Ecclesia Sueciae, De Quo Ecclesia?

The proposition that the Church of Sweden would have been "left-wing" would have struck most of its historical critics as a cathedral flying in the face of reason. 

In the land of Fox, Milton and the Barons of 1215

 

The issue of free speech in the land that spelled, if not the very first mention of democracy, the advent of modern, representative democracy (and its oft-claimed corollary parliamentary system) but also crucial - and perhaps crucially precognizant to the developed notion of free speech, 

Last to scrap first past

 

It would seem the most sublime, if not the strongest, argument for maintaining so-called "first past the post" is the power of tradition, and that the blood shed by de Montfort and his forces at Evesham and Lewes must not be insulted by pulling the connective tissue between voters (now far removed, and in the millions) and representatives up. But would reform, in effect accomplished, to the elections of the Commons in effect be a more sordid affair than of French, Prussian or New Zealand political institutions and would it diminish democracy, as so many - unspokenly - seem to think? 

The strange death of Swedish Liberalism

 The election, with hours to go before this year's presumed premier political event on the Liberals' part (and perhaps their penultimate) the questionable milestone, as well as decision, to select a leader younger than yours truly to succeed the miracle of mediocrity, the man behind the grill, and hopefully to reenact his historic (well) achievement of not being the second (or third) party leader to lose its Riksdag seats, with the (also questionable) ominous sign they may well not recover. In the case of Swedish Liberalism, once hegemonic (as so many heroes have been) in fighting for their goal, of universal suffrage,    

This constitution of ours

 

It can hardly be doubted that Donald Trump, and his compatriots, have done great harm to the constitution. How much, and which of his enemies may well be considered asides the question of his ilk, remains to be . But in light of the recent affaire of not quite-president Biden and his (not "just" mentally) challenged health, which might have reached apocalyptic levels in the event of his (reasonable, some did say) re-election, do we grasp the fully apocalyptic extents of the present climate. Two unreasonable choices, or so many of the American public would believe,  

More social, less democratic...?

 

The elusive combination summed up, at least in the motherland of parliamentarianism, as "Blue Labour", is 

Cultural revival, economic prosperity and social cohesion 

Not least, what should be the policy on culture? On the ? On the ostensible "replacement", now that "new", or "paleo"-social democracy has adopted its tactics, if not its creed? 

The only certain summary is that a more authoritarian policy, whatever the policy, is sure to replace the current one, in a continuing downward (yes, I will make that value judgment) spiral of . This in turn will, undoubtedly, breed conflict, 

The Scourge of Ukraine

 

Ukraine - it feels odd spelling it with a "k", when the opposite is increasingly prevalent in the K-loving Swedish language - can still sport a number of followers abroad. This is not the case for a large swathe of Ukrainian exiles, a term that seems increasingly ambiguous as a number of mysterious deaths occurring across Western . 

Assassinations within Russia, aimed at Russian generals, may seem offhand (echoing the late, if now increasingly younger Hitchens' remark about Pearl Harbor, almost a "u" there) but seriously within the ambit of modern, hybrid, hyper-mechanised warfare, especially if one considers the serenity with which Russia employs special forces, decapitation strategies and poisonings against "peaceful" traitors and dissidents in Western capitals, 

The grander question here posed is: To what extent ought or southern Slavic allies, as they are yet and for good reason, to utilise methods so decried, to the verge of being considered Russian in substance rather than utility, 

Wrestle not with a monster, as Nietzsche warned, fully aware those who would heed the warning would do or be in the act of doing so anyway, prophetically ascribing not only the mutual escalation of hostilities, but also - and more importantly - the increasing moral decline of the importance of who. Who, who wins, in Ukraine, in the grander game for Eastern Europe (being played from both fronts, I will not abstain from saying it and nobody worth taking seriously would negate it)? We have cause to expect, as in the campaign of 1610, and certainly of 1708 - being a defensive war, after all - and possibly in 1812, who knows, either being (depending on your more immediate, material interests) the cause of our misfortune three years before,