“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.” The topsy turvy world of reversals and inversions.
Mar 2, 2023·edited Mar 2, 2023Liked by The Sideways Thinker
Thank you for this passionate rant, it is appreciated. I would like to share some not-so-short remarks...
"Notice that I do not use the cloying word ‘planet.’ Those who revere the planet turn the world into a deity situated in some fantasy ‘outer space,’ which is claimed only to be there by chance."
As you may know, I have chosen 'planet' to contrast to 'worlds' at Stranger Worlds and How To Live In Them. I did this intentionally to avoid making the contrast case centre upon 'the universe'. For 'the universe' is as irrelevant to us now as it ever was, while this 'planet' is a name for the space we share... but I think those that you intend to spear with your remark are those who would treat 'the universe' as objective fact, and 'subjective experience' as mutable. I resist this, with ever fibre of my being. The priority here - universe above souls - is almost entirely the reverse of what it ought to be, for any reasonable meaning of 'ought', although there are equally abominous ways of inverting it.
(As an aside, Toby Green's work over the last three years has been an inspiration. I (privately) dedicated my essay "Decolonising Public Health" to him, which he was grateful for, having felt that his work was being largely ignored at the time.)
"Along with some other religious leaders, the current Pope now tolerates all manner of things associated with breaking the rules of Catholicism."
I am not Catholic and have no skin in this game, but I share your disappointment with Pope Francis, who I presume was persuaded in private to support these injections. The association of Christianity with mass injection programmes is problematic, and it is far from just the Catholic church who has been embroiled in this travesty, alas...
At Christmas 2021, I was separated from my family by visa bureaucracy, but went to stay with my sister on the Isle of Wight. I went with her to her Christmas service. I was horrified to see how many people were wearing masks... I still cannot understand how any Christian can think this was the right thing to do, except through a kind of idolatry. And there is an idolatry here... Christians dare not appear anti-science. But as a result, they end up appearing anti-Christian, at least to me, and I hope to anyone who has read Ivan Illich. If we are to be denounced as 'conspiracy theorists' - the new heretics - let us con-spire, let us share breath.
"Universities have been joining in with this game for decades. It is no longer the job of a university to seek truth, but to produce it to order. Their funding depends upon it."
Well said.
"The solicitous Guardian newspaper stands out as the most hypocritical of all... It was shameful."
Aye, once again, well said. It willingly became an abomination, and responsible for initiating and encouraging tremendous harm during the years of the Nonsense.
"If you happen to be puzzled about that, consider the following redefinitions made over the past three years. Herd immunity. Vaccine. Pandemic. And then consider the flipping of the phrase safe and effective."
You might however also remember the gerrymandering of 'anti-vaxxer', which changed from meaning a principled resistance to vaccination programmes to a blanket condemnation of anyone who might ask questions about them. Overnight, I was redefined into an anti-vaxxer. I have found it hard to forgive this, but of course, there is much that it is much worse and far harder to forgive - the treatment of our African brothers and sisters during the Nonsense most especially burns within my quiet rage, along with the horror at those who were forced to die alone.
"The looking glass world is also revealed in the act of prioritizing computer modelling over real-world experience."
Coincidentally the theme of today's Stranger Worlds.
"First do no harm is naturally reversed through the looking glass."
I have an essay on this, but it won't be coming up until early May. I write too much... I have to let it out slowly or it is even harder to find readers than it already is.
Thank you greatly for your stimulating thoughts, and your passion. I must come at this differently, in so much as I practice what being a Christian means to me (and I am in most people's eyes 'a bad Christian' as much as a I am a 'bad Hindu' etc.). In so much as I am Christian, I remain focussed on a future reconciliation I doubt I will live to see. But I am grateful to have others such as yourself who can offer catharsis for all this anger I am frequently struggling with.
Many thanks for such a detailed response to my article. Interesting that you described it as a 'rant.' I certainly do feel angry at the manipulation and lies, and if a degree of passion comes through, it's no bad thing. I had just finished the Fazi and Green book when I wrote this, and the intensity of their critique has rubbed off to some extent. It was they who singled out Francis as an example amongst other reversals they noted, and these, coupled with my own observations about how everything has seemingly flipped was what inspired the piece. I realise more over time that many of the things we are all observing are not that new, that they have been creeping up on us for some time, waiting for the moment when (in Georgio Agamben's phrasing) the state of exception can be declared.
I agree with your mention of anti-vaxxer as an expression that has been re-defined. In a sense, it would have formed a distraction to the flow of thought to have tackled it in my essay, but you are right in that the sense of it has 'been' changed. I would have to add that it has been considered a slur for some time, encompassing the peculiar notion that to be anti-vax is to be anti-science (and therefore illogical and stupid) which is so far from the truth it is untenable. I too have had to accept that I am in that tribe, or rather have been placed into that tribe. I have not been faced with the prospect of vaccination for many years, although I had already begun to have serious doubts about the claims made for them. I now have lost all trust over the issue and would feel a sense of quiet acceptance at the phrase 'anti-vaxxer' if it were explicitly used in my direction. There is an abundance of irrefutable evidence in the anti-vax direction. I shrug my shoulders and invite people to look.
I'm glad you approved of my comments about the universities and the Guardian. (I was about to write 'the universities their hideous Grauniad' which I know would make sense to those who are watching closely...)
Your observations about Christian worship are truly sad. I don't think this was/is completely universal, but the cynical ploy was to deploy religious imagery and to reiterate how doing this blasphemy was 'for others.' It was for others, but not the others people assumed them to be.
Thanks again, and look forward to your next piece.
Thanks for these additional notes - much appreciated. And I meant 'rant' as a compliment. I have great respect for ranting, much more than I have for peer reviewed papers these days. If ever there was a time that we needed more rants and less peer review, it is now!
My niece and nephew, grand daughters and others of the last few years' graduates are compliant and stoked with ideology. There is no room for discussion or cheerful debate. You are correct about the press and universities.
They have sold their souls (read integrity) to the devils who are now in charge.
I'd suggest starting with 'Tools for Conviviality' for an easy entry point. However, if you're interest is in his work on contemporary medicine and the radical changes in how we think about health and death, you could go straight to 'Medical Nemesis'. That's a tougher read, but it's an important one, and may be closest to your interests.
Let me know how you get on with Illich! His work has been life-changing for me.
The vatican-produced new coin is possibly another indication of where it's allegiance lies, as the image appears to look like a vaccination injection.
I think the Vatican is evil. The more I read about it, the more I'm disturbed. And the Pope's role in creating the new religion of Chrislam adds strength to suspicions of warped values.
Gosh, what a good article! Old Humpty Dumpty knew a thing or two - I always found him far more worrying that any of the other crazy characters. The question now is - how do we climb back out of the mirror? I don't know that we can. I think we probably have to wait for the madness to burn itself out. Which is likely to be a very bad process which will make National Socialism look like a tea party. This madness has engulfed the world, in one form or another, so the whole world will have to suffer to be cleansed of it all. Bad times ahead
Many thanks for your comments. It really was interesting to go back to a story I hadn't read for such a long time, and see a whole new inflection upon the words written for a character one recalls from childhood. Melanie Phillips used the 'all must have prizes' phrase in her 1995 book on education, and others have noted Humpty Dumpty's 'words mean what I choose' to reflect the strangeness of these times. There can be no recipe or formula to follow I'm afraid. It is about raising consciousness wherever possible, having difficult conversations and being brave. The other point I would add is to avoid all of the stranger conspiracy theories and keep to the most credible of sources if we are to reach those who will not see what is all around them. If the theories turn out to be true (and many have come true, granted) then they become a source of evidence, not theory. Thanks again!
Frighteningly obvious, once you have been made aware! Our MSM "journalists" will never be brought to book. Yesterday I read that the "peer reviewed papers" that were disgorged to support the Covidian Cult are disappearing from the internet. The perpetrators are covering their fetid tracks.
As in post WWII Europe life will continue and workmates who, like those who played a proud role supporting the Nazi cause, will be the grey stalwarts in your local association, church, political party, medical governing body, university or the nice people next door.
Thank you for this passionate rant, it is appreciated. I would like to share some not-so-short remarks...
"Notice that I do not use the cloying word ‘planet.’ Those who revere the planet turn the world into a deity situated in some fantasy ‘outer space,’ which is claimed only to be there by chance."
As you may know, I have chosen 'planet' to contrast to 'worlds' at Stranger Worlds and How To Live In Them. I did this intentionally to avoid making the contrast case centre upon 'the universe'. For 'the universe' is as irrelevant to us now as it ever was, while this 'planet' is a name for the space we share... but I think those that you intend to spear with your remark are those who would treat 'the universe' as objective fact, and 'subjective experience' as mutable. I resist this, with ever fibre of my being. The priority here - universe above souls - is almost entirely the reverse of what it ought to be, for any reasonable meaning of 'ought', although there are equally abominous ways of inverting it.
(As an aside, Toby Green's work over the last three years has been an inspiration. I (privately) dedicated my essay "Decolonising Public Health" to him, which he was grateful for, having felt that his work was being largely ignored at the time.)
"Along with some other religious leaders, the current Pope now tolerates all manner of things associated with breaking the rules of Catholicism."
I am not Catholic and have no skin in this game, but I share your disappointment with Pope Francis, who I presume was persuaded in private to support these injections. The association of Christianity with mass injection programmes is problematic, and it is far from just the Catholic church who has been embroiled in this travesty, alas...
At Christmas 2021, I was separated from my family by visa bureaucracy, but went to stay with my sister on the Isle of Wight. I went with her to her Christmas service. I was horrified to see how many people were wearing masks... I still cannot understand how any Christian can think this was the right thing to do, except through a kind of idolatry. And there is an idolatry here... Christians dare not appear anti-science. But as a result, they end up appearing anti-Christian, at least to me, and I hope to anyone who has read Ivan Illich. If we are to be denounced as 'conspiracy theorists' - the new heretics - let us con-spire, let us share breath.
"Universities have been joining in with this game for decades. It is no longer the job of a university to seek truth, but to produce it to order. Their funding depends upon it."
Well said.
"The solicitous Guardian newspaper stands out as the most hypocritical of all... It was shameful."
Aye, once again, well said. It willingly became an abomination, and responsible for initiating and encouraging tremendous harm during the years of the Nonsense.
"If you happen to be puzzled about that, consider the following redefinitions made over the past three years. Herd immunity. Vaccine. Pandemic. And then consider the flipping of the phrase safe and effective."
You might however also remember the gerrymandering of 'anti-vaxxer', which changed from meaning a principled resistance to vaccination programmes to a blanket condemnation of anyone who might ask questions about them. Overnight, I was redefined into an anti-vaxxer. I have found it hard to forgive this, but of course, there is much that it is much worse and far harder to forgive - the treatment of our African brothers and sisters during the Nonsense most especially burns within my quiet rage, along with the horror at those who were forced to die alone.
"The looking glass world is also revealed in the act of prioritizing computer modelling over real-world experience."
Coincidentally the theme of today's Stranger Worlds.
"First do no harm is naturally reversed through the looking glass."
I have an essay on this, but it won't be coming up until early May. I write too much... I have to let it out slowly or it is even harder to find readers than it already is.
Thank you greatly for your stimulating thoughts, and your passion. I must come at this differently, in so much as I practice what being a Christian means to me (and I am in most people's eyes 'a bad Christian' as much as a I am a 'bad Hindu' etc.). In so much as I am Christian, I remain focussed on a future reconciliation I doubt I will live to see. But I am grateful to have others such as yourself who can offer catharsis for all this anger I am frequently struggling with.
Thank you,
Chris.
Many thanks for such a detailed response to my article. Interesting that you described it as a 'rant.' I certainly do feel angry at the manipulation and lies, and if a degree of passion comes through, it's no bad thing. I had just finished the Fazi and Green book when I wrote this, and the intensity of their critique has rubbed off to some extent. It was they who singled out Francis as an example amongst other reversals they noted, and these, coupled with my own observations about how everything has seemingly flipped was what inspired the piece. I realise more over time that many of the things we are all observing are not that new, that they have been creeping up on us for some time, waiting for the moment when (in Georgio Agamben's phrasing) the state of exception can be declared.
I agree with your mention of anti-vaxxer as an expression that has been re-defined. In a sense, it would have formed a distraction to the flow of thought to have tackled it in my essay, but you are right in that the sense of it has 'been' changed. I would have to add that it has been considered a slur for some time, encompassing the peculiar notion that to be anti-vax is to be anti-science (and therefore illogical and stupid) which is so far from the truth it is untenable. I too have had to accept that I am in that tribe, or rather have been placed into that tribe. I have not been faced with the prospect of vaccination for many years, although I had already begun to have serious doubts about the claims made for them. I now have lost all trust over the issue and would feel a sense of quiet acceptance at the phrase 'anti-vaxxer' if it were explicitly used in my direction. There is an abundance of irrefutable evidence in the anti-vax direction. I shrug my shoulders and invite people to look.
I'm glad you approved of my comments about the universities and the Guardian. (I was about to write 'the universities their hideous Grauniad' which I know would make sense to those who are watching closely...)
Your observations about Christian worship are truly sad. I don't think this was/is completely universal, but the cynical ploy was to deploy religious imagery and to reiterate how doing this blasphemy was 'for others.' It was for others, but not the others people assumed them to be.
Thanks again, and look forward to your next piece.
Thanks for these additional notes - much appreciated. And I meant 'rant' as a compliment. I have great respect for ranting, much more than I have for peer reviewed papers these days. If ever there was a time that we needed more rants and less peer review, it is now!
Stay wonderful!
My niece and nephew, grand daughters and others of the last few years' graduates are compliant and stoked with ideology. There is no room for discussion or cheerful debate. You are correct about the press and universities.
They have sold their souls (read integrity) to the devils who are now in charge.
Chris : where (with which text) might you recommend beginning to read Ivan Illich's work?
Thanks for asking Havakuk!
I'd suggest starting with 'Tools for Conviviality' for an easy entry point. However, if you're interest is in his work on contemporary medicine and the radical changes in how we think about health and death, you could go straight to 'Medical Nemesis'. That's a tougher read, but it's an important one, and may be closest to your interests.
Let me know how you get on with Illich! His work has been life-changing for me.
With unlimited love,
Chris.
Another superb piece.
The vatican-produced new coin is possibly another indication of where it's allegiance lies, as the image appears to look like a vaccination injection.
I think the Vatican is evil. The more I read about it, the more I'm disturbed. And the Pope's role in creating the new religion of Chrislam adds strength to suspicions of warped values.
Our society is in grave danger.
Gosh, what a good article! Old Humpty Dumpty knew a thing or two - I always found him far more worrying that any of the other crazy characters. The question now is - how do we climb back out of the mirror? I don't know that we can. I think we probably have to wait for the madness to burn itself out. Which is likely to be a very bad process which will make National Socialism look like a tea party. This madness has engulfed the world, in one form or another, so the whole world will have to suffer to be cleansed of it all. Bad times ahead
Many thanks for your comments. It really was interesting to go back to a story I hadn't read for such a long time, and see a whole new inflection upon the words written for a character one recalls from childhood. Melanie Phillips used the 'all must have prizes' phrase in her 1995 book on education, and others have noted Humpty Dumpty's 'words mean what I choose' to reflect the strangeness of these times. There can be no recipe or formula to follow I'm afraid. It is about raising consciousness wherever possible, having difficult conversations and being brave. The other point I would add is to avoid all of the stranger conspiracy theories and keep to the most credible of sources if we are to reach those who will not see what is all around them. If the theories turn out to be true (and many have come true, granted) then they become a source of evidence, not theory. Thanks again!
A good point! So good online groups that have sprung up have had their core message to be obscured by often outrageous conspiracy theories.
I doesn't help.
As a point of reference I am the family neighbourhood conspiracist.
I speed read this first time around.
Now , some months later I re-read this essay.
Frighteningly obvious, once you have been made aware! Our MSM "journalists" will never be brought to book. Yesterday I read that the "peer reviewed papers" that were disgorged to support the Covidian Cult are disappearing from the internet. The perpetrators are covering their fetid tracks.
As in post WWII Europe life will continue and workmates who, like those who played a proud role supporting the Nazi cause, will be the grey stalwarts in your local association, church, political party, medical governing body, university or the nice people next door.
How can it be any other way?