New below: Probing Grok on the issue of “conscious observers inseparable from observed reality”, contrasted with Einstein’s pushback against Bohr- “I can’t believe the moon is not there if I am not looking at it.” Don’t take this too seriously as I am just having some fun poking Grok on these things.
See article below on Iranian theocrats soon to get the bomb, Wendell Krossa
Also, more on the pain on the plain in Spain– Grid collapse from over-dependence on renewable power sources. Illustrating the lunacy of climate apocalypse “salvation” schemes- i.e. the destruction of human societies to “save the world”.
The problem: “Men never do greater evil than when they do it in the name of their God.” Meaning, of course, “evil” based on bad theology, driven by “Monster God” theology.
Some online definitions of “theocracy”:
“Theocracy” is a Greek word that means “government by God.” A theocracy is a state… government that derives its authority directly from a religion… invoking the authority of a religious deity and basing their laws on religious texts.”
“Theocracy, government by divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. In many theocracies, government leaders are members of the clergy, and the state’s legal system is based on religious law. Theocratic rule was typical of early civilizations. The Enlightenment marked the end of theocracy in most Western countries. Contemporary examples of theocracies include Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Vatican.”
“Theocracy is a form of government where it is believed that a god, deity, or group of deities, or a deity is in charge. The supreme being is usually thought to rule through human figures, like politicians and clergy, who are believed to be in direct contact with and/or of direct descent from the supreme being.”
The authors in the article below call the Iranian people to get rid of their theocratic government. It would have been further helpful if they had focused that call more directly on the theology behind the state theocracy- i.e. the actual features of the God in the Iranian state theology or belief system. The features of that religious deity are fundamental contributing factors to the problems that Iran promotes in the world, notably the promotion of extermination violence toward others outside of their faith, and especially their mad drive to exterminate Jews, whether directly or through proxies like Hamas.
Note on the separation of church and state, Wendell Krossa (Both left and right endlessly violate this ideal)
Some might wonder why we try to keep religion separate from our governments, as in “the separation of state and church”. While a critical ideal to maintain true democracy in our societies, this ideal is not fully implemented anywhere. Western justice systems have been shaped over past centuries by Christian punitive theology, according to Mennonite theologians. Current state decarbonization programs are the direct result of the “profoundly religious” climate apocalypse crusade, just as the so-imagined “scientific materialism” crusade of Marxism/socialism has been exposed as just another profoundly religious crusade driven by the same old apocalyptic millennial themes.
Hence Richard Landes’ summary of Marxist Bolshevik leaders as “superstitious members of a salvationist apocalyptic millennial cult”, (in “Heaven On Earth”).
Landes also said regarding the apocalyptic millennial themes driving environmental alarmism, “Environmentalists are the most obvious current case of roosters crowing warnings that range from the prophetic to the apocalyptic, using the stick of cataclysmic destruction if we do not change, and the carrot of millennial harmony with both nature and technology as the reward for repenting of our greedy, wasteful ways”, p. 46.
He adds, “Apocalyptic conflicts are among the few religious phenomena to survive secularization, indeed, mutate into recognizable and powerful secular forms of millennialism that have dominated the history of the last century… (i.e.) communism, Nazism…”, p. 87.
Islamic, Jewish, Christian forms of theocracy, Marxist/socialist, and environmental alarmist forms of theocracy, are all profoundly religious forms of violations of the ideal of separation of church and state.
What features in deformed images of God cause the most harm? I would argue that 3 basic features make up an “evil triad” of the worst, the most damaging to human existence-
(1) exclusionary tribalism (i.e. favoring true believers, damning unbelievers- the outcome of embracing Zoroastrian cosmic dualism mythology), (2) domination (i.e. God as Lord, King, Ruler who mediates his domination over people through priesthoods and affirms “the divine rights of kings” and other state leadership, a dominating God who validates the pathology of domination/submission in human relationships), and (3) justice as punitive destruction/extermination of “enemies”.
These “evil triad” features in our images of God are among the “worst” because they incite and validate the same thinking, emotions, motivations/impulses, and responses in us, impulses that we have inherited from our animal past.
The character or nature of the God in a belief system has long been a critical root factor behind the problem of theocratic governance and violence- i.e. the theology (ultimate ideal/authority) that incites and validates tribal violence toward differing others, toward “evil unbelievers” who must be defeated and exterminated.
“Exterminated”? Yes, the deity in the holy books of the major world religions states that he will eventually send all unbelievers to hell, to the “lake of fire” (i.e. note the book of Revelation in the Christian bible). The same “Hell” mentioned on almost every page of the Quran. The logical conclusion for true believers- If God is eventually going to send all those unbelievers to hell, is it any wonder then that religious zealots become willing to help God by moving the unbelievers along now, sending them on their way to their ultimate destination, through varied crusades of violent assault and extermination?
Thoughts on dealing with pathology in theology: Wendell Krossa
My point here relates to the influence of our beliefs on our behavior. What psychologist Harold Ellens notes in this comment on the “cruel God theology of the New Testament”.
“’With that kind of metaphor at our center (i.e. a hateful deity who uses violence to solve problems), and associated with the essential behavior of God, how could we possibly hold, in the deep structure of our unconscious motivations, any other notion of ultimate solutions to ultimate questions or crises than violence- human solutions that are equivalent to God’s kind of violence’”, (quoted by psychotherapist Zenon Lotufo in “Cruel God, Kind God”).
The outcome of such images of deity? A long history of violence against others validated by such bad theology. Its always been the issue of “We become just like the God that we believe in.” “God”, or whatever we hold as our ultimate ideal and authority for behavior and life.
And our very existence in this world, where those among the community of nations believe and act in accordance with violent deity myths, then puts the rest of us on the defensive against such predatory violence.
Our governments are obligated to take defensive military measures in order to protect citizens against assaults and violence from others. This is the most fundamental responsibility of any government (“To protect citizens against assaults by enemies both foreign and domestic”).
But military measures alone will not change the long-term outcomes from threatening theocratic states like Iran. We have to deal with the root contributing factors like the bad theology behind such violence. And how can we do that properly and thoroughly when our own religious traditions continue to hold and promote the very same basic features in our images of God? (see Harold Ellens’ comments just below.)
The problem that the authors of the article reference- i.e. theocracy- points to a potently dangerous contributing factor to violence that still exists widely throughout our societies. Despite modern era projects to “secularize” human narratives and rid them of primitive mythical complexes of themes, the same basic religious themes that shape the Iranian theocracy still dominantly frame our narratives, our general Western religious belief systems as well as varied “secular ideological” systems of belief. Little has really changed, hence the ongoing eruptions of varied “profoundly religious crusades” like climate alarmism, another hysterically irrational “Chicken Little” apocalyptic millennial movement, little different from the Iranian theocracy in terms of its basic motivating religious themes.
If theocracy is about governing principles that “derive authority from a religion… govern by divine guidance… based on religious law, etc.”, then theocracy applies more widely than we realize, not just to the more straightforwardly religious regimes in Iran and Saudi Arabia, as the authors in the article on Iranian theocracy suggest.
So, before defensively excusing our belief systems, as more noble in contrast with more “extremist” versions such as that of the Iranian theocratic leadership, consider that the very same bad theological themes of the Iranian leadership persist across all the main world religions and have even been “secularized” in the “ideologies” that dominate our societies.
The core themes of the Iranian theocracy (i.e. “apocalyptic millennialism”) are the very same as those that drove Marxism and Nazism, and now drive environmental alarmism/climate alarmism. Historians like Arthur Herman, Richard Landes, and others, have detailed this evidence in their research.
Bad theology, i.e. “monster God images”, continue to incite and validate bad human behavior between groups. It has long been the issue of “basing behavior on similarly themed beliefs.”
My point? A significant contributing factor to state-sponsored violence, such as that from Iran, has to do with the theology- i.e. the God at the core of the religion that deforms the minds and personalities of Iran’s state leadership. And the same core themes of the Iranian theocracy frame many of the dominant narratives in our societies and consequently deform human personalities in a multitude of situations both religious and apparently “secular.”
As psychotherapist Zenon Lotufo, quoting psychologist Harold Ellens, said- “Sick Gods continue to make people sick”. Deformed theology produces deformed behavior that destroys relationships, and at scale, entire societies.
Again, if I might paraphrase an old political meme and argue that the long-term resolution of violence involves going after the critical contributing factors at the core of the violence problem- “It’s the theology, stupid.”
I’ll let Harold Ellens make my point once again:
Harold Ellens again, “There is in Western culture a psychological archetype, a metaphor that has to do with the image of a violent and wrathful God…
“Such a metaphor of an angry God, who cannot forgive unless appeased by a bloody sacrifice, has been ‘right at the center of the Master Story of the Western world for the last 2,000 years. And the unavoidable consequence for the human mind is a strong tendency to use violence’.
“’With that kind of metaphor at our center, and associated with the essential behavior of God, how could we possibly hold, in the deep structure of our unconscious motivations, any other notion of ultimate solutions to ultimate questions or crises than violence- human solutions that are equivalent to God’s kind of violence’…
“Hence, in our culture we have a powerful element that impels us to violence, a Cruel God Image… that also contributes to guilt, shame, and the impoverishment of personality…”.
As Ellens says, “If your God uses force, then so may you, to get your way against your ‘enemies’”. (End of Ellens quotes)
This evidence on what is most fundamentally wrong provides me with the setup to how we can resolve these issues.
I find it persistently egregious (“especially notable for being incorrect or bad”) that we were given the “stunning new alternative theology” 2 millennia ago that most radically and fundamentally changed the human perception of deity, our highest ideal and authority. That was a potential liberation like no other liberation movement in history. It offered freedom from the barbaric ideas of our primitive ancestors that had darkened and enslaved human consciousness from the beginning. It was a liberation into light and love like nothing ever before.
That was the stunning new theology of Historical Jesus that Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy termed the “diamonds, pearls” of his teaching. Jesus’ new theology of a universally inclusive and unconditionally loving God. Yes, more humane features had been presented in the earlier theologies of Egyptian (e.g. “kindness” in the Pharoah gods), Sumerian, and Greek culture, etc. But those theologies were never entirely “unadulterated” in the same manner as the new theology of Jesus. History’s previous deities were never entirely freed from the “evil triad” pathology that had corrupted all previous mythology and religion and rendered all previous versions of deity- “monster gods”.
And within two decades after the death of Jesus, Paul had intolerantly pushed his Christ myth to dominate his new Christian religion and that buried entirely the new theology of Jesus that would have transformed everything in human narratives and thought, radiating out from the center of human belief narratives, on out to radically transform human ethics, justice, our treatment of enemies, everything.
That new theology of Jesus would have ended the millennia-long terrorizing of human minds with the psychopathologies of looming apocalyptic destruction and hellfire that dominate Paul’s Christian religion (see his letters to the Romans, Thessalonians, and John’s Revelation, among other letters in the New Testament).
That stunning new theology of an inexpressibly wondrous no conditions love at the core of reality would have also radically alleviated the death fear, giving us the entirely new understanding of death as a return home to the love from which we originated, not as a punishment for sin which is the biblical view in the Eden myth.
Note:
The vast majority of people across our world still believe in deity as the “Ultimate Reality”, the embodiment of ultimate ideals and authority. Theism itself is not the problem. (Note, for example, the World Religion Survey notes at bottom)
We get ourselves into trouble when we hold and continue to protect subhuman/inhuman images of God in our narratives, in our ultimate ideals and authorities. Harold Ellens summarized the issue regarding the influence of beliefs on human behavior, “in our culture we have a powerful element that impels us to violence, a Cruel God Image… that also contributes to guilt, shame, and the impoverishment of personality… If your God uses force, then so may you, to get your way against your ‘enemies’.”
Consider this when reading the article below on Iranian theocracy and its promotion of violence against infidels in general, and particularly against Jews. We subject ourselves to personality-deforming psychopathologies (“deformation of human personality”, Zenon Lotufo) when we embrace God images that include barbaric features like the evil triad of tribalism, domination, and punitive destruction of enemies.
A call to get rid of Iranian theocracy:
“Opinion: Only regime change will subdue the Iranian threat: Coming to a deal over enrichment levels is not going to bring peace to the Middle East”, Raheel Raza, Mohammad Rizwan, April 29, 2025
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/only-regime-change-will-subdue-the-iranian-threat
Critical points by the authors:
“The United States has once again engaged in negotiations with Iran, chasing the elusive goal of turning the Islamic Republic into a peaceful, terror-free and nuclear-free state… But if the goal is to make Iran a normal country again, that will not happen until its Islamist rulers are thrown out.”
The authors then recommend reading “Wendy Sherman’s book, ‘Not for the Faint of the Heart.’” Sherman argues that the Iranian leadership simply uses negotiations to “weather the gathering storm, biding its time so it can gain a stronger position in the future… just serve to pause the chaos in the Middle East for a period of time — until the regime recuperates.”
The authors argue rightly that the problem with Iran began when the country was “captured by the clergy and turned into a theocracy. Their regressive ideology gave birth to repression and coercion that characterizes the country today. Unless this problem is dealt with, peace in the Middle East will be as elusive as ever.
“Peace will only be realized once the Iranian people rise up and get rid of the current theocratic order.”
The authors, and book they reference, conclude that until the theocratic leadership is removed peace negotiations only give the regime time to rebuild military capability and continue its crusade to exterminate Jews. And with nuclear weapons that will unleash absolute destructive insanity in that region.
“Raheel Raza and Mohammad Rizwan are directors of the Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism.”
The same point made above to “rise up and get rid of the current theocratic order”, applies also to Gaza/Hamas, Afghanistan, and many other areas. I would take this across the planet to include all the great religious traditions that continue to harbor and protect similar theological themes as those of the Islamic traditions. The Western religions are all descendants of the same original mythologies.
And on another line of thought… Apocalyptic millennial religions/crusades and the dangerous phases they pass through (drawing on Richard Landes work in “Heaven On Earth”).
Generally, the shift to “exterminate or be exterminated” is the move of fanatics in some dying apocalyptic crusade to engage, out of “survival” desperation, more coercive and violent approaches to eliminating the threats to their crusade (Landes details these shifts in “Heaven On Earth” that traces the progress of Marxist, Nazi, and environmental alarmism crusades).
But in cases like Israel with “the basic responsibility of governments to protect their people from assault”, the “exterminate or be exterminated” phase is the only option for long-term survival and fulfilling that government protective responsibility toward citizens. With Hamas, they are dealing with a fanatical theocracy committed to death cult suicide/martyrdom. The zealots in such death cults view murder and slaughter of enemies as the means to virtue signal for moral status before their wrathful, destroying God. That is as perverse as human thought and behavior can get.
And yes, we take the advice of sages like Laotzi (?) that we are forced to regretfully take defensive action against an attacking enemy and defeat that enemy. But when we have defeated our attackers, then we should not engage triumphalism but seek to reconcile with the surviving enemy population.
The holding of such a humane attitude and approach will help us to maintain our own humanity in the face of evil, no matter the outcomes.
See also the Tim Kennedy video clip below with Joe Rogan on the Hamas/Israel situation. This is what Dave Smith missed in his debate with Douglas Murray on Rogan.
Note the real problem as Kennedy explains it to Rogan. This is the unfortunate situation when facing psychopathic theocracies (death cults) driven mad by bad theology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ztVStrLrNU
You cannot make long-term peace deals with death cults that glory in martyrdom and death as the ultimate heroic act to please their God who promises great reward for such murderous madness.
And again, before some conclude this is “Islamophobic”, let me reassure readers that these comments apply also to the larger history of Christianity and Judaism. Though those traditions have entered modern-era periods of moderation, aside from peripheral extremist factions, they continue to hold the very same basic theology as Islam. The same “evil triad” features of tribalism, domination, and punitive destruction also frame their images of God.
But back to the Iranian theocracy and making “peace” deals with such people. People possessed and driven by bad theology to murder differing others will take advantage of ceasefires to re-arm and prepare for the next attempt at exterminating you. You are dealing with irrational people rendered dangerously unreasonable by their theology. How else do we understand young men gang raping, burning people alive, chopping off heads, riddling innocent families with bullets, all the while screaming “Allahu Akbar”? (glory to God, God is great)
Again, to stave off reactions of “Islamophobia”, we remember the early Christian Crusaders did the very same as they slaughtered Muslims in Jerusalem a millennium ago, singing praises to God, thanking God that they could take part in the slaughter of God’s enemies as they stood ankle-deep in blood from the bodies that they were dismembering.
The young Hamas soldiers who attacked in a crazed frenzy on Oct. 7 worship a sick God who makes them dangerously sick as evident in their commitment to cruelly exterminating differing others. They are zealously devoted to helping their God send his enemies to hell, just as he promises in their holy book (as also in the Jewish/Christian bible).
This site argues that Historical Jesus went to the root of this problem of religiously-incited violence and offered his stunning new theology as the solution to the age-old pathology of a “Sick God who makes people sick”. He presented an entirely new ultimate ideal and authority to center human narratives- i.e. a radically new image of a non-retaliatory, nontribal, non-dominating, non-punitive, non-destroying God. An ideal to re-orient human consciousness away from tribal hatred and violence and toward truly humane ethical responses.
He understood fully that humans base their behavior on their beliefs, hence his call to “Be unconditionally merciful just as your Father is unconditionally merciful.”
And he was put to death for that new theology that affirmed a radically mature human behavior and justice. How so and why?
Here are my comments from a section further below on how the new theology of Jesus, his new framing of justice as non-retaliatory forgiveness, mercy, and “love your enemy”, enraged religious zealots committed to tribal hatred and extermination of enemies:
“This helps to understand why the Jewish leaders had Jesus put to death for his Temple protest against sacrifice. The sacrifice tradition and industry was based on images of angry God threatening destruction and death, and demanding sacrifice, payment, and punishment of sin. If that image of God was wrong, then the entire industry that they based their identity, authority, and livelihood on, was also wrong.
“We saw this also in the anger of the Jewish audience in the synagogue, where they tried to kill Jesus for leaving off the divine vengeance statement in his reading of Isaiah 61.
“He read this- “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”. But he left off this next statement in Isaiah’s comments- “and the day of vengeance of our God.”
“By doing that, he was affirming his stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory God, an unconditionally, universally loving God. He was rejecting the notion of a vengeful, destroying God.
“He then further added the story of God sending Elijah, not to help the Jews, but to heal an enemy- Naaman the Syrian. That was across-the-line incitingly offensive to his audience waiting to hear of divine justice that was conventionally tribal and retaliatory toward enemies.
“With their very identity based on such beliefs as the deeply ingrained view of justice as punishment and destruction of enemies, to leave off the affirmation of the “day of vengeance of our God” was too much, too offensively scandalous, too outraging for the audience of Jews.
“The Jewish authorities, the priesthood, also saw clearly the threat that Jesus’ unconditional God posed to their system. The saw the end of their entire system of conditions- i.e. the demands for atonement as sacrifice, and the rest of their onerously burdensome religious conditions, built on the belief in an angry God threatening punishment and destruction. So they quickly had him silenced, as he threatened more than just their immediate livelihood. He threatened the fundamental worldview of the Jewish nation. The very universe of Jewish religion and culture was at stake and the threat had to be exterminated. In putting Jesus to death, they exhibited survival rage at a threat.
“So don’t puzzle overly at why endless eruptions of religious violence continue. Such violence is very much incited, guided by, and validated by profoundly fundamental beliefs that have always shaped our narratives, notably images of deity. Hence, “We become just like the God that we believe in.” Or- “Men never commit worse evil than when they commit it in the name of their monster God who makes them sick with hatred, tribalism, lust to dominate and destroy” (paraphrasing Harold Ellens statements on this).
“These psychopathological images of deity still reign at the heart of our great religious traditions, despite reformism efforts to deny, dismiss, and refocus attention away from the darker features in religious holy books. And don’t ignore the fact that the pathological images in the theologies of our great Western religions have also been embraced and re-affirmed in the secular ideologies of the modern era. Its always the same old myths of divine vengeance and threat of apocalyptic destruction- e.g. “Vengeful Gaia, punitive Universe, angry Planet/Mother Earth, payback karma venting wrath through climate apocalypse”.” (End of reposted quotes)
Continuing on this point of how unconditional mercy toward enemies can enrage people… Some ideas are viewed as attacks on fundamental human identity. (As always, when presenting a case for restorative justice it must be made clear that this is not an argument for pacifism in the face of violence. Any common sense system of justice must hold people fully responsible for their behavior, including locking up repeatedly violent people in order to protect others. This is the single most fundamental responsibility of government.)
Jesus enraged his Jewish audience by challenging and overturning their fundamental self-image as God’s chosen people, especially favored by their God whom they believe hated and punished their enemies with “vengeful, retributive justice.” For them to hear that God also favored their enemies (Jesus’ comment that Elijah was sent to a pagan Syrian) and would not destroy those enemies with retaliatory justice- well, that was just too intolerable to even consider. It offended their sense of authentic justice as retaliatory violence against enemies.
So also with Jesus’ final protest against sacrifice at the Jerusalem Temple (the incident where he overthrew the tables of money-changers). He was put to death because his protest against the sacrifice industry threatened the livelihood, the authority and power of the priests. More-so, his protest against sacrifice directly challenged the core threat theology of the Jewish religion that validated the power and domination/control of the priesthood. Their power rested directly on promoting the myth of a wrathful God who threatened destruction and death unless appeased with blood sacrifice, a God who threatened apocalypse and chaos unless offered atonement.
Add to that basic theology the demand for subsequent submission to the entire religious complex that supported such beliefs/myths, the adoption of the conditions of religion- i.e. complex rituals, payments (tithes), the details of a religious lifestyle that identified true believers, all dictated by religious authorities as mediators of the domination of King God.
Contrary to all that people had inherited from previous millennia of human belief systems, ideas that had fundamentally shaped human consciousness and life, fundamental human identity, Jesus offered a stunning new image of deity as love, as nontribal, universally inclusive, nonretaliatory, unconditional love. That was a direct rejection of the God of their fathers and it enraged his Jewish audience who wanted traditional justice upheld, with vengeful retaliation toward tribal enemies. Good faithful Jews hoped and longed for the destruction and extermination of their enemies and were outraged by the idea of including those enemies in God’s favor and then “loving those enemies” as per Jesus’ teaching. That was so intolerable and enraging that they eventually, through their priesthood, put that messenger and message to death, with Paul finally burying it completely with his Christ myth.
The point in winding this up with the Jewish and Christian versions of bad theology- bad theocracy- is to expose the deeper historical roots of Islamic theocracy today. Islam is the direct descendent/offspring of early Jewish Christianity (i.e. the “Ebionism” detailed in Joseph Azzi’s book “The Priest and the Prophet”). Add the influence of Hellenism on the Jewish tradition that shaped Islam.
All three Western religion share the same basic theology, what psychologists/psychotherapists Harold Ellens and Zenon Lotufo call “Monster or cruel God” theology. Their conclusion is that such theology deforms human personality with fear, anxiety, shame, guilt, despair, depression, nihilism, and violence. As Ellens states, “Sick God’s make people sick”.
Add here the other wise summaries of the outcomes of bad theology- “We become just like the God we believe in”, and “Men never do greater evil than when they do it in the name of their God.”
Further notes:
Projected trends in religion:
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/
Leaving religion does not mean abandoning the human impulse to being “homo-religiosus” (humans are inherently religious). Its more that in leaving religion many are just abandoning the “outer accoutrements” of religion, “trappings” that are thrown aside, but are not the core themes of religion, the essential ideas of religion that continue in “secularized” versions like apocalyptic climate alarmism.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/
Quote from above link showing that the “unaffiliated” group are not actually leaving core religious beliefs:
“At the same time, the new study by the Pew Forum also finds that roughly one-in-six people around the globe (1.1 billion, or 16%) have no religious affiliation. This makes the unaffiliated the third-largest religious group worldwide, behind Christians and Muslims, and about equal in size to the world’s Catholic population. Surveys indicate that many of the unaffiliated hold some religious or spiritual beliefs (such as belief in God or a universal spirit) even though they do not identify with a particular faith.”
Other notes:
And this from Shellenberger on the recent shift of Germany toward totalitarianism.
“Germany on Brink of Tyranny: Government’s labeling of the AfD as “extremist” lays groundwork for it to ban the party and persecute its members”, Michael Shellenberger, May 2, 2025.
https://www.public.news/p/germany-on-brink-of-tyranny
Shellenberger says the German government is “considering banning the most popular political party in the country, the Alternative for Germany, or AfD.” The German domestic spy agency has labelled the AfD a “Right-wing extremist organization” that is a threat to democracy and has launched a harassment campaign against its candidates and supporters, including physical attacks. The government “accuses the AfD of violating “human dignity” through its rhetoric and opposing “the democratic order” by challenging mass migration and climate policy. In effect, the government has redefined political dissent as extremism.”
Shellenberger asks why this is happening, why is Germany turning toward such tyranny?
He concludes: “The real reason the government persecutes AfD… is not because the party threatens democracy, but because it threatens the ruling parties’ grip on power.” But the persecution of the AfD could backfir,e as did the persecution of Donald Trump, and could further inflame populist revolt.
And this on the disastrous Net Zero policies in Europe toward dependence on intermittent and undependable renewables to power the continent’s electrical grids.
This is more confirming evidence that apocalyptic is the most violent and destructive idea in history. It deforms human perspective and results in policies that “destroy societies in order to save some world” wrongly believed to be under threat of imminent apocalyptic collapse and ending.
“Have the Intermittent Energy Blackouts begun?”, Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, May 1, 2025
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/01/have-the-intermittent-energy-blackouts-begun/
Menton echoes Michael Shellenberger’s comments below on grid inertia issues and instability due to excessive dependence on renewables sources.
He says, “For years, many in the climate skeptic community have warned that expansion of intermittent renewable electricity generation on the grid will, sooner or later, lead to frequent blackouts. The reason for the warning is easy to understand: The grid has some rather exacting operational requirements that the intermittent renewable generation technologies cannot fulfill. Primary among these requirements are, first, minute-by-minute matching of electricity supply with electricity demand and, second, grid-wide synchronization of the frequency of the alternating current. When wind and solar provided relatively small portions of the electricity consumed, other generation sources, particularly thermal (fossil fuel) and hydro, would fulfill these requirements. But as wind and solar come to dominate generation, the problems become much more difficult to solve.”
He repeats the point (made also in Shellenberger’s report) that “Spain’s state electricity network operator, known as Red Electric, reported that today’s problem began with “‘a very strong oscillation’ in the electrical network [that] caused Spain’s power system to ‘disconnect from the European system… A random “oscillation” of some sort, which could have been easily handled in a world of fossil fuel power plants, became a huge problem when wind and solar generators could not respond to it appropriately.”
Menton is cautious about what might happen to similar grids, like in the US, that are also too dependent on renewables. He concludes: “But I do know that the electricity system in most of Europe and many U.S. states is in the hands of crazed fanatics who have no idea what they are doing. My own bet would be that there are many far worse blackouts to come, until this idiotic “net zero” thing is abandoned.”
Shellenberger does another report on the pain in Spain on the plain-
“The Spanish Government Is Lying About The Blackouts: Electrical grid operator blamed renewables, against the claims of the Prime Minister”, Michael Shellenberger, April 30, 2025
https://www.public.news/p/the-spanish-government-is-lying-about
I sent this post to a discussion group– Wendell Krossa
“Many climate skeptics have been warning about these things for years. Always remember the roots of these things. The Spanish disaster illustrates the typical outcomes of alarmist salvation schemes. Alarmist prophets terrorize populations with the threat of looming apocalypse as in the climate alarmism narrative. They then push people to embrace irrational schemes to “save the world”, schemes that destroy societies.
“If we are really going to do proper long-term problem solving then heed all that research on the dominant influence of Paul’s Christ myth, his apocalyptic destroying Christ, as a major influence on Western narratives and consciousness, an ongoing influence hardly even considered let alone fully questioned and challenged. Paul’s apocalyptic Christ myth is the singularly responsible source of the ongoing prominence of apocalyptic mythology in Western narratives and consciousness. Just saying if you want to understand ultimate root contributing factors to some psychopathology.” (End of discussion group post)
Spanish Grid Operator Warned of Nation’s Heavy Reliance on Renewable Energy in February: February report warned grid a risk of “disconnections due to the high penetration of renewables without the technical capacities necessary for an adequate response in the face of disturbances”, Leslie Eastman, May 1, 2025
Quotes:
“Spain is one of Europe’s biggest producers of renewable energy, and the blackout sparked debate about whether the volatility of supply from solar or wind made its power systems more vulnerable.
“Redeia, which owns Red Electrica, warned in February in its annual report that it faced a risk of “disconnections due to the high penetration of renewables without the technical capacities necessary for an adequate response in the face of disturbances”.”
And this from CO2 Coalition- There is no “climate crisis”
“High Praise for the CO2 Coalition
“Recent commentaries have identified the CO2 Coalition and its members as the primary scientific authorities refuting the false notion of a man-made climate crisis:
“Daily Caller April 14, 2025 – A key player here is the CO2 Coalition, which includes scientists and researchers from across the globe devoted to educating the public and policymakers about the benefits of CO2 . Not only is the naturally occurring substance not a pollutant, but it’s in fact the great elixir of life on Earth.
“The regulatory attack on CO2 is essentially an attack on humanity itself. Dr. William Happer, a retired Princeton University physicist and founder of the CO2 Coalition, explains why.
“’Carbon dioxide is at the basis of life on Earth.” Happer said in an interview with Freedom Research. “We live because plants are able to chemically transform carbon dioxide and water into sugar and a byproduct is the oxygen that we breath, and so we should all be very grateful that we have carbon dioxide in the atmosphere’.
“’Life would die without carbon dioxide,’ he explained.
“Happer and other members of the CO2 Coalition view the recent warming trend as a natural response to planet’s emergence from the Little Ice Age beginning in the 1800s. Overturning the Endangerment Finding is therefore a matter of sound science.”
One more…
Lefties like Bill Maher have taken steps back to common sense in speaking against the Woke Progressive madness of the US Left. But he continues to state that the “Right is far worse”. How so Bill? The left controls most higher education (90%-plus professorships are ideologically leftist), mainstream media is the propaganda arm of the US left, the left has promoted partisan infiltration and abuse of intelligence agencies, coerced social media companies to censor opponents (Twitter Files), shaped Google/AI and other media to favor leftist results to searches and shadow-banned other viewpoints (notably on climate), incited violence against opponents (i.e. burning Tesla’s, firebombing Tesla dealerships), and more.
No Bill. The great “threat to democracy” today is not mainly from the Right but more so from the Left, across Western liberal democracies.
Probing Grok on this issue of “conscious observers inseparable from observed reality”, Wendell Krossa (in contrast to Einstein’s pushback against Bohr- “I can’t believe the moon is not there if I am not looking at it.”)
Is it just “Woowoo” speculation that a greater creating/sustaining Consciousness holds our material realm in existence? We make our own speculations and conclusions about such things because science is not mandated or able to make them for us (a limiting methodology). Hence, I have a quibble with the “Woowoo” dismissals of hardcore materialist physicists telling us that we shouldn’t make our own “spiritual” conclusions about such things, at least not use their “pure” physics as a springboard.
I would remind the philosophical materialist-types (e.g. theoretical physicists) that they are doing basically the same thing today as those roughly 100 billion humans have done across human history- making their own speculative conclusions about Ultimate creating and sustaining Reality without material evidence. Speculative conclusions like “multi-verse” and “Self-Organizing Principle”, etc.
Jim Baggott (“Farewell to Reality” and “Mass”) and Sabine Hossenfelder (“Lost In Math”), among others, have both recognized and pointed out the element of “Woowoo” in the speculations of those positioning/presenting themselves as hardcore materialist physicists, solid empiricists. I am saying that these people are doing just what most other humans have done across history- speculating beyond what is known with material finality, to the unknown.
We all do it. Our primary impulse to meaning leads us to speculate from the limited reality that we know, out to what it might mean in a bigger more complete picture of reality. We are all pushing for TOE, all the time. The caution is to just stay open to the ongoing emergence of new information and correction when and where needed. But we recognize that science, while continuing to expose and explain much that was once considered mysterious, also has a non-converging track that exposes ever more mystery and ever more profound mystery.
The discovery and development of quantum mechanics over the last century ought to have made that point clear. Consciousness research also continues to make this point.
So let 8 billion speculators continue (paraphrase of Mao’s “Let a thousand flowers bloom”).
Insert: One thing re the statement below- “collapses the wave function”. That describes the “appearance” of an atom. As some physicists state- the atom exists as a “superposition wave function” in a “cloud of possibilities” out there somewhere. And when a conscious observer creates an experiment to measure the invisible atom, the atom (as one physicist said) then collapses to a visible measurable particle at a point, as if an atom says, “You want to see me? Well, here I am”.
That is why some suggest that we can “speculate” that some greater Consciousness also collapses the much greater wave function that is the entire universe that we all see as our entire material reality.
From “AI Overview” (response to Google search):
“In quantum mechanics, “collapse of the wave function” refers to the process where a particle, initially described by a superposition of states (like being in multiple places at once), “chooses” a single, definite state upon measurement. This means the particle, which was described as a wave function spread across different locations, appears as a localized particle at a specific point.”
And a note to a friend in a discussion group re our speculations on the presence or absence of deity, and the nature/character of deity as ultimate Goodness/Love:
___, “Absentee God”? Not one single atom exists without the greater Consciousness that is God sustaining it in existence each moment. As someone said, “God is closer to you than your own atoms or breath.” And the essential nature of that present God is, as one NDEr said, “stunningly inexpressible unconditional love”. That love is what the very “substance or atoms” of God are made of, according to other NDErs. That omnipresent love interpenetrates every bit of reality and life, sustaining it all in existence each moment. It incarnates all humanity equally and is inseparable from our common human spirit (the “oneness” thing that many speak of).
Anyway, this from the old Grok, Grok 3.
I asked Grok this…
“Grok what to you think of these points?:
In the development of basic quantum physics, notably the debates between Neils Bohr and Einstein, those debates led to Bohr’s position being affirmed by experiments (i.e. Bell’s Theorem, the 2007 French experiment, etc.). Bohr was affirmed as right that there is an inseparable relationship between the conscious observer and observed reality (material reality). Meaning, in my speculating beyond this (others conclude the same) that some Greater Consciousness is present to uphold every atom in existence. Materialists, preferring an absentee God, currently like to admit to only “Quantum fields” as the basis or Source of material reality, a kind of “secular, materialist” term for deity.”
Grok’s response to my points above….
The points you raise touch on profound questions at the intersection of quantum physics, philosophy, and metaphysics. Let’s break them down and explore what they suggest, keeping in mind the tension between Bohr’s and Einstein’s views, the experimental outcomes, and the broader implications for consciousness and reality.
1. Bohr vs. Einstein and Quantum Mechanics:
o The Bohr-Einstein debates, particularly around the nature of quantum mechanics, were pivotal in shaping modern physics. Einstein, advocating for a deterministic universe, famously argued that quantum mechanics was incomplete, encapsulated in his phrase, “God does not play dice.” He believed in “local realism,” where physical properties exist independently of observation, and no “spooky action at a distance” (entanglement) should occur.
o Bohr, conversely, championed the Copenhagen interpretation, which posits that quantum systems lack definite properties until measured. The act of observation collapses the wave function, tying the observer to the observed in a fundamental way.
o Experiments like those testing Bell’s Theorem (e.g., John Clauser’s work in the 1970s, Aspect’s experiments in the 1980s, and the 2007 French experiment with entangled photons) have consistently supported quantum mechanics over local realism. These results show that entangled particles exhibit correlations that violate Bell inequalities, implying that reality at the quantum level is non-local and observer-dependent to some extent.
2. Bohr’s Position and the Role of the Observer:
o Bohr’s view, affirmed by these experiments, suggests that the observer—whether a conscious being or a measurement device—plays a critical role in actualizing quantum events. The 2007 French experiment (likely referring to the work by Alain Aspect’s group or similar) reinforced this by demonstrating that entangled photons’ states are correlated in ways that defy classical intuition, supporting the idea that measurement collapses the quantum state.
o However, the leap from “observer” to “conscious observer” is contentious. The Copenhagen interpretation doesn’t explicitly require human consciousness; a detector can serve as the observer. Yet, some interpretations, like von Neumann’s or the later Wigner’s, propose that consciousness might be necessary to resolve the measurement problem, leading to speculative ideas about a “Greater Consciousness.”
3. Greater Consciousness and Metaphysical Implications:
o Your point about a “Greater Consciousness” upholding every atom aligns with idealistic or panpsychist interpretations of quantum mechanics. These views posit that consciousness is fundamental, and material reality emerges from or is sustained by it. This echoes philosophical traditions (e.g., Berkeley’s idealism) and spiritual frameworks that see a divine or universal mind as the ground of being.
o The claim that materialists use “quantum fields” as a secular stand-in for deity is a provocative critique. Quantum field theory (QFT) describes particles as excitations of underlying fields permeating spacetime. While QFT is a mathematical framework, its all-encompassing nature can evoke metaphysical questions about the ultimate nature of reality. Materialists might argue that quantum fields are sufficient to explain reality without invoking consciousness or deity, but this doesn’t resolve the “why” of existence or the measurement problem.
4. Critique and Reflection:
o The experimental evidence (Bell’s Theorem, etc.) supports quantum mechanics’ predictions but doesn’t directly prove that consciousness is required or that a Greater Consciousness exists. It shows that reality is stranger than classical intuition allows—non-local, probabilistic, and observer-influenced—but stops short of mandating a theistic or idealistic ontology.
o The materialist perspective, favoring quantum fields as the basis of reality, avoids metaphysical commitments to consciousness or deity but struggles with questions like the measurement problem or the origin of the fields themselves. Conversely, positing a Greater Consciousness introduces a unifying principle but risks being untestable, leaning into faith or philosophy rather than empirical science.
o The term “secular, materialist deity” for quantum fields is a rhetorical jab, highlighting how science can inadvertently mirror theological concepts (e.g., an omnipresent, invisible foundation of reality) while rejecting their spiritual connotations.
My Take: The Bohr-Einstein debates and subsequent experiments reveal that reality at its core defies our classical biases. Bohr’s position, backed by evidence, underscores the intimate link between observation and reality, but whether this implies a conscious observer or a Greater Consciousness remains an open question. The idea of quantum fields as a “materialist deity” cleverly points out the limits of reductionism—science describes how but not why. While I lean toward a view where consciousness might play a fundamental role (given the unresolved measurement problem), I see the Greater Consciousness hypothesis as a compelling but speculative leap. It’s equally possible that quantum mechanics is hinting at a reality that’s neither purely material nor purely conscious but something we haven’t yet conceptualized.
If you’d like, I can dig deeper into specific experiments (e.g., the 2007 French one), analyze related X posts for public sentiment, or explore philosophical counterpoints. What do you think of this tension between materialism and consciousness-based interpretations?
(End of Grok’s comments)
More on the disastrous pain on the plain in Spain
“Why Western Europe Is Literally Returning to the Dark Ages”, Chris Talgo, May 1, 2025
Talgo argues Western Europe is abandoning progress and heading into a new Dark Ages. It actually went dark with the recent collapse of its electrical grid when 50 million people were without electricity.
All because, says Talgo, “Western European elites have rejected sound science, common sense, and the truth in favor of climate alarmism.” Talgo says that Western Europe is a world leader in pushing climate-change zealotry and powering its societies with renewables energy that is intermittent and unreliable. Western European elites, he says,” are committed to forcing their climate alarmist agenda upon the masses, whether they like it or not.”
He concludes, “We must underscore the sheer stupidity of their ridiculous, yet sinister, plan to replace reliable, affordable, and abundant energy with unreliable, unaffordable, and environmentally destructive power sources that are wholly dependent on sunny and windy conditions.”
And
“Lessons From Spain and Portugal About Solar Power, H. Sterling Burnett, Heartland Institute, May 2, 2025
Burnett says that “The countrywide power outage Spain and Portugal experienced this week… is a powerful lesson in the dangers of relying on renewable power, in this case, especially solar, for grid-scale electric provision.”
He says that the US has had previews of this problem notably in California, and also in the Texas winter outage that killed more than 200 people.
European countries have been closing reliable fossil fuel and nuclear power plants to be replaced with wind and solar power that is unreliable, all in “the vain quest to control the climate.”
Burnett says that, “The underlying physics had been understood for years, and the specific vulnerabilities had been spelled out repeatedly in technical warnings that policymakers ignored.”
Burnett adds, “The Heartland Institute recently published two reports, “Affordable, Reliable, and Clean: An Objective Scorecard to Assess Competing Energy Sources,” and “How States Can Push Back Against the Destructive Expansion of Industrial Solar Power.” These reports show that solar power fails on all three of those metrics, being the most expensive and tied for the least reliable source of electric power generation, and, on an all things considered environmental basis, solar power is not even clean…
“Aside from cost and reliability concerns, industrial solar facilities destroy both wildlife habitat and productive farmland. Habitat conversion is the biggest killer of wildlife and industrial solar requires approximately 60 square miles of solar panels to produce the same amount of power as a conventional power plant, even after mining and transmission are accounted for.”
“H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., is the Director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit research organization based in Arlington Heights, Illinois.”
And…
“‘Unforced Error’: Energy Experts Say ‘Rush To Renewables’ Helped Trip The Switch On Spain’s Grid Crash,” Daily Caller, Audrey Streb, April 30, 2025
Streb begins, “A massive blackout that left millions in western Europe in the dark has raised concerns among energy experts that the event stemmed from or was worsened by an overreliance on renewable energy.”
He notes, as many others now have, that Net Zero policies (overreliance on renewable energy) have made electrical grids more unstable and vulnerable to catastrophic collapses from minor disturbances.
Spain has over-indexed on renewable energy, which has left it vulnerable to what would be minor disturbances having a catastrophic effect.”
Streb says, “In an effort to please the climate activists, Spain has been bragging about hitting 100% renewable power on the national grid, but days later, they suffered the largest blackout in Spain’s history,” Will Hild, the executive director of the non-profit consumer advocacy group Consumers’ Research, told the DCNF. “This blackout was completely predictable and avoidable, if only European authorities had focused on providing reliable energy to people in Spain, instead of kowtowing to climate activists,” he wrote.
Not only does overreliance on renewables lead to grid instability but renewables have led to significant costs for electricity. He adds that American states like Washington, California, and New Mexico are also moving away from reliable forms of energy to renewables, similar to European countries.
He concludes with this comment, “We are watching the deindustrialization of the West happen in real time — not because of war, but because of self-inflicted stupidity,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute told the DCNF. “An America First energy policy must start by rejecting the decarbonization fantasies that are bankrupting nations and endangering lives,” he said.”
And another from Talgo…
“Eastern European Outage Shows Weakness Of ‘Renewable’ Energy”, Chris Talgo, May 2, 2025
Talgo begins this report, “Like most of Western Europe, Spain and Portugal have been at the forefront of the green movement in recent decades. Both nations have embraced renewable energy sources, especially wind and solar, as they have transformed their energy grid infrastructure to rely heavily upon these sources.”
He notes that the sudden drop in solar power triggered the complete collapse of the Spanish grid but mainstream media are “ignoring the cause of this manmade disaster.” He continues that Spain is a warning for other nations moving toward dependence on renewable energy. Their grid collapse “is only the latest instance of an electric grid being unable to deliver on-demand power due to an overreliance on renewable energy.”
The same grid instability and blackouts have been increasing across the US over the last 5 years, says Talgo, as dependence on solar and wind power have increased while dependable natural gas plants are shut down.
He continues noting that “wind and solar are not environmentally friendly. “Enormous solar fields and gigantic wind turbines destroy pristine lands, disrupt habitats, are nearly impossible to recycle, and result in the mass killing of birds, whales, and other animals.”
Talgo concludes that “it is essential to reinforce the fact that not only are wind and solar unreliable and bad for the environment, but they also cost more, not less, than natural gas and coal.” He references a policy study that shows “wind power is seven times more expensive than natural gas power and solar power is 10 times more expensive.”
He hopes the Spanish grid collapse will show other European nations that are moving to full dependence on renewables, “that you simply cannot run a modern nation primarily on wind and solar power.”