Dictatorship Of Relativism And Difference Of The Left And Conservatives

 

I was driven to dwell on this difficult topic by what's happening in the US and a Facebook post by someone whom I follow and whose writings I enjoy. That Facebook post read: "43% of USA are white evangelicals, most supported Trump. USA has the most well armed ignorant people of any developed country!" 

It's a condescending statement that in one broad stroke, dumbs down on 125m people. Implicit in the statement is the allegory that dogma breeds ignorance. It's a closet thinking that those who believe in faith (dogma) are not open to new ideas. This is postmodern liberal dogma. It's a view that boomerangs because one who subscribes to it must surely themselves be dogmatic.

The big bang of knowledge that burst forth in the Renaissance and brought Europe out of the Dark Ages was due in large part to the role of churches and their missionary work that provided the knowledge base of the time. A role that is still actively pursued to this day. It is undeniable fact that men of faith count amongst the many great names in the arts, sciences, mathematics and philosophies, in the past and present. To name a few - Thomas Aquinas, William Ockham, John Milton, GK Chesterton, CS Lewis, George Washington, William Gladstone, Rembrandt, Johan Sebastian Bach, Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, Robert Boyle, etc. It's notable that Darwin himself never denied the existence of God. Renee Descartes, despite the devil in his thoughts, tried to justify the existence of God. Einstein himself believed in the existence of God, at least in the Spinoza idea of what God is.

One of the great thinkers of our times who clearly identified a destructive sociopolitical development of mankind way ahead of many people, is a man of dogma, Pope Benedict XVI. In his last homily as Cardinal Ratzinger in 2005, he warned of the 'dictatorship of relativism'. Ratzinger was speaking in the context of the church post Vatican II.

A backgrounder for those who don't understand.

In the 16th century, Martin Luther caused a serious rift in the Catholic Church over disagreement about interpretation and practices. It led to the Reformation Movement. Thus was born all manner of denominations of protestant and thousands of evangelical churches.The idea of 'solas scriptura' was the seed. This means interpreting on the bible alone and ignore other man-made traditions. But the question is, on whose interpretation? To each, their own.

In 1870 the Vatican Ecumenical Council (Vatican I) was held. Bishops all over the world gathered in Rome to settle doctrinal issues. The doctrine of 'papal infallibility' was established by the council. This is a cornerstone dogma of the Catholic Church. It states that by virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the pope when appealing to his highest authority, is preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine. In other words, he has the final say on matters of doctrine.

Bishops gathered once again between 1962 to 1965 for Vatican II. For hundreds of years, Catholics had more or less been a cloistered religion, interacting with the world only through its missionary work. Vatican II, in very basic terms, sort of relaxed on some practices in order to engage more with the world. For example, mass was no longer required to be in Latin.

Vatican II brought with it increasing challenge of liberal theology. Deviationist ideologies took root amongst a large homosexual clergy and those skewed toward social justice idealism. The inclination to subjective revision of scriptures was the essence of the danger that Ratzinger warned.

But what does relativism mean? It is the idea that we cannot hold any TRUTH as fixed or absolute. Everything depends on the point of view of the individual. Thus what is correct for a person is influenced by factors such as culture, society, what's been fed into his brain, his agenda, his motivation, etc.. TRUTH is thus relative and subjective.

The clash of Truths is thus one of progressive thoughts verses the conservatives. Those with faith cling to old values such as marriage is between a man and woman, no sex outside of marriage, no killings etc, value systems the progressive liberals brand as dogmatic. 

In the modern world, we live in coexistence under codes of laws of the country. Laws are nothing but the establishment of ABSOLUTES through brute force by legislation. Dura lex, sed lex - the law is harsh, but it is the law. Without laws, ie, without Absolutes, there will be chaos. We are aware the law may not be fair to some in some situations, or they may be interpreted differently. Thus we have the courts to sort things out.

We are born into this world with certain rights - the right to free speech, to association, to religion, to choose the life we want. Where did these rights come from? Before there was Law, there is the Creator. Those with faith understands these rights are God-given. In countries where democracy thrives, man legislated Bills of Rights to enshrine them in their constitution. These legislation is there to protect us from overreach by our government, or those that governs.

The rights are not free gifts from God. They are a package deal that comes with our acceptance of Truth where Absolutes are established. Take away the Absolutes, and Truth crumbles, which puts our rights at great risk. We are living in times where relativism is like a wicked smog that envelopes Absolutes, and Truth is getting more and more difficult to see through the fog. This is the situation that Ratzinger saw with clarity in the Catholic Church. A major part of the Judeo-Western world is in the same inferno, most especially in the USA.

The US had been predominantly conservative for hundreds of years. When progressive liberals make up a small portion of the population, people live and let live. When demographics shift and progressive liberal population grows, their demands explode. A recent Gallup poll shows Liberals have increased substantially to 26% of the population. Their percentages are much more pronounced in cities and in influential positions in academia and entertainment industry.

The US is where Ratzinger's Dictatorship of Relativism is played out in real time and we all have front row seats. This is a situation where those with power, either by brute force, disingenuity, deceit, propaganda, undue influence, or entrapping people via honey pots or corruption, normalises their version of Truths. The Obama administration went down this rabbit hole and Hillary Clinton declared war on religion in 2016 with her statement “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.” The Democratic Party's strategy of identity politics is a fertile ground for relativism. On every issue there is a position to take, where Truths are shapeshifted to fit their agenda for ultimate control. Killing babies is not to be viewed as human rights, but women's choice. Racial equality is not a matter of leveling the playing field and assisting the under-privileged, but if you are born white, you are a racist supremacist. The list goes on.

As the Left grows stronger, dictatorship of relativism manifests itself more openly. The cancel culture is now exploding. If you do not share in their ideas, you get cancelled out. Your Twitter  or Facebook account is closed, banks and other businesses deny you service, you are on no-fly list, etc. Statutes that represent something not in their ideology get pulled down. Soon literature will get cancelled - conservative ideas will be wiped off. There are now calls for McCarthy List of Trump supporters. If you are unfortunate enough to be in the blacklist you may loose your job, or get marched off to re-education camps. Think this is so un-American it will never happen in The Land Of The Free? It is already happening, and the strange thing is that ignorant dogmatic people understands US is sliding into communism, whilst the intelligent un-dogmatic ones don't. They are not 'woke' enough, yet.

The Democratic Party today is in name only. It has revealed its true identity. Now it is a de facto Communist Party. In the Russian Delusion case, President Trump was impeached in a kangaroo court in Congress. For the Assault on Capitol case, President Trump was impeached in Congress in 7 hours, with no evidence, no hearings, no witnesses, no legal presentations. Were do we see such application of justice in action? Only in facist, dictatorial communist regimes.

A review of Trump's speech at the protest rally showed him reminding supporters they are a party of Law and Order and they should conduct the protest peacefully. Nowhere in his measured speech, in non-fiery tones, can a reasonable mind say there was incitement. That is not the Truth the Democrats and leftist media want. Trump incited the attack, period. 

From our front seat row, let's see where Conservatives (who believe in God and have been framed dogmatic ignorants) hold Absolutes as fundamental and where Liberals' relativism twists the Truth about violence.

The inconsistencies and hypocrisy of Democrats and mainstream media on crowd violence is astounding.

For the past 2 years, violent protests by far left groups antifa and Black Lives Matter, have been tolerated, in fact appreciated and encouraged, by media and Democrats. Who can forget the mockery of the CNN billboard calling a 'mostly peaceful' BLM protest as the city burns behind the reporter.

It's true a few Democrats have condemned these violence, but there is a difference between responding to a question on TV, and a voluntary statement on the matter. We have to see through a public display, and their true self. Here are few of their views when the Left rioted :

- Nancy Pelosi has said she does not support riots, but she loved the sight of Hongkong burning in the riots. In Nov 2018, 200 leftist activities, with AOC, unlawfully barged into her office. 51 were arrested, but she said it's ok, let them protest (because they were leftists). To the National Guards currently in DC to protect the inauguration, Pelosi thanked them for their contribution to protect the constitution (because violence from Trump supporters is expected). But in June 2020 she wrote to Trump to condemn him for sending National Guards to help quell the BLM riots over death of George Floyd.
- Kamala Harris' coy dodge-the-question answer of she does'nt support riots, she supports BLM, and they are not going to stop (the rioting), and we should not let them (stop?). Kamala will not disclose details of antifa and BLM rioters who were arrested and released with bail money put up by a fund with Sorro's cash.
- Joe Biden has said he does not support violence, but in the campaigns, he refused to speak on his position on leftist violence. In the Biden-Trump debate, he said "antifa is just an idea".
- Chris Cuomo (NY Gov) "Show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful".

For Democrats and Liberals, violence is acceptable when perpetrated by the Left, antifa and BLM. But when it is the Right and Conservatives, it is insurrection. The rioters are insurgents and traitors. The Democrats' Truth was not the same when the White House was assaulted in 2017 as Trump took office. 

In great contrast, Conservatives, Republicans and alternative right media (considered conspiracy sites by the Left), hold a moral high ground with consistency in their views on violence. They do not tolerate violence, from either the Left or the Right. Conservatives are the dogmatic folks who hold that violent protest is wrong. That is a Truth and it is Absolute. There are no subjective or relative opinions. The reaction of all conservatives to the Capitol assault have been exemplary. All those that mattered came out in full condemnation of the violence. They all said those that barged into the Capitol do not represent what Conservatives stand for, and they should be punished to the full extent of the law. There were no coy answers, no excuses, no evasion of fact. Every one, without exception - from Trump, to Fox News ardent supporters like Tucker Carlson and Judge Jeanie Piro, to various Republican Congressmen and Senators, right media like Epoch News, The Federalists, etc. And they said so with great passion as they lambasted those who barged into the Capitol building.

I shall end with this video (14 min) that perhaps sums up everything. This is Glenn Beck of Blaze TV, one of the most outspoken and ardent supporters of Trump. The passion of his anger at the attack on Capitol is evidently clear. This is representative of people who holds dear to the Absolutes. Watch Glenn talk of the Left and the Right, the Right and Wrong.

New Hawker Programme And How Government & Elites Failed Singaporeans

 

What a splendid programme. a new one year course for Polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) graduates to be a professional hawker. I really admire the brilliant brains of Singapore Inc to come up with this course. So I googled to check if other countries have something similar. We are indeed unique. Being the only country to conduct such a course, perhaps we should start taking in foreign enrollments. Some new scholarships for foreign students would be encouraging, plus an incentive for auto-PR to operate a food stall here after graduation.

Our demographics have shifted dramatically. I estimate 2 out of every 5 persons in Singapore are foreigners. The government fudges the statistics by embedding foreigners with PR status together with local residents. The actual figures of foreigners are thus not transparent. A lax barrier to entry of foreign workers (and their dependents), especially CECA (the FTA with India) caused a flood of foreign workers into the market. The frustrations and anger of Singaporeans at having their jobs stolen has been brewing for a decade.  

All over the world, advanced countries have to grapple with the problem of filling the lower level jobs that locals do not want. Singapore is no exception. So for years, we relied heavily on the good people in our region to fill up the low and unskilled jobs. In the last decade, something changed. The jobs being taken over by foreigners now are PMETs. Even the C-suites are now gone.

There is now a glaring anomaly. Singapore has excellent institutions of learning, and a well-educated, disciplined workforce. These are factors which played a critical role in the roaring success of the Lion City in the past. But this same workforce is now shunned in deference to imported labour from countries that are rated generally much lower than Singapore by all measures of quality metrics.

The rational is pretty straight forward. The government pursues GDP cold-bloodedly on the backs of cheaper foreign labour at the expense of the locals. As we crossed over into the higher value economy, we have hit the diminishing returns on productivity. All businesses big and small, resort to cheaper imported labour to maintain their bottom lines. This is the cold reality.

Our skilled work force is a casualty of the neoclassical economics as we see a tectonic shift of PMETs forced into the gig sector, taking up jobs as Grab driving, food delivery, hawkers, tutoring, freelancing, etc. Ministers who once spoke of the vital importance of human resources given Singapore's lack of natural resources, now see no urgency in the national pool of talent gone to waste. Left unaddressed, this  trajectory will lead to a serious problem of a hollowing out of our own local talent pool. A sociopolitical timebomb is in the works. Singaporeans have been pushed into the cul de sac, a place where Lee Kuan Yew was well aware, people carry hatchets there. It's a powder keg but the ruling party, with the confidence of a police state, fears no 'stop-the-steal' scenario. With votes guaranteed by calibrated naturalisation of foreign workers, no serious change in imported labour policies is on the horizon.

Where are the voices from our industry leaders? ABSOLUTE SILENCE. Is there any who has voiced concerns? Any suggestions? Anyone that said the unemployment situation is bad so I'm going to keep the jobs for Singaporeans? None of these. As corporate animals, they all want record bottom lines to satiate the bank balances of the most important stakeholders, the top executives. Why should they pay top dollars for a Singaporean manager when a 30 year old MBA from India can fill the post at half the cost, does'nt matter the quality of the certificate. The Singapore elites have abandoned the ordinary Singaporeans. Corporate greed over jobs for Singaporeans.

The government dumbs down on Singaporeans with Explainer #1 - foreign talents are critical for the new economy skills our country lacks.  Singaporeans are cosmopolitan enough to appreciate that foreign talents are useful and top talents are headhunted by corporations all over the world. These would be the top tier talents in the latest and emerging technologies, the deal makers, the marketers with international connectedness, the level 1 executives of industry sector that Singapore wants to develop. The core of Singaporean push back of foreign PMETs are those executives in general management such as HR, Administration, Facility Management, Operations, Purchasing, Customer Services, Public Relation, Promotion, Advertising, Accounting, Finance, Treasury, IT systems development, etc.These foreign PMETs take away Singaporean jobs, they are not here to create jobs. Do we need hundreds of thousands of them here? The government is afraid, very afraid, to provide the real data of what type of foreign talents are really here. It will out their lies.

The Government rubs it in with Explainer #2 - foreigners help to create jobs for locals.The foreign talents that come here and create jobs are the investors and entrepreneurs. and there can't be 1 million of them here. 

Admission of failure is implicit in Explainer # 1. The Ministry of Education failed to plan for the market requirements of the new economy. Back in the 1980s, when Singapore decided to shift away from labour intensive industries to high value added economy, we underwent a wholistic structural change. That included educational curricular refocus for learning institutions to churn out the technically and professionally relevant graduates. In contrast to Iskandar Technology Corridor of Malaysia, Johore in the 1990s. Malaysia made no change in school curriculum to produce the technicians. When industries moved into Iskandar, there was a big problem of lack of the right labour skills. If our government now says we lack the skills for the new economy, its another way of saying, like Iskandar then, MOE did'nt plan the educational system well this time. 

The nouveau business trend is 'hubbing'. Basically, the MNCs are reshapping their business models into regional hubs where regional HQs control a geographical sphere of operations. Singapore has a significant share of the action for various reasons such as political stability, good infrastructures, skilled labour force (and now lower cost and readily sourced from India and elsewhere), strong financial market, pro-business government, clear legislation. sufficient pool of professional support in various spheres of business, etc. A concentration of HQs on the island means big corporate decisions are made here, such as regards maintenance of supply chain, distribution, telecommunication, commodity sourcing, etc. In order to support these big corporate decisions, our financial markets, risk mitigation markets, the commodity exchanges, international law professionals, etc, have developed in tandem. The overall picture is a rosy one. But the never-mentioned part is MNCs site their operating units in the region, such as Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia etc. The issue with this is HQs in Singapore generate no tax revenue to the government. The point then is, tremendous economic activity is created around this hubbing model, but we don't have any metrics to understand the net impact given the influx of foreign workers.  Has the benefit trickled down to Singaporeans or foreign workers?

The government constantly defends CECA by dumbing down on the lack of skills of Singaporeans in emerging technologies. Whilst it is of course true there are always some top of the heap skills that not just Singaporeans, but every other country. do not have, the rationale has been totally quoted out of proportion. It's got to a point Singaporeans are having a crisis of self-doubts. A depressive mood has replaced the confidence we once had under the 1st gen leadership. I like to pooh-pooh this crap mentality with a real life story of a young Singaporean I know well. Let's call him Lowian. He worked in the Singapore office of one of the world's biggest FMCG corporation. Their data analytics was outsourced to a specialist big data company. About 3 years ago the company decided to set up their own big data capability. Lowian was sent to Vietnam to set up the company. One year later, the company was in operation and Lowian is the head honcho there. Lowian is no scientist nor electronic engineer. He is just a young Singaporean with some humble IT background. The company is now running big data analytics with 100% Vietnamese employees. There are no Indian IT experts. 

With a population of 3.5m true Singaporeans, and having built an economy and infrastructure and services for 6.9m, Singapore is in a situation similar to United Arab Emirate. We have painted ourselves into a corner. The policy of dependence on foreign workers cannot be reversed without causing a collapse of the property market and wrecking the whole economy.  And so the government does lip service with band aid regulatory changes designed to constraint employers' predatory recruitment practices that disadvantage Singaporeans. Most of these have been seen to be ineffective. The government also funds several palliative skills upgrading courses. One really wonders what additional skills can managers in HR, admin, facility maintenance, finance, procurement, sales, etc add on to help them retain their jobs.

And so this new hawkerpreneuralship course is yet one more brilliant idea of the government. Dressed up beautifully for the public but addresses not the real problem of stolen jobs. But who really cares. MP Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State, has her sight set on many ribbon cutting events for new food stall openings. There is no more need for her to cut ribbons for new bus stops and garbage bins. At least for her, there is an upgrade of sorts.

 

Italian Job 3 - PM Conte, Leornado SPA & US Embassy Robbed Trump Of His Votes?

This is EXPLOSIVE stuff but a caveat : not yet fully-authenticated.

Trump' votes may jolly well have been stolen by the Italians.  It has been uncovered and this may well be the real reason why they want Trump out immediately via an Amendment 25 impeachment when he has only 2 weeks left.

Early Dec 2020, two employees of Italian aerospace company Leonarda Spa (whose US subsidiary gets $ billions of US defense contracts) were arrested in Rome for stealing company secrets. This part of the story has been reported by Reuters.  CNN, MSNBC and gang -- silent.

The court hearing came up a few days ago and it was explosive in Italy. US media - silent. Even conservative media and usual conspiracy sites have not caught onto it. I heard from internet chatter and managed to find it in the Federal Inquirer.

Conte, Leonardo SpA and the U.S. Embassy behind the Election Data Switch fraud to take out Trump .... Federal Inquirer

Two US civil groups working on election integrity, acted on it and have advised Trump Team and loyal Congressmen and Senators. These are Nations In Action, a government transparency organization, partnering with the Institute of Good Governance. They have issued a press statement, but media is not covering it. I think Guiliani hinted about this at the Capitol protest.

Prof Arturo, one of the accused, made a stunning revelation. He was part of a team that rigged the US election results. Data came from Franffurt CIA, via US Embassy Rome, to Leornado Spa. They manipulated the data, then sent it back to Dominion machines via Leornado’s own satellite.

On the morning of Nov 4, when Rome started the day, they realised the algorithm used to manipulate the votes had been overwhelmed by the huge gains Trump had in the 6 swing states. That’s when they instructed the machines be shut down to give them time to recalibrate. That’s why all 6 states shut down at the same time.

This seems to sync, time wise. It was late at night US Nov 3, but early morning Rome Nov 4.

Prof Arturo said he has copies of original and altered data kept somewhere which can substantiate everything he said. An affidavit in English has been provided by his attorney as to the general manner of his involvement with the election vote rigging in favour of Biden. His life is in extreme danger and he is under police protection.

The involvement of Italy is very very plausible. 2016 Russia Delusion started off with an Italian guy (I forgot his name) who told Trump campaign aide George Papadupoulost he had evidence from Russian agents regarding Hillary Clinton's stolen emails. He fixed a meeting in Australia. George met Maltese Prof Joseph Mifsud. It was a CIA entrapment to obtain photos of George seen together with Russian agent. Poor George went to jail after the Mueller Congressional Inquiry. Mifsud disappeared. He is suspected to be an Italian secret agent.

But the link is always about money. Prime Minister Conte is implicated. It seems he has some interest in Leonardo Spa which receives lucrative US defense contracts.  And they don’t like Trump’s military disengagement policies.

Needless to say, if true, the election fraud is the biggest fraud ever committed in human history. The accusation is so serious the joint press release of Nations in Action and Institute for Good Governance are making the following no nonsense demands on elected officials:

• Depose State Department officials starting with Rome staff including Stefan Serafini
• Immediately strip Leonardo SpA of all contracts and seize assets
• All congressional members must speak out against this foreign and domestic interference or face recalls and suspicion of involvement
• Implement the most severe penalties for participants who had knowledge or participated and refuse to assist in the investigation

Because this involves an EU country, and an Italian premier, it is very complicated for Trump to sort it out. With 2 weeks left and treasonous actors everywhere he looked, it will be a Herculean challenge for Trump. But with prayers, he can overcome. The good thing about being conservatives, one can turn to prayers in times like this. 

It may well be The Italian Job will finally pull the rug from under Joe Biden's feet and give Trump his second term. And send thousands to jail.