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Green alarmists are fanning a firestorm of fear about man-made global warming.
Earth always cycles between warmth and cold. Every recent warm period (Medieval Warming, Roman Warming etc) was a time of plenty for all life on Earth, whilst cold periods like the Little Ice Age saw crop failures, famine, migrations, invasions, disease and death.
Data from Greenland Ice Core (GISP-2 (Greenland). From “The Inconvenient Skeptic” 2011, p 137, by John Kehr
Sea levels rise as ice sheets melt, and fall as they rebuild. Coastal dwellers and offshore coral reefs must always migrate landward or seaward, or north/south, following the climatic environment they prefer.
Warming/cooling phases are triggered by solar system cycles which are often accompanied by volcanism. These drivers are far more powerful than any human influences.
Oceans cover over 70% of Earth’s surface and dominate our weather and climate. When the sun or the volcanic trenches and rings-of-fire warm the oceans, two things happen. Firstly, water evaporates to form more clouds which shade, cool and rain on the Earth. Secondly, CO2 plant food is expelled into the atmosphere, like CO2 bubbles leaving a warming beer. This makes the oceans more alkaline.
With the additional moisture and CO2 plant food in the atmosphere, all plants benefit – forests expand, deserts shrink and grasslands, crops and marine plants flourish. All animals that live on plants or on grazing animals are also well fed. Soon farmers, graziers, foresters, fishermen, city dwellers and tax collectors welcome better times.
But climate is never still – changing climate and variable weather are normal conditions on Earth. For the last million years, Earth has basked in recurring short Warm Periods (about 12,000 years) followed by long brutal Frigid Periods (about 80,000 years).
People who live in more diverse communities were “more likely to be negative towards ethnic diversity.”
A new study being promoted by the mass media claims that working from home makes people more “racist” because they are less exposed to ‘diversity’ in the workplace.
The survey, conducted by polling company Survation for the Woolf Institute, “warns that without alternative settings to offices being set up, opportunities for social mixing between different religious and ethnic groups will be greatly reduced,” according to the BBC.
76 percent of those who work in shared offices in the UK are exposed to ethnic diversity, meaning those who work from home are isolated from such a setting and as a result more likely to be “prejudiced,” according to the study.
37 percent of unemployed people are also more likely to only have friends from their own ethnic group.
With huge numbers of people now working from home due to coronavirus restrictions, 44 percent of the workforce in the UK, this presents a conundrum for technocrats overseeing a “Great Reset” that seeks to restructure capitalism.
“Academia, long removed from scientific breakthrough and existential exploration, has seemingly become an industry dedicated to the relentless pursuit of racism, wherever it may dwell,” writes Graham Dockery.
“The Woolf Institute studies relations between faiths and ethnicities in the UK, and wouldn’t exist if it couldn’t root out ever more bizarre instances of prejudice to publicize.”
Interestingly enough, the study also concedes that people who live in more diverse communities were “more likely to be negative towards ethnic diversity.”
In other words, people who are actually exposed to ‘diversity’ don’t find it to be a “strength” and don’t like it.
This correlates with a 2019 peer reviewed study by Danish academics which found that ethnic diversity has a negative impact on communities because it erodes trust.
Seeking to answer whether “continued immigration and corresponding growing ethnic diversity” was having a positive impact on community cohesion, the study found the opposite to be the case.
So diversity really isn’t a strength after all, but our new technocratic overlords are going to force you to embrace it anyway.
The author tells his readership that pleasure seems to have overridden consciousness. (p. 28) People use their intelligence to rationalize inappropriate behavior. After all, children require work, they require care, attention and time. It seems that a sea of adults have not wished to deny themselves plastic. An ocean of people gave themselves up for meaningless careers rather than motherhood. The author steps up and refers to the soul of celebrities not wanting to sacrifice for progeny.
He believes that people don’t have enough role models. This is certainly true among certain elements of the US community who are overall fatherless. We read that in the case of white folks they are killing off their own heritage. (p. 30)
MCM writes about American idols. We see, for example, that US media icon George Clooney said that fatherhood wasn’t for him. The reason is that raising kids was a commitment. He stated that for him the priority was his career. (p. 31)
The author refers to others who are into themselves. For example, he mentions one woman who said she changes her boyfriends like men change socks. Oprah Winfrey said she had no desire to have a child. The author refers to egocentric role models. (p. 32) Taking from their intrinsic soul, to raising children will keep them from owning more plastic. (p. 33)
Although the topic of abortion is often monitored by book review censors, here it can be indicated that the author is very diplomatic; he refers to the use of chemicals, patches and pills. (p. 34) We see that the Supreme Court ruled, in 1973, that there’s a right to choose. The child can only be liquidated by the mother. Consequently, many men feel no responsibility. It seems as though they have been alienated. Here, it might be a good idea, to indicate that the percentage of children born without a father has skyrocketed. The book shows tools utilized in removing children. It makes an individual think about why the western world is in a birth famine. (p. 39)
As far as ethnicity goes, white society will decrease by 50% within the next half century. Fifty years ago those of European heritage were about a quarter of the world’s population. The figure now is less than 10%. (p. 42) The bottom line regarding US growth, is that the American immigrant population has grown from nearly nothing in the 1970s to what, in all probability, will be more than 40% by 2050. (p. 47) Here, we read illegal immigrants learn from experience that it’s foolish to obey any inconvenient law. Moreover, the children learning this, follow a similar path as their parent(s). (p. 48) This has been seen by hundreds of millions during riots in the past year in which American flags have been burnt from coast to coast. It’s no secret. Thanks to the Deep State, a large segment of the population is a culture created by dependency. It’s one that longs for power, according to a Dr. Lang. (p. 49)
There are many problems with America’s recent dilemma. From the time of the Clinton, Bush and Obama regimes there’s been an outsourcing of jobs. It seems that, in many ways, the population alteration is similar to that of outsourcing. The masses suffered, but the cooperatists’ profit-gain advanced and (2) they no longer had to pay health care.
Will EuroMan go the way of the Whopping Crane? The author tells his readership that no civilization with a long-term birth rate below two per female has ever survived. (p. 51) He also emphasizes about jobs being taken from Americans. He touches upon the sea of individuals that are being paid under the table; that ocean of employers, along with their illegal labourers, are avoiding taxes. Perhaps it would have been a decent idea to expand upon that industry.
Michael Master sums up plenty by gluing everything together and stressing that many wars are fought in the political sense, not just in the field of weapon industries. He assumes that there might not be enough Caucasians or Hebrews to win any future wars on their turf or in politics. (57)
He continues by saying that a great deal of our dilemma is the result of what is taught in our schools, shown on our TV stations, made in movies, discussed in newspapers. We have evolved into tolerating vile detrimental behavior. Behavior that is not only detrimental to children and those maturing into adults, but also to the nation as a whole. The reason is that there’s a difference between tolerance and acceptance. It’s one thing to be tolerant towards others in a charitable way. It is quite another to be accepting things that are obviously harmful. (p. 58) He ponders about the close to 100 million Americans who are missing from the population since Roe versus Wade. (p. 59)
I had been reading about the Putin administration granting huge rewards to Russian mothers having children. Michael Charles Master informs readerships that the American Deep State discourages having children. (p. 62) He continues by emphasizing that the government’s educational system discourages it. According to him, many teachers seem more interested in instructing children how to put a condom on a banana than teaching math and science. They encourage young people to engage in childless lives. Big business, Big Brother, the Deep State, all encourage more immigration of those with low IQs. Certainly this advances consumerism and (thus) sky-rockets profit-gain.
The author believes, like the vast majority of Americans, that our borders need to be secured. He also wants to reduce immigration quotas and mostly allow immigrants that are beneficial to society. Certainly outside of the eye of censorship, those monitoring citizens and the extreme left, most would agree with the argumentation of Michael Charles Master.
The author is a kind and compassionate individual who is concerned with the welfare of the USA. He understands that in order to rectify many of the problems a long period will be required. (p. 65)
Moreover, businesses must stop employing illegal immigrants. The author deems that undocumented workers need to be penalized. Doing that will reduce the motivation for illegal endeavors. Once businesses cannot get more illegal labour, company benefits will have to change as will TV commercials. In addition to that, education will change. Even tax laws will be altered. The author goes into his premise about making the laws more friendly for the family. (pp. 66, 67) Reminds me of Putin’s ideology for advancing his community.
Conclusio-
As we finish this book, the author goes back to education. He tells us most teachers are woman and unfortunately most of them are single. As such, they push their personal feelings onto impressionable children. (p. 68) As things stand today a large segment of American youth are not interested in their country. They also lack civil responsibility. Certain segments of the population are fatherless. The author sums everything up by saying that there’s a lack in seeking to raise a family and that has become normal in the country. People have lifestyles of irresponsibility and seek immediate gratification. (p. 69)
As this book is being completed, Mr. Master notes that in the end we’ll expire, so what does it matter how we live our lives? After mentioning faith, he refers to nature. He states that if nature is the supreme judge, then the future of all mankind is dependent on how we treat the birth of children. In our age of self gratification and recreational sex, he believes nothing else can demonstrate the love between two people as having children.
He states not diamonds or gold, or a big house, or a trip to the Bahamas, can match the love of one person for another, as does the joy of children. Children are products of love. They are the joy to the world from God, nature and evolution. He ends by telling us if there are no children there is no future.
On Beauty and Positive Propaganda, plus a European Aesthetics collection (download) with 700+ files of inspiring photography, paintings, illustrations, architecture and more.
Over the years I’ve collected a lot of inspiring imagery from various sources, and I thought it was about time that I shared the wealth. Due to my own beliefs and heritage, everything I’ve saved is generally North-West-European-centric and pagan-orientated, but I’m sure everyone will find something inspiring contained within the folder.
“Why share these images, and how is a folder of 730~ .jpgs going to help us?”
I’m not foolish enough to believe that simply posting a few images online is going to inspire any great revolution of the spirit and of folk consciousness, however, even as much as looking at a few inspiring and intrinsically European images can help individuals reawaken some semblance of folkish soul buried within them. My hope is that anyone who sees these sorts of images may be inspired to act or create, to get out, explore, or perhaps take up a new hobby. What’s the point of social media if not to use it in a way that can effect change in real life?
“You’re just posting cool pictures blah blah.”
Absolutely true, but what are the majority of people posting? Gossip? Trash television? Nihilistic memes about xanax and suicide?
Our current situation has led to an almost complete decentralization of our “movement” (if you can even call it that), unlike movements of yore, we do not have the luxury of a centralized propaganda department to do all of our work for us – everything is reliant upon the efforts of individuals who take time out of their own lives to work towards a goal. The efforts of individual anons doing even something as simple as posting inspiring imagery should not be downplayed.To use my own Twitter as an example: in the last 28 days I’ve posted around 800 tweets (quite a lot, but I make long threads), collectively those 800 Tweets have been seen 2.3 million times in 28 days. The number of people you can reach with only a few thousand followers always astounds me.
Anti-Blackpill Action
Modernity is hideous and detestable; genuine beauty, especially that which was crafted by European hands, is rapidly and intentionally being erased from existence – primarily by our enemies, but also by our own brainwashed kin. It’s very easy for an individual to get blackpilled and despair when they see this happening in real time before their own eyes. Travelling to once majestic cities in Europe and seeing the unique and ancient architectural expressions being consumed by rancid, cookie-cutter, modernist obelisks is certainly soul-destroying (I’ve travelled enough of the world to confirm that almost no white lands are safe from this plague).
The fact that our own culture and history is being intentionally erased* should be reason enough to collect and share these amazing artworks among ourselves.
* See for example, the “Nordic” Minister of Culture ‘Alice Bah Kuhnke’ ordering Viking artefacts to be melted down and recycled.
This being the case, it is all the more vital to remind people that there still exists much genuine beauty in the world, and that it should, and must, be maintained and contributed to at all costs.
Positive Propaganda
Many others, such as the illustrious Bronze Age Pervert, have criticized those who continually post blackpilling media as being subversive demoralizers, propagating despair and reinforcing the stereotype of white weakness. See for example, the recently busted-as-feds account ‘Voice of Europe’ that would constantly post videos of white males being beaten up. Who does this benefit? Not us. Even more telling is that this 24/7 demoralization stream came directly from an account controlled by federal agents.
If you regularly use social media, you should aim to offset any depressing or blackpilling content with positive (for want of a better word) “propaganda” materials. Fill the timeline with imagery and posts that encourage health, vitality, beauty, strength, connection to nature, and so on.
Sharing inspiring imagery shouldn’t be regarded as escapism or flaccid nostalgia, but an ideal to strive for.
A selection of images I like from the European Aesthetics folder.
I would have included more in the folder, but it takes a while to upload so many files. I’ll make another folder when I get time. Apologies in advance, none of the files are accurately labeled/named because 1) I’m lazy and 2) I wasn’t planning on sharing them with anyone.
Only 17% of Canadians want more immigrants in 2021, as Trudeau pushes immigration plan: poll
ARCHIV – Ein Boot mit Flüchtlingen aus Nordafrika nähert sich am 09.04.2011 der süditalienischen Insel Lampedusa. Der Flüchtlingsstrom aus Nordafrika beschäftigt am Montag (11.04.2011) die EU-Innenminister bei ihrem Treffen in Luxemburg. Mindestens 22 000 Flüchtlinge sind seit Beginn der politischen Unruhen in Nordafrika im Januar allein auf der italienischen Insel Lampedusa angekommen. EPA/ETTORE FERRARI +++(c) dpa – Bildfunk+++
Trudeau’s government is planning on bringing in more than 400,000 new residents in 2021.
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is proposing increasing how many immigrants Canada brings in each year, but a new poll suggests that it’s out of step with what Canadians want.
A Nanos Research Group poll, reported by Bloomberg News, found that only 17% of respondents think the country should accept more immigrants in 2021 than it did in 2020. Of the rest, 40 percent want the same amount and 36 percent want fewer immigrants.
According to Reuters, the plan is to add more than 400,000 new permanent residents in 2021 and 411,000 in 2022 – an increase of 50,000 from previous targets.
“The plan today helps us to make up for the disruption that has been caused by COVID-19 in 2020,” Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino told the outlet.
In part because of coronavirus restrictions, Canada only added 128,425 people in 2020, lower than its 341,000 target. Mendicino told Reuters that immigration is “one of the keys to our economic recovery and our long-term prosperity.”
But the opposition Conservative Party lawmakers opposed the push by Trudeau’s Liberal Party, saying that an economic downturn with high unemployment was not a time to be bringing in more workers.
“We’re facing 9% to 10% unemployment – more than a million Canadians are out of work,” lawmaker Raquel Dancho told Bloomberg. “Where are these folks going to work? Where are these folks going to live?”
The Nanos poll of 1,000 Canadians was conducted between Oct. 28 and Nov. 1 via telephone and online.
Why is Trudeau hyper-driving immigration when our economy is still in Covid-shock?
Along with economic devastation and the concomitant social consequences on physical and mental health, the COVID-19 pandemic has starkly shown the downside of urban densification. Dense populations provide viruses with more opportunities for transmission. Hence the directives to maintain social distance in public places and stay home as much as possible. The latter is surely a greater burden for someone living in a small apartment in a densifying urban zone than for someone who has a house on a wooded lot or lives near a park.
The economic shutdowns enforced during the early stages of the pandemic resulted in a peak unemployment rate of 13.7% in July, which fell to a still very high 9% by September. The employment situation for certain age groups is worse. The jobless rate for youth was 20.5% in September, down from 25.6% in August. Many Canadians, especially those in the hardest hit sectors, are dependent on government assistance to survive. With the predicted “second wave” upon us in parts of the country, and restaurants and many businesses forced to close or greatly reduce their activities, the employment situation remains uncertain.
The turmoil of 2020 provided governments with the perfect opportunity to reconsider their priorities, chief among which might be developing a pandemic preparedness plan and establishing, to the extent possible, self-sufficiency in critical supplies. And, not least, to rethink the economic paradigm of continuous growth.
In Canada, for the last several decades, the imperative of economic growth has been met by driving population growth through immigration. Per capita, Canada has the highest intake of immigrants among industrialized countries.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and closed borders, Canada’s intake of immigrants fell dramatically during 2020, and polls show that Canadians are in no rush to return to pre-pandemic levels. But Canada’s government thinks otherwise and, despite high unemployment and economic uncertainties, last week announced its plans to bring in 1.2 million immigrants over the next three years, starting with 401,000 in 2021. The intake would include skilled workers, family members and refugees.
Rather than worry about diversity and economic growth, we suggest that the Government of Canada and lobbyists like the Chamber of Commerce direct their focus on getting unemployed Canadians to fill those labour market gaps and providing training where needed.
Canada’s pursuit of economic growth through population growth is misguided from any perspective. Despite the rhetoric about Canada’s aging population, immigration has not changed the age structure of Canada.
The growth of Canada’s population through immigration has not increased the real earnings of the average Canadian.
Rather than GDP or population size, government policies should focus on equality levels, debt, job quality and life satisfaction. The monetized metrics used to represent growth, such as GDP and tax revenue, are not good indicators of well-being or fiscal viability. Over the past six decades, growth has failed to lower debt and inequality, increase housing affordability, improve job quality, or assure fiscal balance.
On the contrary, Canadians are carrying more debt than ever before and an increasing number are being priced out of the housing market, while low income earners in many communities cannot afford to pay the rent.
Canada’s growth also has negative environmental impacts. Canada is a high resource-consuming country and high per capita user of energy and producer of greenhouse gas emissions. Many immigrants come from countries with relatively low per capita GHG emissions, and the average GHG emissions of newcomers to Canada increase by a factor of four.
Our growing population and increasing urbanization result in the loss of farmland and wildlife habitat.
Growth boosters and those who profit from it tell us that growth is the solution to problems it has never solved.
But continuous population and economic growth are not only unsustainable. Whatever benefits they have go to the few (speculators, developers, bankers, businesses seeking cheaper labour or a larger market), while the social and environmental costs are borne by all.
China Is Killing Americans with Fentanyl – Deliberately
By Gordon Chang, Chinese-American Senior Fellow, Gatestone Institute Author of (1) The Coming Collapse of China and (2) How China has damaged the world.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM GORDON CHANG ARTICLE : (1) Mainland China is obsessed with increasing its “comprehensive national power” (CNP). It meticulously measures it, thoroughly studies it, and constantly compares rankings of China to other countries, especially (to) the United States. (2) China’s officials will stop at nothing to increase China’s CNP and decrease the CNP of other countries. China is, with malice, trying to reduce America’s comprehensive national power with fentanyl. There can be no other explanation for Beijing letting criminal organizations (in China) operate unimpeded. (3) The Communist Party, through its cells, controls every business of any consequence. Beijing tightly controls the banking system and knows of money transfers instantaneously. Furthermore, fentanyl cannot leave the country undetected, as virtually all shipped items are examined before departing Chinese soil. (4) China’s postal service has to know that it has become, among other things, the world’s busiest drug mule. (5) The regime has adopted the doctrine of “Unrestricted Warfare,” explained in a 1999 book of the same name by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. The thesis of the authors, both Chinese Air Force colonels, is that China should not be bound by any rules or agreements in its attempt to take down the United States…. (6) U.S. Customs and Border Protection learned that 13% of packages from China contain some form of contraband, including fentanyl and other deadly substances. (7) China’s regime has been pushing fentanyl into the United States for years. (8) Fatal drug overdoses in the U.S. last year hit a record 70,980, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those deaths, 36,500, were from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. Cocaine and methamphetamine fatalities were also up, largely because these substances were mixed with fentanyl. (9) In China, gangs work on fentanyl compounds in labs to make the drug more addictive, a former American national security official told me a few years ago. Moreover, Chinese technicians constantly change formulas to avoid detection at the American border.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ HOW CHINA’S COMPREHENSIVE NATIONAL POWER POLICY AFFECTS CANADA China is also sending fentanyl into Canada. In parts of Canada, the number of deaths from fentanyl is close to the number of deaths from Covid-19. According to Macleans Magazine research, Canada Post is the shipping method of choice for fentanyl importers. https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/fentanyl-at-the-click-of-a-mouse/ Canada Post is inhibited from interfering with mail from China because of a law written in 1981 which considered mail interception an unthinkable violation of privacy. This is a major problem because Mainland Chinese immigration to Canada has exploded in the past 20 years : Several million Mainland Chinese have arrived as China has become one of the major sources of immigrants for Canada. See https://canadaimmigrants.com/chinese-immigrants-to-canada/ A significant number of those Chinese immigrants are probable supporters of China’s Comprehensive National Power policy and will undermine the national interests of Canada. It is highly probable that some of those Chinese are receiving packages of fentanyl from China and selling fentanyl here. Chinese immigrants, with the help of foolish Judge Rosalie Abella’s Employment Equity/Preferential Hiring policy, have infiltrated all sectors of Canada. Some are undoubtedly sending important Canadian information back to China. One particularly big question is this : China’s fentanyl has undoubtedly damaged Canada, but how much did China’s Comprehensive National Power policy play in creating Canada’s Unaffordable Housing Crisis, a virtual national catastrophe which has damaged or destroyed the lives of millions of Canadians? To summarize : ethnic Chinese activity has inflated prices in Canada’s housing market, colonized parts of Canada and de-stabilized Canada’s economy. How much more serious can things get?
The Dracula Solution: Vlad the Impaler Was A Patriot Who Protected His People from Invasion
In 1453, the forces of Mehmed II, the seventh sultan (1) of the Ottoman Empire, besieged the city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. The siege started on the sixth of April, and ended a little under two months later on the twenty-ninth of May. It ended in total victory for Mehmed II and the fall of the Byzantine Empire, whose last emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos died in the field of battle defending Eastern Christianity and his city, throne, and empire. This was the culmination of centuries worth of assault by Islamic forces on Eastern Christendom that had started before the Turks had become the dominant power in the Islamic world and before Eastern and Western Christianity had undergone a formal ecclesiastical separation to match the earlier civil separation of the Roman Empire, an assault which had provoked the response of the Crusades only decades after the aforementioned ecclesiastical separation. After the walls that had long protected the Byzantine capital fell to Mehmed’s artillery, the triumphant sultan renamed the city, which had been Constantinople since Constantine the Great had relocated the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium over a millennium earlier, Istanbul, made it the capital of his own empire, and declared himself the new Caesar. The Ottomans then set their sights on the conquest of Western Christendom, launching a campaign that would eventually bring them to the gates of the capital of the Holy Roman Empire in 1683, where they would be decisively defeated by the allied forces of Emperor Leopold I and Polish King Jan III Sobieski.
That, however, was two hundred and thirty years after Mehmed’s victory. Immediately after the Fall of Constantinople, the conquering sultan went on to attack other Christian territories, winning a number of significant victories in the Balkans. Then, less than a decade after the defeat of the Byzantine Empire, he turned his attention to Wallachia, in what is now Romania. Wallachia was situated between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary and both had long laid claim to it as a vassal state. In the fifteenth century, these larger powers were constantly struggling against each other to put one of their own puppets on the Wallachian throne, and against a growing determination on the part of the Wallachian royalty to resist submission to either. It was this sort of resistance on the part of the Wallachian voivode (prince/warlord) that drew Mehmed’s attention. He had sent emissaries to Wallachia to receive tribute from the Romanian prince, but they were killed and the sultan received instead an invasion of his own territory, in which villages were laid waste and thousands killed. Raising a tremendous army, in 1462 he marched into Wallachia, convinced that victory was assured him. After crossing the Danube, his camp was attacked but the Romanians failed to capture him. Shortly thereafter he made it to the Wallachian capital of Târgoviște, where he met with a bone-chilling, blood-curdling spectacle. The city was deserted, but surrounding it, was a gigantic field containing large wooden stakes or pikes. Impaled upon those stakes were about twenty thousand Turks, men, women and children, whom the Wallachian prince had captured. Both impressed and horrified, Mehmed retreated.
The name of the voivode who struck such awe in the heart of the Turkish sultan is one that I am sure you are all familiar with. His name was Dracula.
The image that that name has probably summoned up is one of a clean-shaven, pale man in a tuxedo with a big cape, his black hair slicked back from his widow’s peak and plastered to his head with what looks to be an entire jar of pomade, who sleeps in a coffin all day, waking at night to speak in a bad imitation of an Eastern European accent while he bites beautiful young ladies in the neck and drinks their blood.
The above image comes, of course, from the Hollywood versions of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. Bram Stoker, who was born and raised in Dublin, lived most of his life in London, where he managed the Lyceum Theatre, owned by his friend, the actor Sir Henry Irving, and wrote novels on the side. Dracula was his fifth published novel. Like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which had appeared eight decades earlier, it is written in epistolary format, that is to say, as a collection of letters, journal entries, and diary clippings, rather than from the point of view of a single narrator. In the novel, Dracula is a Transylvanian Count who moves to London, where he stalks a young lady named Lucy, the best friend of the fiancée of an English lawyer he had employed, draining her of most of her blood and putting her under a kind of mind control. Her friends, concerned about what is happening to her, put her in the hands of Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, a physician who, conveniently enough, has the hobby of vampirology. When Lucy dies and becomes a vampire, Van Helsing and the others put an end to her undead existence and then go in hunt of Count Dracula. They track him down as he is nearing his castle in Transylvania in his last remaining coffin – he had brought a lot of backups which the vampire hunters had destroyed – and kill him.
Stoker’s having given his vampire the name of the fifteenth century historical figure was presumably a result of his having relied heavily upon Romanian folklore for his research into the vampire legend prior to writing his novel (vampire legends occur in folklore around the world, but, due mostly to Stoker’s book, the vampires that appear in twentieth century film and literature, most closely resemble those of Eastern European folklore). Within the novel, the historical figure is alluded to on a couple of occasions. Count Dracula himself, when he is trying to pass himself off as a human aristocrat, speaks of the historical Dracula as an ancestor. Dr. Van Helsing, however, later expresses the opinion that the count is none other than the undead corpse of the voivode himself.
Vlad III of Wallachia, of course, had a reputation for bloodthirstiness long before Stoker wrote his novel. One can hardly do such things as he did at Târgoviște, as described a few paragraphs back, without gaining such a reputation. Among his Hungarian and Saxon enemies, this reputation even took on aspects more closely resembling the kind of bloodthirstiness that appears in Stoker’s novel. They spread the report that Vlad would set up his table in the midst of his impaled enemies, dipping his bread in their blood. Since this comes from his enemies, it is probably wisest to take it with a grain of salt. In his own Romania, however, where he is celebrated as a national hero, he is commonly referred to as Vlad Tepes (pronounced ze-pesh). Although this designation draws attention to the rather sadistic way in which he dealt with his foes – Tepes translates into English as “The Impaler” – it does not detract from his domestic heroic image but rather enhances it. He was the man who did what had to be done to prevent the barbarian hordes that had sacked the capital of Eastern Christianity from overrunning his country too.
Vlad III inherited his fight against the Ottoman Turks. His father, Vlad II, was given the name Dracul when he joined the Order of the Dragon in 1431, which is why his descendants bore the patronym Dracula, a diminutive form meaning “son of Dracul.” The Order of the Dragon was a knightly fraternity, founded by Sigismund of Luxemburg, King of Hungary in 1408, and modelled on the Order of St. George of the previous century. Its members were sworn to protect Christianity and Christendom, against the Ottoman Turks. Vlad Dracul was an illegitimate son of Mircea the Elder, who was raised in Sigismund’s court. Upon Mircea’s death, Sigismund had backed Dracul’s claim to his father’s throne, whereas the Ottomans had supported the claim of his half-brother Alexander. It was only after Alexander died that Dracul was able to assume the throne. In the meantime he had moved to Transylvania, where Vlad III, his second son, was born.
When Vlad Dracul assumed the throne of Wallachia he had a strong backer in Sigismund, who had become the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire three years previously. Sigismund died the following year, however, and the throne of Hungary was filled by Albert the Magnificent, who, not being emperor, was much weaker than this predecessor, causing Dracul to seek terms of peace with the Ottomans. When, a couple of years later, Albert himself died, the much stronger Wladyslaw III, King of Poland took his place. Wladyslaw, along with John Hunyadi, the Transylvanian voivode, pressed Dracul back into the fight against the Turks. This led to his capture by the Turks, however, who released him, only upon his agreeing to a long list of conditions, the security of which they ensured by taking Dracul’s younger sons, Vlad III and Radu, as hostages. The result of this period of captivity in the sultan’s court was that Vlad became a more zealous foe of the Turks than his father had ever been, while Radu became their loyal supporter, fighting under Mehmed at Constantinople. The consequence of this was that when Vlad Dracula claimed his father’s throne – his elder brother Mircea II had been captured and tortured to death by the boyars (patricians) of his capital city shortly before their father was killed – and turned against the Turkish sultan, Mehmed had a replacement at hand in Radu. Indeed, when the sultan retreated from Târgovișt, Radu remained to fight his brother and, garnering support among the Wallachian aristocracy and middle class, replaced Vlad III when the latter turned to the Hungarians for assistance and was imprisoned. Fourteen years later, Vlad, with the support of the same Hungarians, briefly returned to the throne before dying fighting the Turks. (2)
Vlad Dracula was a severe and cruel man even by the standards of his own day. It was not the incident at Târgoviște alone that earned him the cognomen Tepes. He was, however, in one sense, a fairly just ruler. That is to say, if the quick and efficient dispensation of punishment to the guilty is all that you are looking for by way of justice. By Singapore’s present standards, he might even be considered an exemplary ruler. For those of us in the Commonwealth realms, (3) whose traditional Common Law understanding of justice places a premium on such concepts as the presumption of innocence, trial by jury, letting the punishment fit the crime, etc., he is much further removed from our idea of a model governor. We ought, however, to refrain from judging him by the standards of our own tradition, especially without considering the historical context in which he committed his famous/infamous deeds. A good understanding of the history of the attempted Islamic conquest of Christendom, the fifteenth century collapse of the Byzantine Empire under the weight of that onslaught, and the inroads the Turks were making into the Balkans in the immediate aftermath of that collapse is essential to viewing Dracula in his proper context, and goes a long way towards helping us understand why he is considered a hero in his own national tradition.
Dracula and his era hardly held a monopoly on cruelty. Progressives of our own day, who are seemingly incapable of thinking outside of the box of liberalism, universal human rights and democracy, condemn the inhumanity of the kind of cruelty that involves physical torture except when it is a voluntary alternative lifestyle choice such as in the erotic novels of E. L. James. They are blind, however, to the cruelty they themselves often support in the name of their humanitarian, do-gooder, causes.
Consider the example of the measures taken in response to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus this year. After initially pooh-poohing the virus, and calling anybody who suggested a temporary ban on travel in and out of China to attempt to contain the outbreak within that country a “racist”, once it was clearly too late do any such thing and the virus was already speeding around the world, they did a complete turnabout and began supporting the most oppressive of measures aimed at stopping the virus. When the WHO first declared a pandemic it was still winter in this part of this world, but that did not prevent our governments from closing all public facilities and restaurant dining rooms and telling everybody to “stay home”, leaving the thousands of people with no home to stay at, literally out in the cold. That was an act of cruelty. Then, because very elderly people with multiple health problems are the most at risk from the virus, their loved ones were prohibited from visiting them in long-term care facilities, condemning them, in the name of keeping them “safe”, to months of loneliness and despair, which in the end, probably contributed more to the death toll in such facilities this year than the virus itself. Another act of insanely inhumane cruelty. If being very cruel to the destitute and homeless on the one hand and the elderly on the other were not bad enough, our governments, to pay for the insane and unprecedented universal quarantine they imposed upon us all, have saddled future generations for centuries to come with the burden of paying off the debt they have racked up. Christians, Jews, Muslims, and, indeed, people of all religions, have been denied the spiritual solace and comfort of their faith traditions in a time when they have an especially great need for it, this having been what has gotten people through pandemics in the past. Then, of course, there is the cruelty of the restrictions placed upon small business owners, that have been driving them into bankruptcy, even while the despicable, vile, low-life, scum who run the big technology and pharmaceutical companies have been raking in the billions off of this scam of a pandemic. Finally, there is the cruelty of telling people that they are not allowed to work, buy food and other necessities, or, basically, live, unless they wear a stupid, ugly, totem, over their noses and mouths, that has no real protective value whatsoever despite all the horse manure being spread about “the science” behind them, which makes breathing and communicating both more difficult and more uncomfortable, and which, since these things collect and breed germs the way they are being used, which is not in conformity with the safety guidelines for the use of higher grade masks in hospitals, will have the necessary effect of making people more sick rather than less.
All of the bleeding heart, world-and-humanity-loving, liberal, progressive types, who are the first to condemn the cruelty of torture and the death penalty, do not seem to have any problem with the kind of cruelty outlined in the previous paragraph, for they have been cheering all of these measures, and, indeed, crawling to their governments, like Oliver Twist, saying “please sir, I want some more”, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it is not just their own rights and freedoms that they are sacrificing and surrendering for protection from the Bogeyman of SARS-CoV-2, but those of their family, friends, neighbours, and everybody else as well. As with most other matters, they have got everything backwards. The cruelty of stakes and iron maidens and other medieval tortures was at least an honest cruelty, one which made no pretense of being anything else. The cruelty which the progressives support, wears the mask of benevolence. It is the worst of the two.
If there were any human justice worth speaking of left on this planet, an extremely dubious protasis indeed, all those responsible for thinking up and imposing these measures on us all would be put on trial and charged with crimes against humanity. The precedent established at Nuremberg for dealing with such crimes, was capital punishment, at least for those who bear the greatest responsibility. In the event that this hypothetical and highly unlikely scenario were to materialize, and the court finds the culprits guilty and pronounces sentence after the Nuremberg precedent, should the judges truly wish to send a definitive message that there are to be no more universal lockdowns ever again, then when it comes time to determining the mode of execution, perhaps they should not peremptorily rule out the method preferred by Dracula. Brutal though it be, it seems somewhat appropriate for the ghoulish spiritual vampires who have spent most of this year sucking the joy out of life and making this world a living hell for everyone else.
(1) The numbering of the sultans does not include several individuals whose claim to the title was on more dubious grounds than that of those recognized by the historians.
(2) In between Dracula’s imprisonment and his brief return to power, the voivodeship of Wallachia had passed between his brother Radu the Fair and Basarab Laiotă multiple times. Basarab Laiotă was a cousin of theirs – the Draculas or Draculesti are a branch of the Basarab family, and indeed, Dracula’s full legal name, included Basarab along with Vlad and Dracula (Tepes was only added after his death, although his enemies called him by the equivalent in their tongues during his lifetime). Basarab Laiotă held the voivodeship last before Dracula’s return and would resume it again after Dracula’s death. The competing claims of the different branches of the dynasty – and it was far more complicated than when the House of Plantagenet divided into the Houses of Lancaster and York in England during the period of the War of the Roses, as can be seen in the fact that Vlad and Radu were rivals but both from the Dracula line of the divided Basarab House – were, of course, the primary means through which the larger Ottoman and Hungarian powers contended for control of the region.
(3) Singapore is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations but not a Commonwealth realm. The latter are parliamentary monarchies with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. Singapore is a republic.
