The Pull Of The Land

Snippets III

September 30, 2021September 30, 2021 Richard Barnes

Virus:

First of all, I want to address my lack of posts the past 3 weeks.

Shortly after my last post, my wife and I came down with the virus.

Four of our children are in Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. In late August, two of them caught the virus. Given their ages, they were considered low risk and after a few bad days they recovered and are now back at work and in class. My daughter, who had it pretty bad, is now playing soccer along with her twin sister who did not catch it even though they were all in the same room and, later, in the same apartment with utmost proximity. My other son did not catch it either.

Shortly thereafter, I flew to Texas and met my wife there, where it became our turn to deal with it. In my and my wife’s cases we both felt pretty bad including nausea and fever. Our son, daughter, and granddaughter were in the same house with us but they had natural immunity, having recovered from the virus previously. Actually, my daughter has not officially confirmed that she has had it, but believes she did, given the symptoms she suffered over a year ago.

Our eldest son, his wife, and our other daughter in Texas caught it separately and have recovered.

My wife and I were blessed to be in touch with doctors who are willing to treat this virus, which treatment we underwent. In addition, another son made an appointment for us to get a monoclonal infusion (antibodies). For what it’s worth, there were four of us in the room for infusion. The two others had been vaccinated, yet also caught the virus and their doctors had recommended the infusion. Given their ages, I was glad they had doctors who were willing to treat their patients.

Lillie and I are recovering well. We have been working in the farm and although we are more easily fatigued than before, each day our strength, endurance, and focus improve. At this rate, we should be back at 100% in the next week or two.

We thank all those who have prayed for our recovery.

Conclusions (strictly layman observations!):

If young (under 45), you will most likely be fine, unless you have comorbidities. This observation is repeated in many publications and even the CDC morbidity data reflects it (although I trust the CDC about as far as I can throw it). However, there is over the counter treatment for you as well, which will help you in your recovery.

If older (over 45), you are blessed if you are in touch with doctors who will treat you. Many doctors have rejected the CDC and other bureaucrats’ directives and have treated their patients with effective protocols. Several have testified their consternation as to why the medical profession in general blindly follows the CDC or Mayo or Hopkins, who have not issued their own protocols for treatment. Instead, they will instruct sick folks to rest and hydrate and if breathing becomes belabored, to go to a hospital (where the majority of the virus-related deaths have occurred). No treatment.

I have since learned that I am not the only one who thinks this is crazy.

The CDC’s own data tell us that survival rates for 0-19 age group is 99.9973%. For ages 60-69 it is 99.41%. The fact that our media refuses to report this doesn’t make it any less true.

This virus is a challenge but treatment is available and we urge you not to ignore that, should you get sick. Especially if older you are.

We wish the very best of health to you and yours.

Yuri Bezmenov

It is time to repost a 6-minute excerpt of an interview with Yuri Bezmenov (1939 – 1993), a KGB defector who after years of work with the Communist regime in the Soviet Union during which he grew to love the liberty of the West, defected in 1970, disguising himself as a hippie. His comments address the strategy of our enemies to demoralize us by creating chaos in our thinking and questioning our moral foundations.

The interview took place in 1984 and speaks to us today.

For those who are interested, I have also posted, further below, the full interview, which is well worth the time.

Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963)

The next and final link is an interview of Aldous Huxley by Mike Wallace in 1958. Although I do not at all agree with Mr. Huxley’s fear of “overpopulation”, this disagreement does not blind me to his other observations, which are very prescient, as any reader of Brave New World will attest.

Major takeaway: Bureaucracy, state and/or corporate, will propagandize people to voluntarily give up their liberties.

Huxley believed that the “brave new world” that he wrote about can and will “come to these shores.” Even in 1958, considering the technological advances of that era, he is asked by a seemingly incredulous Wallace, “Why is it that you think that the wrong people” will use these instruments for evil ends? Although an atheist, Huxley’s reply comes close to the Calvinist understanding.

There is much more in the interview and it is healthy to challenge yourself to listen to a man and go through the exercise of refuting his errors while agreeing with some of his insights. Somewhat like the Apostle Paul when he quoted a pagan poet in Acts 17.

It is also bracing to hear Mike Wallace speak of the Soviet Union in 1958 as a “successful society” despite its lack of freedom. There was plenty of alternative reporting back then which, had Wallace been a bit more curious, would have disabused him of the deception of Soviet “success”.

In his letter to George Orwell in 1949 congratulating him for his book, 1984, Huxley wrote:

“Within the next generation I believe that the world’s leaders will discover that … conditioning [is] more efficient … than prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience.”

Otto Scott and Charles Williams on Eternal Reality

September 7, 2021September 7, 2021 Richard Barnes

“I do not regard the past as dead. On the contrary, I regard the past and the present and even the future as part of an eternal reality. Ours are the same tests and crises that our fathers and forefathers encountered: all I do is remind my contemporaries that Eternity watches us forever.” — Otto Scott

The context of Mr. Scott’s quote was obviously history, and he was a wonderfully lucid writer on the subject. I highly recommend his books on King James I (The King as Fool), Robespierre, and John Brown (The Secret Six). For a sample of his writing, see here.

A novel that deals with the topic of an eternal present with great originality is Descent Into Hell by Charles Williams, one of the “Inklings” (J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and others, including Williams). This is not an easy book to read; it will require effort on the part of the reader but it is most rewarding. In it, one is drawn into a world where to be truly joyful you must learn to carry one another’s burdens. In the case of the protagonist, Pauline, she is very much afraid — terrified — of her other self, her doppelgänger whom she sees sometimes when she goes out. The fear is so great that she dreads to leave the house. Williams handles this very effectively; the reader practically shares in the fear.

A famous playwright, Paul Stanhope, over several pages, finally, gently convinces her to let him “carry your fear for you.” And the effect is electric. Along the way the reader is introduced to other characters, all very believable and, in some cases frightening. One character is a 17th century martyr who is Pauline’s ancestor, who sang in praise to God as the flames enveloped him. Pauline sees him one night, as he struggles in fear. She asks him to let her carry his fear, which he does, thereby enabling him to face his martyrdom with joy.

Williams believed strongly that all people are connected. And he did not limit that relationship to just the present. He believed that love by which the world would know the disciples of Christ was one that lived throughout the ages and that, somehow, your love today has impact to someone who lived before you and will have impact on another who lives after you.

When one pauses to consider that God describes Himself as the “I Am”; He Who lives in an eternal present, one can see that Williams was on to something. We cannot think of life other than chronologically because we live in time and space. However, God, as the Creator of time and space, is certainly not limited by any chronology; in other words, He is outside our world, transcendent while also immanent.

I have not given Williams much more thought than what I’ve noted above, but he came to mind as I was reminded recently of some events from my childhood in El Pao. Some of the people, who were my parents’ friends, were very kind to me and also instructive in their rebukes. They are gone now, and I won’t see them until the Resurrection. Yet, how very real they are to me still! I also thought of two other individuals whom I never met, as they had passed away before my birth. However, I very much sense and am grateful for their influence on my life. This does not begin to touch the full scope of what Williams was getting at, but it does hint at how we affect one another, past, present, and future.

Otto Scott wrote about an “eternal reality” in the context of the writing of history. I suspect he would have appreciated Charles Williams, assuming he had not read him.

Charles Williams - one of the Inklings and profoundly ... — Charles Williams (1886 – 1945)

Otto Scott (Author of The Great Christian Revolution) — Otto Scott (1918 – 2006)

Humboldt on Cannibalism II

September 4, 2021September 4, 2021 Richard Barnes

To get the context of this post, the reader might want to see Humboldt on Cannibalism. Today’s post, in effect, concludes that one.

In his writings on the Americas, Alexander von Humboldt, whom I admire and respect for his great learning and energy (not to overlook the wonderful clarity of his writings), like all secular humanists before him and since, cannot resist the temptation to posit moral equivalencies between the “savage practices” he witnessed and the “like practices” of advanced civilizations in history. He does a sleight of hand here in that by “civilized” he usually means — and his readers usually assume — Christian lands, but his examples are not always of such lands.

As one reads him, one readily sees that all those moral equivalence assertions have the purpose of minimizing if not denigrating Christianity; in effect, arguing that the historic faith has no great positive impact on civilization, and indeed might be a negative force.

He tries but fails. I say this as an admirer of Humboldt.

In the prior post on Cannibalism, we saw that Humboldt goes on at some length to compare the practices of some of the Indian tribes in Venezuela to those of Egypt in the 13th century. But, of course, the former was a daily routine, whereas the latter was a rare occurrence. He also goes on to deny that cannibalism ever existed in Africa. He does this by questioning the observations of “some travelers” while citing a single source which denies the allegations. However, research then and since documents the history of the practice there (see for example, A History of Cannibalism: From ancient cultures to survival stories and modern psychopaths, N. Constantin; Cannibalism: The last taboo, B. Marinner; Ibn Battuta in Black Africa, and more).

Nevertheless, Humboldt did document evidence of cannibalism among those who accompanied him:

“We inquired of this young man, so calm and so affectionate in the little services which he rendered us, whether he still felt sometimes a desire to eat of a Cheruvichahena. He answered, without discomposure, that, living in the mission, he would only eat what he saw was eaten by the Padres. Reproaches addressed to the natives on the abominable practice which we here discuss, produce no effect; it is as if a Brahmin, traveling in Europe, were to reproach us with the habit of feeding on the flesh of animals.

But then the great explorer goes on to affirm moral equivalency, citing Abd al-latif al-Baghdadi’s account of cannibalism in Egypt in the 13th century:

“And why should we be so much astonished at this inconstancy in the tribes of the Orinoco, when we are reminded, by terrible and well-ascertained examples, of what has passed among civilized nations in times of great scarcity? In Egypt, in the thirteenth century, the habit [sic!] of eating human flesh pervaded all classes of society; extraordinary snares were spread for physicians in particular. They were called to attend persons who pretended to be sick, but who were only hungry; and it was not in order to be consulted, but devoured.

“‘It then no longer caused any surprise; the horror it had at first inspired vanished; and it was mentioned as an indifferent and ordinary thing. This mania of devouring one another became so common among the poor, that the greater part perished in this manner.

“‘These wretches employed all sorts of artifices, to seize men by surprise, or decoy them into their houses under false pretenses. This happened to three physicians among those who visited me; and a bookseller who sold me books, an old and very corpulent man, fell into their snares, and escaped with great difficulty. All the facts which we relate as eye-witnesses fell under our observation accidentally, for we generally avoided witnessing spectacles which inspired us with so much horror.’ (Account of Egypt by Abd-allatif, physician of Bagdad, translated into French by De Sacy pages 360 to 374.)”

However, the events which Abd al-latif al-Baghdadi (1162-1231) describes so vividly occurred during a terrible famine in Egypt; it was not a usual occurrence, but did have far-reaching and widespread impact across that land. His writings on Egypt did not at all imply this was a common (“habit”) practice there; he focused on that famine and its horrible deleterious effects on the entire country.

More notably, Humboldt cannot cite a single source documenting widespread cannibalism in Christian lands. On the contrary, he approvingly, and fairly, cites the efforts of missionaries to banish the practice. He even cites the horrified reactions of Christians when confronted with the practice. Indeed, it was that horror which eventually led Hernán Cortés to destroy the ancient city of Mexico as it was a center for human sacrifice and cannibalism which the Aztecs continued to revert to until the city was destroyed.

That leads us to the “why” human sacrifice and its usual attendant, cannibalism, have by and large disappeared as open practices around the world. A hint can be easily discerned in the Christian revulsion to such practices. And that revulsion can be traced to the Ultimate Sacrifice: that of the Son of God nailed to the cross for the sins of His people. No other human could satisfy such a claim. That explains why human sacrifice was considered such an abomination in the Old Testament Scriptures, which point to that Ultimate Sacrifice. No human can satisfy for his own sins, let alone the sins of others. Only the God-Man, Jesus Christ has that power and that authority.

That might explain Humboldt’s dissimulations, diversions, and distractions. As he himself notes, “civilized” people have not delivered us from cannibalism, but rather Jesus the Christ.

Image of Abd al-latif al-Baghdadi (1162-1231), who deserves to be as well known as Ibn Battuta (1304-1369). Battuta, who has hotels and malls named after him, travelled extensively for 30 years, always documenting his accounts, which are a rich historical source for his time period. Abd al-latif al-Baghdadi travelled 40 years, documenting voluminously. In addition, he was a physician, philosopher, scientist, Egyptologist, and more. Humboldt quoted his account of instances of cannibalism in Egypt, but was not candid as to the context *vis-à-vis* cannibalism along the Orinoco.

Alexander von Humboldt on the Orinoco River

“The more you contemplate the antiquities of Egypt, the more your wonder increases….”–Abd al-latif al-Baghdadi

Have We Been Had? Part 3

August 28, 2021August 28, 2021 Richard Barnes

Time to revisit Sweden.

One country refused to bow down to the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organization, and the Lockdown Professors (which are legion).

That country is Sweden. For a refresher, see here. And for my reply to some pushback I got for my comments on Sweden last year, see here.

I purposefully waited over a year before revisiting Sweden, in order to allow for more data to be captured as well as for tempers to subside, thereby hopefully permitting a more irenic look.

Briefly, the world’s “public health experts” estimated that, without coverings and curfews, Sweden would suffer 80,000 to 90,000 deaths by May, 2020. That is, before the summer of 2020, Sweden was to have experienced massive numbers of deaths, not to mention a crippled hospital network.

Sweden was not cowed. She continued her policy of informing the public and, once she learned about disproportionate deaths of the elderly and those with comorbidity conditions, she focused on them. For the most part, she advised; she did not mandate. Her hospitals, not to mention morgues, operated with significant excess capacity.

Then the goal posts were moved: the experts sneered that Sweden’s death rate was higher than that of her immediate neighbors.

But, of course, curfews were not imposed upon the world because of “death rates” but rather because of absolute numbers. Numbers which never came close to materializing. Regardless, her death rate was lower than those of countries (and some U.S. states) who did exactly what the “public health experts” told them to do. And, what’s more, around June of 2020, her neighbors, Finland and Norway, actually reverted to very laissez faire approaches as well. In other words, their approaches emulated Sweden’s. And their approaches resulted in lower death rates. So, the experts’ and media’s comparisons to her neighbors left out the fact that her neighbors’ also had a “light touch” response to the plague. I know, I know: we are all shocked (!) that the reporting was misleading.

Then the goal posts were moved yet again: Sweden’s “cases” were far higher than fill-in-the-blank. By now, even those who rely exclusively on the usual media, know that “cases” mean very little; that the world was not convinced to shut down because of “cases” and their ever-shifting definition, but because of projected deaths. And, besides, even here, Sweden’s record is better than many.

After that, reporting on Sweden sort of receded. If you relied only on the usual media to keep informed, you would think the unified intelligent world was in agreement and that only quacks and idiots differed. You would not know that an entire developed European country was among the refuseniks.

And what about those 80,000 to 90,000 deaths by May, 2020 that were predicted for Sweden? Actual plague-related deaths to date, that is, over 15 months after May, 2020 are: 14,682. We have no information as to what comorbidity conditions accompanied those, but we do know that about 10,000 of them were people who were over 80 years old (4,000 were over 90).

And Sweden avoided the excess mortality and mental health issues which have plagued Europe and many U.S. states. “We can’t stay locked down for such a considerable period of time that you might do irreparable damage and have unintended consequences, including consequences for health.” That was said on CNBC at the end of May, 2020. I’ll let the reader guess which U.S. “health expert” said it. The only hint I will offer is that, unsurprisingly, he did not advise presidents and governors accordingly. That is, he advised the opposite.

Government Central Planning will have even less success in controlling a virus than it has had controlling the economies of the former Soviet Union, Cuba, and Venezuela.

A virus will virus. Central Planning will only exacerbate its effects.

But, as we have seen, and will continue to see, the temptation for man to play God and to control the lives of others is overwhelming. It was so in Eden (“ye shall be as gods”) and it will be so until the end of time.

Congratulations to Sweden for staying the course while resisting almost unbearable pressure from all corners of the world, even from those who ought to have known better.

One last comment: we often refer to Sweden as “Socialist”, yet the Index of Economic Freedom ranks it as the 21st freest in the world (the United States is ranked as the 20th). For a few years I had the privilege of working for a global company with a significant base of operations in Stockholm. Sweden is not perfect; no such thing in this world. However, it is less socialistic than some U.S. states.

And far less than Venezuela.

To take just one comparison: Sweden vs. New York mortality. Both ended up at about the same. However, the *trajectory* of each presents a grotesque contrast. New York’s mandates have been and are draconian. So are her results.

Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s top epidemiologist who withstood unrelenting, withering criticism while staying the course

https://www.turnto23.com/news/coronavirus/accelerated-urgent-care-doctors-recommend-lifting-shelter-in-place-order

This briefing to local California media took place over a year ago, in April, 2020. After 5 Million views, it was taken down, a practice that has since become all-too-common. However, the news station still has it up. Both videos are available as of this writing and well worth your time. The first is roughly 51 minutes, the second, 2 minutes.

Preachy Pop Songs

August 23, 2021August 23, 2021 Richard Barnes

Scott Johnson’s column noted that Jackie DeShannon celebrated her 80th birthday last week, August 21. That in turn spurred me to invite you to briefly visit with me the summers of 1965 and 1969.

The background noise was, of course, the war in Vietnam. This post is not about that, other than to mention it as a backdrop, given that DeShannon’s renditions seemed to be reactions (or purported remedies?) to the controversies swirling at the time regarding that Hot Spot in the Cold War.

The Beatles were still very big in 1965 and their concert in New York’s Shea Stadium was their biggest, in fact the largest attended outdoor event up to that time. Press officer, Tony Barrow said it was “the ultimate pinnacle of Beatlemania … the group’s brightly-shining summer solstice.” During their brief stay in New York they also performed at the world’s fair.

As with all home office employees, my father’s employment contract included annual leave with paid travel to point of origin, which in his case was Massachusetts. That year he took us to the world’s fair and gave me memories which are cherished to this day.

Although Beatlemania was at its peak, a Burt Bacharach – Hal David song managed to break through the British Invasion that summer. I was just an 11-year old, and, when it came to pop music, I did not differ much from my generation in being mesmerized by the “Beatles Sound”. However, DeShannon’s rendition of “What The World Needs Now” caught on, making it into the top 10 that year. In Miami and Miami Beach the song could be heard everywhere, including the more “adult” radio stations some folks played while at the beach.

It is a memorable song which she handles seriously. Dionne Warwick, who was THE Bacharach – David interpreter, had turned it down, considering it “too preachy”. DeShannon agreed to record it and I am glad she did. Her earnest, captivating interpretation is linked below, should you like to hear it.

In a year that saw the Watts Riots, the song seems counterintuitive, but does manage to express a felt longing and seeking.

Other events from that year that I remember from childhood were Hurricane Betsy, which I excitedly anticipated and witnessed as it hit us in Miami, and the phenomenal Comet Ikeya-Seki which I wrote about here. This was the brightest comet of the past thousand years, and I’ll be forever grateful to my mother and father for waking us up hours before dawn and driving us to the labor camp to behold a sight of a lifetime.

And I also remember the excitement of the St. Louis Arch having been completed. I would visit it with my father and brother about 15 years later.

In 1969, as the pop world continued to move away from the existential exuberance of the early Fab Four and into a more cynical, psychedelic phase which 1967’s Sgt. Peppers album is usually thought to have unleashed, DeShannon again broke through with another “preachy song” which she wrote herself. Obviously taking her cues from her 1965 hit, DeShannon recorded, “Put a Little Love In Your Heart”. And, again, she spoke to teens as well as young adults, the song charting high in both markets. See link further below if you wish to hear it.

Both the 747 and the Concorde celebrated their maiden flights that year; I remember wanting the opportunity to fly in each. My wish for flying the 747 was fulfilled; not the Concorde. Man landed on the moon and I still hear Neil Armstrong’s “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind,” as we sat around my father’s short wave radio, listening to Voice of America in El Pao.

But those exciting technological and American can-do achievements were accompanied, if not overshadowed, by many other events reflecting trouble beneath the surface. Massive, angry “anti-war” demonstrations and marches were launched; Senator Edward Kennedy drove into a pond in Chappaquiddick Island and reported the incident over 10 hours later, prompting rescuers to the scene only to retrieve the corpse of a young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne. This event was taking place while most of us were avidly following the course of the Apollo 11 lunar flight.

And then there was Woodstock, which is still reported as a pristine shout for love, freedom, peace, and harmony. It was none of those, although I do not doubt the sincerity of the hundreds of thousands who attended. One after-the-fact look at the farm where the event took place ought to be enough to cast doubt on the promotion of Woodstock as some sort of Elysian Fields, dreamscape sojourn. It was pretty filthy. But, one could argue (and many have argued) that hundreds of thousands more showed up than were expected and hence the defilement and devastation. Even if we stipulate that, we can still ask, if this was such a massive promotion of peace and love and harmony, has that been its progeny? A quick look at crime statistics, suicides, divorce, and utter breakdowns in society since Woodstock should be enough to cast doubt. Maybe it was no more than what many of the participants described: drugs, sex, and rock and roll. Jesus said, by their fruits ye shall know them, and that includes events such as Woodstock.

And in the midst of this psychedelic haze, Jackie DeShannon had her 1969 “preachy song” hit.

Her 1965 song did not improve things and neither did her 1969 version. Both merely gave a voice, albeit weak, to the longing for meaning and love in lives. These are very real needs we all have, but few attain. In this, Thoreau was right: most men live lives of quiet desperation. And they seek for those eternal verities in the wrong places. Such can only be found in the Creator of life and of all there is. Man cannot create or be the source of absolutes. Only God can and is.