The Big Secret of Moses

Evil can incarnate in many forms, but arguably one of the most ferocious is the form of organized religion, or rather the form of monotheism. Since all things in the world have a beginning and an end, monotheism also has a beginning. And the end? Who knows...

Where did that nasty phenomenon begin, in whose head such an idea was initially conceived, or more importantly, who was the one who first transferred the idea from his head to reality, perhaps unaware of what evil it would unleash and blacken humanity? According to many sources, monotheistic (Abrahamic) religions have their roots in ancient Egypt and the trail leads to Pharaoh Amenophis IV (later he himself rebranded himself as Akhenaten - the Holy Spirit of Aten, because Aten = the solar disk). The ancient historians Manetho, Strabo, Tacitus and Lysimachus write about Moses as an Egyptian.

The Bible (Exodus) does not deny that Moses (or Moses, his Egyptian name in Greek) was in Egypt, and this is wrapped up in some story that as a baby of slaves he was adopted by an Egyptian princess(!?). For a baby of a slave to reach the Pharaoh's crown prince at that time...that seems a bit far-fetched, or better said - impossible.

There is also the hymn of Aten, very similar to certain Old Testament writings...Moreover, in what language are the Ten Commandments written at all? In what language did Yahweh send the commandments to Moses? The commandments, in themselves suspiciously similar to those that already existed in the Egyptian Book of the Dead...At that time there was no Hebrew script, and the only script that Moses could read and write in was Egyptian/hieroglyphics. The tales of `Paleo-Hebrew` appeared much later, to say the least.

Why would Yahweh send his message to the `chosen people` in a foreign language and script!?

History, at least according to Uncle Voltaire, is a consensus of accepted stories. One such story goes like this: There was an Egyptian pharaoh named Amenophis IV. He acted strangely, like a transgender person with a creepy oblong head. And despite that, he had an abnormally sexy wife. He was a pharaoh for a reason. He once had a brilliant idea of ​​how to more effectively control his subjects and expand his influence beyond Egypt. And the pharaoh invented the first monotheistic religion... And he renamed himself Akhenaten. And he built a new city dedicated to the new order called Amarna. One of the high priests of that new religion was a guy named Moses. But to the gods and the old priesthood of Amun, this new faith seemed very heretical.

And people gathered, led by General Horemheb, and decided to overthrow the pharaoh. And they overthrew him, with Akhenaten fleeing in an unknown direction, supposedly to Sinai and Lake Timash, from where, for a while, the stories called ``Exodus'' began to emanate. Akhenaten escaped because he escaped but left the throne to his son Tutankhaten, just in case.

Horemheb did not trust the maniac's son too much, he considered him a great traitor to his father and ordered his head to be smashed with a hammer. And so it was. He also ordered all the priests of the new faith to be liquidated and all their temples to be destroyed and the name of Aten to be erased forever. Due to the restoration of the old polytheistic religion, Aten is known as Tutankhamun, after the supreme deity of the old order - Amon-Ra. Horemheb himself sat on the throne and dedicated himself to repairing the consequences of Akhenaten's reign.

And everything would have been fine if among the few who escaped Horemheb's revenge was not one of the high priests of Aten - Moses. Among the broad masses known as Moses. He continued the spread of his mentor's new religion among the members of the poor and miserable desert-nomadic tribes later known under the common denominator - the Jews. Together with Aaron, his brother and sister Miriam. The rest is, as they say, history... Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, various other religions and sects based on Abraham and Moses continue the mission of their founder Akhenaten? Moses as a fugitive priest of Aton (for which there are still some thin historical foundations) is the one who leads the Jews to flee through the desert and gives them the revelation of God (Yahweh) that he received on the fortieth day on Mount Sinai (the commandments), after which the renegade becomes the central figure of the Old Testament.

The connection is broken somewhere between the god Yahweh and the god of the sun disk (Aton) who is similar to many other gods of suns and sun disks before him, with the difference that he is declared one, unique and true.The principle is the same, the god Vulcan among the Jews only replaces what the god of the sun disk in Amarna represented. Connections, influences and plagiarism from many other polytheistic religions cannot be ruled out either. Mithraism, Zoroastrianism and the Sumerian religion (Tammuz, Semiramis, Nimrod) all influenced the new desert religion of the Jews.

Interestingly, one theory about the `fusion` of the two deities unexpectedly comes from Sigmund Freud, who claimed that Moses was killed in a clash between various clans fighting for supremacy and that Yahweh was later added to Aten due to the influence of the clan that prevailed in the clash and which had its own local deity a.k.a. Yahweh. Later, supposedly, the people of Israel repented for the liquidation of Moses, one of the rare literate and wise people among the poor and primitive Jews of that time - and so the feeling of guilt and the expectation of a Savior who, in the name of Moses, would save the Jews from internal and external demons and fears found their way into history and created a bridge over which later the Rissians and the descendants of the cult of the Subjugation (Islam) - would bridge time and space and spread the evil that had emerged in Amarna throughout the world.

Moses, if nothing else, was a brilliant psychologist and manipulator of the masses, and he clearly knew the `secret`, convincing the people in a small group of insignificant desert tribes where he found himself after his escape - that they were somehow special, that the world could not do without them, that they were specially under the protection of the one God Akhenaten.

That they were chosen! That each one of them personally had a contract with Him (the creator of the universe) symbolized by the ancient Egyptian custom of creating a ring by cutting the skin that protects the head of the penis (yes, and that bizarre phenomenon is not originally Islamic or Jewish).

No one else but them and only them. And it worked. The same insignificant tribe endured much persecution under the belief that they were something special, chosen for some higher purpose, law of attraction, autosuggestion, call it whatever you want, it doesn't matter, that group of tribes has come a long way to this day when there is a Jewish state whose government is inclined to Apartheid, accumulation of enormous power on a global scale in the hands of some individuals - members of that religion but also a significant contribution to world science and art. And they started as lost in the desert, hungry, thirsty and desperate...the Jews did it. Romans later tried it and failed.

Because they diluted the idea that only one group could be chosen and tried to convey the `contract` of God throughout the Empire through the idea that it was valid for all humanity, through a compilation of various stories with Yeshua who came to the world to announce that new truth, that new revised `contract`. And if everyone is chosen - then the value of uniqueness is lost and all of this lacks the power of conviction and belief that exists if it is limited to a small, separate group that can perceive itself as 'chosen', in a world in which they would be only an insignificant numerical minority...as befits some who would be...'chosen'...

(Roger Mortis, 126)

The Morning War

War is perhaps the most horrible phenomenon to have arisen in the long eons of human existence. Lest the beginning of this banter turn out to be a dry joke in the style of `Mrs. Kennedy, if we leave aside the assassination for a moment, tell us how you liked the parade in Dallas` - I would like to refer to something more than lamenting about human suffering and material losses as something that is implied in every banter on the subject of War.

So if we really have to leave the listed evils aside - we will again come to the above conclusion that war is total crap because it is the biggest consumer of resources, mobilizes the entire economy for extremely destructive purposes, sucks up all the energy of the population and leaves tails that drag until Judgment Day and maybe some time after...But there are also those wars that, if we go by the logic of `choosing the lesser evil` - a person would want them, would even be happy if they had to go through a war on their life trajectory, and that war is the same or similar to the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896. To be precise, from August 1896. More precisely, from August 27, 1896. And most precisely from 09:00 to 09:45 in the morning according to the East African time zone.

At first glance, a joke that does not abound with humor - nevertheless, such a war that lasted 45 minutes happened and is a bizarre historical fact. As well as the fact of the existence of a state on the island of the same name called Zanzibar. Or the fact that this state the size of a coffee cup was put up against the greatest Empire that humanity has had the misfortune to experience - the British Empire of Queen Victoria of Hanover, compared to which the empires of the alleged bisexual from Pella, the extremely horny Mongol Khan, the Corsican dwarf or the monotesticular bearer of a funny mustache from Braunau am Inn - seem ridiculous and pathetic.

And how is it possible for such a thing as a war to last for a period of time that is barely enough for a person to spoil himself with a cup of coffee, a Marzipan cookie and quality Virginia tobacco?

Situated in a relatively important strategic position overlooking the competing Empire in its infancy, that of the Hohenzollerns and their Tanganyika (German East Africa) - the British imperial authorities had no objection to this island remaining independent as long as the Sultan came to the British Consulate in the City of Stone for a hand-kiss and a deep and humble obeisance. After the death of the last Sultan who was rational enough to bow as much as was asked of him, his successor named Khalid bin-Bargash had no such intention, so due to hereditary madness, due to a distorted perception of courage (or perhaps he was just 'caught' in the middle) and after ascending the throne on 25 August 1896 he broke the agreement according to which every Sultan upon ascending the throne must bow to the British Consul and inform him of his intentions.

Overcome with grandiosity, bin-Bargash decided to fight!

The next day the telegraph brought a 24-hour ultimatum, after which the British Royal Navy, at that time stronger than any two navies in the world combined, would enter the scene. What could Zanzibar defend itself with? Did it possess any super-weapons, could the mad Sultan bin-Bargash, on his part, summon the supernatural Demons of vengeance? To counter this superpower, the Zanzibar fleet had an old Frigate (at a time when frigates with combined steam and sail propulsion were already a relic of some long-gone era) called Glasgow (!?), perhaps because the Sultan was a fan of Celtic and perhaps even Rangers, although I doubt it. Apart from being a warship - it also served as a yacht for the needs of the pampered rulers of this small island. Other ships included one ocean-going merchant steamer (Nyanza), two coastal merchant steamers (Swordsman and Akola) and three small coastal steamers (Kiha, Esplorater and Barawa). Their purpose was to engage in trade, and for the needs of war they were extremely sparingly converted into so-called auxiliary cruisers by placing one or two cannons, a possible machine gun and a couple of infantry platoons with rifles on them.

The infantry could count on about 3,000 soldiers, a mixture of professional Sultan's guards, some real and many self-appointed officers, citizen volunteers who immediately signed up to defend their country, and the `cream` of this army was about 700 Askari, excellently trained Africans in colonial service of various empires. The artillery, in addition to two modern 75mm cannons, gifts from the neighboring ruler, the German Kaiser, and a dozen ancient cannons from the Napoleonic era with shot and black powder, also possessed at least one 9-barrel Gatling (those are those wonders that fire by turning a crank) and 6 modern Maxim machine guns, which were perhaps the most valuable inventory in this modest army.

The British reacted almost laconic, gathering the closest ships in the surrounding waters that had sufficient speed to arrive in time to enforce the ultimatum, led by the super-modern armored cruiser St. George of 7,500 tons - which in itself was incomparably stronger than the entire Zanzibar arsenal. The ad-hoc flotilla also included two light cruisers (Raccoon and Philomel) and two sloops (a small colonial patrol boat), Thrush and Sparrow. On them and on several merchant ships were also the landing forces with about 1,100 soldiers, of whom 900 were Askari and 200 members of the naval infantry (also known as `marines`). The ultimatum expired on the morning of 27.08.1896 at 09.00 and therefore the new Zanzibar government had a completely unforgettable 24 hours in which they tried to obtain recognition from foreign powers, rushing from consulate to consulate - they were rejected by the Americans and the Germans and the Portuguese... which means that they must have had a crazy night in anticipation of the British reaction. The Sultan, encouraged by the voices in his head, did not respond to the ultimatum at all...And the reaction was fierce and brutal, at the very minute of the deadline - the British ships opened fire on the Sultan's palace, the port and the Zanzibari ships, while simultaneously unloading the landing forces that rushed to protect their consulate, customs facilities (!?) and various key points around the city.

Encountering sporadic and extremely ineffective resistance, they achieved their goals in about thirty minutes. The comical Zanzibar artillery tried to shoot the British ships from the shore before being destroyed by the relatively accurate fire of the enemy. The naval ``battle`` was the most interesting moment, the frigate Glasgow opened fire on the St. George in a moment of unexpected courage. The first volley of the British was enough for the wooden Glasgow to be sunk and after about twenty minutes all the remaining Zanzibari ships were on the shallow bottom in front of the port. A memorable scene was the firing of Zanzibari sailors with rifles at the steel of the British ships...

Meanwhile, the palace was reduced to ruins, the 'domestic' Askaris powerless against the 'foreign' in the last attempt at defense, and the marines, supported by naval artillery, arrived because the British ships had already anchored in the harbor... and calmly, as if in practice, they were shooting at the opposing infantry. Reinforcements appeared on the streets from a company of 150 Sikhs, bearded turban-wearing and professional soldiers who were the last act that led to the unconditional surrender of the Zanzibari forces at 09.45.

The Sultan, whose true nature as a simple coward had predictably surfaced - terrified and hysterical, fled with fifty guardsmen to the German consulate. The British demanded extradition, but it was refused due to the high self-confidence of the German officials and because of the defiance of their colonial rival. A fortunate circumstance that saved the Sultan from the fate of Julian Assange was that the consulate was located on the very shore and the water was deep enough to allow a larger ship to enter, in this case the German light cruiser ``Zeadler`` which loaded the Sultan with the refugee retinue and took him to Dar es Salaam in front of the British fleet. However, the British remembered this character with particular resentment when the colony fell to them during the Great War in 1916. When Khalid bin-Bargash was imprisoned and later had the dubious honor of being exiled to the island of Saint Helena, the last refuge of the aforementioned Corsican dwarf. In his place was installed his relative Hamud bin-Mohammed, a legitimate Sultan, tailored to the needs of British interests. It was those dramatic 45 minutes that ended in an anticlimactic and without a heroic last-ditch defense of their sacred land by a mentally unstable ruler.

Certainly the shortest war in recorded history, this event will remain more famous than many larger and extremely bloody conflicts for its bizarreness and unusualness and for its convenience in finding itself on various Top Ten lists and historical curiosities. What will not be remembered is that the 45-minute quest for glory by a moronic government cost 540 dead, wounded and missing persons, all glorious sons of Zanzibari, ignorant enough to lay down their lives for...what? Well, for nothing, thanks for asking. As did millions of others around the world.

British casualties were - one wounded sailor...

(Roger Mortis, 125)

Ode to Resen

It must be admitted that the content dealing with the municipality of Resen is extremely rare and scarce in the media space in the Republic of Hunzistan, which I personally find scandalous and unacceptable for a serious society! In order to take the first step towards correcting that omission, I am ready to make my humble contribution through this blog post...

Resen is a town of some 9,000 inhabitants and is located in the Prespa region, right on the Bitola-Ohrid road, right where the cobblestones of the old road end and the asphalt begins. Not much is known about this settlement, except for the speculation that apples grow in the neighborhood and that there is some kind of lake in the immediate vicinity. The founders of Resen apparently were not the brightest people because they did not found the city on the coast but in the middle of the desert.

The Ohrid-Bitola journey (and vice versa) carries its own inevitability, and that is passing through Resen. Unless you go through Galichica, but that road in winter is more suitable for training Kamikazes than for normal traffic. I wouldn't swear that the mountain road makes entering Resen unnecessary, I'm just giving an assumption based on old memories...In Resen, in addition to people and pets, there are also insects. Cars, trucks and buses, mostly on four wheels, move along the streets. Cars have turn signals and license plates - numbers. It is possible to spot a moped and a scooter. At night, the city lights are turned on in the streets and smoke can be seen from the chimneys of the houses. The houses have doors, windows and firewood in the yards.

The most famous building is the Bey's Palace, which looks bizarre in the city itself, as if someone had plastered it from somewhere into some new, unnatural environment. I've heard that they used to make beautiful chocolates in Resen, and the most famous product that came out of there is the iconic Resana (Resen=Resana, I got it...), a sandwich cookie made of dough and jelly with a microscopic layer of chocolate, known in the "Anglo" world as Jaffa cake.

I don't know what kind of nightlife there is in Resen, what are the places where the youth hang out and what this city offers its residents in terms of work, careers, health, literature, sports, glamour... because I have never had the opportunity to physically set foot there, I have always been present only through the window of a bus or car and never more than five to ten minutes, which you will agree is too short to gain a new experience, even in a city that does not promise much in terms of new experiences more significant than listening to static on TV...

(Roger Mortis, 124)

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines

It's time for an afternoon rant and suddenly a vague thought about flying takes shape through the synapses of the brain. But not of flight of facy or the flight of feathered creatures but of people. And there it goes... Flying with the mind is one of the oldest human habits. Man has been flying with his mind for thousands of years until one gloomy October day in 1783 when the transition from mental to real flying finally took place and it was thanks to two brothers known as Montgolfier who, against the advice and forecasts of `well-intentioned` citizens and villagers - managed to soar into the heavens with the help of a lighter-than-air aircraft (known as a Balloon). The heavens, until then reserved for birds, angels and archangels - were finally open to human presence.

After 120 years of dominance by balloons and airships, the first heavier-than-air aircraft appeared on the scene, paving the way for what we know today as air transport. Especially aviation, because airships, or as the world likes to call them by their generic name, Zeppelins, ruled the skies during the early days of the airplane. Basically huge bags filled with hydrogen, slow and cumbersome, they were the way aviation reached its first customers who needed faster travel than by train or ship. Perhaps the most revolutionary form of transport ever to appear is air transport. The speed and range, combined with relative comfort and unparalleled safety, put this form of transport in a whole new category.

Officially in 1903 and the Wright brothers, unofficially in 1901 and Gustav Weisskopf, the realization of the age-old dream of humanity to soar into the sky without any religious connotations began. The speed of development of civil aviation is spectacular. Only less than a decade after the first official flight of an airplane in the world, in 1911 - the French pilot and designer Louis Bleriot built the first purpose-built passenger aircraft with a closed cabin for four passengers, the Bleriot-24.

In 1913, the first multi-engine passenger aircraft of Igor Sikorsky appeared, called the Roskiy Vityaz only as a stepping stone towards the first serially produced passenger aircraft `Ilya Muromets` which carried 16 passengers in a comfortable cabin, but the tsarist bureaucrats had no idea about the new miracle of technology and the eventual opening of an airliner. Later, the aircraft was converted into a bomber and used on the Eastern Front during the Great War.

The end of World War I left hundreds of heavy bombers no longer in service and thousands of pilots out of work. Ambitious pioneers on both sides of the Atlantic saw the opportunity to create a new type of transport, the first airlines were founded, military aircraft were converted into passenger or postal aircraft and a huge number of pilots found work. Later, the first ``flight attendants`` appeared, initially men, later women. British pilots Alcock and Brown in 1919 were the first to fly across the Atlantic in a Vickers Vimy adapted bomber (no, Charles Lindbergh was not the first) thus indicating the possibility of intercontinental travel. The passenger plane E-4 of the Zeppelin-Stacken company from 1919 is one of those products that was so ahead of its time that the then world was confused and failed to find a suitable purpose for it. Of course, the fact that Germany was in chaos at the time didn't help at all...

Airports at that time were just slightly flatter meadows than usual, with few concrete or asphalt runways, which limited the use of aircraft in bad weather. This situation gave rise to the golden age of seaplanes, gigantic machines for transoceanic flights that could carry more passengers than their land-based competitors and could land at any port.

Later, as a result of the massive construction of asphalt and concrete airports during World War II, seaplanes gradually disappeared from the routes, giving way to increasingly sophisticated passenger airliners. From that era, it is also worth mentioning the legendary Douglas DC-3 (also known by its military designation C-47 Dakota), ubiquitous with its simple elegance, ease of maintenance and the general sympathetic impression it leaves on everyone, from a savage in the rainforests of New Guinea who founded a new religion (Cargo Cult) because of the twin-engine `Dakota`, considering it a deity (!?) to the rank and file who were professionally engaged in flying. Dozens of examples still fly on regular routes or serve as military transports around the world today, some eighty years after the flight of the first prototype.

With the arrival of the jet age and the British De Havilland Comet in 1949, the time required for travel was halved. Routes that would have taken weeks and months to travel by ship began to be covered in a few hours or at most a day, things unthinkable before the advent of flying machines. From then until today, there have been several directions in which passenger aviation has moved. The first is an increase in the number of passengers, larger and more spacious aircraft are being built, the Boeing B-747 and today's Airbus A-380 represent the pinnacle in this regard.

The second is economy, new turbofan engines with lower consumption are being introduced, the wing profiles and ``winglets'' on the wing tips play a role in reducing fuel consumption, and low-cost companies also enter the scene, which usually have a uniform fleet of one type of aircraft (Ryan Air uses exclusively B-737s for example) saving on everything and landing at secondary airports. The third is the safety of the flight where excellent results have been achieved and today this type of transport is the safest on the planet, in terms of kilometers traveled vs. victims.

The fourth is the speed where unfortunately there are no major changes, the level is still at the aforementioned Comet from the post-WW2 period, the only aircraft - the exception was the Franco-British Concorde, a supersonic aircraft that flew on regular routes at 2,200 km per hour. Arguably the sexiest thing in the world aside from a woman, this pearl of applied design and triumph of aerodynamics was withdrawn from service in 2003.

And that would be almost three centuries after the first idea for air travel. Air transport was first conceived by a fugitive Portuguese priest in 1709. It ended up in a madhouse, which was an expected reaction of the world at the time regarding flying anything unforeseen by the deities on duty. The blueprints of his airship still exist, and his tragic fate was only the first victim on the path to a new world whose contours were vaguely outlined in the priest's ingenious head...

(Roger Mortis, 123)

Militarism

Walking down the alley that led to the village joint, the son of Ravna Gora and the son-in-law of Istria, Zvonimir Rantović, heard something that the more optimistic would define as a hum. The current repertoire was `If you knew Peggy Su tralalala i love you, oh Peggy hey Peggy Sue` and the performer was Andy Banter, a former resident of Brighton and today a locally recognized authority in the field of military tactics and global strategy, an occasional metal turner in civilian life. Sitting uncomfortably in the rickety chairs in front of the table and not expecting service from the waiter who was rumored to have already taken on a spiritual form, the two acquaintances and potential brothers poured themselves some Antifreeze, diluted with water, and in about thirteen minutes they were already on their way to analyzing the latest world militaristic trends by evoking old memories.

``And so I tell you, Iraq was a great world power, according to some the fourth strongest army in the world...'' Zvone began.

``Of course not, fourth in the world? Nonsense,'' Andy interjected.

``You don't have to believe me, you can find an edition of Jane's Defense Review in the library's ruins and see the figures. They confirm what I'm talking about,'' Zvonimir replied.

``So... how is it possible for such a large army to collapse like a house of cards in such a short time?'' Andy asked.

``That's because of the paradox, my friend. There is a paradox, they can be weak and strong at the same time. Let me explain what the difference is. Iraq was undoubtedly a great conventional military power.

But when the clash came, the Iraqi army was crushed in a couple of weeks, and the heavy losses of the coalition and the new puppet Iraqi government did not come in 2003 during the invasion and clash with the fourth army in the world, but came later, during the encounter with the Riff-raff, lame and crippled, young and old, a guerrilla amalgam in which there was everything and anything, at least conventional logic.

A similar case was with that...North Korea. They also had a huge, massive, fat and greasy conventional army that would have been phenomenal in 1959, let's say. In both cases there was something in common, and that was the rapid collapse of the conventional North army during the Second Korean War. In both 1991 and 2003, the regular Iraqi army, one of the most numerous in the world - experienced a debacle of incredible proportions. All the announcements of long resistance, secret weapons and super-special units have burst like a soap bubble.

It is not known how many Iraqi recruits died in 1991, mountains of corpses and destroyed equipment, aimless sacrifice of young lives along the entire line of the daily fluid front line. A similar scenario occurred in 2021, in the war on the Korean Peninsula. In 2003, the Iraqi aviation did not even take off. They refused to sacrifice themselves at all, having learned from the death of many colleagues in 1991. Just like in the case of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999 when the pilots of the MiG-21 and Orao did not even take off, except for a few incidental cases, those who fought were on the MiG-29 which theoretically should have been modern enough for resistance...but then...it wasn`t.

Which is a good thing to some extent, it shows that there are fewer and fewer fools in the world, characters who would sacrifice themselves in a fireball in the sky. And what can we say about those poor guys who suffered in outdated aluminum cans of Soviet and Chinese origin in 2021. There is a certain sentimentality in that act, a young pilot taking off in a MiG-19 to fight a southern F-15K, something like a blind and deaf Mongoloid slowly climbing into the ring against Mike Tyson...' Zvonko burst into a monologue, obviously warmed by antifreeze.

'If someone uninformed listens to you, they will think that the Alliance forces had a picnic during that war,' Mr. Banter interrupted his friend.

'Well, now, it's not exactly that...' Zvonimir tried to reply.

But in vain, because Andrew was already getting into the rhythm.

He continued: `The Allies had three options: to bypass the Demilitarized Zone along the 38th parallel with the help of naval landings supported by air, the second was the nuclear option, and the third was a breakthrough through the DMZ. The first option is not only impossible but would be suicidal, because despite the relatively rapid destruction of the northern aviation, navy, and armored forces, the very operation of landing a huge number of troops on the enemy coast and attempting to establish a bridgehead would have brought unacceptably many casualties even for a militaristic culture like the one that was dominant in the United States.

The third option, an attack through the DMZ preceded by creating a "hole" in the defense line and possibly penetrating inland, is something that even the combined US-South Korean army would not be able to accomplish without endless streams of C-130 transport planes taking off from Suwon or Inchon to the US full of tin crates. And they look bad on TV. First of all, because North Korea is not Iraq on two grounds, the relief (terrain) and the lack of the possibility of generating an internal `fifth column` as was the case with Iraq (Kurds, Shiites, various opportunists, tribal strife). And that would deprive the Americans of the great advantages they enjoyed in Iraq. The similarity was in the number of inhabitants fit for military service and in the military equipment, although Iraq also had some Western hardware.

Therefore, a fourth option appeared in the minds of the military strategists from the Pentagon, similar to the one from 1999 and the attacks on the FRY when aviation and the navy were supposed to be the decisive factor. And after the Tomahawks, laser and GPS-guided bombs, Mavericks, bunker busters, AWACS, Sidewinders and other high-tech equipment seriously "softened" the regular Bolshevik dynastic army to the point that it began to disintegrate, thus enabling a quick landing on the northern coast by the Alliance - the formation of guerrillas followed and the good old, boring, easy-to-use and deadly AK, PKS, Dragunov, RPK, IED and a number of other low-tech weapons entered the scene, which from Somalia onwards (the most shocking example being Hezbollah vs. Israel 2006) heralded a new paradigm in warfare that was on the way to revolutionizing it, new tactical systems that brought serious surprises.

Then, the surprise was double, the new system meant a step back in technological terms, and this was the result of the lack of an effective strategy for anti-guerrilla warfare (counter-insurgency) because for half a century, Western strategists were obsessed with the possible Soviet breakthrough through the Fulda Pass and the vast masses of Soviet tanks on their way to the English Channel, which then normally made sense and brought them great success in conducting conventional proxy wars. Technology became too successful for conventional warfare and too big a failure for an asymmetric collision. And excessive reliance on high technology meant death for thousands of dusters. Not that the Americans didn't understand this, but developing anti-guerrilla technology would bring incomparably less profit to the military-industrial complex compared to pushing conventional equipment. $250 million for a piece of F-35, seriously? And the dustmen Hank from Alabama and Jose from New Mexico were expendable anyway, so no problem there...`

`You're absolutely right Andy,` Mr. Rantovic quietly admitted.

And he added: `Maybe they should have played it safe. Organic actions on strategic targets and after a few weeks or months of `pumping` followed by letting the propaganda dogs off the chain - pictures on the half-dead CNN of some ruins that will be claimed to be northern nuclear plants, the `threat` is eliminated and the world is once again confident in democratic values, all packaged with appropriate phraseology and iconography. Proof of the `barbaric communist atrocities` wouldn't have to be fabricated anyway, the multitude of ruins in Seoul, which was quite close enough for the northern heavy artillery, the corpses of civilians, the lobotomy, patriotism and the repeated victory of capitalism would have received a new focus.`

`And I wanted to visit Seoul so much while it still existed,` Andy said quietly...

`I had a plan to pay for an arrangement to visit Pyongyang, I've always been attracted to morbidly exotic places. But what's here is... the last I heard is that now there were vast pastures in that place where herds of wild cattle grazed, often chased by mutated Tigers.`, Zvone mentioned.

`Eh... you and I are serious idiots, buddy.` Andy concluded.

`I know,` Zvonimir confirmed.

`As if our place is any better than Seoul or Pyongyang. It has suffered fewer Megatons than some other places, but it is still far from a tourist magnet...

"Tourists..." grinned Mr. Banter, "I haven't heard that word in a long time... and I probably won't for a long time. Maybe some of our descendants will reintroduce it, if they survive. If they do... if...well blydichfudgoss," Andy was interrupted mid-sentence by a violent vomiting.

Zvone instinctively turned his gaze, which found focus as he stared at a torn advertising poster that had once advertised a career as a professional soldier in some army.

(Roger Mortis, 122)

Comrade Santa

In the days to come, members of various Christian denominations will give their children Christmas and New Year gifts, in keeping with a holiday tradition that originated in pagan times and that even the most zealous Russian communists have failed to eradicate. But what few people know is that the very figure of the bearer of the specific packages and toys for the children, the cheerful white-bearded old man - known in the Western world as Santa Claus - is actually a Soviet incarnation of an old pagan myth of the ancient Slavs. That pagan myth spoke of Santa Claus (Grandfather Frost) who, at the end of the year, brings gifts to the poor and unfortunate.

As one religion replaces another, so do the holidays. So it was in Amarna... and so it is today. The old pagan customs, in all regions where Russianism became the state religion - were simply replaced by Russian plagiarisms of the same. The previous holidays grouped around the winter solstice became Christmas, that is, a totally invented date of the alleged birth of the savior Yeshua, later known as Jesus.

The new religion of Bolshevism, which appeared on the scene in the Land of the Soviets, did not deviate from this practice either. The authorities of the new state promoted the calendar start of the New Year as a new holiday, a counterpart to Christmas. And they completely succeeded in doing so, because in the following decades, at least in the areas where this religion flourished - the New Year completely overshadowed Christmas in the perception of the citizenry. Even today, despite a kind of religious revival that has been going on for a quarter of a century - the New Year is still experienced as a far more cheerful and significant event than Christmas.

The new holiday also needed an appropriate anthropomorphic symbol, a cool character. The Soviet apparatchiks, driven by creativity - came up with their own version of the evil bourgeois Santa Claus. It was Santa Claus, a mixture of the pagan myth of Dedushka Maroz and the new Soviet aesthetics. Suddenly, a proletarian pensioner appears who distributes gifts to children during New Year's Eve. He wears the same color but somehow simpler clothes than his Western counterpart, he does not have a reindeer and a carriage but moves on foot, his gifts are more modest and he does not put them in a stocking intended for such a purpose. He arrives six days late, unlike his competitor, in order to make the children happy. Santa Claus is an urban character who moves between the new boulevards, factory chimneys, apartment blocks and trolleybus stops, unlike Santa... who remained a rural phenomenon.

It is interesting that among the paradises of Eastern Europe this character is still incredibly popular even though he is a mixture of atheistic-Soviet propaganda and pagan myth. Unlike McDonald's and 90210 - this time the Western brand did not manage to suppress the Eastern one. And is there a better way to convey the festive joy of one of the greatest religious holidays - than an old Soviet atheist-slash-pagan dressed in red...bringing gifts to the little Russians?!

С новим годом!

(Roger Mortis, 121)

Cobwebs

One of the eternal questions that has never received a complete answer is the question of the relationship of individuality in the context of collective belonging. Or of the collective in relation to individuality, depending on how this dichotomy has been viewed throughout the centuries.

Are these mutually exclusive categories or is coexistence still possible? Perhaps personal identity has always been a victim of the expectations of the collective, of imposed obligations and most often of the struggle for bare survival? Although individuality as a concept is totally worn out from use within what some would call `Western civilization`, at least since the Renaissance times - the concept has never been here to be taken seriously, more like a `bench player` who exists only to be used in time-wasting at the end of the match, some idea that is marketed to fill pages or media dead from`.

Why, in the name of the Morning Star, would individuality be an obstacle to survival? Because it is seen as a threat to the existing community. Because it requires great self-sacrifice without any guarantees of anything. Or because individuality is difficult. It is difficult to build and difficult to maintain. It involves building your own mosaic of interests, perspectives, attitudes, views, values, perceptions - which are acquired throughout life based on your own experiences.

And that is not so simple, a simple declaration of individuality does not mean much. Just as declaring yourself a Samurai will not make you a Samurai. It takes time that heaven does not have, it takes a desire that heaven does not have and it also takes some minimal ability for logical reasoning, a characteristic that is almost completely absent around...On the other hand, individuality should not be confused with a lone wolf character. Individuality is not synonymous with asociality.

The individual (if individuality exists outside the head at all) could, by choice, cooperate with others and voluntarily organize themselves in groups with which they share a common interest (free association) without being forced to do so in already existing ones, if they do not suit them or if they do not share a common interest with their members. Since this is impossible, and it seems that it will be impossible for at least a few more centuries - the content of the gray mass remains as the only place where individuality is still possible. It is much easier for a person to become part of the mass, of the already offered matrices, of the collective. It is certainly comfortable. Socialization, acceptance and approval from the mass are understood by default. Suddenly a person sees that people act as if they appreciate him, as if he is accepted and valued.

For such a mass grouping to exist, there must be predetermined, nebulous, vague and general categories of which the individual would believe that he is a part. Nothing concrete and clear, just cheap mysticism painted in tribal colors with appropriate symbolism. That's why it's easy to be part of imaginary communities. The brain, along with the sense of morality and ethics, creativity and one's own essence - can be freely let out to pasture - without it interfering with the survival of the member of such a group. The group imposes on the inertia, laziness and inertia of the individual.

The conflict between these two concepts is inevitable. As is inevitable is social isolation and the low probability of bare physical survival of the individual who would dare to bring his soul out into the light of day. That's why its place is in the dark attics full of cobwebs, far from the eyes of the world, in the last place one would think to look, in the depths of the night, in the arms of imposed shame...

(Roger Mortis, 120)

On Chetniks, Ustasha and Nipponofiles

That nations are social constructs has long been a known and unpleasant fact. The mechanism that makes millions of people identify themselves as members of a certain nation is a mystery. Even greater is the mystery when self-declared members of a certain nation - have sympathies or antipathies towards some other nation, or when those simple emotions escalate to the point of open love or hatred...Emotions (and not reason) are the core of the collective identity of the people, be it secular or religious...and in all those identifications only emotions are hidden, and those are the terrible ones. Fear, above all.

Do not seek and do not expect rationality because it does not exist within the framework of collective belonging, mostly because nations are artificially arbitrary constructs and to a large extent ethnicities as well. It is not even worth wasting words on religious affiliations in that regard. The emergence of sympathy and even identification with a nation in which the individual was not `born` is probably because he feels inferior as a member of `his` nation...and thinks that by affiliation with another nation he will be better off. Especially if it is a larger nation, as is the case with Russophilia or Americanophilia.

Why would a member of a certain nation feel inferior at all? So let's take a Macedonian, a Serbian, a Bulgarian or an Albanian, they all see that their nation is insignificant on the world stage, poor standard, poor life, nothing significant in terms of art or science...eventually if some incidental sports success or semi-success happens, only then would they feel like part of something `significant`, a larger day-life situation that will take them away from their individual insignificance and throw them into the collective ecstasy of identification with someone's individual success that is experienced as personal. Extremely irrational, foolish and infantile, but at the same time a sad reality...

In all that chaos there are some rules, let's say Russophilia appears because of the Cyrillic alphabet, Orthodoxy, Slavicism, power (real and imagined), technological progress (completely imagined in this case), in rarer cases because of some Russian writers from the distant past, the Bolshoi Theater, etc. or a little bit of all of that, in that mess in the head there is something that the individual feels as `theirs`, recognizable, `ours`...with makebelief as a pillar of perception. It often occurs in retirees or in people who were raised by retirees.

With Americanophiles (I don't know if it's the right expression but it doesn't matter) it's clear - after all, it's about the dominant empire and cultural dominance in all fields, we all say hi and bye and no shit, no one says goodbye, much less sayonara or a random Mandarin word for a random thing. That's that hegemony, whether we like it or not. Our grandfathers grew up with westerns and musicals, it's been present for a long time, and John Wayne and Gary Cooper and the silicone sex bombs, it's about generations of people subjected to the influence of American mass culture... although not a more rational phenomenon than Russophilia, it's still a shade more logical. In addition to the aforementioned `philias`, there is also the occasional Anglophile, Francophile, Germanophile, perhaps Italianophile or admirer of all things Japanese (Nipponophile!?)

Which is somewhat understandable despite being bizarre. If we are guided by outdated and false ideas about `national` cultures and influences, and for the purposes of this post we can let our brains `identify` a little - the need to `root` for a certain `nation` that still means something in the world is understandable. What is less understandable, and even borders on absurdity, are the outbursts of Serbomania, Bulgarophilia and, less often, Greekomania - phenomena where identity is redirected towards equally weak and insignificant matrices that have nothing to offer more than the original affiliation itself. This is worrying for the members of that nation (I wonder what that nation could be?) because they feel so worthless and inferior that they identify with their neighbors' worthless identities.

Perhaps it is a matter of relapses, influences from the past, because in the race to invent nations in the 18th/19th century, the Russian paradise under Ottoman slavery in the Balkans began to divide into nations, and by chance, the groups of people who identified themselves as Serbs, Greeks and somewhat later Bulgarians - invented nations before the group of people who would identify themselves as Macedonians did, and thus had a head start for propaganda...And where individuality is subordinated to the collective, where belonging to oneself and to the people who mean something to you in real life - is replaced by belonging to invented communities - there evil is born, hatred, and in the end irrationality triumphantly dances over millions of dead people...which means almost the entire planet Earth, sans Antarctica.

(Roger Mortis, 119)

When Jaguars roamed the Streets

In the endless kaleidoscope of statist-induced disasters, morbid fascination often lingers on mega-maniacal images and scenes, those of Hitler and the `Final Solution`, Stalin and the `Gulag Archipelago`, Mao with the `Great Leap Forward` or Cortes with the `New World` campaign. But there are also less exposed but equally or even more horrific images like those of Pol Pot`s `Killing Fields`, the private estate of evil of Leopold II of Belgium or the megalomania of Francisco Solano López.

Who the fuck is Francisco Solano López?

This is a historical footnote of a footnote, a forgotten son of a bitch and a psychopath of the highest order who nevertheless had behind him an incredible achievement, which was the almost complete depopulation of the territory over which he had power, as dictator of Paraguay from 1862 to 1870. Coming to power as a unanimous choice of the Paraguayan Congress at the age of 32, after the death of his father Carlos - Francisco was the latest freak in a long line of rulers who had ruled this South American republic almost dynastically since it gained independence from Spain. Francisco would have remained a classic Latin dictator with all the stereotypical attributes if he had not traveled around Europe in his youth. Those travels and visits to various metropolises infected him with the virus of grandiosity. Especially Paris with the still fresh memories of the great military leader, Napoleon Bonaparte - was crucial for the young heir to enter into a serious militaristic mania.

Paraguay was founded as a result of Jesuit missionary efforts to create a functional society that would be a mixture of local Indian traditions and the `input` of new colonists who believed in an earthly paradise. Although probably unique in their sincerity and courage to follow in the footsteps of Jesus in the `new world`, to treat the natives as equals and even to `procreate and multiply` together - the Jesuit `acolytes` around the Paraguay and Paraná rivers were unable to avoid the fate of almost all newly created states in the first wave of decolonization (the one in Latin America in the early 19th century). And it was a dry one - almost everywhere local oligarchs and large landowners with their dictatorial dynasties came to power.

That fate also befell Paraguay, and the peak of madness would follow in one of the most bizarre wars since the dawn of civilization to this day - known as the `War of the Triple Alliance` or more simply `The Paraguayan War`. After decades of pushing extreme nationalism, chauvinism and jingoism, reinforced by extreme militarization of society and the building of the armed forces, all mixed with delusional situations (the proclamation of a Navy in a country that...is landlocked, for example) and dreams of glorious military leadership - the result came by itself. Those were 90,000 soldiers (in a country with an estimated 850,000 inhabitants!?) ready for action. All that was waiting was a spark that would ignite the madness.

And that spark naturally ignited. But as luck would have it - it happened in the near-neighboring Uruguay where there was an internal conflict due to an attempt by pseudo-liberals to stage a coup d'état, supported by the Brazilian government. The conservative government in Montevideo was helped by the Paraguayan government because the delusion of becoming a regional factor was in full swing in the head of Senor Lopez. Usually such a conflict of interests is left to the domain of diplomacy, but Lopez had no intention of relying on diplomats, so the man was hardly waiting for an occasion to start transforming into Guarani-Napoleon! The Brazilian authorities sent military aid to the pseudo-liberal side in the conflict in Uruguay, and the state of Argentina also got involved in the story, also on the side of the pseudo-liberals because after all it was a matter of chaos in the Rio de la Plata and not somewhere far away.

Uruguay's conservative leader was overthrown in a mix of coup and foreign intervention, forcing the "trump card" of official Asuncion to emerge out of the woodwork...And so, "surprised and offended" by the interference of the Brazilian government in what he perceived as his domain of interests, Lopez decided to show his teeth. Since Brazilian forces did not pay much attention to Lopez's ultimatums, on November 12, 1864, a Brazilian ship sailing on the Paraguay River was forcibly seized. Tensions were growing and on December 14 of the same year - the Paraguayan state declared war on Imperial Brazil! About 10,000 soldiers supported by river warships entered Mato Grosso, the most backward of all the backward Brazilian provinces. There are places in Mato Grosso that have not been visited by a humans to this day. The infrastructure was non-existent, communications were not even a afterthought - the only blood supply was the rivers and their tributaries. But there were several fairly profitable diamond and gold mines. The Paraguayans wisely bypassed the capital Cuiaba and after several unequal battles in which they defeated the Brazilian soldiers and volunteers - they became masters of part of Mato Grosso, the ultimate neverland of South America.

The next step in the construction of the new empire was to arrange the situation in Uruguay in their favor. Francisco López decided on a military invasion in order to restore power to his `trump card` and for this purpose requested the passage of 20,000 soldiers through Argentine territory to reach Uruguay. As expected, the request was refused, a fact that greatly angered the quick-tempered Francisco who therefore declared war on Argentina and in April 1865 began an offensive towards the northeast of Argentina. At first, everything seemed rosy, the Paraguayan army was winning victories and in addition to Mato Grosso it also held a significant territory in Argentina. Meanwhile, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay signed a military alliance, hence the name of the war itself...

The combined forces of the three armies finally managed to hold off the Paraguayan units in the bloody battle of Yatay in the Corrientes region, Argentina. There, López suffered a heavy defeat and it seemed that the war would be short-lived. But López did not think so, leaving an entire Corps to defend the acquired territories in the Uruguayan region. That unit was surrounded by the allies and after several bloody months of constant attacks, the Paraguayans surrendered, tormented by hunger, disease and lack of ammunition. More Allied soldiers died due to the chaotic three-tier command system and the imbecilic incompetence of the command staff than due to Guarani heroism. The Brazilian government decided that the moment was right to return to Mato Grosso and sent several thousand soldiers to launch a counterattack. After a hard journey by river and through fierce jungles, decimated by disease and fatigue, the Brazilian units met only sporadic resistance. The reason for this was that thousands of Paraguayan soldiers had already died of malaria, typhus and cholera, some had retreated to Paraguayan territory, and only a few fortified outposts remained, a minor problem for the Brazilian army. Naturally, after regaining Mato Grosso, the Brazilian government launched an invasion of Paraguay itself. But there they were met by newly mobilized and fresh troops of the `genius` López, who easily managed to stop the invaders.

The turning point of the war was the Battle of Riachuelo in June 1865, a river battle with warships and a simultaneous land confrontation that ended in disaster for the Paraguayan `Navy`. The Brazilians, already superior in river warfare, also dragged a bloody steam Frigate (!?) from the Atlantic to the Paraná River, an undertaking suitable for a Werner Herzog film adaptation. Control of the Paraná, which was a major artery of military logistics, gave the Allies the initiative for the rest of the war. After that victory, the allies with about 60,000 soldiers invade Paraguay. In the initial fighting, the hosts manage to hold off the invaders at the cost of great casualties. But the end was Nigh, nevertheless. In the new situation, dictator Lopez shows modest signs of rationality and in September 1866 he calls a peace conference. Francisco's period of lucidity lasts only until the conference itself, at which he rejects all the proposals of the allies and the war continues...

And the winds of war have their whims that are paid for with new and new victims, suffering and agony. Immediately after the unsuccessful conference, the allies continue their offensive through Paraguay despite fierce resistance and heavy losses. The unexpected battle of Curupaiti takes place, a relatively well-fortified position that the allied forces are attacking. A total debacle ensued for the Allies, especially the Brazilian Imperial Army, in one of the most humiliating defeats in modern military history. Paraguay lost 54 dead and 68 wounded, while the Allies lost around 4,500 dead and an unknown number of wounded, missing and deserted soldiers. The Paraguayans did not accept white flags but killed everything that moved, thus committing a brutal war crime...Under 'normal' circumstances, such a catastrophe would have changed the course of the war in favor of the victor - but in this case that was unlikely. Due to the losses and the small reserve fund of male military personnel, the Paraguayan government began to recruit anything with a pair of testicles, from 14 to 70 years old, the more lightly wounded were hastily `patched up` and sent to the front, and even women also appeared on the battle lines.

The Allies had at least 30 times more population than Paraguay, access to the sea and the possibility of purchasing weapons and equipment. Paraguay was surrounded and without any way to purchase anything. The Brazilian river fleet controlled all the rivers and tributaries and slowly but surely the Allies conquered part by part of Paraguay. Strange but true - the Paraguayan `patriots` often fought to the last man, inflicting heavy losses on the aggressors. However, this was only a postponement of the inevitable...Exactly on New Year's Day, January 1, 1869, Asuncion also fell. The Allies began to celebrate the end of the war and the final victory...but that was not how Lopez and part of the army thought, who retreated through the countryside and began a guerrilla campaign.

With no more adult soldiers to mobilize, Paraguayan officers recruited children between the ages of 12 and 15, whose beards and mustaches were drawn with charcoal to make them look 'adult', and as a substitute for rifles, they were given knives, axes, pitchforks, sticks, hammers...and carved pieces of wood in the shape of rifles, painted to give the illusion that they were real rifles. It is not known whether they seriously expected that the experienced Allied soldiers would be fooled by the wooden rifles, but in any case, it must be taken into account that the madness had already taken deep roots, more than in many other wars. Despair (the Hitler Youth level in April 1945) was a sad and futile thing - but it stopped the Allies for a moment. Lopez managed to gather about 25,000 children, old people and women in an attempt to make a last mega-heroic last stand with which he would achieve a new peace conference. Several battles and several defeats later, the unlucky Paraguayan Bonaparte was encircled in a village in March 1870. with less than 300 soldiers. Refusing to surrender, although wounded - he personally led the last suicidal attack. Lopez, unlike his idol - fell on the battlefield perforated by bullets, which ended the career of the undoubtedly brave although not the brightest dictator who started a war against three countries simultaneously.

Less than a month after Lopez's death - the war was over. And the consequences, taken in percentage terms, exceed those of Pol Pot's ``Year Zero'' and those of Leopold II's ``Congo Free State.'' Paraguay lost part of its territory, but was allowed to continue to ``state''. At the peak of its success, the Paraguayan state had an army of 150,000 soldiers, which is on the limit of the possible, if you don't know what was meant by ``soldier.'' It was a collection of males from 12 to over 70 years old, the wounded hastily patched up and the ill, and even women! The following year after the end of the war, a census was conducted that showed 220,000 inhabitants, of which only 29,000 were adult men over 18! This means that Francisco Solano Lopez and his junta lost three quarters of the total population of their country, and the ratio of adult men to women immediately after the war was almost 5:1 in favor of women!

The figure of 630,000 dead does not include the newborns from 1864-1871 who died of starvation, disease, and infection. The Allies lost at least 100,000 soldiers and civilians, making the final toll, while elusive, certainly over 750,000 dead, eclipsing the American Civil War that was being fought simultaneously to the north and making the Paraguayan War the bloodiest in the modern history of the Pan-American continent. Some historians argue that Paraguay has never fully recovered from that war to this day. Allied soldiers recounted apocalyptic scenes around Asunción in the twilight of the conflict. Jaguars, creatures extremely reluctant to expose themselves in urban environments, feasted on the wounded and sick in the streets. Packs of dogs dragged the corpses of children, leaving a bloody trail through the dusty alleys of the statist center.

I don't believe there is a greater symbol of total catastrophe than a scene in which Jaguars of all creatures are roaming around, attracted by the scent of death, nonchalantly moving down the street and choosing their victims. For weeks and months there was no one to bury the corpses that rotted in the hot sun, attracting biblical scenes through the infestation of insects and rodents. And those men who survived were walking skeletons, scarred faces, mutilated shadows staggering listlessly in an unknown direction, mental ruins powerless to do anything...Again, as on so many occasions, fantasy is powerless before reality in terms of horror.

The little infrastructure that existed was completely destroyed, Democide of epic proportions, the loss of almost the entire literate and educated population, the entire adult male workforce needed to restore the system laid to rest, agriculture and livestock destroyed, and heavy taxes imposed on the use of river routes - all of this meant a perfect recipe for decades and decades of suffering for the people there to an extent that is difficult to understand, painful to perceive, disgusting to contemplate. And as can be concluded from the above-posted honorary postage stamp in honor of Lopez on the 100th anniversary of the end of the war - the statist madness in that forgotten country is still strong and celebrates the `heroism` of the `patriotic leader` who `fought heroically on three fronts` and was on his way to becoming a diminutive Napoleon.

The price, i.e. the Democide of three-quarters of the population of a sad, insignificant and suffering territory, together with the suffering that, if there was such a thing as hell - would be a standard for measuring `pain` among the devils on duty by the cauldrons - was the result of the pathological daydreams of the representatives of the state government, nothing more. But none of that is the most regrettable thing in all that unimportant history. It is not the Jaguars tearing off arms and legs in the streets, the soldiers shitting their intestines because of Cholera, 12-year-old children who, with a beard drawn with charcoal and a wooden toy rifle, are blown up by a grenade, nor hunger nor agonizing and slow death.

The most regrettable thing is the unwavering faith in the idea of ​​statism despite everything.

Viva el Estado!

(Roger Mortis, 118)

Lobotomy

In conversation, one can sometimes hear the term `Lobotomy` or the adjective `lobotomized`. Although the interlocutor usually uses it for derogatory purposes in some context, few of those who have used that unusually sounding and juicy word actually know what a lobotomy is. A lobotomy is a special neurosurgical procedure that surgically removes part of the patient's brain. It is performed on patients with the most severe psychiatric disorders, when the psychologist and psychiatrist have given up and consider the patient a hopeless case, when all sessions, therapies, psychoanalysis, medications, electro and insulin shocks, epileptic shocks with Cardiazole and even Exorcism (why not?) are unsuccessful...then as a last resort, lobotomy remains, a kind of "silver bullet" to save the mentally ill patient.

Depending on the disorder to be treated, there are basically three types of lobotomies:

- Frontal lobotomy, which is used for the most severe cases and is performed by drilling a hole in the patient's skull, eliminating part of the frontal cortex of the brain. For this purpose, a metal instrument called a Leucotome is used to cut the brain, and there is another, more subtle variant where highly concentrated alcohol is injected into the cortex.

- Prefrontal lobotomy, which is also used in severe cases, but unlike the frontal one, a precise scalpel is used to cut part of the cortex.

- Transorbital lobotomy, which is used in less severe cases and was the most commonly used of the three types. The procedure consists of placing special instruments in the eye sockets from where the frontal cortex is reached and a short and quick intervention is performed by cutting some nerves. Patients who underwent transorbital lobotomy wore dark glasses for some time after the operation, to protect their eyes.

In addition to the differences in the technical performance of these three types of lobotomy, there are also differences in the results of them. The frontal and prefrontal procedures most often end in the patient becoming a plant, but with the transorbital patients can continue their lives more or less... let's say normally...The first lobotomies date back to ancient times, although not under that name, when holes were drilled in the skulls of mentally ill people and part of the brain was removed in a primitive way in order to "exorcise evil spirits" (a procedure known as Trepanation) that were believed to have "possessed" the person, i.e. the madness of which there was no clear idea what madness exactly was.

Interest in drilling holes into the heads of insane patients was sparked in the mid-nineteenth century by a bizarre incident involving an unusually thick head. That head belonged to a certain Phineas Gage, lobotomized before it was cool. Although he was not lobotomized in the precise medical sense, this railroad worker in the United States gained worldwide fame for the incredible circumstances under which he survived having a metal rod driven into his skull. The rod entered through Phineas' eye and exited the back of his head. Despite this, Gage survived - but with a drastically changed character and behavior, and his medical case served as an inspiration for many future neurosurgeons, convinced of the possibilities of surgical modification of patients' behavior...

A pioneer in the field of lobotomy was the German physician Gottlieb Burkhardt, who performed the first "crude" lobotomies in the modern sense in 1888. Dr. Burkhardt treated several patients with lobotomies. The first lobotomized patient died in five days, the second in a little longer due to a severe epileptic seizure, the third had a successful operation but unfortunately committed suicide a few months later, the fourth and fifth showed no reaction after the lobotomy and the sixth and seventh became somehow too "quiet" after the procedure...Over time, lobotomy was perfected, and a revolution was made by the Portuguese doctor António Egas Muñiz, who in the thirties defined three types of lobotomy depending on the need for treatment and the degree of insanity in the patient. He performed hundreds of lobotomies in his career.

His work was followed up by the Englishmen Fulton and Carlyle, who lobotomized a chimpanzee with supposedly established madness in the laboratory - in order to obtain experimental results that they would later use when lobotomizing people. For his contributions to the perfection of lobotomy - Dr. Muñiz received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1949. This decision by the Nobel Committee later caused controversy as this procedure was considered inhumane and barbaric.

In the United States, lobotomy experienced its heyday, for example, by 1951 over 20,000 lobotomies had been performed, in Canada 150 to 160 lobotomies were performed annually, in Britain 17,000 patients were lobotomized, and this procedure reached its peak in Scandinavia, where by far the most lobotomies per capita were performed. Among the most famous cases of lobotomy are those of Rosemary Kennedy, the sister of US President John F. Kennedy who was lobotomized at the age of 23, Swedish painter Sigrid Hjerten who died immediately after the lobotomization, Josef Hasid, a phenomenally talented Jewish pianist whose world career was cut short by a botched lobotomy, Canadian singer Alize Roby, Howard Dalí who was forcibly lobotomized at the age of 12 and later wrote a book about his suffering, Oscar-winning actor Werner Baxter, Hollywood actress Frances Farmer, Rosa Williams (sister of writer Tennessee Williams) and a few years ago information emerged that Eva ``Don't Cry for Me, Argentino'' Perón, wife of Argentine leader Juan Perón and a symbol of the nation - was lobotomized a few months before her death in a last-ditch attempt to bring sanity to her...through a hole in her skull.

Many famous people narrowly avoided being lobotomized, two such cases occurred at the `McLean` VIP asylum in the USA, where the possibility of lobotomy was once considered for the poet Sylvia Plath, the singer Ray Charles and other more or less famous people...The most productive hospital for lobotomy was the `Danvers` asylum in the town of the same name in Massachusetts, which became synonymous with practicing lobotomy (although most often forced) on numerous patients. Interestingly, in the USSR this procedure was used for only a few years and was abandoned as a practice due to its inhumanity and even banned in 1950.

In the USA, a major problem was the fact that the asylums were overcrowded and there was no room for new patients, nor funds for sufficient treatment of those who were already institutionalized, which led many doctors to decide on lobotomy for severe cases just to not bother with them anymore and to free up space for new patients... The most notorious was Walter Freeman, the doyen of skull drilling, the Michael Jordan of lobotomy, who holds the record for the most lobotomies performed in the world (he lobotomized literally thousands of people). He also treated people whose families wanted to get rid of and sent them for lobotomy under the simple pretext of being insane. Many potential heirs to property and money ended up under Freeman's hammer and ice pick for such reasons.

There were different opinions about its success, but over time, the prevailing opinion was that the results were modest due to the possibility of the madman ending up as an idiot or imbecile. Later, the number of lobotomies was significantly reduced with the appearance of the drug Thorazine, which was considered a "chemical" lobotomy. Belgium, for example, reportedly still has this therapy and about 70 lobotomies were performed annually...In the four local mental health institutions, popularly called madhouses (Bardovci, Demir Hisar, Negorci and Demir Kapija), this treatment was never included in the treatment program for the mentally ill. Lobotomy as a phenomenon was and still is inspiring in literature, film and music. In literature, the most famous work that deals with lobotomy (among other things) would be "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Cayce.

As for cinema, the most impressive film is certainly the adaptation of Casey's novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - one of the best films of all time and a springboard for many later famous actors, "Pi" (with the famous scene of a self-made lobotomy with a pine machine) and "Frances", a moving biographical drama about the aforementioned actress Frances Farmer, whose incompatibility with her environment was predictably interpreted as madness, and madness was treated with a spike in the skull...Music remembers the punk rockers The Ruts, whose song with the simple title `Lobotomy` is more of a criticism of social norms than a celebration of the procedure itself, then there are their genre colleagues the Ramones with their `Teenage Lobotomy`, where they sing about the procedure itself as such, an interesting track is the not particularly well-known `I`d rather have a bottle in front of me` by Randy Henzlik, which talks about the preference of alcohol before the Frontal Lobotomy, and from our region the song by Partybreakers stands out - `Lobotomy`...

(Roger Mortis, 117)

Abortion

We live in a time of expressing opinions. On the wave of penetration of virtuality in these regions - everyone has an opinion about everything and anything, even about things they know nothing about. Having an opinion based on rational reasoning, scientific/empirical evidence or logic is a heavy luxury today, because the masses do not have time to read and base their opinions on good information. There is also the education system that destroys young brains faster than Encephalitis. In the absence of time or desire, an opinion becomes a bitch, a slob, a sidewalk that gives in to the first emotion or the first instinct that comes from the R-complex or the Amygdala.

Although abortion is not something I would have a defined opinion about, I can still afford at least a simple rant on that topic, due to the simple fact that I am not a woman. The problem of responsibility is a problem of today. Especially in conditions when the fifth horseman of the apocalypse is riding around - capitalism. Abortion as the ultimate form of contraception is one of the more extreme manifestations, but it is all just one piece in the mosaic of consumerism and the impact it has on people.

What do I know... if there is something that can be a symbol of ambivalence, then it is abortion. Despite the fact that the development of the fetus physically depends entirely on the mother, the fetus can also be qualified as a separate entity even though it is part of her body. Continuing the pregnancy will result in a new human being. Here, the definition of how long the fetus is `humanized` or whether and how much it feels pain is irrelevant. The act of abortion prevents the birth of a new life. Extremely banal, but logically irrefutable.

Far from being `murder` as religious fanatics trumpet, because murder is the active violent extinction of an already existing human life. Although abortion is far from murder, it is still about preventing the possibility of the emergence of a human being. On the other hand, contraception is also about preventing the possibility of the emergence of a new being.

Although ejaculation itself inside in no way guarantees a conception, at least there is a chance. To conceive a new life. This does not mean that fertilization has automatically occurred, but in order to score a goal, a kick must be taken. The very dead end built of Latex in which spermatozoa end their journey to the goal - prevents the possibility of the emergence of a new life. Sperm together with the egg cell have no other purpose under the heavens, except that they provide an opportunity to create a new life.

The act of contraception prevents that possibility. Therefore, it is logically inconsistent to insist only on the prohibition of abortion. The Catholic Church, blessed be Thomas Aquinas is consistent because it is against contraception. Then again...and raising nine kids is fucked up in itself. For a two-hundred-euro woman to raise more than three kids these days without crippling them with Oliver Twist syndrome for life is impossible. Is nonexistence better than a painful and miserable existence? A disgusting and hideous dilemma that symbolizes the aforementioned ambivalence around the issue of abortion.

(Roger Mortis, 116)

Repent !

Following the example of their colleagues from officially recognized religious organizations - the leaders of religious sects around the world usually live by the motto `do as i say, don`t do as i do`. This is most often manifested in relation to material wealth, for which the sectarian doctrine preaches modesty and even complete rejection of the `diabolical` material world. What is true of `suffering` does not apply to the leaders, who, for their part, give themselves over to earthly pleasures to the fullest.

Last year, the world media reported on the sinking of the ferry `Sevol`, en route between the South Korean ports of Incheon and Jeju, in which 304 passengers and crew members drowned. The investigation into the causes of the tragedy quickly led to the parent company `Chong Hae Jin Marine`, which owned the ship, and behind that company, which sank into a maze of proxies and front companies in order to mask the real owners, was a sect, or rather an unusually talented character named Byung Un Yo, a priest of the Gu Won Pa sect (Salvation Sect), which was a faction of the Korean Evangelical Baptist Church, one of the various Protestant denominations that dominated among the numerous Christians in the south of the peninsula.

As the investigation and trial revealed - Mr. Yo and his sect in whose clutches the company was - worked to minimize the cost and maximize the profit, not exactly in accordance with biblical tradition but completely in accordance with the capitalist gospel. Cutting all possible expenses in terms of ship security and control, hiring dubious crews and officers from the very bottom of the maritime profession and regularly reloading ships with cargo - the tragedy simply had to happen one day. And it did on April 16, 2014. But it was only an ominous echo, a belated rumble of another tragedy, which was the little-known mass suicide of sectarians from the ``Salvation Sect`` in 1987.

Unlike the widely famous mass suicides of sectarians such as the incredible case in Jonestown in 1978 or that of ``Heaven's Gate`` in 1997 - the Korean sectarians inclined to leave this world would have remained on the margins of memory if the tragedy with the ``Sevol`` ship had not happened. And she reminded the superstitious of the event of August 29, 1987, when 32 members of the sect took their own lives with the help of an unidentified poison at the Odeyang factory in the suburbs of Seoul. Led by Sun Ja Park, a forty-eight-year-old high-ranking member of the sect and mother of three children (who would also poison themselves) - a group of sect members gathered in anticipation of the Day of Judgment. Classical Christian dogma speaks of a great taboo regarding suicide that leads directly to the cauldrons of hell. It also speaks of the value of repentance.

But the sect members somehow mixed these two concepts, as only fanatical sects can do - and concluded that repentance is impossible without suffering. And is there any greater suffering than suicide? The need for repentance was intensified by the increasingly frequent financial sins of Mrs. Park and her most loyal followers. Involved in a series of money laundering, misuse of investor funds, and similar scams, they were often the target of the authorities and, oh my, of enraged deceived individuals demanding their money back. Physical attacks were frequent, and the media also joined in the fray. Exposed to great pressure, the sect members projected their own fear onto the entire world, which is not an uncommon occurrence among brainwashed individuals.

There was only one way out. Repentance and redemption through death. Sun Ja Park gathered her most loyal followers, distributed poison to them, and watched them end up in convulsions and foaming at the mouth before doing the same herself. Later, rumors emerged that it was a murder, that uber-leader Byung Un Yo poisoned the sect members out of fear that they would "sing" to the authorities and that this would mean the end of their millions in income and thus the end of the sect itself. The official reports of the investigative branches concluded that it was still a case of suicide, although this did not mean that Yo was free from suspicion because in the following years he was a frequent target of investigation, and was even arrested in 1991, but this did not lead to long-term results and Yo was released after a short time...

The elusive Yoo re-entered the public spotlight in 2014, following the sinking of the Sewol. A warrant was issued for his arrest, and various buildings and offices linked to the many companies owned by the sect were searched. Yoo was never arrested for faking his alleged death. Namely, police found a body in an advanced stage of decomposition some 300 km south of Seoul in July 2014. Preliminary DNA tests yielded results that suggested that it was Yoo. The manner in which the maniac allegedly died has not been determined because the condition of the remains did not allow for this.

Immediately after the sinking, hundreds of sectarians protested in Seoul, while others declared publicly that Yoo would simply sink into the sect's web and that the authorities would never catch him. Although the authorities announced that helping Yo would mean many years in prison - this did not stop the sect members from announcing that they would help their leader escape and that they would never reveal his refuge. The arrest of several sect members on suspicion of helping Yo escape did not yield results...If we take into account that Yo and his sect had hundreds of millions of dollars, good connections in Korean society and a network of more than 100,000 sect members in several countries - fanatically ready to hide him from persecution, then it is not difficult to assume that the sect leader-swindler-money launderer managed to remain unpunished.

It would be great if such a religious psychopath with pronounced greedy tendencies really ended up as an unrecognizable corpse, killed by a real-life Dexter Morgan who decided to take revenge for the injustices. But reality is incompatible with television scenarios, and psychopaths are resilient, at least as resilient as a cockroach...

(Roger Mortis, 115)