Studying Wars. Events, Places. Ideological, Other Mindsets that Foster Conflict.

History of Fiery Projectiles. Timeline for Napalm. The Delusion of Modernity.

2011-11-30T18:59:00.007-05:00

Early Timeline: Fiery Weapons, Incendiary Liquids
Napalm History
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Histories of napalm-type weapons: How far back to they extend, those fiery gels sprayed or catapulted at the enemy. Many focus unduly on the modern era, as though we are both smarter and more cruelly efficient than our forebears.
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Death by burning. Memorial WWII, Moisei, Maramures, Romania. Jews herded into wooden house, set afire.

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Nonsense. All the cruel weapons we devise have roots in our own and other cultures. We are a continuum in determination to prevail by force. And all get superseded by the next step. A wall of 30 feet is breached in one minute by the ladder of 31 feet.
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Our era gets absurd in the selling of ourselves:
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Look at this site, geared to attract students: with a macho character strutting, supposedly a site for the history of napalm, the fellow astride in the ten-gallon hat, bare chested, from "Apocalypse Now," see http://science.howstuffworks.com/napalm.htm. False in impression and content. Students, pack up and leave. Now. That particular Marlboro-type man sells his abs, not his skills.
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For personal courage, try Leonidas, King of Sparta, of the 5th Century BC at Thermopylae. He traveled light, but his era knew sophisticated weapons of war.
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Find that fiery gels have been in the works since the 5th century BC. Read the magazine, Archeology Odyssey, September/October 2000 article, Greek Fire, War Engines from the Otherwise Otherworldly Byzantine Empire, at p.72
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1. 5th Century BC Flame-throwers.

Reference to a fiery gel in the form of lighted coal, sulfur and pitch, is found in the 5th Century BC: Thucydides 460-400 BC:
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The Athenian army was forced to evacuate the town of Delium when the Boeotians used an early form of flame-thrower. Imagine a large bellows, are blasting through a tube lined with iron into a huge cauldron of a combination of lighted coal, sulfur and pitch. Out come the flames and Delium's walls are set afire.
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Boetians: Near the Gulf of Corinth, Greece; and they were no newcomers. They had sent 50 ships (another incident, not the flame throwing) to join the Trojan War. See references in Homer's Iliad, at http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/IlindexBCDE.htm

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2. 600 AD Greek Fire:

This was invented about 600 AD. [By whom? Do we know who invented this concoction?] It is a different secret mix of oil-based liquids, not the same as in the flame-throwers.
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Regardless of who invented it, the Byzantine Christian Navy 670 AD used it.
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Byzantines: A term used for the composite culture of the Eastern Roman Empire, the State and the Empire; and later dividing from Western Rome in the Great Schism of the 11th Century. The City was also known as Constantinople, after the Emperor Constantine, see http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/byzantium/ The Umayyad Caliphate, Damascus-centered Islamic power, had set out to conquer Constantinople, the Byzantine Christian capital.

The Umayyad Caliphate sent an armada up the Aegean Sea, across the Sea of Marmara (describes the Archeology Odyssey article), and into the Bosporus for the attack. But the Byzantines poured the mix of oil-liquids into cartridges and catapulted them onto the ships of the Byzantines. They sprayed the water as well, so that the sea itself caught fire.
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3. Porphyrogennetus, 945-963 AD, the Byzantine emperor (Constantine Porphyrogenetus, also spelled with a single n, see article not on Greek fire, but on the Rus and other ethnic groups in motion, but good for background, http://faculty.washington.edu/dwaugh/rus/texts/constp.html) wrote in directives to his son as anticipated successor, that the recipe for Greek fire had to be kept secret, for the sake of the security of hte empire. Archeology Odyssey article.
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The secret recipe had to be kept from the enemy, see how one Anna Comnena, daughter of the Emperor Alexis, in 1106 revealed it, see The British Army: Its Origin, Progress and Equipment Vol 2, 1868, by Sir Sibbald David Scott at pp.188 ff, http://books.google.com/books?id=pa6wJujkenUC&pg=PA190&lpg=PA190&dq=Porphyrogennetus+greek+fire&source=bl&ots=-4tKAGjAzA&sig=RcFaMjfCKOorhUJiSPGR8yAXP48&hl=en&ei=N6TXTsjSHIXz0gGV-qnZDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Porphyrogennetus%20greek%20fire&f=false. Common sense. However, there came a Leak.

Mark the Greek: Greek Fire

Did leak. Recipe now open

For all who did seek.

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Marcus Graecus, Fiery-Leaker. Or was the secret out there, and only needed writing?
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He wrote the Book of Fire for Burning Enemies, and revealed the ingredients, earliest known copy 1300, see http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/saltpeter.html. Saltpeter appears essential. Ingredients: Sulfur, gum resin, saltpeter, oil, pine resin. See Siege: Castles at War, by Mark Donnelly, Daniel Diehl. See http://books.google.com/books?id=hrM8N_LpZVUC&pg=PA106&lpg=PA106&dq=%22Mark+the+Greek%22+greek+fire&source=bl&ots=DLGQtWsGGC&sig=YiroaeNX3m3Bt5PH9V-PG68iUvs&hl=en&ei=NLnWTre-A8Pn0QHZv-zbAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CFQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22Mark%20the%20Greek%22%20greek%20fire&f=false
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Fiery weapons in art: A history of the Byzantine Empire from the 13th-14th Centuries AD, the John Scylitzes Manuscript (now in Madrid, but Scylitzes may have been employed at the Norman Court in Sicily). See the illustration at the Archeology Odyssey article or http://historyofoil.typepad.com/podcast/weblogs/

Fair use thumbnail from Wikipedia.

How to extinguish the fire? Lots of pee. Urine worked. As did vinegar, salt, sand. See Archeology Odyssey article.
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4. 917 AD, Greek fire spreads in concept to China, see http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Greek-fire
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5. 10th Century: Fuse-bomb. Retaliation.
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The Islamic world responded, fighting the onslaught of Greek Fire with fire of their own: The fuse-bomb, made of small vessels of pottery or glass, some inscribed with "Allah" and filled with combustible oil and attached to a fuses. Light the fuse and lob it See the Archeology Odyssey article. Sept-Oct 2000 above, and http://metaexistence.org/inventions.htm. Cartoonists may make light of the fuse-weapon once drawn in turbans as a misplaced effort at ridicule (not to be ridiculed), but this construct was an effective counter-offensive. A tampon soaked in solutions and fired off also works?
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Or is that hyperbole? The concept is the point: each weapon is soon superseded with a more aggressive, broader (no pun intended?) weapon form, so that the process never ends until we all do.
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Greek Fire. Molotov Cocktails, fiery projectiles, ancient times to now, see http://chemistry.about.com/od/firecombustionchemistry/a/molotovcocktail.htm. There will be no end, until we end it, is that so? There is nothing noble or disciplined in spraying the enemy with burning liquid. Warfare is not noble. The spraying or catapulting just leads to greater assaults in return. Selah.

Combat by Champions. Celtic Cuchulain of Ulster v. Queen Medb of Connaught

2011-10-11T13:02:00.001-04:00

COMBAT BY CHAMPION

Large conflicts writ small,

But weighty.

Some hold; some do not; and further battles ensue.

What is the role of perceived fairness during, and enforcement after?

BATTLE BY CHAMPION
STATE, CIVIL, INDIVIDUAL
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1. ANCIENT IRELAND.

Fergus and Cuchulainn. The champion of Queen Medb and the champion of Ulster. See The Battle of Fergus and Cuchulain at http://adminstaff.vassar.edu/sttaylor/Cooley/Fergus.html. There the two combatants even negotiated matters of honor between them; and which would leave the field and why. Fergus had fostered Cuchulain, so their relationship entered in.

Do read the tale. We understand that Cuchulain is pronounced Cuh-Hool-in. Yes. See http://www.mythome.org/celticnames.html.

Among the Celts, large groups or armies (in David and Goliath, the word "army" is not used in the Hebrew, but "array" is), set out to fight but the combat was mostly individual champion against individual champion. Men and women fought. It was considered barbaric to lose more lives regardless of who was victorious. Needless waste. Let heroes do it. Celtic heroes were trained in the war arts and role. See http://www.shee-eire.com/Magic&Mythology/Warriors&Heroes/Warriors/Males/Cuchulainn/Page1.htm. Does that site correctly limit its use of "Celtic" or is it used incorrectly and generically (Celts are not really a race, or a nation) to mean early people? Not clear.

Untangling which culture attaches to which practice is not easy in Irish mists, see http://homepage.eircom.net/~kthomas/history.htm. The point better taken is a narrow one: that the practice of battle by champion was indeed common, and wise, and civilized.

The legendary (probable historic roots but tales grow out of the mists) Cúchulainn, Defender of Ulster, so fought the Champion Fergus, of Queen Medb of Connaught. Cuchulain fought sequential heroes of Connaught and also killed the Queen's totem animals, dog, bird, squirrel.

Many cultures share a tradition of the single combat, between individuals, to determine the champion and the winner, foregoing the need for battle slaughter. The Celts engaged in this method of sensible warfare, as did -- of course -- David and Goliath.

2. ANCIENT ISRAEL
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David and Goliath. Outnumbered by the Philistines behind Goliath, David offered to take on the giant instead, to their great but short-lived guffaws. I Samuel 17:50 before and after, see it in the oldest Hebrew we can find at http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/OTpdf/1sa17.pdf. There it is not clear whether the stone that smited also killed; or did the killing wait until David could grab the downed Goliath's own sword and decapitate him.
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3. ANCIENT GREEK
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Argos and Sparta 646 BC. There 300 champions were selected by each side to decide the battle. See http://www.ancientgreekbattles.net/Pages/54620_BattleOfChampions.htm. There had been an earlier win by the Argives over the Spartans, but the Spartans then recovered and sought a rematch. Rather than engage in the slaughter of before, the champions were selected. The Battle of 300 Champions.
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With everything at stake, the fighting finally left only two Argives standing. They surveyed the scene, then left to claim victory. But a solitary Spartan was still alive, and as the last on the last left living on the field, claimed the victory. Even battles by champions are not necessarily decisive. Did the Spartan then kill himself, out of the humiliation of not having died during battle? Not clear. Each side claimed victory. Bad blood increased, nothing was accepted as decided, further battles resulted. Of interest: in this period, Spartans decided to let their hair grow and cut off their mustaches. No hair cutting or mustache growing until the next vistory. A style that endured, for a while. Sparta finally killed all the Argive soldiers, but at least spared their entire city's population. Moral? Any?
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Perhaps this: If there is an agreement on a method of decision, be sure there are definitions and regulators to go out there and check, and see if indeed the criteria had been met. Set a period of calm, a sunset provision because without a fair fairness fairly concluded, neither side will rest.

4. NORMANS: NORMANDY, ENGLAND. NORSE
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The duel of champions. Way of setting battle stages, civil and criminal matters, Era of William the Conqueror.
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Medial Judgment (not final) Duels by self or champion: Civil warring -- individuals in civil "court" according to Norse law, by then Norman. Note that Norse law, even pre-Christian Norse law (scroll up at this site to the Njall Saga entries, Iceland) was precise and sensible. Instead of capital punishment, for example, a malefactor for certain offenses even where death ensued would be outlawed *
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Fair use of huge body of writing, at http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/melville-madison-bigelow/history-of-procedure-in-england-from-the-norman-conquest-the-norman-period-106-egi/page-25-history-of-procedure-in-england-from-the-norman-conquest-the-norman-period-106-egi.shtml
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*****The medial judgment merely determined what should be done upon the issue joined, when it should be done, and by whom it.should be done. If, for example, the plaintiff had, in conformity with the law applicable to the par- ticular case and to the parties, offered to prove by his witness and champion the claim set out by him and traversed by the defendant, the court, through the presiding judge, directed that security should be given and the duel waged at a subsequent day named (the trial term), between the plaintiff's champion and the defendant. *****

5. THE FAMILY ROOM
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TV Tropes -- Combat by Champion anthology of sorts at http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CombatByChampion. Think Superman, perhaps. Then, at the Literature section, find Menelaus and Paris (Troy era). But a third party intervenes to influence the ultimate outcome. Does a duel only work if the other side is decimated in time; or does time feed the resentment of a survivor.

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6. TRADITION OF THE DUEL FOR PRIVATE, AND STATE DISPUTES
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Sword collection, Varde Military Museum, Denmark

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Formal duels. Battles writ small.
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King Henry II -- find rules of championing in this book from 1772. What if the champion dies. It makes a difference how, when, by his own hand, are others already named, etc. See google book History of the Life of King Henry II and of His Age, Vol.3, by Lyttleton. Try pages 236ff.

7. THE ATOM BOMB CARRIES ON THE TRADITION.

The atom bomb as "champion" of the allies in WWII. Perhaps. Old idea. Present your strongest, cow the opposition or bomb them to smithereens anyway.

The Spartan got careless once, not again.

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* Least barbaric outcome of all. The Norse remedy of outlawry even for manslaughter and murder:

Fair use excerpt of its use in Norse culture. Where do we get the idea that Norse were lawless? Not from fact.

The Norse formula of notice of suit ' in the case of Mord V. Flosi, already stated as to the preliminary extrajudicial proceedings, will close the consideration of the subject of criminal pleadings. It was as follows : Then Mord took witness (at the Hill of Laws, before the Thing) and said : ' I take witness to this that I give notice of an assault laid down by law against Flosi, Thord's son, for that he rushed at Helgi, Njal's son, and dealt him a brain, or a body, or a marrow wound, which proved a death wound, and from which Helgi got his death. I say that in this suit he ought to be made a guilty man, an outlaw, not to be fed, not to be for- warded, not to be helped or harboured in any need. I say that all his goods are forfeited, half to me and half to the men of the quarter, who have a right by law to take his forfeited goods. I give notice of this suit for manslaughter in the Quarter Court into which this suit ought by law to
come. I give notice of this lawful notice ; I give notice in the hearing of all men on the Hill of Laws ; I give notice of this suit to be pleaded this summer, and of full outlawry against Flosi, Thord's son ; I give notice of a suit which Thorgeir, Thorir's son, has handed over to me." The formula is then repeated with the change of stating the wounds first and the assault second ; and the case was then properly before the court. Flosi listened carefully (to detect any flaw), but said never a word the while.

At section 280, History of Procedure., http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/melville-madison-bigelow/history-of-procedure-in-england-from-the-norman-conquest-the-norman-period-106-egi/page-25-history-of-procedure-in-england-from-the-norman-conquest-the-norman-period-106-egi.shtml

And, same source, Burnt Njall's Saga,at Issue Term 281

One of these suits was by Thorgeir Craggeir, next of kin of the family of Njal, Avho thus declared : " I take witness to this, that I give notice of a suit against Glum, Hilldir's son, in that he took firing and lighted it, and bore it to the house at Bergthorsknoll, when there were burned inside it, to wit, Njal, Thorgeir's son, and Bergthora, Skarphedinn's daughter,^ and all those other men who were burned inside it there and then. I say that in this suit he ought to be made a guilty man, an outlaw, not to be fed, not to be forwarded, not to be helped or harboured in any need. I say that all his goods are forfeited, half to meand half to the men of the quarter, who have a right by law to take his forfeited goods ; I give notice
of this suit in the Quarter Court, into which it ought by law to come. I give notice in the hearing of all men on the Hill of Laws. I give notice of this suit to be pleaded this summer, and of full outlawry against Glum, Hilldir's son

Lens on The Boer Wars. Experience and Culture; War Not Inevitable

2011-08-25T20:17:00.004-04:00

War: Vet it.

Vet Promotion of War.

Is War Inevitable.
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The Boer Wars

The Reality of the Experience.
Vet Records. Who Died, Who Served.
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The Fantasy Reconstruction.
Vet the Agenda; and where the Money and Power Went.
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Benefit? Financial and status benefit flows to those with Agendas:
Profit, Macho-Supremacist Culture; or Ideology

Here: The Boer Wars

1. Setting.

Interests in history can stem from simple beginnings: who is this on a family tree. Who is that. Why did they serve. Family tradition; personal drive; values; default; to follow a diplomatic subterfuge of a government (being "seconded" to another army, as was Major William McConaghy, seconded to the Egyptian army WWI).

We hear, from those who have not participated in war, or those who profit from it from a distance, that war is inevitable: either because conflict is inevitable because we are driven genetically to conflict; or that war is desirable: because it gives opportunity for personal growth, if you live, or if anyone remembers, as to any heroism, honor, sacrifice. Real men go to war. Is that the message? Cultural, mythical, or genetic?

2. Approach.

Does military history teach us the cultural part. Study a war from the records; then study the fantasy. Study the Boer Wars, South Africa's collision among branches of Europeans determined to claim territory outside their contiguous lands, influxes of Africans down the road immigrating in their contiguous lands, and all together now. Was battle glamorous, heroic. Spoiler: no.

What, then, is foreordained: The drive for empire? Is that drive an individual human gene, especially male; if so, why was the progress such a mess, a cruel, bloodthirsted spill of human weakness. Is it a tool of a supremacist group, instead; the ability of any supremacist group to plant cultural seeds of glory that are far removed from reality. Too late comes the reality?

Example: Who taught young Maurice Edwin McConaghey here (at the time, his surname was spelled McConaghy - he added the "e" to distinguish his military record and identity from that of his cousin, that Major William McConaghy, surgeon, medical corps, and not in this picture, but who also served in South Africa and who also died in WWI, he in Egypt), on the far left, living with his brothers in Westward Ho! (yes, that is a town) in Devon, England, that the military was the way to go. What steered him so that he

a) graduated from Sandhurst,
b) became a Lieutenant Colonel, and
c) ultimately became the Lt.Col. M.E. McConaghey who was wounded, and taken prisoner in the Boer Wars, and ultimately shipped back to England on a hospital ship, The Nubia, see The Boer War Shipping Returns 1902, at http://hometown.aol.co.uk/heatherasplin/bwsl02.html. It left Port Natal for England on May 24 with 2/Scots Fus - Lt. M.E. McConaghey. And then,
d) was again wounded at Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, WWI, and
returned to battle and was killed near Arras, France in 1917.

Lt. Col. Maurice Edwin McConaghey, Boer War wounded veteran, at age 10 or so. Far left. Later killed at Arras, WWI..

Were blacks who moved into South Africa, which we understand was after the white settlers established themselves, also going for empire, or just right to expand as populations needed. Or is it the western mind that is really programmed to empire, drive for power and profit, whether in stocks, corporations, or colonies then.

Or all of the above in the Western cultures; and simple need for land and sustenance among others.

I. The History

II. The Experience: Records of the Royal Scots fusiliers there

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I. Boer War -

British / Dutch

Empire/ Turf Control History in South Africa

And enter, the Blacks

There were two Boer Wars: 1880-1881; and 1899-1902. The location is South Africa. The Dutch and the British had established two separate colonies - that became republics. The Dutch were the Boers, from the word Boere, or Voortrekkers, or Afrikaners, see all this at http://www.timelineindex.com/content/view/1305.

The Dutch were there first. There appear to be no indigenous blacks there at the time. Is that so? The Dutch established their presence in 1652, when the Dutch East India Company set up a base at the southern tip of Africa, see http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his311/timeline/t-19saf.htm.
In 1795, the British took Cape Town (time of the Napoleonic wars).
1780's - the Xhosa arrived (was it then or earlier?) and the British and the Xhosa conflicted in six wars
Then the Zulu, in 1817-1828, spread throughout South Africa.
1838 - massive migration of Boers. They established two Boer republics: the Transvaal (across the River Vaal), and the Orange Free State (Orange River was there).
1850's - Boers attack another black tribe, the Sotho, in Basutoland
Then came diamonds, and British recognition of some Boer areas, British annexation of Basutoland (to keep it from the Boers?), and so on

Scene set.

The South African Republic, known as the Transvaal, was annexed for the British in 1877, there was an Anglo-Zulu war in 1879, and the Boers' objected to the annexation and there was a revolt in 1880.

Then, in 1887, gold was discovered some 30 miles south of Pretoria. Paul Kruger was president of Transvaal and predicted bloodshed related to struggles over the gold. Under his leadership, Transvaal was restored to its independent status, but still under British rule.

The 1902 era is outlined at http://www.historymole.com/cgi-bin/main/results.pl?theme=10000310

. See date after date, statistics, names, who did what.

II. The Reality

The Experience of the Royal Scots Fusiliers

The First Boer War

Near Colonso Village and Hlangwane

John Buchan, fair use quote from The Royal Scots Fusiliers, pages 260-261: The Guns Abandoned. We are interested here because Lt. Col Maurice Edwin McConaghey is a relative, wounded, sent home to England on a hospital ship, later killed at the Battle of the Somme at Arras, WWI. See http://franceroadways.blogspot.com/2006/08/arras-and-wwi-somme-area-royal-scots.html. He may have been, because he is included in official records; and we as family want to think he was courageous.

But he was surrounded by incompetence and accident and mess. From http://www.worldcat.org/title/history-of-the-royal-scots-fusiliers-1678-1918/oclc/01361681 Is that also true of any warrior. The ideologues say to forget that: imagine glory instead. Ha. Read closely the balance.

" * * * No sooner did he (British commander) give the order to open fire, than every rifle in the Boer trenches was concentrated on his batteries. The gunners struck heroically to their work, but under that hail of bullets officers and men fell fast, and Long (British commander) was desperately wounded. By seven o'clock nearly all the ammunition was spent, and the men were ordered to retire to the big donga in the rear till fresh supplies could be brought up. There the guns' escort, supplied by Barton, overtook them; in this escort were A, B, E., and F Companies of the Royal Scots Fusiliers under Major W. A. Young, the rest of the battalion remaining at Frere for the line of communication duty.

By half-past seven Hart had failed, and Long's guns were standing mute and deserted in the empty plain. Meantine Dundonald was attacking Hlangwane, the most vital position, but one which in this mad battle was treated as a mere side-show. He got some way up the hill, but as he was outmatched in numbers and had practically no artillery support, he presently came to the end of his strength. He applied to Barton for help, but Barton, conceiving himself bound by Buller's orders, refused. The only chance now left was the attack by Hildyard; but Buller had lost heart, and was anxious to withdraw from the conflict as soon as he could extricate Long's guns. Hildyard's instructions were therefore changed; he was ordered not to attack, but to send one battalion across the railway to support the guns and another to occupy Colenso village, and to avoid a close engagement. The advance was skilfully made, and the Queen's and the Devons, moving in open order, reached their objective with comparatively light losses. But a handful of men could not absorb the enemy's attention sufficiently to facilitate the task of moving the guns. Buller, in despair,e told his aide-de-camp, Captain Scholefield of the R.H.A, , to try and bring some of them out. The latter called for volunteers, and Captain Congreve of the Rifle Brigade, Lieutenant the Hon. F. S. Roberts of the 60th Rifles, and Corporal Nurse of the 66th Battery and two limber teams set out on an enterprise the heroism of which did something to redeem the tragic fiasco of the day. Congreve and Roberts were wounded, the latter mortaly, but the other succeeded in getting two guns back. A little later Captain Reed of the 7th Battery made another attempt; but had to abandon it after losing seven men out of thirteen, and thirteen horses out of twenty-two.

There is no more to tell. Buller, who had shown throughout the day the most dauntless personal courage, seemed to have come to then end of his resources. Though he had still half a score of fresh battalions and three field batteries, besides the naval artillery, he decided to abandon the guns to the enemy. At eleven a.m. he reached his decision, and recalled Hildyard's battalions and Dundonald; yet it was not till four in the afternoon that the Boers dared to advance to seize the ten guns -- nearly half of the British field artillery and more than all that Botha had at Colenso. Next morning Buller asked for an armistice to collect his dead and wounded, and then withdrew to Chieveley and Frere. His nerve had so utterly failed that he heliographed to Sir George White suggesting the surrender of Ladysmith, a recommendation which that commander, to his infinite honour, refused for one moment to accept.

The order to retire did not reach all the troops in and about Colenso and in the donga behind the abandoned guns. The result was that some of the Devons and their colonel, with most of the Irish and Scots Fusileers in the donga, were captured by the enemy. It had been a melancholy day for our regiment, eleven non-commissioned officers and men were killed, and twenty-eight wounded, while among the prisoners were captains Dick and Northey, Lieutenants Christian, Rumbold and McConaghey .... ****

Language of War - Matter of Will, Not Culture, Unless Ideology Gets There First

2011-08-13T17:14:00.004-04:00

Communications Theory:
What is its role in War.

How to counter words used as weapons.
When word-weaponry is a skill known to leaders of each side,
to accomplish their goals,
how to recalibrate away from mayhem.

Once ideology takes hold in the population, can reason ever resume.

For a peace-seeking President, confronted by a War-bent opposition party, how to counter the Machete and govern, recalibrate. Is War a matter of will,not genetics. When and how does inculcation of ideology highjack the will? What of timing: The nature and conduct of war are ancient concerns, philosophical and practical. Cultures may well approach it differently. What to learn: Sun Tzu, c. 544-496 BC:

"Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory. * * * * The consummate leader cultivates the moral law, and strictly adheres to method and discipline; thus it is in his power to control success."

Sun Tzu's Art of War, see http://suntzusaid.com/book/4 . See also http://www.chinapage.com/sunzi-e.html. Sun Tzu: biography at http://www.thetao.info/artofwar.thetao.info/china/suntzu.htm.
http://www.sonshi.com/why.html

America and its plural internal and global interactions face a primal choice in a media-driven age. Words and visual and aural manipulations surround populations at all times. How to harness language, and to what end. How to counter words as weapons. If leaders of one side will peace, and the other war, how to reach the underlying population to muster support for one side or the other, and does the population matter when they themselves do not have the tools of independence.

For political parties and nations, War and its manner are chosen.

A critical mass of individuals decide to pursue conflict and how. Language can rewrite and make history, foster mobs or analysis. The collision of divergent interests need not mean "war." If war language is consciously set aside in the face of confrontation, but the other side wills war and wields the machete, when must, or should, the peace-seeker also reach for the machete. There is language of war, language of peace, but both must engage in peace language if there is to be peace, see article by William C. Gay from 1999, http://www.philosophy.uncc.edu/wcgay/publangwp.htm That view opposes war as somehow genetic within us.

Ideology, constructs of absolute belief systems, has no place in prevailing. Instead, cultivate the "moral law." Far broader. Then, does "ideology" lay the groundwork for ultimate defeat?

Theory Background

I. Language in warfare.

Language is as much a weapon of war as the hand-held tool. Interplays of power, weakness, pragmatism, listed at http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/parameters/Articles/07summer/porter.pdf, may well be more common as denominators of war than the culture of the particular state involved. That article bemoans the dominance of cultural considerations in understanding and strategizing war.

A. Tools used for war are a matter of choice of individuals in the culture, not determined by the culture.

A culture's handling of power, weakness and pragmatism are wielded by the language. The question here is whether a culture's added element of wanting to invade the minds of the conquered with independence-sapping ideology, is a matter of particular wills in the culture, not necessarily the culture's requirement without those individuals doing it.

B. The individual, if not beaten down by ideology, has choices in tools.

The role of the will in using certain tools is only defeated if ideology gets in the mind first. So the timing of education is vital -- allow the growth, investigation, develop analytical skills, before the ideologues get in, become involuntary brainwash. If tools can be willed into use, they can be willed out of use. Is that so, and is that hopeful? If so, then the sunflower view that conflict is inevitable, and that war has a desirable side for the participant, in teaching "honor and sacrifice," is wrong. See http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_military_history.html

II. Test it. How did western European Christianity, as the defining shaper of western European culture and ideology, spread after its takeover by the Roman militarist and empire administrative mindset.

It proceeded on two fronts: First, linguistic, by inculcating ideology: make the conquered say they believed. Then, where that failed, by force and killing. The Church reached for the machete.

First, make people say the words. Say the creed. That was more than traditional territorial overrun, as with Genghis Khan, see section 5, below, where the beliefs of the conquered mattered not a whit. Christianity with its ideologues overwhelmed other territories and tribes by violence, purges, inquisitions and crusades in the East, and in Europe and its northern reaches with particular virulence. The ideology defined who and what was in and out, we vs. they, and fixed the enforcements.

How similar is that to the spread of other cultural ideologies. Are we birds of a feather.

III. That mindset of demanding ideological conformity is still with us.

A. Ideology was not originally a matter of culture, because cultures got along fine without it for millenia. There were many cultures at the time of early Christianity. It was a matter of the will of the usurpers of the teachings, and implementation in those terms, forcing others out, and finally to the Great Schism in the 1000's from the Eastern Orthodox Christians. It was power-brokers uses of language that turned teachings into ideology and a weapon. Is that so? Is that our heritage, and must we still be bound by it.

B. Other warring cultures proceeded differently.

1. Tribal Saxons, Germanics, Vikings who finally struck back at the monasteries when the Christians under Charlemagne and the Pope's armies had slaughtered in northern Europe especially. The religion of the conquered did not matter. Getting the invaders out of their lands did. Loosely organized, come together, develop a leader for the time, then everybody can go home when the battle is done. Trouble was, the Christians would not quit. See http://germanyroadways.blogspot.com/2011/02/sachsenhain-saxons-grove-charlemagnes.html

2. Ideology is a chosen, elective product, a weapon of individuals, pressing it. Look at the style of Genghis Khan, http://www.biography.com/genghis-khan/genghis-khan-bio.jsp, who fostered a pragmatic religious tolerance among the conquered, so long as that tolerance did not challenge his position as the "flail of God." Defiance was never tolerated. Religious beliefs of the conquered short of defiance in action, were tolerated. No ideological inculcating. Just never defy. See also http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols/figures/figu_geng_legacy.htm

C. Is this so:

Use of language to impose ideological propaganda fuels more destructive wars than language urging mere territorial empire. Language, as a tactical weapon of persuasion, supersedes consideration of the merit of the idea. When and how can a population defend against another's ideology, when that ideology will not stop. Does a savvy population make a difference. Maybe not.

Eternal War Issues:
Does Winning mean Merit in the Cause
or the Effectiveness of Force

The Contemporary Tea Party
Is there an obligation to a minority?

I. Humans: Are we really hardwired for war, supremacy-behavior, beating down anyone who cannot or does not fight back with the same machete. See that approach in history and in contemporary American politics, Forbes Magazine and Why the Democratic Party is Doomed, see http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardminiter/2011/07/18/why-the-democratic-party-is-doomed/.

Theory proposed: Money and technique win. That Democrats are too diverse, uncommitted to force, and the intellectuals among them are not usually big contributors, compared to commercial Republicans who hammer a view and pound it home. Good-bye, weaklings. Democrats lose.

Maybe so. They have common good on their side. Raise all boats. Republicans have personal income and assets on their side. Buy the argument. Persuade the unwary.

Is that so, in history? For how long?

II. There is historical support for that approach.

Leaders using the Overwhelm as the weapon, know well the power of the united front, the repetition of even a big lie. See http://www.psywarrior.com/Goebbels.html

People do fall in line. Get the emotion, and the facts will not matter.

Academic fields explore uses of language to propagandize, sell commercially and politically, The effect of a unified group is powerful, unified against individuality and counter-views. Where the solution is seen as keeping others in line, force works. See Jante Law

III. If the forcer is determined to force, machete in hand, what recourse has the target.

Is the cause of merit lost.

Just words? Why does Jimmy Carter, a President who pursued a common good, a solution that both sides could accept, seem to represent ineffectiveness.

Was he? Not really. Denigrating the process of peace is part of the force. Does it make a difference to recognize it.

See LeBaron, Michelle. "Communication Tools for Understanding Cultural Differences." Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: June 2003 < http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/communication_tools/>.

IV. In the trenches of conflict.

Divorce lawyers have long been in the fray. Some years ago, I attended a seminar-workshop presented by Sharon Strand Ellison, Director of the Institute for Powerful Non-Defensive Communication, see http://www.pndc.com. See FN 1.

The message was clear: Language itself can foster war, or peace. Manipulations of the time, place and manner of the language, will tilt the field to accelerate, or not.

After the seminar, did behaviors of those of us in the divorce trenches change? No. The client wanted to win, so off all of us went to win, each saying the other was incalcitrant and trial was the answer, possibly.

However, among kindred spirits, a very few oriented to solving a problem and not "dominating," techniques for de-escalating, improved.

For those who found immediate satisfaction in the bully-force approach, the dallying about enabled more maneuverings was a mere opportunity: To learn weaknesses of the other side, improve positions for the trial they wanted anyway.

This is like the buy-me Boehner: he planned to walk out of negotiations. Walking out, and delaying the people in the waiting room, are part of the script in trial law negotiations. everybody does it, show how tough you are, and some people on the outside go, "Oooh! A strong, principled man!" And will believe that has merit. The rest of us just laugh. But we are not on TV.
Some lawyers will say to the conciliatory client, let me do this now, and you will thank me later.
Perhaps so.

V. Must the languistic or tactical machete win?

It may well, in the short term, but it breeds revolt. See http://joyofequivocating.blogspot.com/2008/09/anathema-in-house-dialogue-anyway-how.html

VI. So what to do against the machete.

Is the only answer educating the populace before they are persuaded. Once persuaded, the emotional commitment will bar changes in view based on mere fact, is that our national experience? So fund education, access to all the tools of opportunity so fewer will be disgruntled and itching to follow a bully; is that is?

Example of leaders.

Obama is moving in that direction. His style may not be the "weak" that Forbes magazine readers chuckle at. Enough voting people actively rejecting the use of the machete in political domination could turn a tide.

Or could they?

Rather than a reserve machete for the de-escalating one, a legal ace in the hole could suffice.

VII. Awareness.

If we know some thing or some pitch is geared to persuasion and not merit, we have a chance internationally and within our own nation, to assess as responsible citizens. Look at ideological conflict. Was that on merit, or killing, brainwash and force?

Monks and crusaders in the old days had no choice. They were indoctrinated. No merit there. See the account of indoctrination of monks at sites at http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2011/06/esrum-abbey-esrom-kloster-cistercian.html. The financial and ideological success of the Northern Crusades and the Esrum Abbey (Cistercian) in Denmark in 1100 ff had nothing to do with merit, and everything do with force. Force is in our western bones. See it now.

It comes down, so far, to the machete with capability to own the airwaves and therefore public opinion; or getting to people before they are overwhelmed with propaganda. Is that so, in international war, or in national political wars.

VIII. War is not an opportunity for heroism. Au contraire, see http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_military_history.html; or (vet the sources) http://www.understandingwar.org/

War is an expression of our least effective, long-term, weapon for survival against ourselves.

VIII. Language used and propaganda swallowed is more responsible for war than merit. Is that so?

...........................................................................

FN 1 - Review and do your own overview of Taking the War out of our Words, Sharon Strand Ellison. Our effort here is an unsolicited, unpaid effort to coalesce in my own mind these topics from several years ago, plus my own in using some of them. Her views may have changed. Her ideas are not particularly new, but well organized for understanding. Religions have pressed the dogma-driven life with great success, see http://hellofodderhellobuyer.blogspot.com/2008/06/persuasion-recap-how-to-manual-for.html. There is no surprise at the techniques being pressed in politics and wars.

A party in litigation may want to accommodate, in order to move on. But at some point, if the other side will not also accommodate, then aim for trial fast, before more prejudicial time goes by. What do voters do? The "trial" can only be the next election, absent constitutional change. In the meantime, does the peacemaker have to adopt the machete, for protection of self and interests. How do discern in advance?

The one who controls the media wins. If ideology has taken hold before facts are in, then reason is out.

What language does:

Language asks, states, predicts.

1. Asking for information. Manner: Asking can become an interrogation, an entrapment mechanism, a way to send covert messages of force and consequence.

2. Statement of point of view. Stating an opinion can present instead as commitment to it as irrefutable fact; or threaten force; or a judgment upon the hearer.

3. Making predictions. Speculating on where a behavior is headed can become a weapon to force change in course, turning the actor into a victim.

For all of those kinds of communications,

What is the effect on the hearer: Speaker puts self in control; hearer either has to back down, as a victim, or react in a way that the speaker then can denigrate.

A wearing down, preparation for power struggle, alienation. Ask Sharon Ellison, director of the Institute for Powerful Non-Defensive Communication, whose seminar, entitled Taking the War out of our Words. see http://www.pndc.com/ I see a website that glows with a happy-happy face on an Easter mourning purple-blue ground with dripping water, as less professional and more commercial advertising; and believe a content site should not feature "products" along the same menu line as treacley "learning rooms" -- but cast those prejudices aside. The content is good, however. If it were more simply presented, I would be less embarrassed about recommending it.

For anyone interested in the rise of partisanship, a process also affecting our court system and the decline of civility there, the site is helpful. Why? Because it casts the language of Obama and others who seek to accomplish goals without escalating hate and anger in perspective. Rather than the non-confrontational mode being weak, only by changing how people communicate can anyone expect a change in behavior. Language behavior comes first. Acting out, in response or in furtherance comes first.

Eliciting defensive responses costs the entire nation. Trust lost? How long to get it back. Once someone feels like a target, then the other becomes the enemy. The target's responses undermine trust further: to regain dignity, what are the tools on the receiving end? Give up, sabotage, run away, counterattack, justify your position or try to entrap the other, blame. None of those work toward a productive goal -- just self-rehabilitation.

What could have been? Producing less war in the reaction.

Information: Open, straightforward, not buttressed but tentative, subjectively valid, describing rather than forcing.

Listening: Respond with an interpretation of what you, see, hear. No firm conclusions at the outset. Conclusions on ly come after laying out how you got there. Get everyone nodding as to the understanding of each. Get the other side saying, or nodding agreement if only as to your interpretation. Convincing brings resistance. Try it.

Statements: Interpret back how you understand the other's words. Point out contradictions you see, your conclusion from the understanding and possible contradictions, and state your own reaction.

Predictions: An Obama moment -- Foretells, a neutral definition of his response, firm and protective of his viewpoint, but not forcing the other side. A productive prediction lets others know in advance what he will do depending on the choices made legislatively. They are still free to do it, but they do it with information of his reaction. If you do this, I will do that. Those kinds of predictions leave the original actors responsible and accountable. Suggesting changes for next time? Fine. But not laying out a line in the sand. Set limits. But leave open the choice to the other. Then say what your response will be to it.

What is given up? The joy of showing superiority. You are right. The other person is wrong.

This recalls an analysis of mindsets as linear or web.

Heresy Wars Timeline. Cathar Wars. Religion as Pretext for Turf and Power. Again.

2011-06-07T14:54:00.010-04:00

HERESY WARS
LEGACY OF THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH

Cathar Wars. A time of pyres.

Follow: How did Western religion descend from a Founder who led by invitation, caring and example; to those who led in his name by murder and threat.

Is that so? Vet.

I.   Soundbite. Forced conversion as the ultimate heresy?

II.   Overview - What issues of the validity of dogma are raised by the Western Christian institution's theology of forced conversion. Why has death for nonbelievers been theologically required for the west? And perhaps for other religions. How does the Eastern Orthodox Christian institution so successfully finesse the kind of ersatz theology that enables the "group" to kill dissenters, and focus the more important issues of fostering the individual's religious life, and mutual respect? What form does 'killing' nonbelievers assume today.

III.   Chronology. Timeline. Who is declared heretic, and why? Is it concern for the soul, or concern for the turf?

IV.   Comment

I. Soundbite.

Vet history. The greatest theological error, and political error, of the early Church (and to our own day), was and is forced conversion.

Forced conversion. Where did that come from? Consider the possibility: There were really no "heretics." Heresy was a red herring, a pretext for consolidating power. Heresy and heretics were only obstacles to the New Monolith of Roman Christianity, or other religions with an equivalent of "heresy" used to support its territorial interests. The Eastern Orthodox finessed the details of a fake theology and focused on aesthetics, to inspire. Was that more effective, and was that so?

As to the Roman branch of Christianity, did focus on Heresy increase, especially after it severed itself from the larger Orthodox Christian Church on about 1050. Ask. Why the force in the west? Is it so transparently political. Was original "Christianity" indeed voluntary, east or west. The person may choose. If the person leaves, no-one chases or hunts the person down.

II OVERVIEW

Study The Cathar Wars. The Albigensian Crusades, after the Town of Albi. The Western Crusade of the Church, against fellow Christians in Europe and Eastern Europe, against "heretics". This was launched conveniently as the Church needed new lands and power after its break with the Eastern Orthodox (the Great Schism abot 1050). Kill, dispossess, confiscate. It took the Church, then the French monarchy joining, 300 years to do it. The Monarchy joined the Church, thus gaining the South of France for itself.

Examine Catharism, the Cathars, what did they do to anyone other than hold beliefs contraire. They were successful, educated, cultured, people who believed in dualism: there is good, there is evil, and the deity is not all-powerful. There is struggle. Live simply, respectfully of others, the leaders (men and women) in celibacy but in the community and also working.

The theory is enough for the Church's heresy definition. Find a start on a chronology here, without which the whole period continues blurred, under ecclesiastical rugs. Where, what beliefs, role of concept of heresy, ideological slants allowing no deviation, persecution for beliefs, not actions against others. See FN 3

.......................................................

III. CHRONOLOGY
TIMELINE OF HERESY ISSUES, LEADING TO THE WESTERN ANTI-CATHAR CRUSADES

A CHRONOLOGY START

Chronology of The Western Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade Chronology
The Crusade against the Cathars

Heresies Before and After

Framework starts with information, Cathar Country, and expands

FIRST MILLENNIUM

-1000 CE

Little heretical activity - Arians, Manicheans

4th C.              Arian "heresy" [Quotes around all uses of "heresy" are appropriate throughout, because the concept is completely centered on one institution's point of view, but will be omitted hereafter for ease of reading]. Through Arius of Alexandria. Constantine opposed the Arians, but note that his grip on Christianity seems to have been spurred by a vision, not reasoning through a doctrine, and the instigator may well have been a meteor, not an inspired vision, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3013146.stm A basic issue was the Arian challenge to the idea of the Trinity, as laid out by the Church. Jesus was more than man, but less than God. Arian heresy did not die. Isaac Newton became an Arian supporter in 1672, see http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Extras/Newton_Arian.html The Nicenes destroyed the Arian books, mostly. All?

385                   Manichean heresy. Council of Saragossa executes Bishop of Lusitania, named Priscillian. Find overview at http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Manichaeism. Deep Aramaic roots. Think of light, and think of darkness. Two natures. Light lives in peace. Darkness lives in conflict. There is no omnipotent deity, so the problem of evil is solved. Both exist. Darkness attacked light, the contest continues, and ... and .... Also think gnostics, apochryphal Christian works. Much intertwined. But the ones called heretic lost.

500                 Clovis and the Merovingians assume the heritage of the Roman Empire, military and theological. Unknown South of France at 56.

Early Middle Ages: Church fosters "peace of God" -- nobles at war not to harm civilians, no private wars during Lent or autumn harvest, or Wednesday after sundown until Monday morning, civilians being peasant and merchant. Venerate Virgin Mary and saints. See Unknown South of France at 60

520                  Benedictine Monastic Order founded. Unknown South at 60.

625-638    Pope Honorius (see 680-81) serves according to his views

680-81            Pope Honorius is excommunicated for "heresy" (what?). The institutional Church veers to forced conversion, expulsion of dissenters. See http://www.romancatholicism.org/honorius-heresy.htm

732                  Charles Martel, son of Pepin the Short, defeats the Saracens, Unknown South of France at 57. See also http://www.authorama.com/famous-men-of-the-middle-ages-11.html

753                  Charles Martel, "Mayor of the Palace," prevails at Tours, against the Saracens. See Autorama, above; and Unknown South of France at 57.

780-782            Charlemagne: See http://germanyroadways.blogspot.com/2011/02/sachsenhain-saxons-grove-charlemagnes.html. Charlemagne slaughters thousands of Saxon prisoners who did not convert; his heirs also failed to maintain the rule so forced, see Unknown South of France at 57; see http://germanyroadways.blogspot.com/2011/02/sachsenhain-saxons-grove-charlemagnes.html

In the era: Barbarians in their places; improved communications improve between Bishops and parish priests, Unknown South of France at 60. But see the countervailing influences: the Lombards, the Longobardi, a Germanic group that steadily moved south until reaching and dominating Italy itself, see http://www.hyw.com/books/history/Langobar.htm.

The popes were in trouble against them. What to do? Turn political and military.

910                    Cluniac Monastic Order founded. Unknown South at 60.

987                    Hugh Capet crowned, first hereditary King of France, Unknown South of France FN 1 at 95. Beginning of the Capetian Dynasty, see South at 57.

In the era: Extensive Pilgrimage routes, from France, largely focused on goals in Spain, the Way of St. James, see Unknown South of France at 58-59.

SECOND MILLENNIUM, Part A

1001-1500

Heretical activity suddenly expands

11th C.

1000-1050 Bogomils expand influence in Balkans, Bulgaria. See From Bogomil to Cathar, at http://bogomiltocathar.devhub.com/

Bogomil church, Bosnia

1022                 Robert the Pious in Orleans burned 10 canons, church officials, on the pyre, claiming they were Manichean. Were they? Need to check. Rise in application of established heresies like Manicheanism or Arianism to identifed enemies of the orthodox church

1022ff                Heretical movements appear widely: Toulouse in the southwest, Champagne lands where a Cathar church was built near Mt. Aimee (members were called "publicans"), and Arras in the northwest (France); and Montefort (Milan, Italy). Church calls Council of Orleans, conducts a trial (who was tried?)

1028-1080          Six Councils were held. Called one "Berenger" suspected of heresy (was he called 6 times? not convicted?)

1050-1100

1054    The Great Schism: Roman branch of institutional Christianity separates from Orthodox Christendom, largely over issues of the primacy of the pope, see http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/church_history/michael_theschism.htm
Pope Gregory: initiates Gregorian reforms

1095                   First Crusade to the Holy Land, preached at Clermont. Unknown South of France at 60 Need for focus, reason for being?

1098                 St. Benedict's Cistercians from Citeaux founded, Unknown South at 60

12th C.

Alexis I Commene, in Constantinople, persecutes Bogomils. Bogomil heresy spreads to Europe. Roman sect evangelists like Pierre de Buys, Henri de Lausanne and Arnaud de Brescia become Bogomil, defecting from the orthodoxy

Church creates places of asylum throughout the land in deserted or uncertain areas, which could become "villeneuves" or places to live with tax and franchise advantages. Gave foothold for economic development, see Cathar Country at 51.

1000-1300 Positive Age of faith developments. The Romanesque Church, style, pilgrimage routes.

1000-1300 Positive Cathar developments at the same time:

Rough summary list

[not really quote, summary:] economic prosperity, political experiment, shared power, women sharing in decision-making, serving as parfaits, religious and social tolerance, poetry and music fostered in culture, free farm proprietors in agriculture, which followed from the Roman era; broad ethnic mixture including Greeks, Jews, Saracens, and Syrians, fully involved in the culture and accepted, specialties including finance and trade. A new upwardly mobile middle class could aspire to nobility, beginnings of popular self-government, rights of women to property and inheritance were respected, tolerance of Jew and Moslem, and shelter to "heretics" such as Cathars. Written legal codes modeled on the Roman. Troubadours exalted culture of love, short of the bed. Names: Richard the Lion-Hearted, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Troubadour Arnaut Daniel, of Perigord, Bertrand de BOrn, Bernard of Ventadour, Guillem de Cabestaing

Unknown South of France at 96-99. What is not to like?

1115    Bernard de Fontaine becomes abbot of Clairvaud. Bernard de Clairvaud. Bernard de Clairvaux?

1119    Council of Toulouse convicts and condemns Pierre de Buys of heresy

1135                  Pisa. Henri de Lausanne condemned. He had preached in LeMans and then in Toulouse area.

1143-44 Cologne and Liege build pyres (burn anyone yet?)

1145    Bernard de Clairvaux writes Count of Toulouse to end the heretical preaching of Henri de Lausanne; goes to Toulouse, claiming he and his followers are Arian. After a series of visits elsewhere, he goes to Verfeil, east of Toulouse. Bernard's biographer calls that "sedes Satanae," or seat of Satan. Bernard's opponents would not hear him, causing disturbances. Bernard hoped that God would wither Verfeil, a play on words for withering greenery. Cathar Country at 21.

1148                  Council of Reims excommunicates heretics, condemned Henri de Lausanne to life imprisonment

1150-1200

1150 Cathar ideas

These sweep over Languedoc in a way to threaten Rome. No wonder. Cathars seek to

{ summary from paragraph at site] make the BIble available to anyone in that person's language, vernacular, not just Latin. Spiritual world of deity and nonincarnate son, vs material world of Satan and flesh; but people need not be celibate. No need for outward signs of an institution: no crucifix cross, no mass, no saints, no worship of Mary, just veneration, respect. Simple tables in places of worship, and the BIble, with prayers, sermons based on the gospel and confession: Seek justice goodness, truth. Nonviolence. No lying, no taking of oaths. Parfaits live modestly, even in poverty. Hooded cloaks, cup and bowl, and Book. May be weavers, artisans. The rest, just try to live a good life. Believers, "credentes", looked forward to consolamentum to absolve them at death and place them in state of grace, awaiting a return to another life. One-third of parfaits and believers were women. Notable women: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Esclarmonde.

Unknown South of France at 104 -105

1152    Toulouse adopts a common council idea, elected consuls or "capitols", to administer civil affairs, with advice from Count of Toulouse. See the extent of the Toulouse estates at FN 2.

1157                  Another Council of Reims opposes Cathars, called there "piffres", or (in Latin) "textores" or weavers,

1163                  Cologne burns 5 heretics. Eckbert of Schonau, at the Cathedral, wrote that the heretics identified themselves as Katharos,or "Pure Ones". Thus, the enemy was named.

1163                  Council of Tours: directed harsh treatment of Cathars, imprisonment and confiscation of possessions

1163                  (Same year) Hildegarde of Bingen has a premonition: "The princes and others are going to throw themselves at the heretics and will kill them like enraged wolves." Cathar Country at 21.

1165                  Occitania, near Albi. A conference opposed Cathars, also known by then as Albigensians, with prominent Cathars present, Robert Trencavel and the Countess of Toulouse. The Bishop of Lodeve ended with this declaration: "I consider that those who call themselves Good Men [the Cathars called themselves the Good Men] are heretics."

1167                  Cathar Council at Felix de Caraman, for organization purposes. A Bogomil bishop, Nicetas, was present; and Marcus of the Lombards. Area defined as Cathar: "Bishoprics of Agenais, Toulouse, Albigeios, Carcasses." Cathar Country at 21.

1167                 Beziers. The Bitterois (Church loyalists) trapped Viscount Raymond Trencavel in the Church of the Magdalene and assassinated him, and also broke the teeth of the bishop who tried to protect him

1175                  The Vaudois. Pierre Valdez was a merchant from Lyon. He took progressive steps: had the gospels translated into the language of the people in Provencal, and then he sold his goods. He became an itinerant, and preached a return to religious purity. He became an evangelical of the poor, leading "The Poor of Lyon"

1179 Council of Lateran excommunicated the Vaudois. See 1175.

1177 Robert Trencavel, Cathar, holds Catholic Bishop of Albi prisoner while Raymond V writes to church authorities, for help, then ensue many intrigues, letters, reprisals, forced recantings, excommunications, persecutions 1179ff

1183-84    Cathars were arrested in Arras, they were called "Blackguards" or "bougres" (origin on boogey-man?)

1184                  Council of Verona (again? apparently so) excommunicates the Cathars and the Vaudois, the Poor of Lyon. See 1179. Apparently they were not quite the same?

1187    In Holy Land, Muslims take Jerusalem

1195                  In Spain, Muslims defeat Castilians at Alarcos

1198                  Pope Innocent III. Now begin the systematic fights against Catharism. In Gerona (where?), Christian King Peter II condemned heretics to death in his kingdom

1199                  Pope signs Decree of Viterbe, authorizing dispossession of Languedoc heretics

13th C.

Church fostered development of "bastides" - like the 12th C villeneuves, to get revenues and control and rights, and better control the population. People were regrouped there. Charters set out customs, and royal agents would organize the settlement. [fast forward to death of Raymond VII and Cathar defeat: Toulouse became 36 bastides] Cathar Country at 51. Plantagenets also created some in Aquitane. Design: 8-sided, central square, streets like a chessboard. Not like a village.]
Some Vaudois reconciled with the Church. See 1179

1200-1250

1204 King of Aragon facilitated tolerant attitude to Cathars

1205 Pope Innocent III sent St. Dominic (1170-1221) to Languedoc from Spain, to expose errors of the Cathars. He and his followers preached even more extreme poverty than the parfaits of the Cathars.

1206 Council of Mirepoix. Six hundred Cathars demand defenses at Montsegur
Same year; Roman officials decide to adopt positions of the Cathars, and renounce outward signs of wealth, have no retinues, live by begging, on foot. Ordinary people were satisfied with the change. A convent of nuns was established at Prouille, in Lauragais, Cathar area.

1207 Relations deteriorate, Pope Innocent III and Raymond VI. Pope excommunicates Raymond VI. Count of Toulouse sees danger, the Pope sends a legation to negotiate, they are killed. Pope innocent calls for Crusade against Cathars, believing them responsible (were they?). Recall prophecy of Dominic: ""...where blessing has no value, the stick will be used...." Cathar Country at 23.

1207 St. Dominic founds nunnery at Prouille, near Fanjeaux, trying for peaceful persuasion of the Cathars. But for all his work, few Cathars defected to St. Dominic, Unknown South of France at 105.

St. Dominic, quoted at Unknown South of France at 105-106

' "For many years I have exhorted you in vain, with gentleness, preaching , praying and weeping. But where blessing can accomplish nothing, blows may avail. We shall rouse against you princes and prelates who, alas, will arm nations and kindgdoms against this land ... thus blows ill avail where blessings and gentleness have been powerless." '

St. Dominic. And so he said it all. And so they did.

1208                    Abbot of Citeau, Arnaud-Amaury, raised the Crusader army. Philip Augustus: would not participate, but authorized his underlings to join. Raymond VI increased diplomacy. Trencavel would not organize a united front. Raymond finally had to give 7 fortresses as security to Rome, and apologize and swear to fight the heretics, and even put his land under the protection of the Pope. Who was Raymond? Forget. Others wanted the same, but were refused (Raymond-Roger Trencavel, and Viscount of Beziers and Carcassonne)

1209                  Occitania. First pyres were made at Cassenil. Crusader groups organized.

1209                  Beziers inhabitants would not surrender. Crusaders sacked Beziers.

1209                  Narbonne submitted.

1209    Miramont Castle, Alaric Mountain. Chabert de Barbaira, protector of Cathars, probably also a heretic, but not sure. Warrior, successful against the French. This battle near town of Barbaira (was it named for him then or after?) See 1218

1209                  Carcassonne. Trencavel was there. Crusaders took over water sources. Trencavel tried to negotiate, was captured. Died of dysentery or poisoned in prison? Inhabitants of Carcasonne ran. Serving in the Crusade was a 40 day commitment, nobody wanted to take over Trencavel's rule, but finally Simone de Montfort did. How to subdue the rest of the land with only 30 soldiers left. More sieges, burnings, and finally Montfort's wife, Alix de Monmorentcy led in reinforcements.

1209                   Puylaurens, village of Les Cassees. 60 Cathars burned on the pyre.

1209 Les Cassees. Sixty Catharss burned.

1209 Beziers. Crusaders arrive, order Cathars to be presented or whole town suffers their fate. Townspeople would not turn over the Cathars among them. Some townspeople tried to escape, Crusaders pursued, and then forced their way into the town,. Crusaders set fire to town, massacre nearly all townspeople and Cathars, total some 20,000 people, including 7,000 taking refuge in Church of the Magdalene. Famous shout of the abbot of Citeaux, Arnaud-Armaury, spiritual leader of the crusade, "Kill the all! God will recognize his own!" See Cathar Country at 25. Statement later reported by a Cistercian monk from Cologue, Cesaire de Heisterbach. See site. Fair use quote:

'And the terrible warnings of Guillaume de Tudele, the author of the song of the crusade against the Albigensians rang out: "Any castle which resists, any stubborn town shall be taken by force and reduced to a charnel-house. That no living being should be left, even new-born babies. Thus shall be sown healthy fear and no longer shall anyone dare to defy the Cross of God..." '

Cathar Country at 25. Find it at http://www.addictedtotravel.com/travel-guides/places-to-visit/cathar-country_france-travel-guide

1210                   Bram. Revenge of Montfort. Mutilated 100 prisoners, eyes ripped out, nose ears and upper lips torn off, send them on foot, blind except for one who led, to fortresses of Cabaret.

1210    Franciscan mendicant order of Friars founded, Unknown South of France at 60
Parallel of poverty to the Cathar "parfaits" who also lived modestly

1210                    Minerve. Montfort wins, burns 140 Cathars. More defeats,

1210                    Lavaur. 80 knights hung, 400 Cathars burned on the pyre. "Lady Guiraude, the chatelaine of Lavaur, was thrown to the bottom of a well and buried under stones." Cathar Country at 30. She was not just buried under stones, says Unknown South of France FN 1 at 18; she was cast down the well and stoned. See 1253.

1211 Strasbourg. On the pyre: burning of 80 Vaudois. Other Vaudois hid in the Alps, and the Luberon (what is that?). More Crusader campaigns.

1211 Castelnaudary. Against Montfort's 500 men, assembled 5000 southern allies. Some reinforcements arrived. Battle was abandoned, but the allied coalition appeared disjoint. Montfort regroups.

1211                   Toulouse. Montfort attacks.

1212                    Area, Estates of the Count of Toulouse in 1212, see Unknown South of France FN 1 at 95-96. Cathar Chateaus, Cathar Castles, and a broad indication of towns, are shown on the same maps. See FN 4

1212-13              Sieges, back and forth, no clear winner. Cahuzac, Guillac, Rabastans, Montegut, Hautpoul, Saint-Marcel, antoninLaguepie, Saint-Alliances, battles, Crusaders take Penne d'Agenais, Biron, Moissac, leaving only Toulouse and Montauban?

1213 Muret. 20 miles from Toulouse. Montfort gathers crusaders from Carcassonne, seven bishops and three abbots. Bishops excommunicate Counts of Toulouse, Comminges and Foix (a mass celebrated at Saverdun) Then ally Peter II (who had succeeded in slowing down the papal fighting earlier) refused other clergy asking him to surrender. Bishops bless the crusaders of Montfort and they divide into sections and branch out from Muret across Occitan lines [he later died in fighting. Occitans became disjoint. Situation deteriorates, people undone, run into the Garonne river, drown, some flee]

From the Canso (Song of the Albigensian Crusade), Anonymous speaks:

' "The sinister rumor of disaster is already spreading throughout the world." '

Cathar Country at 33.

1214                   There had been treacheries among the nobles, and Raymond hung his own brother. Count of Foix and Count of Comminges submit.

1215 Council of Lateran strips Raymond VI of rights, gives them to Montfort, but earlier anti-heretic actions were reaffirmed, more dispossessions, loss of citizenship, could not hold public office. Then Montfort denounces any amnesty

1215 Toulouse falls to the Crusaders

1216                   Resurgence of Cathar hopes, Simon de Montfort gets title back, siege of Lourdes castle, more battles. But Toulouse revolts against him. Innocent III dies. On and on, alliances, marriages to seal alliances, sieges. Pledges ignored, abolish consulates, consultates continue.

1216 Dominican monastic Order founded, see Unknown South of France at 60

In the era: bishops and abbeys of institutional church also promote schools, hospitals, South at 60

1217                   Raymond enters Toulouse, gives protection

1218                  Simon Montfort siege of Toulouse. His brother, Guy, was killed by a crossbow operated by women on the ramparts, a mangonel, Then Amaury, son of Montfort (which?) became leader of the Crusade at age 20. Chabert de Barbaira defends Toulouse, peerless warrior, see 1209. See 1219

1219                 Battle of Baziege. Chabert de Barbaira fights with the future Raymond VII. See 1240

1219                 Marmande. Montfort sacks and burns it and all in it.

From the Canso:

' "And the earth, the ground and the river bank were crimson with the blood which ran over them. No man, woman, child, old man or creaature was left alive unless they were hidden. The town was destroyed and the fire, alight." '

Cathar Country at 39.

1221 Dominic dies

1224                 Carcassonne. Armistice. People had been falling away. Son of the senior Trencavel (who died in Carcassonne jail in 1209) regained his lands, but agreed to hunt heretics. Other agreements, as with Raymond VII that he could keep his lands, were abrogated. Confiscation. Dispossessed. He refused.

1226                Enter a new Crusade, the Royal Crusade, led by Louis VIII. Avignon in the Midi area opposed, but solidarity was cracking. Surrender. Still, Cathars remained rooted in Languedoc, with sanctuary in Cabaret. New Cathar bishops created at new bishopric of Razes, Carcassonne and Toulouse area. Bishop: Benoit de Termes. But bishop of Carcassonne was captured and burned alive at Caunes, with king present.

1227                 Labecede. All slaughtered, by sword and stake by royal army, Imbert de Beaujeu in charge. Treaties and repression and reprisals continue.

1228                 Toulouse. Again under siege. Destroy the crops.

1229                 Raymond agrees to surrender

1229 Toulouse. French King "established University of Toulouse to assist the Dominicans in their heresy hunting." Unknown South of France FN 1 at 118.

1229                Council of Toulouse. Treaty of Meaux. Raymond VII gives up possession of all his lands in Languedoc and lower Provence. Promised to fight heresy. Got back some lands for that. Count of Toulouse suffered financial conditions preventing him raising an army.

During this era:
                      Cathedrals. Church builds Gothic Cathedrals in Languedoc "to cow the population" - size rivaling cathedrals already in Paris, Reims, Chartres. Unknown South of France FN 1 at 118.

1230               Toulouse. Dominicans build Church of the Jacobins, near the central square, the Capitole. Used red brick, and high and flat columns in order to support the "rayonnant-Gothic style" so that the place looked like a fortress, very intimidating. See Unknown South of France FN 1 at 118.
And the bones of St. Thomas Aquinas were brought there to be set up in a reliquary, no other connection, but to establish a pilgrim and pilgrim-donation destination. Psychological warfare.

1232                Capture of 19 parfaits, but Raymond still not trusted. Montsegur is made head of Cathar Church

1233                Raymond confirms anti-Cathar edict

1233                Pope Gregory IX commissioned the Inquisition to the "Preaching Brothers" - had been led by Bishops. Hunt the heretics. Heretics flee to Peyrepertuse, Queribus, Montsegur

1234    Dominic is canonized. See 1221 and 1215

1240                Trencavel returns from safety of Aragon, gets some land back at Carcasonne. Then came royal forces, and Peyrepertuse surrendered.

1240                Verdouble Gorge. Chabert de Barbaira (see 1218) fights with Trencavel at Padern, property of Lagrasse Abbey there. Called "The Lion of Combat".

1241 King wants Montsegur destroyed, as Raymond VII had promised. Raymond doesn't fight very hard, as he was working out his own coalition with certain nobles; and also Henry III of England who arrived in 1242

1242                Avignonet. Commando force out of Montsegur assassinates inquisitor Guillaume Arnaud and 11 Dominicans and Franciscans. Weapon: Axes. Leader: Raymond d'Alfaro, son in law of Raymond VI. Revolt spreads across Midi. Church excommunicates Raymond VII and his coalition falls. Surrender.

1243                 Montsegur, seen as the "head of the dragon." Five hundred people defended its heights. Battle 10 months. Then a group of basques got up Tower Rock and cold install catapults.

1244                 Montsegur surrenders. Cathars refuse to recant. 200 Cathars burn on the pyre. Any remaining go in hiding.

1249    Agen. 80 Cathars burn on pyre.

1250-1300

1252                 Pope Innocent IV authorizes Inquisition to torture. See Cathar Country at 45.

1252        Albi. Cathedral of St. Cecile ordered built by Bishop Bertrand. Towers over everything. Columns, towers, stone enclosures with elaborate stone carvings. Also: construct the Palais (Palace) de la Berbie, where there are now 600 paintings by Albi native, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

1253                 Lavaur. Look back at 1210, the Cathar Lady Giraude had been cast down the well and stoned to death there by the Crusaders. Now, in 1253, the Crusaders built St. Alain's Church near the spot. Unknown South of France FN 1 at 118.

1255-1271         More Cathar surrenders.

1272                  Narbonne. St. Just. Crusaders began a cathedral, built a choir 136 feet high, and a transept with 194 foot towers (rest of cathedral not finished). "St Just was a fearsome reminder to the heretically inclined of the forces arrayed against them." Unknown South of France FN 1 at 118.

1276                   Sirmione. Capture of Cathars. Verona, Italy: 200 heretics were burned in the arena at Verona.

Verona, Italy. Under the Roman Arena. 200 heretics burned on the pyre here 1276.

1280 Twilight of the courtly age. Court of Count of Rodez: last troubadour there, Giret Riquier, reflected on the French conquerors forbidding "songs of vanity" -- Said Riquier, quoted at Unknown South of France FN 1 at 117,

' "Song should express joy, but sorrow oppresses me, and I have come into the world too late." '

1283                  Champagne. On the pyre: burning of 183 Cathars

1287                  Inquisition Trial at Albi, Inquisitors return to Carcassonne

1291                  Carcassonne opposes extremism of Inquisitors

1295                  Inquisitor Nicolas d'Abbeville begins again the trial, and people revolt. Leaders flee to a Franciscan monastery, where Bernard Delicieux was reader. Bernard refuses to let them in.

1297                  D'Abbeville seeks to try Castel Fabres, then dead, suspected of heresy; but Fabres had died in the monastery receiving Church rites, not Cathar; so the monastery defends Fabres.

1301                   Bernard Delicieux met with king and criticizes Inquisition abuses. Led movements against the Inquisition in Albi, Cordes, Carcassonne.

14th C.

In the era: The decline of the Age of Faith, 1000-1300 in the Midi, with its pilgrimage routes, economic successes, was generated by the disaster of the Church's response to the Cathar interpretation of Christianity in Languedoc: Look at the confluence of factors --

"As numerous as the reasons for the rise of the Age of Faith are the causes of its later decline. ***[T]he failed Crusades, the holocaust against the Cathars, the dynastic wars, the Inquisition, the resentment engendered among impoverished peasants and workers by the wealth and ostenation of the clergy, the corruption evidenced by clerical bribe-taking and indulgence-selling, the rise of the French monarchy as the claimant for total allegiance, the divisions in the Papacy, all combined to bring an end to the High Middle Ages."

Unknown South of France at 60-61.

1302    Franciscan Bernard Delicieux in opposing papal policy of authorizing Inquisitors to torture, tries to get Languedoc into the hands of Ferrande, the Infante of Majorca. See Cathar Country at 45, 49. He was captured, some followers were hanged, and he was delivered to Pope Clement V and was subject to him.

1310    Beziers. Delicieux goes to Beziers.

1317-1319        Jean XXII (king or pope??) arrested and tried Delicieux
1318-1325    Inquisition. The Inquisition offered heretics who survived the holocaust, word used at Unknown South of France FN 1 at 117, a chance to recant and escape burning at the stake. Prosecutors and scribes invaded and interrogations covered every aspect of their lives. Stenographic record is available, found by historian Emmanuel Le RoyLadurie in the Vatican Library, as to Inquisition lawyer activities in the Pyrenean hamlet called Montaillou: how deep was the heresy. He wrote a book, Montaillou, Cathars and Catholics in a French Village, see University of Cambridge review at the Faculty of History, http://www.historycambridge.com/default.asp?contentID=810. There find extraordinary details of the lives and beliefs of villagers of the time, elicited as part of the questioning to determine the extent of the heresy. Not read yet, but understand this book is not an annals of torture book, although many were burned, others imprisoned, made to wear the "golden cross" of the heretic. More administrative? See Unknown South of France FN 1 at 117. Jacques Fournier, later Pope Benedict XIII (former Bishop of Paniers)

1320    Castelnaudary. Torture of Bernard Delicieux, sent to Mr Strict prison, dies there.

1320    Spy-informer Arnaud Sicre sets plan in motion to betray last parfait, Belibaste. Why? Sicre's family were heretics, and their lands had been confiscated. Perhaps by colluding with the Inquisition, he could get back some of his lands, perhaps he thought, see Cathar Country at 45. He was the son of a lawyer, from Aix-Les-Thermes. Met with heretics at San Mateo and was received as a friend.He met Belibaste, the parfait. Left on a pretext, met with Bishop Jacques Fournier and denounced Belibaste. Word got to the Inquisition. Fournier paid Sicre, Sicre deceives Belibaste into coming with him.

1321    Morella. Last known parfait, Guillaume Belibaste, is captured.

1321                  Villerouge-Termenes. Parfait Guillaume Belibaste is burned on the pyre.

1323    Toulouse. 7 Troubadours form Consistori de la subregaya companhia del Gay Saber, and organize a poetry competition to honor Oc traditions. Religious themes, historical events, Western crusades of great interest, or daily life. Jocs Florals. See 1554.

During period: Course of intimidation by construction continues. Many new towns established by the Crown and Crusaders, as military outposts, not to show town planning advances.   See Unknown South of France FN 1 at 119.

1324                  Castelnaudary: Arnaud Vidal of Castelnaudary wins literary society competition, receiving a golden violet as prize.

1390                  Freissinieres. On the pyre: burning of 127 Cathars

1393    Barcelona. Jocs Florals were copied in the Pyrenees. Violante de Bar, Queen of Catalonia and Aragon; and wife of Joan I (what??) organized a poetry competition. Prize: real flower, not a golden violet.

15th C.

1400-1450
Albert de Catana organized a Crusade against the Vaudois. The last of them hid in Dormilouse, "The Montsegur of the poor." Then they were exterminated.

1443 Toulouse. Toulouse was given rights to have a parliament; but the judges derived power from the king, not from city electors.

' "So the land of Languedoc was lost. Granted, the realities of geography might in any event ultimately have brought Languedoc into peaceful incorporation with France, without the blood and tears of the anti-Cathar crusade and the Inquisition. And how much better that would have been -- for Languedoc and for France!" '

Unknown South of France FN 1 at 119. And for Europe. And the world, by example, is that so?

1451-1500

1487
Burgundy: Growth of heresies, martyrdom of more heretics, at Vezelay, Nevers, Auxerre, La-Charite-Sur-Loire

Italy: Heretics in Italy were called "patarins". Locations: churches near Milan (Concorezzo), Lake Garda (Desenzano), Vicenza, Mantua, Florence, Spoleto

Lake Garda, Lazise, church, 1100's. Some Christians were declared heretic.

France: Particular concentration in Languedoc, part of social fabric, flourished for reasons of culture, business orientation, crossroads of trade and ideas, and appealed to the nobles because there was no required tithe, noone begged them for money, the Cathar leaders led extremely modest lives, and the poor could identify with that aspect, see Cathar Country at p.19. How many were believers, however/ Book says, as of Toulouse, only maybe 1 in 10. Not a majority. In the smaller village of Vanjeaux, however, almost everyone was Cathar.

Invention of Clemence Isaure, legendary lady, inspired sponsor, muse of poetic games. See 1323. Cathar Country at 55.

1537 King Francis I proclaims French as official language of all France. Langue d'oc remained the "patois" of the South of France, spoken still by millions, see Unknown South of France FN 1 at 94.

SECOND MILLENNIUM, Part B

16th C.

Cathar culture continues, quietly

1550-1600

1554 Toulouse. Jocs Florals, or Floral Games. Presentation of poetic works, old literary society tradition of Oc country. See 1323. Winner: Ronsard. Got the golden eglantine. See 1694

17th C

1694 Louis XIV creates Academie des Jeux Floreaux, see 1323. Language of troubadours was replaced, remained only a regional dialect. See 1393

18th C

researching

19th C

researching

THIRD MILLENNIUM

2001-Date

2011 Contemporary Cathars, see extensive website, historical overviews, heraldry, at Cathars and Cathar Beliefs in the Languedoc, at http://www.cathar.info/

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COMMENTARY

Did the Founder really require uniformity of thought, on pain of death or "excommunication"? Or did the Founder seek that people hear, and lead a good life. Heresy, the idea, demands a Procrustean Bed. Chop, or stretch the individual, but make sure the individual fits the established Molld.Consider the influence and effectiveness of thought police, from earliest centuries to date.

See how it grew after the Great Schism of 1050. The Roman Branch thereafter employed a Procrustean Bed: Fit the length of our dogma, said the Institutional Church, newly in search of territory and influence; or you will be stretched, or chopped, to fit. Enter Crusades, to the East, in the Holy Land; and against other Christians, in the Balkans, the Bogomils; and in Western Europe, the Cathars.

An age of "faith" of its sort, was going on at the same time as the slaughter of the Cathars, in the Midi and other areas. In some places, people simply bowed to or voluntarily agreed with the institutional Church without question, see 1000-1300 CE, see The Unknown South of France, A History Buff's Guide, by Henry and Margaret Reuss, Harvard Common Press 1991, at pp.56 ff, http://openlibrary.org/books/OL1886265M/The_unknown_south_of_France. See FN 1, FN 3.

In other areas, the institutional Church was not only questioned, it was opposed. Texts from earliest times supported various interpretations.

The church responded to this diversity of response by calling any disagreement with its dogma "Heretical". It masked its thrust for power as a concern (cough, cough) for the eternal souls of those who disagreed. Is that the real concern? Or was the church really interested in territory and influence. Look at the history. the church had just split from the rest of Christian orthodoxy: it needed land, prestige, justification. So far, we believe that the idea of "heresy" was an excuse to get those things.

Is this so:

The Roman Church made a conscious decision after splitting off from the Orthodox, to force dogma and belief in the Languedoc area of France that followed an alternate theology (imposing the "Procrustean Bed" of Greek and other mythology).

The Institutional Church remains accountable for that choice to turn to violence, uniformity and death, as the culture has never recovered. The course, once set, became engrained. FN 2. FN 3

Merit of idea, or approximation to the Founder's teachings, were lost. Theological institutions in the West followed the Roman experience and expertise: use might and military. Merit of idea, measured by connection to the Founder's intent, or to later institutional expansion needs, fell by the wayside.

Might and military overwhelm which idea may have merit, is that so.
Shape minds by force is the idea, and once forcibly converted, the people will think aright. Kill now, say sorry later. Power disguised as "true belief" carries a virulence that kills the best in its path. Survivors on both sides, scathed. Irreversible extremes can result.

One that creates and rides a concept it calls heresy.With this timeline in mind, a mere microcosm geographically, see the Western Violence Timeline, and focus on Jews, etc. See http://worldwar1worldwar2.blogspot.com/2010/11/westerm-ethnic-violence-timeline-put.html

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This footnote section is extensive, as the topics here are really the subject suitable for a full thesis in any number of fields. No time for that now.

FN 1 The Unknown South of France, A History Buff's Guide, by Henry and Margaret Reuss, at http://openlibrary.org/books/OL1886265M/The_unknown_south_of_France, puts the Cathars into a larger context of French history, and in manageable segments geographically and culturally:

400,000 BCE               Prehistory and the Pyrenees
35,000-7,000 BCE       Cave artistry, Dorgogne, Vezere, Cele Valleys
700 BCE - 51 BCE      Gallic stones in the Lot Valley
51 BCE-410 CE          Roman Gaul

1000-1300 CE             Age of Faith, Christian institutional form in The Midi section of France

1000-1100-1300 CE    Languedoc area: Troubadours and Cathars -- Christian non-institutional, therefore deemed "heretic" [We would call this the religious suppression era, as the Christian form of faith in the Midi and other areas overwhelmed Languedoc Cathar Christians].See summary after it was over, at p.121:

Characteristics: Cathar age: see page 121; and Unknown South of France at 117
church and throne destroy Languedoc

social and religious tolerance
courtly culture
self-determination
decentralized politics
economic prosperity
govern by live-and-let-live governing
build churches
pilgrims wend
small and large courts sponsored music, poetry, troubadours

1152-1453 CE            Dynastic Wars. English Frenchmen fight French Frenchmen.
1122-1204    Eleanor of Aquitaine ascends English throne. Aquitaine area: Wars for dominance, Englishmen from English royal line with blending into the French royal line(think marriages, conquests, dowries), French-speakers, on French soil fight Frenchmen
1453    English withdraw from France, retaining channel islands

Characteristics: Dynastic Wars
destroy areas north of Languedoc: Perigord, Quercy, Augergne
build castles
build fortresses
fortify churches
build bridges, mills, new towns
destroy enemies buildings and structures
destroy fields, forests of countless peasants
suffer plague
suffer famine
disease and war depopulate countryside and town

1337-1453 Hundred Years' War (really part of the foregoing 300 years' warfaring)

Religious Wars: End of the Dynastic Wars brought the Religious Wars 1550-1750
1453-1562 CE Renaissance in the Midi (Turks take Constantinople, refugees stream into Western Europe, bringing many new ideas, approaches - the Renaissance was not a sudden combustion out of nowhere)

1550-1750 CE Religious Wars

1562-1610 CE           Example: Navarre area: Religious Wars, Reformation, Counter-Reformation
1610-1789 CE             Example: Cevennes: Huguenot (Protestant group) persecution
1789-1945 CE             French Revolution to WWII. Midi resists the homogenization forces

Wars of the French Revolution
Napoleonic Wars
Franco-Prussian War
World War I
World War II

1945-1991 CE          "Modern" era (book was published in 1991)

Current:                        Issue of who is legitimate and how is not, still distract. Who is to say who else is heretic, and who is inspired, in any culture and religion is a culture. Seethe concept of the Sedevacant -- the vacant seat, if a pope is not de rigeur for those entrenched, see http://olrl.org/misc/sedevacant_md.shtml

Itineraries. Find itineraries for the anti-Cathar Crusade suggested at Unknown South of France at pp.119-120.
.......................................................................................................

FN 2. Accountability of the Institutional Church for its violence in choosing to eradicate dissent,

Note the economic advantages of a clear system imposed. Monasteries, peasants (still worth nothing and bound to the land) able to improve their lot.

Note the benefits of the institutional church after the Great Schism:

Unknown South of France at 56ff.

Years 1000-1300, at the same time as the holocaust for the Cathars:

Good deeds.

The Church for centuries had bought and sold land, inherited from the faithful, good business practices. The barbarians were worse. Turn to the Church.

After 1000, people did not fear the end of the world, just yet. Vast land areas came under cultivation. The monasteries even exceeded how the secular nobles worked their land. Gold stars for economic progress to Montmajour and Silvacane monasteries, see Unknown South of France at 56. See better plows, using ox teams. Three-field crop rotation even. Build little stone houses for pigeons and collect the droppings for fertilizer. Pigeon __it. Damn the gristmills. No, not perdition, but ponds to make the wheels go faster. Mills: Marcihac on the Cele, Lot River; or go to Gascony and find Barbaste, on the Gelise River. Windmills! Find some apparently at Castelnaudary on the Canal du Midi (remember that Midi is a geographic area); or at a town called St. Chels, also on the Lot River; or at Castelnau. That is south of Cahors.

More improvements: laundries, open air. Community ovens. Go to Collonges-La-Rouge on the Dordogne River, oar La Couvertourade in the Herault, see Unknown South of France at 57. But this was not the monasteries doing it. Credit to Church 0. Credit to serfs: 10. They didn't care who owned the land. They were stuck on it.

"All this agricultural bustle was made possible by the serfs."

Unknown South of France at 57. And the surplus created by the serfs entered commerce, then came trading, and market fairs. Still, on the secular side, there was not the organization of the Church --

Political heirs of the Roman structure, like Clovis and the Frankish Merovingians

, once the barbarians were in the places, did that on their own.

In areas where people were passive and accepting of the power's imposed dogma, the results were indeed beneficial economically. Still, the serfs remained serfs. In other areas, like the Midi, monasteries fostered economic advances, productive economic and other contribution. But that is no counterweight to the atrocity the church employed to overcome disssent.

Shall Western Culture ever face the history persecution and murder that enabled the Church, and in the Languedoc, the newly energized French Crown, to eradicate the only culture that could have fostered coexistence. Sharing power, negotiation to result, full participation of women, live and let live.

For the centuries of resulting mayhem as the Church chose Inquisitions and Crusades under the pretext of "saving souls," the Institutional Church remains accountable. It had the choice. It chose murder, not the fostering of voluntary life choices. Which is closer to the Founder.

Can the Church excuse itself by saying that violence was a flaw of the era.

No. Violence was not a matter of early times and people not knowing better. See how the rest of the Christian World, the Orthodox in the East of Europe and Near East, continued its mission, without crusades and witch-burnings and heresy holocausts; without Rome's determination to dominate.

Who lost in the Great Schism? Western Culture. Western Culture chose force and conformity; and never recovered.

Are religious wars just another pretext for power, turf and politics as usual. Is institutional spin so engrained that original meaning is intentionally lost, in rallying a population to atrocity.

.................................................................................

FN 3

A. Cathar Beliefs.

Demonized as heretic. Dualism. Light and darkness. Matter is evil. The deity is not all-powerful against it. People do their best, but acknowledge the duality: Some can be "parfaits" or perfects; the rest of us do our best to live a good life, and hope for consolamentum as the only sacrament,the one at the end of life, as our life rolls into other lives. Rough summary.

Should that be a difficulty?

It is where a system of doctrine and strict identity is threatened by it. What if people challenge the Church's interpretation? Work, most marry, live a good life, share decision-making, follow baptism in services but no additional "sacraments". The parfaits set the example and also work, women are also parfaits, share power, why is dualism so bad?

After 800-1000 years, who were they? What was so bad about their dualistic thinking -- good and evil, etc. Did the Church really just want their lands, prestige, wealth, since the Church had just broken from the Orthodox in 1050 or so, and was casting about for position. Learn about them from their own site, at http://www.cathar.info/

B. Economics.

There was an unusual resource of the area: Agranat. A blue dye powder, requiring meticulous harvesting, processing of woad wood.. Agranat. Cathar Country at 57. Synonymous with opulence in time (think wealthy colonial houses here?? deep blue walls?). Read about the blue dress of the Cathar girl at a good summer novel, very short read, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/6588518/The-Winter-Ghosts-by-Kate-Mosse-review.htm. There was also farmland, extensive towns and castles. The location was strategic, the south of France. The Pyrenees. They spoke their own language, had their own customs; and did not bow to Rome.

C. Structure.

Nonauthoritarian. Cathar parfaits. Leaders. "Perfects." They lived what they taught, lived in the community. Cathar parfaits did not marry, but everyone else did and that was fine. Parfaits were required to work, like anyone else, see Cathar Country by Michele Aue, translated by Juliette Fraiche, Discover Series MSM "Le Pays Cathare" 1999 at 65. Weaving and cloth-making were common occupations of parfaits. Profession of weaving, and heresy, connection was perceived. Is Weaver's Cross from the Cathars? need a picture. (Was Paul also a weaver?)

Also basketmakers, leatherworkers, medicine. Women parfaits were cultured, many educated, and directed convent-type houses for shelter for Cathar women and girls. Church clergy did not work, except lowly monks. See also Esclarmonde de Foix b.1160, noblewoman, landowner, Cathar, had owned Montsegur Castle before she sold or gave all away for her mission, participated in discussions between Cathars and Church, to the dismay of the Church. Cathar Country at 69. Find it at Michele Aue, Cathar Country http://www.amazon.com/Cathar-Country-Michele-Aue/dp/2911515765. No kickback, just a source.
For another good source for Cathar Culture and the wars, as well as other eras, is this inexplicably obscure The Unknown South of France, A History Buff's Guide, by Henry and Margaret Reuss, Harvard Common Press 1991, at http://openlibrary.org/books/OL1886265M/The_unknown_south_of_France. See FN 1

D. Is this merely religio-ethnic cleansing.

The Crusade idea, no matter which, is not concern for saving souls but of ridding the power arena of obstacles to Rome, obstacles to -- as it developed -- power of the French monarchy.

It appears so. Put the Albigensian Crusade, the Western Crusade, the formal Crusade of the Church against fellow Christians in Europe (think town of Albi for one group of Cathars) in the context of ethnic cleansing -- see http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/48961/andrew-bell-fialkoff/a-brief-history-of-ethnic-cleansing.

Bring western culture's ethnic cleansing into the open for examination. The French monarchy, in league with the church brought the Languedoc into monarchy control with the burning of parfait Belibaste in 1321, but some traditions carried on for another 75 years or so, and even beyond. Cathar Country at 55. Occitan language and culture: not eradicated completely.

And there was no "heresy" was there? There was only an obstacle to the monolith: the Church. And then in league with the emerging monarchy. Who is to say that dualism is not as fine a way to lead a good life. Who is hurt? Better, which makes more sense and enables people to live together. Belief in dualism may be common sense, and in line with the concepts behind "lead us not into temptation," or "deliver us from evil," -- looks like dualism, is that so? See http://bogomilia.blogspot.com/2009/07/cathars-albigensians-vet-so-called.html

E. Sources.

Then vet the theories with a more comprehensive account. Get a perspective on History at The Unknown South of France. Go to Cathar Country, by Michele Aue and translated into English by Juliette Freyche; a Discover publication, paperback nice glossy, MSM (France) 1999. See it at http://www.addictedtotravel.com/travel-guides/places-to-visit/cathar-country_france-travel-guide A book originally in the language and place of the events often gives different accounts of history from that transposed to others. Set up a chronology of the Cathar Wars, for example, because their extent appears almost as a footnote in some Roman Christian annals, a guick note and let's move on here -- those were only heretics. Even pop magazines are taking an interest, see http://newdawnmagazine.com.au/Article/The_Church_s_War_on_the_Cathars.html

Find your way directly to the Song of the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian Crusade, at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6408/is_n1_v67/ai_n28708189/

F. Facts evolving.

Who: Who were heretics, really? Heresy as we know it, a matter of ideas being damnable, not just action. But when does "thought" become an excuse, a symbol of an obstacle that a monolithic power wants out of the way. Doe one person have to care if another is damned? Heresy changed according to which institution needed the change. There was no single Greek word for ideas of perdition. There was only "hairesis" or choice of sect, within an inherited line of faith. One may choose a destructive sect, but it took institutional purposeful doctrine to turn a merely destructive choice sect into damnation, and enforcement powers against those who dabbled in it. See How "Heresy" or Choice of Sect became Sectas Perditionis.

Scope: This was no small matter. Persons of wealth, education and standing were challenged for what they thought. Find a chart of the main people at http://www.cathar.info/120510_timeline.htm Names and lineage get confusing and no name should be lost.

So, as the institution of the Roman Church took hold, by force and exclusion of dissenters, choice of ideas was only acceptable if it was the Roman Church position. That led to damnation for those who challenged Rome as a new idea, sectas perditionis;and soon came the authority for those in the Church to enforce death against those outside. Evildoers, not worthy of life.

Among these were Gnostics who, quite reasonably, found in texts a duality of good and evil. Roman dogma said no, no duality thinking allowed, and so the battle began -- slowly, focused in the first Millennium, and slaughter in the first half of the second. Each viewpoint, gnostic, Aryan, Manichean, whatever, had viable roots in texts and experience and interpretations. But only one developed the will to kill, and the doctrinal thinking that their killing was indeed in the name of the deity. No heretics. Only obstacles to the monolith. Ethnic cleansing, religious cleansing, what difference, pray tell. See Ethnic Cleansing, Mass Violence

D. Need for chronologies.

Here we look at a starting chronology of the Church's Crusade against those Cathars, to show the ruthlessness, the need to examine what happened in cleansing the earth - nearly - of this culture, this benign belief system that could have offered so much in how to coexist with dignity, using the talents of all.

How else to examine the culture: a sharing of power and an emerging solidarity in the "castellum" or fortified town, its noblemen, craftsmen, peasants, and religious parfaits who lived modestly and worked among them, seeking purity. See Cathar Country at 16.

Find instead the material and regimentation goals of the Crusader force their way for territory and wealth, organized officially and extending over a long period against other Christians in France, Spain, elsewhere. What model was followed in exterminating a religious culture that we continue to see in political as well as religious ethnic cleansing. Gnostics, Cathars, Bogomils, Manicheans, you name the sect that differed from the Roman sect, and find them denominated "heretic." Another topic would be the role of "heresy" in other faiths.

E. Linguistic resources. The Literature and Feeling of the Languedoc

Cathar country: Then see what is lost when a language is nearly exterminated. What concepts of mind almost cease to be -- we could use some of their paratge today. See this anchor reference, http://www.cathar.info/ Read The Song of the Albigensian Crusade at http://medievalsourcesbibliography.org/sources/-806118968

Languedoc, France; where the language "Oc" or Occitan,was spoken. Language of the Ocs. Languedoc. Consider the entire southwest of France, extending as far north as Normandy. And related beliefs in the Balkans, the Near East. Gnostic. Semantics. Not just that; the battle was also for a mindset: coexistence, cooperation, consideration; against autocracy. Against rules, definitions, Patriarchy.

Languedoc before the Albigensian Crusade: courtly love, troubadours, rhythmic verses. Troubadours included Peire Vidal, Raimon de Miraval. Parallels if not connection: search for purity, for Cathars in religion, for troubadours, in feeling. From love comes good, both would say. See Cathar Country at 55.

F. Questioning visions.

How much of a faith is grounded in one person's claim of "vision" -- unverifiable, but pivotal to history. A concept in process, examples include looking at Paul (epilepsy?) (do a search for Paul and the idea of heresy, for a start on how ideas are shaped by "inspired" individuals, at what expense); and Constantine (meteor? see 4th C. above)

...................................................................................................

FN 4 Towns and Cathar Castles 12th C.

For an idea of the wealth and broad area involved, here is a list of towns (size? criteria for inclusion?) in 1212, precise proportions of Cathar to Church believers not given on that map, but Toulouse (source?) may have had some 10% Cathar? So not overwhelming majority likely : basically starting north,

Languedoc Towns - This map area stops just north of Aurillac and Le Puy, so excludes Cathar Crusade activity in areas farther north, not in the Languedoc

Languedoc Towns, Cathar Crusade activity, South of River Dordogne and West of the Rhone River, South to the River Lot:

Aurillac NT (NT here means not in the Count of Toulouse Estates; T means in the Count of Toulouse Estates area)
Le Puy NT

Languedoc Towns, Cathar Crusade activity, south of the River Lot, north of River Tarn

Roder NT
St. Antonin Noble-Val T
Laguepie T
Penne NT
Cordes NT
Bruniquel T
Puycelci NT
Montauban T
Gaillac NT

Languedoc Towns, Cathar Crusade activity, south of the River Tarn, west of Rhone River

Toulouse, on the River Garonne T
Muret, on the River Garonne NT
Lavaur T
Montpellier NT
Castelnaudary T
Beziers NT (Cathar centers were as often outside as inside the Toulouse Estates)

Cathar Chateaux
Chateau: de Lastour NT
Chateau: de Minerve NT

Languedoc Towns, Cathar Crusade activity, on or East of River Ariege, to South of or on River Aude, to Pyrenees and Spain

Carcassonne on Aude NT
Narbonne south of Aude
Fanjeaux NT
Mirepoix NT
Limoux on Aude NT
Foix on Ariege

Cathar Chateaux
Chateau de Termes NT
Chateau de Puivert NT
Chateau de Montsegur NT
Chateau de Montaillou NT
Chateau de Peyrepertuse NT
Chateau de Queribus NT
Chateau de Puilarens

Languedoc Towns on or east of Rhone River

Avignon T
Fontaine de Vaucluse T
Tarascon NT
Les Baux NT

Election as Market. Political Loyalty Wars. The Recall as War. Use of Civil Remedies to Clarify Loyalties

2011-04-15T09:07:00.004-04:00

Election Wars.

The Recall.

Market Wars: Marketing in Politics.

Can Civil Remedies Function for Transparency:
Can the Declaratory Judgment Clarify Issues Before Election

The Declaratory Judgment

Wars of Voters against Elected Officials,

where truth in marketing and labeling are equally important

to daily life issues

Have you a right to know to what whistle will the doggie respond;

humanitarian; or personal financial; kickbacks and lobby perks;

or buyer beware;

What is the voter's recourse if the disclosed loyalty or platform promised

(the binding offer, or "easement"?) is breached.

1. Voters and Elected Officials

By way of update, there are current American wars between elected officials and the voters, seen in states where one party that did not run on an issue such as breaking unions, then does so once in office; and that same party that did not run on repealing medicare and medicaid then effectively is trying to do so once in office. Search for unions Wisconsin, town czars Michigan, Ryan budget. As to union-busting, there are recall petitions circulating.

As to the budget, possible resolution to these market wars is in the form of a Stealth Proposal for the budget: The People's Budget. Can real people effectuate change when their elected officials are going amok, See it at Act for The People's Budget. This is the offering of choice to legislators who may just see in it a way to do the right thing. The problem will be dovetailing the platform on which they ran for office, and pledges required by their party, and sworn to once there (no new taxes ever, etc.); with their acting on their conscience. If they stray from the flock, what then, see Flocking Behavior vs. the Good of the Country

2. Interpreting Platforms: Binding, in what ways if at all; what loyalties must be honored, if any

a. A Platform is a binding offer that the voter accepts as a contract in accepting the offer. Contracts geeks, to your posts.

b. A Platform is like a "view easement" in property: the neighbor sells or grants the view easement to the adjoining lot owner; and than cannot build to obstruct the view. However, the easement must be properly and in a binding way, documented. What documentation is needed? Similar: Can a property owner without a deed easement block the neighbor's addition?/04/17/realestate/17wczo.html?ref=realestate

c. A Platform is nothing but puffing, a lure to come into the store, where you will be effectively cooked. Coked. Bitten by the one you put in office, thinking it would be nice. Who or what is bound by what loyalties and how should or must they be disclosed

Loyalty betrayed. Politician bites voter

A. The Declaratory Judgment Process, Possibly

1. To whom is an elected official responsible, in the campaign, and after election.

Ask: Who is boosting this person, and why. Cash will win in the absence of clear information, as in any commercial matter. The Kochs, billionaire election-swayers, equal cash and anti-small person humanitarianism in this analogy. Is that apt?

Cash and Kochs rush in where ideas require subterfuge

Argue in favor of a broad fiduciary obligation to minorities and opponents, even if his own party or position is ultimately favored. Humanitarianism. See Attack on HumanitarianismThe official must be prepared to articulate how those opposing views were weighed in his ultimate decisions. The voters can then see the process, and decide for next time if this is an honorable person.

The issue is huge. Do we take seriously government of all the people (whether citizens, actual voters, or with green hair); by all the people; for all the people. Or is government of the winner of an election, by the winner, and for the winner. Decide the obligation first. This is a recurrent issue: Is the official responsible --

To the voters who voted for him; others can say ta-ta to his attention until the next election;
To the voters who did not vote for him, but because they are in his area of constituence, their views are entitled to an objective balancing in a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; This view frames a fiduciary relationship arising on behalf of the entire constituency area, once the election is held;
To non-voters (not eligible, or residing outside the constituence area), but legal person entities and other associations that are allowed to overwhelm individual wiggly tongues with aggregate moneytongues, lobbyists, special interest groups, or wealthy ideologues on a frolic of their own who control media and block neutral dissemination of full neutral information, and reward the elected official for voting their way
To non-voters in the constituence area, souls at the middle or bottom, remaining in need of rungs for access to the ladder, including to reasonable health and opportunity.

2. What disclosures are required and when in order to make #1 clear. Truth in labeling. Disclosure inserts about adverse affects, intended results, ingredients.

The elected official must disclose his loyalties as soon as they become reasonably firm: that is, upon receipt of favors, cash, perks; and ideological holdings.

Does this adversely affect speech? Commercial speech parameters on content, time, place and manner impacts upon it, but not adversely or impermissibly. Commercial speech standards should required for sales of politicians. Require disclosure of position during the campaign: The contents of the candidate's mindset and its likely effect on policy.

This is just like selling medicine. Label the ingredients the voter is asked to buy; and lay out its adverse effects and what conditions it is designed to cure.

Pol for sale. Pol for sale. Unappetizing bought pol for sale. At least as a consumer of politicians, you as a voter have a right to know what you are buying. And to compare prices. If the Kochs buy Wisconsin, and then buy the review committee in Washington that looks at what happened, you have a right to know that price. Can you pay more than that? Probably not.

In any democracy, too many Kochs spoil the broth.

Kochs serve oligarchy and autocracy and dictatorship: but not democracy. Now: who will bell the cat? Who will bring the declaratory judgment? Where? Is the idea so absurd? Is consumer protection any less needed here?

B. Examine Voter-Politician Wars.

There are built in conflicts of interest. This particular war recurs in any democracy, and evades review. A Declaratory Judgment * in the jurisdiction -- whichever country is concerned about its own situation -- is needed to lay out the rights and obligations of both parties.

This voter-mandate identification idea that officials use to justify what they do, when the voters may well not have said that at all -- is an actual case and controversy, with direct injury among voters, and candidate-elected officials. Implicit and explicit deed easements. Is there anything enforceable if not reduced to that notorious writing if not to be performed in one year.

What happens when officials go off on a frolic of their own, and voters find their elected officials make choices in office against their campaign positions; or according to undisclosed positions. What are the obligations to the minority, if any. E;ected official recall is costly. Can the recall purpose be served better by an advance declaratory judgment?

In making an election purchase, who or what does the voter select:
1. an official to serve the voter's interests, or
2. an individual to be a free agent loose cannon, or
3. a tool to serve whatever ideology or group succeeds in worming into or buying the official's influence.

As to obligations to the minority, is an election a winner-take-all.

If so, declare it so the stakes are clear. If instead a democracy fosters a fiduciary duty to the minority, declare it so accountability can be applied. Democracy with its humanitarianism; or autocracy, or oligarchy. Time to say what.

Ideological Dictatorship bites the American Eagle

Which court? You figure that out, because our current Supreme is too tainted ideologically in advance for BUSINESS business at the expense of humanitarianism. Is that so? That Court is useless for humanitarian people who see that as a required element in long-term stability. There is now fear of actually bringing a case because it is predictable, practically, where the 5-4 will fall. Don't dare bring a case against states violating rights, because the court may take the opportunity to overreach and overturn what little is left of individual moral and other choice.

Recent officials: Wisconsin's Scott Walker (undisclosed Kochs and anti-union pro-wealth ideology to attack unions at expense of lower and middle income people); Connecticut's Joe Lieberman (insurance industry interests, vote no on a public option in health care), and any state could add its faves. Ideology is best advocated under the table in campaigns, and then busted out all over once somebody is elected. What are the people to do then, poor things.

This issue does not affect free speech, because in the area of sales, there are restrictions already in effect to protect the consumer. This makes clear that candidacies, campaigns, elections and post-election behavior is really sales and the sales context applies.

....................................................................

* US Code Title 28, Part VI, Chapter 151 section 2201

Creation of Remedy (Declaratory Judgment)

(a) In a case of actual controversy within its jurisdiction, except with respect to Federal taxes other than actions brought under section 7428 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, a proceeding under section 505 or 1146 of title 11, or in any civil action involving an antidumping or countervailing duty proceeding regarding a class or kind of merchandise of a free trade area country (as defined in section 516A(f)(10) of the Tariff Act of 1930), as determined by the administering authority, any court of the United States, upon the filing of an appropriate pleading, may declare the rights and other legal relations of any interested party seeking such declaration, whether or not further relief is or could be sought. Any such declaration shall have the force and effect of a final judgment or decree and shall be reviewable as such.

(b) For limitations on actions brought with respect to drug patents see section 505 or 512 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

See ://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode28/usc_sec_28_00002201----000-.html

PsyOps. Wars for the Mind. Warfare for Opinion. Psy Ops PsyOps Coming At You

2011-01-16T22:10:00.009-05:00

Warfare for Opinion.

Technologies to Control the Mind

How Real?

If real, how far advanced, and what next steps.

"In their propaganda today's dictators rely for the most part on repetition, suppression and rationalization -- the repetition of catchwords which they wish to be accepted as true, the suppression of facts which they wish to be ignored, the arousal and rationalization of passions which may be used in the interests of the Party or the State. As the art and science of manipulation come to be better understood, the dictators of the future will doubtless learn to combine these techniques with the non-stop distractions which, in the West, are now threatening to drown in a sea of irrelevance the rational propaganda essential to the maintenance of individual liberty and the survival of democratic institutions."

Fair use from http://www.huxley.net/bnw-revisited/

V.

The Persuasion:

Shall we address the Facilitators, the Industries that foster persuasion without revealing the corporate interests underlying. We could defend if we knew the source. Is that why the media owners and corporate controllers seek secrecy. If someone thinks their money is going to an individual to pursue their cause, and it goes instead to a corporation pursuing the cause of shareholders, should the label be truthful. Truth in labeling for political disposition of funds.

Propaganda, population control as a group and/or individual by individual, by conditioning, language arts, visuals, seen and unseen, is not a new topic for our sites.

What is new is an apparently on-target awareness of how entrenched and open-ended, militarist in focus, the technology and study supporting it, has become. See examples at ://www.filedownloadfull.com/forums/f7/unconventional-combative-techniques-pdf-mf-rs-r3bel-814742/ and ://www.4shared.com/u/pAj8YLyC/Franke_Schein_-_The_LoneWolf_R.html/ Guerrillas.

Go back to Mein Kampf, and see Hitler's brilliance in assessing why Germany lost out in WWI -- and how to make propaganda work. Natural Pragmatism: Mein Kampf, Unser Kampf. Propaganda, Are those techniques, laid out step by step, being applied against us now but in the civil political setting. All it takes is convincing the masses that they are in a survival war, and then issues of humanitarianism and aesthetics can be shunted aside in the war effort.
.
Propaganda:

The propaganda technique is one simple message, applied relentlessly and without change no matter what else is happening, because the masses don't think so good and forget fast, is that so? Can democracy survive if people allow propaganda to supersede the dissemination of neutral information, in setting policy. Ask.

Is there no defense, ask the little people.

Is there no way for little people to have a clue except by surfing the net, when a significant number have no computer access; about what might really be happening, in the esoteric areas that were seeded by our own culture with kickstarts at World War I, and the Third Reich, and World War II, to now.

Our legislators apparently are paid to support the mercenary-training culture, not vote against it for the people being intimidated. Need a PeekyLeaks to find out. Go, Peeky.

Until then, we look.The Fodder Site: The Way to Mauthausen. Polarize then Demonize.

Persuasion Field. How information is "recorded, analyzed, measured," and what can be done with that information, with what techniques, to shape behavior.

1. Persuasion. Where to begin.

A beginning level for the study of persuasion tactics: www.propagandacritic.com. Find the origins of propaganda research, application, through the WWII era. Edward Bernays and his legacy, see also Bogomilia, Edward Bernays, Regiment the Public Mind; and Creel before him.

2. Persuasion. The horses' mouths.

Go to Propaganda, PR and PsyOps, presented by Kenneth Warren and John Guscott, 2000 ://www.lkwdpl.org/wildideas/propaganda.html/

Propaganda and whose horse's mouth

Get a grounding in the ideas. Find quotations with attribution, including our Edward Bernays, a great favorite. Find short sentences, to long thoughts. With the attribution of author, vet any source. Excellent! Easy format, overview of the issues, no overlay of agenda.

3. Persuasion: Learning the field.

Konrad Becker's Strategic Reality Dictionary. Find the M's, where we started, because of an interest in M words like Meme, at ://world-information.org/trd?trdid=M/ See commentary Fodder Site, Big Persuasion, Democracy's Pitfall.

Find the 2009 book launch for the Strategic Reality Dictionary at ://eyebeam.org/events/strategic-reality-dictionary-book-launch-and-presentation/. Questioning to continue, but meanwhile, find further overviews and content at ://www.cognitiveliberty.org/9jcl/symbolic_order.html/. His articulation is a slow read, as a non-native English speaker (he is German) and the language is stilted and too full of long words. Collaborate, Mr. Becker, find a smoother narrative creator. Meanwhile, reader, take it slow, figure it out. It is interesting, on hypnotism, indoctrination techniques.

Tactical Reality: the Introduction, Dictionary. See://world-information.org/trd/intro

The site is from World-Information.org, through the auspices of UNESCO (conspiracy theorists attack UNESCO as promoting a one-world government, a view we do not share at all), and sponsors forums, exhibitions, in the areas of politics and society, digital art and net culture, and surveillance. See http://world-information.org/ Find Edward Bernays again at the Introduction there. See an overview of persuasion technology and information, socio-cultural manipulations available, at

The problem is vetting Konrad Becker, if it is he who founded the world-information,org site, (World Information is described as a cultural intelligence agency, among other activities) and has the opportunity to self-serve, see small bio at ://www.newmediastudies.nl/magazine/impakt-conferentie-superstructural-dependencies/ and the dictionary. See also ://www.eyebeam.org/people/konrad-becker/. He is also active in electronic media, this from Wikipedia because we did not know where else to turn. See ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Becker. Is that the same Konrad Becker? Music and the study of technologies of social control. A double major?

Our interest: military-political-corporate machinery and the People. Pending somebody telling us, or we find out, Becker is a good ballyhooer himself, but we are still interested in what he describes. If he used other sources in compiling his dictionary, we wish he had put in the attribution. FN 1

4. Further sources

4.1 Cognitive Liberty. The role of fear

See US socio-political theater today: see ://www.cognitiveliberty.org/9jcl/symbolic_order.html/ at section entitled "social styling". Fair use: the role of fear

Creating anxiety and fear, inducing states of high suggestibility and controlling relationships to assure loyalty and obedience are standard management techniques of the social body. Desensitization through language abuse, propaganda and junk-information, as well as the elimination of individual ideas through repetition of chants and phrases or the inducement of dependence by introducing sports, games or TV shows with obscure rules, are part of a large set of social styling methods.

4.2 History Channel for all of us.

History of mind control work, see the History Channel series, hardly a sophisticated source and the focus seems to be too much on illicit and horrid experiments, but a good start, at ://www.wanttoknow.info/mindcontrolvideo/

For the program itself, see ://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13845.htm / Timeline at http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1R1GGLL_en___US387&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1122&bih=560&q=history+of+mind+control+in+war&btnG=Google+Search#q=history+of+mind+control+in+war&hl=en&sa=G&rlz=1R1GGLL_en___US387&biw=1122&bih=560&prmd=ivns&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=qK0zTe--LoHDgQeOqei4Cw&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11&ved=0CGkQ5wIwCg&fp=978f9346893b21e0

5. Social control through propaganda techniques, long-term conditioning.

Update 3/06/2011. See Michael Moore in Wisconsin on the duping of America. Michael Moore, America Is Not Broke. ://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8390668-video-to-winsconin-workers-america-is-not-broke-says-michael-moore-the-money-is-just-not-in-your-hands

Listen for the propaganda techniques highlighted.

...................................................................................................................

FN 1

Some of these propositions in the compilation at Propaganda, PR and PsyOps, as I recall, appear in a similar way in Konrad Becker's work, the Dictionary. Just woven in. Was this Wild Ideas Propaganda site used as the seed site for the Tactical Reality Dictionary? Have to go back and check. Not clear. And there may well be an attribution or thank-you page somewhere in Tactical Reality.

Looks like there are changes made, for a transformative use? As a start, use the litany of ideas, phrases, concepts with the name of the person originating it, to the clearly militarist and cubby-hole approach of Becker as a start; but there is no substitute to the dictionary organization. Wild Ideas offers no way to find one concept fast. Yet the dictionary of course allows anyone to start at A and read through, making it more like Wild Ideas.

These do seem different enough --

From the Tactical site ://world-information.org/trd?trdid=M

The main subcategories of propaganda are command propaganda, which seeks a specific and immediate response (Buy... Do ... Vote ... Join ... Fight ....), and sub-propaganda or conditioning propaganda, which seeks to mold public opinions, assumptions, and attitudes on a long-term and widespread basis.The basic patterns for manipulation of socio-political "Cause" groups can be described in a pattern of: Threat; Bonding; Cause; Response. Socio-political persuasion follows similar patterns as consumer marketing campaigns: a basic pattern, of commercial advertising is a simple 5 step formula of "the pitch": Attention-Getting, Confidence-Building, Desire ? Stimulation, Urgency-Stressing, and Response-Seeking.

Now to look back at Propaganda, PR and PsyOps' compilation ://www.lkwdpl.org/wildideas/propaganda.html

"Command propaganda" seeks an immediate, specific response: NOW. Most commercial advertising does this. In much political advertising,* persuaders also use this same 5-part pattern of "the pitch": Attention-getting starts with simple "name recognition"; Desire-Stimulating refers to the issues discussed (if any), the social (not individual) benefits promised; Urgency and Response focus on a simple act, "Vote for Me. Now." Thus, election campaign rhetoric is a form of command propaganda. "Command Propaganda and Conditioning"

"Conditioning propaganda" seeks a future response: LATER. Conditioning propaganda is designed to mold public opinions, basic assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, myths, and world views, on a long-term basis, as the necessary prelude, climate, or atmosphere for eventually getting a response, later.

Source attribution given: Command Propaganda and Conditioning. Try looking that up, and get back to the Propaganda, PR and PsyOps site. Circular. Military to corporate to political to .... Who can break the circle? Red Rover, Red Rover, Why Don't You Come Over. Did I hear right? Is Karl coming over? Thank you, Karl. Thank you. Only you have the keys to the secret knowledge. On-ly YOU-O-O can make the world... Come right? No! No!. When we're calling You-o-o-o-o. Better.

.........................................................

FN 2 . Vetting the dictionary, without having to go back to the Wild Ideas compilation each time to see who said something like it first. We are not in a position to do that, so draw no conclusion about verification of each description in the Dictionary. Also, a futuristic concern: Is is true that these social control issues are closely guarded and fostered until they bloom in partisan or corporate or both think tanks, the persuasion scientists, the focus groups at the partisan promotion groups. Edward Bernays says that propaganda is the other side's promotion of it cause; education is my promotion of my cause. So even that statement of think tanks is suspect.

If someone characterizes propagandists as megalo-out-of-my-way-maniacs behind closed doors (if this clearly objective description from a detached autonomy-addicted lefty is not true, then, as a Rhetorical Beckism, why are they not denying it?), we are on the right track at least in figuring out their position. We know that person's point of view as to the topic being discussed, is that so. All is persuasion. While you are at it, Run from Glenn.

One concern: why does a search for Strategic Reality or Strategic Realities also turn up gun people and their addiction to the bang bang. If the marketing of the Dictionary is to titillate the violence-disposed, pander to the desensitizers so people will follow where they are told, fostering a climate of permission to act out with guns, then we back off. Is the Dictionary on-target (!) as its own work despite the nasty title? Here is "wii" in a URL. Wii? A Game? ://world-information.org/wii/strategicreality/wii/strategicreality_intro/ Unfortunate in translation culture to culture. Is Wii not in Germany? We're here.

Peasants v Overlords. People v Corporation "Legal Persons". Pierce the Corporate Veil

2010-12-05T20:58:00.001-05:00

Taming the Corporation

Pierce the Armor of the Corporate Veil

So the rest of us can Live

Is there is a war going on, with a financial battlefield: the armored group-people (corporations) against the peasants. Yes, by way of update, see http://hellofodderhellobuyer.blogspot.com/#!/2011/10/global-vocal-majority-worlds-99-per.html

So what is the peasant to do. See again a favorite representation of peasants rising up against the castle in the background. Are there parallels.

Peasants' Revolt Memorial 1515, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Peasants in the 16th Century were hopelessly out-powered. Their poverty-condition had been aggravated by the feudal system, and they were barred from engaging in trade that might benefit them. They wanted their ancient rights, to overthrow the feudal system that bound them for the benefit of others, to establish a zone where they could improve themselves without the landowners' control, undertake such defense as they might need themselves (Ottomans were the threat at the time), and collect taxes for their benefit. See Peasants' Revolts 16th Century Overview.

Are we seeing the wheel of fortune again wheeling the wealthy with their corporations to the top, a kind of recurrent feudalism; and -- ask again -- what is a peasant to do. Who is the peasant? Who else?

First. A rough analysis. What are the similarities, what are the differences. The hardest part is figuring out who are the peasants, who purports to speak for peasants but really represents the corporations, and etc.

1. Arms. Peasants then were definable by role and locality: a fixed entity, and they had their pitchforks. Landowners had everything else. Peasants were pretty much bound to the land they worked; not much organization value in busing peasants around to agitate others. Or, carting them far away to agitate for other peasants.

Armey busing peasants to a rally like this? Little future.

Today, we are not looking at pitchforks, but are looking at "second amendment remedies" in the hands of the peasants and anybody else, are we not. So we need to be concerned.

Colt Armaments, Hartford, defunct factory, now being redeveloped

So the peasants have the pistols; and the assault guns; but what does the other side have. Pistols and assault guns, and other things:

The corporation side has Cash and Secrecy -- that makes up the armor against the peasants.

Armored Corporate Men and Women; extrapolation from Thun, Switzerland

1, The armor is largely thanks to Citizens United Supreme Court case, and its ideas that

a) entities who are not people, but only "legal persons", with no organic spitty mouth,
b) nonetheless can talk at will, as with bags on their heads (think the unknown comic idea);
c) through actors on TV and radio ads to accomplish their no-see, no-mouth goals,
d when ordinary peasants have no bags to wear, can't afford the Actors, and have to show who they are if they dare speak up.

So, the war: Those in the bags who can buy propaganda sources at will; and therefore win the elections wars by using people who believe them, and don't even know whose interests they are serving; against people with the organic spitty mouths, unpretty, unfunded, even though the voting rule is one spitty mouth, one vote.

With disclosure, there would be no argument like that. People who believe the Actors would know by disclosure whose interests were being acted out. Fair game.

2. The shield, dear Reader, is the "business judgment rule", as it has been interpreted in states making lots of money from corporate registrations -- everything is a sound business judgment and no disposition of corporate assets or goals in setting policy can be easily challenged by mere shareholders. They can't realistically organize against the directors any more, is that so? Impermeable.

Business Courts the Court. You sly devil, you.

See http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/node/39096

3. The "corporate veil" means that directors or other individuals employed in the corporation cannot be sued personally for transgressions of the corporation they direct.

Is that the route to bring under some semblance of control the overpowering lust of the directors.

Western Ethnic Violence Timeline. Put Cultural Explosions in Perspective?

2010-11-06T15:02:00.025-04:00

Western Ethnic Violence Timeline

Roots of War:

Does war flourish because it offers a stage for honor and sacrifice; and reflects conflict as inevitable anyway? *

Or does it feed our basest instincts to put boot on neck whenever possible, for gain.
Including aggressive religionism.
Roots of violence.

See also:

Heresy Wars, Roman Catholic Christians vs. Cathar Christians http://worldwar1worldwar2.blogspot.com/2011/06/heresy-wars-timeline-cathars-religion.html
Violence Against Aborigines, Indigenous, http://bogomilia.blogspot.com/2011/06/aborigines-ongoing-defeat-of-indigenous.html

I. Background
II. Timeline
III. Retrospective

.....................................................

I. BACKGROUND

Ethnic violence. How far back do we look to find roots of patterns, exploding violence. Religious and cultural myopia: Is that how we can live with our own histories. What do we do that triggers reactions of others. Stay out of our lands, with your god(s) and your companies, many have said. Do we? Not much. Is that an issue? Is it so?

Here we look at history. At deadly proselytizing. Aggressive religionism where converting was itself violent, and often a tool to get the turf. Do the two issues converge: violence and myopia about it. Here we look at three complexes related to understanding how violence and short memory cum spin foster more violence and spike sales of rose-colored glasses: Polytheists, other One-God faiths vs. encroaching Roman Christians.

The Byzantine, Eastern Orthodox Christians seem to have been less violent overall, but with enough violence in that direction to make generalizing difficult. In some cultures and religions: violence is episodic, a period of it followed by calm. In others, it is chronic. Stop one set of aggressions, and find another to take up the energy. Which is which. Why. Can we help it.

A. Focus here: We weave together these strains --

1. Polytheist Vikings:

Viking. Kronborg, DK. Waiting.

Vikings here are referenced as a followup to

the non-stereotypical biography and contributions of one Viking leader, Harald Bluetooth, see Harald Bluetooth, at ://bogomilia.blogspot.com/2010/10/harald-bluetooth-i-harald-bluetooth.html/ ; and

the Norse response to the extremism of Charlemagne moving northwards, against their neighbors, the Saxons: Charlemagne's brutality against the Germanic Tribes (example, Sachsenhain 782 AD, Saxon Wood, slaughter 4,500 captive Saxons); and

the perspective of the Pope of the time, in urging violent response against the Germanic tribes (did he? or was it Charlemagne on his own?); and did the Pope's overkill in any area of beating down dissidents reflect the earlier Roman fear of the fervor of the Germanics, where emotions and fervor challenged and even burst out of Roman control, and were victorious over the legions at least at that point; and were Popes' institutional violent responses to heretics and witches and infidels related to the Roman fear transmitted somehow thereafter: never let happen again -- the defeat by fervor over ideology, in some way recalling the earlier humiliation of the Roman legions at Verusschlacht in 9AD, defeated by the fury of the tribes.

2. Perceptions of the violence of Monotheist Roman Christianity vs. the Polytheist Vikings and everybody else.

Was the Western version of Christianity, the Roman form, a passing of the torch, the triumph of Roman militaristic theology cum dogma; over the original loosely healing, contemplative, non-authoritarian volitional discipline, teaching, of a Iesu, Jew. If you follow, follow. If you choose to leave, we are sorrowed, but we let you go.

Even the Byzantines, and the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity, took a more fluid tack overall than the Roman. Is that so? And the tack thereafter for the West became unyielding authoritarianism against those perceived as less than equal, by belief, color, gender; we are right and you are wrong so bow (to which many peoples said, Nuts); and "chosen"-ness, an area once reserved to the Jews -- fellow monotheists, and targets. Is that attitude echoed in politics today. Unyielding authoritarianism.

3. Convergence. Ask: which culture's violence extends over the longest period of time, in invasions, killings of the "other", etc.

Polytheists, or monotheist west? Which culture's religion supports that. Any? None? All?

B. Theory

Go back. Some roots continue in people's memory, and are passed on despite whatever. For the events regarding Jewish persecution, see ://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/HistoryJewishPersecution/ That site is a must-visit. To add those events here would elongate the section by 3 more pages. Is it time, at last, to employ a pragmatic secularism in areas of human interaction, among individuals and cultures; and retain, as the individual may desire, religious orientations and dogma for private life.

============================================================

II. WESTERN ETHNIC VIOLENCE TIMELINE

Always under construction. Everything is.

Early Polytheists Against Each Other
Aggressive religionists in early years.

Polytheists: Romans, Vikings, European Tribes, Gaul, Germanics, Huns,
Monotheists: Jews, Western Christians, Eastern Christians (Byzantine, Eastern Orthodox), Muslims

59-51 BCE -- Polytheist Rome takes over Polytheist Gaul, but as a matter of turf and claiming resources, not a religious conversion motivation? see ://www.eh-resources.org/timeline/timeline_roman.html

[what is another word for persons believing in a pantheon of deities, besides pagan, or heathen?] [we think we will use Polytheists, although that covers a broad range of practices, beliefs, literacy]

MAJOR BUT UNDERPLAYED EVENT

VARUSSCHLACHT, GERMANY

9 CE, Christian Era; or 9 AD, Anno Domini. Rome v. Germanic tribes; especially at Varusschlacht, Germany where the tribes triumphed over the legions, and is it true that the legions never forgot, despite concealing the histories; knowing the fervor of the tribes unleashed against them, and winning. Did this remembrance trigger the violence of the Christian Charlemagne and the Pope against tribes later. Or not?

Remembrance of Varusschlacht, Germanic tribes triumph over Roman Legions 9 AD. Is that so?

Polytheists Against Monotheist Jew(s); then Christians; and Both

32 AD or so: Polytheist and Jewish Institution Crucifixion of one Jesu, a Jew, at Jerusalem. His followers group, disperse, branch off. A Roman citizen convert, Paul, also a Jew, begins a Roman-type of organization, forging identity among the now far-flung communities of believers, restating beliefs and setting up structures to spread the religion of Iesu. His group becomes the Roman Orthodox Church, as opposed to the Eastern Orthodox Church that evolved farther East, including at Constantinople in time.

43 CE (AD) -- Polytheist Rome invades Britain

96 AD ------- Polytheist Roman persecution of Christians; Nero, see ://www.christianity.com/historybycentury/

150 AD or so --Polytheist Persecutions of Christians continue. See ://www.christianity.com/historybycentury/

Monotheists Against Other Monotheists

Whose Mono Will Win

Christian West against Jew

Christian West Against Polytheists

70-200------- Christian Gnostic beliefs develop, see http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Heresy.pdf

150-451 ------Christian other non-orthodoxy developed -- roughly, "Montanist" beliefs, wanted reform of emerging church, attacked authority, wanted celibacy, were martyrs, see Heresy site; also see Arianism (Jesus not divine and other matters), Manicheanism (light and dark), Donatism (if the priest is not in grace, his sacraments are invalid),

224 -----------Christian Italy, forced conversion of Jews [these references to Jewish persecution history in Europe come from ://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/HistoryJewishPersecution/

300's --------Christian Roman Church itself starts to define, then kill off, or try to kill off, "heresy" and "heretics." It forcibly ejects, kills and discredits people; and denies/destroys documents that disagree with the developing Dogma.

357 -----------Christian Italy, Christians confiscate Jewish property

379 ------------Christian Milan, synagogue burned

410 ----------- Christian Rome as a government, military, leaves Britain. Gaul; Norse expansion begins in the vacuum, Visigothic Kings expand into previously Roman territory. See//www.great-britain.co.uk/history/ang-sax.htm/ ://www.eh-resources.org/timeline/timeline_roman.html. Emperor's power wanes, Bishops' increase. http://www.christianity.com/historybycentury/

Eastern Byzantine Monotheists Against Polytheists

Western Monotheists Against Nonconforming Monotheists

415 --------Christian Byzantine Archbishop Cyril of Alexandria kills in a particularly gruesome way, the Polytheist and scholar, Hypatia, see Jonathan Kirsch book, 2004 "God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism." Further ID -- SSFC, 3/21/04, p.M1, says this site, ://timelines.ws/countries/BYZANTIUM.HTML

438 -----------Christian nonconformism "Heresy" becomes a crime, see Theodosian Code at ://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Heresy.pdf

Polytheists Enlist Support of Polytheists Against Polytheists

450's or so ---Polytheist Angles and Saxons from Northern Germany are invited in as mercenaries by Scots and Picts, to defend against raids. With door open, Anglo-Saxons kept coming and then took over, see ://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/Anglo-Saxon/Anglo-SaxonInvasion.html

Monotheist Negotiates with Polytheist

Polytheists Convert

Monotheists Against Polytheists; Jewish Monotheists

452 -------- Polytheist or no-theist? Attila the Hun attacks (Shamanist?). Pope negotiates and saves Rome

496 -------Polytheist Clovis, King of the Franks, converts to Christianity

500's ------Christian Church doctrine, through Clovis, moves north to convert "barbarian" Polytheist groups. Christian-convert Anglo-Saxon monasteries prosper.

519 ---------Christians burn the synagogue in Ravenna, Italy

554 ---------Christians in France expel Jews from the Diocese of Clement (where?)

557 ---------Christians in France expel Jews from the Diocese of Uzes (where?)

570 ---------Polytheist Vikings attack Frisia (Frisia, and islands, north east Germany-Netherlands - which?)

Another Monotheist Enters

MUSLIMS

570-629---- Another one-God religious founder Mohammed's lifetime [one God: Jewish, Christian, Muslim]

Sixth Century: First Wave of Plague killed half the population of Europe perhaps, and facilitated Muslim advances, see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/health/01plague.html

Monotheists Against Monotheists

582 --------- Christians in Merovingian areas forced Jewish conversions (area of France/Germany ruled by line of Frankish Kings, http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Merovingia/

612 ---------Visigoths once Polytheist now Christian in Spain expel Jews, see ://www.jewish-history.com/Occident/volume7/nov1849/visigoths.html

619 -------- Christians in Merovingian areas (France-Germany] force Jews to convert, second wave

600-636 ---Christian Bishop of Seville fights "barbarism" and heresy in Seville

630-640 --- Muslims conquer Near East and Egypt

633 -------- Christians in Toledo, Spain, force Jews to convert

638 --------- Muslims capture Jerusalem; and in Toledo, Christians burn Jews at the stake

642 --------- Polytheist now Christian Visigothic empire Christians expel Jews

653 ---------- Christians in Toledo expel Jews

648-664 ----- Christian Roman branch defines what is to be taught as theology, another Pope who disagrees is banished and dies, becomes martyr. Original Celtic Church defeated and Rome version takes over

681 ---------- Christian Spain overall: Christians force Jews to convert

690-710 -----Muslims conquer North Africa and Spain. Is this the Umayyad Caliphate?

693 ----------Christians in Toledo enslave Jews

717-718 ---- Muslims attack Constantinople, do not conquer it

722 ----------Christians in Byzantium (later Eastern Orthodox, in Constantinople, when Christianity split into Roman branch and Eastern Orthodox) outlaw Jewish religion

731 or so -- Muslims (is this always synonymous with Muslims, or are Moors specifically the Arabic Muslims? Were there others in that time?] invade Spain

742 ---------Charlemagne born (dies 814)

See timeline of Charlemagne's and the Pope's activities for turf at this fine Historical Timeline of Charlemagne, at ://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/ChurchHistory220/LectureTwo/TimeLineCharlemagne.htm

That Historical Timeline of Charlemagne consists of a timeline plus links to lectures, maps, theories and Topics that extend to Vikings, Saxons, all the elements of Charlemagne that are so difficult to put together year by year -- since so much else was going on. Recommended: Visit the site, especially as to Saxon and Viking and Carolingian interactions.

Monotheists Stop at the Border That Way

751 ---------An aside: Muslims invaded Eastward, prevailed against China at Talas River, but chose not to pursue further, went instead Westward, see ://www.thenagain.info/Webchron/China/Talas.html

758-1258 ------ Muslims, who had been under the Umayyad Caliphate, establish instead the Abbasid Dynasty or Caliphate, see discussion at ://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ISLAM/ABASSID.HTM/ This apparently is founded on two sub-groups of Islam, Shi-ites and non-Arabic Muslims, "client Muslims" or converts, and gets complex for Westerners to follow but has ramifications for today so read it carefully. Four schools of law established 750-850

Monotheists against Polytheists

Polytheists Against Monotheists

Rome Version v. Scandinavia

Scandinavia v. Rome

754 ------- Polytheist Germanic tribes kill Boniface, a Christian Missionary, after he had been there 40 years, http://www.christianity.com/historybycentury/; Christians split: Papacy splits with Eastern Orthodox, two Christian branches now

CHARLEMAGNE

771 --------Christian Charlemagne becomes King of the Franks. Rules as leader 768-814

772 ---------Christian Charlemagne starts raids against the Polytheist Saxons, see ://historymedren.about.com/od/charlemagnestudyguide/p/sg_timeline.htm

775 ----------Christian Charlemagne's Capitulary of the Saxony, as punishment for anti-Christian [Polytheism, and defense of own lands] acts (death) at ://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/carol-saxony.html * Note the close cultural relationship between Scandinavian Polytheist cultures and the Saxons' Polytheist culture: similar rune lettering, pantheons, intermarriage common. Vikings could see handwriting on wall, based on Charlemagne's history in the rest of Europe, is that so?

SACHSENHAIN

782 ---------Christian Charlemagne, against the Polytheist Saxon leader Widukind continuing to resist, see http://historymedren.about.com/od/charlemagnestudyguide/p/sg_timeline.htm, executes 4,500 Saxon prisoners at Verden (Sachsenhain, or Saxon's Grove). Note that this is not included in the Church History site as to Charlemagne. It passed by oral tradition among the non-literate tribes. Who was to write it down?

Saxon Grove, Verden, Sachsenhain. Story: Charlemagne's execution of 4,500 Saxon prisoners

The Third Reich knew well of it, however; appropriated the Saxon Grove site for a huge memorial perimeter of 4,500 standing stones, as here, with a woods walkway big enough for vehicles. And when the people were grateful and thanked the Third Reich; the Reich installed its Hitler Youth and SS on the site. See ://www.servinghistory.com/topics/Sachsenhain::sub::Legacy/ History or manipulation? Esotericism fueling the Reich, see ://library.flawlesslogic.com/souvenirs_10a.htm

VIKINGS

789 --------Polytheist Vikings attack Christian Wessex (England now). See also chronology at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/overview_vikings_01.shtml

791 ----------Christian Charlemagne destroys the Polytheist Avars, see http://historymedren.about.com/od/charlemagnestudyguide/p/sg_timeline.htm

793-1050 ----Polytheist Viking Age, see://www.facts-about.org.uk/history-and-events-timeline-vikings.htm/ (here Timeline). Dates not clear -- some even question whether to call this era "Viking Age"

793 -----------Polytheist Viking attack on monastery at Christian St. Cuthbert Lindisfarne

Note that references to early polytheist beliefs are dismissed as "superstition" even by modern narrators, see ://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_bullfinch_38.htm; thus justifying in its way, and ongoing, the "Christian" expansionism of Western culture. One man's superstition is another's faith, is that so? Read various systems at ://www.geometry.net/detail/basic_n/norse_mythology_page_no_6.html

795 -----------Polytheist Viking attack on Christian Isle of Skye, Iona, Rathlin Island

799 -----------Polytheist Viking attack on Aquitaine

800 --------- Christian Charlemagne becomes Holy Roman Emperor

Charlemagne, Osnabruck, Germany

800-900 ---- Polytheist Viking raids on European mainland, see ://www.thenagain.info/Webchron/World/IslamicAge.html/ Reaction to religious and military incursions of Charlemagne? Looks like it.

801-865 -----Christian Anskar, "Apostle of the North", is missionary in Scandinavia (where?)

804 --------- Christian Charlemagne's prolonged and brutal wars against the Polytheist Saxons finally succeed, http://historymedren.about.com/od/charlemagnestudyguide/p/sg_timeline.htm; Charlemagne relocates, breaks up tribes and family groups, resettles Saxons, the Saxon diaspora. See ://www.the-orb.net/textbooks/westciv/charlemagne.html/.

Is the Viking violence that increased with the Saxon humiliation and devastation, in response to the Christian violence? Ask. We do not have the answer, but ask the question. Religious motivation: not only for the Christian or other monotheist, see ://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/binladdendispatch.htm/ Fervor for one's own way of life against encroachment: human.

813 ----------Polytheist Danish and Norse Vikings, fight in Norway

814 ---------Christian Charlemagne dies, began as ruler 768, rose to King of Franks and Holy Roman Emp0eror

826 ---------- Many Polytheist Germanic and Norse predecessors converted to Christianity, thanks to and under pressure from Charlemagne's armies and his Frankish line of Kings fore and aft (the Franks were the largest Germanic Tribe, and they compelled the conversion of other Germanic Tribes over many decades, even centuries; two steps forward, three back, four up, one back, etc. Cyril 826-869, and Methodius 815-885 missionaries to Slavs.

Monotheist Expansionism and Polytheist Expansionism

839 ---------- Polytheist Swedish Vikings reach eastern area Christian (note that the Orthodox and Roman branches of Christianity were developing differently, see ://en.allexperts.com/q/Eastern-Orthodox-1456/split-Roman-Church.htm) city Constantinople, no invasion or battle; trading.

840-41 ------- Polytheist Vikings attack Dublin, establish settlement

843 ----------- Christian Charlemagne dead, empire divided among his three sons, ://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/europe/northern_eastern/AD800-1250/Thebreakupofthecarolingianempire

844 ----------Polytheist Vikings attack Christian Seville, Spain; also Galicia, Al-Andalus

845 ----------Polytheist Ragnor leads 120 Viking longboats up the Seine River in France to Paris; the French King pays a ransom to buy off a pending Viking sacking; Vikings attack Hamburg, Frisia (again and again),

848 ---------- Polytheist Vikings attack Christian Bordeaux

850-900 ----- Polytheists put Christians in Old Carolingian empire under attack: Vikings from north, Saracens in south, Magyars in east, ultimately ending up in two broad areas: Germany and France, see://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/europe/northern_eastern/AD800-1250/Thebreakupofthecarolingianempire

851 ---------- Polytheist Vikings attack London and Canterbury

Monotheists v. Monotheists

Polytheists v. Everyone

Everybody v. some Monotheists

855 ---------- Christians in Italy expel Jews

859-62 ------ Polytheist Vikings attack Mediterranean islands

860 ----------Polytheist Vikings attack Constantinople; ://timelines.ws/countries/BYZANTIUM.HTML/. Gardar the Swede explores Iceland. Swedish Vikings establish Kiev, see ://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/europe/northern_eastern/AD800-1250/MedievalkievandtheRus

862 ---------- Polytheist Vikings establish city of Novgorod, in Russia

870 ---------- Polytheist Vikings attack Polytheist Orkney Islands (why is there only Viking DNA there, and no remains of the original indigenous people? Was there a genocide? Need more info);

874 ----------Vikings settle Iceland, perhaps a little earlier, stay until 930

875 ----------Vikings take over Mercia and Northumberland, with wave of attacks; Wessex still Anglo-Saxon

876 ----------Christians in Sens, Burgundy (France) expel Jews

878 ----------Vikings attack Wessex, England (Eric Bloodaxe), King of Saxons, Alfred, ultimately gets it back, see://www.great-britain.co.uk/history/ang-sax.htm

880 ----------Vikings attack Kiev; settle there?

881 ----------Vikings attack Aachen, Cologne
Charlemagne's death -- when? Left empire to sons, sons couldn't keep it going; were all the conquests for nothing?

886 -----------Vikings defeated in London

897 -----------Christians in Narbonne, Languedoc, France, confiscate Jewish land

900 ----------Vikings raid the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea

902 --------- Vikings expelled from Dublin

HARALD BLUETOOTH,
KING OF DENMARK AND SWEDEN

911 ---------- Bluetooth born. In this year also, the Viking King Oleg of Kiev signed a treaty with the Byzantines. How civilized can you get, O Viking dumpers. See ://timelines.ws/countries/BYZANTIUM.HTML

Also this year, Rollo and his Vikings settle Normandy; Rollo is recognized as ruler of Normandy by the French

935 or 940 -- Bluetooth succeeded his father, Gorm the Old, as King of Denmark

936 ---------- Bluetooth became King of Norway as well as Denmark (other sites say this was in 945)

936-973 --- Otto the Great revives idea of Holy Roman Empire, in the vacuum left by Charlemagne's sons and the weakened empire; seeks to be it

937 ---------- Vikings attack Limerick

945 ---------- Bluetooth invaded Normandy, on behalf of Richard the Fearless and imprisoned the French King Louis IV until he recognized the rule of Richard in Normandy

Meanwhile, Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great established bishoprics in Denmark, at Schleswig, Arhus, and Ribe on the Jutland peninsula. (Denmark: one peninsula, Jutland; and manymanymany islands. The two biggest are Funen or Fyn where Roskilde and Odense are located; and Zealand, where Copenhagen is located).

Rune stone Harald Bluetooth, Christian Convert (for a time?) Jelling, Denmark

And Christians in Venice ban Jews from traveling by sea

972 ----------Bluetooth was defeated by HRE Otto, and converted (again? were there earlier such events that did not "take"?)

981 --------- Vikings attack Greenland, Newfoundland (Norse settlers there then, or indigenous?)

983 ----------Otto dies.

994----------Vikings attack London

Bluetooth went on to rule in Denmark and Sweden, and part of Norway, erecting rune stones to honor his father and mother, a first wife erected a rune stone to honor him as Harald the Good, he finally (voluntarily? or not?) converted, built a Christian Church at Jelling and re-interred his father Gorm the Old beneath it, and see more at Jelling, Denmark. Harald Bluetooth, Rune Stones

The good life did not last.

______ ------ Bluetooth's son, Sven, heathen (here meaning only non-Christian) rises up against Bluetooth and prevails; Bluetooth flees to Germany and either a) dies at Jomsburg while Christian; or b) reasserts his heathen belief system, and repudiates Christianity, and dies at Jomsburg. Evidence points to b, because the Catholic Church never canonized him, despite his long years of Christian and enlightened rule.

Here is the interesting part. The Viking rage did not go on for long against western Christians. But the Christian rage against anybody non-Christian in their view, heretics were fair game in the dogma wars, were slaughtered century after century..

VIKINGS SETTLE IN AS RULERS, GREAT BRITAIN. BECOME MAINSTREAM

981 ---------Erik the Red discovers Greenland

986 ---------Vikings land, Canada (settlement does not last)

995-1022--- Viking King of Sweden Olof Skotkonnung converted in 1008, but civil war between Christians and pagans continued for another century

1000 --------Iceland and Greenland are converted to Christianity, by other Vikings we think. At this time, also began a medieval Europe warm period, climate. see ://www.eh-resources.org/timeline/timeline_me.html#mwp

1001 --------Leif Ericsson reaches coast of America

1009 ------- Christians in Orleans, France, massacre Jews

1012 -------In Rouen and Limoges, France; and in Rome, Italy; Christians massacre Jews. In Mayence, France (now Mainz, Germany), Christians expel Jews

1013 ------- Danish invade, take over England, this being second wave of attacks

1014 -------Byzantine Christian Emperor Basil II blinded 15,000 Bulgarian soldiers. Ordered it.

1021 ------- Christians in Rome burn Jews alive

1016-1028-- Viking King of Norway, Olof Haraldsson (not the same Harald?) finally forced the Norwegians to convert

1016-35-----Danish King Canute (Cnut, Knut) rules from York; Danish kingdom includes Norway and England

1030-1035--Vikings conquer most of Scotland

1034 ------- Byzantine Emperor Romanus III Argyrus is assassinated by his wife. See ://timelines.ws/countries/BYZANTIUM.HTMLMaybe there are reasons for the Roman branch to mouth celibacy?

1043 --------Vikings defeated at Constantinople

1050 --------Vikings establish Oslo, Norway

1055-1250 --Islam expands, under the Seljuk Turks, take over Jerusalem, this site says the Seljuks prevented Christian pilgrimages, see Crusader response, http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/crusades.stm / Pope Urban II called for Holy War against the infidels, see site.

1063 -------- [need to coordinate timelines of Muslims in Spain as to Jews; believe so far that they coexisted, but Jews were limited to a restricted status even while free in academics, and to worship?] Jewish persecution timeline says Jews in Spain were massacred in this year -- that would be by the Christians or also Muslims? Not clear yet

1066 --------Normans (descendants of Northmen from Normandy) invade England at Hastings. The weak English King Edward the Confessor had died, Willliam the Conqueror (William the Bastard) saw his chance, and Harold (not Bluetooth) fought back, was killed, and William was crowned William I of England.

1071 ------- Viking descendants from France expand into northern Italy

1075 --------Vikings invade, are defeated, England establishes own identity

CHRISTIANS BECOME ONGOING MANIC; BUT VIKINGS GO ON THE WANE

Watch what happens in the violence area as the Vikings settle down. The Church makes up reasons for more violence -- Crusades. Focus the people again -- wars. And fill coffers?

FIRST CRUSADE

1095 -------Christian Pope Urban 1088-1099 called for first Crusade (he called it a Holy War) against the "Infidels" in Palestine, see ://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/crusades.stm/ In that year, Vikings invade Hebrides. Also, in Lorraine, France, Christians massacred Jews.

1096 ------- Christians in Germany and Northern France massacre one-third of the Jewish populations there; Christians in Hungary massacre Jews; Christians in Ralisbon, Bavaria, Germany [is Ralisbon the later Regensburg?] and also in Austria massacre Jews. Some give the Austrian date as 1099.

1099 ------- Christians in Jerusalem burn Jews alive [again, have to coordinate Muslim timeline -- have no idea about their treatment of Jews, believe they imposed "dhimmi" or "dhimma" status on them, have to check]

This site addresses positive relationships between Muslims and Jews, see ://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2006%20Opinion%20Editorials/May/27%20o/Treatment%20of%20Jews%20in%20Islam%20By%20Habib%20Siddiqui.htm/ This one addresses more of the negative, see http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Jews_in_Arab_lands_%28gen%29.html/; as does this one, also negative, see ://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=35919

1100 -------Christians in Kiev, Ukraine, conduct a pogrom, see long series of pogroms there over centuries at ://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/eu/ukraine/EncJud_juden-in-Kiew-ENGL.html

1103 ------Vikings defeated at Ulster

VIKING THREAT GONE, CHRISTIANS SUBSTITUTE FURTHER JEWISH PERSECUTION, PERSECUTION OF OTHERS, CRUSADES, INQUISITIONS

1140 -------Christians in Germany massacre Jews

1146 ------ Christians in the Rhine Valley, Germany, continue massacre of Jews

SECOND CRUSADE

1147 ------second crusade, Palestine see gbgm site; also, in Wurzburg, Germany, Christians massacre Jews; and Christians in Belitz, Germany (near Rostock, north, on Baltic Sea), burn Jews alive; and Christians in Ramenu, France [can't find that -- only see so far Rameau, Burgundy?] massacred Jews [lots of sites repeat that,still can't find Ramenu]; Christians in Sully, France [we see Sully Sur Loire, Loire River Valley] massacre Jews; Christians in Carenton, France [that is on the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy] massacre Jews. If Normandy was Norman or Northmen, was it the Christian Normans that massacred, or others? Where did the Northmen pick up on persecutions of Jews?]

1149 -------- Militant Religious Orders, Female. Offensive, and defensive. See Militant Religious Orders, Female: Order of the Hatchet, Catalonia, Spain; women defending Tortona against Moors; see also 1223.

1150-1244 -- Roman Church enlists French monarch support in eradicating heretic "Cathars" in the Languedoc Region, southern France. See://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Heresy.pdf / Rome's Fourth Lateran Council authorized war, a brutal Crusade, against them in 1215. And killing many Orthodox as well: "Kill them all. God will sort out his own." Read the conflicting belief structures, the reaction of Rome. The site says that Rome continued its reaction against what had been a very popular belief system through establishing the Inquisition.

1166 ------see legislations, councils, methodology gaining momentum against "heresy" ://www.enotes.com/genocide-encyclopedia/cathars

1171 ------Blois, France, Christians burn Jews at the stake

1181 ------Christians in France expel Jews, no specifics; Christians in England confiscate Jewish property

1182------Muslims in Constantinople kill Christians, sell 4000 more into slavery, behead a Christian cardinal.

THIRD CRUSADE

1188 ----- third crusade, Palestine, see gbgm site

FOURTH CRUSADE (DO THESE PEOPLE NEVER STOP?)

1202 ----- Christians conduct fourth crusade, Palestine; including the 1204 sack by Christian crusaders, Venetian and Franks, led by Boniface of Montferrat, of Constantinople, see gbgm site and ://timelines.ws/countries/BYZANTIUM.HTML

CRUSADES CONTINUE IN EUROPE AGAINST OTHER CHRISTIANS

1206 - 1244 --------EUROPE CRUSADE Papal crusade against the nonconforming Christian branch Cathars "Albigensian Crusade", Languedoc area, France, against "gnostic dualists", see http://www.cathar.info/1206_crusade.htm

1209 -------Christians in Beziers, Languedoc, France (area where the Cathars lived) massacred Jews. Those would be the Roman branch of Christianity, as the Cathars were also Christian but declared "heretic" because of nonconformist beliefs as to Roman dogma

1211 ------ EUROPE CRUSADE -- Northern Crusades, see ://www.squidoo.com/teutonicknightshistory

CHILDREN'S CRUSADE. BRING ON THE TOTS.

1212 ------Children's Crusade, starting at Vendome, France, with the child Stephen age 12, see variety of fiction and fact at ://www.historyguide.org/ancient/children.html; and in Toledo, Spain, Christian Crusaders engaged in riots and bloodbaths against Jews; ://www.scaruffi.com/politics/christia.html

That website, the scaruffi.com, offers much more year-by-year detail on Christianity's timeline than we can address here. Go there.

1215 ------Fourth Lateran Council. Declares marriage to be a sacrament. It had not been before. See http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/christia.html

Marriage becomes a sacrament, 1215

Now begins further wars against women: for their property, to take their independence now that the Crusades are commonplace and many "men" are back. Is that so? Make it a sacrament, church. Take control.

Fourth Lateran Council on Heresy, see Medieval Sourcebook at ://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/lat4-c3.html; Christians in Roman branch. Declare that Jews have to wear 'badge of shame' in Christian countries. Christians forbid Jews from employment in the public sector [in those days, was that civil administration?], must live in ghettoes, and Christians imposed additional taxation on the Jews [this taxation sounds like part of the Muslim dhimmi status]; Christians in Toulouse, France, conduct mass arrests of Jews

FIFTH CRUSADE

1217 ----- fifth crusade, Palestine

1218 -----Christians in England force Jews to wear special badges

1223 ----- Contemporaneous: Order of the Glorious Saint Mary, female militant order, see Female Militant Religious Ordersl

SIXTH CRUSADE

1228 -----sixth crusade, Palestine

INQUISITION

1231 ------ Christians in Roman church in Rome establish the Inquisition; 1233 -- Pope Gregory IX mandates the Inquisition. See://www.scaruffi.com/politics/christia.html

1236 ------Christians in France force Jews to convert, massacre Jews

1239 ------Christians in London, England, massacre Jews, confiscate Jewish property

1240 ------Christians in Austria confiscate Jewish property, and imprison- force conversions-burn or expel nonconverting Jews; Christians in France confiscate the Talmud, see ://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/talmud_&_mishna.html; Christians in England conduct book-burnings (just Jewish?); and Christians in Spain force conversions [isn't this still Muslim Spain? what were the Muslims doing? Anything against Jews?]

1242 ------ Christians in Paris burn the Talmud

CRUSADES AGAINST OTHER CHRISTIANS

1244 ------ Christians in Oxford, England, conduct mob attacks against Jews. Hundreds of Cathars are burned at Montsegur, Languedoc, France, see ://www.scaruffi.com/politics/christia.html

Are we proud yet?

The Jewish persecution timeline picks up speed, getting to be year by year not. Go to ://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/HistoryJewishPersecution/ and fill it in here as yougo. Vikings have quieted down, settling in.

SEVENTH CRUSADE

1248 -----seventh crusade, Palestine
[the crusades failed, but the Pope gained "authority"]

1258 ----- Shamanist or a form of Buddhist or no theist? Mongols invade near East, overthrow the Abbasid Dynasty or Caliphate that had begun in 750 or so. See ://www.religionfacts.com/islam/history/abbasid.htm. See ://mongoluls.net/mongolian-religion/monrelihis.shtml

Huns: Samanist? See ://www.third-millennium-library.com/MedievalHistory/Cambridge/I/XII-Huns-Religion.html

1263----- Polytheist Vikings defeated at Largs, Scotland

Largs, Scotland. Viking defeat. Peace for 800 years. Church: Never peace

1280 +/- -- Polytheist Norse settlements survive. Some convert. Icelandic language transcription of the older oral tradition Burnt Njal's Saga, see an 1861 English version at ://www.sagadb.org/brennu-njals_saga.en/ ; summary at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lahtid/literature/norse/icelandic/njal.htm

1281 -- Muslim Osman I, founder of Turkish Ottoman state, comes to power and fights Byzantines until 1324, his death. See ://timelines.ws/countries/BYZANTIUM.HTML

1291 -- Muslims expel the Christians from the middle east, see ://www.scaruffi.com/politics/christia.html

1309 ---- Teutonic Knights establish a theocratic state in Prussia. See://www.scaruffi.com/politics/christia.html

1350 +/- ---- Christian Roman Church attempts to eradicate other Christians by labeling them heretic "Wycliffites" - followers of John Wycliffe 1324-84, who advocated Bibles in the local language, opposed selling indulgences, etc. He finally recanted, and his successors became known as Lollards. See://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Heresy.pdf. Lollards fostered the 1381 Peasant Revolt, and permitted women as traveling preachers. Lollards were burned at the stake.

CHRISTIANS CONTINUE MANIC -- Crusading fervor continues against other Christians, including those converted by earlier missionaries stemming from Orthodoxy, not the Roman branch, but still Christians. Cyril and Methodius, of the Byzantine branch for example, had moved north and conducted extensive benign (non killing) conversions including in Poland and Russia, see ://spbmos.homestead.com/Russhistory.html. Their converts were killed in Poland by the Pope's crusades, the same as polytheists.

1325-1363 -- Christian Teutonic Knights (Knights Templar) crusades against Europeans now, Poles here, including those already Christian thanks to earlier missionary work, but not under power of Pope? see ://polandpoland.com/teutonic_knights_templar.html/ they were newly unemployed after the Crusades, and dispersal of the main body of Knights Templar

Grand Masters, Teutonic Knights, Malbork Castle, Poland

1347 - Black Plague arrives in Constantinople, Italy, France, see ://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Black_Plague.pdf

1431 - Christians burn Joan of Arc as witch, Rouen

1441 -- Christian white Europe begins black slave trading from Africa, see ://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono2.htm/ Whites (mostly Christian) begin to reap financial reward, accumulate wealth, from labor of black slaves, black slaves prohibited from gaining from their own labor, from accumulating wealth, situation to continue for centuries. Whites leap ahead in the asset accumulation and wealth management areas.

1452 - 1470 --- Christians put black slaves to work on sugar plantations; see chrono.2 site. Pope Nicholas V issues a bull, authorizing the enslaving of any non-Christian; later, Pope Nicholas V issues a monopoly to Portugal for the slave trade, and objects to Spain getting in on the action, but Spain gets in on it anyway,

1453 -----Muslim Ottomans, at war with Greeks, pulled 76 warships out of the sea and dragged them on rails to get around a blockade. See://timelines.ws/countries/BYZANTIUM.HTML/ Constantinople fell, no longer Byzantine, but Ottoman

INQUISITION, continued

1486 --- Christian German Dominicans Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger prepare the Malleus Maleficarum, the handbook of the Inquisition for identifying out, securing confessions from, and eradicating confessed witches and those who refused to confess but still obviously were, see The Malleus Maleficarum, The Hammer of Witches, at ://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/ In 1450, Heinrich Kramer was denounced (why? for claiming authority as Inquisitor in other countries?) but this did not amount to a ban on the book, as it apparently continued in use, see 1559.

1492 ----- Christian Catholic King Ferdinand and Queen Isabela of Spain reconquer the Iberian Peninsula after the prosperity under the Moors, see Spain Road Ways, Muslim Spain: Contributions, expel all the Jews. Both Moors and Christians keep slaves taken in the wars. See ://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono2.htm/ Jews had lived comparatively peaceably there, with Christians, and the Moors, for centuries, subject to the additional onerous taxation and lesser civil privileges, but coexisting in some degree of safety. See dhimmitude status at Joy of Equivocating, Dhimmi.

SEE THE COUNTRY BY COUNTRY SERIES OF EXPULSIONS OF JEWS STARTING OVERALL ABOUT NOW. See ://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/HistoryJewishPersecution/ The more entrenched the Roman Church gets, the worse the violence becomes. Is that so?

ON AND ON

1496---- Christian Christopher Columbus comes back from another voyage to Bahamas, with slaves.

1498 -----Christian Reformer Savonarola burned by the Roman Christians

1516 ---- Christian Sir Thomas More in Utopia says he would have slaves, but only from certain sources, see ://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono3.htm

1536 -- Christian William Tyndale translated the Bible into English, was burned at stake for it, see ://www.scaruffi.com/politics/christia.html

1559 ----Christian handbook for the Inquisition, First "Index" to the Malleus Maleficarum, was published under Pope Paul IV. It became or already was the de-facto handbook for Inquisitors. Read the Contents, and click on the sections including the procedures, Papal Bull, at ://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/

1550-1650 -- Christians' peak period for exterminating people charged with witchcraft or other heresies, see The Burning Times, ://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_burn1.htm/ Find statistics, recurrences, in an objective setting. See also Robin Morgan's book, The Burning Time

1619 ------Christians import the first slaves to the American colonies, see http://blackhistory.harpweek.com/2Slavery/SlaveryTimeline.htm

1648 ---- Christian Cossacks kill 200,000 Jews during Russian invasion of Poland, see ://www.scaruffi.com/politics/christia.html

1657 --- George Fox, Quaker (not "Christian" in terms of the day, elevating Jesus), questions slavery, see http://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono4.htm; Quakers follow suit, tracts, sermons over decades, centuries; also others, see ://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono4.htm. See Quakers at ://www.quakerfinder.org/faq.php

Christian Slavery train. No slow-up.

1660's ----Christians recognize slavery as legal institution, colonies enact slave codes restricting slave liberty and perpetuating the institution

1675 ---- Polytheist Native American, known as King Philip, or Metacomet (leader of the Wampanoags), a grandson of Massasoit, conducted the disastrous King Philip's War against the Plymouth Colony and beyond. Disaster: immediate to colonists, and long-term as well as immediate to the Native Americans, sold into slavery or killed, unable to unite again in that area. See http://www.pilgrimhall.org/philipwar.htm; America Road Ways, King Philip's War.

1776 ---- Christian founders of USA state all men (not women, and not the unlanded?) created equal, but slavery remains intact in all 13 colonies; 1777 - Vermont first to ban slavery; others follow, making North free in Northwest Territory, OH, MN, MI, WI.

1807-08 -- Christian British Parliament bans slavery; then Christian congress bans further slave imports, lets those here be. See blackhistory site for continuing devs.

1838 -------Polytheist Native Americans forced by Christians on the Trail of Tears, Georgia, see ://ngeorgia.com/history/nghisttt.html

SEE THE SIMPLETOREMEMBER SITE FOR THE SERIES OF PERSECUTIONS ONGOING IN EUROPE

1850 ---- Christians in New York City, about 500 with the help of police, attack and destroy a Jewish Synagogue

1862 ---- Christian General Ulysses S. Grant, in the US -- other Christians in a territory under his jurisdiction expels the Jews

1876 ---- Polytheists Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, Sioux and Cheyenne reaction to Christians and Custer encroaching on traditional polytheist lands, forcing them into reservations. Battle of the Little Big Horn, see http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/custer.htm

1894 -- NATURE'S VIOLENCE: Third Wave of Plague, China to NY and elsewhere

Fast forward:

1914 ------- Christians in Georgia, US, hang Jewish man, Leo Frank for the killing of a girl, but see the factoids, at ://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/frank.html. This was a lynching mob. And in Europe, World War I begins, see timelines for 1914 through 1919 at ://www.worldwar-1.net/world-war-1-timelines/world-war-1-1914/world-war-1-1914-index.htm

1917 ff --- World War I -- Christians v. Christians, Orthodoxy and Roman issues but religion not apparently the motivation?

1922 -------Christian president of Harvard, Lawrence Lowell, seeks quotas on Jewish students

1938-1945 -- Christians, beginning in Germany, conduct European Holocaust against Jews; see World War II Timeline at ://www.worldwar-2.net/

1998 --------Polytheist Harald Bluetooth name (Viking King of Denmark and Sweden) morphs into BluetoothSpecial Interest Group (think wireless technology) is organized, see ://www.bluetooth.com/English/SIG/Pages/History_of_the_SIG.aspx; and ://www.bluetooth.com/English/Experience/Pages/game-changing-technology.aspx/ The company logo is made of runes for HB. Runes: Nordic system of lettering/symbols, used for both communications, and incantations, think sticks, angles.

2006 ---- Interpose issues of racism into the primarily religious focus here, and not just against blacks.

See America found in violation of Human Rights of Native Americans, Geneva, at ://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/Soverign02.htm/ What excesses took place on grounds that included the fact that native Americans were not Christian, and were, therefore, lesser humans, or not human.

See Bernard of Clairvaux as the Crusades exploded, and with the idea that to kill an evildoer, a nonbeliever, is not to kill a human, so the knight is protected, see letter re Christ's Militia, early 12th Century, at ://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/religion/monastic/bernard.html/

Mindsets of war. Where are the roots.

III. OVERVIEW and RETROSPECTIVE

A. Guided discussion

1. Look at Christianity's history outside the pew. See the millennia of tradition behind militance in religion: extending to varying degrees to kinds of Evangelism, conservatism's roots. Exclusive. We are in. They are out. We are civilized. Wipe out their culture They are barbarian. Evildoers. Did the Vikings, with their very sensible laws and culture, in their day, react to that mindset of Charlemagne and the attacks, in their response?

2. The Muslims. Have to learn more about internal workings of their culture. The roots of violence do appear to include the incursions of others upon them

3. Who is "barbarian." All those who do not believe as we? Other cultures like the Vikings, despite lack of literacy at the time, had sensible laws. Murder to the Viking, in that harsh and isolated world, is when you kill someone suddenly, with no opportunity for that person to defend. A lesser offense is a killing where the target has had an opportunity to defend. Is our way any better?

4. What to learn from polytheists. Ask about capital punishment? Are we superior by imposing it? Specific laws for another discussion: point here is simple. We invade, we kill, we assert supremacy, but are we. We say it is just, and punishment. But does it deter? Does punishment merely put retaliation underground?

5. Sowing seeds of retaliation. With extra-territorial expansion of this new militant Christian type of "Christianity" did we sow the seeds of future retaliation by other religions, Islam and etc. Just consider. There are no conclusions, only opening avenues for discussion, shaping policy. Can we learn from history. What is "normal" turf war between neighboring groups, and what is religious revenge. When people say church triumphant, Christian soldiers; and the target people say, get out of our lands; if the Christian soldiers persist, what is asked for as retaliation down the road?

This is a composite of a variety of timelines that focus on other matters like specific wars, cultural developments, sources listed roughly at the end; here drawing together the common events of incursions, slaughters, forced conversions, forced religious conformity, etc. to see if there are tie-ins with early aggression by Christians; and later revenges back. The bombs intercepted before arrival in Chicago were addressed to persons with historical names connected to Crusades, Inquisition. History alert. Look it up. We did at the Bogomilia site above. Yes, they are there.

6. Comparing branches of Christianity. Is the Roman version more culpable. Here we also focus our look as to institutional Christianity mostly to the Roman form, starting with Constantine, although all Christians stem from "Pentecost" - and the spread of the religious ideas thereafter. That spread includes what became the Byzantine, or later Eastern Orthodox (see it at ://www.called-out-ones.com/timeline_flash.html/ and at ://www.synaxis.org/resource.htm) Christian faiths and all the rest. Would we be better off if our religions did not feel compelled to be Number One. What if nobody's is?

Look up the Byzantine-Eastern timelines, however, and find a record that is somewhat better than the Roman version, in no inquisitions or crusades that we see; but more individual incidents of violence. Is that so? example ://timelines.ws/countries/BYZANTIUM.HTML/ Where only Roman Christian or Christian is mentioned here, think Rome. Any Eastern Orthodox or Byzantine reference will be so identified. Note that Ravenna, Italy, was at one time the seat of the Byzantine military governor.

The Pope of the Western Roman Catholic branch of Christianity decries "Anti-Church Sentiment," see NYT 11/7/2010 at 14; and parallels it ominously against anticlericalism and the killing of 4,184 Spanish clerics in the 1930's. Why is he surprised? Sachsenhain was worse. See 782 AD.

7. Retaliation as a fact of life, human response. Is it so? See this pivotal matter as to the Roman Catholic Christians, as opposed to the Byzantine branch in early days. Did the armies set in motion by the Pope and Charlemagne in the brutal push north in Europe set the Vikings off. Those attacks from about 793 AD to 1050 AD or so. Some 250 years of Viking reaction was it? They knew what happened to their neighbors, the Saxons who had not earlier gone to the British Isles. Splintered, slaughtered, forced diaspora. What else made a relatively quiet culture, with its own history of episodic taking advantage of others as it appears that ethnic groups did in its time, blow out. Why did they aim at monasteries? What did the monasteries represent. Did they aim there, or were the monasteries just easy picking for a randomly violent people?

8. Then Rome and its heirs to the organization, the militant mindset. Were they really different in their reaction to the recalcitant tribes, from others pressing religious interests. Start with the mindset: why the fervor of the Roman Church and Charlemagne against the northern Europeans. Go to Varusschlacht 9 AD.

Varusschlacht, Germany; face mask (silver removed), battle 9 AD, tribes defeat Roman legions

The humiliation of the Roman defeat, the fear of tribes and uncontrolled fervor. Do we have any clearer idea now. Perhaps not

B. Sources

Sources include, with others shown in the chronology: ://www.biographybase.com/biography/Bluetooth_Harold.html/; and The Vikings, A History, by Robert Ferguson, Penguin 2009 (here, Ferguson); ://www.facts-about.org.uk/history-and-events-timeline-vikings.htm/ (here Timeline). Islamic expansion: at ://www.thenagain.info/Webchron/World/IslamicAge.html/ Jewish persecution timeline at www.simpletoremember.com; good site is the Web Chronology Project at ://www.thenagain.info/Webchron/index.html; also Timeline of Christianity at ://www.scaruffi.com/politics/christia.html

Read some sagas. Ferguson's Introduction lists many sources, including Gesta Hammaburgensis (Deeds of the Archbishops of the Church of Hamburg) 1070 by Adam of Bremen, but he the Islendingabok (Book of the Icelanders) by Ari Thorgilsson the Learned, about 1130 (he favors the deeds of his own family, however); Heimskringla (Lives of the Norse Kings) by Snorri Sturlsson of Iceland, 13th Century, and a "cultural Noah" says Ferguson page 6; but he also promoted his own ancestors in shaping Norse history. And wrote long after the events.

.........................................................................

* View contra to that here; that the concept of war as admirable because it fosters those ideals of honor and sacrifice, and simply accepts reality. This comes to us from the rose-colored professorial glasses of Victor Davis Hansen. Hansen is a George Bush era war-avoider who was never in battle, never there to report on it in person, never in the armed forces, never there. See ://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_military_history.html / History? The dreamworld of Vic? Fuhgeddiboudit.

WWI Compilation of Letters: "Heart Messages" - Letters fromThe Trenches, WWI

2010-06-03T10:26:00.011-04:00

World War I
WWI - Six Letters from the Trenches

FRENCH AND BELGIAN SOLDIERS.
Six Stories from World War I

Experiences need an audience, a hearer, if they are to live.

A Mrs. Nellie Rosilla Taylor wrote to soldiers during World War I, some 1000 letters addressed to "Some Soldier in the Trenches". She compiled a book some 150 of their responses. Her book was reviewed in 1917 in The Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia, March 23, 1917. Book title: Heart Messages from the Trenches. The review title is more exciting: Heart Throbs in Soldier Letters.

Review, Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia 1917: book, Heart Messages from the Trenches, compiled by Mrs. Nellie Rosilla Taylor

Her letters ended up mostly in France and Belgium, many given to soldiers of the Black Watch, the 42d Highlanders. She donated the book proceeds to war hospitals.

The newspaper review subtitle reads, Epistles from Trenches Written to Philadelphia Woman are Vivid, Moving, Human Documents. Further subtitle in caps: SOME ARE SAD; SOME GAY. Six stories follow here, our summaries in italics, then the quotations from the review.

......................................................

SOLDIER I.

Verdun, comments on beautiful women, their fine clothing, a soldier gassed, his wife and child left him (apparently), his desire to go back to the front, even if partially disabled from the gas

"You ought to see the ladies nice klose," he wrote from his French hospital window -- most of the letters were written by candlelight in trench dugouts.

"Ladies wear such nice klose now because they know Verdun never, never will be taken either. I saw a lady dressed up in a blue suit from my window at the hospital. She looked just like my wife, and she was like my wife for both of 'em was bewtiful. I sad thanks be to the good Lord wimmen ain't got to go to war to get disfiggured. I never knowed how bewtiful wimmen were until I came here and got a licken. I was up agen it in France and was treeted like a dog by gas on my lungs.

"They say I ain't fit to go back, but I want to go back ennyhow. If a feller ain't fit to go back that's the time he ought to be sent back, for it he gets finished, he ain't no loss.

"What's the use of sending good money after bad, I say they ought to send me out and let 'em finish me if I'm to be got at. I lost my bewtiful wife and child since I came out here and a feller don't care after that, so why can't they send me out.

"I argue that every feller with eyes left to him and arms -- I say that feller ain't right on breaking other fellers up when they that re half broke re ready, might just as well be sent out and finished. The gas don't only send you out, it keeps you out fer good. It comes on fellers onexpected and I had to have my share, which I took agen my will. But my eyes is some good yet and my arms work grand. I get terrible weak at times and I heard the doctor say I was done fer, but even if I do get weak I could rest a little and do my part good enough.

"Doctors know a lot, but they doant know it all, nor neither do I, but I know this much: A feller half dead might save a live, strong man and let him get back home for mebby he might have a wife and child waitin' fer him like I saw cryin' after me the day when I was ready to come here. If you have power with the great heads here, won't you try to get me sent out. If you do, you will me doin' a fine thing, and mebby saving a better man. You won't need to feel sorry if you do it, because if you do I will hold on as long as I can hold on to a gun, and if I drop -- well -- you won't need to worry -- because just think the same space of ground I took up when I was half broken a'ready might have been took up with a fine han'some strong man, and I ain't that."

Soldiers' Convalescent Hospital, Paris France

* * * * (sic)
...........................................

SOLDIER 2.

The Australian Army. Family ties topic. Meaning of home. Soldier missing comforts that others take for granted; the rich should keep helping.

"A snowstorm is raging," begins another, "and I have time to write as I promised my dying comrade I would. He placed his hand on his heart, and said: 'Joe, you go on and leave me here alone; this will stop ticking before morning.'

"He had two Australian cousins who were great soldiers and one of them was killed not long ago, somewhere on the firing line, and when Joe died he told me he could see him, and I hope he could, because he talked about those cousins a great deal when he was sick.

WWI, Australian Army, the front at Mouquet Farm (spring, today), the Somme, France

"I suppose men have tough hearts -- different from a woman's -- because it was only yesterday I woke up and resolved to keep my promise to Joe. Then I went out on an errand for one of the officers and passing through a dark strip of woods I suddenly came to a grave covered up in the snow. I got off my horse and found at the head of the grave a rough wooden cross on which was faintly scribbled with a lead pencil the name -- 'Ed.' There was no last name, and as I took my hat from my head I felt a strange chill, as I saw beneath the name of 'Ed' the written words: 'Home at last.'

"I suppose the fellows who put him there did not know his last name, and I am sorry for that. We think and we talk a great deal about people at home who live in small streets, with a bathtub upstairs, with hot and cold water running through pipes; with gas and a bed at night after a warm supper. It makes us sick to think of them complaining. I can tell you the poorest families there are like millionaires compared with us, as far as real comforts go, and they don't seem to know it. I suppose to know things best is to find out by losing.

"As for the rich people they are doing a lot to help us out of this big fire heap. Rich people would be heathens to tighten their purses just now when this old world is walking backwards on the edge of its heels, going to the side of a big hill and may fall over if people do not keep up their courage and our courage, too. All we want is enough rope to pull us back, or to loosen it enough to let us string up the barbarians. Today, France is all snow, all dark, all gloom, and the end is far away, but we are heading for Berlin and if we do get in there we will not treat the Germans with the low brutality they handed out to decent people beyond their gates." (France.)" (sic)

* * * * (sic)

........................................................

SOLDIER 3.

His Mother is better off dead, so she cannot see the war.

"There is a note from a young Belgian. "I used to cry for my mother," he confessed; "she died before the war. But now I am glad she is dead, and the others think themselves fortunate if their mothers are dead, and their eyes closed so that they cannot see.(")

.........................................................

SOLDIER 4.

No atheists in the trenches.

"One of the most touching letters is that which Mrs. Taylor has headed: 'I wasn't what you call a good man.' The writer admits that he hadn't cared about religion. 'But you can't be an atheist in the trenches.' He describes a rush against the Germans. 'I heard one poor fellow, on the ground, crying: "Mother! Mother! Mother!' Then he became still, and I saw that his lips moved in prayer. What is it about war that makes a man link his mother with his prayers?' And, a bit later: 'I have heard the war noises, and once above the confusion, "Lord God, will once receive my soul?' "

......................................

Scots War Memorial, Piper, WWI, near Bapaume, France

SOLDIER 5.

Delirium; playing the part of the Mother. a peaceful rest; and an unexpected result.

"Perhaps the strangest trick in the world was played by one wounded soldier upon another. Bill was delirious and could not get proper sleep. To save the man's life, a wounded friend, who had listened to Bill's ravings, wrapped his own head in a white towel and put another towel around his shoulders. Bill had talked of his mother, wearing a white bonnet and a shawl. The ruse worked. Bill, in his delirium, thought his mother was beside him and that the war was only a dream. Bill recovered. The wounded comrade died three weeks later."

...............................................

SOLDIER 6.

Would she have minded?

"They tell me she is beautiful," one Englishman wrote. He referred to a French girl about twenty years old, who came to the hospital each day to bring him cigarettes and chocolate. He felt that he was growing to love the girl, but he would never tell her about it. For he was blind." *

.....................................................................

* Perhaps he should have tried.

1919 Wedding announcement, WWI blind soldier, Sunshine Newsletter Magazine

The wedding announcement of the blind soldier and his bride is probably coincidental, found among the same papers as the review of the compilation of letters here. Papers: of Miss Mary O'Connell of Philadelphia. She died in the early 1970's, no family known to us, or her priest.
......................................

Topics:

Why focus on these long ago letters? For some of us, there are family - distant relatives - who fought (two died) in the Canadian and British armies at Ypres (Belgium), and were buried at Arras (France); and another in Khartoum, the Sudan (Africa).

For others, consider that war thoughts, our communications today over Skype and email and phone, will be lost.

Mary O'Connell's papers, however, will survive, at least a little longer. We cannot know specific reasons she had or the name of whomever she cared for enough to treasure the article, but the trigger, the heart message, remains touching. To us. Letters from the Trenches. Add these to yours.
....................................................................

* The Aldine Hotel, Philadelphia. See its place in the history of the American League, and as a home for ladies (of good repute), the dining and furnishings, at ://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1697&dat=19580217&id=MAwdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-ZYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4947,3041960/.

Babe Ruth stayed there, see ://www.oldandsold.com/articles25/hotels-13.shtml/

It was located at Chestnut Street, above 19th; and had been the old Rush mansion, see History of Philadelphia, at ://books.google.com/books?id=8EsOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA994&lpg=PA994&dq=The+Aldine,+Philadelphia&source=bl&ots=qgbsfdXFUo&sig=eMRJPK5hAKIY3q54Bn3z_Stes-0&hl=en&ei=va8HTO3yMsP-8AaQ2O22AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CC8Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=The%20Aldine%2C%20Philadelphia&f=false

Residence at The Aldine. A good address. Still?

Trials, Arrests: Bosnia-Serbia War Acts Claimed to Violate Geneva Conventions

2010-03-02T10:47:00.001-05:00

Balkans

Bosnia. Former Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic (or Ejub Ganic) has been arrested in England. Serbia claims he was part of a conspiracy to murder: the killing of wounded soldiers, a "massacre of a military column", in 1992, we think on a Dobrovolacka Street. See this 2003 transcript account that blames Ganic first, then a Jovan Divjac, and characterizes the event, at ://www.ex-yupress.com/evnovosti/evnovosti15.html/.

We have no independent knowledge, and just happened on this site. Apparently there was a convoy of the Yugoslav Army in Sarajevo, Serbia. Forty soldiers were killed. The ex-yupress site notes the massacre of 12 soldiers in front of the police station in Sarajevo. Same event? Serbia is seeking extradition from England, and is in process of completing paperwork. Read that site if you are unfamiliar with the kinds of allegations behind war crimes enforcement activities.

Did we come across his posters while we were in Bosnia?

Is this Ejup Ganic, Bosnia?

We saw this poster in Bosnia several years ago, and have been unable to identify the officer. Is it Ejup Ganic? We also saw this one.

We asked about them, not knowing the local language, and could not understand the response. At a pub later, we were told that many people did not consider the persons shown on posters as war criminals because war is war. That view was supposed to be addressed by the Geneva Convention, War Crimes, see overview at ://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1420133.stm/, but has not convinced many. How other countries' acts will be addressed, and if they are indeed "crimes" is not yet clear, see ://www.crimesofwar.org/special/Iraq/brief-pow.html/ What happened to former President Bush's War Crimes Act, that would reduce American exposure? Another topic. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/08/AR2006080801276.html

Read the texts at ://www.hrweb.org/legal/undocs.html/

Is this Ejup Ganic, Bosnia. Option II?

.
Here are some fair use thumbnails from an Images search for Ejup Ganic: To us, they look like the posters we photographed while in Bosnia. At first we thought these posters were of Maladjic, but they appear now to be closer to Ejup Ganic. See Bosnia Road Ways, War Crimes Posters.

This image of Ejup Ganic is from a Wikipedia entry;

And this image of Ejup Ganic is from something called France24. Do a search.

We think the posters are Ejup Ganic.

One reason to take a child to a foreign country is to foster an ongoing interest in its affairs, international relations, cultures, news. Don't bother with tours. Kids get bored with listening to guides. Get a cheap flight over (middle of the bus), rent a car, and go. Learn on your own. Always a place to stay, interesting conversation depending on the language facility of you and those you meet, history and great food.

II. Jurisdiction; Venue

Which State or entity proceeds, and how, may not be set: What happened to Spain's suit against George Bush? Did it end after the US conducted its own investigation, or is there universal jurisdiction? See Joy of Equivocating: Accountability, Best Jurisdiction: War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. The reach of international law."

III. Enforcement

There is an International Implementation Force (IFOR) with powers to assist the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia under the Dayton Accords, including arrest and detention. See letter from various groups encouraging prompt enforcement, addressed to the United States and other nations believed to be dawdling, ://www.nybooks.com/articles/1440/. Jurisdiction over war crimes. Not simple.

Another Bosnian, Radovan Karadzic, has denied guilt for alleged war crimes, atrocities against Muslims, and the matter is proceeding. See ://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/abce9d20-2599-11df-9bd3-00144feab49a.html/

Warfare and Uses of Code: Ex. "No Forgiveness." Codes in Wars. To inflame? pass a secret? identify a friend? pledge revenge? Is there criminal neglect if ignored.

2010-02-18T18:27:00.008-05:00

Codes in Differing Kinds of Wars:
Political, Cultural-Religious, Economic as well as Territorial

Who, What, Why, When, Where
.

Here:
Code -- "There Will Be No Forgiveness"

Recap of others:

Code for Fidelity Bank / Investment house and its "Never settle"

Code for JPMorgan Chase and its Symbol of The Hand - can be variously to connect with the evangelical-Covenant, Zaraz, End Times; or The Family

1. When used.

Code is effective, and used when an overt communication would be damaging if intercepted, if the enemy could figure out plans.

The secret handshake. The words that evoke a world of related ideas in the hearer. The symbol that only the initiated really appreciate.

We are familiar with code in warfare, used in WWII: the Navajo Code Talkers, see ://www.thenaturalamerican.com/wind_talkers.htm/ The sounds of their language were unknown to the Axis Powers, and their success in communicating enabled many victories, or, at least, many minimized disasters. See fact sheet at ://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-2.htm/

In current politics and culture wars, another Code appears to be emerging: Never Settle. Where profits may at stake if healthcare reform is enacted, watch the investment community react. Is this an example: see Code Awareness Day: Fidelity Says Never Settle.

2. Failure to encode can or should be be criminal, if only there were recourse: Vietnam.
.

Code enables some to be more effective, but they fail to use it. Sometimes the perpetrators are too Big to prosecute. Read "After Tet, The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam," by Ronald H. Spector, MacMillan, Free Press 1993 at pages 80-81 especially. We so underestimated, so minimized the intellect of our enemy, that we chatted locations and weapons ranges and intentions, unencrypted. Even artillery ranges, and who was about to do what. Right out there, in the King's English. Is that so? Go vet. Failure to encode, out of hubris.

Too big to fail; a concept we know from the banks. Too big to prosecute - including those who support and promote torture, a clear war crime. We know that from the TV - some people succeed by doing a dare. We dare you to prosecute, say they from their buttressed towers.

3. Religious Code - Can become tainted by politics.

Codes can run like underground runners, stimulating some, others are not even aware. Codes can elicit religious belief emotional or faith reactions: take action out of the realm of objective analysis, to reaction based on inculcated ideologies

The emotional, religious justification is all that is needed. Early religious codes; and later incarnations. misuse:

"Evildoer" - This term rallied crusaders by offering a dispensation for killing. Kill an evildoer in Palestine and there will be no consequence - it is not the killing of a human being. Uses of "evildoer" in recent years, the resulting polarized thinking, targeting those with differing belief: see The Manichean Candidate - Rage of the Polarized.
President Bush trivialized the term often, using "evildoers" here, there, everywhere, recalling the Crusades and the dispensation given by Catholic religious authority to kill nonbelievers and there would be no punishment. See Manichean site.
And so, to Iraq. The evildoer will die and that is okay because the evildoer is less than we are, less than human. Killing the evildoer is not killing a person. We went to war in Iraq with "evildoers" ringing over the airwaves. The code was heard.
A serious religious source, exploited. Texts - Bible in Christianity - applies it to an ultimate offense against the deity. See it become used. The original says there will be a difference in whether or not there will be forgiveness, depending on what is targeted. A nuance. See ://bible.cc/matthew/12-31.htm/. Blaspheme against the Spirit, and you are in trouble. "No forgiveness."
Other kinds of blasphemy, not so bad? How did we get from that narrow application to the astrological esoteric -- no forgiveness if you take lightly the convergence of 666 with dates or events selected, see ://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2006/06/06/publiceye/entry1686556.shtml/. Just redefine. Is that it?

Perhaps the hearer hears that he or she, or his or her group is required to act for the "deity". Even more dangerous. My act to identify and punish or enforce my understood rules against others is my duty as a "believer". Believer in whose construction of what? Hear the silence. Inflict political or physical death for the cause of the ideology.
- Read the book by Charles Freeman, The Closing of the Western Mind. It does not quite get to its desired conclusion, that reason in the West was overcome by imposition of faith and religion requiring "belief" and no challenge allowed, and has never recovered; see ://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/books/when-the-lights-went-out-in-europe.html?pagewanted=1/ But the point is an important one.
How are people exploited, when codes used to rouse them are of a religious nature, and elicit religious faith responses based on doctrine. But the "doctrine" is being applied to situations that are political and economic and multi-cultural, not dogma per se, and benefit others economically and politically in undisclosed ways.

See the codes at work. See political codes. Go into any nursing home. Any pub. The most entertaining, loudest and color flashing TV channels are those indoctrinating with codes.

4. Secular uses of code; and then how the religious is evoked just a little under the radar. "There Will Be No Forgiveness"

This phrase is supplanting the too-obvious "Evildoer" but targets the same extreme conservatives, the same extreme evangelicals who see their faith wrapped up in the codes. How can anyone resist that. Their ideology is at stake. Or is it? Who informed them.

4.1 There will be no forgiveness.

The phrase is serious. Ideally, it functions in the secular world as a three-sided concept: that if there is "humanity" and "justice"; then may there be forgiveness:

The bold step of the Nuremberg trials challenges us to be as bold in pursuing dignity in our dangerous time. It will take much imagination and sustained effort to address the cycle well-described by Yolande Mukasana's words on the wall of the National Genocide Museum in Kigali, Rwanda: ''There will be no humanity without forgiveness. There will be no forgiveness without justice. There will be no justice without humanity."

See ://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/163/28305.html

Has that balance been lost in the absolutist application of the phrase to mere political positions, economic ideologies, personal beliefs of a religious nature: the threat of death to the political life of those who do not vote according to the formula of the vigilantes.

4.2 There is an appropriate gravitas in the use of "There will be no forgiveness."

It is appropriate in expressing a human response to the most horrific human actions; but is not to be trivialized because it rouses such emotion. It has been used to convey that there must still be accountability. See examples of genocides and mass murder, at FN 1. Go there now. Then continue here.

4.3 Use of "There will be no forgiveness" crosses a dangerous line when it is used as a death threat issued from those victimized -

It can be used like a promise to bring death to those complicit in a horror, or crime. The perception of the crime must be factual, true. But who decides? Whose facts.

From World War II: Code: Hear it heard as a death threat: See June, 1933, about whether Hitler could have been stopped:

'On June 16, 1933, the Revisionist newspaper Hazit Haam published what many considered a death threat: "There will be no forgiveness for those who for greed have sold out the honor of their people to madmen and anti-Semites.... The Jewish people have always known how to size up betrayers...and it will know how to react to this crime." '

[Emphasis added]. See ://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Black.html/

Christian or Jewish fatwa? There may be similarities, but not so fast. Read about fatwas at ://www.fatwaislam.com/fis/. Read seriously and ://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/980223-fatwa.htm/. Have you read that one? It affects you. Go to the source. What pros, what cons. What elements of rationality, what not. If based on "belief" - how does it differ from some of our codes.

4.4 A substitute for "evildoer" -- License to kill

Does "There will be no forgiveness" take over where "evildoer" left off, as the overt Code word for a death threat to those who do not believe the way the speaker does:

"There will be no forgiveness" is a substitute for the older "evildoer" code. Listen for it in trials or responses to the killing of doctors who carry out legal abortions. There is the kind of issue that brings out the response. What warnings are there. What elements of rationality, what of "belief". See Trial of an Abortion Vigilante; Anticipate the Arguments;

5. Abuse of code can abuse a profound concept.

Use of "There Will Be No Forgiveness" in a mere political-money-for-me-ideological-preference setting, my way or the highway, trivializes a deep concept, the true tragedies of genocide, mass murder, slaughter.

5.1. Now, as then, "There will be no forgiveness: is a concept that is abused when it is used to rally people to a cause that is political, economic, by hitting their emotional-religious underpinnings: Many religions have elements of the ultimate threat of death to the malfeasor, the evildoer. Our Crusades were in that category, were they not. We went into Iraq hearing "evildoer" in our ears.

Justice and humanity are severed from a role in "forgiveness". The vigilante takes over. The deputy enforcing a subjective set of laws someone says is part of the belief system, not a "disciple" of a belief system.

"There will be no forgiveness" becomes trivialized, in modern politics: without balancing issues of humanity and justice, ideology takes over to apply a vigilante frame of mind to an opposing economic or political position, a cultural preference, a religious belief underpinning. Vote our way or death to the politicians' political life and position, virtual death at the elections.

The British - angry at Brown, see ://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/05/comment-james-purnell-gordon-brown

American politics: Hear "there will be no forgiveness" often, in connection now with American political divisions. The comparison, the use in this context, is chilling. The end-game date is elections in November 2010 and November 2012.

5.2 America. Look further at the trivializing of this deep concept, its dilution in political self-interest issues.

Elements of the right call for no forgiveness if there is a public option, or government involvement in healthcare other than the present medicare and medicaid, if there are tax increases, and if spending is not cut, see, e.g., http://biggovernment.com/kolson/2010/01/18/dems-health-care-strategy-seek-forgiveness-instead-of-permission/ Hear the phrase stuck in at the end of a TV interview, as an afterthought as though the person nearly forgot to put the plug in.

The left correspondingly calls for no forgiveness if there is no

1) strong public option for health care (supported by 50% of Republicans, 73% of Independents, and 87% of Democrats)

2) enactment of anti-usury laws(credit card interest rates 9%, etc.)

3) reversal of the 'no-bargaining' aspect of Medicare Part D (A form of legalized theft that affects 99% of Republican, Democrat, and Independent tax payers about equally).

See ://openleft.com/diary/13856/taking-out-senator-baucus-the-transpartisan-no-forgiveness-strategy

Judgment Day will be November 2010 or November 2012 and tremble.

6. The mechanics of emotional takeovers. Target others as religiously-charged evildoers. Use Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.

We know that fear, uncertainty and doubt, once absorbed, dominate a thought process to the exclusion of taking in new information.

Thinking stops as the emotional inflammation, the threat component, the fear takes hold. It is easy to make people afraid, then they are yours. It is hard to make them unafraid.

Some manage to rise to a higher level and resist the bandwagon, seek justice, and "humanity" and define what and how to use forgiveness. Others are fixated as in American politics, and trivialize the concept "no forgiveness" without watching to see who gets the personal gain from their zeal. Is that so? Who is Beck-oning.

Don't forget to follow the money. Who is benefiting. Old Agatha Christie had a point. Who has the motive, opportunity.

Charles Freeman, The Closing of the Western Mind. Has the West become overcome by the imposition of faith, so that it can no longer reason and conduct its government that way; see ://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/books/when-the-lights-went-out-in-europe.html?pagewanted=1/ Does the Bigness of the politician insulate him from claims of war crimes, by those tho idolize the disembodied concept of white is right and we are being threatened; just as the Bigness of the banks insulate them from claims of financial abuse, by some who idolize an untrammeled system, even when it robs them.

How to speak reasonably to those who see the world in this way, that they are threatened by dark forces. How to open the mind.

If "they" do that to "us", there will be no forgiveness. Is that so? Who Beck-ons people to follow this view?

7. Code. In other circumstances, code is neutral, benign and familiar.

Not all code is malignant. Parents use it to communicate behavior issues about to come to a head, children use code behaviors in response, and it approaches sign language - a thumb upside down to the roof of the mouth can means Grandpa, stop playing with your dentures.

Others:

1) An entertainer pulling on an ear (Carol Burnett?) at the close of a show: a signal to her grandmother, see ://www.tv.com/pbs-american-masters/carol-burnett-a-woman-of-character/episode/1149030/summary.html/
2) Old Jimmy Durante on early TV, tipping his hat as he exited through the severed spotlights, "Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are." Was that a tribute to his first wife, deceased, see ://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002051/bio/

The problem is: if you don't know what is being communicated, what is there, there, really.

........................................................................................

FN 1 Appropriate Gravitas in the use of There Will Be No Forgiveness. Need justice and humanity -- then forgiveness. Is that so?

1. Ukraine Mass Murders, Stalin Era.

Most recently that we found, see it in its most somber, chilling form, in the Kyiv Post,Ukraine, about the mass graves at Bykivna, slaughters from the 1930's. Some 100,000 were killed during Stalinist repressions, it is estimated, see ://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/41914/. Approximately 15,000 have been positively identified. Writers, religious, medical people, poets, academics. There was a memorial there, at the forest. A Day of Remembrance. There is no forgiveness, and will be none. That was President Victor Yuschenko, trying to revise Soviet views of history. He ordered opening of old secret records. "[P]aranoia and vicious self-interest" - purgings, political denunciations. The head of the Communist Party opposes.

2. Germany, Soviet Era, the Wall.

The concept morphs into a condition: no forgiveness without repentance. This was heard in Germany, see ://english.aljazeera.net/focus/theberlinwall/2009/11/20091171331161162.html/, addressing this most human response. With no "true reckoning" of the crimes preceding the fall of the Berlin Wall, how can the victims forgive, ask they.

3. Concentration Camp Survivor.

This Auschwitz survivor finds freedom in forgiveness, see ://jta.org/news/article/2010/01/28/1010387/for-mengele-survivor-eva-kor-forgiveness-is-freedom/ To her, the power to forgive gives her power, power to remove herself from victimhood. But she, too, has limits: no forgiveness for those who continue to advocate for Nazism; or any who do violence to accomplish their ends.

4. Kosovo Slaughters.

Can there be forgiveness. It is easy to say to forgive when you are not involved. If you are on the receiving end of animalistic treatment, it is different, say Kosovars, see ://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/552518.stm

Paratge in Warfare. Lessons of the Crusades. Cathar and Saracen Tolerance, Justice and Mercy

2009-12-25T15:17:00.005-05:00

Paratge.
Crusades.
How did West and East Treat the Vanquished.

The Crusader. The West ultimately failed in its nearly 200-year quest, in the 11th and 12th centuries, to possess the Holy Land, and oust the Muslims from it. Since we continue to live in an era of demonizing violence among and by Muslims; and they live in an era of demonizing violence among and by Christians (a reciprocal frame of mind for extremists on both sides); we look here at an odd matter in warfare, Culture, Violence and Character.

During the periods when it was succeeding, off and on, how did the West treat the opponents. When the opponents prevailed, how did they treat the Crusaders. The First Crusade was in 1096, see timeline at ://www.middle-ages.org.uk/crusades-timeline.htm/. The Second was in 1144; the Third in 1187; Fourth 1202; Children's Crusade 1212; Fifth Crusade 1217; Sixth 1228; Seventh 1248; Eighth 1270; Ninth 1271. In the movies, the Third Crusade gets more attention than the others, because of the famed combatants, Richard the Lionheart against Saladin.

What traits were idealized in the Eastern and Western cultures, for how long were those idealizations successful, and what seeds of destruction did they contain.

Our Western Crusades. Schools used to teach the myths of knights off to do right. Are children taught much of any history now, or is there too much of it to bother with. Do it yourself.

1. Setting the Violence Record Straight.

Crusading is part of western culture. Christianity has conducted its internal crusades, its inter-tribal crusades, crusades against unbelievers, crusades against the wrong people being in charge, dogma, etc. See Western Ethnic Violence Timeline. Inquisitions, crusades against "heretics" (who is not a heretic, if he or she thinks independently?). We know less of the kinds of knights that originally rode off to kill other knights, and whom they fought, and why. Rome and Kings. Send them off. Against any Western or Eastern set of believers whose form took issue with forms supported by Rome and the Kings. Knights against knights.

1.1. Who lost:

Christians of differing beliefs. The conquered include knights and European cultures with codes of tolerance rather than forced dogma and exclusion, and basic chivalry in the sense of caring for others, protection of the weaker, idealizing love, and fostering an order of the universe. Think Cathars; the Albigensians: deemed heretic (some Catholic theologians even said they were not Christian) for dualism in the belief system, but really targeted for their lands and as a result of papal power expansionism. See them at ://www.cathar.info/ Many of their rituals were later adopted by the Catholic Church, after the Cathars were virtually extinguished in the Albigensian Crusades in France from 1209-1255, see ://xenophongroup.com/montjoie/albigens.htm/.

Others usefully dehumanized as "heretic" -- and religious groups ignored or overwhelmed as Rome;s militaristic Christianity took over, excluding the Syriac, Eqyptian , Eastern forms and interpretations from the emerging Church. Those who saw themselves as part of a fluid cosmic whole were -- there's the word again -- demonized. Is that so? The power jockeying won instead of the philosophy of mutual help.

Who else are among the losers:

Non-Christians. Look at the native Americans, see the genocide accounts at the History News Network, on the occasion of the founding of the Native American Museum, see ://hnn.us/articles/7302.html/ native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders 1513-1842 or so, see Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia, 1995. by Reilly Ridgell, Pacific Region Educational Laboratory, Honolulu, Hawaii,
.

2. Those who won: Knights and cultures with codes of autocracy, punishment, enforcement, tight control at the top. The concept of paratge, living with one another, lost.

3. How to describe the mindset of each.

Malama and Not Malama; and Paratge. What?

For a brief idea of the difference in worldview between those who value living with one another, and those who see others as an opportunity to take power from them and exploit, look at the lexicon of concepts used in another culture, but with similar parameters: Malama and Not Malama, from Hawaii, at ://www.noogenesis.com/malama.html/ Look at Hawaii, Pacific Islands, and the concepts there: find "malama" - a word for protecting, caring, balance, inquiry, freedom, a concept beaten out of the conquered - almost - see Socialist Mop, Malama.

Here, we look at which attitudes produced a productive people thereafter. What What qualities or concepts were lost in the conquering of those who had other values. Is the "universe" and its values served in our western history of violence against others? Are we worse than others, or is violence part of human nature.

If it is, then all the more reason to foster malama and paratge, is that so?

Paratge.

Paratge is a word from the past, beaten beneath marching feet in Western Culture, of religious authoritarians who prevailed as Rome's Empire did a lateral pirhouette into Christian militance, and who were offended by alternate views of Christianity in the East, or "heretic" in southern and other parts of Europe, and who - as a conquering institutions - required uniformity, see :Duty to Paratge.

European culture knew paratge to varying degrees through other contacts, including with each other:

the Cathars,
the Occitan-speakers in Southern France, Northern Italy and the Pyrrhenees areas of Spain, and earlier,
in the sense of incidents of not forcing conversion after victories, the Muslims invading Spain in the 800's or so, and leaving infidel minorities in their communities without expulsion, Jews and Christians, but restricting them and taxing only. No slaughter. Just use them, limit them. Is that so? See chronology at ://www.turizm.net/turkey/history/ottoman.html/ Note the centuries of peace, despite inequality, and the blooming of Muslim culture in Spain during the 8th-14th Centuries. See Pursuing "dhimmitude" in Spain, Muslim occupation
also in not forcing conversion after victories, the Ottoman Muslims invading Europe through the Balkans in the 1300's, see chronology at ://www.turizm.net/turkey/history/ottoman1.html/ at the left menu, 1300's ff.

Look at paratge here in the time of the Crusades.

What can we learn about animosities between cultures exacerbated by decisions in those times.

In what ways might the Paratge approach be superior, particularly in warfare - a counterintuitive idea. Have there been leaders whose success in instigating long periods of peace can be explained, at least partially, by their doing paratge as to the conquered.
.
Hearts and minds.

Which approach of the conqueror wins hearts and minds: the forceful killer, the expeller, the punisher; or the one who incorporates the vanquished and allows some continuity - even if taxed, and restricted. See Saladin and Richard I of England - the Lionheart. Richard understood the concept, but could not find it in himself to use it consistently. Saladin did. They respected each other, balanced each other, but Saladin's peace lasted.
The battles for Jerusalem, the Crusades, the Middle Ages. What are some of the roots of present conflicts, racial-cultural-ethnic hatreds. Whose approach of conciliation led to lasting periods of peace (Saladin); whose approach of slaughter the vanquished led to more violence (Richard I).

Little blood. 637 CE. The armies of Islam take Jerusalem in 637 Common Era. It was the time of the Dark Ages in Europe. Who ran Jerusalem before then? The Christians? Or others? The taking was followed by four hundred years of peace - no slaughter when the city was taken, just restrictions on numbers of churches that the Christians could build, and taxes on them, but the religious groups lived together. Amazing.
Eyewitness to History website: Read an account of someone, identity unknown, but who is reliably believed to have been there, at ://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/crusades.htm/ The description was published before 1101. They took Jerusalem and slaughtered, slaughtered, slaughtered.
Sidelight big blood. 1187. In 1187, the Islamic Saladin takes back Jerusalem from the Crusaders. Richard the Lionheart and others formed the Third Crusade to wrest Jerusalem back from Saladin. In particular, King Richard I, known as the Lionheart, of England, See ://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/lionheart.htm/. The had to take Acre first - a city on the way. With disagreements on terms and delays on payments,and already overextended from the effort in Jerusalem, Saladin could not obtain the release of Muslims in Acre and Richard had them slaughtered.
When Saladin (of Kurdish origin, born in Tikrit, what is now Iraq) conquered, he became known for his chivalry and mercy; he did not slaughter all the Christians in the city of Jerusalem, as the Christians had slaughtered the Muslims; instead he provided a means for getting to the coast and on ships and out. See ://www.answers.com/topic/saladin/ He even invited the Jews to return, see ://www.jerusalem.com/article_544/Saladins-Reign-in-Jerusalem/.
1270 - fast forward to the Seventh Crusade, after takings and retakings of Jerusalem left it by that time in the hands of the Muslims. Enter the French. And see them fail. See ://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/crusade1250.htm/. See summaries and historical details on things like the food crusaders ate, at ://jeru.huji.ac.il/ef1.htm/; and at ://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/cru2.htm/ and the timeline at ://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/cru1.htm

Of interest here: How do the two sides differ in basic opposition philosophy over the centuries. Who has "honor", or "paratge" (a difficult concept for us, thanks to our own cultural decisions, conquests to exclude those who espoused it).

Are we, the West as virtuous and such a boon to civilization's march upwards, as we like to think. Is a President justified in acknowledging that we have made mistakes (yes).
.
1. Jerusalem is home to many religions, and its control pivots on many concepts. Are these relevant:

Historical right, in that so much time passed with one group in control that any later divisions arbitrary by others, must fail (in the view of those there);
The Right of Return. The right of the wrongfully excluded to regain what they lost, according to today's standards, so that original claims remain; or - again, time -
Exclusion by Laches. Did laches take hold, favoring the occupants' claim (somebody waited too long before asserting rights, so that rights of others who continually occupied, supersede). But then, Has so much time passed since Israel was carved out after Word War II, that their rights similarly have superseded what Palestinians who were on the land all that time, might have been originally opposed.

No answers. At least, no easy answers.

Stalingrad: The Battle that Turned WWII. Women in War Part II. The Night Witches.

2009-11-11T13:01:00.015-05:00

Stalingrad.
Women In War Part II.

Sequel to Women In War Part I.

.
World War II Russia
Civilian and Military
Battlefield, and Bombers

Soviet female bomber pilot regiment, the Night Witches.

A. Cultural Resistance to Women in War: Roots.

This has not always been so.

We began this inquiry at Women In War Part I
Here a brief recap:

1. The Ancients. Meet Minerva, goddess of war. Clearly female: she guards the Armory at Graz, see ://www.justtraveleurope.com/articles/Travel-Europe_5673.html/ To the Greeks, she was Athena: goddess of war, wisdom, defense, crafts, and "heroic endeavor," see ://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Athena.html/

Minerva, Goddess of War, Graz, Armory, Austria

Mars was the male god of War (Greek Ares). And he was just that. All War. No wisdom. Battle lust, yes, and civil order, but all macho bluster. See ://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Ares.html/ The wisdom of the ancients in discerning.

2. Middle Ages: Medieval armor suited both men and women.

Female and male armor, medieval, Thun Castle, Switzerland. Women in war as part of history, later suppressed, east and west.

3. Modern times. In World War II, it is the Russians who first included women in formal military roles in combat, including firing back. Women as bomber pilots, in tanks. Also in support roles - mechanics. Add that to the civilian women defending under siege, particularly at Stalingrad, and our reticence about "letting" women enter warfare becomes clearly cultural, and preservation of turf: not based on ability.

Now, to that modern era:

B. Stalingrad: World War II. A war event with full female civil and military participation.

1. Women at Stalingrad.

Among other sources, we find an anchor for the search for individual examples of women in war in Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942-43, by Antony Beevor. This is a book including information about the women fighting at Stalingrad, including material from German and Russian military reports.

2. History of Stalingrad.

The city was Tsarnitsyn until 1925, when its name changed to Stalingrad. It is now Volgograd, thanks to Khrushchev's efforts to dissociate from the Stalin era purges. During World War II, the city was Stalingrad. Keep any city's various names in mind for research. Different results from each. Check all the spellings, metamorphoses.

3. Stalingrad as a pivot point in WWII.

Many scholars see the horrific Battle of Stalingrad, in the early years of 1942-43, in the Eastern Front, as the real turning point, and not the later Normandy landings. See this school-student-oriented site first, then dig deeper: ://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_stalingrad.htm/. See FN 1. They also note that women at Stalingrad, and in the Soviet military, carried out the same kinds of missions against the enemy as men, and - in medical rescue - filled in the gaps where wounded men were disposable as far as military strategy was concerned. They were heroic in saving wounded when the military hierarchy wrote them off. Women in Russian culture, as elsewhere (if we look) have a long history in warfare - strength, stamina and skill.

4. Significance of Stalingrad.

Find other resources about Stalingrad's siege and defense in book and film, at FN 2. Stalingrad more important than Normandy, without Stalingrad there could have been no success at Normandy? Vet the issues. Consider.

C. What Stalingrad teaches

1. About Leadership, both sides. Blunders and egos.

Plus ca change. Did petty rivalries and bullheadedness of heads of state here (Hitler and Stalin) drive strategy, more than a realistic assessment of the chance for success. Should the focus have remained on Stalingrad specifically, for so long. Neither side's leader would let their forces give up. And Stalingrad's civilians held the line.

Why did Hitler want the area at all?

And then why did he stay to fight on, when conquest did not come. Why did Stalin force the fight when reasonable retreats, or permitting escape, could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

Personal and strategic motivations, apparently. It became too late to turn back; and Hitler forbad retreat. Plus, there were resources there. Oil in the Caucasus. To win would mean disruption of the Communications hub for the Russians. To win would mean taking Materiel. Manufacturing facilities. Why did the Germans keep at it. Hitler's orders.

Why did the Russians fight so hard - morale? Tradition? Or sound strategy, knowing the stakes if they caved. Stalin pushed for the city named for him, and it stood for so much Russian. And the NKVD had taken over the river craft for the military, so civilians could not escape over the Volga. The idea was to motivate the Russian soldiers to fight harder, since families and civilians were there (see Beevor site, below, at 106).

Result: a tragedy of death unimaginable to us living our lives elsewhere so many decades later. Do an Images search for Stalingrad.

2. About women as a war resource.

Russia permitted women to fight back, pilots of bombers. Some in tanks. Military as well as civilian women under siege did what had to be done. Don't think spinning wheels here. Basic reference: Defending Leningrad: Women Behind Enemy Lines / On the Road to Stalingrad: Memoirs of a Woman Machine Gunner, by Christopher Ward, Canadian Slavonic Papers, at://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3763/is_200009/ai_n8910839/ (herein "Defending Leningrad")

There was clear fighting prowess in the women, either acquired before, or rapidly learned. They were tenacious and heroic at this place. Why at this place. Why did they fight out front. Was it all necessity, or was it also affinity.

Read "Stalingrad, The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943" by Antony Beevor, Viking Press 1998. Ours is an advance uncorrected proof, obtained at a block book sale, but should be close to the one sold commercially, see ://search.barnesandnoble.com/Stalingrad-The-Fateful-Siege-1942-1943/Antony-Beevor/e/9780140284584/. We refer to it in this and other ways at Moscow's Black Widows, this by way of update after the Moscow female suicide bombers in the subways there, from Chechnya, it is believed.

Here is what we found as to women in the Red Army: Page references are to the Beevor site book; other references are fully identified. Meet the individuals - a long FN 1.

3. What can be learned from Stalingrad.

Are we educating our kids adequately about the past: leaders need to be kept in objective check. And are we handicapping ourselves in the west, by excluding because of cultural prejudice and male ego, half the population from participating in the military fully. See FN 2.

4. Then see how fast the reversion comes.

Naming names of heroines. Ana Yegorova.

Read about Ana Yegorova, one of the Night Witches.

She was a bomber pilot in the Soviet air force, who served with valor but unfortunately survived her crash landing and was imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps for five years.

ANA YEGOROVA

This Night Witch was captured after crash-landing, and spent five years in Nazi concentration camps. Upon liberation, SMERSH counterintelligence accused her of crossing to the German side, tortured her: She says that SMERSH tortured her. They swore at her, called her 'scum of the earth', accused her of joining the Germans. She says she was treated like an animal, and called demeaning, enemy names. It took 20 years for her reputation to be restored to her by the Soviets, but by that time she "felt burnt out" and felt no joy at being named, finally, a Hero of the Soviet Union. She was numbed, a spark within her had died. "God save anyone from such treatment (the torture)."

See Tale of Two Night Witches, at://russia.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/11/02/tale-of-two-night-witches/ The site continues to note that the Soviet Union authorized these women to fire back, and they did, and did it well: then the Soviets tried to shut the female squadrons down after the war. They were too successful. Is that so?

What do we learn of her fate: when finally freed, her own government's SMERSH then interrogated her for a prolonged period, with torture, saying she could only have survived if she went over to the German side. Can you imagine? Would that have ever have been inflicted on a man? That assumption? It nearly destroyed her, in ways that the experience in the camps did not. Look at the inability of the men to accept strength and ability in the female. Is that so? Perhaps not. You go vet.

From conversations with students, we see high schools and colleges turning more toward a study of post-war population movements and social change following major wars. Where is the study of generals, strategies, human failures, heroisms, mistakes, brilliances, suffering and lessons from slaughter. Is the focus on sociology a wise change? Have we given up learning from the past, or did we never do so anyway.
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FN 1 The women of Stalingrad. Women in the Red Army

From the Beekov book, among others (others separately identified)

66 At the Barvenkovo Salient, 250,000 Russian troops had been compressed in, hemmed in, by Germans.

THE BANDIT BATTALION

A German NCO, a senior officer, 389th Infantry, fought fiercely with a "bandit battalion" (his words). They were women, and their commander was a redhead. Female beasts, he calls them. Treacherous and dangerous, hiding in straw and shooting the Germans in the back as they passed by.

..........................................................................

87 The NKVD, set up by Beria in 1939 was known for executions of German prisoners of war, but a side task was its interrogation of Germans to gain information as to morale, what approaches might work to turn Axis soldiers to the Russian side. There was little luck with the Germans, but more with the Romanians captured, who resented their country's perceived capitulation to Axis power control.

LIEUTENANT LEPINSKAYA.

Lieutenant Lepinskaya interrogated every member of a smaller detachment from the 29th Motorized Division (German), 4th Panzer Army. She was from the political department, SW Front HQ.
...........................................................................

91 The Russian 62nd Army was under attack at the Don River. Officers shot themselves, there was little food, ammunition running out, corpses, carts and camels to transport the wounded at night, high casualties, getting worse.

........................................................

GALYA

Here is one woman's response, she a Russian staff interpreter, to a Russian soldier seeking to surrender: She saw him take a leaflet from his uniform, and head toward the Germans. Her words: "Look at him! The snake is going to surrender!" Then she shot him.
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106-08 Women womanned the anti-aircraft batteries at the Volga. Richthofen (who had bombed Guernica, in Spain) was sending carpet-bombers over in relays: One of the female anti-aircraft batteries hit a German aircraft. The pilot baled out, but his parachute took him directly into a blaze.

................................................................
The 16th Panzer Division faces fierce resistance:

THE GIRLS AT THE GUNS,

"FIRST PAGE OF THE STALINGRAD DEFENCE" (sic)

Richthofen's bombers attacked from the skies at Stalingrad, and the Panzer tanks moved nearly unobstructed for some 25 miles. Then resistance from the Russians at Gumrak intensivied (this from a German division report) with anti-aircraft guns firing "wildly" at the armored vehicles from Stalingrad's northwest. The batteries there were operated by women, young women volunteers, late teenage years apparently. Few had any firing eperience, because ammunition was in short supply, and few had been trained to hit ground targets, rather than aircraft. They aimed for the tanks, the Panzers, whose crews were at that time taking the matter rather like a lark, after so long without opposition. But the young girls operated those guns at zero elevation, causing great surprise and consternation among the Germans.

Then German planes, the stukas, arrived. One Commander Sarkisian, Russian, would watch one anti-aircraft gun after another get hit, fall silent, and believe the batteries were wiped out. Not so - each time the guns resumed. When Sarkisian told of the events to a writer, he described the girls' efforts as the "first page of the Stalingrad defence."

MASHA

Back to the anti-aircraft batteries and Commander Sarkisian's reporting. He said that the girls refused to to go relative safety underground. Masha, one of them, remained at her gun post for 4 days, achieving some 9 hits. Even if the numbers are not exact, the bravery is. The Germans, the 16th Panzer Division, reported that the fight meant they had to return shot for shot against 37 Soviet positions, manned (womanned?) with great resilience by "tenacious fighting women until they were all destroyed."

The reaction of the Germans when they learned they were firing at women? Horror. There is then a footnote, by the author, that the German Sixth did not know about an early culture, the 'Sarmatae of the lower Volga ' that were an "interbreed of Scythians and Amazons, according to Herodotus." But the author or Herodotus, which, then says that the Sarmatae "allowed" their women to go to war.

If they were indeed of Amazon stock, they asked noone for permission.

Chivalry: cultural illusions fell apart for the Germans, who felt obligated for their own honor to find some reason why these women were so effective in war. It must be that they are fully trained for combat, write one, says the book, because they certainly are not merely skirted soldiers. "Russian soldiers treat such women with great wariness." No wonder.

Note that that that declaration of preparation does not gibe with the other reports of girls just out of high school undertaking military tasks without any training, and succeeding. They must have been trained, those girls, thought the German, probably because he saw himself as so formidable they otherwise could not have withstood the onslaught so long.

............................................

MASHA KOVAL

Do a search for "Masha Stalingrad" and find another Masha, Masha Koval, who survived to tell her story, see The Voice of Russia, at ://www.vor.ru/55/Stalingrad/History_6_eng.html/ At eighteen, she kept crawling under the fire at Mamayev Hill to bring back the wounded while a blizzard blew, ultimately found two who had already died, and in the cold, lay down to sleep between them, being then picked up as though dead by others - who found she was still alive, and brought her back to a dug-out, and she lived.

Mamayev Kurgan, or Mamayev Hill, is also noted with narrative of events and people at Andrea Smith, The Courage of a People: The Russians in World War II, at ://www.lourdes.edu/Portals/0/Files/History/Online_Narrative_History/ONHJ09/Stalingrad.pdf/

...................................................

LILYA LITVAK

The White Rose of Stalingrad

Meet a fighter pilot who began flying solo at age 15. During World War II, she was posted to male units because of her skill, see Dariusz Tyminski's WW II Aces at ://209.157.64.200/focus/f-vetscor/1656761/posts/ Many names of other WWII women ACES are included there. She was finally killed in 1943, after 168 missions of different kinds, and 12 enemy planes shot down, plus 3 in concert with another pilot. Read her record, specific sorties. Gorbachev posthumously awarded her as Hero of the Soviet Union.

The nickname: She painted a lily on her plane fuselage, a YaK-1, it was confused with a rose. It is said that the Germans avoided her YaK-1, identified from the flower. It took eight German planes to down her.

...................................................

THE NIGHT WITCHES

"The Night Witches" - nickname first for the 588th Women's Night Bomber Regiment, then for other Night Bombers, including the 46th Night Bombers Guards Regiment. See ://mysite.pratt.edu/~rsilva/sovwomen.htm/ Read the numbers of women serving, and the branches of service. The photographs show - you go look. At that site. The BBC did a documentary, see ://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2009/11/091102_night_witches.shtml/ (watch all 23 minutes). There, meet:

................................................................

NADEZDA POPOVA

She was a Night Witch, in the 46th Night Bombers Guards Regiment, as a pilot. She said that the name of "Night Witches" referred to their never allowing the Germans any sleep. The Germans, impressed with their night vision, ascribed that acuity as from an unknown chemical treatment injected. How else to see in the blackness,

Find more about the Night Witches, and photos of them, at Tale of Two Night Witches, at ://russia.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/11/02/tale-of-two-night-witches/ Many were teenagers at the time. They were called "Night" witches, it says here, because they idled their engines to glide silently over the target cities at night.
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109f The woman battalion commissar.

THE WOMAN MECHANIC BECOMES COMMISSAR

There was a technical university at Stalingrad that had been bombed, and its teaching staff helped comprise a "destroyer battalion". One professor became company commander. A woman mechanic, fresh from the tractor factory, because battalion commissar. The plant had been converted to build other equipment (T-34's, the Russian tank considered superior to any other in WW2, see ://www.2worldwar2.com/t-34-tank.htm; see photo there).

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154 Women as medical orderlies, signallers.

Serving as medical orderly or as a signaller meant great privations. The young women in the garrisons could be cut off for days, enduring harsh conditions of smoke, dust, hunger, thirst. There was no fresh water after a critical pumping station at Stalingrad was destroyed. Soldiers would shoot at drains to get a few drops.

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157-58 BATTLEFIELD MEDICAL SERVICES

For the Russian command, a wounded soldier was a liability, one who could not fight any more, so had to be replaced. Healing and his safety were far down the list of concerns. Thus, the medical services in the Red Army were given low priority. It was the females, often students or recent high school graduates, who showed great bravery in getting a wounded soldier back from the field. The women acted despite only basic first aid training.

ZINAIDA GEORGEVNA GAVRIELOVA

One of the female commanders of the "sanitary company" units, one at the 62nd Army, had 100 women under her command. She was Zinaida Georgevna Gavrielova, age 18, a medical student. She had been serving in a cavalry regiment, and was recommended for the job. Her medical orderlies were as young as she, and overcame terror as they crawled out on the field, under fire, to bring back wounded, drag them out of the way. Then they carried them on their backs. Physical strength, spiritual strength, both were noted by their commander Gavrielova.

Read further at that section about these:

GULYA KOROLOVA (or KOROLEVA)

She was a 20-year old mother who brought back over a hundred wounded, and killed 15 fascists on her own. We are looking for corroboration, or other accounts, and so far find none. Ah - here is one, linking her with Natalya Kachnevskaya. See The Courage of a People: The Russians in World War II, by Andrea Smith 2009, at ://www.lourdes.edu/Portals/0/Files/History/Online_Narrative_History/ONHJ09/Stalingrad.pdf/ (herein Smith, Courage of a People). The spelling there is Koroleva. The site credits her with pulling hundreds, not just a hundred, wounded.

NATALYA KACHNEVSKAYA -

Nurse with a Guards Rifle Regiment, formerly a student of theater, rescued 20 soldiers in one day and threw grenades at the Germans. She is included at the Smith, Courage of a People site, with Gulya Koroleva, saving hundreds of wounded. The spelling is variously given as KOCHNEVSKAYA, or is that a different person? - at the 157-158 page range, this spelling is for someone carrying 20 wounded out of a firing zone in one day, but adding that she was was wounded twice and kept on bandaging and carrying.

KLAVDIA STERMAN -

A former maternity nurse. She found, with others in her ground-crew staff, thousands of wounded left at the side of the Volga, and, after doing what they could, decided to transfer to the front lines in a medical unit.

YEKATERINA PETLYUK:

She was a member of a tank crew, although few women so served. She is also named as fighting on the ground, see Smith, Courage of a Nation, http://www.lourdes.edu/Portals/0/Files/History/Online_Narrative_History/ONHJ09/Stalingrad.pdf/ at p.8. She is named along with:

GALINA ALEXEYEVA

She was sixteen, began doing gopher-type tasks, then became a communications officer, with an armored battalion. She was allowed to fight within the city of Stalingrad ultimately. Courage of a Nation at 9.

MARINA RASKOVA:

She was an aviator who led a women's bomber regiment. Killed. The Soviet Earhart. From review of Reina Pennington's narrative book, Wings, Women and War, see ://www.amazon.com/Wings-Women-War-Airwomen-Studies/dp/0700615547/ref=pd_sim_b_4/, Marina Raskova was the Soviet counterpart to Amelia Earhart, the one in 1941 to persuade Stalin to establish the female regiments. The 46th Guards, Night Bomber Aviation Regiment was staffed throughout the war with women, as pilots, navigators, commanding officers, and mechanics. They flew about 5-15 sorties per night, slept 2-4 hours a day for 4 years, flew a total of over 24,000 missions, dropped 23,000 tons of bombs, and received 23 Hero of the Soviet Union Awards. Of the 800,000 to a million in the military, over 200,000 received honors. In an integrated regiment, the 125th Guards, Dive Bombers, there were integrated tail-gunners, ground-personnel, and a male commander. Inclusion of women was not for propaganda or because men were scarce. Their service commenced at a time when Russia had a shortage of planes, not pilots. Not all women were noble. See references to the sisters Kazarinova, using their power for personal vengeance, apparently (not read that book).

160 Women from surviving gun crews were reassigned to other batteries.

207 A German wrote home: fair use quote -

"...[t]he time has come for every sensible man in Germany to curse the madness of this war. It's impossible to describe what is happening here. Everyone in Stalingrad who still possesses a head and hands, women as well as men, carries on fighting."

224 To be continued.

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105: Domestic heroism, stamina.

VICTOR GONCHAROV'S WIFE;

AND GONCHAROVA.

It was not only the female military personnel who acted so heroically. Civilians showed resourcefulness and courage. A mother was seen to drag her daughter out from the open to get her home, when no male driver would assist. Most of the men were at the front, or otherwise mobilized, leaving women to cope. One, Victor Goncharov's wife, buried her father's body in the yard, after a direct hit, helped by an 11-year old son. They could not find the body's head. Another woman, her mother in law,Goncharova, was lost somewhere - wife of a Cossack veteran. The women survived in bunkers for five months. In the chaos, they did not find each other again for 3 years.

Then: Memoirs of the defense of Stalingrad, by these women, source: Defending Leningrad at ://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3763/is_200009/ai_n8910839/. Look to that Defending Leningrad source also for the full citations to works referenced here. For the magnitude of women's contribution, note that 800,000 women served in the Soviet military. Of them, or on their behalf, we have these, as examples:

Diaries or memoirs: either those in actual combat, or as a soldier, or engaged in partisan activities behind lines, or other; and translators and editors of personal journals

Elena Skriabina, Siege and Survival: The Odyssey of a Leningrader; and After Leningrad: From the Caucasus to the Rhine (she did not engage in actual combat)

Nina Kosterina: The Diary of Nina Kosterina (she did not engage in actual combat)
Zoya Matveyevna Smirnova Medvedeva (any relation, Medvedev?), On the Road to Stalingrad: Memoirs of a Woman machine Gunner, translator Kazimiera Cottam, see ://www.amazon.com/Road-Stalingrad-Memoirs-Machine-Gunner/dp/0968270204

Kazimiera J. Cottam - translator and editor of personal journals of two women, a partisan and a soldier; also translated and edited Soviet Airwomen in Combat in World War II, and The Golden-Tressed Soldier, and Women In Air War: The Eastern Front 0f World War II; see also Women in War and Resistance: Selected Biographies of Soviet Women Soldiers, at ://www.amazon.com/Women-War-Resistance-Selected-Biographies/dp/1585101605/ref=pd_sim_b_5
Reina Pennington, Wings, Women and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat, at ://www.amazon.com/Wings-Women-War-Airwomen-Studies/dp/0700615547/ref=pd_sim_b_4/ Of particular interest from the review - the Soviets were first to allow female pilots. There were three all-women units, one as dive-bomber pilot, one as fighter pilot, one as night bomber; as well as those serving with men. Women were also navigators, mechanics, bomb-loaders and others.

......................................................

FN 2 Most of us in the West are enamored of the Western Front. Is that so? All noisy on the western front. All the PR, the correspondents, photographs, narrators speaking our own languages (European), multiple branches of everybody's military, naval and air services, water landings, liberations. And we take for granted that women do not fight out front. Never did, never should. Our cultural blinders? Do we really know our own history?

Read Stalingrad, novel by Theodor Plievier, see ://www.amazon.com/Stalingrad-Theodore-Plievier/dp/0881841080/.

See the film, Stalingrad, based upon it at http://www99.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu-1072969/mvie-review-FE2-A99B421-38AC6718-prod6/

Shipping Battlefield. World's Merchant Seamen. Civilian Resources, in Peace and War. Pan-Earth, All-Cuisines Restaurant.

2009-08-15T14:54:00.013-04:00

The Mariners: Civilian Resources

US Merchant Marine, Europe's Merchant Navy,
Merchant Sailors, Merchant Seamen

A. In War;

B. At Peace;

C. In Literature

We think we know the merchant marine. They load and unload, move around the seas, port to port, lots of people who may look different, hover around the docks, set off again.

Wrong. They enter battle zones, require human connections including food, contact with home, healthcare and support. Our global prosperitye depends on those who move product, including military. Go to a dock. Watch.

Better, walk some, and eat there. Meet the Pan-Earth All Cuisines Restaurant in Antwerp, at the dock. They serve whoever appears, and offer the dishes from home.

Antwerp: The Bonaparte docks. Find world cuisine for merchant sailors here, at the Pan Earth All Cuisines Restaurant, with a skilled chef serving whatever someone asks for, within reason; and the basics of most nationality favorites. Fufu, dishes from India, the Pacific Islands, Africa, China, all available. Ours was first rate. Someone go there and have this fine owner-operator (we can't find his name). Ask him to write a cookbook.

Pan Earth All Cuisines, Bonaparte Dock, Antwerp; Dan Widing and owner-chef, name unknown to us. He is much admired. Artists pay tribute on his walls.

Carol Widing, Dan Widing, and hostess, Pan Earth All Cuisines, Bonaparte Dock, Antwerp

Artists' tribute to owner-chef, Dan and Chef-owner, , Pan Earth All Cuisines, Bonaparte Dock, Antwerp

Look deeper, farther, who are the clientele, besides us.

6. Training. US. The United States can boast an excellent Academy for training its Merchant Marine officers - the US Merchant Marine Academy, a New York institution, listed as one of the top 371 colleges in the country for academic program. This coveted ranking is from the Princeton Review, an annual survey of colleges and universities. See ://www.usmma.edu/The US Department of Transportation runs it. Go, government.

Uses of and roles for civilian Seamen in war; as well as peace. US Merchant Marine. A labor and service force, in the US the Merchant Marine is an adjunct to the Navy (not uniformed) and available to the Navy in war, thus enabling military activity as well as commercial shipping, cargo and passenger, around the globe. First target of the U-boats, WWI. Since 1936, they have been considered military. Although they enabled the Normandy landings in WWII, and participated under fire in battle areas, mariners who served in war were not recognized as veterans for purposes of benefits until 1988. Overview, of course, for preliminary purposes at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Merchant_Marine

Foreign merchant marine: Merchant Navies, a common term in English speaking countries. See the BBC account of the British Merchant Navy activity in WWII at ://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/79/a2152379.shtml/ "Sailor" - term with a long history, obviously rooted in sailing ships, now applicable to any locomotion-type vessel, see ://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Sailor/ Some US ports restrict access to shore for foreign crews, a 9/11 concern but making life even more difficult for the workers, see Life at Sea section at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_transport/ and the union for US merchant workers at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_of_Masters,_Mates_%26_Pilots/

Purely commercial shipping, under flags of some third-world countries (owned elsewhere) may provide substandard conditions on board. After discussion here of wartime service of merchant navies, see what assistance is given and by whom to peacetime transport workers. Legal, counseling, and social-spiritual help at the ports. For foreign ships, a lonely business. US: more protections. In 1908, however, see the push for outsourcing - shippers in US ask for "open door" policy to hire foreign crews so the shippers can pay less and better compete globally, see ://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F0DE7D91739E333A25754C0A9649D946997D6CF

A. Wartime: Conflicts

1. Roles. Historically, the Merchant Marine has had a foot in peace and a foot in war. See ://www.usmm.org/faq.html/ In WWII, they were subject to the draft if they took more than 30 days' shore leave. See://www.usmm.org/faq.html/

Although heavily involved in warfare, they were not recognized as veterans until 1988, and legislation is pending regarding payment for their service during WWII, see issues at ://www.theheraldbulletin.com/local/local_story_224233003.html

Mulberry Harbor, Normandy, WWII, Avranches area. Merchant Marine were there to transport materiel, make the docks.

2. The Wartime Mariners. Merchant marines' battlefield: on their own ships. Carrying materiel in World War II, for example, the Atlantic convoys came under repeated attack, see ://www.usmm.org/ww2.html/. Military efforts on the ground in Europe depended on what could get there. For these sealifts, the number of Mariners increased from 55,000 in peacetime, to 215,000 during WWII. One in 26 died at sea, a far greater percentage than ground troops. In 1942, 33 Allied ships (not just US) were being sunk per week. Seventeen Allied merchant ships (5 US) were sunk at Bari, Italy in WWII; 1000 Mariners killed. That is called the Second Pearl Harbor. Of those, hundreds died when one of the ships, carrying its secret cargo of mustard gas bombs, exploded, and the gas killed those around - and many civilians. Crew and officers on the SS Nicolet were massacred after capture by the Japanese near Sri Lanka. Of the 100+, after a rescue effort began, only 23 survived. See also ://www.armed-guard.com/index.html/

The Battle for the Atlantic (WWII) was not for area, it was for control of shipping lanes.

Look back to WWI: the German U-boats were highly successful in destroying merchant ships. Read about specific battles, both wars, South Atlantic, North Atlantic, Pacific, every invasion, at the American Merchant Marine site at ://www.usmm.org/ww2.html/ Anzio, Normandy. These were not all Naval Academy ships - 2700 at Normandy were Merchant Marine. They landed the troops and the equipment, all under fire.
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How could the Army get over there, if it were not for the Merchant Marine. Army Uncle Sam recruiting poster WWI. Merchant Marine ferried troops to landings and battlefields.

A thousand US Mariners brought and sunk obsolete Blockships to create the artificial harbors at Normandy, known as Mulberry - also at Utah and Omaha beaches. Merchant ships ferried troops, material, airplanes, bombs, fuel. This poster is on display at Montreal's miitary engineers' museum.

3. News. Piracy and Seamen. They are in the news recently because they have been and are being highjacked especially around the East coast of Africa, some thwarted, see http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Pirates+hijack+Turkish+ship+Gulf+Aden/1771690/story.html; some successful, some still evolving, see ://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jAue5-tyv2whwH27bBcykL1vYqyA/; and now, a ransom request as to the Arctic Sea ship, highjacked apparently, but no details, see Voice of America News at ://www.voanews.com/english/2009-08-15-voa23.cfm/.

In any event, highjacked or other reason, with long time no word; the Mariners are at risk. Their occupation alone is risky - injury, illness, overwork, long periods from home. Adding highjacking? Pay attention, world.

4. Global - Mariners by numbers and country. How to read the figures? China is first at 1,822? Sounds too low. US has 422? That puts us 12th. Again, sounds very low. What is the multiple, if any. No idea. See ://www.globalfirepower.com/merchant-marine-strength-by-country.asp/.

You can also look up comparative military personnel numbers at that site. If we do that, and do nothing to multiple up the figures, China the global number one and has 2,255,000 active military; and the US comes in a global second at 1,285,122.

5. The value of merchant navies in wartime: all these are not the domain of the merchant marine, some may be privately owned and operated, but show the kinds of vessels they may be staffing, depending: see the variety of vessels available. So: navies developed to protect nations' merchant ships; and now the merchant ships fill in for the navies - to varying degrees.

bulk carriers for ore or foodstuffs,
container ships,
ferries for people and vehicles,
reefer ships with temperature controls,
coastal traders with shallow hulls,
roll-off roll-on ships,
tankers for fluids,
cruise ships,
cable layers laying cables,
tugboats,
dredgers,
barges, then a new one for us -
the "semi submersible heavy lift" ships or OHGC for open hatch general cargo.

See photos at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_transport/. Then go down to the Chesapeake and name them as they pass on their way to the port of Philadelphia.

In some countries the merchant fleet is sufficient to slide over into the military. In the United States, not so. The Navy must still do its own, see The Navy as a Fighting Machine, by Bradley Fiske, online at ://www.gutenberg.org/files/17547/17547-h/17547-h.htm/ Do a find for merchant marine. Germany, for example, had a large merchant fleet available; and has such now. Japan's merchant ships are also numerous. Do not underestimate the resource of merchant ships for wartime, the book suggests. The law of self-protection, shown in having this secondary asset pool?

B. Worldwide community of seamen on merchant ships.

1. People not in the glory light. People doing hard work while others get recognition for the end result. The merchant marine. In many cases, the forgotten laborers responsible for our standards of living. We are dependent on them. In peace and war. Is that so?

2. Volunteers and agencies. In some ports, there is help when the merchant sailors come ashore. Look for that. Arrive in any port city, go to the docks, and in most parts of the world, find the Seamen's Church Institute (we have no connection to it, but it deserves applause and support).

Seaman's Institute: an organization dedicated to the full-spectrum well-being of merchant seamen around the world, including advocating as they may be able for better work conditions, reaching out and providing, and laws (US), and in the US, even adult education for captains and pilots inland, see ://www.sciphiladelphia.org/, and a slideshow about the Philadelphia port agency work including secular-need oriented ship visitors at ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JkfyF7SK1Q. Beacon place. Or its equivalent with information and a welcome, for places to bunk, even solve a problem, onshore contacts. FN 1

3. History, risks, weather, what it is like, see this collection of articles at ://www.experiencefestival.com/merchant_marine/ Longshoremen at sea for many.

There are legal protections for United States mariners, see ://www.careeroverview.com/water-transportation-careers.html; and The Merchant Marine Act, 1920, see://www.answers.com/topic/merchant-marine-act-of-1920-1the regulations for bringing an action re unfavorable conditions, see http://www.fmc.gov/home/550RegulationstoadjustormeetconditionsunfavorabletoshippingintheforeigntradeoftheUnitedStates.asp?PRINT=Y#550.601%20Actions%20to%20correct%20unfavorable%20conditions./

4. For many merchant sailors in the world, a hard life, away for a career, in some countries, for minimal pay. Dangerous work, poor health treatment, food handling iffy.

5. Explore a little of the places by the ports. Walk the docks. See how humans stay human, or try to as merchant sailors who are far from home, low pay, hardship for health and comfort, hard work. Needs - to socialize (yes, overnight) and get in some recreation before returning to work. Just walk in, have a seat. Soon you will find if it is a place for you - some do not serve food at all, as in some storefront places in Antwerp - but you will get friendly waves, and we felt perfectly safe on those docks.

C. In Literature

1. Famous! Jack Kerouac, Beatnik generation novelist, writer, painter, discharged from the Navy for "angel tendencies" (schizophrenia, apparently) was also a Mariner, see ://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/14/DD8J193T9B.DTL/ and swapped his sweater for a harpoon, transaction with an Eskimo while Kerouac was stationed in Greenland/

For a long list of ex-mariners, see ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Merchant_Marine. Find John Paul Jones, Jim Thorpe, Allen Ginsberg, Carroll O'Connor, Peter Falk, and our favorite, Popeye 1933, the sailor man (merchant marine early in his career, later identified as navy), and see and hear the song at Youtube - ://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=popeye+the+sailor+man+song&qs=AS&docid=1121365262348&mid=F7493F07215AE0FAF91BF7493F07215AE0FAF91B&FORM=VIVR20/ "Strong to the finish 'cause I eats my spinach...." and see Brutus, Betty Boop and Olive Oyl and an Aargh or two.

2. Reread "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Read it aloud at ://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Rime_Ancient_Mariner.html/ No fair quitting before you are done, so get comfortable. Have room for gestures. Practice elocution and volume and tone. Go.

3. The Shipping News, novel by Annie Proulx, see ://www.curledup.com/shipping.htm; and 2001 film same name, at ://us.imdb.com/title/tt0120824/ - Newfoundland.

Routine shipping news today in Duluth at ://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/127896/ Find a bridge and watch.

...................................
FN 1 Needs of the merchant sailors in our and global ports. Who cares? Some do.

Some organizations are worth careful looks and appreciation, whether secular or religious. The Seamen's Institute is a religious organization doing secular and ecumenical work as a social service arm, a pragmatic place. It was begun in 1834 - with actual floating chapels - and is an ecumenical effort, begun by Episcopal Church and extended to all forms of care, meeting needs, and now including treatment for the effects of piracy. Amazing. No other worldwide group has stepped up to do anything like it. It is a fully volunteer agency. See ://www.seamenschurch.org/474.asp/ Here is an archive slide show, at ://www.seamenschurch.org/775.asp/ Apparently 80% of the seamen never get off the ships, and can be on board for 10 months at a time, even longer. That from the Youtube film.

Opinion Implants in News Slots. Fact-Check as Peacemaker.

2009-06-16T23:08:00.031-04:00

News is no longer reliable.
Turn to a fact-checker to foster peace.
Would that work?

Do We Need Some Version of a Fairness Doctrine Again?
A "certified" news presenter category?

The pipedream of world peace - it takes reliable dissemination of fact.

Scratch that. Too many facts involved. Inter-ethnic peace. No, won't work. Nobody will value other ethnicities. Regional peace. No, that's out. Facts will be spun to suit the powerful. Inter-religious system peace. That's worse. They want belief, not facts to challenge it.

What would help? Is war the only ultimate settler. What to rechannel? Is it reliable dissemination and discussion of fact, the content in an issue? Opportunity to explore options, as we do with sibling rivalries? Perhaps. But even that takes a calming down first.
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Is there any way to instill a discipline, to get facts and explore options, before forming firm opinions? Won't work. There is money in forcing opinions without spending time and cash on gathering and presenting information. Besides, with informataion, your personal interest may not prevail. Can't have that.
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So: What do we have instead:

1. Distract the people with entertainment: Opinion-Churning. Present a battle of opinions. The new media blood sport.

News via Talk Show; unknown information impersonator

2. Poll the people before they are offered the facts.

3. Control the Information Flow;

4. Promote Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt - FUD - Before They Have the Facts..

5-6. Who has the money and dedication

to counter the marketing, perception management that run our democracy.

Could discussion of facts before commitment avoid wars?

1. Distract with Entertainment

A. Opinion- churning:
.

It works like porn in marketing --
Add some opinions, make them spicey, and you get people's attention.

.

Watch with us. How exactly are we distracted from the main business at hand. Start here:

This is the news! Background music revs up, visuals pan around, headlines pop. Big event here, and another there! Just look at that!
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Fact-finding mission, China. Who focuses on the nice fact to the right there, with all those Opinions behind.

And there is a vital fact, over there, at the bottom right.

If that fact goes unnoticed, the whole story, the whole significance of the issue fails. And yet - is anyone paying attention? No!

Nobody is paying attention because there are Opinions back there, big Opinions! and nobody is paying attention to the linchpin fact over there.

How is it done through the hearing? And watch the weasel words, the unattributable statistics, the vague, "some people say", that papers the walls of CNN, MSNBC, Fox. Weasel words in places where facts, attributable, verifiable facts, are vitally needed for this democracy.

Skip the words. We got visuals. Oh, my - get an eyeful of those Opinions.

Instant gratification of the senses even in politics wins in the attention department. Thinking function? Step aside while these nice people distract you from other things that matter.

For the purveyor, satisfy the imagination, and reality diminishes in importance. Is that so?
For the immediate, subject consumer, all those Opinion Implants in the news slots can look good, but over time, watch the sagaway. FN 2. Does anyone tell the high school seniors who get them as graduation gifts about that?.

While they hold up, the opinions can be great fun, titillating indeed, entertaining, marketing opportunities, Compare them to somebody else's opinions, and before you know it, your life is gone -- just like the hour-long ersatz news show that had no news to add to the debate in it.

We agree this is a bit much. The implant image is not a friendly one when looked at more closely, in another context. The whole analogy may be a bit much, but the principles remain the same: window-dressing serves lots of egos at the time, sells for the short term, but does not get the real job done. What is correlation between the window-dressing and vital decisions to be made. And we just love it anyway. Lead me astray, please.

The parallel to TV? They say this is a news segment, but all you get is commentary. Is that it? Back to the polls. Ask the people polled what basis in fact they use. We bet the stares will be blank ones. Ask them whose opinion they heard and relied on, and you will get clear answers. Opinions of regular people are based on opinions they hear on TV or read in the news slants. Is that so?

Got to grab their attention and sell what we got because this is a market - and regardless of the real issue. Like the girls draped over the hoods of the old cars. Glitz up the news with the hate about it on one side, and the gush on the other. Forget the car - we got the ladies and the band. This celebrity. That talking head. That hoary legislator in the bubble.

Who can remember the issue with all that excitement going on. Barnum would love it.

Car show, Kosice, Slovakia

But look at the consequences. We are whisked away because we got ourselves swayed by Opinions, into a war or other persuasion mentality.

B. Present Opinion-Churning as a Blood Sport for the news industry.

Drawing blood draws an audience, so surely we can pollute news with opinions so we can see the match-ups. In our nice home colisseums.

Opinion Fight. Old print.

Shows pit one Opinion, turn of a phrase, against another. "Ooooh!" goes the audience, impressed, and waiting for more. Show a fight, violence, verbal catfights, a mudwrestle, political or religious Survivor fighting political or religious Survivor, cannonading Opinions to the right of them, cannon to the left of them, volley and you know. Thunder. Get out the nearly nude roller derbies of competing Editorializing, and you got sport, man, you got sport.

What was the fight about? Who cares. We got ourselves a fight. Pop the can, edge in closer to Watch.

2. Polling Shmolling
.

Poll numbers come in.

Ten minutes of an evening news show stems from reporting on the poll; but the question asked leaves so many loose ends, so many qualifiers are hovering out there, that the answer depends on how the pollee filled in the gaps himself or herself.

Ten minutes lost from reporting the content of the latest policy initiative, the content of opposition policy initiatives (if any), content that we could use for analysis.

Then another ten minutes panning from opinionator to opinionator churning other peoples opinions on the stuff we aren't getting the facts about. Look at the weasel words - ://www.answers.com/topic/weasel-word/; ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word/, a site that itself warns the reader about weasel words in it. Even the contributors use them.

Polls. Opinion tracking.

What are they good for when we get opinions instead of news in the media and papers. So long as people get more "opinion" than "news" on TV and in the papers, the poll results reflect people's opinions -- that the people themseles arrived at, from being exposed to a hundred media celebrity opinions.
.
Opinions On The Move. Old print.
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Who knows what facts the celebrity - political, religious, talk show - used or rejected. Somebody will assume it is grounded.
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None of that gets vetted. We train people to follow celebrity and to demand "entertainment" - so the news uses entertainment marketing techniques, inserts opinions and opinion wars into the news, and soon there is no time left for the news. And celebrity views - political, religious, showtime celebrities - become more important than the facts. Is that so?

Why not ask what is important:

What facts do you understand about this issue or that issue.
Where did you get your facts.
Do you have a computer? Do you ever use a fact check?
How much time do you spend watching opinion shows.
How much time do you spend watching or seeking out hard facts about news.
Whose opinions do you value most.
How much time do you spend listening to the opinionator's opposition

Political celebrities, religious celebrities, media celebrities, all with a shtick, all tools for propaganda. Persuasion, not information. Is that what we watch when we see all those opinions instead of "news." Shall we teach children how to spot it?
.

3. Control the Information Flow
.

Governments and markets know that free communications, more information, can be dangerous, because they may lead to less support for a cause or a drug, not more. The more people know, the more they may exercise independent judgment. Therefore, enforce opacity - not transparency - and the troops muster faster. Is that so? Catch their emotions before they have the facts? See Fear of Fog: Emoticon Dominance.

Conflict requires dedicated opponents, each with a single-minded viewpoint. How to get that. How to get the citizens to come down on your side.
.

a. Woodrow Wilson. Committee on Public Information.

As to government efforts on the force side, see Woodrow Wilson and the Espionage Act of 1917, that allowed us to imprison those people criticizing the WWI effort, interfering with the draft. See ://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1344.html/ It was amended by the Sedition Act of 1918.

False statements. False reports.

Those were crimes then when we were at war. Hello, Dick. What about today? See ://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1345.html/ Schenck v. United States - Supreme Court upheld restrictions on speech.

That was the great Oliver Wendell Holmes.

b. Fairness Doctrine. The medicine worked but the patient died.

Look back at the 1941 Mayflower Ruling - not a law, just FCC policy, but it established The Fairness Doctrine, later judicially upheld in 1969's Red Lion Broadcasting v. FCC, so that the FCC could deny a broadcast license if the person or group did not serve "the public interest, convenience, and necessity."
.

Read about those in the google book Propaganda and Mass Persuasion, by Cull, Culbert and Welch, at page 410 ff (long URL) at ://books.google.com/books?id=Byzv7rf6gL8C&pg=PA410&lpg=PA410&dq=Woodrow+Wilson+war+persuasion&source=bl&ots=Wk2aooy31Z&sig=Tqg-2XwfONISnzIWBlzzWDB09vc&hl=en&ei=YkM4SqbQIM-_twe4k_njDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6/. Read there as well:

"The United States is the largest consumer and disseminator of propaganda and persuasion in history."

The fear of oppositional propaganda leads to a strong government response - a) muzzle the media, while using its opportunities to reach more people, more effectively, where they cannot defend, and the history of how to do that is frightening. Or b) fake the news: plant the plants. See The Fodder Site: Any Propaganda Today;. World War I was not the beginning. Read our efforts back to colonial times.

The Fairness Doctrine. is there something left there, to slide us away from the polarization, the vitriol, the killing by abortion vigilantes and other extremists, that comes from long-steeping in one sided, manipulated information. Is it time to reconsider, to offer an immediate, visible other source.
.

When there was scarcity in the bandwidths or whatever, the Fairness Doctrine was useful. The FCC could require steps in the public interest: balanced productions of news: seek out community affairs, offer counter-statements to opinion. See Fairness Doctrine, about U.S. Broadcasting Policy, by Val E. Limburg at ://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fairnessdoct/fairnessdoct.htm/.
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Can it return where there is not that scarcity, on grounds that there is no effective place to turn any more for the public interest information. All the "bandwidths" are taken up by the spewers. We have different kinds of fact checks, or public media; but too many people don't even have computers. The idea was that there is no longer that scarcity, so the function of the Fairness Doctrine is not useful, and it may even have led reporters to shy away from difficult stories because of the obligation to show other sides. But it didn't work. The marketers simply took over.
.

So the Fairness Doctrine fell away, both as FCC policy and legislation, by the time of the Reagan era, and revival legislation was vetoed by President Bush in his time.

So what happened? "News" is virtually gone. With editorializing now fully open season, that is all we get. Facts, actual information to add to the debate, zip. We've cut the Hartford Courant and moved to the New York Times, and perhaps a few good national papers could do the job after all. Let the locals slip in a section for state news. But that only addresses the few of us who are left who like a morning paper.

News time slots are overwhelmed by Opinion and Churning Opinions, offered without the needed underlying facts so we an evaluate the Opinion. Chatterers pit one Opinion against another like a blood sport. A fact here? Quick - cut to Opinion. More facts? Skip it. All the real excitement, to get the adrenalin running, entertain and gratify the viewer, use the soundbite, the flasher technique, on Opinions. Sell them first. Market everything.

c. J. Edgar Hoover. Easy to get a foothold, my dear.

Then fast forward to the post WWI era and the social issues of immigration, then the Red Scare, who followed whom and the rise of J. Edgar Hoover - see ://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1343.html/ We just have more ways to do it now. Is this part of our children's education, our own history? The human hard-wired idea, get what you want any way you can, pound the facts like bread dough and see what rises, is not new.
,

d. Edward Bernays over it all. All the world's a market.
.

Flower market, Croatia

Selling ideas like little blossoms.

How does this lack of news, and just sales talk for whatever idea someone will buy, impact upon the drive to war and polarization.

Lack of news, or carefully chosen, spun news. For the master of the skill of manipulating opinion, see Edward Bernays, 20th Century market, propagandist, American, at ://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Edward_Bernays/

He would be proud of the current technique of opinion implants in news programs. Opinions Gone Wild. Mesmerizing! Getting nothing but opinions also pushes people to positions of extremes in viewpoint, since the facts behind the opinion are seldom vetted. Unbridled opinionating is a prerequisite to war or any conflict.
.

What if the facts, if known or discussed, would not support the person's or the group's or the government position.

Suppress it; or distract from it.

If you were president, you could establish a Committee on Public Information. Woodrow Wilson did, see ://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Committee_on_Public_Information/.

Promote polarization for the cause. Against the defined enemy. What time do we dedicate in media to getting facts out. Test it. Turn on your gadget. Time the time given to Opinion and churning opinions, and the time given to objective facts about the event or issue itself, to edify the debate. FN 1
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Bewailing, identifying issues and warning are not enough, however. We expect that power in commerce, politics and religion will manage the information, control the flow.
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4. Promote Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt;

Not an Alternative Substantive Plan

What does all this marketing of opinion do? It dumbs us down. Maybe we are too far gone. Maybe Sam Zell is right - the readers want puppies and entertainment.

It skews the polls. We don't have the facts we need to form our own opinions. We parrot people we like to identify with, like celebrities in politics or religion..

It opens us to fear, uncertainty and doubt about what is on the table, without the mongers putting out their own alternative substantive plan. Opinions are not a measure of the merit or substance of the issue. Opinions, when people have no immediate access to a full fact source, are stagecraft.

Polls reflect the measure of FUD - the fear, uncertainty and doubt the opinionators raise who have no substantive alternative in policy or agenda. Ask Gene Amdahl and IBM. Nothing new here. Identify with the opinionator, not with an analysis. The train wreck of business-interested media influencing policy continues.
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5. Who has the money to change anything.

Is there a way to jumpstart anything without money?

News gathering and presentation is expensive, and takes wits.

Churning opinions about news that somebody else reports, and on part of a topic, is cheap, and takes no wits.

So what do we see on TV and in the papers? Politicians, ex and current; with party lines out their ears like clotheslines. Adding no facts to the debate. Just whether people should like this or like that. Lots of O-Pin-Ion. Opinion wars are not news.

Nonetheless opinion wars are what we get, with people who used to be journalists and newscasters at the helm. Pit this against that.

Smackdown between Cheney's latest fantasy and whoever. Insert something for the imagination, even verging on the prurient by use of words and imagery, dominance and power, and watch the dozer's attention focus. Facts? Everybody sleep. Might even disagree.What have we lost in civility, in intelligent inquiry about issues, what could we gain by reinstating a form of fairness doctrine.

Is polarizing good for democracy, communicating with intent to polarize, not inform..

We expect fancy advertising and psycho-skews to titillate the faithful. Gain the converts. Get attention. Sell. Sell. Buy. Buy. Any special interest will engage in news manipulation. And even where the control is not feasible - as in Iran currently, because of cell phone capabilities and internet and other immediate outlets - the government has another additional advantage. Consider the opportunities for eavesdropping, monitoring who is saying what.
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Daniel Widing and The Presidents, Madame Tussaud's. Real and fake information sources, intermingled.

P.S. Trust Dan.

Do we need certified news presenters.

People who swear to uphold truth, full and balanced, un-agenda'ed information presented to the people.

The conflict: government hiding some or all of its activities, people demanding transparency.

So we have these warring camps. In many areas - religion, politics, culture. And all from the extremes going nonstop, with no reliable, convenient, fast source to check on what is being said, what other viewpoints may be. Step back a moment.

Editorials and opinions alone are not the problem.

It is the squeezing off the stage of the factual underpinnings. That was not anticipated when the Fairness Doctrine was trashed. Look at the result of our preoccupation with opinion and slant, rather than analysis. Do we have extremists of our own to rival any elsewhere in mayhem? Yes. Why? Guess. A partial, contributory factor at least.

Did you keep reading in hopes of getting some more opinions? Here you go.

Oops. Camera slipped. Darn. Now we've lost you.

Do we really need all this entertainment? Guess so. So much for the public interest. Skip a role for reasoned analysis in war and conflict decisions. Let the poison waft over the airwaves whether it increases or decreases information, or instead steers toward the likelihood of war and conflict on any issue.

Who gets to decide. Does an election mean that the voters vote out their own rights to information and assessment, in favor of those matters concentrating in secret halls of the winner's government. Does an election mean that the airwaves and other means can spew at will, with people not getting it as to opposing views, but revving higher and higher in the decibels until someone or some group explodes. There are no lone wolves.

6. Conclusion so far,
and a small rant.
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The most visible sign of voter exclusion from decisionmaking, from necessary facts, is the premature polarization of views. The camera cuts from the event it briefly covered, to hordes of Opinion about the few facts revealed. Whether pulp paper on the driveway, or broadcast, cable or internet..

We get Opinion before we even get or can find the facts. What are these Opinions based on? The facts fade in air-time as Opinion takes over. Wars of opinions. Churning Opinions instead of news.

Churned Opinion is not news. What this puppet thinks is not news. What that puppet thinks is not news. What you or I think is not news. News is information, objective facts about events, persons involved, who, what, why, where, when. History, Background. Actual provisions.

Hear instead five words from the President about a new policy framework, and immediately cut to the opposition's Opinion. Then someone else disagreeing with the opposition's opinion and more opinions. Where is the factual underpinning, the real framework?

Rant. We have learned nothing from the Iraq debacle. Persuading people to go to war there was not a matter of the merits of the issue - it is who wons by opinion. To believe in this and not that. To support a cause. To hate this person, but believe this one is divine. Believe WMD's are there.

Real news about any topic, real time for the Inspectors, background on informants, where someone has a stake in the outcome, has always been suspect. When the goal is persuasion, war is marketing, not necessity.
Does our news morphing into tirade contribute to our ignorant polarization, the ease with which people are led to follow. The demise of the fairness doctrine, while failing to provide any comprehensive, objective news source, parallels the rise in rabble-rousing. Is that so?

Suspending opinion, until facts are in, is a discipline that we neither practice nor preach. Can we couch a fairness doctrine in those terms - first get the facts out, and if that is not feasible because it impinges on someone's right not to give the facts, provide a place where everyone can go immediately for the facts, and then let the implants loose. Fine.

But opinion only after the facts, not before. Or where the facts are immediately available. Then again, if you want warring people, then just sling the opinions around. 24/7/ There. Done.
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FN 1 Test the theory. What time on "news" shows is expended on finding and sharing fact, and what time is expended on Opinion. Mislabeling of the entire show? Consumer, beware. There is no obligation to list the ingredients on the label. Not even the place of origin of the views spewed.

Test it out. Take your newspaper and circle in red every slanted word, every choice that tilts your response to favor or disfavor.

Non-news. Searching for facts and there are none; but it sure is entertaining

Take out your stopwatch when you turn on a half-hour news program. Or get one. Make columns on a piece of notebook paper. First column: factual statements of news. Second column: opinion voiced by a media host or guest. Third column, video of somebody else's opinion. At the beginning of every thirty seconds, put a stroke in one of the columns. Slash, slash, slash, slash, cross-slash.

Consider and reconsider the ramifications. Keep the objective facts off to the side, because with facts, people think. Instead, bring on Opinion, Editorializing, and overwhelm with that before people have facts for thinking. With Opinions, people react. Immediately. From the gut. Reacting is Good. Thinking, and the tools to do that, is Bad. For the polarizer. Is that so?

Successful propaganda requires reaction, not thought, so we get Opinion before we have time to think about the facts. It used to be that there were public interest safeguards so we as voters and the ones most affected got information from a variety of perspectives. We could think before deciding Those safeguards fell away for a variety of reasons - like the Fairness Doctrine. And Opinion took over.

Is this use of Opinion in the news time like using porn in ads, and blood sports. Opinion and editorializing with flashbangs is the way to get people watching, so you then can sell something to them. It may be time to look at the revived need to serve the public interest by ensuring equal access to facts in our "news programs", if not in that same form.
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FN 2 Think further. The analogy gets worse. Much needed information is not given out before the the commitment is made and the operating room readied. No facts to hold the opinions up for long. Consider the weight. That is not an area where muscle is, is it? Droop as facts change and the premature opinion moots itself out. In time. And the purveyors do not have a great history of reliability: infection and leaks, folks, from botched jobs. Check out the scars in the locker room. Better yet, don't. You've been warned.
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And when it comes to function, how about the effect of the implant on an important non-ego purpose, the wee babe - where are the studies on the impact of implants on young women who later want to provide the Top Drawer Diet. Who counsels the girls on that. Medicine, where are you? Off to the bank. Mothers? Oh, you got some, too. Lemon-lime or perhaps apples and oranges or maybe a nice set of cantaloupes? All in the catalogue. Opinions taking place of news on news programs, other implants, six of one.

The implant technique on TV is a not-so-cheap temporary fix, uses up time for the lazy or not too bright talker (the host can have coffee while the camera cuts to the legislature, the man on the street, or another talk show), while the opportunity to pass on hard, complete, objective information needed for a real debate falls away.

No time for facts hello goodbye, we're late, we're late, we're late. Alice. Wake up.

What is the danger of all the conclusory statements, views, opinions, and re-churns of opinions we get in the media? The time gets used up, without delivering on content, on information, on facts for the debate. The debate instead becomes a joust of opinions, based on entertainment, or what "stuck" from what the opinionators said. The debate loses its grounding in fact. And Chris Matthews and the rest just laugh and laugh as they churn some more opinions instead of discussing facts, factual bases for all those opining heads. All the way to the bank.

First, You Plan. Genghis Khan, Basil Liddell Hart. War Strategies.

2009-05-24T21:56:00.006-04:00

War Strategy.

Plan, but Prepare to Regroup.

Defer Confrontation. No Loss of Honor.

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A. Genghis Khan.

Eastern warfare tactics include leaving the field. Take time to regroup.
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No Loss of Honor in melting away. The strategic withdrawal is not quitting the field. It is deferring the confrontation until more favorable conditions may develop. Highly efficient.
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Western warfare says stand up and fight. Now.

Even the cowardly Lion knew the posture to take, fists up, feet dancing, put-em-up. See ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxTy3JK_qgA/ Even if down we go, put up your dukes. Confrontation, immediate contest. That is the fast time-line to determine who won, who lost. Zero sum. Whatever thing you win, means I lose that thing, and that is it. Win and lose are quantifiable. See ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum

Eastern warfare: This is a different approach. Defer the confrontation. There is no loss of honor in that. Eastern warfare often provides a different result from Western thinking. If you see that you are outnumbered, and probably will fail, or may, just disperse, preserve your numbers, and regroup later. That is a long timeline. No "arena." Wait out your enemy, take your time. Use indirection.

The East is creative. No rigid mindsets. An example, from the Mongols, shows some of the most effective fighters in history. But they were flexible thinkers, not following some lockstep chivalry notions of the time. No code said that this group wore red, that group wore blue.

They used big or small groups as needed, faked withdrawals, set ruses, ambushed, and raided. See Medieval Warfare, Mongol tactics, at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_warfare#Mongols_in_the_West/.

So, Who is Civilized.

Go back to "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" review at://anthropology.net/user/kambiz_kamrani/reviews/genghis_khan_and_the_making_of_the_modern_world/

Learn how Genghis Khan won by following the basics: He

a) prepared and then
c) engaged, and then
c) followed-up.

See also://www.mongolianculture.com/Excerpts%20Jack%20Weatherford.htm.

Genghis Khan looks more civilized than we do, in terms of the planning, the use of good people in the subject peoples, having his own people ready to move in where the slots so required.

How does that apply to us?

Our world is different, and the same, at once.

Mongols: They were wise beyond our willingness to acknowledge, because they were invaders who won, and we want to downplay that. They are not religious extremists plotting against us, however, and we are not Medievals, or European Kings' armies limited by ideologies and behavior mindsets trapping our heads. We do have our own extremists in many areas, but the lessons for today escape the bounds of our usual mindset and strategy.

Genghis Kahn and others did not succeed for so long for nothing. Eastern warfare tactics. Eastern military strategy. Pragmatic, sensible, and it works. Don't waste your time on macho. Redefine strategy. Get what you want - no question. But you are permitted to bide your time. It is valid strategy, not weakness.

Torture.

And, the Mongols killed-slaughtered many, in gross ways; but they did not torture. Kill but no torture.

"The Mongols did not torture, mutilate or maim, but their enemies did." See://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h11mon.htm/ quoting from "Genghis Khan and the Mongols."

Do a "find" search for torture and the portion is there. We and our current adversaries are less honorable than the Mongols? FN1. People were killed brutally, in great masses. But the individual, tortured by another individual? No. Amazing. Read the book.

The culture: This site notes that the Mongols felt that God gave them the world, and that their intention was to be a colonizer of Europe, the barbarians.

Mongols introduced the concept of freedom of religion to Europe, and taxed the conquered people - the 10% looks like a tithe. The people retained rights, however. The Mongols were their overlords, but the people continued in place.

Later, the Roman church would initiate the tithe; but they held that unbelievers, heretics have no rights, and that set the stage for the Inquisition. See European History 1220-1289 at //www.telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/euro53.htm. That approach to the conquered, to declare them anathema, was foreign to the Mongols who would rather use their economic contributions than beat them down. Is that so?

B. Basil Liddell Hart

A British soldier in World War I. Developed theories of indirection in warfare, for infantry tactics. See ://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWliddel.htm/

Lessons:

Direct attacks do not work.
Use indirection.
Upset the enemy's equilibrium.

See biography at://www.spiritus-temporis.com/basil-liddell-hart/

These ideas from Genghis Khan and Basil Liddell Hart have been with us for centuries, and then decades. Shall we try them?