Review: Edward Cline, Presence of Mind, 2010

Presence of Mind by Edward Cline is subtitled, "A Chess Hanrahan Novel." It is one of four thrillers that feature private detective Hanrahan. Although published in 2010, the series was originally written in the 1980s. In chronological order the four books are: With Distinction, First Prize, Presence of Mind and Honors Due. First Prize was published by the Mysterious Press in 1988. All are now readily available for order online. 

The first book of the series, With Distinction, takes place in a small college town where Hanrahan has retreated from the world. He's essentially "on strike" from a country spiraling out of control. When a philosophy professor is murdered, police chief Hanrahan solves the case. Along the way, he learns a great deal about the causes of the country's problems. At the novel's conclusion, he decides to return to New York City to solve cases involving moral paradoxes.  

Chess Hanrahan deals with some aspect of the "establishment's" intellectual and moral corruption in each novel. In With Distinction it's academia. First Prize deals with the aesthetic vandalism of the publishing profession. Honors Due lifts the rocks covering Hollywood and the stage in order to examine what's underneath. In each case, he solves the paradox of how moral corruption under the guise of "idealism" can and does lead to murder. In Presence of Mind Chess confronts what is now called the Deep State's foreign policy empire. As he explains to a traitorous villain who is selling out the United States to the Russians, 

"I'd like to have been born a hundred years ago, so that as I grew older, I could witness the growth of civilization and enjoy its fruits. But, I wasn't. I have to stand by and watch it being sabotaged and overrun by barbarians in this time. I want to understand why that's happening and, when I can, to try and stop the carnage. Most people either aren't aware that that's what's happening, or they're aware but avert their eyes and minds." I paused. "I'm a thinking man. I don't want illusions." (pg. 137)

It's important to remember the context of the book's era of the mid 1980s. During the post Vietnam Cold War era, the liberal establishment worked overtime appeasing the Soviet Union and selling out the USA at every opportunity. One only has to recall their response to President Reagan's "evil empire" quip or "Tear Down this Wall" speech. For example, there was the media's slobbering love affair with "journalist" and Soviet agent Vladimir Posner. Of course, today the same people (or their evil progeny) are fomenting war between the United States and Russia based on their manufactured election conspiracy.

The media/academia axis manufacturing of a Fake News consensus is hardly new. The indoctrination of the American people with the liberal establishment's propaganda was obvious back in the 1980s. The villains in Presence of Mind utilize all of their vast power and influence to create what they call "cognitive harmony" in order to abolish dissent or thoughtcrime before it can impede their agenda, 

"Tragically, it [society] must also 'shed' those persons whose lamentable circumstances, atavistic perceptions, or premature self-endings caused them to resist their ultimate, necessary and wordless absorption into the whole. As resolution to this dilemma, Ketterling [Foundation] advocated a vigorous program of public education to rectify both predicable and unexpected instances of cognitive dissonance present in the lay citizenry, and the establishment of a science of information interpretation as a branch of public perception maintenance, whose goal would be universal cognitive harmony." (pg. 59)

Such cultural harmonizers existed in the 1980s, just as they do today. For example, there is the British and American media's framing of the persecution of Tommy Robinson and the public reaction in Britain. The narrative is that Robinson somehow interfered with the rape trial defendants' right to a fair hearing. Further, all of his supporters are just "far right" soccer hooligans. Happily, only the usual clueless fools are buying this sad attempt to create "cognitive harmony" based on transparent lies. Meanwhile back on earth, we of cognitive dissonance understand the obvious: Tommy's incarceration is an attempt to cover up the British establishment's complicity with the Moslem rape gangs. It's failing spectacularly. If the recent Italian elections are any indication, the globalist traitor-elite had better get used to much more "atavistic perceptions." 

Actual Fake News Caption: "Yobs swear at police as they call for the release of EDL founder Tommy Robinson from jail"

Chess Hanrahan is one of my all-time favorite fictional characters. Edward Cline has created a fully fleshed-out and believable protagonist solving interesting paradoxes framed in tight plot construction. I won't give away anything else in this review. Buy the books and enjoy some wonderful thrillers.

Western Europe's Murder-Suicide & Tommy Robinson's Crucifixion

I was reading Douglas Murray's important book The Strange Death of Europe last week when Tommy Robinson was arrested for speaking truth to corrupt power. The book thoroughly documents what Robinson's persecution illustrates, that the death of Europe is the result of a murder-suicide pact. Murray's book focuses on the mass migration of Moslems into Europe in the post-war era and the results of this self-destructive policy. 

Murray argues that the damage done to Western Europe's culture and institutions are irreversible. Even if he is wrong on that score, time is running out for the cradle of Western Civilization. He is pessimistic because the European elite remain determined to continue their destructive policies to the bitter end. Although Murray doesn't explicitly say so, it's clear that total destruction is the end point sought by the West's traitorous leaders. As he states his thesis,

I mean that the civilisation we know as Europe is in the process of committing suicide and that neither Britain nor any other Western European country can avoid that fate because we all appear to suffer the same symptoms and maladies. As a result, by the end of the lifespans of most people currently alive in Europe will not be Europe and the peoples of Europe will have lost the only place in the world we had to call home. (pg. 1)

He is describing a process that if inflicted on anyplace other than white majority counties would be characterized as soft ethnic cleansing. And, anyone who doesn't exhibit the required symptoms of the prescribed malady will be declared an Enemy of the State. I don't agree with him that Europe's suicide is inevitable. Eurabia is not Western Europe's fate. However, to avoid self-immolation, Europe's people are going to have to throw off their betrayers and replace them with leaders like Viktor Orban. Hopefully, Italy has already begun this process.

Murray breaks his argument down into two broad parts: the how and the why of Western Europe's murder-suicide. He provides an insightful history on "how we got here." It begins with the standard argument of open-borders types on the need for labor to do the work the natives won't do. As Murray amply demonstrates, allowing large numbers of Moslem "guests" was a solution to a short-term problem with immense long-term ramifications. When the economic arguments for invasion no longer hold up, its advocates move to the "multicultural" position. 

The author spends several chapters describing the situation on the front line Mediterranean countries of Spain, Italy and Greece. These nations were all abandoned by the EU when it came to dealing with the immense pressures of the "migrant" invasion. On the other hand, the EU insisted that these countries must accept whoever washes up on the shores of every island in the Sea. The result has been chaos and growing hostility to the EU from its worst hit victims.

On the question of why the EU and other European elites continue with their suicidal policies, Murray is less cogent. He notes that these elites will jump from argument to argument and from position to position as suits their convenience. He also demonstrates that while talking tough on immigration to their constituents, they just keep the migrants rolling in (much like the USA's bi-partisan traitor class). He gives these destroyers too much of the benefit of the doubt. This is a major blunder for at least two significant reasons. First, it grants a moral sanction - or at least a moral fig leaf - to evil. Such a concession will only benefit evil. Second, it makes it more difficult, if not impossible, to identify the nature of the battle and how to win it. Murray does concede that, 

There are also those of course who so hate Europe - what they are and what they have been - that they are willing for literally anyone to come in and take over. In Berlin during the height of this [2015 migrant] crisis I spoke with a German intellectual who told me that the German people were anti-Semitic and prejudiced and that for this reason if no other they deserved to be replaced. (pg. 270)

He elsewhere observes that, "Today's Australian schoolchildren are taught that whatever its present virtues, their nation was founded on genocide and theft" (pg. 163). This pandemic of hate directed at the West is so widespread and of such enduring duration, that no further proof is required on the evil nature of our current elites. I'm old enough to remember the "celebration" of the 500th anniversary Christopher Columbus's discovery of the New World in 1992. It should go without saying that the "liberal" establishment indulged in an orgy of hatred - hatred of Columbus - hatred of America - hatred of Western Civilization. The haters are not some small minority of academic kooks. They have metastasized. They're calling the shots and setting the agenda.

The author briefly discusses the creation of the English Defence League (EDL) in 2009. The EDL was formed in Luton in response to a jihadist group who protested British soldiers parading through town after returning from Afghanistan. The invaders called the soldiers "baby killers" and "murderers." When counter-protesters arrived, the British police took the side of the invading savages, "while al-Muhajiroun had handed out their flyers of protest in mosques with impunity, the locals opposed to the Islamists were prevented by police from handing out any leaflets" (pg. 238). 

Tommy Robinson was one of the founding leaders of the EDL. For his "crime" of dissent, he has paid a steep price. The official persecution began almost immediately, 

From the moment Robinson started the organization his bank accounts were frozen. He and all his immediate family had their homes raided by police and files and computers were taken away ... At the same time there were constant threats from Islamist groups. As well as repeated assaults by Muslim gangs on the EDL's leaders, there were also serious efforts to kill them. (pg. 239)

This is how they roll on Airstrip One. As most everyone reading this knows, Robinson was recently arrested for reporting on the latest trial of Moslem rape gangs in Merry Old England. The judge hearing the case decided to revive the old Tudor/Stuart tradition of the Star Chamber. Clearly, Moslems are Britain's new aristocracy. Even the lowest of gang rapist welfare parasites enjoy protection. Of course, these professional rape gangs that created tens-of-thousands of victims had the protection of the state for decades. Even after the British government was shamed into action, the protection remains in force. Robinson is only the latest in a long line of victims on this issue. 

In his recent article on Robinson's arrest, Murray hedges with the usual qualifications distancing the writer from the victim's principles. In this case Murray opines, "Robinson wised up slightly [by leaving the EDL], and eventually began to plow his energies into a type of citizen journalism/activism." Further Murray states, "Robinson would not now be in jail if he had not once again accosted defendants in an ongoing trial outside the courthouse." Asking a defendant from a distance what they thought of the verdict is hardly an accost. 

There are other examples of such appeasement in the article and many, many others by people attempting to defend Robinson. Such appeasement is a cardinal mistake, as always. Tommy is a hero. He has placed himself at mortal risk in order to expose child rape gangs and speak out on his country's slow motion murder. He is the hero the West now most needs. He is a man who fights. Britain needs one-million Tommys marching on Whitehall in order to dispossess the traitor class of the British government and nation. This view may seem extreme, and I'm not surprised that even someone as knowledgeable as Murray would balk at such a necessity. 

The reality is that Britain's ruling class from government, to media, to academia, to law enforcement enabled the rape gangs for decades. There is no doubt on this central fact of the scandal. There are even rumors of the traitor class's active participation in the crimes. They are still covering for such criminal gangs and lone wolves. It is in this context that Tommy Robinson should be judged and not by nitpicking whether he violated the color of some egregiously unjust law designed to protect rapists and murderers.

Paul Weston is a rare man who understands the issues and that time is running out on his country. Weston was famously arrested a few years ago for quoting Winston Churchill on a London street. A few days ago he uploaded a video on his country's plight, Tommy Robinson and what is to be done. Please, take the time to give it a listen.