Phyllis Beveridge Nissila
A black swan showed up in Tiananmen Square two days ago (Sept. 5, 2021). See here for a short video clip.
But the clip shows something else, in my view, but of as much significance, if not greater, away from the pizzazz and portent (or not) of the usual significance of the appearance of a black swan in a town square.
Here is today’s take on the event compared and contrasted with a take fifteen months ago, linked below.
See what you think.
ON BLACK SWANS AND OMENS
Black Swan: figuratively speaking, there is a “black swan theory” [that] refers only to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history” (source). Such events could signify good or evil.
Omen: something that is believed to be a sign or warning of something that will happen in the future (source), meanings varying per culture.
Tiananmen Square or Tian’anmen Square: “(;[1] 天安门, Pinyin: Tiān’ānmén; Wade–Giles: Tʻien1-an1-mên2) is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, located near the city’s Central Business District and named after the eponymous Tiananmen (“Gate of Heavenly Peace”) located to its north, which separates it from the Forbidden City. The square contains the Monument to the People’s Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and Or the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. […] It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history. […] Outside China, the square is best known for the 1989 protests that ended with a military crackdown, which is also known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre or June Fourth Massacre.[4][5][6]” (SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA)
Or Not: An omen, aka prophecy, is, after all, subject to whether or not it comes true, which is also the difference between true and false prophecies.
The “gray area between absolute true and absolute false,” however, is a great big playground for both false omens and false prophecies that each have their purposes and game plans. More on this, up next–
DECEPTION
Given the times we live in, here’s where it gets fun (in a black humor kind of way).
It’s really quite serious on the ground.
Keeping in mind the tactic of “Military Deception” known as “Ambiguity Increasing (AI),” featured in two recent posts here, and here, all that may be needed by simply the appearance of said swan in said Square, though, is to suggest, imply, and/or hint at its POSSIBLE significance because enough is accomplished in the minds and emotions of those who comprehend the cultural significance and/or the theory to do whatever strategical trick the, ah, tricksters have in mind.
So it is enough that AI may or may not signify an actual event.
It is enough that AI increases anxiety, fear, trepidation, doubt, confusion, and/or chaos in the MIND AND EMOTIONS of the observor because that “gray area strategy” can be as powerful as any real event.
It may not accomplish kinetic advantage (right away) but psychological advantage which preps the prey for the killshot. As it were.
I mean, the video could simply be documentation of some random black swan cuttin’ loose from the flock and taking a stroll downtown but such an event, weighted especially these days with the dark portent of a cultural sign might easily induce even MORE fear, trepidation, tension, forboding, and so on. Especially because swans aren’t really indigenous to mid-town squares. Not to mention a swan in THAT place that lives in infamy in the minds of many who remember certain events that took place there thirty-odd years ago…
And when all or even some of the feelings noted above show up, it becomes easier to control the masses, if that’s what you’re lookin’ to do, who are, in reality this time, already somewhat freaked out by the unprecedented events this past 18 months originating in perhaps a very relevant country, the name of which is ________ (maybe, maybe not, yes, no, yes again–you get the idea).
But wait! There’s more!
(Side Note: I set this section up to sound like an infomercial because I sometimes think Ambiguity Increasing is very much like a clever commercial that advertises something else beneath the surface of the senses where–in this case, anyway–fear lives and breeds and wears people down, and more easily conquers.)
But wait! the best is yet to come!
I sometimes think the “beauty”–and eventual success–of deceptionfare, you might call this strategy, is how, well, lies work best as a kind of interactive game where one of the stakeholders thinks all the rules apply but the other flaunts them by design because who wins is not based on the actual game score but on the unwitting player’s willingness to take risks or not, willingness to suspend critical thinking, or not, how much he/she is driven by emotion over reason, or not, but–most importantly–his/her willingness to KEEP PLAYING THE GAME…
Know what I mean?
ON THE OTHER “EVENT”
As to the other “event” in the video that I view as very significant in a metaphorical kind of way, is the entrance of the man in black, white mask, and umbrella who shows up about midway, pauses for a scant few seconds to take note of what’s going on, then cuts through the crowd of onlookers and picture-takers, veers to his left and resumes his brisk stride off to be about his real business of the day.
To continue the significance of people like him (if not actually him, of course) THAT RIGHT THERE is the kind of thing that will always befuddle and best those very clever and talented deceptionfare folks. I am referring to the kind of people, like that man, who take note but don’t take bait.
They just keep working their plan, attending to Bigger Events and Meanings, and, in the case of believers (more on this below), bypass as quickly as possible the hype, hoopla, and horror (or what may or may not be same) attending not to black swans in odd places but to “white doves” (classic symbol of the Holy Spirit) in all places.
Now to my favorite PART: ON WHITE DOVES AND PROPHECY
(And where we were just fifteen months ago!)
The expression “Black Swan event” crops up more and more these days.
Black Swan Event?
According to scholar, mathematical statistician, risk analyst, and one of the most well-known modern authors on Black Swan Theory Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a black swan event is an unpredictable occurrence or situation with three basic components:
First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme ‘impact’. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable […]
Taleb’s “black swan theory” refers only to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history. (source)
Some believe the COVID-19 coronavirus might well be such a black swan event, specifically with regard to its severe global impact on not only health but also economics.
As to COVID-19 being outside the realm of regular expectations, those who track the development of biological weapons would not be so surprised at the presence of a virus with a possible man-engineered component; however, the impossibility of knowing the specifics–in global, historic proportions–would still qualify it as a black swan.
So this can keep a body–and a world–on edge which is why, after the fact, human nature kicks in asap. We must analyze for not only causes but also, arguably, for control.
Because if we can’t figure stuff like this out we end up twisting in the wind mentally, emotionally, and/or psychologically, which is a scary, lonely place to be. So we must figure it out, lest fear locks out logic and critical thinking, and so that we might at least ward off–and warn of–future, similar events.
Quelling angst with analysis as much as possible also boosts mental, emotional, and psychological immunities.
And yet, like a physical body worn down by a chronic and constant low-grade fever, black swan events, or the slow-festering threat of them for those paying attention up front, continue plaguing the globe, and as soon as one peaks, we scramble to get back to either what we knew of normalcy or what kind of new normacly we can know.
Because with black swan events, there’s no going back, and transitions, as they say, can be a b–ch.
However, it’s different with biblical prophecy–one of the key boosters of spiritual immunity.
For as much as the unpredictable and dramatic nature of black swan events provoke fear which compromises nomalcy and a sense of security, biblical prophecies, by contrast, although still requiring discernment and close study, instill confidence and sustain hope.
And we don’t have to wait until the fever breaks, as it were, or the event has devastated world health and financial stability, to know the who, what, when, where, why, and how details–or enough general information about same–to prepare as much as possible and not be taken by surprise.
Consider:
Biblical Prophecies
First, last, and always, here’s what God has to say on the subject of biblical prophecy:
For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. (Amos, 3:7, ESV)
Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose… (Isaiah 46:10)
And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts… (2 Peter 1:19)
Thus, the first point in line to bolster my case and in stark contrast to the best of Taleb’s (and other black swan theorists’) assertion that “nothing in the past can convincingly point to (the event’s) possibility,” God gifts us with prophecy as transcribed in His Word and by His people.
But how can we know if this or that person is a true prophet or a false one? After all, didn’t even Jesus say there would be many fale prophets?
To address my second point–we can know:
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep… (2 Peter 2:1-3, bolding added)
The bolded parts describe false prophets as secretive, lying, sensuous instead of spiritual, blasphemous of the true Gospel, greedy, exploitive–and all this has been prophesied in advance. So to aid us in our close analysis of real prophets vs false the rubric was given us ahead of time.
In the spiritual realm, as is any, forewarned is also forearmed–and reassuring.
And to my final point: of course, this presupposes we will have studied God’s Word carefully. Here is some basic information on how to do so. Here is a specific example with a little help from a literature instructor.
Bonus point: but perhaps the most astonishing evidence of the dependability and statistical accuracy of biblical prophecies, something the best and brightest among us, such as Taleb, are always working on for secular purposes, consider the following from the article “55 Old Testatment Prophecies about Jesus,” (Jesus Film Project, Januray 4, 2018):
Some scholars believe there are more than 300 prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament. These prophecies are specific enough that the mathematical probability of Jesus fulfilling even a handful of them, let alone all of them, is staggeringly improbable—if not impossible.
Peter Stoner, Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena College, was passionate about biblical prophecies. With 600 students from the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Stoner looked at eight specific prophecies about Jesus. They came up with extremely conservative probabilities for each one being fulfilled, and then considered the likelihood of Jesus fulfilling all eight of those prophecies.
The conclusion to his research was staggering. The prospect that anyone would satisfy those eight prophecies was just 1 in 1017. In Science Speaks, he described it like this:
“Let us try to visualize this chance. If you mark one of ten tickets, and place all of the tickets in a hat, and thoroughly stir them, and then ask a blindfolded man to draw one, his chance of getting the right ticket is one in ten. Suppose that we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state.
“Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote using their own wisdom.”
Thus, as opposed to mankind’s best available tools to figure out when the world is going to be shaken by a black swan event that leaves us only with the ability to try to “concoct explanations for (the event’s) occurrence after the fact” (emphasis added) in order to only hope to make it “explainable and predictable,” with God, we get both explanations and predictions beforehand.
In most cases, long beforehand.
Which is why so many believers and students of so-called “end times” (aka “last days,” aka “end of the Church Age”) Bible prophecies are flipping through those pages again. In even greater earnest. Just now.
And they are “looking up” for, arguably, “our redemption draweth nigh” (which is an all-purpose, all-systems immunity booster for what gets us from here to there).
Join us?
Today would be good.
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On a Black Swan in Tiananmen Square and Omens (or not); a White Dove and Prophecy; and Where We Were Just 15 Months Ago
Phyllis Beveridge Nissila
A black swan showed up in Tiananmen Square two days ago (Sept. 5, 2021). See here for a short video clip.
But the clip shows something else, in my view, but of as much significance, if not greater, away from the pizzazz and portent (or not) of the usual significance of the appearance of a black swan in a town square.
Here is today’s take on the event compared and contrasted with a take fifteen months ago, linked below.
See what you think.
ON BLACK SWANS AND OMENS
Black Swan: figuratively speaking, there is a “black swan theory” [that] refers only to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history” (source). Such events could signify good or evil.
Omen: something that is believed to be a sign or warning of something that will happen in the future (source), meanings varying per culture.
Tiananmen Square or Tian’anmen Square: “(/ˈtjɛnənmən/;[1] 天安门, Pinyin: Tiān’ānmén; Wade–Giles: Tʻien1-an1-mên2) is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, located near the city’s Central Business District and named after the eponymous Tiananmen (“Gate of Heavenly Peace”) located to its north, which separates it from the Forbidden City. The square contains the Monument to the People’s Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and Or the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. […] It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history. […] Outside China, the square is best known for the 1989 protests that ended with a military crackdown, which is also known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre or June Fourth Massacre.[4][5][6]” (SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA)
Or Not: An omen, aka prophecy, is, after all, subject to whether or not it comes true, which is also the difference between true and false prophecies.
The “gray area between absolute true and absolute false,” however, is a great big playground for both false omens and false prophecies that each have their purposes and game plans. More on this, up next–
DECEPTION
Given the times we live in, here’s where it gets fun (in a black humor kind of way).
It’s really quite serious on the ground.
Keeping in mind the tactic of “Military Deception” known as “Ambiguity Increasing (AI),” featured in two recent posts here, and here, all that may be needed by simply the appearance of said swan in said Square, though, is to suggest, imply, and/or hint at its POSSIBLE significance because enough is accomplished in the minds and emotions of those who comprehend the cultural significance and/or the theory to do whatever strategical trick the, ah, tricksters have in mind.
So it is enough that AI may or may not signify an actual event.
It is enough that AI increases anxiety, fear, trepidation, doubt, confusion, and/or chaos in the MIND AND EMOTIONS of the observor because that “gray area strategy” can be as powerful as any real event.
It may not accomplish kinetic advantage (right away) but psychological advantage which preps the prey for the killshot. As it were.
I mean, the video could simply be documentation of some random black swan cuttin’ loose from the flock and taking a stroll downtown but such an event, weighted especially these days with the dark portent of a cultural sign might easily induce even MORE fear, trepidation, tension, forboding, and so on. Especially because swans aren’t really indigenous to mid-town squares. Not to mention a swan in THAT place that lives in infamy in the minds of many who remember certain events that took place there thirty-odd years ago…
And when all or even some of the feelings noted above show up, it becomes easier to control the masses, if that’s what you’re lookin’ to do, who are, in reality this time, already somewhat freaked out by the unprecedented events this past 18 months originating in perhaps a very relevant country, the name of which is ________ (maybe, maybe not, yes, no, yes again–you get the idea).
But wait! There’s more!
(Side Note: I set this section up to sound like an infomercial because I sometimes think Ambiguity Increasing is very much like a clever commercial that advertises something else beneath the surface of the senses where–in this case, anyway–fear lives and breeds and wears people down, and more easily conquers.)
But wait! the best is yet to come!
I sometimes think the “beauty”–and eventual success–of deceptionfare, you might call this strategy, is how, well, lies work best as a kind of interactive game where one of the stakeholders thinks all the rules apply but the other flaunts them by design because who wins is not based on the actual game score but on the unwitting player’s willingness to take risks or not, willingness to suspend critical thinking, or not, how much he/she is driven by emotion over reason, or not, but–most importantly–his/her willingness to KEEP PLAYING THE GAME…
Know what I mean?
ON THE OTHER “EVENT”
As to the other “event” in the video that I view as very significant in a metaphorical kind of way, is the entrance of the man in black, white mask, and umbrella who shows up about midway, pauses for a scant few seconds to take note of what’s going on, then cuts through the crowd of onlookers and picture-takers, veers to his left and resumes his brisk stride off to be about his real business of the day.
To continue the significance of people like him (if not actually him, of course) THAT RIGHT THERE is the kind of thing that will always befuddle and best those very clever and talented deceptionfare folks. I am referring to the kind of people, like that man, who take note but don’t take bait.
They just keep working their plan, attending to Bigger Events and Meanings, and, in the case of believers (more on this below), bypass as quickly as possible the hype, hoopla, and horror (or what may or may not be same) attending not to black swans in odd places but to “white doves” (classic symbol of the Holy Spirit) in all places.
Now to my favorite PART: ON WHITE DOVES AND PROPHECY
(And where we were just fifteen months ago!)
How to Boost Your Immunities, 2020 Edition, Part 16–Black Swan Events vs Biblical Prophecies
The expression “Black Swan event” crops up more and more these days.
Black Swan Event?
According to scholar, mathematical statistician, risk analyst, and one of the most well-known modern authors on Black Swan Theory Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a black swan event is an unpredictable occurrence or situation with three basic components:
Some believe the COVID-19 coronavirus might well be such a black swan event, specifically with regard to its severe global impact on not only health but also economics.
As to COVID-19 being outside the realm of regular expectations, those who track the development of biological weapons would not be so surprised at the presence of a virus with a possible man-engineered component; however, the impossibility of knowing the specifics–in global, historic proportions–would still qualify it as a black swan.
So this can keep a body–and a world–on edge which is why, after the fact, human nature kicks in asap. We must analyze for not only causes but also, arguably, for control.
Because if we can’t figure stuff like this out we end up twisting in the wind mentally, emotionally, and/or psychologically, which is a scary, lonely place to be. So we must figure it out, lest fear locks out logic and critical thinking, and so that we might at least ward off–and warn of–future, similar events.
Quelling angst with analysis as much as possible also boosts mental, emotional, and psychological immunities.
And yet, like a physical body worn down by a chronic and constant low-grade fever, black swan events, or the slow-festering threat of them for those paying attention up front, continue plaguing the globe, and as soon as one peaks, we scramble to get back to either what we knew of normalcy or what kind of new normacly we can know.
Because with black swan events, there’s no going back, and transitions, as they say, can be a b–ch.
However, it’s different with biblical prophecy–one of the key boosters of spiritual immunity.
For as much as the unpredictable and dramatic nature of black swan events provoke fear which compromises nomalcy and a sense of security, biblical prophecies, by contrast, although still requiring discernment and close study, instill confidence and sustain hope.
And we don’t have to wait until the fever breaks, as it were, or the event has devastated world health and financial stability, to know the who, what, when, where, why, and how details–or enough general information about same–to prepare as much as possible and not be taken by surprise.
Consider:
Biblical Prophecies
First, last, and always, here’s what God has to say on the subject of biblical prophecy:
Thus, the first point in line to bolster my case and in stark contrast to the best of Taleb’s (and other black swan theorists’) assertion that “nothing in the past can convincingly point to (the event’s) possibility,” God gifts us with prophecy as transcribed in His Word and by His people.
But how can we know if this or that person is a true prophet or a false one? After all, didn’t even Jesus say there would be many fale prophets?
To address my second point–we can know:
The bolded parts describe false prophets as secretive, lying, sensuous instead of spiritual, blasphemous of the true Gospel, greedy, exploitive–and all this has been prophesied in advance. So to aid us in our close analysis of real prophets vs false the rubric was given us ahead of time.
In the spiritual realm, as is any, forewarned is also forearmed–and reassuring.
And to my final point: of course, this presupposes we will have studied God’s Word carefully. Here is some basic information on how to do so. Here is a specific example with a little help from a literature instructor.
Bonus point: but perhaps the most astonishing evidence of the dependability and statistical accuracy of biblical prophecies, something the best and brightest among us, such as Taleb, are always working on for secular purposes, consider the following from the article “55 Old Testatment Prophecies about Jesus,” (Jesus Film Project, Januray 4, 2018):
Thus, as opposed to mankind’s best available tools to figure out when the world is going to be shaken by a black swan event that leaves us only with the ability to try to “concoct explanations for (the event’s) occurrence after the fact” (emphasis added) in order to only hope to make it “explainable and predictable,” with God, we get both explanations and predictions beforehand.
In most cases, long beforehand.
Which is why so many believers and students of so-called “end times” (aka “last days,” aka “end of the Church Age”) Bible prophecies are flipping through those pages again. In even greater earnest. Just now.
And they are “looking up” for, arguably, “our redemption draweth nigh” (which is an all-purpose, all-systems immunity booster for what gets us from here to there).
Join us?
Today would be good.
Share this:
Like this:
Related