Militarisation is taking root, once more, in the heart of Europe--an op-ed decries the farcical wartime agit-prop from WW2 while the proverbial lessons of history are fast forgotten
LOL. So far, singing the Westerwald song, or any marching song, is still outlawed by the Bundeswehr as an extreme right wing activity. These clowns aren’t going to do any warring.
Have a blessed Easter my friend. Unfortunately I have a bad cold and had to miss Mass this weekend but was able to go earlier this week at the cathedral. Was extremely lovely - very reverential, singing in Latin. Packed crowd - people standing at the back - over 100 priests re-taking their vows at the Chrism Mass. Many tears in the crowd were shed.
Happy Easter, my friend! Hope your cold is gone, and having just watched the Easter Vigil from Saint Peter's, I'm equally amazed. Thanks for thinking about me, and all best from halfway around the world!
Having been accused of nazi-leanings for being a fan of Wagner, I'm a bit leery of associating a symbol with the thing itself, but of course, there's also a clear allusion and it is normal for old smbols to be brought back into the fold, or put away as memories of a bad past depending on the fortunes of war.
Sometimes, I suspect part of the reasons the Norse were so feared and so succesful, despite being so few and active during a very limited time-frame, was that they knew that in war, Oden always wins. Being god of Death and chooser of the fallen (after Freja has first pick) means always winning in a sense, as long as there's war to be fomented.
Perhaps some slumbering vestige of that past now turns in its sleep, among the Germanic tribes, hearing the call of Wotan and Tyz?
Too bad it's for unworthy masters, likewise causes and not against the enemy within. The foolish warrior goes not to Valhalla or Folkvang, but to Hel, there to tumble in the cold streams and yield their nails to the hull of and their hair to the sail of Nagelfar. Some tradition holds that Freja, Oden and Hel each take one third, in that order, of the Fallen.
Anyway.
What I fear is that our government will start fomenting revanchism against Russia, however silly it may sound, for Poltava and Viborg and all that. Ridiculously enough, there is a strong sentiment of such emotion to exploit among at least double-digit percentages among the Swedish population.
Russia is after all the Arch-Nemesis (Denmark being the perennial grudge-match that we've won some 9.5 times out of 10).
Possibly the war between the kingdom of Sweden and the Novgorod Republic; about the same time Hildegard of Bingen was compiling her poetry, so mid-1100s.
Rather, it is the Great Northern War in the early 1700s, and the three ones after that, that are the ones the revanchist noises are about. Especially the disastrous loss at Poltava in Ukraine, which put an end to any Swedish aspirations of ever becoming a real power. Thanks to that there's a part of Ukraine called Gammelsvenskby where they still speak 18th century Swedish, and now our lunatic fringe (or should it be lunatic cringe?) is using that as some kind of argument for trying to get a joint Nordic-Finnish invasion going.
The Danes are sending troops to Ukraine right now, by the way, on their own accord. For "advisory and educational purposes". Lavrov as per usual rattled the nuclear threat, but Russia has threatened Copenhagen with nuclear assault several times for over ten years now, and the Danes are quite fed up with them.
Moronic nostalgia and revanchism aside, there's also a real-politik track that's present but suspiciously quiet: the very real calls for trouncing Russia properly, dividing it into several smaller dependencies to be shared out to the victor states and using the dependencies as resources. To give EU-rope room to expand and to end the Russian/Slavic threat for good.
We do recognise that idea from a certain someone, I'm sure.
Oh, well, there's also the theory that 'Russia' was founded by Vikings/Norsemen…
As to the Danes, well, they (and the Norwegians) don't seem to learn from, say, their 'let's join in now and ask questions later' stance re Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003), hence I'm not at-all surprised.
Well, in part it was, but more correctly what was to become Russia was in part founded by the Ros/Rus, which were Swedes from an area north to Stockholm who travelled through the interior so they could reach Miklagård (Byzantium). As they went, they established or co-founded trading posts which became towns and cities. Of course, there others living there, mixed descendents of many peoples, dating back to the time of the Scythians and the Persian invasion of Greece.
That's what that war in the 1100s was about, control of the eastern trade route from Byzantium to the Baltic Sea.
Slavic Russia is difficult to really pin-point when it starts, but by the 15th or 16th century, the animosity between Finns, Baltics, Swedes and Poles in one camp and the Russians in the other (with kazaks and lots of other such groups inbetween in a real viper's pit of changing loyalties) was firmly cemented as the way things are. I'm guessing it was the same way to the South, between the Turks and the Romanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians and Austrians; a low-key on-and-off again state of war interspersed by bi-generational major attempts at invasion.
Sobering on many levels, the planned future we are being marched towards, the current propaganda and the sad dark past.
Thank you for knitting both your stacks together in this what feels a most appropriate Easter time share.
May your Easter be filled with family and joy (and no war mongering bunnies!)
Well, we're certainly setting new records in terms of human stupidity, it would seem.
Thank you for the Easter wishes--may your Easter be equally blessed!
LOL. So far, singing the Westerwald song, or any marching song, is still outlawed by the Bundeswehr as an extreme right wing activity. These clowns aren’t going to do any warring.
Frohe Ostern!
Oh, well, sometimes it seems quite odd. On the other hand, just play whatever Satanic tune from Hollywood or wherever and watch the old NVA marching.
There, I've fixed this for you.
Happy Easter to you, too!
Gotta ask my former NVA buddies about their songs. Probably the same as ours plus some Russian ones. Better uniforms than we had at any rate.
Plus goosestepping.
Have a blessed Easter my friend. Unfortunately I have a bad cold and had to miss Mass this weekend but was able to go earlier this week at the cathedral. Was extremely lovely - very reverential, singing in Latin. Packed crowd - people standing at the back - over 100 priests re-taking their vows at the Chrism Mass. Many tears in the crowd were shed.
Happy Easter, my friend! Hope your cold is gone, and having just watched the Easter Vigil from Saint Peter's, I'm equally amazed. Thanks for thinking about me, and all best from halfway around the world!
Having been accused of nazi-leanings for being a fan of Wagner, I'm a bit leery of associating a symbol with the thing itself, but of course, there's also a clear allusion and it is normal for old smbols to be brought back into the fold, or put away as memories of a bad past depending on the fortunes of war.
Sometimes, I suspect part of the reasons the Norse were so feared and so succesful, despite being so few and active during a very limited time-frame, was that they knew that in war, Oden always wins. Being god of Death and chooser of the fallen (after Freja has first pick) means always winning in a sense, as long as there's war to be fomented.
Perhaps some slumbering vestige of that past now turns in its sleep, among the Germanic tribes, hearing the call of Wotan and Tyz?
Too bad it's for unworthy masters, likewise causes and not against the enemy within. The foolish warrior goes not to Valhalla or Folkvang, but to Hel, there to tumble in the cold streams and yield their nails to the hull of and their hair to the sail of Nagelfar. Some tradition holds that Freja, Oden and Hel each take one third, in that order, of the Fallen.
Anyway.
What I fear is that our government will start fomenting revanchism against Russia, however silly it may sound, for Poltava and Viborg and all that. Ridiculously enough, there is a strong sentiment of such emotion to exploit among at least double-digit percentages among the Swedish population.
Russia is after all the Arch-Nemesis (Denmark being the perennial grudge-match that we've won some 9.5 times out of 10).
How silly it all is.
There's obviously no limit to human stupidity, isn't it?
That revanchism vs. Russia, well, what war would be the first one?
Possibly the war between the kingdom of Sweden and the Novgorod Republic; about the same time Hildegard of Bingen was compiling her poetry, so mid-1100s.
Rather, it is the Great Northern War in the early 1700s, and the three ones after that, that are the ones the revanchist noises are about. Especially the disastrous loss at Poltava in Ukraine, which put an end to any Swedish aspirations of ever becoming a real power. Thanks to that there's a part of Ukraine called Gammelsvenskby where they still speak 18th century Swedish, and now our lunatic fringe (or should it be lunatic cringe?) is using that as some kind of argument for trying to get a joint Nordic-Finnish invasion going.
The Danes are sending troops to Ukraine right now, by the way, on their own accord. For "advisory and educational purposes". Lavrov as per usual rattled the nuclear threat, but Russia has threatened Copenhagen with nuclear assault several times for over ten years now, and the Danes are quite fed up with them.
Moronic nostalgia and revanchism aside, there's also a real-politik track that's present but suspiciously quiet: the very real calls for trouncing Russia properly, dividing it into several smaller dependencies to be shared out to the victor states and using the dependencies as resources. To give EU-rope room to expand and to end the Russian/Slavic threat for good.
We do recognise that idea from a certain someone, I'm sure.
Oh, well, there's also the theory that 'Russia' was founded by Vikings/Norsemen…
As to the Danes, well, they (and the Norwegians) don't seem to learn from, say, their 'let's join in now and ask questions later' stance re Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003), hence I'm not at-all surprised.
Well, in part it was, but more correctly what was to become Russia was in part founded by the Ros/Rus, which were Swedes from an area north to Stockholm who travelled through the interior so they could reach Miklagård (Byzantium). As they went, they established or co-founded trading posts which became towns and cities. Of course, there others living there, mixed descendents of many peoples, dating back to the time of the Scythians and the Persian invasion of Greece.
That's what that war in the 1100s was about, control of the eastern trade route from Byzantium to the Baltic Sea.
Slavic Russia is difficult to really pin-point when it starts, but by the 15th or 16th century, the animosity between Finns, Baltics, Swedes and Poles in one camp and the Russians in the other (with kazaks and lots of other such groups inbetween in a real viper's pit of changing loyalties) was firmly cemented as the way things are. I'm guessing it was the same way to the South, between the Turks and the Romanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians and Austrians; a low-key on-and-off again state of war interspersed by bi-generational major attempts at invasion.