In George Orwell’s classic novel “1984”, the records of past history are constantly being modified by workers at the Ministry of Truth. As a Party member observes: “He who controls the past, controls the present. He who controls the present, controls the future.”

Orwell had been, of course, inspired by Soviet communism, where Stalin would “disappear” you from a photograph after he had made you disappear from real life.

Today’s rewriting of the past is even more insidious and dangerous than in Soviet times. Two recent stories published in the obnoxious British newspaper The Guardian show us why.

One of them is about a statue of American Confederate General Robert E. Lee being destroyed and melted, to be later transformed into some kind of unspecified type of modern art. The article is celebratory. “It felt like an execution,” says one of the organizers about the destruction of the statue, barely containing a smile. (I thought progressives were against public executions?)

The other article is about a “shocking” poll saying that “Half of Britons can’t name a single Black British historical figure“. Well, that’s hardly surprising, considering that Blacks have a very recent presence in the United Kingdom, having come in large numbers only after the 1960s as part of the “decolonization” movement (or a new colonization movement, now turned from the old colonies towards Europe). Sure, maybe there were other Blacks before, but very few and far between. I’ve read a bit of British History, and the only one I could think of was Idris Elba, and I wouldn’t call him a “historical figure”.

To the modern, progressive mind, simply rewriting the past is not enough. The past was “racist”, so it must be completely eradicated, then turned into something “non-racist”, lest someone looks back at it and gets the wrong idea. To that end, statues must be destroyed, books censored, films recast with more dark-skinned actors, etc. They are not content with merely rewriting history, but they must also destroy artifacts, change words in books and remake films that shows us any kind different view.

It’s, to me, a strange way of thinking. Obviously, lots of bad things happened during History, things that I’d rather wish had happened in a different way. But the idea of eliminating their existence from the records never crossed my mind. First of all, because historical writings, statues and other objects have a historical, artistic or archeological value in itself. And, second, because, well, what is the point? People who are interested in History want to learn about how the past really was, not about some nonsense propaganda version of it.

Of course, it’s all about brainwashing — if you don’t know anything about the past, or know only a false, adulterated version of the past, you can’t complain about the present and certainly can’t try to change the future.

While most people were understandably driven to fear, rage or despair over the most recent massacres in that eternal conflict in the Middle East, while thousands were protesting in the streets for their preferred side and a few were even driven to violence over it, I, after an initial panic, spent my time trying to stop and think things over.

Of course the situation is dramatic, especially for the people trapped in Gaza, but also for the Israeli hostages. (Even if the Israeli strategy of bombing all kinds of objectives seem incomprehensible. What the hell are they hoping to achieve? To be hated even more? Cause a global war?)

Meanwhile, in France, a Muslim fanatic from Chechnya killed a French teacher, in a case related to the current troubles in Palestine, or perhaps because of the prohibition of islamic garb in schools, and another terrorist in Belgium, native from Tunisia, shot to death two swedes who went to the Sweden-Belgium match. Although the motive here appears to be the Koran burnings that took place a while ago in Stockholm, the newest flare-up in the Middle East and the several related protests taking place in European — or former European — capitals certainly didn’t help.

And the U.S., Iran, Russia, and even China are all making gloomy pronouncements that threaten further international escalation of the war.

In short: yes, things are bad and looking to get worse.

And yet, I have come to realize that all this fretting and worrying — which is, after all, what the media promotes with its constant repetition of horrific images of such happenings — is not good for anyone, and doesn’t help. First because we don’t really know exactly for sure what happened or what is happening. Lots of initial images and facts have been revealed as fakes, and, in principle, one shouldn’t completely trust anything coming from the big media.

And second because hate and panic are not good in themselves and actually contribute to the problem. The System wants you to panic and hate. That’s why they are constantly provoking all those conflicts. But, among other things, a recent post from Mr. Charlton as well as some of his earlier writings led me to think that writing in hate and fear only brings more hate and fear, and that we should instead strive to think more positive thoughts.

You will ask, how is it possible to think positive thoughts, with the world going to the dogs like this?!? Well, even if the world is ending, or, at least, the modern western world — and that is, indeed, a possibility — we shouldn’t worry more than it is necessary about it. In fact, we shouldn’t think too much about the current end of this world at all, but instead try to concentrate in the new world that we want to build after that. Well, if we survive…

As Yeats wrote in “Lapis Lazuli”:

All things fall and are built again
And those that build them again are gay.

(Gay, here, of course, means “happy” or “joyful”, which is the meaning the word had before it was appropriated for other uses.)

Now, how can we do that? Well, I suppose each one can do it his own way, some concentrating on raising well their families, some on doing well their job, some on applying their skill or talents for positive enterprises.

I, for instance, have a hobby as a small-time publisher. Every month I receive something between 15 and 40 dollars from Amazon from the books sold by my independent imprint. It’s almost nothing, but it’s still more than I ever got paid for writing about politics and fretting about the state of the world, even when I wrote an actually successful political blog in Brazil years ago.

Now I am preparing three new books, one a bilingual Spanish-English edition of Horacio Quiroga’s short stories, another a new edition of Hilaire Belloc’s “The Path to Rome”, and another one a compilation of stories for children. I am also writing myself a non-fiction book about the history of Argentina, although that will only be available next year. All books are available in both digital and print formats.

Why do I do it, given that none of those books will probably sell much, if at all? Well, for one, I enjoy creating new editions of old books. It is fun to choose fonts and create a new design for the covers. I am a professor and translator by profession, so that’s also something I can do, I think, relatively well, even when I’m not paid. It is also good to think that I am doing a small part to keep old books alive.

While other publishers have been doing the same thing — after all, works in the public domain are free to be republished by anyone, and lots of works are available for free at Gutenberg and other sites — I have noticed that the quality of such books, in general, is very bad. Printing quality and translations are generally dismal, with lots of errors, typos and ugly covers. So I wanted to provide something with a slightly better quality. Of course, given that this is Amazon print-by-demand, the printing quality is variable and not as good as what could be obtained if I could print my own books, and a real publishing company, but that costs money that I don’t have. So, for now, it’s really no more than a useless hobby.

Another thing I can do, I think, is to focus my writing a bit less on the current apocalypse and more on the ways that we can build things again after they fall. At least, that is the challenge for this website and any other project that I may have in the future.

Will you join me?

I knew something was afoot when they said that it was “Israel’s 911”. I mean, I guess it depends if you believe the official narrative or not. But for those of us who don’t necessarily believe the official story, this is a red flag.

Now, I’m not saying people didn’t die. People also died in 9/11. But there’s something weird. How come this even happened? How come thousands of terrorists were able to cross one of the most guarded borders on earth and kill civilians en masse?

Well, it’s possible it’s just incompetence, and the Mossad isn’t really all that we were told. It’s also possible, say, well, that the Mossad knew about it or suspected it, but let it happen anyway, because they didn’t think it would be so big.

Maybe. But, in fact, 86% of people in Israel are blaming the Israeli government and saying what happened was a huge failure. 79% of Israelis want Netanyahu to resign. So whatever happened, it doesn’t seem to benefit him very much.

Whatever they plan to do in Gaza, Israelis are not happy with the government, and things are not looking good in general for Israel right now. They do not have easy options on Gaza, and they may have war coming from the North too.

I do have sympathy for the Israeli civilians killed. I don’t know if as many died as it is said, as there’s no way to verify, but I am sure many people died. I am sort of neutral on the conflict, as I try to see both sides.

But they lost me a bit at the dead babies thing. I mean, this is a psychological trick, always used to manipulate public opinion, even when true. Babies killed by Saddam! Babies killed with poison gas by Assad! Now, children sometimes die in war, in bombings, in terrorism and even in mass shootings, it’s true. Some of those events are fake, but some aren’t. Many Iraqi and Palestinian children died in bombings. Many children died in bombings in the Donbass. Children are not immune to the horrific effects of war.

But when you have stuff being brandished like that, it just becomes annoying, even if it’s true, because you see that it’s an attempt at psychological manipulation. It’s like Eli Wiesel in his Holocaust book, he also talks about babies being burned by the Nazis in an open field. I’m not a fan of the Nazis, and I’m sure a lot of Jews died in the camps, you don’t need to invent anything to make it more atrocious. But burning babies in an open field? Why would they do that?

On the other hand, well, if you attack, don’t be surprised if they attack you back. That applies to both sides, of course.

Now, I am not unsympathetic to Israel. You see, I have Jewish friends. Most of them are not religious and not very political, but some of them even visited Israel. I don’t know what is their position on the current conflict. But in general, I do think that Israel has a right to exist. I don’t see why, at least in theory, it should be so complicated for Israel to exist. You will say, the Arabs were there first. Yes, maybe, but the region was under British control, and before that under the Turks, and before that, Christian armies briefly conquered it during the Crusades, and throughout history lots of different peoples lived there, even some Jews.

Besides, there are a lot of other Arab countries, with a huge territory. Is it really so complicated to share a small part of it with Jews, who otherwise have no country of their own?

But of course, you forget that it is not just any “small part”. It’s the Holy Land, a place of immense importance to all the so-called Abrahamic religions. And there are lots of other interests, too. For the U.S., of course, Israel has huge geopolitical importance. For Europe, too. And for Iran, Palestine has become an important wedge. But also for Russia, who is somewhat between both camps, as they are now allied with Iran but, on the other hand, Israel has a lot of people of Russian origin, who left after the break up of the Soviet Union.
I guess what most people dislike is just Israel’s hypocrisy. Being nationalist is evil. Except in Israel, where it’s okay. So I think that’s the main point of discord. Well, at least for me.

What will happen now? I have no idea. Probably an expansion of the war. Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia. Maybe even the U.S., Russia and China. Who knows. We are in uncharted territory here.

I had a dream the other night. I remember little of it except someone talking about Gog and Magog. “This is the real Gog and Magog”, he said. Those are the name of evil nations that are supposed to be led by Satan to attack the Holy Land and then be destroyed during the Apocalypse. Many people debate what it means. Along history, they were associated with many different nations. The Mongol Empire. The Khazar Empire. Even the Vikings.

Today, some associate them with Russia and Iran, some with the United States.

Who knows? As they say, the only thing certain in life is death.

There’s a story from Primo Levi’s “The Truce” that I like. It happens after the Second World War ends. On seeing him without shoes, a Greek friend criticizes him: “The first thing you need in a war is a good pair of shoes.” “But the war is over”, answers Levi. “It’s always war”, the other replies.

Yes, my friends, it’s always war. And a big one is coming. Prepare accordingly.

May God have mercy on our souls.

In February 2022, no one expected that Covid would suddenly disappear from the headlines from one day to the next due to some war in the Ukraine.

In October 2023, I guess few people were expecting that the Ukraine war would suddenly disappear from the news because of another war between Israelis and Arabs, although both conflicts are not completely unrelated — and even the conflict in Nagorno-Kabarakh and the coup in Niger were related, too.

Let’s admit it, we’ve been in World War III since 2022 and this is just another front. Perhaps an Asian front will happen over Taiwan later on.

It’s difficult to talk about the Palestine question, and, honestly, I even dislike talking about it. There’s something about it that drives people to fits of rage, even people who do not live there and are neither Muslims nor Jews. No matter, they project their own anger on the side they hate the most, or even on those who refuse to take sides.

For instance, just now, on another blog, I was accused of being a “sociopath” for a brief and, admittedly, perhaps slightly cynical comment saying that I disliked equally both sides and just wished they made a compromise and left the rest of the world alone.

No one has accused me of being a “sociopath” for, as most of the rest of mankind and the whole media too, except perhaps Armenians and Azeris, not taking sides or even worrying very much about the recent conflict in Nagorno-Kabarakh, or any number of other atrocities in the world that are not so much portrayed in the media. You can’t really worry about everything that happens in the world, or you’d go mad.

Now, about the recent events… I would think that the apparent murder of innocent young people at a “peace festival”, or families in kibbutzes, or even random Thai workers in Israel, would be condemned by most people, but it is not the case. Many people are actually supporting the Hamas side.

Now, two caveats. First, I am well aware that it is possible that this was a “false flag”, or that there are many things about what happened that we don’t know about. I personally find it strange that the Israelis didn’t know anything about the “surprise attack” or were so incompetent in stopping it once it started. Miles Mathis says the whole thing is fake (But when did he say anything else about any other event? That’s his line, but sometimes he’s way off).

Nevertheless, I am sure some level of deception is involved. After all, it has been called “Israel’s 9/11”, and we know what that means. Well, at least those of us who don’t believe the conventional narrative. They are also comparing Hamas to ISIS, and knowing that ISIS was a group created or at least used by CIA/Mossad/MI6, that’s another red flag. But, for now, at least for the purposes of this text, I am assuming that the attacks were real, even if the number of deaths on each side may be exaggerated, and in any case impossible to verify.

Second caveat, of course the fact that atrocities were committed on one side do not justify atrocities on the other, in this case Israel bombing or levelling Gaza, or whatever they are planning to do to the Palestinians — we shall see soon enough.

Whatever — false flag or not, the mutual hate is real and so is World War III.

Now, who is right and who is wrong in the Palestine, and is there any solution?

I think both sides are wrong, and there’s no solution. Let me explain.

Both sides, mostly for religious but also historical reasons, lay claim to the whole area which is now called Israel but was called Palestine in Roman times, and won’t be satisfied with half-measures. The Arabs want the Jews out of “their turf”, period. They see it, rightly or wrongly, as stolen land. A “two-state solution” won’t do.

And the Jews… Well, I guess it varies between the Haredim and the more secular ones, but in general I guess they want the whole area too. Except perhaps maybe Gaza, which they’d gladly rather give to Egypt or anybody else that would want it, although of course no one does.

I’m aware that rich Jews in the West, like, say, George Soros, and even other not so rich Jews, are involved in a lot of negative things, and are perhaps the main group pushing for mass migration and multiculturalism, something I have criticized several times. I also know that Orthodox Jews in Israel dislike Christians and Christianity in general, even if lots of Christians, mostly of the evangelical variety, love Israel.

On the other hand, does that make me an “anti-semite”, whatever this means these days? I don’t know, but I can’t bring myself to hate all Jews, just as I can’t bring myself to hate all Muslims. I have quite a few Jewish friends and acquaintances. Not all are close, but having spent many years studying and working in universities, it was perhaps inevitable that I would be in contact with several Jewish people. Most of they seemed nice people, at least on a superficial level. The ones I’m still in contact with are not very political or religious — in fact, they are not religious at all — and I think they didn’t even visit Israel, nor are very vocal about the Middle East conflict. And, of course, there are a lot of Jewish artists, writers, scientists that I admire.

I also dislike Hamas and most Muslim fanatics, and I am also critical of the massive migration of Muslims into Europe, but does that make me hate them all as a group? Hardly. I met many Arabs, and they also seemed, on the whole, pretty nice people (there is a large Lebanese community in South America, although they are mostly Christians who left during the civil war there). In general, I’m not very much into hating large swaths of people, or, at least, I try to separate the personal from the political. I might dislike this or that group for their actions, but, on the level of individuals, I try to judge them case by case. It’s not always possible, of course.

In some conflicts, such as Nagorno-Kabarakh, and possibly even in the Ukraine, a compromise eventually becomes possible, or perhaps one side simply wins. But I do not think a compromise is possible in Palestine. Add to that the interests and interference in the region of other powerful countries — Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the U.S. — and, therefore, World War III.

Well, I’d rather be in Finland, in a cabin in the woods by a lake, not having to worry about any of that — only that Finland is now also part of NATO, and thus part of World War III too…

Perhaps the prophecies about the end of the world starting in the Holy Land are real.

I still think that Jesus was onto something with that Sermon of the Mount thing, but no one wants to hear that, especially not these days, when war is around the corner and everybody seems to be hating everybody, and even those who don’t hate the other side enough are hated and criticized.

You have heard that it was said, thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and abuse you. That you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon good and bad, and raineth upon just and unjust. For if you love only them that love you, what reward shall you have?

One of the strangest aspects of contemporary pop culture is how dark a lot of it is, and how drenched it has become in all kinds of occult symbolism.

I am way too old to personally follow pop music, and I don’t really watch most Hollywood movies anymore either, but sites such as Vigilant Citizen, among others, are useful to keep track of what goes on in today’s so-called entertainment industry.

For instance, Bebe Rexha’s “Sacrifice” videoclip shows the singer as some sort of vampire torturing and drinking the blood of her victims and finally covering herself in human blood. Doja Cat’s “Demons” shows the singer as, well, a demon. Ariana Grande’s lyrics for her 14-year-old fangirl base include gems such as “Fuck me till the daylight.” So much for teenage romanticism. Rap lyrics, luckily, continue to be traditional: it’s all about selling drugs and shooting rivals.

Meanwhile, photographs of pop stars covering one eye or wearing satanic imagery have become almost a cliche.

I could go on, but I guess you get the point.

Transgenderism and androgyny are increasingly promoted. Androgyny was present in the fashion industry at least since the 1970s, but recently it has become so over-the-top that it is unclear if it is meant to be satyrical. As for the film industry, it’s not just Hollywood anymore. A recent hit comedy series from Argentina included a transexual actor, and a recent Japanese series that I watched also had a transgender character in one of the main roles. It’s everywhere.

The visual arts, of course, have been at the forefront of promoting ugliness and debauchery for decades, with the shock value being much more important than beauty of talent. In fact, I can’t think of any recent famous work of modern art that could be considered beautiful, and, if it is, it might be just by accident.

Recently in the news, artist Marina Abramovic, who has a new show opening at the Royal Academy in London, was chosen to become some sort of Ambassador to the Ukraine, supposedly to help rebuild schools.

It’s a strange invitation.

As you probably know, Marina Abramovic is a famous and controversial performance artist. Her name, which means daughter of Abraham, sounds Jewish — and she could be related to mogul Roman Abramovitch — but supposedly she’s Serbian Orthodox, at least by birth and family.

She mostly does installations or performance stunts about sex, violence and death.

There are many other contemporary artists who do this kind of thing, but they are not exactly swimming in money or media appearances. Marina, however, has been heavily promoted for some reason and is always seen cavorting with celebrities such as Lady Gaga.

In 2016, during the leak of the Podesta emails, there was a whole discussion about an invitation for doing “spirit cooking” with the weird Podesta brothers and Hillary Clinton and other politicians. What did it meant exactly? Some say art, others say a type of magic ritual.

There was a big scandal, and she publicly denied being a Satanist.

But there is a famous photograph of her next to Lord Rothschild in front of a painting titled “Satan summoning his army”. (She has given talks to the Rothschild foundation. Maybe that picture is from that time.)

Perhaps it’s really just provocative art. Whatever floats your boat.

But some questions remain.

Why does she always wear black?

Or, if not, red?

Why does she look to be in her 40s or 50s when she’s almost 80 years old?

Why is she so obsessed with skeletons?

Why is she constantly photographed with snakes?

While the elite loves her, you can’t really blame the less sophisticated peasants for starting to think something else.