Before we begin today, I thought I’d mention that this weekend David Wilcock released a more than two hour long free YouTube video that was putatively on the topic of Atlantis in Antarctica but was mostly a rehash of his recent conspiracy theories about government and alien cooperation, and also a commercial for the full-price nine-hour video on the same subject he’s been promoting for months. As the accompanying article explains, “A civilization of ‘Pre-Adamite’ giants with elongated skulls appears to have crash-landed on a continent we now call Antarctica some 55,000 years ago. This is the apparent origin of what we are now calling the Cabal, Illuminati or New World Order.” It’s a mishmash of Donnelly’s Nephilim of Atlantis, ancient astronaut theories, and alt-right conspiracy theories. How can one even begin to engage in a rational conversation with someone who uncritically accepts that his friend Corey Goode was taken by good conservative Trump-voting aliens in a five-seat alien transport craft to a secret lunar base as part of a battle plan against evil liberal cone-headed Democrat aliens, all while no one noticed his abduction or absence, even though this took place in “my backyard”? Speaking of Atlantis, our friend, the Atlantis researcher Thorwald C. Franke, reported in his Atlantis Newsletter (No. 90) on a strange and somewhat disturbing reference to Atlantis in the nationalist writings of a small German rightwing extremist party, Bürgerbewegung pro Deutschland (Pro Germany Citizens’ Movement). The party follows the usual program of European rightwing extremists: It is nationalistic, anti-immigrant, and it favor of strict policing. Its policy positions revolve around mass deportations of immigrants and segregation of those with limited German proficiency, a proxy for segregation of ethnic and racial minorities. As of today, the party holds very little political power. Its chairman, Manfred Rouhs, is a longtime rightwing extremist, and the German Wikipedia says that he is also a mass copyright infringer, selling what it cites c’t magazine as calling “dubious” licenses to Microsoft products in order to fund the Bürgerbewegung pro Deutschland party. In an article published last week on his party’s website, Rouhs raised the specter of Atlantis and all that it entails in a lengthy argument against globalization and capitalism. I will translate the relevant passage below. My translation owes a bit of debt to Franke, whose newsletter offered a partial translation of the first few sentences: Greeks, Romans, and Germanic peoples unanimously report the existence of a seafaring high civilization in prehistoric times which is said to have been far superior to all other cultures of this time. Plato drew from the reports which were available to him for his tale of Atlantis. Whatever Atlantis was, it could have been the starting point for the first modern civilization. The Egyptians achieved a performance level in architecture and agriculture that exceeded that of the later European Middle Ages. They had also already experimented with electricity. The Incas built an impressive empire on American soil with a highly-developed infrastructure. If they had not been divided by struggles for land and other natural resources, then they, rather than we, might have invented book printing, steam engines, and firearms. As Franke notes, the claim that Atlantis is real (and that Egyptians had electricity, for that matter!) has nothing to do with Rouhs’s argument about capitalism and globalization. Why, then, would a German rightwing extremist throw in a claim about the “superiority” of Atlantis? I am afraid that I have to agree with Franke that the most likely reason is that Rouhs is drawing on historical associations between Atlantis and the perceived special origins of European civilization.
What puzzles me, though, is the claim that the Germanic peoples (Germanen in the original, as opposed to the Deutsche, or modern Germans) recorded the existence of this ancient culture. The ancient Germanic peoples left no written records. Tacitus, whose Germania is one of the few literary sources for Germanic beliefs in the ancient period, makes no mention of it either. This leads me to think that Rouhs has in mind an old hoax text. The Oera Linda Book was a nineteenth century hoax that purported to be an Old Frisian text from around 800 CE. It told of how the ancestors of the Frisians came from Atlantis: “Aldland, called by the seafaring people, Atland, disappeared, and the wild waves rose so high over hill and dale that everything was buried in the sea” (trans. William R. Sandbach). This text was exposed as a hoax in 1879, but Heinrich Himmler accepted it as true and as proof that the Germanic peoples came from Atlantis. As a result, the book became known in Nazi circles as “Himmler’s Bible.” Himmler became fascinated with the book because Hermann Wirth, later the head of Himmler’s Ahnenerbe, had translated the text into German. He offered a bizarre rationale for its authenticity: Even though the exact language, he said, was a nineteenth century fake, the forger created it from a genuine but unknown Germanic text and it therefore was an accurate retelling of an otherwise unknown original. Wirth’s advocacy of the text cost him nearly everything when the majority of German scholars rejected the idea, but Himmler was taken with the claims and used the power of the Nazi government to override scholarly consensus. Indeed, those who continued to doubt the book’s authenticity saw themselves subject to harassment from Himmler’s SS, according to books on Nazi science. As far as I know, this text is the “Germanic” connection to Atlantis, and Rouhs’s allusions to it seem to imply a connection back to the Nazi past.
17 Comments
Only Me
3/13/2017 11:54:24 am
Those cone-headed aliens are like ogres and onions: they have layers. I take it that means Wilcock is the annoying talking ass. "Tomorrow, after our morning conference with the good aliens, I'm making pancakes!"
Reply
3/13/2017 11:58:48 am
My guess is that he isn't a particularly rigorous thinker. However, one way to read it is that the Inca could have taken the same inheritance of Atlantis to civilizational heights but lacked whatever essence the Europeans had.
Reply
Uncle Ron
3/13/2017 03:21:01 pm
"If they had not been divided by struggles for land and other natural resources, then they, rather than we, might have invented book printing, steam engines, and firearms."
Shane Sullivan
3/13/2017 02:25:11 pm
"...they have layers."
Reply
Bob Jase
3/13/2017 03:06:45 pm
if all these aliens are so damned technologically superior why do their ships keep crashing?
Reply
Gina Torresso
3/13/2017 05:06:56 pm
Bob... to funny. Thanks for that.
Reply
Their problem lies in the fact that their Orgon engines can not function properly in a Plogiston impregnated Aether. This problem causes the Vril of their fuel source to emit N-rays that counter act the Cold Fusion reaction. The result is that a reversal of the Neutron flow occurs that causes a Positronic disruption of the Dilithium crystals. The final result is no power and the ship crashes.
Reply
pferk
3/14/2017 06:18:44 pm
wonderful, careful analysis based on secreet records from Area 51.
Good observation, that the Germanics left no written sources. I thought of the Edda as possibly (erroneously) intended point of reference of this pamphlet, but Oera Linda book is even better. This was Herman Wirth's pet theory. Herman Wirth soon fell in disgrace because he did not abandon his idea of the early Germanic culture as a matriarchate. A matriarchate was not what National Socialism wanted.
Reply
Gina Torresso
3/13/2017 05:03:16 pm
This is the Von Daniken Approach to Research.
Reply
Americanegro
3/13/2017 05:25:49 pm
"The Egyptians achieved a performance level in architecture and agriculture that exceeded that of the later European Middle Ages."
Reply
BigNick
3/13/2017 06:30:10 pm
Egyptian flying buttresses are indeed a sight to behold.
Reply
V
3/14/2017 01:24:56 pm
1. It's both engineering AND architecture. The engineering aspect is in "how does this building stay upright, what are its parts and how do they work together," and the architectural aspect is "why does this building function the way it does and how did it come to look this way." So the internal arrangement of chambers, the outer casing, the proportions and materials, the decoration...those are all architecture. The specific methods of stacking stones upon stones, the types of stones used to build under the casement (which is now gone), the way the sealing structures work are all engineering. Both are marvels in their own rights.
Reply
Americanegro
3/13/2017 07:56:00 pm
And another Comedy Pyramid is roont. It never fails.
Reply
Michael
3/13/2017 11:19:31 pm
Part of me really wants for you to take a gander and write your thoughts of Wilcock's lecture. But damn, 9 hours is too long to sit and listen to poppycock... I've watched some of it, and when you gotta use a 1950's sci-fi comic book as "evidence" of disclosure....wow....
Reply
Hanslune
3/19/2017 01:42:00 pm
Oh left one off, bowel-brained 'zcience' or 'scienze', note the location of the 'z'
Reply
Hanslune
3/19/2017 01:55:56 pm
I've heard that EF (Egyptology fringe) had a conference in Aleppo recently where they decided that 'fringe' was not an appropriate word for their field of study. Now alternative history, with the 'alt.' in it now has bad connotations. So five new names were picked
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
Enter your email below to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my latest projects, blog posts, and activities, and subscribe to Culture & Curiosities, my Substack newsletter.
Categories
All
Terms & ConditionsPlease read all applicable terms and conditions before posting a comment on this blog. Posting a comment constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms and conditions linked herein.
Archives
November 2024
|