Musical Newness

A big dollop of newness on the musical front, as relatively new band Toxic Blandness have a new song out called Pedos With Dementia (Make the Best Presidents). It seemingly takes sonic inspiration from the early years of nu-metal, whilst a further air of wistful nostalgia is subtly imparted through the drums being recorded with an intentionally big 80s sound. 

The song has captured the zeitgeist to such a degree that already a new group has been formed from the ashes of several other industry outfits, calling themselves, in obvious homage, Pedos With Dementia. And their own first song has just been recorded, titled I Love Your Young Son, but I’d Love Him Even More if He Was Your Daughter (You Know What to Do). “It is quite a long title, yes, “ said a band member, “but we like to feel like we’re breaking new ground.”

Desires Thwarted

“You say we’re material creatures, materialism is the beginning and end of things?”

“Essentially, yes.”

“If we desire something and don’t get it, what ensues?”

“Descending on the intensity of the desire, pain, from mild to utterly awful, especially perhaps if the something is someone.”

“Why?”

“Because of our intimate connection with the material plane.”

“But why say the brutal pain, even in some cases, to the point of absolutely unbearable?”

“Like I said - material desires by a material being,”

“So what was the material change here with the failure to attain one’s desires? There was no material change! The person is in the exact same material situation they were with the lack of material attainment. If materialism is the be-all, you’d think material conditions remaining the exact same wouldn’t be enough to send someone into such a pit of even suicidal despair. No, there’s life in the self way beyond materialism.”

Extremist

“So you have to fill me in a bit here, you know I’ve been in that monastery for 25 years.”

“And no information about the outside world, no news, no nothing?”

“No. So anyway it’s this extremist guy Trump is the mad threat to the world that we need to do everything to smash down?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“And he’s pushing mad stuff like pregnant men, brainwashing children into getting castrated and all this kind of madness. He sounds like a right sicko. What the hell has happened since I’ve been away?!”

“No, no, you’ve picked it up a bit wrong there. Trump is the main focal point of opposition to the pregnant men and castrating your children and all that stuff.”

“You’ve lost me. I thought you said he was the crazy extremist. I’m all mixed up. You’ll have to go over everything again, but go real slow this time.”

Liberalism = “The Empty, Bourgeois Soul” Expanded

 A little portrayal of exactly the point in the Summing Up post, where is written:

“How would you describe liberal wokeism?”

“I think in essence it can be summed up as a bourgeois cult. In human terms, that’s as deep as it goes. The smug, empty, bourgeois soul is attempting to elevate itself to godhood.”

“But you’re not saying what you mean by bourgeois here necessarily equates to middle-class?”

“Not at all.”

There are two Project Veritas videos out now of US educators boasting of propagandising children whilst in their care, “teaching them how to think in a progressive way.” Progressive way of course includes wonderful concepts like pregnant men and “birthing persons” rather than mothers. And then if successful, the children can become just like these educators! These aren’t impoverished revolutionaries dying at the barricades. These are comfortably off bourgeoisie - the difference between simply middle-class and bourgeois is this smug self-esteem, and with emptiness of soul underneath its seemingly elegant covering. The assistant principal who almost certainly obediently favours concepts handed down like Defund the Police, in a follow-up video quickly calls the police to deal with the very inconvenient journalist James O Keefe and the full airing of thoughts and agendas he’d much rather keep hidden, regarding children in his care.

Cool Drink of Water Blues

 Tommy Johnson from around 1928. Deep, dark, primitive, mysterious.

I asked for water, and she gave me gasoline
I asked for water, gave me gasoline
I asked for water and she gave me gasoline
Lord, Lordy, Lord

Crying, Lord, I wonder will I ever get back home
Crying, Lord, I wonder will I ever get back home
Lord, Lordy, Lord

I went to the depot, looked up on the board
I looked all over
"How long has this east bound train been gone?”
“It’s done taken your Faror, blowed its smoke on you”

Lord, Lordy, Lord

Lord, I asked the conductor, "Could I ride these blinds?"
(Want to know, can a broke man ride the blinds?)
"Son, buy your ticket, buy your ticket
'Cause this train ain't none of mine"

"Son, buy your ticket
Train ain't none of mine"
"Son, buy your ticket
'Cause this train ain't none of mine"
Lord, Lordy, Lord

“Train ain’t none of mine”

Summed Up

“How would you describe liberal wokeism?”

“I think in essence it can be summed up as a bourgeois cult. In human terms, that’s as deep as it goes. The smug, empty, bourgeois soul is attempting to elevate itself to godhood.”

“But you’re not saying what you mean by bourgeois here necessarily equates to middle-class?”

“Not at all.”

Anger, Despair, Spiritual Warfare

For someone who is easily prone to anger, it is supposedly the messed up circumstances of the outside world they encounter which is provoking their outbursts, this is a natural matter of cause and effect, but of course they are simply primed to see and then respond to these triggers. The flawed external world serves to both apparently justify the unhappy inner state, and also to find release from it with these outbursts. If the habitually angry person didn’t have the release of their outbursts, that person could hardly live with themselves - thus that brilliant expression and image of “letting off steam”, where otherwise the machine could explode with the unreleased build up of pressure!

Similarly the grave danger with something like despair, which again apparently falls within the fieled of cause and effect. The despair justifies itself as the natural outcome of external circumstances - one’s own or the world in general - and the very intensity of the inner despair also serves to prove itself or justify itself as truth. “Such-and-such is so bad, therefore this despair is the legitimate result.” It even can masquerade as virtuous, and prey on one’s sensitivity to bring one down.

And this despair is a much more serious threat because it is denied what could be called the cathartic release of the angry state, and this self-containment can lead on eventually to even suicide - which energetically is the soul and culmination of despair. This is the awful catharsis the inner logic of despair allows itself.

With all this is seen how to be alive is to be engaged in spiritual warfare, of forces which manifest in our thoughts and emotions, which if pushed far enough to their core, end in victory or defeat of ourselves.  St Isaiah the Solitary says in The Philokalia, “Be attentive to yourself, so that nothing destructive can separate you from the love of God. Guard your heart. The first virtue is detachment. At the time of prayer, we should expel from our heart the provocation of each evil thought.” 

Without that detachment and silence, the provocation runs riot as with the two energies talked of above. This dynamic of provocation, far from crude or primitive, is such a key to our inner dynamics.

Nonsense

If I don’t write this down, I’ll forget it.

Noble Most

“And what would you like to be when you grow up?”

“A victim,”

“Yes, that is the most noble of ideals.”

Sophisticated

“It’s so exciting to be part of about this process - these progressive ideas are just so sophisticated!”

“I think you’re confusing sophistication with derangement. It’s a very easy mistake to make once you’re already in the grip of that derangement.”

It’s All About the Health

 

As the man says, trust the science. He’s not letting the side down, doing his bit to keep everyone both reassured and safe.

Temptations

“What do you do if your enemy wants to come in?”

“Don’t let him in.”

“But if he says he only wants to come in for a minute?”

“Don’t let him in, and don’t listen to him. What he wants is to come in. What he said before he got in becomes irrelevant once he gets in. He now moves effortlessly on from the point of now being in. It’s a hell of a lot harder to kick him out once he’s in than keeping him out in the first place. And remember, he’s an enemy. That fact doesn’t change based on where he is!”

Ilias the Presbyter

Just a few short lines by Ilias the Presbyter, dating probably from around the early 12th century or slightly earlier, taken from The Philokalia, Volume 3.

Demons wage war against the soul primarily through thoughts.

In their artlessness, most men do not know the price the senses demand for what they supply.

If you are concerned for your soul’s health, do not despair of your sickness as though it were incurable, but apply it to the potent medicine of ascetic effort and you will get rid of it.

Where the soul is concerned, practice is self-control accompanied by simplicity, and simplicity animated by self-control.

Healthiest

“What’s the healthiest drink in the world?”

“Coke Zero?”

“Yes. That’s why only people obsessed with their health drink it.”

Overcome

“How can I overcome myself?”

“How can you overcome yourself? You can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because that would imply and necessitate you being two different people: you and yourself, separate from each other, one trying to overcome the other.”

Pulcherrima Rosa, Tarkovsky, Stalker

 This piece of music is apparently a 14th century motet in Latin by an unknown composer, and was the basis of the main theme used by Eduard Artemiev for Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker.  The above painting is The Annunciation by Fra Angelico, which has a similar austere beauty as does the music.

According to Artemiev, with the desired piece Tarkovsky was looking for some sense of both West and East, but somehow as distinct rather than fused into one spirit; and after agreeing to the Italian motet as the foundation, it apparently took a lot of coaxing by Tarkovsky to attain to the mysterious, haunting final realisation, as an earlier version by Artemiev is, let’s say a lot more linear and far less interesting. Tarkovsky was looking for something a lot deeper and more elusive than simply a Western piece played by Eastern instruments, which is kind of what Artemiev first came up with! The masterpiece Artemiev did finally achieve, titled Meditation, is used repeatedly through Stalker:

Bourgeois Decadence

“Isn’t it funny how initially one of the biggest targets of leftist, progressivism was bourgeois decadence, and now with the wokeism as this progressivism is now called, it’s all turned out to be nothing but neurotic, bourgeois decadence.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well they’re filled up with all this bored neurotic energy that in their self-obsessiveness they can’t release - there’s nothing higher than their own bored, civilised selves - and so out from out of their frustrated, pampered boredom comes simply more and more twisted forms of debased bourgeois decadence.”

“I noticed that all right.”

Tinariwen

 “Arhegh Danagh” by the brilliant group Tinariwen from the Sahara Desert region of north Mali.

Man in Water

 

From Nostalgia by Andrei Tarkovsky.

Flourished

“A plant was placed in good soil and it flourished. Another of the same type was placed in poor soil and . . .”

“It withered?”

“No, it flourished also.”

Not At All Credible

 

Compare and Contrast

Insofar as their relation to humanity goes, how do the divine and demonic compare? In one particular area the contrast is immense. God is a respecter of our free will to an almost maddening degree where we wish he would noticeably intervene in the particulars of life far more to effect positive outcomes and stave off evil. The demonic on the other hand, rather than respecting free will, is coercive to the nth degree. Lockdowns, forced vaccinations, policing of thought via “hate speech”, etc are this energy in action.

So God doesn’t force himself on us, the demonic does.

He who is

He who is repentant cannot be haughty, just as one who sins deliberately cannot be humble-minded.

He who is ignorant of the enemy’s ambush is easily slain; and he who does not know the causes of the passions is soon brought low.

Never belittle the significance of your thoughts.

St Mark the Ascetic, from The Philokalia, Volume 1. 

Progress

You know the Nazis?”

“Weren’t they those nutcases pushing crazy ideologies with mad stuff like pregnant men?”

“No, they didn’t quite get to reach that level of madness.”

“Oh yeah sorry, I forgot. That’s us.”

“That’s right. Which isn’t to say there’s a value judgement involved here - that it shows we’re better or worse than them or anything. If the Nazis been given enough time to develop further then there’s every chance they could also have ended pushing the desirability of the idea of pregnant men, but of course they were cut off mid-stream, so to speak, and so didn’t get the chance to progress that far. 

But we have progressed that far: switching from mother to “birthing person” for example, like the Democrats in the US are doing. It’s just that we have the advantage on them in terms of how time and far we could progress ideologically. But again there’s no value judgement implied in terms of us supposedly being better or worse than the Nazis.”

“Oh I know. I wasn’t under the impression you were implying anything along those lines.”

Monkeys

One can always if so desired always make room for some new fear to distort and overwhelm one’s daily existence, so this monkey pox thing might be just the flavour your life, a bit bored with old terrors, is calling out for. Just plug into the mainstream media and let the inner games begin.

Ilovaiskaya Peered

Ilovaiskaya peered in surprise into the darkness and saw only a red patch on the icon and a glimmering light from the stove on Likharyov’s face. The darkness, the ringing bell, the roar of the snowstorm, the lame boy, grumbling Sasha, unhappy Likharyov and his speeches - it was all mixing together, growing into one enormous impression, and God’s earth seemed to her fantastic, full of wonders and fantastic forces. All she had just heard rang in her ears, and human life seemed to her a fine, poetic fairly tale with no end.

Anton Chekhov, On The Road.

Antichrist

“Ultimately the division of life, spiritually, ideologically comes down to that between Christ and Antichrist. Who does “the world” hate the most? By the world I mean the prevailing ideology, progressivism or whatever we call it. So who do they hate most?”

“Besides Trump?”

“Yes, besides him. I’m talking of at a more eternal level. This division you could say is also the spirit versus flesh, with the world obviously ever more obsessed with the body - from sport to glossy celebrity worlds, to pornography, transgenderism, of course also remorselessly pushed fear of death and the need for vaccines, and so on - so there’s this obsessive embedding of consciousness within the confines of flesh. But even with this divide of spirit and flesh it’s not so simple. Is “the world”, liberalism, etc bothered about for example Mohammed or Buddha?”

“No, they couldn’t care less about them.”

“Yes, because they’re not really experienced as a threat. So who do they really hate?”

“Jesus.”

“Exactly. So “the world” is aligning more and more virulently and unashamedly as “anti-Christ.” The divide is obvious.”

Symmetry

“There’s only one thing worse than symmetry.”

“What’s that? Chaos?”

“No. More symmetry.”

“What’s the problem with symmetry!?”

“The smugness of it. It’s a declaration that you’ve found some perfect balance. You’ve created it, arrived at it, this accomplished form, here on earth on your own steam, and now you’re going to stay there.”

“Ah come on, that’s very harsh.”

FBI Raid

I see this guy Bryson Gray was lightning fast in making and releasing a song on the FBI raid on Trump, and on the wider scheme of things.

And from a few weeks earlier, “Hunter Biden Hacked”:

Dirty Guitar

 

Underworld from 1992.

Touchstone

“Have you been listening to much music lately?”

“I have yeah. I’ve been getting into a new group called Toxic Blandness.”

“Oh really. What are they like?”

“They’re great. Their overall vibe is kind of like a mix of being really toxic but also really bland at the same time.”

“Sounds intriguing.”

“Oh definitely. I like to describe them as being a cultural touchstone for the times.”

Checking a Fact

Everyone obviously loves fact checking so I’m going to have a go off of it myself, where I subject to scrutiny a particular truth claim and assess its veracity or lack of. I mean to do a whole series of these investigations, but in all probability I’ll lose complete interest after just this one. So anyway the truth I am assessing is:

A watched pot never boils.

Well first of all I just watched a pot and actually it did not boil. Then though I remembered that in fairness it is the liquid contents of the pot that are being referred to rather than the pot itself, and so I added water to the pot but again it didn’t boil. However I then placed the pot on a gas hob and turned on the heat quite high, and actually after a while, not a huge amount of time, the water did indeed boil. 

So my conclusion is this fact is only a conditional fact. Often, in say a neutral situation, a watched pot (its contents) will not boil, but apply some admittedly perhaps necessary stimulation (heat), and as proven above, its contents will probably  boil. And to add, if at some stage you don’t watch the pot, you will never find out if it boiled or not.

Missed Out

 

Never volunteered to be jabbed with the experimental drugs myself but I’m starting to think I really missed out. These drugs are clearly amazing, and as for the masks - equally amazing and very cool looking. I’ve learnt my lesson though, and I will listen much more carefully and respectfully to these figures of integrity in the future.

Pricked

Someone was in their garden and they were by a rose bush doing some weeding, but maybe they were a little careless and a finger got pricked by a thorn. Some pain, some blood, even anger. “I thought it was the weeds were my enemy, but it wasn’t they who pricked me!” So they cut down the rose bush and weeds grew in its place.

Impossible

“What is it impossible to do?”

“Nothing.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Doing has to involve doing something, so it’s impossible to do nothing.”

“Oh right.”