Updates (Oct 2024)
C. S. Lewis on brainwashing, an example of Error hating Truth, the founder of Netflix, Northern Lights in southern England, local politics, more Fighting Goliath, a podcast and a poster
Dear Church Leaders (and everyone else)
It’s been a while since the last update, so there’s plenty below. I’ve tried to steer clear of health-related material this month. Consider this post as something of a chocolate box to dive into as you fancy. I hope there’s something for everyone!
For info, I have plenty of posts in progress, including follow-ups to previous articles. I have recently been focusing on posts relating to the bigger picture (such as the one on Babylon) with a view to providing context for everything else. And my working assumption is that two or three articles a week is probably enough for most people.
Many thanks to readers offering encouragement and restacking and sharing articles. And to everyone for reading. So very much appreciated.
C. S. Lewis on brainwashing
In the context of Rev Dr William Philip’s comments about brainwashing in this post…
…I particularly appreciated seeing this C. S. Lewis quote from That Hideous Strength:
Why you fool, it’s the educated reader who CAN be gulled. All our difficulty comes with the others.
When did you meet a workman who believes the papers? He takes it for granted that they’re all propaganda and skips the leading articles. He buys his paper for the football results and the little paragraphs about girls falling out of windows and corpses found in Mayfair flats. He is our problem. We have to recondition him.
But the educated public, the people who read the high-brow weeklies, don’t need reconditioning. They’re all right already. They’ll believe anything.”
It seems that many “educated” people are so brainwashed that they are unwilling even to take seriously the notion that they could have been brainwashed. (And I write as someone who — at least to some extent — used to be one of them.)
An example of Error hating Truth
Which reminds me of the Error hates Truth article…
…and a comment from Irish GP Gerard Waters…
…namely…
I see my medical class of UCG 1977 [now University of Galway] have had a reunion this year, yet again excluding me. They left me off the mailing list for the first time in 2022 after 45 years [and] nine class reunions not because of what I did but because they had not the courage to face the only class member who stood up against the betrayal of our education, families, patients and people. I know they knew the truth as we received the same education.
Re the last part, I am reminded of Mike Yeadon saying something similar about the likes of Patrick Vallance.
The founder of Netflix
Also on the subject of brainwashing, in the context of this article featuring renowned propagandist Edward Bernays…
…I was recently reminded that Marc Randolph, the first CEO and co-founder of Netflix…
…is the great-nephew of Bernays, who is himself the nephew of the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud.
Hmm…
I found the short biography of Bernays here to be well worth reading.
Northern Lights in southern England
In the context of recent reports of more Northern Lights — in southern England…
…I recommend this fairly short article to those who haven’t previously seen it:
I’ve seen people say they’ve lived for decades in southern England and never seen anything like the above…
(Which is not to say that I claim to know what is actually going on here, but I am inclined to keep an open mind)
Local politics
In the context of this post…
…if you’re even vaguely interested in or thinking about getting more involved in local politics — or know anyone who is — I recommend this article:
TL;DR: Miri Finch describes her experience of running for a seat on her local council seat in Yorkshire, despite not living in the ward. She contends that fighting for freedom requires using every available tool, and makes the case that small-scale actions like protesting, writing letters, and getting involved in politics are important aspects of combating tyranny. In her experience, standing for election at a local level has provided lots of unexpected opportunities and a platform to influence real-world change and strengthen community bonds.
We need more people doing what Miri Finch is doing.
More Fighting Goliath
If you appreciated these interviews with Profs Norman Fenton and Martin Neil…
…this interview, featuring both together, might be of interest (alternative link in case it gets removed from YouTube):
This is Norman Fenton’s one-minute summary re the book:
We wanted the book to be a full historical record of the covid years as we saw them develop. And that involved not just… analysing the data and presenting graphs. In fact that’s actually only a relatively small part of the story in the book. The book is callled Fighting Goliath because the Goliath here was not just the government institutions which were producing the data but also the institutions that were censoring alternative view on those data. Like, for example, the journals, and the BBC, and all of these other organisations. That’s the story that we wanted to tell, and we wanted to document for history really.
A podcast
If you enjoyed this post about Laura Brett’s book Losing Liberty, Finding Freedom…
…I recommend this podcast featuring an interview with Laura and Dr Michelle Simpson:
A poster
And finally, on the subject of minority reports, in the context of this post (which gained rather more traction than I expected)1…
…I was heartened to receive a pdf of the poster below from one of the more enlightened church leaders I know (inspired by the article)…
…which I think is a fitting note on which to finish this month’s updates, along with these words often attributed to 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer:
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
I’m not so sure that what he says applies to all truth. But there is certainly a lot of wisdom in those words.
Dear Church Leaders articles (some of which can also be found on Unexpected Turns)
The Big Reveal: Christianity carefully considered
According to Substack’s list of the most popular posts, only the Medical propaganda from church leaders and the Going against the flow articles have had more views