caligula, and luckily for him, Trump was not physically eliminated (so far). But the trend is clear: The Washingtonian Emperors are desperately trying to acquire more and more powers in order to try to control an increasingly divided society. "Deification" - <b>turning the leader into a God </b>- may be a good strategy in this sense and it is likely that we'll see more and more US presidents using it in the future </span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span>__________________________________________________________________________</span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span></span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="aCOpRe"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvycBGeDXVrr8ZFFCB3_s4O8T-SUJM29JBf6PRJVqvgJaUwrFJH-JhfqQdWhaDqwkb8ioi996xreVWHB7GuYwJgTRZvS9Xw64VrkdqU2dkz0Rj1xQqtkcyShq7ubsJQSd6mpOmwTNWBWM/s1200/060320-12-History-Ancient-Rome-Roman-Praetorian-Guard.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvycBGeDXVrr8ZFFCB3_s4O8T-SUJM29JBf6PRJVqvgJaUwrFJH-JhfqQdWhaDqwkb8ioi996xreVWHB7GuYwJgTRZvS9Xw64VrkdqU2dkz0Rj1xQqtkcyShq7ubsJQSd6mpOmwTNWBWM/s320/060320-12-History-Ancient-Rome-Roman-Praetorian-Guard.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span>This being how things stand, can we use the Trump-Caligula analogy to conceive future scenarios? The future is always difficult to predict, but it is also a lot of fun to try. So, let's tell first the story of the Roman Empire after the death of Caligula, then we'll see to create a narrative for the modern Global Empire after the removal of Donald Trump. </span></span><p></p><p><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span>Caligula's successor, Claudius, </span></span><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span>was a relatively weak emperor who couldn't oppose
the military adventure in Britannia, and that nearly
brought the Roman Empire to its doom.</span></span> Initially, the invasion was successful but, later on, the Romans seriously risked losing everything when <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-queen-and-philosopher-hidden-story.html" target="_blank">Queen Boudicca led a revolt</a> against them in 60 AD, nearly succeeding in throwing back the invaders into the sea. Eventually, the Romans managed to quell the revolt, but it was a close call. <br /></span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span>The problem was not so much Britannia, but the fact that the Empire had seriously overstretched itself. While Boudicca's warriors scoured Britain, torturing and killing Roman citizens, on the opposite side of the Empire, in Palestine, a revolt was brewing. It exploded with tremendous fury in 66 AD and, this time, the Romans failed to quell it immediately. After the fall of Jerusalem to the rebels, it took nearly eight years of hard fighting to reestablish the Roman domain in the region. During this period, </span></span><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span><span class="aCOpRe"><span>the survival of the Empire itself was at serious risk. </span></span></span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span><span class="aCOpRe"><span>We
may imagine that if the Romans hadn't needed to garrison Britain,
they could have had more resources to defeat the Jewish insurrection. As it was, instead, the effort of having to control two unruly regions at the same time and at the two opposite extremes </span></span>of the Roman dominion led to financial problems and to turmoil all over the Empire. in 68 AD, Emperor Nero lost control of his generals and was forced to kill himself. For a year, four different generals fought each other for the imperial throne. Eventually, Vespasian, a general who had fought both in Britain and in Palestine, restored order in 69 AD, but the situation remained difficult. One indication of the financial problems of the time is that in modern Romance languages, </span></span><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span>urinals are named after Vespasian, probably because for the first time he placed a tax on their use. </span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span>In time, the Roman state managed to recover a certain balance and the deep state scored a major victory when they placed a career soldier at the top, Trajan (53-</span></span><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span>117). Trajan may have seen himself as the successor of Alexander the Great and he maintained his promise to expand the Empire. In 101 AD, he engaged in a successful <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2014/02/gold-and-beast-brief-history-roman.html" target="_blank">military campaign against Dacia</a> (more or less modern Romania). Then, </span></span><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span>in 113 AD he embarked in an ambitious campaign destined to get rid once for all of the competitor Parthian Empire, in the East. It was nothing less than an attempt of world domination. By taking control of Central Eurasia, the Roman Empire would have been able to dominate the whole continent. That was the dream, at least, but dreams tend to evaporate fast when confronted with reality.<br /></span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span>At the beginning, Trajan obtained some major victories, but he was not Alexander the Great. The Romans conquered the region that we call Iraq today, but further advances were simply unthinkable. They had overstretched their domains to an extremely dangerous level. In order to finance his campaigns, Trajan had devaluated the Roman currency and a new civil war could have shattered the Empire. Fortunately for the Romans, Trajan died before he could truly wreck the Empire's finances. His successor, Hadrian, stopped the wars of conquest and reorganized the Empire within militarily sustainable borders. Of course, the Roman empire was doomed anyway, but at least Hadrian avoided that it would collapse already during the 2nd century AD: </span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span><br /></span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">___________________________________________________________________________________________</span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span><br /></span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZYvmQIRHLFmhCuvXetzVQoU7XMp4ZC9UfFz6X5XK7hm6jELwnnPxZioIFA6BgBhz84-AZtucnqBdTM2cw1UtrUURm2qnMCDO8sm43QnItya0TPRmK3eMKDAqa_-ATtj09eEo_aFNz2q8/s602/Star+Wars+Empire.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="602" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZYvmQIRHLFmhCuvXetzVQoU7XMp4ZC9UfFz6X5XK7hm6jELwnnPxZioIFA6BgBhz84-AZtucnqBdTM2cw1UtrUURm2qnMCDO8sm43QnItya0TPRmK3eMKDAqa_-ATtj09eEo_aFNz2q8/s320/Star+Wars+Empire.webp" width="320" /></a></span></div><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span>Now, let's start from these ancient events to create a scenario for our times. Joe Biden is clearly no Trajan, but he has something in common with the weak and old Claudius.</span></span><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span> As such, Biden may fail to stop the US military from engaging the Empire in one or more risky military adventures, for instance attacking Syria, or maybe even Iran. </span></span><div><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span>The military strength of the US is so large that it is hard to think a relatively minor campaigns could be unsuccessful, but they would seriously weaken the Empire and generate internal frictions. The attack on the Capitol building already gave us a taste of what the results could look like. </span></span><p><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span>After Biden will be gone, it may be possible to see the Global Empire in the hands an aggressive military leader. Such a leader might decide to do what Trajan did. She might engage in an all-out effort to destroy the rival empire, the Chinese Empire, just as Trajan tried to destroy the Parthian Empire. (why did I say "she"? You know that!). That would mean global domination for the Western Empire.<br /></span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span><span class="aCOpRe"><span>Could a warlike Empress succeed? Unlikely. Just like Trajan nearly wrecked the Roman finances in his attempt, our Empress may well wreck the Western economy -- or the whole world's economy -- forever, with the additional result of wrecking the whole ecosystem as well. But history seems to reason in its own terms that was unavoidable from the beginning. For one thing, in our times things seem to happen much faster than in Roman times and the fall of Washington to a Barbarian army doesn't seem to be so unthinkable as it was just a few days ago. </span></span></span></span></p><p><span class="aCOpRe" style="font-size: x-small;"><span><span class="aCOpRe"><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><br /></p></div>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-9889124568035503822021-01-04T03:36:00.004-08:002021-01-05T15:47:39.241-08:00Back to the Classroom: The Best Teachers are the Students Themselves<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXi5izTrEOZQfp_2ryNEX7dWMfFHGuCfBCQzWE2DOhBXYVgPhyR0A_BFS-fnE2Jf64bc_icMqLX8-qMC5woLFsFUyyCVwYwD0n549ldcmPQGkvflCbewlmETcKu0FyOEtpfguFqzm4aRI/s1032/upgraded_no_face_mask_by_sunnybrook1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1032" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXi5izTrEOZQfp_2ryNEX7dWMfFHGuCfBCQzWE2DOhBXYVgPhyR0A_BFS-fnE2Jf64bc_icMqLX8-qMC5woLFsFUyyCVwYwD0n549ldcmPQGkvflCbewlmETcKu0FyOEtpfguFqzm4aRI/w449-h337/upgraded_no_face_mask_by_sunnybrook1.jpg" width="449" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><div class="bi6gxh9e"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id">During
my whole professional life, I always enjoyed teaching. </span><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id">It was part of my life, part of what I am,
part of the way I relate with the world. </span>I made mistakes, at times made a fool of myself, sometimes I was ashamed of how poor a teacher I was. <b>But I always did my best</b>. And I think my students, some
of them at least, appreciated my effort. And most of them enjoyed being students, just as I did when I was their
age. Still today, some of my best friends are people I met when I was in my first year of college. <br /></span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id"> </span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id">I
don't know how it was possible, but <b>a few months of folly have been enough
to <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-fall-of-citadels-of-science.html" target="_blank">turn universities into jails</a></b><a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-fall-of-citadels-of-science.html" target="_blank">, </a>the students as prisoners, and teachers as prison guards. And teaching was transformed into an odious chore. A
senseless ritual performed in front of a computer screen, the students
reduced to small 2-D squares, as real as the characters of a videogame. </span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id"> </span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id">On the media, <b>everywhere the students were insulted, </b>humiliated, insulted, told over and over that they are little more than
walking bags full of viruses, plague-spreaders, irresponsible, vicious,
self-centered individuals unable to restrain their instincts and
harming their elders because of that. </span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id"> </span></div><div class="nc684nl6"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id">This
is truly a disaster. Going to school is <b>one of the few remaining
chances that the young have to socialize and become functional adults</b>.</span><span> Chuck Pezeshki</span><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id"> said it very well in his latest post on his blog</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id"><span></span></span></div><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id" dir="auto"><div class="bi6gxh9e"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id"> </span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id">"<i>If
we’re to start understanding why the enforced collapse of
socialization matters to all students, we’re going to have to come to
terms with what we actually do in schools. The answer is not “we smart
adults tell students a bunch of stuff, they soak it all in, and they’re
far better off for it.” I’ve been teaching (and winning awards) my
whole career for teaching, which is really only a modest part of a
relatively modest career. <span><b> The reality is that students learn mostly from each other.</b></span> And the lessons they learn, sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter, are <span><b>mostly about how to relate and listen to each other.</b></span>
We sprinkle the lessons of the venue on top of all of this, of
course. But the biggest hunk of everything they learn involves
themselves, and their interactions</i>."</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id"></span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id"> </span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id">Here is an excerpt of <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" target="_blank">Chuck's post</a>, but do read all of it. It is an optimistic and inspiring post. Despite the disaster, we must go on and keep teaching and learning. <br /></span></div></span><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>From "<a href="https://empathy.guru/2021/01/01/a-new-years-prayer-for-our-children/" target="_blank">The Empathy Guru</a>"</p><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">A New Year's Prayer for our Children</h4><p>Jan 1, 2021<br /></p><p>
</p><p>..... <br /></p><p>Over and over, we’ve attempted to pin this pandemic on those we disagree with politically. I’ve written about this <a href="https://empathy.guru/2020/12/06/politics-and-empathy-in-the-us-post-election/">here</a>.
It’s just nuts, and these things have to stop. Or we’re going to end
up in a civil war. And that will kill far more young people than COVID
ever could. </p>
<p>Where we are missing the boat regarding COVID is the damage that the
pandemic has done through destruction of relational growth that really
fuels how young minds are formed. Primary- and secondary school-age
kids get this from going to school, and there is no real risk, despite
the histrionic anecdotes pushed by the media, for school children. Yes,
there is a smattering of extremely tragic cases that are part of the
pandemic. One of the curiously sociopathic angles discussing COVID is
the risk to football players for some version of myocarditis as an
after-effect of the pandemic — as if the well-established dangers of
smacking each other’s skulls together weren’t enough. There can be no
better juxtaposition of how we perceive risk, however. One is a reason
to lock down/up our children indefinitely. The latter is merely a
continuation of “how we do things around here.” The various lockdowns
have been done ostensibly to save the old, though, once again, it’s not
clear that any of this anti-socialization has helped them either. In
fact — probably not.</p>
<p>When it comes to college-age kids, living in a university community, I
hear the constant berating from the elders about irresponsible college
kids are, because they continue to socialize. And it’s wild to me that
voices of control have been recruited from the student population
themselves. I’m not going to name names, because I still have hopes
that these young people, though adults, will grow out of the need to
please their elders and represent their natural constituencies. There
is really functionally no risk to college kids as well. And schools
that have opened (I live next to the University of Idaho) have managed
to even control spread, as much as it can be contained, than schools
that have gone online. Which would, not surprisingly, jibe with the
overall statistics — that not much we’ve done, plus or minus, really
matters.</p>
<p>If we’re to start understanding why the enforced collapse of
socialization matters to all students, we’re going to have to come to
terms with what we actually do in schools. The answer is not “we smart
adults tell students a bunch of stuff, they soak it all in, and they’re
far better off for it.” I’ve been teaching (and winning awards) my
whole career for teaching, which is really only a modest part of a
relatively modest career. The reality is that students learn mostly
from each other. And the lessons they learn, sometimes sweet, sometimes
bitter, are mostly about how to relate and listen to each other. We
sprinkle the lessons of the venue on top of all of this, of course. But
the biggest hunk of everything they learn involves themselves, and
their interactions. </p>
<p>My tagline, since I started my empathy project, has been “as we
relate, so we think.” The meaning of this is not simply “if you relate
nice, then you think nice.” The stakes are far higher. The DeepOS
lesson of all this is that relating to different people, across varying
ages, social statuses, and racial/ethnic variations, creates the
conditions in the brain for other complex, more discipline-specific
information to get slotted. Without that interaction, though, the
brains of young people, while not exactly being frozen, do not thrive.
And being that all people, in all walks of life, are spread out on a
probability distribution for pretty much any issue/concept you can think
of, we will decrease a certain percentage of the population’s
intellectual and developmental abilities in ways we cannot predict yet.
If you say you care about disadvantaged populations in the U.S. this
should deeply concern you. Those will be the students whose starting
line is moved back once again. My advantaged students, and their
parents, can and will find ways around this, and I absolutely do not
begrudge them.</p>
<p>But in a time of already-extreme separation between opportunities for
rich and poor, those without resources, juggling even furnished iPods
in mediocre online classrooms, will be even more screwed. Don’t fool
yourself. And they also will not have the more evolved social
environments that well-off parents are already creating for their
children. Mores the pity.</p>
<p>Just so folks know, I’ll be back in the classroom myself in 18 days,
running students through my curricular vehicle, the Industrial Design
Clinic. I’m one of the few that’s made that choice. It was not forced
on me by my administration. And, no, I haven’t had the vaccine. And
yes — when I’m told my number’s up, I’ll get in line, but not before. I
already know there are people that need it worse than me. There’s a
reason I have 2400 hours of sick leave accumulated through my career–
it’s not because I’m unhealthy.</p>
<p>I’m doing it because, even though it will be a difficult classroom
environment, it will give my students to get to know their best teachers
— each other. We’ll be in masks, we’ll be wiping down tabletops, all
things of indeterminate efficacy, but part of whatever set of rules we
are told to follow. But we’ll do it together. And I’m looking forward
to a great year.</p><p> </p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-22599137772985518432020-12-31T07:14:00.006-08:002020-12-31T08:39:56.420-08:00The Ghosts of 2020. And the Ghosts of 2021<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="452" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gMmfaaiWMEs" width="544" youtube-src-id="gMmfaaiWMEs"></iframe></div><p></p><p> </p><p>The devil scene from Walt Disney's 1940 "Fantasia" movie. A fitting representation of the nightmare that 2020 has been. </p><p>This clip is especially fitting because you may notice how the devil doesn't really do anything bad during the whole scene. He summons ghosts and demons, they scream, they fly, they dance, but they don't touch anything, don't harm anyone. Evil is a characteristic of our mind: we create evil and we suffer its consequences because we believe in our own creation. </p><p>Perhaps we could hear bells dispelling evil in 2021, as it happens in the movie at 5:40? Maybe, but it is also possible that we'll create even worse ghosts than anything seen in 2020. Whatever the case, as always, we'll remain dominated by the ghost that we ourselves create. <br /></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <br /></p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-91733743502854400252020-12-28T07:44:00.005-08:002020-12-28T07:44:55.530-08:00A New Year's Tale: And the Years of His Life Were 900<p> <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="433" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kz1SWmzL2IU" width="520" youtube-src-id="kz1SWmzL2IU"></iframe></div><p> <i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A story from the old Soviet Union, written by the Russian writer Vladimir Dudintsev, still teaching us things today. And here is a written version from <a href="://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-new-years-tale.html" target="_blank">a 2013 post</a>.<br /></span></i></p><p> <br />
Some 50 years ago, I received as a Christmas present a book titled
"Russian Science Fiction." All the stories in that book made a deep
impression on me, but there was one that has remained in my mind more
than the others; a curious story titled "<i>A New Year's Tale</i>". <br />
<br />
I was, maybe, 12 at that time and, of course, I couldn't understand
everything of that story and I didn't pay attention to the name of the
author. But, as time went by, I didn't forget it; rather, it became
entrenched in my mind, progressively acquiring more meaning and more
importance. I reread it not long ago, and it came back to my mind during
a recent trip to Russia. So, let me tell you this story as I remember
it. <br />
<br />
"<i>A New Year's Tale</i>" tells of one year of life of the protagonist,
a researcher in a scientific laboratory somewhere in the Soviet Union.
Dudintsev manages to tell the story without ever giving specific details
about anything: no place names, no names of the characters, not even of
the protagonist. It is a feat of literary virtuosity; it gives the
story an atmosphere of a fairy tale but, at the same time, it is very,
very specific.<br />
<br />
It took me time before I could understand the hints that Dudintsev gives
all over the text, but after many trips to Russia, everything fell in
place. It is curious how Dudintsev managed to catch so well the
atmosphere of a research lab in the Soviet Union; he was not a
scientific researcher. But that's what makes a great storyteller, after
all: understanding what one is describing - and feeling something for
it. <br />
<br />
The story starts with a debate - rather, a quarrel - that the
protagonist has with someone termed "a provincial academic" (we are not
told his name). This provincial academic should be nothing more than a
nuisance, but the protagonist can't avoid engaging in the debate. He
understands that he is losing time, that he should be doing something
more useful, more important. But he just can't sit down and do his job. <br />
<br />
While the protagonist is entangled in this useless quarrel, the chief of
the laboratory (again, we are not told his name) dabbles in archeology
and one day he tells his coworkers of some work of his somewhere in the
Caucasus, where they found an ancient tomb. There was an owl engraved on
the tombstone and an inscription that they could decipher. It says ".<i>..and the years of his life were 900....</i>"<br />
<br />
Now, what could that mean? Could the man buried there have lived 900
years? No, of course not. But then, what does the inscription mean?
Well, someone says, that must mean<b> </b>that this man spent his life so well and so fully that it was like his years had been 900.<br />
<br />
The discussion goes on. What does it mean to live such a full life? The
researchers try to find an answer but, at some moment, they hear the
voice of someone who usually keeps silent at these reunions. We are told
that he is from far away, not Russian, that is. We can imagine that
this man doesn't have a Russian name, but we are not told names. So, he
is an outsider and he comes with a completely different viewpoint; he is
"the foreign scientist" even though in the old Soviet Union,
theoretically, there was no such distinction. "You see, comrades," he
says, "it is very simple. To live a full life, you must always choose
the greatest satisfactions, the highest joys you can find."<br />
<br />
At this point, we hear the voice of the political commissioner of the
lab. Apparently, there was usually someone in the scientific academies
in the Soviet Union who was in charge of making sure that Soviet
Scientists would not fall into doing decadent capitalist science. So, he
stands up and he tells the foreign scientist, "Well, comrade, don't you
think one should also work for the people or something like that?" And
the foreign scientist answers, "You are so backward, comrade. Don't you
understand? The greatest satisfaction, the highest joy one can have in
life is exactly that: working for the people!"<br />
<br />
After that the discussion is over, the protagonist of the story reflects
on the words of the foreign scientist and he resolves to start doing
something serious in his life. He decides to start doing experiments,
advance his theory. We are not told exactly what he is doing, but we
understand that he is working on something important; research that has
to do with capturing and storing solar light. And he manages to work on
that for some time. Then, his colleagues bring to him another paper
written by his provincial antagonist. So, he feels he has to answer
that, and then the provincial academician writes a response.... and the
protagonist finds himself entangled again into this argument.<br />
<br />
Things are back to the silly normalcy of before, but then something
happens. The protagonist finds that he is being stalked. Someone, or
something, is following him all the time. When he sees it in full he
discovers that it is an owl. A giant owl, almost as big as a man,
looking at him. He thinks it is a hallucination, which of course it must
be. But he keeps seeing this owl over and over.<br />
<br />
So, the protagonist goes to see a doctor and he tells him of the owl.
The doctor pales. After a thorough physical examination, the doctor
tells him: "you have one year to live, more or less." We are not told of
what specific sickness the protagonist suffers. He asks, "but why the
owl?" And the doctor answers, "we are studying that. You are not the
only one. The owl is a symptom." Then, the doctor looks at the
protagonist straight in his eyes and he says, "I can tell you something.
Those who see the owl, have a chance to be saved."<br />
<br />
In the meantime, there had been a long discussion between the
protagonist and the foreign scientist, the one who had so well silenced
the political commissioner. So, the foreign scientist had told to the
protagonist his story, obliquely, yes, but clearly understandable. His
fellow countrymen had not liked the idea that he had left the country to
become a scientist. They are described as gangsters and criminals, but
we have a feeling that there was something more at stake than just petty
crimes. This man had made a choice and that had meant to make a clean
break from his country and his culture; it had meant to accept the new
Soviet Communist society. Now, he was spending his time in this new
world trying to get his "greatest satisfactions and highest joys" by
working for the people. And, because of that, his former countrymen had
condemned him to death. So, he had changed his name and his identity,
and he had even surgically changed his face to become unrecognizable.
But he knew that "they" were looking for him and they would find him at
some moment.<br />
<br />
So, the destiny of the protagonist and of the foreign scientist are
somehow parallel, they both have a limited time. After having seen the
doctor, the protagonist understands the situation and he rushes to
search for the foreign scientist. They can work together, they can join
forces, in this way, maybe they can.... but in horror, he discovers
that the foreign scientist has been killed. <br />
<br />
In panic, the protagonist desperately looks for the notes he had
collected over the years. But the cleaning lady tells him that she had
used them to start the fire in the stove. She had no idea that they
could have been important. The protagonist feels like he is walking in a
nightmare. Just one year and he has lost his notes. He starts from
scratch.... his great discovery.... how can he do? Yet, he decides to
try.<br />
<br />
He becomes absorbed in his work. He works harder and harder. Staying in
the lab night and day and, when he goes home, he keeps working. His
colleagues note the change; they are surprised that he doesn't react
anymore to the attacks of the provincial academician, but he doesn't
care (which is, by the way, a good lesson on how to handle our modern
Internet flames). He still sees the owl; always bigger and coming closer
to him, the owl has become something of a familiar creature, almost a
friend.<br />
<br />
Then, someone appears. It is a woman, described as having "well-formed
shoulders" (of course, we are not told her name!). The protagonist
recognizes her. It is not the first time he has seen her. He remembers
having seen her with the now dead foreign Scientist.<br />
<br />
The protagonist has no time for a love story. He has to work. He tries
to ignore the woman but he is also attracted to her. He can concede her
just a few words. Ten minutes, maybe. So they talk and the woman tells
him. "It is you, I recognize you! You can't fool me!" The protagonist
remembers something that the foreign scientist had told him; that he had
his face surgically changed to escape from his enemies. Now, this woman
thinks that the protagonist is really her former lover, who changed
again face and appearance and didn't tell that not even to her.<br />
<br />
The protagonist tries to deny that he is the former lover of the woman
but, curiously, he doesn't succeed, not even to himself. In a way, he <i>becomes</i>
the other, acting like him in his complete immersion in his work. The
protagonist discovers that the foreign scientist had assembled a
complete laboratory at home, much better than the lab at the academy. So
he moves there, with the woman with the well-formed shoulders (and the
owl comes, too, perching on a branch just outside the window). Then, the
protagonist even discovers that the foreign scientist was secretly
copying his notes and he gave them to the woman, who has kept them for
him. With these notes, he can gain months of work. Maybe he can make it
in one year, maybe.....<br />
<br />
The last part of the story goes on at a feverish pace. The protagonist
becomes sicker and sicker; to the point that he has to stay in bed and
it is the woman with the well-formed shoulders who takes up the work in
the lab. And the owl perches on the bed head. But they manage to get
some important results and that's enough to catch the attention of the
lab boss. He orders everyone in the lab to come there and help the
protagonist (and the woman with the well-formed shoulders) to move on
with the experiments.<br />
<br />
In the final scene, the year has ended and we see the protagonist in
bed, dying. But his colleagues show him the results of the experiment:
something so bright, so beautiful, unbelievably bright and beautiful. We
are not told exactly what it is, anyway it is a way to catch sunlight
in a compact form: a new form of energy, a new understanding of the
working of the sun - we don't know, but it is something fantastic. Even
the owl looks at that thing, curious. The protagonist hears the sound of
bells from the window. A new year is starting. We are not told whether
he lives or not, but in any case, it is a new beginning and, whatever it
happens, they'll tell of him that the years of his life had been 900.<br />
<br />
And here we are. You see, it is a magic story. It keeps your attention;
you want to know if the protagonist lives or not and you want to know if
he manages to make his great discovery. But it is also the story of the
life and of the mind of scientists that I think is not easy to find in
novels or short stories. It is curious that Dudintsev did so well
because, as I said, he wasn't a scientist, he was a novelist. But he
managed to catch so incredibly well the life of a scientist - of a
scientist working in the Soviet Union, yes, but not just that.
Dudintsev's portrait of science and scientists goes beyond the quirks of
the old Soviet world.<br />
<br />
Yes, in Soviet science there were things that look strange for us, such
as having a political commissioner in the lab to watch what scientists
are doing. But that's just a minor feature and today in the West we have
plenty of different -- and heavier -- constraints on what we do that
don't involve a dumb political commissioner. The point is that
scientists often work as if their life were to last just one year; at
least during the productive time of their life; when they are trying to
compress each year as if it were to be 900 years long. It is their lot:
the search for the discovery, being so deeply absorbed in their work,
being remote from everyone else; obsessed with owls that they alone can
see.<br />
<br />
And yet, Dudintsev's story is so universal that it goes beyond the
peculiar mind of scientists. It is the story of all men, all over the
world, of what we do and how we spend our life. And the key of the story
is the woman with the well-formed shoulders. She recognizes her former
lover in the protagonist, or she feigns to recognize him. It is him or
it is not him - we are not told, but it doesn't matter. What matter is
her devotion to her man. It is so touching: you perceive true love in
this attitude. In the end, that's the key to the whole story: whatever
we do in life, we do it for those we love. <br />
<br />
Some of us are scientists, some aren't. But it is not a piece of bad
advice to live your life as if you wanted each year to be 900 years
long. And every new year is a new beginning. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /> <br /></p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-22816451104832958602020-12-25T03:17:00.013-08:002020-12-29T03:11:50.063-08:002020: The Collapse of the Christian Church<p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> </i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm1AMB5vPFNdbMn_i5b-1CSW-FiGj26Y5xn_GsL6CyBzME-Z4gwxvn6qbVnTkHbBy0q9VgRuGT-wVBKtOPfWFG7lq-S1l8cZLmHuL_j-DlZ0_5Wn4CPNFV8Kme1SItHk0HjXJsbcpdvxs/s744/Christmas1914.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="744" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm1AMB5vPFNdbMn_i5b-1CSW-FiGj26Y5xn_GsL6CyBzME-Z4gwxvn6qbVnTkHbBy0q9VgRuGT-wVBKtOPfWFG7lq-S1l8cZLmHuL_j-DlZ0_5Wn4CPNFV8Kme1SItHk0HjXJsbcpdvxs/w617-h345/Christmas1914.jpg" width="617" /></a></i></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Christmas of 1914: soldiers from opposite sides met in a friendly manner across the front line. For a short time, the Christian message of love managed to overcome the message of hate that came from national governments. It was just a brief moment for a good deed that surely didn't go unpunished. But it was highlighting a deep contradiction that was prefiguring the final collapse of the church, but that would take another century or so. It is coming now. </i></span><br /></p><p> </p><p>Sometimes, life is like watching the long needle of an old mechanical watch. No matter how carefully you look at it, it doesn't seem to move -- <b>time is frozen</b>. Then, you look at something else, and when your glance is back to the watch, the needle has moved. Time has passed, and that moment will never come back. </p><p>Sometimes, you have the same sensation with history. For a long time, everything seems to be frozen and nothing changes then, suddenly, everything has changed and the world is a different one. It has happened in this 2020 that, suddenly, changed everything, <b>and the world of one year ago will never come back.</b></p><p>I already noted how some institutions have been shattered at their foundations by the COVID crisis of 2020. One was <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-fall-of-citadels-of-science.html" target="_blank">the university, </a>destroyed by the sudden discovery that it is an expensive machine that produces nothing useful for the state. <b>Another illustrious victim is starting to crumble: it is the Church.</b> Primarily, the Catholic Church in its claims of universality, but all Christian Churches have been affected by a crisis that left them stunned, suddenly realizing that they had nothing to say and nothing to do about a disaster that seemed to affect everybody. </p><p>The collapse of the university and of the Church is all the more remarkable considering how old they are. The University has about one thousand years of history in Europe, more if we consider the Islamic world. The Christian Church is even older than that. Yet, nothing is eternal in human history.<b> Everything moves, changes, crumbles, disappears, is reborn, and disappears again. </b>It is true for empires, and also for institutions that seem to be stronger even than empires: churches, temples, religions, and ideologies. Even the Gods die and are reborn, it is one of their characteristics. </p><p>And so, look at the Christian Church in Europe. It was born as the reaction to a state, the Roman one, that was crumbling, starting around the 3rd century AD. <b>The Roman state was based on military might, but that was too expensive for the new times.</b> Gradually, the Church replaced the Roman state, mirroring the older institutions in new forms, more compatible with an age when the available resources didn't allow the kind of military power that had been the rule in earlier times. The Church delegated force to local warlords while governing on the basis of prestige and on a shared set of beliefs and rituals. As all human constructions, the system was far from being perfect, but it generated an age of relative peace and the end of the worst flaws of the older Roman world: the slavery of millions, <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-war-of-sexes.html" target="_blank">the oppression of women</a>, the emphasis on military power, the inequality of the few versus the many, the cruelty of the arena games. </p><p>The reign of the Christian Church lasted for several centuries, nearly a millennium. Then, the giant wheel of history made one of its turns. The printing press appeared in the 15th century, the brainchild of a man named Gutenberg who probably never imagined what he was creating: <b>nation-states, new creatures that had never existed before. </b>Their organization was not anymore based on money, as in the Roman state. And not even on a shared religion and a <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2020/06/english-as-sacred-language-path-to-new.html" target="_blank">sacred language</a> (Latin), as it was the case for the Christian Church. Nation-states were based on their national language: an invention of the printing press that created bonds among the people who could understand each other. <b>It was a re-edition of the old Greek concept of the <i>barbarophonoi</i>, those who speak <i>bar-bar</i>, the barbarians. </b>But the new barbarians were not anymore the inhabitants of remote lands, bad-smelling and dressed in animal skins. They were your neighbors who happened to live just on the other side of an imaginary line called "national border." Those same neighbors whom the Church had been telling you to love as yourself, but whom now the state instructed you to hate and despise. <br /></p><p>And so there started a conflict that's lasting to this day. As for many features of history, things move slowly, but surely. First, there came the great convulsions of the age we call "Renaissance." <b>It truly started with a bang, the extermination of hundreds of thousands of European women</b>, accused of being witches. Not only the nation-states succeeded in enlisting the Church top help in the task, but with the so-called "enlightenment," we saw one of the greatest successes of propaganda in history. The Church was accused of a mass extermination that had instead been performed by the state. Even people's perception was modified: <b>in their memory, the age of witch-hunting was pushed back to the Middle Ages</b>, turned by propaganda into a "dark age" of superstition and violence. But <b>the Church was not a woman-killing machine</b>. It was the state who <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2020/06/when-going-gets-tough-women-get-going.html" target="_blank">wanted more cannon fodder for its armies</a> and so it needed to enslave women and turn them into child-bearing machines. But the force of propaganda is enormous, it is one of the wheels that push history forward. </p><p>The witch-hunting age, mostly the 16th and 17th centuries, was one of the factors that shattered the unity of the Christian Church. Then, there came the reformation, and then the age of colonization when, again, the states managed <b>another master stroke of propaganda</b>. They were able to convince everyone that it had been the Church pushing for enslaving and exterminating non-European people. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmMXNMgXnrixDEh4NUxbaCqSPqNYK9-T_GELRrsmeA0HlwPz0ygnK304LqTSrjpJ23g2X-MWOAJcKV10cMFZwztiff5k-A3lalYT7pyA68c4UyRiA3onBxu7vsKCuqv-URiBdEemnYEiw/s330/Linea+d%2527ombra.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="221" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmMXNMgXnrixDEh4NUxbaCqSPqNYK9-T_GELRrsmeA0HlwPz0ygnK304LqTSrjpJ23g2X-MWOAJcKV10cMFZwztiff5k-A3lalYT7pyA68c4UyRiA3onBxu7vsKCuqv-URiBdEemnYEiw/w133-h199/Linea+d%2527ombra.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Then, there came the 20th century and the age of the world wars where, again, the Church found no role and nothing to say on an event that was shattering its very foundations of a universal institution. I wrote <a href="https://www.ibs.it/linea-d-ombra-della-memoria-libro-ugo-bardi/e/9788894352849" target="_blank">an entire book</a> on how people's faith was affected by this tremendous contradiction: Christians were fighting each other all over Europe and, on both sides of the front line, <b>Christian priests were blessing young men to go killing other young men on the other side</b> (you see, in the figure, an Italian military chaplain blessing Italian soldiers before going to battle). <p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8yJb4URqiS0If76buVczPDPl5onvCPjbHC85v314fXByZ7onFL0Sg9YSBANP3WuHhxRtNMP1-a10H3r_On-qu6UT3QW19J-rF0R7ArgheN2VYnhACQWMo5tfnLguWZYVW7WMHm1OfTZI/s1018/BlessingItalianSoldiers.PNG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1018" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8yJb4URqiS0If76buVczPDPl5onvCPjbHC85v314fXByZ7onFL0Sg9YSBANP3WuHhxRtNMP1-a10H3r_On-qu6UT3QW19J-rF0R7ArgheN2VYnhACQWMo5tfnLguWZYVW7WMHm1OfTZI/w260-h147/BlessingItalianSoldiers.PNG" width="260" /></a>The Church barely survived this tremendous blow, but more were to come. Once, a Japanese friend of mine told me something like "I always found it weird how every week Europeans get together in churches to eat God." A flash of <b>how strange some things appear when seen from another viewpoint</b>. But this Japanese man was right: eating God is one of the elements of the Church rituals. A Church is like a state in many ways: it has rituals just like the state does. The state has military parades, the church has religious processions. The state enlists young men as soldiers, the Church enlists them as choirboys. The state vaccinates children, the Church baptizes them. The state taxes people, the Church asks them for alms. And much more. The Church may ask you to eat the body of the son of God who sacrificed himself for his love for humankind, just like the state may ask you to send your son to die on some remote mountains to show his love for that section of humankind that you call the "nation."<br /></p><p>You may see all this as a symmetric battle, but<b> the two sides are not equivalent in power</b>. As I said, the Church had started as an alternative to the crumbling Roman state, but it was to be expected that the wheel would turn around. The State is now much more powerful than the Church and the sermons of the priest had no way to compete with the state news services. It was all going to happen and it happened. </p><p>It is curious that such an old and resilient institution was demolished by such a humble creature as a virus labeled SARS-Covid2. But that was how it happened.<b> Faced with the virus threat, the Church found nothing to say, nothing to object, nothing to propose.</b> It meekly submitted to the superior power of the state. </p><p>So, in Italy, this Christmas the state ruled that the traditional midnight mass was to be held at 8 pm. Of course, <b>it is hard to believe that a virus could infect people at midnight but not at 8 pm</b>. One could also say that, while nobody can say at what time Jesus Christ was born (probably not even on the day we call "Christmas"), it was the job of the Church and not of the state to decide on this point. But the Church was totally silent and it bowed down to the state. It had already bowed down on many other things. The images of Italian police stopping the celebration of a mass during the lockdown of March was seen by everybody and condemned by almost nobody. On visiting a church, you would find someone at the entrance pointing a laser gun at your forehead. You saw the benches with places crossed with red tape. Instead of holy water fountains, you would find bottles with disinfecting solutions. <b>People hiding their faces in front of God </b>just like <a href="http://chimeramyth.blogspot.com/2020/12/adam-where-art-thou-hiding-ones-face.html" target="_blank">Adam had been hiding from God in the Garden of Eden</a>. And, finally, the final insult was the virtual mass, with the priest turned into a 2D image confined in a little square on a screen, virtually blessing virtual believers. </p><p><b>It was a sacrilege,</b> it was the desecration of a place that, so far, had managed to resist, at least in part, the state's power. And it was, basically, the end of an age. Anything you believe in must be eventually be kept alive by practice. Practice is based on rituals, the Christian church has been existed for so many centuries because among other things, as my Japanese friend said, people would collect every week to eat God together. It may have been silly from a Far-Eastern viewpoint, but it was a ritual. And all rituals are collective -- they have them also in the Far East, even though <b>they don't eat their Gods in the form of wafers. </b></p><p>Without the rituals, or with the rituals compressed on a screen, the structure ceases to exist. It is just like the university:<b> it is no more a university when teachers and students are reduced to 2-dimensional creatures inhabiting a small square of a screen</b>. Without the ritual of classroom teaching, the university cannot exist. Without the ritual of the meetings of people whom we call the "congregation" and that in earlier times was called the "<i>ecclesia</i>,"<b> the Church is mute, the faith is gone, the faithful are disbanded, the holy places are desecrated</b>. And that's what's happening and everything that happens happens because it had to happen.</p><p>And now? History will keep going in circles as it has always done. The new state-sponsored rituals to fight the pandemic are triumphant, but there will be new cycles. The Gutenberg machine is being replaced by the much more powerful Google machine and we don't know what effects that will have on the entities that dominate the world, nowadays. Will the triumphant nation-states will see their doom, soon? We cannot say. We can only say that <b>the great wheel of history is turning</b>. It will keep turning.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">Note added after publication</span></p><div data-contents="true"><div class="bi6gxh9e" data-block="true" data-editor="2g115" data-offset-key="3o7fj-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3o7fj-0-0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span data-offset-key="3o7fj-0-0"><span data-text="true"><a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/illegal-funeral-williamsburg-satmar " target="_blank">An interesting article</a> appeared on the "Tablet Magazine" on how the members of the Jewish Satmar community of New York decided to defy the COVID regulations and held a funeral celebration for one of their members. </span></span><span data-offset-key="3o7fj-2-0"><span data-text="true"></span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3o7fj-0-0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span data-offset-key="3o7fj-2-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3o7fj-0-0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span data-offset-key="3o7fj-2-0"><span data-text="true">This story matches very well my considerations in this post on how most religions worldwide are unable to provide an independent answer to the COVID issue and are being squeezed out of the debate, and perhaps out of existence.</span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3o7fj-0-0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span data-offset-key="3o7fj-2-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3o7fj-0-0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span data-offset-key="3o7fj-4-0"><span data-text="true">In the article, the author bends over backwards to justify the position of the Satmar Jews. Right now, the idea that there is something more important than fighting the Covid epidemic looks incomprehensible, monstrous, even straight evil, to the great majority in the West. </span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3o7fj-0-0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span data-offset-key="3o7fj-4-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3o7fj-0-0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span data-offset-key="3o7fj-4-0"><span data-text="true">Yet, I believe that the Satmar understand very well that if they are to survive as a religious community they have to uphold the belief that God is more important than a virus. Actually that God is more important than anything else. And they are acting consistently. Something that the Christian Church, and the Catholic Church in particular, is not doing at al</span></span><span class="py34i1dx"><span data-offset-key="3o7fj-5-0"><span data-text="true"></span></span></span></span></div></div></div><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></p><p> </p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4342811133328800388.post-32925601963370575492020-12-21T10:54:00.028-08:002021-01-15T04:39:54.368-08:00The Hydrogen Hoax: Confessions of a Former Hydrogenist<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchfTXpQwz-2_7VKbnHT8B0zuB8Yi4Ddh_jCo40b9RwSXR8Yvge9KmO5cOhZ-YLpHvDJsEQD0DygXn5YsLyG34q_ZdHI9pije-6-FhfGwg8MQUukEt-hDdda425MmCM3ZfsFH4VC5eb7g/s914/Zombetto.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="914" data-original-width="674" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchfTXpQwz-2_7VKbnHT8B0zuB8Yi4Ddh_jCo40b9RwSXR8Yvge9KmO5cOhZ-YLpHvDJsEQD0DygXn5YsLyG34q_ZdHI9pije-6-FhfGwg8MQUukEt-hDdda425MmCM3ZfsFH4VC5eb7g/w183-h248/Zombetto.PNG" width="183" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The "hydrogen economy" is like a zombie: no matter how many times it is slain, it keeps coming at you. Like a Hollywood zombie movie, hydrogen seems to exert a tremendous fascination because it is being sold to people as a way to keep doing everything we have been doing without any need for sacrifices or for changing our ways. Unfortunately, reality is not a movie, and the reverse is also true. Hydrogen is a pie in the sky that delays the real innovation that would make it possible to phase out fossil fuels from the world's energy mix. (<a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/hollywood/top-10-zombie-shows-to-watch-before-betaal-6415750/" target="_blank">image source</a>)</i></span><br /></p><p> </p><p>This is a re-worked and updated version of a post that I published in 2007, in Italian, during one more of the periodic returns of the "hydrogen economy," a fashionable idea that leads nowhere. For more technical information on the hydrogen scam, see the exhaustive treatment by Antonio Turiel in three posts on his blog "Crash Oil", in Spanish, "The Hydrogen Fever" <a href="https://crashoil.blogspot.com/2020/11/la-fiebre-del-hidrogeno-20-i.html" target="_blank">One</a>, <a href="https://crashoil.blogspot.com/2020/11/la-fiebre-del-hidrogeno-20-ii.html" target="_blank">two</a>, and <a href="https://crashoil.blogspot.com/2020/12/la-fiebre-del-hidrogeno-20-y-iii.html" target="_blank">Three,</a><span> all written by "Beamspot."<br /></span></p>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title"><a href="http://aspoitalia.blogspot.com/2007/05/confessioni-di-un-idrogenista-pentito.html" target="_blank">Confessions of a Former Hydrogenist</a><br /></h3>
<div class="post-header">
<div class="post-header-line-1"><span class="post-author vcard"> By
<span class="fn">Ugo Bardi</span></span></div><div class="post-header-line-1"><span class="post-author vcard"><span class="fn"> </span></span></div><div class="post-header-line-1"><p>I think it was in 2004 when an Italian company based in
Tuscany <b>developed a hydrogen car</b> and organized a presentation for the
president of the Tuscan regional government. I was invited to attend as the local fuel cell expert. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDchXQ1hhuxT9f7zU60fCn7GWHubfJeyO65vJ8sMozx08wGPQpOMsVmECo9nJ9wO0xlNPNYmQjKEC4WVyIFtRuyDtV7nqrgVvnSRQuo1sbxwvipBKOIQeUO_z3yenQ-N62bKRZNnWihBg/s1200/1200px-Fiat_Multipla_1999_BiPower.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="849" data-original-width="1200" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDchXQ1hhuxT9f7zU60fCn7GWHubfJeyO65vJ8sMozx08wGPQpOMsVmECo9nJ9wO0xlNPNYmQjKEC4WVyIFtRuyDtV7nqrgVvnSRQuo1sbxwvipBKOIQeUO_z3yenQ-N62bKRZNnWihBg/w169-h119/1200px-Fiat_Multipla_1999_BiPower.jpg" width="169" /></a></div>So,
I showed up in the courtyard of the Tuscan government building where a
truck had unloaded the car. It turned out to be a modified Fiat <i>Multipla </i>that you may know as having been awarded <a href="https://www.carthrottle.com/post/the-fiat-multipla-is-officially-the-ugliest-car-ever-made/" target="_blank">the 2014 prize</a>
for <b>the ugliest car ever made</b>. Of course, that was not the problem. It was that it was not a fuel cell car. It was <b>just an ordinary car</b> fitted with two compressed hydrogen cylinders
under the body. The hydrogen went directly into the internal combustion engine. <i> </i> </div><div class="post-header-line-1"> </div><div class="post-header-line-1">Before the President
appeared, I had a chance to drive that car. I managed to make a full
tour of the courtyard of the building, but <b>it was like riding an
asthmatic horse</b>. The technician of the company told me that, yes, the regulation of the carburetor was not so easy. I could only agree on that. </div><div class="post-header-line-1"> </div><div class="post-header-line-1">When the President showed up,<b> he clearly had no idea of
what was going on</b> and what he was supposed to do. He sat at the wheel,
drove the car for a few meters in heavy bumps, then he gave up and just
sat there in order to be photographed by the journalists. The day after, the local newspapers showed the photos of <b>the
president driving the "hydrogen car," a prodigy of the Tuscan inventive.</b> Then the car disappeared
forever into the dustbin of history, together with the long list of hydrogen-powered prototypes that were made, shown, and scrapped over the years. <span class="post-author vcard"><span class="fn"><br /></span></span></div><div class="post-header-line-1"><span class="post-author vcard"><span class="fn"> </span></span></div><div class="post-header-line-1"><span class="post-author vcard"><span class="fn">That was just part of a story that had started for me in </span></span>1980, when<b> I arrived in Berkeley, in California, to do a post-doc stage at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory</b>. At that time, the worst of the first oil crisis was over but the shock was still felt, and everywhere in the US and in the world it was a flourishing of research projects dedicated to new forms of energy.<br /></div></div><p>In Berkeley, I worked for two years on<b> fuel cells; the technology that was to be used to transform hydrogen into electricity </b>and that was - and still is - essential to the concept of "<b>hydrogen-based economy</b>" (The idea was already well known in the 1980s, Rifkin didn't invent anything with his 2002 book). It was an interesting field, even fascinating, but very difficult. <b>We were studying the "core" of the device, the catalyst</b>. How it worked and what could be done to improve its performance. I think we did some good research work, although we found nothing revolutionary. </p><p>With the end of my contract at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab approaching, I started looking for a job. I remember that I was told that there was someone in Canada who had set up a company dedicated to developing fuel cells. I vaguely thought about sending them a resume but, eventually, I didn't. For what I was told, that company was <b>little more than a garage staffed with a few enthusiasts</b>. Not the kind of thing that promised a bright future for a researcher. </p><p>It was a mistake on my part. Later on, <b>the company grew and its leader, Geoffrey Ballard, became famous</b>. They improved a fuel cell design that had been developed earlier on by NASA and the result was a major
advance. It made possible the first fuel-cell bus in the world (1993).
<b>That led to Ballard being nominated "hero of
the planet" in 1999.</b> </p><p>In the 1990s it occurred to me several times that if in 1982 I had sent that resume to Ballard, maybe I could have been one of the developers of what seemed to be the revolution of the century. The polymer membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was the device that would have made possible the hydrogen-based economy: <b>clean prosperity for everyone</b>. I would have made a lot of money, too!</p><p>But, as it has often happened to me in my life, <b>I found myself in the wrong place and out of sync with the rest of the world</b>. In 1982, when I was looking for a job, the oil crisis seemed to be over and oil prices had fallen sharply. The interest in alternative energies was waning and, with the foresight typical of human beings, research programs on energy were being abandoned. There was little room, as a result, for a fuel cell expert. The best I could find in the US was an offer to work in a research center in Montana. It did not attract me so much and, in the end, <b>I decided to return to my university, in Italy.</b> There, I tried to set up a research program on fuel cells, but nobody was interested (again, the typical foresight of human beings). So after a few years, I moved to different subjects.<br /><br />In the meantime, the interest in new forms of energy waxed and waned with the vagaries of oil prices. In 1991, the first gulf war was already an alarm bell, but the 9/11 attacks of 2001 made it clear to everyone that the supply of crude oil to the West was not guaranteed. Perhaps as a consequence, <b>in 2002</b> <b>there came Jeremy Rifkin's book "The Hydrogen Based Economy."</b> Promoted by a high-profile campaign, it was a huge success and the idea became rapidly popular. It was understood as the way to solve all energy problems in a single sweep: not only hydrogen was clean and renewable, but it required no changes in people's lifestyle or habits. It was just a question of filling up your car's tank with something that was not gasoline, all the rest would remain unchanged. It was in perfect agreement with what George W. Bush had said, "<b>The American lifestyle is not up for negotiation</b>."<br /></p><p></p><p>Even though I had not been working on fuel cells in Italy, Rifkin's success caused me to be shining of reflected light. It turned out that <b>I was one of the few researchers in Italy having some hands-on experience with fuel cells</b>. I was invited to speak at conferences and public presentations and some people even started calling me "Professor Hydrogen."(!)<br /></p><p>I must admit that, in the beginning, I spoke as if I believed in the idea of the hydrogen-based economy, and maybe I did. But, gradually, I started having serious doubts. <b>I even had a chance to meet Rifkin</b> in person in 2006 at a conference that I had organized in Tuscany. <b>His talk was all hype and no substance</b>. When he was asked technical questions, all he could answer was something like "have faith," and then he would change subject.</p><p>As I started being more and more bothered by the hype on hydrogen, soon I saw what the real problem was. Back in the 1980s, in Berkeley, we already knew that the critical feature of fuel cells of the kind that can work near room temperature (called PEM, polymer electrode membrane cells) is the need for a catalyst at the electrodes. <b>Without a catalyst, the cell
just doesn't work</b> at room temperature and the only catalyst that can make the cell work is platinum. </p><p>Of course, platinum is expensive, but that's not the main problem, as I discovered when I started getting involved in studies on mineral depletion. If you were to replace the current vehicles with fuel cells, there would be no way to produce enough platinum from mines (for details, <b>you can see <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/4/2/388/htm" target="_blank">this 2014 article</a> of mine</b>). Indeed, the two years I had spent at the Lawrence
Berkeley Lab were dedicated to finding ways to use less platinum, or something else
in place of platinum. It wasn't just me
working on it, it was a whole research group, one of the several engaged on the
subject.</p><p><b>There are several tricks you can play</b> to reduce the platinum loading in fuel cells. You can use small particles and exploit their large surface/volume ratio. But small particles are highly active, they move, react with each other to form larger particles, and, eventually, your electrode no longer works. Of course, there are tricks to stabilize small particles: one of the things I worked on was platinum alloys. At times, some of these alloys seemed to work little miracles. But the problem was that <b>the miracle worked only for a while</b>, then something happened, the alloy "de-alloyed" and the catalyst didn't work anymore. Not the right kind of behavior for something that you expect to work on a commercial vehicle for at least ten years. </p><p>Today, the problem has not been solved. I looked at <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40243-019-0156-x" target="_blank">a recent review on this subject</a> and I saw that <b>people are still struggling with the same problems</b> I had when I worked as a young postdoc in Berkeley: reducing the platinum loading on the electrode by using alloys. I am sure that good progress has been made in nearly 40 years, but technological progress is subjected to diminishing returns, just like many human activities. You can move forward, but the farther you go, the more expensive it becomes -- to say nothing of the reliability problems of highly sophisticated technologies that deal with dispersed nanoparticles. And no way has been found, so far, to replace platinum with some other metal in low temperature fuel cells. Without a substitute for platinum, the hydrogen-based economy remains a pie in the sky. </p><p>Note also that the platinum supply is just one of the problems plaguing the idea of the "hydrogen economy." There are many others: storage, safety, durability, efficiency, energy return, and probably more. No surprise that I stopped believing in the idea. <b>I became a "former hydrogenist,"</b> one of those people who had approached the hydrogen idea with plenty of hopes, but who soon became disillusioned. <br /></p>That doesn't mean there don't exist niche markets for hydrogen as an energy storage technology, but <b>fuel cells are still mainly used for prototypes or toy</b>s. There is one
commercial hydrogen car, the Toyota Mirai, an expensive and
exotic car in a world where lithium batteries provide the same
performance at a much lower cost. Hydrogen powered planes are a possibility, but there are none flying today, likely because they are an <a href="https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2016/10/hydrogen-powered-planes-what-could-be.html" target="_blank">engineering nightmare</a>. Perhaps a good use for hydrogen could be <a href="https://www.ballard.com/markets/marine" target="_blank">powering marine vessels</a>, although fuel cells may be too expensive for this purpose. As energy storage systems, coupling electrolysis and fuel cell systems may do the job, but <b>they are more expensive than batteries and their efficiency is also much smaller.</b><p>So, what's left of the grand idea of a "Hydrogen Based Economy," the promise of a world both prosperous and clean? Very little, it seems to me. Nevertheless, nowadays, the idea seems to be enjoying a renaissance, at least in terms of the surrounding hype, this time <b>with the label of "blue hydrogen."</b> This is hydrogen that should be created from fossil fuels, while the carbon generated in the process should be captured and stored underground. Clearly, it is just a trick to make it possible for the fossil fuel industry to keep going for a while longer. </p><p>And <b>why "blue" hydrogen?</b> Ah.... well, that's the miracle of our times: propaganda. <b>Just as we can have "colored revolutions"</b> it seems that we can invent "colored technologies." We have also "green hydrogen" and "grey hydrogen" and the latest fad seems to be "green kerosene." Karl Rove had understood it so well when he said that "<b>nowadays we create our own reality.</b>" It is so powerful that <b>it can turn hydrogen blue</b> and <a href="https://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/2020-12/hydrogen-report-web-final_3.pdf" target="_blank">you can read here</a> how this miracle was performed. But it will be harder to create platinum that is just not there. In the meantime, <b>the hydrogen zombie keeps marching on!</b><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="263" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bubOcI11sps" width="316" youtube-src-id="bubOcI11sps"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.com