Bruce Charlton's Notions

Over at Albion Awakening is the video of a funny and insightful talk by Andy Thomas, from the summer of 2016, giving his interpretation of the long English myth, history and national character that led up to the vote to leave the EU.

What makes this unusual is that AT is a leading, and expert, conspiracy theorist whose evidence is not from the usual mainstream, mass-media sources. For example, he apparently gives something like 200 interactive lectures per year on many subjects to a wide range of audiences; so he is well-placed to get an idea of 'public opinion' of 'ordinary' British people - outside of the Establishment and their servants.

For those of you (such as WmJas!) who cannot abide videos - here is an article by AT, written in early 2016 during the lead-up to the Brexit vote, at the end of which he makes a personal statement:

I will be voting to leave the EU.

The reasons for my decision are embedded in some of the points discussed in both articles. I feel an underlying discomfort that simple, if understandable, fear of financial loss and of having to create potentially difficult new trade conduits is being fed to us as the main basis of our choice, above all the issues of democracy, sovereignty, borders and pride in our own history and legends. On reflection, I feel that we need to be prepared to pay a price for our freedom if that is what it takes, because freedom always speaks louder than economic chains. Trade deals may take a while to sort, but in the end they will be made.

In my lecturing and work I meet many people from all classes and it seems clear to me that the general inclination would certainly be towards leaving the EU if there were not the fear of financial loss. This speaks volumes. This tendency is more true of older generations, to be sure, who have known an existence outside of the EU, while younger thinkers brought up in an EU system which has painted itself in a good light seem more likely to keep to what they know, putting idealistic collectivism, visa-free travel and job opportunities above issues of democracy. This is not a judgment, but a simple observation. What if fear could be taken out of the equation, though?

Fear is being used on both sides of the argument, naturally, and the fears must be debated and faced, but it is currently being wielded more fervently by the ‘remain’ camp. History shows that decisions made through fear alone are rarely the right ones. Why not replace fear with a determination to make something work?...

That the EU is so plainly keen to keep us is rooted in self-preservation and shows just how powerful Britain is on the European stage, and still could be even outside of the EU. We have been talked down for too long. In our hearts this is not really who we are. The undemocratic departments of the EU know well that maverick British action might start a line of exiting dominos that could undermine the whole project.

We are stronger than we know; it is ironic that the EU seems to recognise this more than some of us do. I feel it is time to realise that strength and learn to believe in ourselves again; this would power new currents to take us forward and help find our centre. Britain is still psychologically damaged by the two World Wars and the loss of influence that came as part of the price for the victories. This has profoundly affected our self-confidence – and yet historically this has all taken place within a very short time. We could easily rise again before long, albeit with less lofty and more heart-centred ambitions. We might even rediscover the art of manufacturing… Leaving the EU may mean uncertainty and financial compromise for a time. But maybe that is the mission we have to set ourselves on. With enough willpower, we could deal with any situation that arises, as we have always done, and come out stronger for it. Why are we being encouraged to forget this? Sometimes we have to let go of our fear and do the right thing. One of my first jobs was in a soulless office. It was safe and predictable; yet I wasn’t happy and the feeling of discomfort grew. In the end, against the advice of a number of friends and family, I decided to leave for an uncertain career as a musician, with far less money and no security… it was a risk, but in my heart I knew it was right. In the end I made it work, and new and different life paths and opportunities appeared along the way.

Right now, the fear-based draw to stay in the EU feels like clinging to the known river edge. We need to find the courage to let go and flow with a new tide. We’ll learn to swim along the way, and in time manage by ourselves to sort out some of the darker issues and influences we will certainly be left to deal with. At least we can vote out those politicians we are not happy with, for all the systemic improvements still required. This is not so in the EU.

If the EU was an angelic bastion of democracy and vision that would serve all its peoples to the highest aspirations and respect the individuality of its nations then I would be voting to remain within it. As it stands it falls far short of this dream. Some of those devoted to EU membership, displaying admirable idealism, somehow seem not to see this. For me, though, until the time that real reform creates a better version of Europe, I believe that Britain should hold to the democratic framework it has painstakingly built up, stand alone and rediscover its not insignificant strengths. This, at least, is the basis on which I will vote on 23rd June.
 

In the past year or so, the genial and articulate conspiracy theory expert Andy Thomas has become a correspondent; and yesterday he posted a video of a recent presentation he made about the currently rapidly accelerating censorship; especially of his field; which is faced with total elimination from the public arena (including being unable to hire large rooms for private meetings).

(Note: Andy speaks from a broadly mainstream small-l-leftist and non-Christian perspective; my own views are much more hard-line, and are religiously-derived.) 


If you want the facts about what is happening, then watch Andy's presentation, or read Vox Day's blog. It is happening; and we already live in a very different - and much less free - world, than that of three years ago.

As a strategy for implementing the totalitarian agenda, the acceleration of censorship seems to be working very well; because many people and organisations approve (including all of the most rich, powerful and influential ones); most people barely notice or deny that it is happening; and of those who are concerned, extremely few care enough to do anything of any kind.


I still believe that 2016 was a window of possibility for a spiritual awakening, an increased chance of Romantic Christianity beginning to take-hold; but this possibility was only a window, and it is now being slammed-shut.

Because censorship is a second-order issue, which is why hardly anybody cares about it. There has never been much positive support for free speech, or for freedom, among those who disagree with what is being proposed.

Perhaps only among scientists, for a few generations from the late 19th century to the middle 20th century, was there a genuine ethic of free speech; and that attitude was incrementally crushed and extinguished from the middle 1960s with the advent of the New Left.


Censorship or its opposite are second-order because they are means to an end; and our society is indifferent to censorship because it has no 'end', no purpose, no meaning. By default, the Global Establishment and their minions (who are - by contrast - working towards a goal) are therefore able to use censorship as part of controlling public discourse to advance their agenda of evil.

So long as there is no agenda for Good - i.e. no religion in The West; the agenda of evil will inevitably win - since it has a purpose (albeit a negative purpose: i.e. the destruction of Good).

So our concern should not be with censorship as such, since that is just a symptom, a means to evil ends. We can and will do nothing substantive until After we have reason to oppose evil; that is, until After we have an agenda for Good.

Our basic situation is therefore unchanged from 2016 - we must have a spiritual awakening, and it must come first.


Note: Since England has Not had a spiritual awakening; even if Brexit does happen later this year (which is uncertain), it will not do England any good overall. Despite being A Good Thing in itself; Brexit will, in other words, inevitably be turned to evil ends. Because motivation is primary, and motivation will out. Any change that is made from wrong motivations (and there are no other motivations in current public discourse - only wrong ones) will surely turn-out wrong. 
 

My pen-friend Andy Thomas has compiled a series of perspectives on the birdemic. Andy is Not arguing from a Christian perspective, so these do not cut as deep as I believe they really need to - but they are clearly and coherently expressed, and may serve as a bridge for some people to escape from the 'official story', and open them to other possibilities. 

Things have been coming to a point for some decades - and have now arrived-at the point; so there are only two choices in the ongoing spiritual war: the side of God, or of Satan. Nobody can be 'an Agnostic' in this sense - can claim 'not to know' about God - because that is to take the side of Satan.

But I think one can be agnostic about other issues, which are not of crucial importance, and/or which cut across the Christian-Evil divide. 

I find myself agnostic about much of the 'conspiracy theory*' field - such topics as are nowadays covered by people such as David Icke, or my penfriend Andy Thomas (or, in the recent past, by John Michell): Illuminati, crop circles, UFOs, 9/11, Atlantis... 

Many of these subjects I feel genuinely agnostic about; in that I could imagine them being either true or untrue - or of containing significant elements of truth, mixed with error and fraud. 

Further; in such matters, being agnostic is very different from rejecting them altogether and outright - which is the mainstream position. Indeed, to be agnostic is closer to being 'a believer' than it is to being a 'skeptic'. 

What is interesting is how and why I should (apparently) be content to stay in my agnostic state, without trying to settle matters one way or the other. Why, for example, don't I actually visit a crop circle, or make efforts to observe a UFO? 

I suppose the answer is that I don't think the answer is of decisive importance either way. I really don't - and that is because for me the answer (whatever it is) is subsumed within the much larger matter of destiny, or providence; that is, God's plans for me and for the world and its people. 

As I understand divine destiny, it is such that these matters are not crucial. 

Whether, for instance, aliens are contacting, or trying to communicate with, Mankind (or whether aliens are deceptive demons) is - for me - a matter of only mild interest; because the answer would be only one factor among innumerable others. It would not affect the way I lead my life, or what I strive for. 

This perspective is, I suspect, incomprehensible to the mass of contemporary conspiracy theorists - who are atheists; and, because things have come to a point, therefore more or less, anti-Christian. But so it is. 

Therefore I read, and have read, a fair bit about these topics; watched videos, listened to audios etc. I have found much of this material interesting, and indeed very useful, in a wide variety of ways. Yet this value does not seem to depend upon reaching a conclusion one way or the other; and so I remain agnostic. 

Note: The term conspiracy theory is itself propaganda on the side of evil; so the conspiracy theory field is an example of The Enemy's enemy. However, most members of that community still seem to be wedded to one or another aspect of the Leftism agenda - so (for all their valuable insights) they fail the Litmus Tests and are on the other side.  

On his blog Deep Britain and Ireland, John Fitzgerald has a written version of a talk he presented a few days ago to a small gathering that was partly inspired by the Albion Awakening blog (currently dormant) which was a joint venture of myself, John and William Wildblood. Also present were Terry Boardman and Andy Thomas, whose work has featured here.

(Unfortununately, I couldn't be present because my chronic health problems prevented the necessary travelling to the far end of England.)

This essay is a major piece of work, and deserves full attention. I recommend copying, pasting and printing-out a version - as I did.

Here is a taster from the concluding section towards the end, which I hope will inspire you to read it:

Christ tells us in the Gospel that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed then we can move mountains. Faith is the most important element of all - far more than any head-based strategising or planning. It's difficult, because the anti-religious, anti-traditional currents of contemporary life claim the opposite, but we have to believe in ourselves, in each other, and in our country. All three levels - the personal, the communitarian, and that of the country or homeland - were conceived in the mind of God and have a divinely-imprinted destiny to fulfil.

Countries are real. They are living, concrete entities, not abstractions or so-called 'imagined communities'. Lewis shows us this brilliantly at the end of the final Narnia story The Last Battle, where, from the vantage point of eternity, we see all the countries in all the worlds - including England, including Narnia - jutting like spurs from the mountains of Aslan's country, shining like jewels, more solid and real than we ever perceived them down here in the Shadowlands.

Each country has its own inner essence - its charism, its individual gift - which needs, for the good of the whole world, to be drawn out and championed. As Ransom puts it, 'When Logres really dominates Britain, when the goddess reason, the divine clearness, is really enthroned in France, when the order of Heaven is really followed in China - why, then it will be spring.'

The Imagination - with a capital 'I' - is what we're especially blessed with in Albion, I feel. We see it in William Blake, of course, in Shakespeare, Milton, and Traherne, and, in more modern times, poets such as Kathleen Raine, George Mackay Brown, Edwin Muir, and David Jones. Tolkien, Williams and Lewis, as is well-known, conveyed profound Christian truth through the media of poetry and story. How right Williams was then, to portray Logres as the eyes - the visionary hub - of his reimagined Byzantine Empire.

Imagination, however, is not exciusively or primarily concerned with the writing of novels and poems. These are the fruits of our Imaginative labour but they are not its most essential aspects. What is absolutely key is the ability to see through and beyond the Sturm und Drang of daily political and social life and dig down deep to what is truly real. This is just what Ransom does in That Hideous Strength. To MacPhee's annoyance, he doesn't react to the grubby power-plays of the NICE. He doesn't launch a raid on their premises or expose them to the government or call in help from overseas. He refuses to be drawn. He declines to play the game on this tactical, newspaper-headline level. He knows that he is engaged in a spiritual conflict and that the real war goes on in Heaven. He waits, therefore. He watches and prays. He sits at the Lord's feet with Mary, while Martha (MacPhee) complains. Like Taliessin in Mount Badon, he sinks into contemplation and receives the help he needs from planetary angels who operate at a level far above that of the parry and counter-parry of political strife.

The problem, as I see it, is that all these figures - poets, novelists, fictional characters, ourselves too - have been swimming against the tide for a long time now; since 1066, in fact. My contention is that King Harold's death at Hastings was the moment when this country lost its spiritual bearings, and this turning away from the Good has become increasingly pronounced ever since. The Normans brought an expansionist mentality with them and a certain rapaciousness, which had previously been absent in England's ruling class. However noble - jumping forward a few centuries now - the motives behind the Reformation and the challenge to Charles I's authority might have been, the net result, in my view, was to encourage and exacerbate this mindset, flinging open the door to that mercantilism, industrialism, and mechanistic thinking, which Blake railed so mightily against and with which we continue to contend with today.

It hasn't always been this way though. In the last few hundred years before Christ, as Blake well knew, Britain, through the strength and influence of the Druids, was a centre of great spiritual power, with a reputation for the numinous which stretched far beyond Albion's rocky shore. This age came around again - on a higher, deeper, baptised point of the curve - in the Anglo-Saxon era, after the arrival of St. Augustine at Cantiisburg. The island then became a land of genuine saints and scholars, with monastic founders like St. Aidan, St. Hilda, and St. Cuthbert, and missionaries to Europe such as Willibord of Northumbria, Boniface of Wessex, and Alcuin of York, who became Charlemagne's chief adviser. We had high class historians and writers, St. Bede of Jarrow being the shining example here, who penned the highly influential History of the Church in England, plus artists of the highest calibre, as can be seen, for instance, in the wonderful patterns and pictures of the Lindisfarne Gospels.

King Alfred the Great, after the depredations of the Danish invasions, rebuilt our schools, had old books copied out, rewrote the law, and established excellent relations with the Pope and other European monarchs. His sons, Edward and Athelstan, were warriors and statesmen who created the conditions for political and national unity, while the reign of Edgar the Peaceable (959-975) saw a remarkable reform and revival of monastic life across the country.

This is the best of Britain, I feel. This, deep down, is what we're all about. These are the saints we need to pray to and the sovereigns we should strive to emulate. This is the mentality and worldview to tap into if we are to see the dawn of a third golden age - a synthesis of the previous two - a harmonisation and taking up of Britain's Christian and pre-Christian patrimonies. Lewis, again, shows us the way in That Hideous Strength, where Christ (Maleldil, as he calls Him) stands at the centre of the universe like the Sun, with the old gods - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter - circling around Him in the guise of the planetary angels, working in concert with Him for the transfiguration of our fallen world.

In response to something I posted earlier by Andy Thomas; William Wildblood provides a wide-ranging and far-seeing account of the Brexit question, over at Albion Awakening.

Here is an excerpt:

Britain is part of Europe. It always has been and it always will be. Leaving the E.U. does not mean leaving Europe even if that were possible. Our whole life has been bound up with the continent for our entire history. Our culture is a European one, unthinkable without huge influences from mainland Europe which have enriched us enormously.

And yet we are an island. Materialists will consider this completely irrelevant. But people who believe in God and think that he has a reason for things being as they are will pause for thought.

We have been set apart. Yes, that can lead to an attitude of arrogant self-satisfaction but then beauty can lead to vanity. It doesn't mean that beauty is a bad thing.

We have been set apart and many of us sense that we do indeed have a special mission, hinted at in our traditions and legends. What that mission may be, no one is completely sure but it has risen to the surface occasionally...

Read the whole thing...