Sure it´s not Proto-Mordvinian?

This is a sample of "Proto-Nostratic", a hypothetical language spoken during the Stone Age, reconstructed by some daring modern linguists. Enjoy!

America before Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock talks for over 2 hours about his latest book "America Before", in which he connects the dots concerning Atlantis and the Lost Civilization. From "The Joe Rogan Experience". Go, Graham, go, you don´t look one year over 50! 

Christian rune stones

“Sveriges kyrkohistoria. Missionstid och tidig medeltid” is the first volume in a series of eight books covering the Church history of Sweden. Fortunately or otherwise, only available in Swedish!

This first volume covers the periods known in Swedish historiography as the Viking Age and the Early Middle Ages, more specifically the period from around 800 to 1250. An introductory chapter deals with the Western European theatre circa 500 to 1000. It was during this period that Christianity first became known in Sweden, most notably through the missionary activities of Ansgar (9^th century) who made a famous visit to the Viking trading town of Birka at Björkö in Lake Mälaren. The Christian religion spread wider during the 11^th century, with many of the Viking rune stones actually being Christian. Allying itself with the royal power, the Catholic Church became well-established during the 12^th century, a process concurrent with the slow evolution of a centralized Swedish kingdom. The book also mentions relevant developments in Denmark, since Scania (Skåne) was originally Danish. The story ends immediately before the ascension to power of Birger jarl, the first ruler of something that at least looked like a united “Sweden”.

Very little is *really* known about the period in question, the written sources being sparse, contradictory and not always easy to interpret. 19^th century national romanticism tried to paint the Viking Age as a heroic time of a strong Swedish kingdom, established for centuries, dominated from Old Uppsala by elected kings and a marvelous pagan temple. Non-Swedish Christian sources were often marooned to prove the point. This book is rather based on the new perspectives launched during the 1970´s, according to which no “Sweden” existed during the period in question, the area being divided among a large number of petty “kings” or rulers, some of whom may have been Danish vassals. Old Uppsala may have been important, but the huge heathen temple described by Adam of Bremen (who never visited Sweden) is probably mythological, although both a hall of worship and a royal house may have stood at the location. As already noted, it was to some extent thanks to the alliance between an emerging royal power and the Church that Sweden became a united kingdom, a process culminating only after the Viking Age. Nor did Uppland (the area around Uppsala) play the central role in this process, rather, the earliest “real” kings were from Götaland. The role of Östergötland is emphasized in this book. A funny detail is that the editors seem to believe in the legend of St Erik and his crusade to Finland!

“Sveriges kyrkohistoria” is written in a popular style, but its somewhat obscure subject matter (most people don´t care about Church history) might make it too narrow to most of the educated public anyway. If you are a Church history buff, on the other hand, you will find a lot of interesting info in this volume. Swedish saints, holy kings, the role of women in spreading Christianity (it was considerable), the excavations at Old Uppsala, the various Catholic monastic orders, the conflicts over canon law, Church taxation…well, I say the book is pretty comprehensive. The editors write off Byzantine influences on Sweden, even at Gotland. They speculate that rune stones may have been raised to ease the passage of the deceased through purgatory – rune stones were usually raised to commemorate the deaths of people who for some reason or another couldn´t be given a proper Christian burial (say, slain Vikings in foreign lands). Even “pagan” rune stones are probably often Christian, with mythological motifs from Norse paganism being reinterpreted.

Probably indispensable if you really want to know the above and understand modern non-runic Swedish. Buy it today from the vendor of your choice!

Some black pills

Probably not the savior of the West 

Some black pills…

The United States is a great power in decline. Russia and China are in ascendancy. At some point, the US will therefore leave Europe. This will make Europe part of the Russosphere or even Sinosphere.

Mass immigration from the Middle East and Africa, combined with low birth rates among Europeans, might turn large portions of Europe into a predominantly African-Muslim area.

In fact, Europe might simply collapse. It might become an inconsequential border region, used by Russia, China and the Middle East to dump their undesirables.

Russia won´t intervene to “save Western civilization”, as envisaged by the right-wing nationalists. First, Russia isn´t of the West. Second, Russia couldn´t care less about what immigration policy Sweden or Germany has, as long as it doesn´t threaten Russia´s security interests (say, enables Islamists to establish bases from which to attack Russia). Russia is multi-ethnic and has many immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus. Some of their allies are Muslim, such as the Chechen leadership and their mercenary troops. Saviors of the West? LOL! Third, uncontrolled mass immigration to Western European enemy nations could be *good* for Russia since it destabilizes those nations. Why wouldn´t Russia favor it? They could also get rid of their own undesirables that way.

Unless Israel makes a deal with Russia, they are fucked in the long run.

The question is whether the US will leave Europe under relatively peaceful and controlled forms, or whether there will be a war between pro-Russian and pro-American European states, say between France (pro) and a German-British axis (contra)?

Since most populists are right-wing free marketeers, they can´t stop immigration, which is necessary for the free market economy to run smoothly – unless they are willing to lead a dramatic transformation of the entire world economy back to a “colonial” model in which the cheap labor is segregated in the colonies, far away from the White ethnic enclaves of the privileged European middle classes. And even if they are, the domestic working class will be hurt anyway. Therefore, the natural course of right-wing populism (outside France) is to ally with the neo-liberal wing of the BAU establishment around a defense of the status quo (minus labor unions and welfare systems).

For this reason, current right-wing populism will soon become part of the System. Of course, in the next round of events, it will probably be rejected by the electorate.

The Swedish welfare state is essentially fucked at this point. It won´t survive another wave of uncontrolled mass immigration and/or economic downturn. The next Swedish government might be a coalition of the Conservatives, the Christian Democrats and the Sweden Democrats, on a anti-immigration free market program. Only the free market program will be implemented.

The working class won´t “fight back”. It´s too heavily split along ethnic lines, or will be so in the near future. Outside Greece, there was no “working class fight back” during the finance crisis which began in 2008. In Sweden, the right-wing government was re-elected! And this was before the migrant crisis.

There will be more terrorism, both Islamist and right-wing. In the future, perhaps left-wing terrorists will join the fray. Part and parcel…

The insanity of the rapacious but effete chattering classes won´t stop. Quite the contrary, they will become *even more insane* in the future. We will see liberals accept sharia courts and clan voting, feminists convert to ISIS, child molestation on a massive scale in the name of “trans rights”, etc. The World Wide Web will be tightly regulated, effectively strangling those currents dependent on it (libertarians, Alt Right, etc).

There will be more nuclear power.

All of the above may be wrong, or grossly oversimplified. Complicating factors include: the impact of global, man-made climate change (yes, it´s real, get over it), environmental degradation in general, the breakdown of the basic health care system combined with mass die-offs in the event of a global pandemic that can´t be cured by antibiotics, the threat of nuclear war, the latest idiosyncratic gyrations of a guy named Donald, etc.

And no, giving “critical support” to Corbyn won´t change any of the above.

The last Druid

I didn´t find this clip particularly enlightening, but I decided to link to it anyway. Ben McBrady (who died in 1996) called himself “the last Druid”, and this clip features an uncritical interview with him. McBrady, who lived in Ireland, was supposedly initiated into an ancient secret society, The Old Gaelic Order, at the age of 12. After 18 years of training, he became a member of an isolated “triad” or cell of said order. When the interview was taped, McBrady claimed to have been the last surviving member not only of the triad but of the entire order.

Surprisingly, McBrady says very little about the actual beliefs and practices of The Old Gaelic Order. Perhaps they were too secret? According to the website “The Order of Druids in Ulster”, the Gaelic Order had sacred dances, kundalini experiences and could communicate with otherworldly beings. How do they know this?

Instead, McBrady spends most of his time spinning an alternative history of the world in general and Ireland in particular, while claiming to be the descendant of ancient Irish kings and Druids. He is supposedly also related to a great number of Christian saints. McBrady´s story begins with a gigantic cataclysm during which Earth was showered with meteors. Before this event, humans had telepathic abilities. Afterwards, the trauma of the cosmic disaster made most humans forget their telepathy, forcing them to invent language. The remaining telepaths formed a secret society and eventually reached Ireland, where they infiltrated (McBrady´s word) the Druid hierarchy and later founded true Christianity. Jesus himself visited Ireland and was taught the true Christian message, which resurfaced during the Middle Ages as Celtic Christianity and Pelagianism. Paul´s Roman Christianity is a fake version.

The mission of the Old Gaelic Order is to train every member in “all” knowledge, so humanity can begin anew from scratch even if only one person remains after a cosmic disaster. (Of course, it would have to be a member of the Order! And how can they reproduce if only one person remains? Another secret?) Despite having all knowledge, it seems the Order is doomed due to the new forms of mass communication. I´m not sure why – I got the impression that McBrady claims that electricity has somehow destroyed our brains! However, he also claims that the Order can and will change, so presumably he isn´t the literally last Druid after all…

Not sure what the old man studied for 18 years, but here are some suggestions: Donnelly, Velikovsky, Richard Williams Morgan, Iolo Morganwg… I don´t think the Old Gaelic Order, if it ever existed, was particularly old. Who knows, maybe it was founded by McBrady himself.

In other news, a comic actor just became president in Europe´s largest war-zone…

Servant of the People...or just Clown World?

Let´s see if I get this straight. The Ukraine just elected a guy named Volodomyr Zelensky president with 70% of the vote. 

Zelensky has no prior political experience. However, he starred a fictitious Ukrainian president in a TV series called "Servant of the People".

His political party is called "Servant of the People" and was founded by - wait for it - the TV network which produced the series?!

I say this guy is an obvious fraud. Perhaps Trump should pardon and rehire Paul Manafort, and send him to Kiev to sort things out over there?

Otherwise, I´m afraid another "Volodomyr", last name Putin, might decide to pull some stunts of his own in the clown show known as Post-Soviet Geo-Political Space... 

Förhindrade att rösta

Väntar otåligt på NATO-medlemskap 

Roligaste propagandalögnen: "Innevånarna i Donetsk, Luhansk och Krim är förhindrade att rösta i helgens ukrainska presidentval".

Förhindrade att rösta?

Krim?

Ooookej... 

Förresten kul att Ukraina valt en jude till president. Så Bohdan Chmelnytsky, Shymon Petlyura och Stepan Bandera står inte så högt i kurs längre?

Fast kanske ändå inte så kul. Vad tror ni kommer att hända när Zelensky eller vad han nu heter misslyckas med att "riva ner systemet", vilket han utlovat? Gissa vilken etnisk grupp som kommer att få skulden?

En ledtråd: förmodligen inte ryssarna.

Fler än bara Krims innevånare kommer känna sig "förhindrade att rösta" i nästa presidentval.

Men OK, jag är pessimist. Jag kan givetvis ha helt fel om ovanstående. Men det känns på något sätt ändå som att Ukraina röstat bort sig själva från världskartan... 

So I decided to troll the New Atheists...

Crop circle mystery SOLVED: Doug and Dave were DRUIDS

According to Archdruid Emeritus John Michael Greer (and he should know), British Neo-Druids created the crop circles with the aid of sympathetic farmers. The farmers got money from all the New Age visitors, while the Druids got a huge laugh out of the experience. 

I find this interesting, since the Druids are Neo-Pagans (or Meso-Pagans) and hence presumably *believe* in the supernatural! Despite this, they decided to prank the New Age community. Why? Let me guess. Some conflict involving axxess to Stonehenge, or…?

Can anyone confirm this?

PS. I didn´t know Doug and Dave were Druids! :P 

The Skull of Doom

“Legend of the Crystal Skulls” is an interesting documentary about the so-called Mitchell-Hedges skull (a.k.a. the Skull of Doom), a peculiar artefact supposedly found at the Mayan site of Lubaantun in Belize in 1924 by Anna Mitchell-Hedges, the adopted daughter of F A Mitchell-Hedges, a British author and adventurer who conducted excavations there at the time. Frederick Albert Mitchell-Hedges may have been the role model for the fictitious character Indiana Jones. Think Hollywood blockbuster “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. All kinds of wild claims about the crystalline cranium have been promoted, broadly connected to the New Age and conspiracist milieux.

It´s all a hoax, of course.

Three similar crystal skulls happen to be in the possession of museums around the world. They have been thoroughly analyzed and find to be modern. Also, there is no evidence that the Skull of Doom was found in Belize in 1924 – F A Mitchell-Hedges never mentions it in his writings on Lubaantun. He *does* mention buying the skull at an auction in London in 1943. Diligent searches in the archives have turned up a photo of the Skull of Doom in a 1936 scientific magazine, and it was *not* then owned by the Mitchell-Hedges family. The actual owner, art dealer Sydney Burney, was the very man who sold it to the adventurer seven years later. Finally, the Skull of Doom was also subjected to scientific investigation…and didn´t pass. It´s a work of modern craftsmanship.

Thus, we are not dealing with authentic Maya or Aztec artifacts. (Some have associated the skulls with the Aztecs rather than the Maya.) Nor is this evidence for Atlantis. Or probably not – crystal skulls can´t be dated by radiometric dating methods, so a true believer could always claim that the modern methods used to make the skulls were actually known to the ancient Mesoamericans or Atlantids. Indeed, that *is* what they are claiming. Personally, I´m with the skeptics on this one: I find it hard to believe that our modern technological methods are *exact* replicas of ancient technology. An unknown way of making crystal skulls would have been more convincing.

Since some of my ancestors may have been Mayan, I admit authentic crystal skulls would have been great fun, but it seems the Mayans were more into building pyramids, inventing the number zero, making incredibly exact astronomical observations and other such feats considered too boring by some White guys, but YMMV…