Less than half a year after its introduction in February, the Austrian government has announced that the mandatory COVID vaccination will soon be a thing of the past. The opposition calls people to remain watchful though.
New studies exposing the dangers of the COVID-19 vaccines are published on a weekly basis. But, along with the mounting number of vaccine-related side effects, they are routinely met with silence by the media and politicians.
Our dreary present, in its moralizing arrogance, believes it can judge countless generations of our ancestors, while refusing to even try and grasp the spiritual richness of our past.
The notion that there are limits to our growth is holding the West in a psychological stranglehold. Whereas other civilizations are thriving, the West suffers from a weariness that stifles any belief in further progress. This weariness has had a name for almost 2,000 years: Acedia.
After a car accident involving two drunken bodyguards of the Austrian chancellor, suspicions of structural abuse of bodyguards by high-ranking politicians harden. An anonymous letter reveals abusive structures, the opposition inquires.
More than 500 years ago Antoine Brumel wrote a 12-part Mass that allows us to experience the uninhibited spirituality of the pre-Reformation world of the early 16th century. Its construction from a tiny motif of Gregorian chant from the Easter Lauds is nothing less than awe-inspiring.
Germany has started to beat the drums of war, fueled by a desire to redeem its ancestral sins, and embracing the Russian scapegoat as a distraction from its failed energy politics.
The outbreak of war in Ukraine has caused an identity crisis in Europe. Yesterday’s pacifism turned into today’s belligerence in a heartbeat, all the while avoiding the geopolitical elephant in the room in favor of moral indignation. This should be a wake-up call.
Throughout his life, Stefan Zweig promoted the idea of a peaceful, united Europe but this was a call which went unheard during his lifetime. On the 80th anniversary of his suicide, his forgotten calls for peace in Europe are as urgent as ever.
We are in a situation in which a democratic decision-making process has been abandoned in favour of deferral to the ‘experts’ chosen by the media. This cannot be good.
We continue to find insights into the power of music to arouse emotions—even about armed conflicts and military triumphs like the Siege (and later Relief) of Vienna on September 12, 1683.
