Amerikans, plz learn your history

 

An old gem from 2018.

Reviewing the presidents

Krig i vår tid

 

Det här är faktiskt sjukt. Observera dödssiffrorna: 300 000 - 500 000 på den ryska sidan, 100 000 på den ukrainska. Fast egentligen är det ju ingen som vet säkert... 

Idag har kriget i Ukraina pågått längre än första världskriget

Let history judge

 

From 2023.

Sobering thought

Nobody knows shit

 

Look what I wrote back in 2021. The good news: I´m still here! :D

Nobody knows nothing

Work of the ages

A little reminder

Just a little reminder, et cetera.

French torpor

Every.Single.Time.

 

I sure hope the current Iranian regime will fall shortly, because if it doesn´t...well. It would be ironic if the president responsible for the American "Sicilian Expedition" turns out to be...Donald Trump. 

But of course nobody will blame *him* for the defeat. We already know who will run the gauntlet for this one. Yes, it´s the Jews. And since the leftists and liberals already hate Israel, we might live to see the perfect anti-Semitic storm. All the Gentiles will be in on the pogrom.

So if the Trump admin, Joints Chief of Staff, Netanyahu, the Kurds and/or the Saudi royal house have some kind of terribly watertight plan to get rid of the mullahs and bring back stability to the Middle East, I think its about time they act on it stat. 

Otherwise things will get colorful. And perhaps very Sicilian... 

Schizos will schizo

 

A lot of self-proclaimed Christians are going apeshit over this quote by Netanyahu just now: "Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan. Because if you are strong enough, ruthless enough, powerful enough, evil will overcome good." Not only is the quote taken out of context, they double down when this is pointed out to them.

Just another day on the Low IQ Interwebs.

[Added later:] There are also conspiracy theories about Netanyahu having died, including a (perhaps ironic) X account which purportedly tracks his movements to see if he really is dead?! I´m beginning to *really* suffer from Internet fatigue, and I don´t think it has anything to do with my age...

Orkanen

 

Två korta kommentarer. Ett: Detta verkar motbevisa den västerländska framstegstanken, "historiens slut" och liknande dumheter. Istället har vi en oscillerande rörelse. Två: Tänk om auktoritära populister kommer till makten *eftersom demokratin inte klarar av att lösa samhällsproblemen*? Det betyder inte att auktoritär populism nödvändigtvis är positiv. Men det väcker ju *vissa* obekväma frågor, eller hur? 

Den tredje autokratiseringsvågen

Mr Breakfast

 

Here is our man Formscapes again. I commented on "Mr Breakfast" and one of his videos about the GenZ revival before.

>>>Recently (ish) the channel "religion for breakfast" released a video which addressed the "zoomer religious revival" phenomenon. In the video, Mr Breakfast argues that this phenomenon isn't actually occurring, and that the headlines claiming otherwise are all misleading, and presents a decent pile of survey/statistical data which seems to suggest that no such revival is happening.

>>>This, my friends, is a great example of why quantifiable data should never be trusted more than your own eyeballs. Source; my eyeballs. What the statistical data does show is that there had been a very pronounced downward trend in religiosity over the past few decades, and that this downward trend seems to be coming to a halt. But, argues Mr Breakfast, this halt of a downward trend is not a "revival" because there has not been an uptick in church attendance, professed religiosity, conversions, etc... >>>Statistical data is, I ven under the best of circumstances, a sawed-off shotgun among epistemological tools, due to the fact that it is extremely reductive and abstract, and - significantly - because the extent of this glossing is usually not fully clear to people. >>>In this case, what those numbers aren't accounting for is the fact that not all human beings are equal in terms of cultural influence. Among any generation of people, you are going to have a very large majority of people who are just kind of "going with the vibe", and a very small minority of people who are standing on the razor's edge between present and future. The latter are what the kids these days refer to as "main character energy", so I'm told. >>>So if you want to understand the direction a given zeitgeist is headed in, you shouldn't be taking of surveys of everyone as though everyone were equal. You need to look to the "main character energy" people and see what they are doing, bc in very short order, the "just going with the vibe" people will be following along with the trail being cleared by the former. >>>When I - a millennial - was in my late teens and early twenties, all of us "main character" kids were into things like Marxism, new atheism and postmodernism. No statistical study performed in 2008 would have predicted that in 15 years, those ideas would have leaked into every aspect of pop culture. But anyone paying attention could have told you that, bc they could see with their own eyeballs that those were the topics of interest to all of the people of that generation who were undoubtedly going to become novelists, opinion piece writers, screenplay writers and academics in the coming decades. >>>The current religious revival is like that. Look at the people who are suddenly converting to Orthodoxy and Catholicism. They aren't the "go with the vibes" kids. They are the cerebral, autistic nerds who will be novelists, opinion havers, screenplay writers, etc in the next decade or two. >>>Now to be clear, I don't think that this is a good thing - for reasons I'll be getting into in my next unscripted rant video, so stay tuned for that - but it is definitely happening, and that is in fact what the statistical data shows if you have eyeballs with which to see what the statistical data is actually about. >>>Nothing is Hidden™️

Original text here:

Formscapes comments Mr Breakfast

Wtf, I love Flint Dibble now

 

Who the heck is Professor Jiang? Everybody is talking about him right now. Jiang seems to be a Chinese conspiracy theorist. Probably some kind of Alt Right stuff. Apparently, he predicted Trump´s attack on Iran with the help of "game theory". Or was it Hari Seldon´s psycho-history? He actually mentions psycho-history (a concept from Asimov´s science fiction novels) in his YouTube channel presentation. Jiang has also predicted that the United States will eventually lose the war in question. 

Debunker Flint Dibble has found some weird videos featuring Jiang´s rather colorful adjacent opinions. For instance that the famous Carthaginian commander Hannibal Barca wasn´t a real person, that Freemasons and Rosicrucians rule the world, that there is no evidence for the Holocaust, or that Jiang himself can somehow communicate with the Divine. He also seems to be doing cold reading on his students?! Elsewhere on-line, I found a video in which the Chinese gadfly seems to be denying the Moon landing. 

Flint claims that Jiang isn´t a real professor, but a middle school teacher in Beijing (note, however, that his YT channel is registered in Canada) with a bachelor´s degree in English literature from Yale. Jiang has millions of subscribers on YouTube, so it´s possible that he isn´t going away any time soon...   

Democracy before Athens

 

I heard similar stuff before, so Gemini probably isn´t entirely off the mark here, but since the system is really "tipsy" these days, please feel free to double-check it! I have also removed some weird and irrelevant sentences from the responses...

Was there a democratic polity (like a city-state) in Mesopotamia already 1,000 years (or so) before ancient Athens?

Yes, this is a fascinating area of historical revisionism. Many historians and Assyriologists, most notably Thorkild Jacobsen, have argued for the existence of what they call "Primitive Democracy" in Mesopotamia, occurring roughly between 3000 BCE and 2500 BCE—well over 2,000 years before the Golden Age of Athens.

While these were not "democracies" in the modern liberal sense, they functioned as organized polities where power was shared among a broader group of citizens rather than being held by an absolute, divine monarch.

---

1. The Concept: "Primitive Democracy"

In early Sumerian city-states (like Uruk, Kish, and Shuruppak), leadership was not initially a hereditary kingship (Lugal). Instead, evidence suggests that the city was governed by a Council of Elders and an Assembly of Men (likely arms-bearing citizens).

• The Bicameral Structure: Jacobsen noted that early Mesopotamian myths (like the Epic of Gilgamesh) describe a structure similar to a two-house parliament:

  1. The Assembly of Elders: Senior statesmen or heads of clans.

  2. The Assembly of Young Men: The "warriors" or able-bodied men of the city.

2. Evidence from the Epic of Gilgamesh

The most famous evidence for this comes from the tale of Gilgamesh and Agga. When the King of Kish (Agga) threatens the city of Uruk, Gilgamesh does not simply declare war.

• He first goes to the Elders to ask for their counsel. When they suggest surrender, he is unsatisfied.

• He then goes to the Assembly of the Men of the City, who vote for war and resistance.

• This demonstrates that even a legendary "strongman" like Gilgamesh was originally bound by the consensus of the community.

3. The Transition to Kingship

This democratic structure eventually collapsed due to the constant state of warfare between city-states.

• Emergency Dictatorship: In times of crisis, the Assembly would appoint a Lugal (literally "Great Man") to lead the army.

• The "Permanent Emergency": As wars became more frequent and prolonged, these temporary leaders refused to hand back their power to the Assembly. Over several centuries, the "Emergency Dictator" evolved into the permanent, hereditary King.

---

4. Comparison: Mesopotamia vs. Athens

Feature	Mesopotamian "Primitive Democracy" (c. 3000 BCE)	Athenian Democracy (c. 500 BCE)
Origin	Emerged naturally from tribal/clan consensus.	Emerged as a deliberate political reform (Cleisthenes).
Authority	The Assembly advised or elected temporary leaders.	The Assembly (Ecclesia) held sovereign power.
End Goal	Effective governance and survival.	Citizenship, legal equality (isonomia).
Documentation	Clay tablets, myths, and administrative records.	Robust legal codes, speeches, and philosophy.

5. Why is this significant?

This challenges the traditional "Whig history" view that democracy is a uniquely Western invention that began in Greece. It suggests that collective decision-making is a fundamental human social technology that arises whenever a community is small enough for its members to exert influence but large enough to require organized cooperation.

Even the most ancient structures of human civilization began with dialogue and consensus before they were hardened into the heavy weight of absolute monarchy.

---

Would you like me to look into the specific roles of women in these early Mesopotamian assemblies (where they often held more status than in later periods)?

xxxxx

In the city-state of Sippar (modern-day Iraq) during the Old Babylonian period (around 1800–1600 BCE), clay tablets provide some of the most explicit evidence for a decentralized, almost "corporatist" form of urban governance.

While not a "democracy" in the Athenian sense, Sippar’s archives reveal that the city was governed by a City Council (Puhrum) where professional groups and artisans held real, documented influence.

1. The "Bab-Mullu" (The Gate of the Citizens)

In Sippar, many administrative and judicial decisions were not made in a palace, but at the City Gate. Cuneiform records describe the city council being composed of:

• The Mayor (Rabianum): The presiding officer.

• The Elders (Shibutu): Heads of prominent families.

• Professional Representatives: Crucially, tablets mention the involvement of the "Overseers of the Merchants" (Wakil Tamkari) and representatives of various Craft Guilds.

---

2. The Artisan Councils at Ebla and Mari

A thousand miles away, the Ebla Tablets (found in modern Syria, dating to c. 2500 BCE) describe a similar phenomenon. These tablets describe a bicameral-style government where the king (En) was not absolute.

• The "Lugal-Lugal": This was a group of "Lords" or "Elders" who functioned as a parliament.

• Artisanal Input: Records from Mari and Ebla explicitly mention that the heads of certain technical groups—such as the Chief Smith or the Chief Weaver—were consulted on matters of state treasury and military logistics.

In these cities, the "popular" groups weren't just workers; they were considered stakeholders in the city's survival. If the "Elders" wanted to go to war, they needed the blacksmiths to agree to forge the weapons and the merchants to fund the campaign.

3. The "Colony Assembly" of Kanesh

Perhaps the most striking example of popular representation comes from the Old Assyrian Merchant Colonies (c. 1900 BCE) at Kanesh. Clay tablets from this period describe the "Karum" (The Quay or Colony Assembly).

• The "Small and Great": The tablets explicitly state that decisions were made by the "Assembly of the Small and the Great" (ṣeher rabi).

• Meaning: This phrasing suggests that both the wealthy elites ("the Great") and the common artisans/merchants ("the Small") had a vote or a voice in the legal and economic disputes of the city.

---

Summary: The Mesopotamian "Council" Model

City	Date	Governance Feature
Sippar	1800 BCE	Craft overseers and merchants sat on the City Council (Puhrum).
Ebla	2500 BCE	A council of "Lords" limited the King's power.
Kanesh	1900 BCE	Decisions made by the "Assembly of the Small and Great."
Shuruppak	2600 BCE	Records of a "Bicameral" assembly of elders and young men.

Why this matters to you

This historical reality supports your interest in decentralized power. It shows that absolute monarchy was actually a later distortion. At the dawn of civilization, the "Temple-Cities" were run more like cooperatives where your craft gave you a seat at the table.

Would you like to explore the specific tablets from Sippar that describe the "trial of the commoners"?

xxxxx

The "Trial of the Commoners" is a term often used by historians to describe a specific legal phenomenon documented in the Sippar archives (and nearby Nippur), where the city's judicial power was exercised not by a king, but by the community itself.

The most famous specific case often cited as the "Trial of the Commoners" (or the "Silent Witness" case) actually comes from Nippur, but it follows the exact legal structure used in Sippar.

---

1. The Case: The "Nippur Murder Trial" (c. 1900 BCE)

This tablet is one of the most remarkable legal documents in human history because it shows a king (Ur-Ninurta) deferring his power to a "popular assembly" to decide a complex moral and legal issue.

• The Crime: Three men murdered a temple official. They then told the official's wife, who remained silent and did not report the crime.

• The "Democratic" Intervention: The King did not simply execute them. He referred the case to the Assembly (Puhrum) of Nippur.

• The Representation: The tablets list the members of this assembly. It wasn't just nobles; it included artisans, a bird-catcher, a potter, and a gardener. These were the "Commoners" acting as a jury of peers.

2. The Verdict of the "Popular Groups"

A heated debate ensued within the assembly, which is transcribed on the tablets:

• The Prosecution: Some members argued that the wife was an accomplice because of her silence and should be executed alongside the murderers.

• The Defense (The Commoners' View): The "lower" members of the assembly argued for her. They stated that she was not a participant in the crime and that her silence was the result of her being a victim of circumstances, not a conspirator.

• The Result: The Assembly of Commoners acquitted the wife. The King accepted their verdict. This is the first recorded instance of a "jury of peers" overriding a potential state execution.

---

3. Professional Representation in Sippar

In Sippar, the "popular" groups were even more formalized. We have tablets where the "Assembly of the City of Sippar" and the "Karum of Sippar" (the merchant council) acted together.

• The Representatives: The tablets explicitly mention the "Overseer of the Barbers" and the "Chief of the Carpentry" acting as legal witnesses and representatives in property disputes.

• The Function: These artisans had a "Seal of Office." When a "commoner" was on trial or involved in a contract, the head of their respective guild sat on the council to ensure the law was applied fairly to their class.

---

4. Why this is "Democratic"

Historians like Thorkild Jacobsen argued that this proves Mesopotamia had a functioning Judicial Democracy long before Greece.

• Decentralization: The King was not the law; the City was the law.

• Inclusion: A gardener or a potter had the legal right to debate a murder case alongside a high priest.

• The "Gate" Justice: Decisions were made at the city gate, in public view, where any citizen could observe.

---

Summary of the "Commoner" Influence

Element	The "Sippar/Nippur" Model
Jury	Composed of artisans, bird-catchers, and laborers.
Power	Could acquit defendants even against "State" interests.
Identity	Representatives were chosen based on their craft/guild.
Legacy	Forerunner to the idea of "Common Law" and public trial.

This suggests that 4,000 years ago, your identity as an "Artisan" (your craft) would have given you a direct voice in the justice of your city. Absolute, faceless law had not yet fully crushed the individual's role in the collective.

The hinge of ages

 

Some astrological speculations c/o John Michael Greer on the recent conjunction between Saturn and Neptune at zero degrees Aries. Last time it happened was 2,500 years ago - right at the cusp of the Axial Age.

Interesting, at least if you believe in astrology. Then, the predictions get more and more mundane (pun intended). Trump´s attack on Iran (which happened about eight days later) doesn´t show up in the charts at all?! If you want to be charitable, the indications of trouble at sea for the UK, or the inability of the US military to deal with unspecified impending changes, points to a war. But note that the Middle East is supposed to be calm...

Note also the peculiar optimism of the chart, since Jupiter (the Great Benefic) is exalted. This supposedly will make the working classes regain some of their lost standard of living. Sounds highly unlikely in the middle of an impending oil crisis...unless it sagely heralds a socialistic war economy in which the poor will benefit from higher rations!

Saturn-Neptune great conjunctions in Aries are very rare, but Saturn-Neptune conjunctions in general are not. As I noted in a previous post, astrologers have noted that the previous three have been correlated to dramatic changes in Russian history: the 1917 revolutions, the death of Stalin 1953, and the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 (which triggered the dissolution of the Soviet Union two years later). The most dramatic thing that could happen to the Russian Federation in 2026 is (of course) the death of Vladimir Putin and the military victory of Ukraine...

The Hinge of Ages: Saturn conjunct Neptune

Oh, and what happened to this divination? It actually sounded more correct!   

Catastasis Mundi

But as usual, we just have to wait and see...

Into the land of bones

Afghanistan is popularly know as "the graveyard of empires". That´s why at least a dozen empires managed to conquer it, right? So the British, the Russians and the Americans failed? That simply means THEY ARE GAY!  

Schizo

 

Best video title on YouTube! 

Human marmalade

 

What the fuck...

Some quotes from the Wikipedia entry "Medical cannibalism". 

>>>Medical cannibalism in Europe reached its peak in the 16th century, with the practice becoming widespread in Germany, France, Italy, and England. At that time, most "raw materials" for the practice came from mummies stolen from Egyptian tombs; additionally skulls were taken from Irish burial sites and gravediggers sometimes robbed and sold body parts. Medicines were created from human bones, blood, and fat and believed to treat many types of illnesses. Tinctures to treat internal bleeding were made by soaking mummified bodies in alcohol or vinegar. Powdered skull was used to treat ailments of the head, and was sometimes mixed with chocolate to treat apoplexy. In the early 19th century, Englishmen still treated epilepsy by mixing skull with molasses.

>>>Blood, specifically, soon evolved to be seen as a substantial elixir  — especially fresh, warm human blood because it was believed to still possess the soul of the deceased. For example, it was believed that drinking the blood of a strong person or a wise person would result in an increase of strength or wisdom, respectively, because once ingested, the spirit of the deceased connected with that of the consumer and lend them its power. This belief was especially common in Germany. Even the poor, who could not afford other remedies, took part in this practice by bringing a cup to executions, paying the executioner a small fee, then filling their cup with the fresh blood. The execution of criminals was seen as having a double advantage: alive they were "a burden on the nation", but their dead bodies had "the power to serve a public good" by improving the health of others.

>>>Europeans also adopted a belief they considered to be of Ancient Egyptian origin, namely that the more valuable corpses were those of young individuals, especially those that had died a brutal sudden death, for it was believed that the spirit would remain trapped within the body for a longer period of time, and thus have greater healing powers.

>>>In Europe, the human blood was normally drunk warm and fresh for increased effectiveness, but some people preferred to have it cooked. Therefore a recipe for turning blood into marmalade was invented. In 1679, a Franciscan apothecary suggested letting the blood partially dry and chopping it into small pieces to allow any remaining water to seep out. Then it was cooked into a batter before sifting it into a jar.

>>>Mummia quickly became popular throughout Europe within the 16th century and was thought to cure all kinds of ailments. To prepare it, the black remnants in the skull and abdominal cavities were scraped out of mummies and placed in a large vase. Apothecaries mixed this mummia with herbs and wine, then prescribed it as medicine for their patients. In Germany, it was still occasionally offered for sale in the early 20th century.

>>>Around the early 1600s, a recipe for a "wine" made from human flesh was invented in Germany. According to this recipe, the body of a human – preferably a young, flawless red-head – was used. The flesh was chopped up and mixed with aloe and myrrh, then mashed and cured into "wine."

Burn it all down

 

Kali and Surtr as envisioned by Gemini 

Maybe this is it. We might as well burn everything down. That´s the vibes I get from all the Epstein Files stuff...

Inevitably, there is a conspiracy theory according to which the Evil Overlords *want* us to think like this. They released the files to trick us into destroying it all, so They can make a Great Reset.

If that´s the case (and I doubt it), I can only say: Be careful what you wish for, ye overlords! 

Let history judge

 

Previously posted on August 11, 2023. Just a little reminder! 

Marxism is a religion. Something as strange as a "materialist" religion, but nevertheless. Or, to put it another way: if Marxism had declared a belief in God, or existed 1000 years ago, everyone would readily have recognized it as some kind of Kabbala in radicalized Shia Muslim garb. It´s almost ridiculous.

So world history has a deeper meaning, culminating in the establishment of communism. Which is the end goal not only of human history, but of the cosmic process itself. Where does this come from? Let me guess: the megalomaniacal brain of a...Hegel? 

But how could Marx and Engels divine the deeper meaning of history? They couldn´t, of course. They were just speculating. Lenin turned Marx-Engels into virtual prophets, with himself as Imam, exegeting their esoteric message...and adding to it. He even founded his very own Assassin order, and spread the dawa worldwide. And just as any Muslim dynasty betrays the revolution that brought them to power, so did the Communists. Heretical splinter groups abound!

Hegel´s ideas about gradual salvation through struggle presumably comes from Oetinger. And the whole scheme is probably just Lurianic Kabbala or some form of Hermetism, secularized and properly immanentized. Marx believed he placed Hegel "on his feet", but he really just founded a materialized Gnosticism. In all fairness, though, Marx and Engels were still too German, rationalist, enlightened and "scientific" to go all the way to secular religion. 

The transformation of Marxism to some kind of millennial cult comes during the 20th century. It´s probably not a co-incidence that this happens in Russia and China. While Social Democracy becomes a reformist form of postmillenarianism and even later pseudo-socialist churchianity, Communism becomes a kind of bizarre Ghulat imitation in its Russian form and a substitute Taoist sect in its Chinese ditto. 

If a future historian would analyze these movements *without looking at their formal ideology*, he would immidiately see the similarities between Maoism and apocalyptic Taoism (or the pseudo-Christian Taiping rebellion). He would then marvel at how the Russian "Bolsheviks" recapitulated the Abbasid revolution in the Muslim world. Of course, the actual geopolitics of the Soviet and Chinese Communist regimes would be no mystery. I suppose the same historian would also scratch his head over the restoration of the Korean imperial dynasty in the form of the Kim family...

This is not the end point of history. It´s not even the beginning of the end. It´s just the same old story, recycled again, and again. Marxism has been recycled by history and found to be just another Sino-Russo-Semitic religious movement. We´ve been here before. What is perhaps more surprising is that so many people in the Western world believed in the crap. But then, it´s amazing that so many people believed in it 1000 years ago, too! 

I have spoken.

The Rubicon is now

 

- I only offer you the truth, kiddo! 

Is the Rubicon, the final red pill, the turning point, or even the paradigm shift? No idea, but at least mentally, it feels like it. I´m refering of course to the Epstein file situation. I still don ´t understand why on earth the establishment agreed to release the files. Sure, they are probably protecting *somebody*, but it seems everyone else are fall guys?! Including fairly important people. Or did the powers-that-be coldly calculate that they could do damage control and/or ride it all out?

I don´t know...it doesn´t seem to be working. Maybe they actually have lost control of the situation. It does happen sometimes that establishment groups do so. For instance, in 1989-91 in the Soviet Union and "Eastern" Europe.

Or in Russia in 1917. Or France in 1789...

Time to ride the tiger?  

Official optimism

 

Half of Europe´s population died horribly during the Black Death circa 1350. Yet, here we are. Carthage was destroyed by the Romans. But then, it was rebuilt. So was Jericho. Baghdad was genocided by the Mongols. Yet, there it is. China and Russia has collapsed repeatedly through world history. They are still great powers. 

Oh, and then there´s Atlantis. Gone in fire and gravel, right? But we´re here. And we´re more advanced than the Atlantids. All of humanity drawned in the Flood, except for one family. Today, the world´s population is much higher than in the times of Methuselah. The Nazis killed six million Jews. Yet, there are more Jews today than ever before in history. Millions of American Indians died due to lack of immunity to European disease. Yet, there are more (un)American Indians today than ever before. They run entire nations. 

And btw, flying cars do exist. I´ve seen them on the evening news. 

So what´s the problem really? 

Buckle up, boys

 

We are entering the Age of Aquarius, which will presumbly last for 2000 years, followed by the Age of Capricorn for another 2000 years. In classical astrology, both these signs are ruled by Saturn. 

So for the next 4000 years, the aeon will be dominated by the Great Malefic, the planet of hard limits, karma, discipline and stern law. Or authority without law. The New Age dream about some kind of hippie space age was just another one of their psychedelic dreams.

It´s over.