Of Petri Dishes and Walpurgis
by Paul Trog
As if out of a Petri dish,
a ferment evolved in the City States of Italy some 500 years ago, spreading
from there to the farthest reaches of Europe. Its dynamic generated many
strains of revolutionary thought and these, in turn, triggered a host of events
both extraordinary and lethal. The "Sacco di Roma" or the 'Sacking of
Rome' was one of them. At that time (XVIth century), the City States of
Northern Italy were paying tribute to the Holy Roman Emperor and NOT to the
Pope in Rome. This conflict of interest unleashed a war which fractured
Christianity and caused an event of incredible debauchery to happen in the Holy
City; it was a veritable 'Walpurgis night' orgy, lasting fully 10 months. It
happened on May 6th, 1527:
In attempting to defend
Pope Clement VII, a member of the Medici banking family of Florence, the Swiss
Papal Guard and other allied forces were thoroughly decimated as thousands of
leaderless mercenaries, the 'Landsknechte' of Habsburg Emperor Charles V,
breached the walls surrounding the Vatican and streamed over the Tiber bridges
into the heart of Rome. Setting the stage for this singular and 'epochal drama',
as Prof. Volker Reinhardt of the University of Fribourg described the event,
were the fiery speeches of Martin Luther. These shook the moral and theological
framework embodied in the Roman Catholic faith...(within the Holy Trinity,
there never was a conflict, there is none now, nor will there ever be one.
Hegel's axiom "Thesis/Antithesis = Synthesis" therefore is wrong. This axiom is
the root cause for major ideological conflicts and Utopias). And as the
prevailing ambivalence increased, a rebellious animosity towards perceived
excesses of the Catholic Church evolved.
Propelled by naked greed,
coupled with a lust for booty and gold, the 'Landsknechte', a thoroughly
undisciplined and criminal rabble, proceeded on a rampage lasting nearly a
year. It was described as a veritable paroxysm of evil, nothing less than a
witches Sabbath. Killings, lootings, a systematic violation of nuns, and the
desacration of the numerous churches of Rome, donkeys were fed the Holy Host
(Body of Christ), a cardinal was carried alive on a stretcher to his burial,
and had to read his funeral oration himself, - and worse, the abomination of
opening and robbing the graves of Saints and Martyres! Even the tomb of the
Apostle Peter was not spared.
These events were never
properly explained and analysed, nor were they sufficiently made public. Luther
was silent, neither writing nor saying anything about them. However, every one
of the sixteenth century rulers of Europe, regardless of the faith they chose
to embrace, were deeply shamed by this horrible event. The historian Reinhardt
described the 'Sacco' as a political catastrophe, followed by many others.
"Those who gaze at the flow of history, look into an abyss" he
concluded.
Out of an abyss and while
the Christian faith was conflicted and splitting, the "Renaissance
Man" emerged. He fathered Godless humanism and any number of other
malevolent Utopias.
In the latter part of the
nineteenth century, a malignant strain of thought was concocted in a Swiss
Petri dish. It was conceived, nurtured and launched by the philosopher Prof.
Dr. Friedrich Nietzsche, who taught at the University of Basle for 10 years
(l869/1878). His racial theory was based on the concept of genetic superiority.
He invented out of hand and gave life to the term 'Superman'. His 'Master Race'
was to reject Judeo Christian morality emphatically and embrace the
'Herrenmoral' (morality of the Master Race), coupled to the dynamic of the
'Wille zur Macht' (the will to achieve power). These ideas were adopted by
Hitler after the First World War and subsequently fully integrated into the
ideology of National Socialism. Armed with this formidable ideological vehicle
Hitler enthralled the German people and visited incredible death and
destruction on the world. It all started a few years before he unleashed World
War II with purposeful and lethal duplicity. And then, a catastrophic maelstrom
overwhelmed Europe.
Racial pride, the right to
kill and exterminate at will for the purpose of absolute domination and to
achieve racial purity, these were fundamental tenets of the Arian moral code.
They provided National Socialism with psychological cover and justification for
all the monstrous atrocities it committed in the concentration camps and the
Holocaust
Indeed, Nietzsche's 'Herrenmoral'
bore the fruits of hell!
Minutes before committing
suicide, Hitler, in a final outbreak of homosexual pseudo-machismo, had the
audacity to berate the German people as "unworthy" of him!
Hopefully, 'Superman died
with him that day.
And a peaceful Swiss
democracy was yet again the Petri dish in which Lenin chose to nurture a
virulent strain of class hatred, grown from the bacterium of Marxist thought.
He lived in Switzerland on and off for 6 1/2 years and honed his powerfully
malevolent ideology in many Swiss public libraries into a revolutionary
juggernaut that transformed history. By rejecting each and every Judeo
Christian tenet, the Communist Revolution has caused millions of deaths and
created untold havoc all over the globe during the 20th century. Lenin believed
that class warfare coupled with equal wealth distribution and the dictatorship
of the proletariat would usher in world peace and prosperity. Upon achieving
this, he expected the 'New Communist Man' to emerge automatically. He would be
a resolute and dedicated proletarian, a committed servant of the all-powerful
Worker's Paradise. Thankfully, this servile creature has not yet evolved!
Today, a morphed communist
ideology is working with stealth, intimidation, systematic lies and with a
dynamic commitment to gain power by the use of corruption and blackmail. This
brand of Communism was conceived by Antonio Gramsci, the founder of the Communist
Party of Italy. He shunned wars and bloody revolutions, deeming them
unnecessary. Both Gramsci and Lukacs, another brilliant Marxist theoretician,
identified Western civilization and its core, Christianity, as being the reason
why the Soviet "revolution" did not spread. Thus they founded the Frankfurt
School as a Comintern operation against Western institutions, which was also a
major arm for facilitating the corruption of Christianity and its Churches. And
the Granmsci brand is gaining ground everywhere by quietly studying the
psychological makeup of its capitalist foe. For years, MIAs (Missing in Action
- those countless unreported, unregistered POW's of the Korean war, Viet Nam
etc. etc.) were used as guinea-pigs for the sole purpose of developing ever
more lethal and addictive psychomorphic drugs for distribution in the USA and
the world. The purpose is to undermine morals, family values, religion, the
work ethic, and all the basic motives determining the actions of free men and
women.
To accelerate the rotting
process that decomposes the pillars of Christian democracy, Gramsci rightfully
surmised, is to achieve ultimate victory at the ballot box and power without
bloodshed.
Indeed, this is happening
today, as we speak.
Yet another ideology spread
its wings across the world from Switzerland. It was the brainchild of an
American, Frank Buchman: Moral Re-Armament. The dynamic of this movement was
rooted in a correct and profound realization that moral and ethical standards
of behaviour are indeed of vital importance for the proper functioning of a
free and democratic society. These tenets are equally indispensable for
securing mankind's survival on planet earth. Therefore, every adherent was
expected to make a courageous commitment to live in accordance with the ethical
absolutes of honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. If and when possible,
restitution was to be made for past transgressions and sincere apologies
offered for prior untoward behaviour. This new way of life was to be attempted
every day afresh and striven for with Divine help - the guidance of God
sustaining and propelling the human will ever forward, generating virile and
creative deeds. Support teams of dedicated men and women were a prerequisite
for a dynamic to unfold that had the power to transform both personal and
family life. This in turn produced a guilt-free freshness of thought, a
firmness in decision making and creative boldness in strategic planning. All
this determined their conduct of business and enhanced their productivity at
the working place. Their deeds permeated into the broader economy and
determined, in many recorded instances, the policies of nations.
Initially, this idea was
rooted in Christianity. But its roots did not reach deeply into the genetic
core of its leadership and its adherents. The Blood of Christ was unable
therefore to fully remold, by its grace, both their nature and their character,
forgiving and healing every vestige of the past, down to every imbedded
transgression and inbred sin. Consequently, the core repository of ancestral
charysms remained coagulated and thus, TRANSMOGRIFICATION could not occur. And
so, lacking in depth, this interesting experiment was doomed to fail.
Subsequent efforts to encompass all religions and creeds, as well as those of
no faith at all, in a SUPERIOR IDEOLOGY, the purpose of which was nothing less
than "remaking the world: new men, new nations, a new world, - absolute moral
standards and the guidance of God, a program for everyone, everywhere" as my
friend Hilmar von Campe describes the broad aims, methods and outreach of the
movement. An all-encompassing Deity was to lead and facilitate the change and
rebirth of men and nations; it was a concept of considerable appeal. For a
time, its success was indisputable. But as its initial source of power was
progressively neglected, there was a marked loss of sustained purpose. And with
its potency dwindling, the movement waned. Subsequently, after a change of
appellation, its name evaporated along with most of its indisputable
accomplishments.
President Obama's recent
declaration that the USA is NOT a Christian nation, will undoubtedly lead
America towards a similar fate, in the author's opinion.
Today, the challenge for
our present Christian generation is basic and urgent. The Walpurgis experience
of Woodstock in Bethel NY transformed our culture and mores. This event, in
essence, resembles the "Sacco" in many respects; it shook and
fractured both morals and the Christian belief-structures. It has shrouded the
nation in a cloud of drugs and financial pipedreams, often conceived by Wall
Street traders high on cocaine. A technological cocoon is surrounding and
gripping everyone, granting us less and less time to think and reach out
independently to God. These factors are bound to change homo sapiens in his
substance and essence, endangering the basic freedom of choice. The song
'American Pie¨' by Don Mclean has lyrics worth reading carefully. It is more
than a warning.
But still, by the grace of
the Blood shed by Christ for all men and women, the genetic substance in the
core of man can be TRANSMOGRIFIED. We can be transformed. This option is open,
available to all.
Paul Trog
Innsbruck
06/30/09