Polaritics

I used to believe that polarity, one of the essential forces that rules the universe, creates gravity, and makes the world go round, was intrinsic to nature, including human nature. That polarity also governed civilisation. That the balance between the East and West, for example, depended on social, economical, and political polarity. For the simple minded, like me, there may be a grain of truth in this. Since the end of the Soviet-Afghan war, however, when Soviet communism finally died in 1989, and the Berlin Wall was pulled down later that same year, this claimed balance has changed somewhat. It was natural that distrust between the East and West remained, at least for a reasonable period of time, but when the ‘big, bad Russian bear’ allows public and trade freedom, when it reaches out to the West only to be scornfully shunned, surely something must be wrong. 

This incoherency is emphasised by the fact that Russia has resuscitated its cultural identity and its Orthodox Christianity, Yet at the same time the western establishment monopolised by ideologists who ironically seem engrossed in espousing covert Marxism, feel the need to continue to treat Russia as the evil enemy, inventing all sorts of idiocies to reinforce this hostile attitude. It was, for example, particularly revealing that during the endless Syrian war, and not long even after the Ukrainian coup, a coup certainly encouraged by Obama with the complicity of the expansionist EU executive, Vladimir Putin reached out to the USA with the offer of cooperation to rid the world of ISIS. Naturally Obama refused the offer. Perhaps he was also still in the throes of covertly using ISIS, with the complicity of Erdogan, in order to try to bring down Assad. 

Since then we have had the opportunity to hear Assad express his point of view. After years of being led to believe he was an ogre capable of tearing young children apart and eating them, we were surprised to hear how reasonable and intelligent he is. We also note that today Russia is less inclined to manifest a close alliance with Iran. This so much so that Putin recognises Israel’s right to secure its borders, even to the extent of letting Israel destroy any Iranian military presence near its border with southern Syria. This, whereas Obama was virtually hostile towards Israel, and irresponsibly over generous and tolerant towards Iran. 

Surely Biden, assuming he will become US President, despite the fraudulent methods overtly used to achieve this function, will be manipulated to implement more or less the same foreign policy as Obama. And therefore naturally Biden will also be persuaded to open the flood gates to illegal immigration, even though the negative consequences of immigration in Europe should obviously discourage this ill-inspired idea. It should have been enough for Americans to realise the danger towards the end of Obama’s second mandate. So confident was the ex President that H. Clinton would be elected, that he began to spell it all out, in a sinister, enigmatic way. 

Such is the scenario. Whilst the West treats Russia as the dangerous foe, using unlikely incidents leading to incoherent accusations to try to justify the argument, it allows the real wolves into the sheep pens. Paradoxically the western establishment is still not discouraged from believing that ‘failed multiculturalism’ will pave the way to global Utopia. 

So where does polarity now figure in this strange tragicomedy turn of events? Does it mean that as Russia has had the courage to dismiss communism as a failed ideology, and resuscitate its true, rich, cultural heritage and identity, the West is going the opposite way by undermining its true, rich, cultural heritage and identity, its root religion and inherent values by obsessively pushing an agenda that falsely advocates equality and cultural (or rather cultureless) conformity, using virtually the same ideology that eventually, ineluctably proved a disastrous failure for Russia? 

 It certainly seems so, and would be an incredible admission of western stupidity. But then isn’t democracy itself eventually destined to become its own enemy? We saw this in Egypt. It could happen in Europe and the USA as well, if the status quo is allowed to continue indefinitely. 

It’s a sign of the times when one looks towards the East with hope, during an epoch when one feels that the very foundations of one’s own identity are no longer truly represented, supported and defended. And when fear is used to control and oppress the people during a concocted in China pandemic, that has had no negative impact whatsoever regarding trade relations with Beijing and ‘the People’s Republic’. 

The Sovereign Supreme Pontiff is also used to illustrate how ideology (and polarity, if not also bipolarity) can even influence the Vatican. ‘Fraternity’ and ‘Equality’ (including LGBTQIAWXYZ) at the expense of Liberty, Christianity and true faith.

🎴 

Text and image © Mirino. November, 2020

 

Bonne entente

 

I believe in miracles. Life itself is a miracle, and those who disagree, can only be regressive, loveless fools. Love is also a miraculous phenomena. It has amazing curing powers, and can even determine premonitions. I know this because I have personally experienced them. 

When I was about nineteen I had an important operation in my right ear. Due to an inherent physical ailment called Otospongiosis that my mother also suffered from through her life, it was necessary for me to undergo an operation called Stapedectomy. It consists of removing the stapes of the middle ear and replacing them with a very simple prosthesis. In the sixties this operation was relatively new, and I was fortunate enough to be operated on by a certain Dr. Wright (In Middlesex Hospital, London) who was later knighted for his excellent surgical achievements in this field. However, at that time there was less certainty that a similar operation should be carried out on both ears within a limited period of time. 

In any case, I had other ideas and wished to travel and work on the continent, which I did. In the process I neglected the eventual requirement regarding my left ear, and my hearing on that side deteriorated. 

Out of ignorance and blind faith I entrusted this care, probably too late in any case, and following the advice of my ex father-in-law (GP) to an aesthetic surgeon in France, who also claimed to be able to perform the operation of Stapedectomy (on the side). He failed and I suffer greatly from tinnitus from my left ear also as a result. Apparently, according to an otolaryngologist, there are about twelve such failed cases like mine in Nice caused by this individual. Consequently he no longer has the right to practice, and it’s just as well. 

Since then I have naturally adapted to my particular condition, and assume the responsibility as well as the consequences without any regrets. Indeed, apart from tinnitus, I consider that an important degree of deafness can be advantageous. My Scottish mother used to say that if you can’t hear what a person is saying to you, it’s generally never really important. This I too have found to be quite true. In other words if someone really wants to communicate, they will find the means and make the necessary effort to do so. 

Hearing aids are constantly improving, and I continue to get by better than I ever imagined, thanks essentially to the operation of Dr. Wright, performed so well, many years ago. Yet, after thirty years of marriage, and of the necessary constant wearing of various hearing aids, I separated from my former wife and was later destined to meet another woman. 

The person I was destined to meet accepts me and loves me as I am. This was in fact a brand new experience for me. I in turn accept her and love her as she is. When we first met, almost twenty years ago now, another miracle took place. For two years following our meeting I no longer needed to wear a hearing aid in my right ear. How is it possible that after so many years of being obliged to rely on a hearing aid, I was suddenly free of this obligation? That this incredible experience lasted two years is indeed a miracle, and is proof of the powers of love and well being (amor vincit omnia). That it didn’t last longer than two years in no way diminishes its importance and its miraculousness. 

I am fortunate enough to have therefore benefitted from miracles. They apply to me in other aspects as well, but it would take far too long to also refer to such history here. 

Recently I had an appointment with another ear specialist who believes that he might be able to perform a miracle regarding my insensitive left ear. I had promised to visit him, but deep down, despite a degree of curiosity, I had no illusions. What put me off was what could to some extent be interpreted as a threat. He said that there was no doubt, it was absolutely factual, that my right ear would get worse. He obviously has no personal knowledge of me or my life’s trajectory, and has no real interest. Why should he have? Naturally it will get worse, and eventually I won’t hear anything at all because I will be ‘elsewhere’. But even ‘elsewhere’ wherever that might be, I sometimes wonder if the deafening sounds that roar in my head will go on and on relentlessly, even after life... 

Nevertheless, Picasso was right. ‘It takes time to be young’. Perhaps this is even truer for those like me, far up in the clouds, who have no conception of time. Is it old age that makes me believe that I’m getting younger, or at least that I’m not getting any older? Isn’t this yet another miracle? I think it is. 

Alice too, is immortal. When one has nothing left to prove, apart from, to oneself, then surely one has time to be young. 

Text © Mirino. (Photo by Bruno). October, 2020

Corona

‘L’effondrement d’un monde’, the collapse of a world, certainly the Western European world, conditioned by incoherent ideology, inane politics, absurd economics, and make-believe unity, all of which nature’s insidious creation has also shown to be ridiculously false, and should also render null and void.

The same applies to the East, to China’s constant lying, vainly trying to project an image of the world’s most perfect, paradoxical system- capitalist communism. The culmination of made in China is the Coronavirus itself. It symbolises the rotten core of a nation that has prospered too long on slavery, exploitation and monopoly.

When danger is imminent, instinctively one’s first concern is for the family, for loved ones. The family never loses its essential importance, despite the establishment’s constant efforts in demeaning its value. The same applies to nations, which are extensions of the family, and reflect cultural identity forged by history.

How irrational to claim that nations and nationalism, which is fatherland and patriotism, are obsolete. How senseless for a head of State to declare to an interlocutor- ‘your problem is that you believe a father is necessarily male'...

This terrible virus reveals how lost humanity has become. It highlights humanity’s weakness, Europe’s lamentable lack of solidarity. The uselessness of the EU and its overpaid mediocrity. It throws even more light on how Turkey under Erdogan deludes itself in believing in a tyrant who can stoop so low as to deprive Italy from the most basic necessities at a terribly crucial time of need. It reveals more than ever the total irresponsibility of obsessively implementing the ideology of mass immigration.

This cruel, indiscriminate, and appropriately- made in China- virus, has shocked the world, and in doing so has inevitably brought home realities and values that matter most. It has reminded us of who we are, and of what life and death really mean.

⛎

Text and image © Mirino. March, 2020 

Dark, idle thoughts

based on good faith

It springs to mind that Greta and her family should take extra care not to contract the dreaded virus. It would run against the grain of their man-made, climate change, doomsday theory.
God, or Nature, who and which in many ways amount to the same Almighty Power, always has the last word, and seems to have a vast array of surprises in store for man, woman, and the ‘progressive’, ambiguous kind. Such power is never short of imaginative innovations that are not necessary helpful in paving the way for the future of humanity.
Because of this, one is inclined to believe that there must be a reason for these unanticipated events. There is, after all, a reason for everything.

Greed for wealth and power has beguiled and corrupted too many who claim to represent us, to the detriment of more positive, essential values. The world has profited from contemporary, oriental slavery. It relies on China for virtually everything. Has the Chinese bubble reached the stage where it could finally burst?

The controversial multibillionaire has invested billions of dollars in trying to initiate a new, conform, global, social order. His imagined, neo-Marxist lubie of ‘Utopia’, where culture would no longer have any reason of being, as it implies individuality and identity. Nations and borders would no longer exist, so cultural identity, sovereignty, patriotism and patrimony would also, in theory, have no more reason of being. The only exception to the rule would be Islam, which is more a bellicose, expansionist, disciplined, but obsolete ideology than a religion. Perhaps the ‘elite’ delude themselves in believing that it would be easier to globally govern a disciplined, Islamic society, than to govern a more democratic, culturally diverse society.

Imagine then for a moment that the open border idiocy backfires mainly because the imposed, uncontrolled, illegal immigration inanity, instead of being theoretically destined to act as the social catalyser, becomes the most effective means of making sure that the Coronavirus is spread equally throughout the world, creating disastrous, global disorder.

The desired social conformity would thus be limited to humanity being uniformly infected with a virus that in too many cases has already proved itself to be indiscriminately lethal.
Some might even think that this could be part of an insidious plot to reduce populations, but that would be totally incoherent.
Should the over-rich, cynic, the megalomaniac misanthrope, who could have done so much good for the world, be deprived of his final bonus years because of contracting this dire infection, God forbid, he wouldn’t even have time to reflect on the utter folly of his lifetime obsession.

They who take themselves for Gods often learn the hard way that only divinity (if not art) is immortal throughout recorded history of civilisation. Self-proclaimed gods who abuse financial, or theocratical power, only leave a wake of misery behind them. They are as ephemeral as autumn leaves, but autumn leaves are far more glorious and memorable.

Text and images © Mirino. March, 2020

The Swan

I’ve roamed the misty glens of the Highlands
And seen its limpid streams flow o’er falls.
I’ve felt the sad depth of shameful history,
And left sweet spirits there to reconcile.

I’ve seen the magic sunsets of Arisaig,
The safe place sweet as perfumed dreams,
And never will I forget the message of the swan
Gliding so divinely ‘cross the bay.

The calm sea was lit by setting sunlight,
Such a sight was indeed heaven sent
For the swan came in like a Godly blessing
And I knew then that all would be alright.
 

 (Am, Bm7, Em7)

A last visit to the west coast of Scotland, ‘en famille'. A difficult, life changing period, more than twenty years ago.

On the first evening of our arrival, I wandered down to the bay of Arisaig. I knew that the sunset would be special.

At that time digital photography had yet to be developed, and one tended to believe more in one’s trusty Nikkormat, than what was then mistakenly thought to be digital whims.
I took some good pictures, then satisfied, started to climb the bank to return to the lovely wee cottage where we were staying. I turned once more to admire the final, glorious scene, and then saw the swan graciously coming straight towards me into the bay. It was unbelievably beautiful. The swan then turned as if it knew that it would be offering me a timeless gift. I only took one photograph. I don’t remember why. Perhaps because I knew there was only one to take.

Romantics like to read meanings into such memorable sights. Perhaps more than the latter really deserve, but one doesn’t have to be a romantic to be convinced that there’s a reason for everything.

I always smile when recalling this, because at that particular time it seemed so significant, such a sweet gift. For various reasons, including what I vaguely allude to here, I knew that everything would be alright. There’s absolutely no doubt that this has proved to be the case.
With the passage of time one puts certain events, even such fleeting instants, into perspective. One becomes even more conscious of how significant they are. For me this magic moment is a marker, a white stone. This is also why I pay homage to the swan.

Text, images and ballad © Mirino. January, 2020