tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post1460053949779492607..comments2023-11-28T09:02:03.742+01:00Comments on The Seneca Effect: Propaganda: the Doom of the Western EmpireUgo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-20668361734896607102022-01-18T21:24:32.451+01:002022-01-18T21:24:32.451+01:00To Thierry: That is exactly how I see Alex Jones. ...To Thierry: That is exactly how I see Alex Jones. By airing the dirty laundry of TPTB and mixing it with absurd bullshit, the educated upper middle class or "professional class" reject everything he said out of hand. It is a brilliant strategy. What is horrendous and true, and what should have them up in arms, is dismissed the moment it is linked with Alex Jones. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-54393619410855834002021-12-21T19:49:14.195+01:002021-12-21T19:49:14.195+01:00Fresh figures from Switzerland's covid deaths ...Fresh figures from Switzerland's covid deaths (old people die, it's the same story since the beginning of times): <a href="https://www.covid19.admin.ch/fr/epidemiologic/death/d/demography?demoView=graph&ageRanges=40-49,50-59,60-69,70-79,80%2B" rel="nofollow"><br />Office fédéral de la santé publique OFSP</a>.Loup Espièglehttp://www.fullspectrumpreparedness.blog/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-18574467860323164792021-12-16T20:56:45.828+01:002021-12-16T20:56:45.828+01:00It has been said that the photocopier was the cata...It has been said that the photocopier was the catalyst for the fall of the USSR. Non censored information spread.Biocoal NZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18027285196871873092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-68993035999340330072021-12-13T19:25:43.778+01:002021-12-13T19:25:43.778+01:00Lee B,
I believe the old expression " God s...Lee B,<br /> I believe the old expression " God save me from the man who has read only one book" is very applicable to the internet. We, (I am guilty of it) fall into the false sense of expertise after reading a few articles on subject x,y, or z. Especially when we lack the foundational background that most areas of knowledge require to have a true understanding of its complexity.<br /> I am a big believer in general knowledge (which also requires years of diverse reading and thinking),but recognize its limitations when dealing with the details of advanced complex subjects. The internet has created legions of us who have an inflated understanding of our wisdom.<br /> I seldom meet people any more whom I would describe as well read. (but they can explain the stock market trends in detailWornsmoothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14672822707973637317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-60683501401459651132021-12-13T19:14:18.458+01:002021-12-13T19:14:18.458+01:00Thank you Dr. Fierz,
I am very ignorant of medi...Thank you Dr. Fierz,<br /> I am very ignorant of medicine, so I rely on those trained in the science. I have some technical background, but it falls far short of the level such as Dr. Bardi. Hence, I give more weight to his insights, especially in the physical sciences, than I do most others. So, when I read an observation from yourself about the ratios of cases and severe cases involving COVID, I suspect they should be given a high level of credence.<br /> My sporadic reading of internet comments has demonstrated the following pattern to me: 1. Show me that being vaccinated lowers the risks of COVID!.<br />Ok, here is the data of hospitalization/ deaths/ etc<br />2. Well, how are you sure that data is accurate? (insert reasons for doubt here)<br />In other words, no amount of data you may present will convince them of either their accuracy or validity.<br /> It appears to me that the act of opposing vaccinations has morphed into a subset of an overall ideology. Ideologies are, by definition, impervious to facts that do not support it. I have some thoughts as to how we have gotten here, but they are based on informed reasoning and speculation, not any data or study driven information. It would also be too lengthy.<br /> Stay safe.Wornsmoothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14672822707973637317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-2697478669859788642021-12-12T19:18:12.523+01:002021-12-12T19:18:12.523+01:00"What could be the reason that anybody wants ..."What could be the reason that anybody wants to do such dirty job of ruling others?"<br />Threats and blackmail, perhaps? Raise someone with some ugly methods (bribery and corruption, or worse) so he or she can get much candies. Then you have all you need to make him/her your puppet. You perfectly know that politicians are not the rulers, don't you? But no, this must be another conspiracy theory. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-75319449804448401122021-12-12T18:41:39.645+01:002021-12-12T18:41:39.645+01:00Hello Ivan,
Thanks for this perspective.
(I also ...Hello Ivan,<br />Thanks for this perspective. <br />(I also need to apology, I misspelled the word hole as whole above...)<br /><br />I resonate with your wording: "The politicians have the false impression that with technology they can do anything they want."<br /><br />This belief is blinding them (and many of us) to the reality of limits to our current civilization's reach. <br />Exhortations are not observations.<br /><br />Indeed, the errors will keep growing until the Seneca cliff makes us all tumble. <br /><br />A very concrete example of this has been the last two weeks of "economic" news in the newspaper that I still read (#4 in The Netherlands), about the "temporary record inflation of 5.2%". "Experts" from banks and universities say that it all comes from the shipping crisis and lock-down effects. Nobody talks about the fact that ECB has tripled the M1 monetary base since 2015. That the money-printing enriches us in the owner classes. That salary-slaves and pensioners and renters suffer, while rentiers party on like there is no tomorrow. <br />Nobody seems to want to talk about the reality, just shift the blame to someone else. Seneca is waiting, just around the corner. <br /><br />Thanks,<br /> GoranGöranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02375637941166085188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-14723280223003569582021-12-12T17:47:22.346+01:002021-12-12T17:47:22.346+01:00Well, you said that his approach was not fair. I i...Well, you said that his approach was not fair. I intervened just to note that we should keep the discussion within the normal rules of courtesy. Then, it is OK. Ugo Bardihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-47187538632958620082021-12-12T17:32:14.536+01:002021-12-12T17:32:14.536+01:00Hello Ugo Bardi. I read his reply as somewhat cond...Hello Ugo Bardi. I read his reply as somewhat condescending, suggesting "conspiracy theory" and "paranoid ideas" behind my question. Nowhere did I attack his person. Nor would I. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-40548784760813168262021-12-12T10:01:39.417+01:002021-12-12T10:01:39.417+01:00Anonymous, I understand your position, but please ...Anonymous, I understand your position, but please do not accuse Lukas of being "unfair." He has answered your question according to his viewpoint, and that was perfectly fair. The debate is sufficiently nasty on the socials, please avoid this kind of exchanges. Ugo Bardihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-65056401165525671092021-12-12T10:01:33.559+01:002021-12-12T10:01:33.559+01:00Anonymous, I understand your position, but please ...Anonymous, I understand your position, but please do not accuse Lukas of being "unfair." He has answered your question according to his viewpoint, and that was perfectly fair. The debate is sufficiently nasty on the socials, please avoid this kind of exchanges. Ugo Bardihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-7391197415567494072021-12-12T09:40:54.958+01:002021-12-12T09:40:54.958+01:00Goran,
You are right that the government tries to...Goran,<br /><br />You are right that the government tries to stay in power. But what could be the reason that anybody wants power in the first place? What could be the reason that anybody wants to do such dirty job of ruling others? You are absolutely right that ruling people is extremely difficult and risky, so there must be some motivation for them. Well, that is almost always some kind of profit, usually, but not exclusively, material profit. Contrary to what most people believe, you don't have to be very intelligent to rule the mass. It only takes determination and very simple ability to recognize simple public reaction to different propaganda stimuli. There were some very instructive posts by Ugo about Mussolini. He is the prototype of modern politician, except that in his case everything was too obvious. Modern propaganda allows politicians to do the same things but their motives are hidden in better way. The camouflage is better. <br /><br />Like Anonymous I think that option b) and c) are complementary. Stupidity and pathological ambition go hand in hand. Modern technology allows politicians to manipulate the mass in more efficient way. The politicians have the false impression that with technology they can do anything they want. And that belief is their Seneca's cliff from which they will fall. Ivan Lukichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03921382989214812867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-18333790588718062642021-12-12T01:37:59.230+01:002021-12-12T01:37:59.230+01:00Thank you for your response, Dr F. I am the anonym...Thank you for your response, Dr F. I am the anonymous who asked you about extra monies, not the one who asked about other treatments. I am normally identified more openly in disqus and other fora, but as I am pretty active in expressing non-PC opinions, I am growing uneasy about it in today's political climate. Unlike you, I don't belong to any political power block, and if the "machine" chose to grind me underfoot, nobody would defend me. <br /><br />I see in your response you've already made up your mind about all sorts ideas I purportedly believe in, simply because I asked a question. Not a fair approach to your fellow commenters, is it? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-11548173122893028202021-12-11T17:24:10.057+01:002021-12-11T17:24:10.057+01:00I am curious if your medical boards/authorities/ad...I am curious if your medical boards/authorities/advisors are censoring information about ivermectin, Vitamin D, etc. If they are punishing doctors for suggesting use of such things. I understand you may not personally believe in such interventions but there are others doctors who do. I am curious how they are treated by the hospital and administrators. Thank you sir. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-31596912274195396252021-12-10T21:34:07.281+01:002021-12-10T21:34:07.281+01:00Well dear Anonymous. Lets first face the fact that...Well dear Anonymous. Lets first face the fact that I am not anonymous but open about my identity and country. Second you may doubt it but all my life I was not very interested in tariffs, but in patients, their personalities, stories and complaints and mostly how to improve them in a most efficient and cost-effective way and I chose to work with similarly minded collegues. High quality work attracts customers and reimbursment in this country is good enough that it did not influence the choice of the best and most simple and efficient treatment. Now the Swiss hospitals are paid by lump sums according to a system related to diagnosis and complexity of the case. You can google the tariff under SwissDRG. Of course a COVID-patient who has to be ventilated artificially will be in the most expensive group. But to conclude from there that they are ventilated because of money is a conspiracy theory. It is all the more incredible because - as said - nurses are now leaving the ICU's and therefore the monetary gains to be made there becomes smaller. And I have to say that the many intensive medicine physicians I met in my life are among the most capable and respectable collegues. As you can imagine a hospital will speedily throw out any ICU-physician who is unable to save its most ill patients. COVID-overcharge of ICU's in this country is a sad reality and you can see alarm cries by the individual responsible physicians almost every day in the media. But I had to learn in medical school that paranoid ideas are not accessible to rational reasoning of material proof and I am prepared to accept that. Lukas Fierz https://www.blogger.com/profile/18250916325810731604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-84872584961750292822021-12-10T18:38:15.709+01:002021-12-10T18:38:15.709+01:00But you do not answer me. Do the hospitals receive...But you do not answer me. Do the hospitals receive across the board a much greater reimbusement for covid vs non-covid patients, unrelated to actual disease progression in each case? And if they do, how does that affect the incentives for admission?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-154610739088451582021-12-10T11:05:14.940+01:002021-12-10T11:05:14.940+01:00Reimbursment in Swiss hospitals is calculated acco...Reimbursment in Swiss hospitals is calculated according to a most complicated tariff which should reflect the actual workload and complexity of each case. This said as a COVID-patient you only land in an ICU if you have insufficient breathing and need artificial ventilation. This depends on O2-saturation and not on any rewards. Moreover COVID-patients need 1.5 or 2 times more manpower than other patients. Many people have no clue how it is to work in a fully occupied ICU with many ventilated COVID-patients. Its just unbearable and the nurses leave one after the other, which is now limiting capacity.<br /><br />Anyway what importance? The world rapidly nears the Seneca-Cliff in form of the environmental/warming/hunger catastrophe and all these COVID-discussions only serve to direct the attention away from this incomfortable fact. This is what I wanted to say. I have not much interest in COVID and the related paranoias. <br />Lukas Fierz https://www.blogger.com/profile/18250916325810731604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-3148964763148543102021-12-10T10:20:11.544+01:002021-12-10T10:20:11.544+01:00Unassailable.Unassailable.Ugo Bardihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-50751680400712389352021-12-10T05:24:01.681+01:002021-12-10T05:24:01.681+01:00Well, yes, but "Any sufficiently advanced stu...Well, yes, but "Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice." And some of the "stupidities" are getting awfully hard to attribute to mere idiocy. <br /><br />I am looking at a) the government wants to help us stay healthy, b) this is not about our health but about power and wealth, and c) this is about actively harming our health. I no longer believe it's a), do believe it's b), and am dismayed to find myself leaning more and more toward c) as well.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-57540353410153721642021-12-10T02:29:35.927+01:002021-12-10T02:29:35.927+01:00In this situation "the government" canno...In this situation "the government" cannot "stay in power" without enslaving us. It is as simple as that. So, b) and c) fully coincide. No matter how incompetent governments are, they know it, and they will do their best to fulfil b) anyway. See, we have the worst possible scenario - stupid and corrupt governments with evil plan.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-17543037740783461762021-12-10T02:17:37.514+01:002021-12-10T02:17:37.514+01:00Well, then Sun Tzu is wrong in what he is not sayi...Well, then Sun Tzu is wrong in what he is not saying.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-85407443975728653182021-12-09T19:56:05.718+01:002021-12-09T19:56:05.718+01:00Hello Ugo and Ivan,
I think a more plausible narra...Hello Ugo and Ivan,<br />I think a more plausible narrative is c) Government tries to stay in power.<br />To imagine that they are trying to enslave us is IMHO an overestimation of the competence and capabilities of the elected "leaders". <br />I think they are even more confused than us, since they have an overfull schedule and are bribed/influenced/entertained by more lobbyists than we can count, all with a different story. <br />I think they are lost and in panic and trying to survive in their positions, making up statements and claims as they are meddling along.<br />Of course the "official story" is full of wholes, but I see it as a sign of incompetence, rather than an evil plan. See e.g. Hanlon's Razor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor<br /><br />This is just another case of the Cipolla's model of stupidity, as was explained clearly in this excellent blog in August this year. https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/08/human-stupidity-explained-our-paper-on.html<br /><br />The consequence, if c) is true, is that we have to build local resilience and reduce our dependency on government systems. I am trying to do that. <br /><br />And I suspect that it is useful also if a) or b) or d) happens to be true.<br /> <br />Goran<br /> <br />Göranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02375637941166085188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-37107784559991798962021-12-09T18:11:44.822+01:002021-12-09T18:11:44.822+01:00Dr Fierz, do hospitals in Switzerland get bonuses ...Dr Fierz, do hospitals in Switzerland get bonuses for each covid patient? I am told these bonuses in many countries can be quite substantial. How do you think this affects the covid admissions in general?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-47918418620237087982021-12-09T11:46:51.245+01:002021-12-09T11:46:51.245+01:00That's not what Sun Tzu says!That's not what Sun Tzu says!<br />Ugo Bardihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-82507873982001176202021-12-09T10:37:34.891+01:002021-12-09T10:37:34.891+01:00I happen to be a physician and having worked in in...I happen to be a physician and having worked in intensive care I still get inside information which confirms the official statistics: At the moment Switzerland still can make do with shifting patients from overloaded hospitals to others with free beds. But if the epidemic continues this will give way to a general overcharge already before the end of the year and then the dreaded consequence will be that somebody will have to choose whom to treat and whom not to treat. May I add that experts and insurances did expect such an epidemic since many years while authorities sadly neglected these warnings in Switzerland and the UK. But all this has not much importance, because it will not cause anybodys doom while the climate/resource/hunger catastrophe has already begun, is accelerating and will indeed cause everybodys doom. I am very impressed by Prof.Peter Wadhams, emeritus professor of phyics in Oxford and expert of arctic ice who says that the loss of arctic ice will impair harvests in temperate zones (a pertinent example being last summer) and release methane from permafrost which will accelerate all this, leading to catastrophe perhaps within years. And as Prof.Bardi told us here not long ago civil unrest and revolutions are just nine meals away.Therefore I'm not sure if its time well spent if we discuss the merits of Vaxxers and Antivaxxers on our sinking Titanic.<br /> Lukas Fierz https://www.blogger.com/profile/18250916325810731604noreply@blogger.com