A note on the Bible

Someone has asked me today whether I believe the biblical story of Jesus is historically true. I suggest that the question is irrelevant to the significance of the text. If the Bible is a moral or spiritual lesson, a teaching, then it must stand on its own textual merits, irrespective of whether it is historically accurate or fictional. Moreover, on my reading, the text does not endorse ‘belief’ but ‘faith’, ‘good faith’, understood as the attitude of openness to the unknown, openness to new understanding and to the possibility of being mistaken, which is contrary to the state of certitude that is typically associated with the term ‘belief’. https://michaelkowalik.substack.com/p/transcendental-theology-for-non-believers

The political minority is never the primary target of propaganda; that’s not what propaganda is for. A rational dissenter is never despised by the ruling power; on the contrary, the power respects competent and consistent opposition. The doubter and the critic is never the lowest life-form in the political food chain; the obedient, gullible, unthinking majority is the ‘plankton’ on which the Power feeds and must carefully manage in order to sustain self.

Many people believe it more rational to trust the TV than to doubt the government.

The first slave who demanded to be treated differently got lynched. 4439 more slaves got lynched before the system of slavery collapsed and all slaves were treated differently.

Validity of vaccine mandates is exclusively an ethical issue, not a medical issue, not a scientific issue; the mandates would be just as unacceptable even if the vaccines were fully approved and fully prevented transmission. Scientific arguments against the mandates imply, falsely, that medical mandates would be acceptable under some empirical conditions. Any scientific argument disputing the efficacy and safety of vaccines must not make the claim that the mandates are ‘therefore’ unacceptable (this would be an equivocation between utility and ethics, ultimately serving the utilitarian agenda). Https://michaelkowalik.substack.com/p/why-vaccine-mandates-are-unethical

In a stunning U-turn, Newscorp endorses the “sovereign citizen” movement.

BREAKING NEWS. Two pranksters posing as political activists attempt to combine the core element of Nazi ideology with Marxism. Their motto: ‘From each according to his/her/non-binary ability, to those whose Blood is one with the Soil’. ADL declined to comment at this time, not yet sure whether the pranksters are mocking the resurgent Nazi and Marxist movements or their historical victims.

This is the game of trust (game theory): https://ncase.me/trust/

Play the game first, then continue reading….. I suggest that the game is defective insofar as it assumes that cheating does not have a baseline cost to the cheater and that cooperation does not generate a systemic benefit (the coins used in the game have value only because of cooperation). If cheating creates a cumulative liability that in time must result in the annihilation of the cheater, then compulsive cheating is always a dead end. The most realistic scenario is that compulsive cheaters eliminate one another while creating nothing of value. This leaves us with a range of copycats, who become cheaters when mistakes/miscommunication occurs between them and others. Copycats also exterminate one another because they are bound to degenerate into compulsive cheaters vis-a-vis one another, leaving only those who always cooperate and create anything of value.

Trust is not necessary for cooperation if cooperation is the only rational option (self-interest). For optimal cooperation, mutual understanding of the common interest and the liability of cheating is required.

The aspiring “sovereign citizens” who argue with cops from inside their vintage Hyundai Lantra are doing it all wrong. The entry level membership in the sovereign citizen movement is to own a private jet, but you will not be a full sovereign unless you are also a top financial sponsor to WHO or WEF. ‘Billionaire’ is a politically correct term for Sovereign Citizen.

BREAKING NEWS: Anthony Albanese announced that from 2024 Australia Day will be celebrated on a randomly selected date, in order to avoid offending anyone. Also, this special day will be renamed as the United Nations Day and the celebratory flag will be also randomly selected from all the national flags of the UN member states (except the now disputed flag of the Commonwealth of Australia).

There should be no referendum on nativist supremacism. To hold a referendum on this question would be to legitimise (again) the ideological roots of Nazism as something worth considering.

Nazi ideology is on full display again. Nazism is wrong not because Aryans did it, but because it is nativist supremacist in its essence. ‘Black’ nazism is still just nazism. Black and Red flag is also a nazi symbol, signifying Blood and Soil, the idea that native people are one with “their” ancestral land and are the only ones who truly belong on the land, which grants them the racial right to rule over all other races on that land - the core dogma of Nazism.

Only when God is dead and everything is permitted we will find out who we really are, to what levels of depravity we are we willing to stoop, or rise above.

Only when God is dead and everything is permitted we will find out who we really are, to what levels of depravity we are willing to stoop, or rise above.

When Nietzsche used the metaphor ‘God is dead’, he possibly alluded to the ultimate challenge of moral conscience, that your moral choice can be ‘free’ only if you know that nobody is watching, only if you believe there will be no consequences for any act. It is not enough to ‘obey’ a higher power who is always watching; one must freely choose to do what is right even if nobody is watching.

Still no response from The Australian Human Rights Commission, except a note from the communications unit that my email was forwarded to the “team”. https://t.iss.one/NormalParty/2427