The Unconditional Human Spirit

These two topics are in the next section just below this top section:

Kristian Niemietz- Emotional satisfaction, not rational thinking, and despite contrary evidence, dominates our choice in beliefs. The question of why people continue to hold to the fallacies of socialism and climate alarmism?

And…

A quibble with Joe Rogan’s doomster narrative on ocean fisheries, Wendell Krossa

I have a quibble with Joe Rogan’s doomster position over ocean fisheries- a persistent one that he brings up repeatedly about ocean fisheries dying over this century, becoming exhausted and ruined. Balance this quibble with my strong affirmation for his excellent podcast and endless series of fascinating discussions with diverse guests.

Joe’s alarmism illustrates the larger psycho-pathology of apocalyptic alarmism in our societies that dominates narratives religious, ideological, and even scientific.

‘Sitesplainin’ qualifiers: Wendell Krossa

Despite my, by all appearances, negative comments regarding religious traditions and the dark themes still dominating those traditions, I affirm very much the majority of people who are able to selectively comb through their tradition to find humane, positive, and comforting insights, to select out life-affirming ideals that are common to all humanity (i.e. found in human rights codes/declarations, constitutions, Bills of rights). My affirmation of such “pick and choose” approaches? Go for it. I am all for that.

I am trying to point out what weakens, distorts, and buries the better ideals and insights in religious traditions, and that we need to clean off the deforming “muck” (Leo Tolstoy’s term, similar to Thomas Jefferson’s) that dominates in the surrounding contexts of religious holy books and other supporting material- i.e. the teaching on themes like judgment, tribal exclusion/discrimination (true believers included, unbelievers excluded), deity dominating humans (humans created to serve the gods), the threats of punitive apocalypse and hell, etc., all the nasty stuff in religious traditions that messes up the good stuff.

Isn’t this a basic obligation for all of us- to discern and sort out the good from the bad, everywhere in life? Nothing out of bounds- i.e. protected “under the canopy of the sacred”?

This from the best: “The search for God cannot wait. And love one another”, the final words of George Harrison.

Another good one from Michael Shellenberger

We can only fight for and defend freedom when we understand what and where the real threat to freedom is coming from. This by Shellenberger is the best of independent journalism and speaking truth to power, exposing abuse of power. Read the rest of the opening comment here

A Jordan Peterson insight

Good point, affirmed by psychology, that if we confront what terrifies us, if we confront that voluntarily, engage it, just do it, then we become stronger. Part of that is realizing that the thing we fear has been exaggerated in our minds and is not the monster that we thought or imagined it was. This process of facing and conquering our fears is a gradual and ongoing process throughout life.

Kristian Niemietz- Emotional satisfaction, not rational thinking, and despite contrary evidence, dominates our choice in beliefs. The question of why people continue to hold to the fallacies of socialism and climate alarmism? Wendell Krossa

Why does fact/evidence change so few minds, as we observe in regard to the apocalyptic climate alarm? Because we live by emotional attachment to our beliefs, beliefs that just feel right. They seem true (a ring of truthiness) because they have been beaten into human consciousness across multiple millennia through endless iterations of the same old primitive mythical themes that have become deeply embedded in the human subconscious as archetypes.

The complex of themes that have shaped human narratives from the beginning and still dominate today:

“Original paradise. Corrupt humans ruined paradise. Life then began declining toward something worse, toward apocalyptic ending. Now humanity faces the demand for atonement, for sacrifice/payment/suffering as punishment and redemption. There is also the demand to engage a righteous battle against some evil that threatens life (the hero’s quest to conquer a monster or evil enemy), followed by the promise of restored paradise or new utopia.”

So, for example, many people hear a contemporary version of an apocalyptic narrative like climate alarmism, and it just feels right and true to them. It resonates. No need to rationally analyze it any further. Read the rest of the opening comment here

I will soon post a full summary of Kristian Niemietz’s great analysis of the 24 Socialist experiments over the past century, their inevitable failure, and the defensive excuse-making of socialists after every failure. This sample quote from Niemietz…

“Socialism in the sense which self-identified democratic socialists define it… a democratized economic planned collectively by ‘the people’, has never been achieved anywhere and could not be achieved. Economic planning can only ever be done in a technocratic, elitist fashion, and it requires an extreme concentration of power in the hands of the state. It cannot ‘empower’ ordinary workers. It can only ever empower bureaucratic elites.”

Note revisions below, such as this….

“Kristian Niemietz brilliantly explains the psychopathology of why people continue to embrace and affirm this failed ideology (“Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies”), how emotional satisfaction, not rational thinking, and despite contrary evidence, dominates our choice in beliefs. Think “confirmation bias”. He bases his arguments on the research of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. Add here the research on how deformed (i.e. narcissistic) versions of compassion for the oppressed can result in people supporting approaches that harm the very people they claim to have compassion for.”

If you want to “run as you read”, then skip this opening part just below and go to the main comment below on “The Jesus/Paul contradiction” (Historical Jesus versus Paul’s Christ myth) and how the Christ element in this contradiction has profoundly shaped everything in Western consciousness and society today. Notably, the feature of apocalyptic in Paul’s Christ myth has been most responsible for embedding and affirming the fallacy of apocalyptic in subsequent Western narratives and consciousness, in narratives religious, “secular/ideological”, and even “scientific”. Apocalyptic has been “the most violent and destructive idea in history” (Arthur Mendel in “Vision and Violence”) and central to inciting alarmism in populations that are then rendered susceptible (due to incited survival impulse) to irrational salvation schemes that destroy society to “save the world”. Note Net Zero decarbonization here.

The Jesus element in this contradiction is critical for overturning the fallacy of apocalyptic. His “stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory God (hence, non-apocalyptic)” guts entirely the old primitive deity of past mythical and religious narratives. His “greatest contribution to the history of human ideas” (James Robinson) transforms the cohering center of the “lost paradise, decline of life toward apocalypse, demand for atonement/salvation” complex of myths. Unfortunately, the stunning new theological insight of Historical Jesus has been buried for two millennia by the Christ myth of Paul (conclusion of Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy). Read the rest of the opening comment here

See recent report on climate by atmospheric physicists Richar Lindzen and William Happer below. “The common assumption that carbon dioxide is “the main driver of climate change” is scientifically false…. All Net Zero Actions Worldwide Should Be Stopped Immediately”.

Sitesplainin qualifier: This site repeatedly appeals to the US situation to illustrate common major issues that are afflicting most Western societies.

Projection, demonization of differing others, Wendell Krossa- Just some musing with other curious explorers of these things.

This is some street-level psychology from a fiercely independent commoner, or populist if you will, as in Winston Marshall’s comment that “populism is democracy”. Definitely not dogmatically right or left but more floating butterfly as per Louis Zurcher’s “Mutable Self” trying to exist in open process- open to ongoing learning, development, change, and progress toward a more humane future. Shaped by the basic principles of Classic Liberalism (Daniel Hannan’s “Inventing Freedom” or David Boaz’s “Libertarianism: A Primer”, etc.). Paraphrased as “Live and let live”.

And patience liberals/Democrats… After some early hard knocks for your side, the bothsideism element appears further below.

Intro note:

We dehumanize ourselves when we engage the projection of our faults onto others and then exaggeratingly demonize the differing others as “evil”. All sides of political and social divides exhibit such behavior. This social pathology has become so prominent over recent years- to view the differing other as an enemy and then to frame our disagreements in terms of us positioning ourselves on the purely righteous side and battling intolerable evil on the other side. Such framing deforms the hero’s quest. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Evaluating Donald Trump, Wendell Krossa

Whatever you think of Donald Trump as a person, and even his strongest supporters over the past have told him to tone down the nasty Tweets and vengeful comments about his opponents. But nonetheless (distinguishing person from policies), I don’t know if anyone else could have done what he did in his first term in courageously pushing back, for example, against the lunacy of climate alarmism and getting important things done like criminal justice reform, lowering business taxes across all sectors of business, deregulating at an unprecedented scale (Kevin O’Leary said the deregulation was more important than lowering taxes in stimulating businesses), and much more.

And contrary to Nancy Pelosi’s repeated assertion that Trump “just made the rich richer”, US government budget agencies noted that the highest percentage median income gains were made in the lowest quintile of the population, among other similar data.

Jordan Peterson has offered one of the best assessments of the man in recognizing his personal peculiarities, but then arguing that perhaps the very nature of the man is necessary in the current political atmosphere, both domestic and international.

Here is a reposting of some previous comment on this site:

“This is a very interesting analysis of Trump by Jordan Peterson, psychologist. Not entirely flattering but very interesting and balanced. I have felt the same. Trump can be upsetting at times (i.e. bullying) but “necessary” for the world that we live in today??

“Note Peterson’s comment on “no wars… the Abraham Accords…” that are still holding up. He asks- Why no praise for these amazing accomplishments of Trump? Most people allowed media to infuse them with such hysterical “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (Orange Monster, Hitler) they could not do any sort of rational analysis as Peterson does here.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo1GfKAKy6I

Add here that over past years, more and more Democrats exhibited increasing integrity in acknowledging the good things that Trump has done with his varied policies- i.e. Van Jones of CNN pushing back against a Jake Tapper rant and admitting that Trump’s policies benefitted minority communities- e.g. the opportunity zones, criminal justice reform, booming economy, low unemployment, etc. Democratic party business leaders also eventually admitted that his policies were helpful to the economy. And others have come (even though grudgingly) to acknowledge that his border policies were good, among other things.

Donald Trump once said something to the effect that he wanted to be considered a great president. I would suggest that key to gaining such status would be to abandon “his guiding ethic” of “eye for eye” retaliation (apparently his statement in one of his autobiographies which I have not read). I would encourage him to take the approach of Nelson Mandela to forgive “enemies” and work toward reconciliation with opponents, rejecting tribalism to include all equally in a better future as per Classic Liberal principles.

Topics in this section:

1. Eye for eye retaliation- Us at our most infantile and subhuman.
2. The central Jesus message- No more eye for eye, but instead, love your “enemy”.
3. True greatness- Win the inner battle against the real enemy inside each of us. Then do a Mandela- “Let us surprise them (our opponents) with our generosity”.
4. Links to varied comments on “bothsideism” and “onesideism” in creating the lethal atmosphere of tribal hatred that incites violence.

Read the rest of the opening comment here

See the comment below in this opening section on reviving Magna Carta principles to counter the excessive criminalizing and lawmaking trends of today (countering “moralizing busybodies”).

Note: To doubters of the fact that the most primitive of ancient mythical themes still dominate human narratives/worldviews today. I have posted below a brief list of these primitive themes for readers on the run who prefer quickie summaries. Others would say these themes are about “archetypes” of the subconscious. OK, but let me deal with this in a more street-level manner befitting my “independent commoner” status.

Paul embedded these pathological themes listed below in his Christ myth giving them respected status as ultimate religious or metaphysical/spiritual truth, thereby perpetuating the worst of mental pathology in human narratives and consciousness, especially for those of us in Western civilization.

Historical Jesus had previously severed the long historical tradition of mental/emotional enslavement to these personality-deforming themes by presenting a stunning new alternative- i.e. a non-retaliatory, unconditional God that should have become the cohering center of a new complex of supporting ideas, an entirely new narrative. His breakthrough insights could have sparked the greatest liberation movement in history if early Christians had understood him and embraced his core message. Then we would have gotten true “Jesus-ianity”, instead of the opposite- “Christ-ianity”.

It would have been profound liberation of mind and spirit from threat theology that deforms human personality with fear, anxiety, shame, guilt, despair, depression, nihilism, and violence.

Here again is a summary of the basic themes- the baddies, framed in terms of contemporary “secular/ideological” versions like environmental alarmism:

(1) There was a better past (i.e. the wilderness world before humanity and human civilization).
(2) Essentially “corrupt, greedy” people (“virus, cancer on the planet”) are consuming too much of Earth’s resources and are ruining the originally paradise world (this expresses an essential anti-humanism, hatred of humanity).
(3) Life is now declining toward a worsening state, even toward an apocalyptic ending.
(4) Humanity must make a sacrifice/payment and endure punishment for human sin- i.e. such as give up the good life in modern society and return to the “morally superior low consumption lifestyle”. Meaning- Embrace a retreat to primitivism framed as “de-growth, de-development”.
(5) Humanity must also purge life of some great “evil” threat (CO2 has been lasered in on as the chief marker of human sin today- i.e. human greed in using too much of Earth’s resources like energy. Try to comprehend the insane irrationality of demonizing the basic food of all carbon-based life as a “pollutant/poison”. Yes, Bill Maher, who did not attend Grade 1 science class, called CO2 a “poisonous gas”.).
(6) Only after embracing and fulfilling this salvation scheme can we then restore the lost paradise or achieve some new utopia (i.e. as in the Marxist restoration of original communalism with people re-engineered to become once again “Noble savage collectivist humans” liberated from the great evil of private property, “owning nothing and happy eating bugs”).

Added note on feature 3 above: “Life declining toward a worsening state” is the central feature of the primitive psychopathology of apocalyptic- “the most violent and destructive idea in history” (Arthur Mendel).

Historian Arthur Herman (“The Idea of Decline in Western History”) rightly states that the idea of “decline” is the most dominant and influential theme in today’s world. “Ten Global Trends” (Tupy and Bailey) affirms this dominance with world survey data.

Declinism dominates public consciousness worldwide despite the best evidence that reveals life is improving over the long-term and today we are living in “the best time ever to be alive on Earth” (Humanprogress.org, and of course- Julian Simon’s “Ultimate Resource”). Most notably, the life-distorting myth of declinism dominates the “profoundly religious” climate alarmism crusade.

Other historians have detailed the evidence that the primitive themes outlined above shaped and fueled Marxism, Nazism, and are now shaping environmental alarmism and driving its “salvation” scheme of Net Zero decarbonization. The salvation schemes (“save the world”) of apocalyptic movements have consistently “destroyed the world to save the world”.

Conclusion: We are not as advanced, or “secular/ideological”, as we like to imagine ourselves. Many of us would find ourselves clapping and cheering if we teleported back some 5000 years ago into a Sumerian temple where the priests droned on about Enlil, the waterworks god, who threatened to send a Great Flood to punish “too many people” (early “overpopulation bomb” nonsense) making “too much noise” (enjoying the good life too much). Too many of us still embrace those most primitive myths of an ancient past, even many with PhDs.

My list of Alternative themes to frame/shape/construct a more humane narrative:

http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=12043#more-12043

Topics below:

(1) Revive Magna Carta- The origins and main principles of Classic Liberalism that grant us the freedom and equality that we value today.

(2) The process of leaving my religion- example of death and rebirth in human story.

(3) The transformation of narratives, consciousness, and life at the “archetypal” level.

(4) James Tabor on the still dominant influence of Paul and his apocalyptic Christ myth on our lives and societies today. (Insert: And you wonder why apocalyptic continues to dominate Hollywood story-telling, media narratives of “climate apocalypse”, and resonating with the general population? Well, when Paul embedded that primitive mythical theme in his Christ myth, he gave apocalyptic supreme, unquestionable status “protected under the canopy of the sacred” in the most influential icon in Western consciousness and narratives, for two millennia. Not just influential in religious consciousness but also in “secular/ideological” consciousness, even in “scientific” consciousness.)

(5) The God obsessed with perfection- The baseline myth of “ruined original paradise” that sets the stage for all the rest of the complex of bad religious ideas- “lost paradise, corrupt humanity, life declining toward apocalypse, demanded salvation as sacrifice and purging, promise of restored paradise”.

(6) Goodies from Michael Shellenberger. And more…

Read the rest of the opening comment here

Why conservative politicians needed the spanking they got in Britain, Wendell Krossa

Rishi Sunak, lost the election in Britain. He illustrates a significant mistake made by many conservative politicians over past years, including the otherwise brave Danielle Smith, premier of Alberta. They engage some pushback against the madness of Net Zero Decarbonization, arguing the pace is too rushed and we will still need fossil fuels for some time yet. So slow down, eh.

But then they quickly turn on their heels, pivoting to affirm- But yes, there is a “climate crisis” and we must do something about “dangerous climate change”. Meaning, eventually cut off entirely the human use of fossil fuels.

What the fuck, eh? Do something? Have none of them ever looked at the most basic facts in climate science? Especially the “physics of CO2” and the fact that the CO2 warming effect is now “saturated” (a physics term). Listen to the most credible of atmospheric physicists- Richard Lindzen, William Happer, and others (posting their research at co2coalition.org). They are telling us that the CO2 effect is now saturated (i.e. the ability of more CO2 to operate in a narrow range on the long-wave infrared spectrum, absorbing and instantly re-emitting energy to make a very minor contribution to warming. This ability is now saturated).

So the climate physicists tell us that even a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere from today’s 420ish ppm to 800 ppm would not contribute much, if anything, to any further warming.

Conclusion? “Do something about fossil fuel emissions”? No, we don’t need to do anything except just adjust/adapt to whatever climate does and become fully woke to the fact that plentiful and cheap fossil fuels are critical to enable humanity to make such adaptations. So stop the irrational and insane war on carbon. C’mon, Danielle. Do some basic research on the fundamentals of climate science.

There is no good scientific reason to tax carbon or decarbonize our societies. Add here, to counter the insanity of alarmism over warming, that 10 times more people still die every year from cold than die from warming (Lancet study). Cold, not warming, is the great threat to life. Media- Where are you on these facts? And what about the hugely beneficial addition of 15% more green vegetation to the world since 1980, due to more aerial fertilization from the basic food of plant life- CO2? More food for animals, increased crop production for humanity. Again, media where are you on these critical facts?

The “madness” of climate alarmism. Yes, as related to Charles Mackay’s “Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”, as well as Douglas Murray’s more recent “The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity”. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Sitesplainin (more on going to root contributing factors in human narratives and the outcomes in human lives): Wendell Krossa

I have no “scientific” reputation to protect or maintain. That does not weaken my respect for good science. But I am an “independent and generalist”, taking helpful insights from anywhere and everywhere, using personal criteria to evaluate the usefulness (or “truthiness”) of any given insight or bit of information. Sources are always provided here for readers to evaluate.

This site unapologetically engages “spiritual” issues and deity theories. These have always been central to human curiosity and the primal human impulse to meaning- i.e. to understand and explain existence, reality, and the why and purpose of it all. As curious beings, we “have to” explore the nature of ultimate reality, ultimate ideals, and ultimate purpose. So, speculate away. Just recognize what you are doing- i.e. what is fairly settled evidence and what is speculation.

Moving back to the point here on engaging the metaphysical/spiritual…

Note for example (our irresistible urge to probe the metaphysical), in Manjit Kumar’s “Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, And The Great Debate About The Nature Of Reality”, how repeatedly Einstein offered religious explanations in his responses to Neils Bohr. “God doesn’t play dice… God doesn’t use telepathy (quantum entanglement)…”, etc.

Einstein held traditional theories of God as some great intervenor and controller of all things, hence his “doesn’t play dice” comment. That misunderstands the essential and inseparable relationship of love to freedom. The “indeterminacy” of quantum mechanics points to this element of freedom.

Einstein resisted what quantum mechanics was uncovering because he held very traditional, very primitive views of deity which did not fit with his dated views of what reality should be. He could not let go of his “Old Man” deity and that is part of why, later in his life, he was sidelined by the physics community.

Einstein stated that one fundamental thing drove his curiosity- i.e. to know what “the Old One thinks”. He said, “I want to know His thoughts; the rest are just details”. Interesting also that he wanted to spend the rest of his life probing light, much like NDEs are centrally about Light.

But a critical qualifier to this point on “spiritual” or deity ideas: I part ways with the long history of religious theories of God. This site embraces “stunningly inexpressible no conditions love” as the singularly defining feature of God. The single most profound insight that humanity has discovered. Read the rest of the opening comment here

More on the real battle of good versus evil: Wendell Krossa

Today US Woke Progressives are presenting the latest example of how repeatedly across history people have abused and deformed the Zoroastrian (Zarathustra) cosmic dualism of good battling evil. This is daily illustrated in their derangement over the Orange Monster. As Michael Shellenberger and Jordan Peterson comment below, this liberal Progressive derangement rests on a self-conception among Democrats who “view themselves as children of light battling children of darkness”. (Yes, this is a “bothsideism” issue as following comments will point out.)

When we frame fellow human beings (opponents, differing others) as our “evil enemy”, then we miss entirely what the Hero’s Quest should be about. Our hero’s journey should first and foremost focus us primarily on the evil within each of us. For communications sake I oversimplify and summarize our inner evil as the inherited animal impulses to (1) tribalism (us “righteous ones” versus differing “evil” others), (2) domination (enlightened elites dominating and controlling ignorant commoners), and (3) punitive destruction as the “righteous justice” response to the imperfections and failings of others. The “evil triad” that illustrates the worst of the worst.

Insert: Just for illustration, note this guest of Joe Rogan (“Rick Doblin’s DMT realization about Hitler”) discovering his own inner evil from a DMT experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd92fg1VWyU&t=532s

The struggle against these inner impulses is the real battle of life, the fight against the real enemy and monster in life. This battle takes place inside each of us. It’s intensely personal. Miss this and you have missed the fundamental point of human life and story.

We must first win this intensely personal inner battle and then we are better qualified to go out and fight public “righteous battles against evil” equipped with the mature human understanding and attitude that enables us to maintain our own humanity during the public struggles. Differing others are not our “enemies” but fellow members of the one human family.

Again, listen to these two sage commentators on this critical inner battle and how to understand and frame the public battles of life:

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on the real battle of good against evil that takes place inside us, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either- but right through every human heart- and through all human hearts.”

Joseph Campbell: “For love is exactly as strong as life. And when life produces what the intellect names evil, we may enter into righteous battle, contending ‘from loyalty of heart’: however, if the principle of love (Christ’s “Love your enemies”) is lost thereby, our humanity too will be lost. ‘Man’, in the words of the American novelist Hawthorne, ‘must not disclaim his brotherhood even with the guiltiest’” (Myths To Live By).

New stuff

Scattered qualifiers and points on another “good versus evil” dualism…

“Collectivism” is perhaps the best general descriptive for its varied iterations across history in Robert Owen’s communalism, Marxism/communism, socialism, and social democracy or democratic socialism, etc. They are all forms of collectivism with its primary mission to eliminate the “evil” of private property (Marx) and to subjugate individuals to centralized control by enlightened elites who believe that they know what is best for all others- i.e. how to manage and control populations of “ignorant, unenlightened” commoners. Leftist elites sincerely believe that they alone know how to socially engineer all to become collectivist spirits who own nothing and are happy eating bugs. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Main comment below: Watch how you interpret and use your narrative themes: Taking off from Michael Shellenberger’s point- “Beware fighting monsters- take care when battling monsters not to become one”, Wendell Krossa

The points of Nobel laureate John Clauser on climate are posted below in this opening section. “There is no climate crisis”. Thanks John.

Hope springs back with these courageous defenders of Classic Liberalism, liberal democracy.

“Argentina’s President Javier Milei Loves Being the Skunk at the Garden Party: A sit-down with the world’s first libertarian head of state”, Bari Weiss, June 6, 2024

https://www.thefp.com/p/bari-weiss-argentina-president-javier-milei

Contrary to endless media propaganda, global natural disasters are not increasing.

“Is the number of global natural disasters increasing?”, Gianluca Alimonti, Luigi Mariani, Aug. 2023

Quote from Abstract of their report:

“The above result sits in marked contradiction to earlier analyses by two UN bodies (FAO and UNDRR), which predicts an increasing number of natural disasters and impacts in concert with global warming. Our analyses strongly refute this assertion as well as extrapolations published by UNDRR based on this claim.”

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17477891.2023.2239807?mc_cid=b29f845c02&mc_eid=bbd9cad85f

See also from Global Warming Policy Foundation press release of June 6, 2024- “New study confirms GWPF reports on declining climate disasters”. These links were included in their press release:

https://ourworldindata.org/disaster-database-limitations

https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2021/04/Extreme-Weather-2020.pdf

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/10/13/un-claimstaggering-rise-in-climate-emergencies-since-2000/

https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/red-cross-claims-of-increasing-climate-disasters-is-grossly-misleading

https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/un-disasters-report-is-a-huge-blunder-and-embarrassment

Further update from Michael Shellenberger- the war on democracy

“Blind Fury Drives Anti-Democratic War on Trump: Beware fighting monsters”, Michael Shellenberger, June 2, 2024

https://public.substack.com/p/blind-fury-drives-anti-democratic

Quotes from Shellenberger:

“Ever since Donald Trump emerged as a presidential contender nine years ago, America’s most esteemed scholars and journalists have argued that he was violating democratic norms. Trump, they said, was ignoring the stabilizing, unwritten rules and values of American politics….

“But the Democrats’ relentless effort to imprison Trump has undermined the rule of law, faith in the criminal justice system, and democratic norms more than anything Trump has ever done….

“The case was so weak that both the Department of Justice and the former DA refused to prosecute it…. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Other comment just below the opening essay:

(1) Two of the best on climate science- atmospheric physicists Richard Lindzen and William Happer (co2coalition.org). Points made: The crusade against fossil fuels will cause massive human starvation. Atmospheric CO2 is now heavily saturated and more CO2 will have little warming effect. CO2 is essential to our food and to all life on Earth. Greenhouse gases prevent our freezing to death in a world where 10 times more people die of cold every year than die from warming.

(2) Anti-humanism in dominant narratives of today and the murderous call for another mass-death crusade- to cull the human population and thereby “save the world”. Examples: Paul Ehrlich’s “Let India go down the drain” (mass starvation). Or Paul Watson’s call to cull 85% of humanity. But not himself or his family.

(3) The dangerously totalitarian project to criminalize political opponents, critics, even comedians.

(4) Michael Shellenberger on the elite war on freedom, framed as a righteous battle to “protect democracy” by demonizing and blocking “populism”- the revolt of commoners against dominating elites. Populism being real democracy. (“Populism is democracy”- Winston Marshall in Oxford Union debate with Nancy Pelosi, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFmjgbdNNgw )

(5) “Misinformation, disinformation”- buzzwords of our era to distort facts, demonize opponents, and mask censorship projects.

(6) Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn- discussions of the big issues facing liberal democracies.

Some more at the bottom of this opening section... (“Please, s’more Sir”)

(7) 2022 Nobel laureate John Clauser- “There is no climate crisis”.

(8) Jordan Peterson’s interview of Patrick Moore, one of the best on paleoclimate and “celebrating CO2”. Moore states that there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that CO2 is having any effect on the temperature. Theoretically it might have a little bit, he adds, but it doesn’t show in the record that it has any significant effect.

These bluntly clear statements deserve wide circulation to combat the fallacies that (1) human emissions of CO2 are the “main contributor” to rising CO2 levels, that (2) rising CO2 is the main cause of climate change, and that (3) climate change is becoming an “existential crisis”. All outrightly false, or at least unproven/uncertain with strong evidence to the contrary. I would include, for added punch to counter the climate alarmism narrative that has profoundly distorted the true state of life, that a return to the 3-6 degrees C warmer temperature of the Eocene “mammalian paradise” of 55-33 million years ago would be a more optimal, natural, and net beneficial climate. It was up to 10 degrees C warmer during the Eocene and the oceans did not “boil” and the Earth did not “ignite on fire”. In fact, tropical temperatures varied only a few degrees (Javier Vinos on the “Winter Gatekeeper hypothesis”) and that “equable tropical climate” points to strong negative feedbacks that kept tropical temperatures within a range beneficial to life.

(9) Paul’s Christ myth has been mainly responsible for re-enforcing the primitive and destructive myth of apocalypse in Western narratives and consciousness. Historical Jesus presented the “stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory God, his greatest contribution to the history of human ideas”. Pardon my simple logic- If God is non-retaliatory, then God is non-apocalyptic. God will not enact the ultimate act of retaliation against human sin in a world-destroying apocalypse.

I am just affirming the central insight of Historical Jesus that is entirely contrary to Paul’s apocalyptic Christ myth.

(10) A report of research on scientific censorship: “Scientific censorship appears to be increasing. Potential explanations include expanding definitions of harm, increasing concerns about equity and inclusion in higher education…”.

(11) Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn: “The other thing that’s interesting here is that what you’re really seeing is a new Inquisition. Whatever they want to call it, what this really is, is a search for heretics and heresy… they are, I hate to say it, complete dangerous zealots, religious zealots made worse by the fact that they don’t think their religion is a religion. They file it under science….

“Walter Kirn: I guess my point is that under the cover of suppressing disinformation, they actually have created the biggest disinformation spreading machine of all time.”

(12) Jimmy Dore interviews the “Plandemic” documentarian and author- Mikki Willis.

And more…

“Death and rebirth, disintegration of the old and re-integration around the new”, Wendell Krossa

Note: I am not replicating exactly here what anthropologists and others have presented in terms of the shamanic experience as a schizophrenic-like breakdown, retreat inward, enduring terrifying experiences, then reintegrating around something new as in a rebirth. Or what others refer to as a “separation-initiation-return” process. This process has been framed by mythologists in terms of the “shamanic experience” as prototypical of human stories or quests.

Some sample commentary on this:

https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/22433.pdf

https://verchot.com/the-shaman-and-the-epic-heros-journey-separation-initiation-return/

Rather, I am referencing the general element of transformation in our stories when we part ways with something wrong, harmful, a drag on our progress and then embrace something new, more helpful, and that inspires us to be the better persons that we all want to become.

What Joseph Campbell and others refer to as the “Shamanic experience” is useful to consider as essential to human experience, learning, development, growth and the ultimate achievement of mature humanity. The “death to all that is in the past and a rebirth to a new life” is an essential element of the hero’s quest to conquer a monster/enemy, learn the key lessons of life, to then tower in stature as maturely human, and to bring a boon/blessing to one’s community or to life in general.

Below is my outline of a disintegration/reintegration process that I would urge everyone to consider as vital to all our life stories or quests. This process is critical, uncomfortable as it may be, to the healthy development of human personality and a human life story. My focus in this is on the element of the fundamental themes, ideas, myths that have shaped human belief systems and worldviews across all history and across all cultures of the world. I draw attention to the powerful role in human life of the old narrative themes that have become archetypal in human subconscious. Read the rest of the opening comment here

More is coming– I have slowed a bit in posting material here due to daily radiotherapy for aggressive metastatic prostate cancer. Appointments are in another city, usually in the middle of the day, so travel takes up lot of time.

I’ve been surprised at the normal tone of the waiting room conversations with patients expressing good humor, even joking, as we wait our turns to go in for radiation. One elderly man entered the waiting room the other day with a broad smile, stating, “Well, our fun place, eh”.

We hope our bladders are full enough and that we have no gas, both micro-offenses that get you sent out to either walk off the gas or drink more water and thereby rachet up the pee pot into the “dancing on the spot” pain of a full bladder. Walking off gas demands holding the full bladder till some rumble emits from the nether regions.

Another fellow traveller on this quest said with a smile the other day, “Look, if I gotta fart I’m just letting it go right here (in the waiting room)”. We smiled back with understanding affirmation- gotcha.

After an initial CAT scan to see how inner organs are lining up, the scan machine pulls back, and you lay still, waiting tensely for a minute or so as technicians in their outer room examine the results to see if they can go ahead with the radiation machine or need to come back in with the bad news that its walking time. They reassure us that we will thank them for being strict about full bladders and no gas. If not, the side effects are nasty diarrhea, painful peeing, rectal bleeding, and so on. A full bladder, for example, pushes the little intestines up and out of the way of inflaming radiation so as to avoid creating the diarrhea problem.

The radiation destroys healthy organ cells along with cancer cells. The healthy organ cells will recover but the cancer cells will not.

I joke with one fellow patient about his good fashion sense and taste in pants as we all wear the same brown pajama-like bottoms for our treatments. There is no other alternative. His wife hoots at the back and forth between us over our “haute couture”.

Also, some sad stories that express and highlight the mess that the Canadian health care system is, though the people working in the system are beyond wonderful for all they do, the help they provide given what they have to work with.

Trudeau, you gave tens of billions in subsidies to foreign companies for battery plants to chase your Net Zero fantasy that even the eco-zealots of Europe are abandoning because it doesn’t work (i.e. physics limits on renewable input due to natural factors, massive state subsidies to produce renewables, and consequent higher energy costs, destabilized grids, declining economies, etc.). That subsidies funding, adds unnecessarily to taxpayer’s already too heavy tax burdens, and it could have gone to medical equipment located nearer sick folk like the man who has to travel from Kamloops, a 3-hours journey, to get radiation treatment in Kelowna as he suffers bone cancer that is creeping painfully up his spine. Have some mercy, Justin. Get your priorities right.

Re your eco-zealotry- Listen to the best of atmospheric physicists like Richard Lindzen and William Happer (co2coalition.org) who are telling us that the warming influence of CO2 is now “saturated” (a physics term re its limited operating range on the infrared spectrum) and any further warming, as with the recent past mild warming, will be caused mainly by natural factors. Further, there is no threat of a “climate emergency”. Point? There is no need to tax carbon or decarbonize our societies, a ruinous “salvation” scheme that is destroying our societies. Stop it already, eh.

Even the Greens of Germany have recognized that their decarbonization policies are ruining German industry and have backed off somewhat. Wendell Krossa Read the rest of the opening comment here