There are many theories out there about what exactly caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some say that it is Ronald Reagan with his Star Wars program. Others say that this is the war in Afghanistan or the Polish union Solidarnosc. Other popular theories include the failure of the Soviet economy, the drop in oil prices, the inability to produce consumer goods, the yearning of many Soviets for western-style freedoms and incomes, national/ethnic problems, a hypertrophic military-industrial complex, a massive and corrupt bureaucracy, the corruption of the CPSU and its nomenklatura, the personal treason of Mikhail Gorbachev and many other theories. While all of these factors did contribute to weaken the Soviet system, I do not believe that they brought it down, not even combined together. What really brought down the Soviet Union was something entirely different: an unbearable cognitive dissonance or, to put it more simply, an all-prevailing sense of total hypocrisy.
But before I make my case about the role of hypocrisy, let me first clarify why I don’t believe that any other of the theories I listed above make sense: simply because the USSR survived much, much, harder times. Frankly, the entire period from 1917 through 1946 was much worse than anything which happened during Brezhnev’s “stagnation” or after. And yet, not only did the Soviet Union survive, it almost single-handedly defeated the biggest military machine Europe ever created – Hitler’s Wehrmacht – it also deterred the Anglosphere from its plans to attack it at the end of the war. Then it more or less won the “space race” (with the very notable exception of the race to the moon which the USSR lost on 24th of October 1960), built what was arguably the most powerful conventional military force on the planet while enjoying an internal economic boom. By any measurement, the USSR was a formidable power during a very long period.
But then something went very, very wrong.
Personally, I am inclined to blame Nikita Khrushchev who, in my opinion, was by far the worst leader the Soviet Union ever had.
Though this is controversial, but I believe that Khrushchev and a clique of supporters murdered Stalin by poisoning him, and then engaged in a massive propaganda campaign to justify their action and legitimize their rule. It all began with Khrushchev’s (in)famous “secret speech” at the 20th CPSU Congress and it continued throughout most of Khrushchev’s rule. Khrushchev, who personally hated Stalin, used every truth and untruth possible to literally demonize Stalin. Worse, Khrushchev objectively joined forces with the many Trotskists worldwide who had been spreading the “Stalinism” myth for decades.
Let me immediately clarify that I am not at all an admirer of Stalin whom I consider to be a bloody tyrant and a absolutely ruthless, if personally charming, dictator. But I will say that Stalin was most definitely no worse then Lenin, Trotsky or Khrushchev and that as a statesman his was far more skilled then any other Soviet leader. As for Khrushchev himself, he was the protégé of Lazar Kaganovich, one of the worst scumbags in Soviet history, he was also an eager participant in many bloody repressions, and generally a comprehensively immoral, unprincipled and outright evil person.
Anyway, with his anti-Stalin campaign Khrushchev basically told the Soviet people that what used to be white yesterday is henceforth to be considered black and that what was black is now white. On a deeper level, that also showed that the Soviet Union was ruled by complete hypocrites who had no personal beliefs and who stood for nothing except for their own power.
The poison of disillusionment and cynicism injected by Khrushchev and his clique acted slowly, but surely, and by the time Leonid Brezhnev came to power (1964) it had already discreetly permeated all of Soviet society. By the 1980 it was omnipresent at all the levels of society, from the lowest and poorest to the top party officials. I don’t want to go into all the details, but I will say that the fact that almost nobody stood up to defend the Soviet system in 1991 and in 1993 is a direct result of that poison’s erosion of the Soviet society. By the 1990s everybody knew that even if the ideals of Communism were good (which some still did believe while some did not), the modern Soviet society was built on a gigantic lie which nobody was willing to fight for, nevermind die for it.
That rot of disillusionment and cynicism is also what defined the 1990s and the “democratic nightmare” of the Eltsin years. People now say that this was the time when “every young Russian boy wanted to become a Mafia Don and every Russian girl a prostitute” – not quite literally true, of course, but generally true nonetheless. It is only with the coming to power of Putin that this poison began to weaken and that the Russian society began to re-discover true ideals and a belief in values worth standing up for.
How does that all apply to the AngloZionist Empire and the Ukraine?
It is quite obvious, really. I tend to agree with Alexander Mercouris, Mark Sleboda and Mark Hackard when they say that the USA, ruled by incompetent and poorly educated politicians (rather than by professional diplomats or real statemen) probably expected Russia to roll-over and accept a Banderastani regime in power in the Ukraine. And when Russia refused to accept that and pushed back, the AngloZionists made their initial miscalculation even worse by dramatically increasing their rhetoric and by insisting that black was white and white was black.
For the AngloZionist a neo-Nazi armed insurgency which seizes power in contradiction with an agreement it had signed less than 24 hours before is a “legitimate representative of the Ukrainian people”. The Baderists are philosemites and democrats, while the people in the eastern Ukraine are either Jew-hating extremists or Russian agents. When the folks in the western Ukraine engage in a campaign of terror, murder and looting, that is an expression of democracy, when the people in the east seize SBU buildings it is terrorism. When Yanukovich was faced by protesters the US demanded that he not use any force at all, not even cops with sidearms, when the junta leader Iatseniuk faces protesters, he is acting with praiseworthy restraint when he sends in tanks, artillery pieces and combat aircraft. The referendum in Crimea is illegitimate because it was allegedly conducted at the point of a gun, while the proposed upcoming Presidential election will be legitimate even though they will be organized and conducted by bone fide neo-Nazis and even though two candidates get assaulted and cannot campaign. I could continue to multiply the example here ad nauseam, but you get the point: what the AngloZionists are declaring urbi et orbi is basically that black is white, the earth is flat, 2+2=3, up is down, etc. They are doing exactly the same than what Khrushchev did in the USSR: they are showing their own people that they believe in nothing and stand for nothing except their own power.
Not that the American people need much convincing, I would add.
In my admittedly subjective opinion the level of disgust of most American people with the Federal government is already sky high. Sure, most people feel impotent and believe that there is nothing they can do about it. When they vote for peace, they get more war. When they vote for less taxes, they get more. When they vote for more civil rights, they get less. There is an entire generation of Americans out there which is as disillusioned and as disgusted with their own rulers as the Soviets were with their rulers in the 1970s and 1980s.
Interestingly, there is definitely a strong anti-regime movement of American patriots out there. These are folks who have the wisdom to differentiate between, on one hand, their country, their people, the ideals upon which the US society was originally built, and, on the other hand, regime in DC and the 1% of the population whose interests this regime works for. Amazing, no? The Soviet Union had its formal nomenklatura while the USA has it own, informal, one. About 1% of the population in each case.
You want more uncanny parallels? Sure! How about
1) A bloated military budget resulting in an ineffective military
2) A huge and ineffective intelligence community
3) A crumbling public infrastructure
4) A world record in the per-capita ratio of incarcerated people (US GULag)
5) A propaganda machine which nobody trusts any more
6) An internal dissident movement which the regime tries to keep silent
7) A systematic use of violence against the citizens
8) An increase in tensions between Federal and local authorities
9) An industry whose main exports are weapons and energy
10) A population fearful of being spied on by the internal security services
11) A systematic assimilation of dissent with espionage and terrorism
12) A all-prevailing paranoia about internal and external enemies
13) A financially catastrophic over-reach of the empire across the planet
14) An awareness that the entire planet hates you
15) A subservient press-corps of presstitutes who never dare to ask the real questions
16) A sky-high rate of substance abuse
17) A young generation which believes in nothing at all
18) An educational system in free-fall (the Soviet one was much better, btw)
19) A disgust with politics by the general public
20) A massive and prevailing amount corruption on all levels of power
These are just a few examples which apply as much to the USSR of the 1980 as it does to the 2014 USA. There are also plenty of differences, of course, no need to list them here as they are quite obvious.
My main point is not that the USSR and USA are the exact same, but only that the similarities between the two are becoming uncanny and numerous.
In conclusion and to put things simply: what the AngloZionist are openly and publicly defending in the Ukraine is the polar opposite of what they are supposed to stand for. That is an extremely dangerous thing to do for any regime and the AngloZionist Empire is no exception to that rule. Empire often crumble when their own people become disillusioned and disgusted with massive discrepancy between what the ruling elites say and what they do and as a result, it is not so much that the Empire is faced with formidable enemies as it is the fact that nobody is willing to stand up – nevermind die – in defense of it. Just look at the following sentence:
(in the Ukraine) “Barack Obama and the Democratic Party stand for racism and Fascism”
Amazing, no? But it is true, even though this short sentence has enough tensions inside it to explode the brain of many Americans, especially Democrats. I put the “in the Ukraine” in brackets to provide the context but, of course, the context does not matter one bit. You cannot be for liberal policies at home and for Fascism abroad. Nor can you be an anti-racist who supports racism, it don’t matter one bit were that racism is located. Values truly held are applicable to all and everywhere. You cannot oppose torture in country ‘x’ but favor it in country ‘y’. That is plain ridiculous. So let me restate the sentence above this time without the context in brackets:
Blows your mind, doesn’t it?
And, of course, the very same can be said of McCain and his party:
Still painful, no?
How about this one:
Or, even better:
Or this one:
Pretty amazing, no?
Now try combining any of the above with this one:
Ouch! That one would really hurt a lot of American and Europeans.
Of course, this is not how the events in the Ukraine, or any other event, is presented in the official public media and the zombified public discourse. But neither was that the case in the USSR. Still, not all people are stupidified zombies – though some, of course, are – and they do their own, quiet, little thinking in their own heads. Sometimes they toss ideas around with their friends. In the Soviet Union the “Petri dish” for politically incorrect discussion was usually the kitchen. In the USA it might be near the barbecue.
Of course, we are not going to see mass demonstrations in the streets of Washington DC, most people are going to keep this kind of “crime thoughts” private or for a small circle of trusted friends, but let me remind you all that since we are making comparisons between the USSR and the USA, there was no “occupy the Kremlin” movement in the USSR while the Occupy Wall Street movement in the USA was very large and widely spread across this huge country. Nor has there ever been a Soviet equivalent of the huge 1990 anti-WTO protests in Seattle. So the American public is nowhere nearly as passive as some think.
The Ukraine is far away from the USA, and only 1/6th of Americans can place it on a map. But the consequences of the very high visibility involvement of the US regime and the AngloZionist Empire will be dramatic, if delayed in time. Already nobody in his/her right might would give Obama his Nobel Peace Prize again. So even though the formidable western propaganda machine is way more capable and sophisticated than anything Goebbels or Suslov could have dreamed about, it cannot hide reality forever.
This is why the Empire is so desperate for some kind of victory in the Ukraine. If it cannot be respected any more, it needs to be at least feared. But if the Ukraine explodes and Russia gets Crimea and the East (which appears increasingly likely) then the AngloZionist won’t even be feared anymore. Once that happens, the life expectancy of the Empire will become very, very short.
So yes, knowing the truth does make one free, and the truth is the most powerful empire-buster ever invented. It brought down the USSR and it will bring down the AngloZionists too. It is just a matter of time now.
The Saker
I am wondering Saker if you can find anything positive in Khrushchev’s legacy? I am thinking especially of the short period in which he established a ‘pen pal’ relationship with JFK.
Both of them seemed to recognize that they were at least nominally presiding over a military confrontation and weapons technology that had brought the planet to the very edge of nuclear disaster. And they both seemed to learn from and react to the way-too-close-an-encounter with nuclear war with a personally dangerous willingness to challenge the mutual knee-jerk militarism and animosity and distrust that fueled the build up of the arsenals. The Nuclear Limited Test Ban Treaty was one result.
A book which I recommend which delves into this subject is JFK and the Unspeakable by Douglass. The exchanged letters can be found at https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v06/comp1
@ I am tired of hearing you refer to America as an ‘AngloZionist’
Oh, yes, perhaps is better to call it British Israelism:
British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is a doctrine based on the hypothesis that people of Western European descent, particularly those in Great Britain, are the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The doctrine often includes the tenet that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David…
The movement has never had a head organisation or a centralized structure. Various British Israelite organisations were set up across the British Empire and in America from the 1870s; a small number of such organisations are still active today”
What about “When Scotland Was Jewish”? (By Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman and Donald N. Yates).
Description
“Te popular image of Scotland is dominated by widely recognized elements of Celtic culture. But could it be that a significant non-Celtic influence on Scotland’s history has been largely ignored or unknown for centuries? This book argues just such a case, maintaining that much of Scotland’s history and culture from 1100 forward is Jewish. The authors provide evidence that much of the population, including several national heroes, villains, rulers, nobles, traders, merchants, bishops, guild members, burgesses, and ministers, were of Jewish descent. They describe how the ancestors of these persons originated in France and Spain and then made their way to Scotland’s shores, moors, burgs and castles from the reign of Malcolm Canmore to the aftermath of the Spanish Inquisition”.
WizOz
“The facts speak for themselves”
…and so the cranks.
Saker,
What are your thoughts on:
Finland being pressed to join NATO?
Crimean tatar leader being banned?
Moyes sacking? Lol ;)
Cheers
You are very educational, as always. With minor judgmental reservations I am with you all the way. Stalin had his priorities: 1) Fatherland:
2) Socialism ;
3) Party. Adhering to this strategy with all his mind and might. Stalin was able to collectivize the agriculture; Industrialize the country; Clean up the fifth column; and purge the country from the traitors of the Revolution–the Trotskyist saboteurs-conspirators against the USSR. Thast’s how he won the existential war against the Soviet Union. And, lest I forget, Stalin is the reason we have our savior Putin today. Putin today
More zionazi psyops BS:
Former Crimean Tatar leader’s notice of 5-year entry ban to Russia ‘just a piece of paper’
http://rt.com/news/154152-travel-ban-paper-crimea/
…”But Washington was quick to support Dzhimilev’s statements that he has made after his return from Crimea, in particular accusations the Russian Security Service is keeping a close watch on the Tatar poulation of Crimea.
This is not the first time over the last few weeks the US has backed its rhetorical comments for the Western media with questionable documents presented as hard evidence.
Last week a letter urging the Jews of Donetsk to get registered or have their citizenships revoked, was presented as factual evidence of chaos and widespread human rights abuses by the US Secretary of State in Geneva. The letter turned out to be a fake according to a man whose name was typed on the communication.”
вот так
@Letter Jews Donetsk,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/19/359181/ukraine-jew-registration-hoax-traced/:
“Anonymous Ukraine, the group that intercepted emails outlining false flag terror attack plans made by the US Embassy in Kiev in March, has done it again. Emails intercepted between Washington DC offices tied to the Anti-Defamation League sent to neo-Nazi extremists in the Ukraine were the sources of the outrageous materials…
COORDINATED OFFENSIVE
The offending email attachments were sent to the Ukraine from the United States in a series of emails dated April 10 and 11, 2014, according to Anonymous. Within hours of their distribution to those leaving Passover services, copies were distributed to news media.
“Our good friends in the press,” as one email stated, had been briefed in advance with “talking points.” An unconfirmed source indicates these to have been included:
– Accusations of imaginary “historical anti-Semitism” to be made against the Eastern Ukrainian Russian population than the heavily neo-Nazi Western Ukraine (formerly Eastern Poland), a major recruiting ground for Nazi Germany during World War II
– Stories should be concocted to show that those responsible for anti-Semitism are under orders from President Putin
– Secretary of State Kerry’s reaction is to be purposefully mischaracterized, not only to blame Russia, but to do so in a threatening manner”
The fact that the ADL had to have recourse to such gross stunts shows that the Kagans of Nuland are quite in a bind. The introduction of the provisions to combat “anti-Semitism” in the Geneva agreement was certainly pushed by the Russians to put the Nulanders in an untenable position. How to explain the declaration of Abe Foxman that in Ukraine “anti-Semitism was overblown” and “cynically used for political reasons”. If they are true to their own rethoric, they should condemn Svoboda and Pravyi Sektor, but then they would turn these ones against them. If not, it exposes them as hypocrits and liers. So, they adopted a rather imbecilic stance, to shift the blame on the “real” antisemits that were always the Russians, Tsarists Black Centuries or Stalinists, and therefore Putinists. Did not Putin “persecuted” Khodorkovsky?
WizOz
Sort of OT.
Disputed islands within scope of US-Japan security treaty – Obama
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_23/Disputed-islands-within-scope-of-US-Japan-security-treaty-Obama-6800/
The Israeli-Americans are in a cold war against China as well as against Russia. It looks like, with this latest move, they have taken their aggression to the next level.
вот так
Cold N. Holefield
Please do some research on the so called Russian “anti gay” laws.
Here is one American LGBT activist who took the time to translate, read, understand, and compare to US situation.
You may be very, very surprised – and question what else you are misinformed on.
White paper by Brian Heiss -US LGBT activist here :
http://static.prisonplanet.com/p/images/february2014/white_paper.pdf
or if you prefer listening instead of reading the long, detailed white paper :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btAUWI0rYJg
As to dog attacks in the streets – did you get that idea from CNN’s CRAZY Sochi reporting perhaps?!
And whilst there is no doubt a long way to go to reverse the decades long ravages of Russian oligarchy plunder, the progress in past +-?12yrs vastly outstrips the decline seen in the United Stazi of America in that time imo.
I note with some amusement that the very same people here now trying to desperately rehabilitate the despicable Communist butcher Josef Stalin are the exact same people that would viciously attack any corresponding effort to question some of the tenets of the Secular religion of Holocaustism.
PS
As regards statements made about “Kazhars” – Arthur Koestler adequately described the Russian Jewish Kazahar heritage in his book The 13th Tribe
and regarding Khazars and the Russian bolshevick revolution: Bertrand Russell
visiited Russia shortly after the revolution
Russell described it as “A tryanny of Americanised Jews, where no vestige of liberty, in thought or deed, remains.”
If this poll is anything to go by, the notion of a dissatisfied and rather polarized world is undeniable. @ http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/iv-drip/poll-nigel-farages-favourite-world-leader-is-putin-whos-yours-9226480.html
It can be said perhaps that Zionism and International Communism were two heads of the same snake created and maintained by the Rothschild dynasty for their purposes. Both ideologies (some say religions) were posited on the philosophy of the same man, Moses Hess, who is sometimes called the father of both. And both have been supported strongly by the international banking cabal, led of course, by the Rothschilds and their fellow bankers.
That the USSR was one leg of a Hegelian Dialectic is not without some degree of reason perhaps.
But there is little question that one of the greatest influences on Stalin over the years was the Jewish Internationalist. Stalin was part of that group that originally seized power and organised the the new State and which was composed primarily of Jewish Internationalists, many of whom had never even lived in Russia.
This all leads me to enquire, Saker, as to your views on Stalin (which you alluded to in this post), his relationship to the Jewish Internationalists, and how that relationship deteriorated over the years. Do you have an opinion?
Re the Press TV link, this is as I guessed before I even looked at it, another Gordon Duff product. I consider Veterans Today to be a worthless sham, composed entirely of either provocateurs or just irresponsible fantasists who think that in propaganda, truth is unimportant. Over the years I have heard or seen a stream of nonsense from Duff. Veterans Today provide several of the cranks and irresponsible fantasists who write ‘analysis’ for Press TV, but there are others who appear there, almost as bad, indiscriminately mixed up without any attempt at fact-checking or quality control. Press TV has become a really, really bad advertisement for Iran, IMHO.
The US was founded on ‘principles’ of freedom and liberty exclusively for WASP oligarchs to slave drive and instigate genocide against native americans without the interference of the British monarchy. Jefferson and Washington deserve no more reverence than Stalin.
Reccommend: Liberalism- A Counter History by Domenico Losurdo
The US was founded on ‘principles’ of freedom and liberty exclusively for WASP oligarchs to slave drive and instigate genocide against native americans without the interference of the British monarchy. Jefferson and Washington deserve no more reverence than Stalin.
Reccommend: Liberalism- A Counter History by Domenico Losurdo
Veritas vincit (Truth conquers)
Nora:
I am very glad you are not eagerly awaiting the collapse of what Saker calls the “AngloZionist Empire”. For two simple reasons; it does not exist as the Saker imagines it, and secondly the structure of Anglo-American capitalism that he wrongly believes to be a worldwide conspiracy is stronger now than it has ever been. Certainly there are socialists who abhor the inevitable inequalities of capitalism and freedom, but these socialists find that in order to achieve prosperity they have to embrace Anglo-American capitalism. Of course Saker is apparently a devout Christian so he will believe that God created the universe, well you can’t get a bigger conspiracy theory than that. I sense that you are an American and somewhat dismayed at our current state, don’t worry, we have been in worse pickles than this. As you rightly say we do have problems and some are very serious, but we will survive and prosper.
“Despotism Tempered by Assassination” is a Russian proverb, or saying. For Saker to have a banner over his blog “Russia means Freedom”, and then to live in the same beautiful State of Florida as I do, is at the very least rank hypocrisy and may actually point to serious mental issues. Oh well, we are all crazy to some extent.
regards
roger in florida
Anonymous, Apr 23, 10:26: Your remark about Moses Hess, intended to shore up your Rothschilds/ Hegelian Dialectic argument, should be easy for anyone who has actually read Hess to dismiss. Hess is just not a serious writer, and it is impossible to imagine him as the ‘father’ of anything, except in the sense of literary conceit. Marx, I should say, enjoyed Hess’s somewhat delirious fantasies when both were young, but dismissed his later work as that of a crank. There is a tendency among the people who promote these theories to not actually read the authors they claim as authorities, but simply to read one another.
The next claim, regarding the supposedly hegelian twins, zionism and communism, that “both have been supported strongly by the international banking cabal, led of course, by the Rothschilds and their fellow bankers,” needs some support. I do accept that Rothschild support for Zionism has indeed been continuous beneath the radar, even though above the radar only individual episodes of what they call ‘philanthropy’ can be seen. But I think it’s nonsensical to assert that this bankster cabal supported Communism.
Ibelieve this whole theory is a John Birch Society meme that has generalised out into so-called ‘libertarian’ culture in the US, that’s all. There are some notable literary forgeries that seem to support it, I grant: not just the infamous Protocols, but also the really clever “Red Symphony” forgery by George Knupffer, the emigre Russian activist, who produced this sometime in the 1970s. But I digress.
PS to my comment about the ‘hegelian dialectic’, the Rothschilds, communism and zionism. I have just thought of one fascinating person who might seem like an instance of what you are claiming, and that is Victor Rothschild, who is now widely understood to have been a Soviet agent, in the fact the real “fifth man” in the Burgess Maclean Philby Blunt cell. There is a good book about Victor by an Australian journalist called Roland Perry (called “The Fifth Man”), but otherwise he has disappeared from the general radar. My eventual conclusion is that he was a Zionist agent, pretending (to the Soviets) to be a Soviet agent while officially a British agent. In other words, he was a genuine triple agent. But he was not a Communist and a Zionist at the same time. It is impossible to be a communist and a zionist at the same time, and don’t let anyone tell you different.
The highly idealistic interpretation of the USSR demise leaves much room for dispute, which I am reluctant to elucidate within the confines of this blog. Consequently, it seems to me that the final demise of the AZE, using the conventionally accepted terminology, is nowhere near. The US has yet to see its share of Heliogabals and Valentinians before it so much as recinds to being a regional power. Perhaps a miracle such as a president-isolationist would accelerate things, but this prospect so far remains a miracle.
Seems to me quite relevant Dead Souls: The Denationalization of the American Elite
New citizenship shortcut for Russian-speakers of Soviet, Imperial ancestry
http://rt.com/politics/russian-citizenship-ancestors-language-764/
Thank you for these fascinating insights Saker. I have found myself imagining the stunned silence which would prevail if your observation were presented at e.g. the Cato Institute where they have been getting their truths from Andrey Nikolayevich.
There is one aspect of the unwinding of the Soviet Union which you did not address directly: the role of dissidents like Solzhenitsyn and celebrity cultural defectors. Most Westerners are ill equipped to evaluate the impact these people had within the Soviet Union. Are there analogies with Western dissidents like Edward Snowden?
The turning against “black is white and white is black” is well underway. People are leaning to recognize that Western dissidents are not raving lunatics. There are many cases of the early leaders of massive social change being portayed as mad extremists (abolitionist, suffragettes) but with persistence comes credence.
————————————————————–
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
…
From W.B Yeats written in 1919
In the coming days I would that worst and best are restored to their proper places.
Brian
“Few U.S. officials think of their ability to act hypocritically as a key strategic resource. Indeed, one of the reasons American hypocrisy is so effective is that it stems from sincerity: most U.S. politicians do not recognize just how two-faced their country is. Yet as the United States finds itself less able to deny the gaps between its actions and its words, it will face increasingly difficult choices — and may ultimately be compelled to start practicing what it preaches.”
Great article in Foreign Affairs from last year that elucidates your more than valid point about hypocrisy even further:
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/140155/henry-farrell-and-martha-finnemore/the-end-of-hypocrisy
I think this article pushes the comparison US vs USSR to a level of abstraction that devoids it of substance. A totalitarian system be it Nazism, Communism or Neo-liberal (Anglo Zionist, if you prefer) has three centres of power: Central Committee & Political Bureau, Secret Service and the Army. The first centre is visible, the others are not or at least not to the naked eye (they are assumed by the population though). The first cannot exist without the other two and the second (Secret Service) cannot exist without the Army. Both the Secret Service and the Army MUST enjoy a standard of living well ABOVE the rest of the population. When this is no longer true internecine struggles occur between the two power centres and within each power centre separately. The economic debacle of the system simply did not allow the two supporting power centres to be “fed” at the required level for them to justify further their atrocities against an entire nation who is visibly dying. Some of the members of these centres will join the suffering nation, others will make deals with outside predator powers aso. The top power centre, the Political Bureau cannot rely on them anymore which results in some kind of coup d’état. In the economic sens I find the current US-EU situation dramatically close to that of the 1970-80 in the communist countries. The US-EU economy is overstretched and the regime-supporting population is visibly shrinking. At some point the balance will tilt the other way…
WizOz said:
@Roger,Of course Saker is apparently a devout Christian so he will believe that God created the universe, well you can’t get a bigger conspiracy theory than that
Calling Christianity a conspiracy reveals instantly the Hasbara.
See for illustration:
“The Passover Plot is a controversial, best-selling 1965 book, by British biblical scholar Hugh J. Schonfield who also published a translation of the New Testament with a Jewish perspective”.
“The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (retitled Holy Blood, Holy Grail in the United States) is a book by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln (first published in 1982, re-edited in 2005). Book plagiarized by Dan Brown in the ridiculous Da Vinci Code.
More recently another piece of ridiculous Hasbara:
“Caesar’s Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus”
WizOz
Wiz;
I am not Jewish, neither do I have a Jewish perspective, in fact I had to look up “Hasbara” as I had never heard of it. What is fascinating though is the instant assumption that “The Jews” are to blame. Saker does it with his “AngloZionist” stuff.
What you zealots should try and get your heads around is that there never was a virgin birth and nobody was ever raised from the dead. Free yourselves, once you have cleansed your heads of religious nonsense you will be able to think more clearly about other issues, including what is actually happening between US and Russia.
@roger: the instant assumption that “The Jews” are to blame. Saker does it with his “AngloZionist” stuff.
While Anglo is arguably an ethnicity, Zionist is not. Nor did I ever say that “the Jews” are to blame for anything. In fact, I have vehemently denounced that many times, even recently. Are you totally stupid or totally dishonest or both?
The Saker
Saker;
You are splitting hairs: When you say “Zionist” your audience will assume you mean Jews, you know this, I know this.
Very touchy you are, incidentally you never answered my question: Why are you living in Florida?
@roger: being careful and accurate in my use of words is not splitting hairs, its making sure that it says what I want it to say and that what I say cannot be misrepresented. As for my audience, I assure you that with the occasional zombie who has a heart-attack at the word “Zionist” they understand *exactly* what I mean. I would add that you are one or two generations late. The Zionists tried to convince the world that when somebody says “Zionist” he/she means “Jews” in order to a) frame the debate and make a discussion of Zionism impossible b) to destroy the other side with the anti-Semite ad hominem (as if everybody was somehow obliged to love Semites?!) and c) to avoid answering on the substance of the argument. Then came the next one: speaking of Neocons was also a “crypto-reference” to Jews. Same reasons. But then, the French so-called “new philosopher” Bernard Henri Levi came out with the best one of all. He said, “anti-Americanism is a metaphor for anti-Semitism”. Awesome no? You say that the US has no business bombing, say, Libya and bang! before you know it – you are an anti-Semite. Or a self-hating Jew.
Cute.
As for why I live in Florida, has it ever occurred to you that this is not any of your business? That I use a (rather silly) pen name to *avoid* putting personalities before issues?
Besides – who cares why I live in Florida? Really? Does that in any way affect any of my arguments? Are they somehow validated or invalidated by my personal life?
But, as an exception, I will reply. While I did spend many months in Russia I never lived there. I come from a country whose per capita income is FAR above the US one. It just so happens that my wife has a US citizenship (she was born in CT) and that I love Florida. So when I lost my career in my home country, I came here to live where she could work (she could not do that in my home country). Bottom line: it was a personal family decision, it had exactly zero political considerations, and it is absolutely none of your damn business anyway. Finally, I have the option of leaving for any EU country I want anytime and I never took the US citizenship, though I easily could, because I don’t want what I call the “imperial identity”. I love Florida, I love the USA and I love the American people but I truly loathe the Empire and I will never pledge allegiance to its flag and what it stands for. Can you imagine that? Can you try get that through your thick skull? The US is not the beacon of light for the rest of mankind. Most people out there hate the Empire (no, not the people, the 1%er regime which rules over them).
Now that I answered your absolutely inappropriate question, are you done with looking for something to hang an ad hominem on?
Also, before posting next time, please try to think, ok? It is really sad to see intelligent and well-informed discussions being sidetracks by petty hyper-politically-correct idiots like you who don’t even understand the need for an accurate terminology.
The Saker
Saker;
Thank you for your response. You clearly demonstrate what a small minded, confused, ignorant, resentful, jealous person you are.
roger in florida
I am not sure if this was discussed here before but the very good point to start investigating who has been running the ZioAngloUS empire are articles about the Committee of 300: Committee of 300 Member List. BTW you can see for yourselves that thedecisions on who is to be the next US president are taken during the Bliderberg group meetings on the election year.
I also recommend great blog of Aangirfan @ uk disclosing on daily basis the perverse and inhumane machinations of that criminal global elite.
Zionism is rooted in terror, that’s where the current Israeli leadership stems from. Even Eistein and other Jewish were aware of this and terrified, called for action against that evil. 1948. Also worth reading Ten Questions to the Zionists
“AIPAC gambling boss may flee US
Yesterday, federal officials took into custody the reputed partner of gambling boss Sheldon Adelson, the chief financial backer for the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and primary financier for America’s GOP or Republican Party.
Sources at the Department of Justice say Adelson is accused of laundering $364 million dollars, much of which went into the pockets of politicians in Washington “friendly” to Israel.
If Adelson is indicted, and sources in the Justice Department say this process is well underway, politicians around the US, all Republicans, will be required to return millions in what would then be not only illegal campaign contributions but clearly proof of ties between the GOP and organized crime.
Many of the politicians Adelson has supported on state government level have worked to suppress wages and workers’ rights, blocked regulations protecting consumers from mortgage and investment fraud and supported questionable gambling initiatives.
Adelson’s extremist politics have been a dark stain on the soul of America.
GRAND JURY
Sources direct to the investigation tell us that a special grand jury is preparing an indictment against Adelson for a long list of offenses, including but not limited to money laundering, mail and wire fraud and conspiracy.
Adelson, one of the world’s wealthiest men, with massive holdings in Las Vegas and Macao, never turns away from controversy. Adelson enraged the veterans community in the United States when he told an AIPAC audience that he was ashamed of having served in the American military when he felt loyalty only to Israel.
Critical is Adelson’s virtual control of America’s pro-Israel Republican Party. The GOP had hopes of using Adelson cash to gain control of the United States Senate. Analysts predict that were this to happen, America would not only move toward domestic collapse but there is a real possibility that regions of the US would seek to withdraw from the union, seeking an “autonomous zone.”
Adelson and his GOP “employees” have long stated the desire to use nuclear weapons in a preemptory attack on Iran and may well attack Russia and China as well. Though elected officials and, theoretically answerable for their positions, Adelson’s “gang” in Washington regularly promise to bring America to a full-scale war.
Our sources say that federal officials are presenting witness testimony to the grand jury that they believe ties Adelson directly to money laundering…” in http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/26/360110/aipac-gambling-boss-may-flee-us/
I wonder, what does the author mean saying “with the very notable exception of the race to the moon which the USSR lost on 24th of October 1960”
They did lost the race in media, it’s a fact.
I would like to draw your attention to an article either in the guardian or FT about some senior polico saying that Romania should now invade or takeover Odessa and surrounding province ( ie in the name of Nato) in order to support the Kiev regime as Kiev does not have the resources or capacity to do same. Naturally there is opposition to Nato and subjection to US in Romania, but it is a dangerous sign of intent. The other item I would like to draw your attention to is Paul Craig Robert’s site. Here he feels that Russia must act fast if it is to scupper Nato’s deployments and plans to control Black Sea. He feels that Russia is perhaps being too slow, meanwhile Nato moves ahead.
Thanks, Saker. We (I live in Odessa and at russian Internet) don’t know so much about the life of simple Americans (but we heard about Occupy).
About the USSR as a Zio-banker project – I think it is so. The Russian Empire was not so weak to simply break itself (weak empires can’t build Transsibs and do Brusilovsky breakthroughs). And the main result of WW1 was destroying of all empires who could defeat the British Zioempire. And Russians – the ones who stopped Napoleon just a century ago – had to be defeated. And a bloody revolution is the best way to ruin an empire.
But there was a mistake. Lenin didn’t want to build another colony to the English crown. He – surprise! – wanted to build communism, which – surprise! – is the main antagonist to the British bankers. What a fooly mistake of MI6… ahahah, it was their first and LAST communistic revolution. All their next revolutions were nazi (Hi, Hitler! Hi, Maidan!) or democracy-capitalistic (Hi, Russian Federation!).
About the death of USSR – in Odessa you can’t find a human who doesn’t think the Soviet Union was broken by Gorbachev’s betrayal. Almost all Ukraine (except, maybe, western) and all Russia think so too. Gorbachev opened the gate to capitalistic propaganda – it was named “гласность” – publicity. In a few ages, all Soviet people believed that the Western Europe and the USA are the Heaven… or Valinor… the land where all is better than at their Union. This propaganda was excellentely added to “the poison of disillusionment and cynicism” described at the article.
About Maidan – it lives because of Ashton’s cookies, secret Brennan’s arrival, public Biden’s arrival, some Greystone invaders and… emmm… some hundreds of Right Sector gangsters. Even our oligarhs – except Poroshenko and Kolomoiskiy – don’t really believe in it. (For example, Akhmetov does NOTHING. And his 22,5 billions are more than Ahston’s 5 billions.)
If Saker is right… and Obama is so stupid… and other American politics are not more clever (remember Hillari’s “Putin doesn’t have a soul”)… when the American Revolution 2.0 starts?
Я умею талдычить на великом и мочучем и солов’їною мовою.
“Then it more or less won the “space race” (with the very notable exception of the race to the moon which the USSR lost on 24th of October 1960),” ~ Saker
And how do you know for a fact that the US put people on the moon? Because NASA and the government and the Science books say so, along with statistics put out by their institutions?
President Bill Clinton in his book “My Life” states: “Just a month before, Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong had left their colleague, Michael Collins, aboard spaceship Columbia and walked on the moon…The old carpenter asked me if I really believed it happened. I said sure, I saw it on television. He disagreed; he said that he didn’t believe it for a minute, that ‘them television fellers’ could make things look real that weren’t. Back then, I thought he was a crank. During my eight years in Washington, I saw some things on TV that made me wonder if he wasn’t ahead of his time.”
A great article and very prescient, I must say. I had *exactly* this reaction to US policy in both Ukraine and Syria about 18 months ago. First I read Hersh’s article on how the US was ‘pivoting’ to using proxy al-Nusra brigades in Syria, even though they were then linked to al Qaeda (and now ISIS) and then about them supporting a Ukrainian coup government that contained nazis in important posts. And I thought: the west has TOTALLY lost the plot, its marbles, and any values that it might have pretended to support. I’ve been critical of US policy in Latin America, Iraq, Libya, Indonesia and Europe, but never thought they would have the nerve to try this in Europe. I had a kind of revelation: as in, Barack Obama supports fascism and racism. Exactly. Your article on Ukrainian oligarchy was also insightful, but it strikes me that now the same can be said of US and UK: run by financial oligarchs who are too big to fail and too big to jail. There’s no rule of law anymore. This was a definition of fascism in the 1930s and we are suffering from it here also. If Ukraine’s prospects looked bleak a year ago (and much bleaker today) it seems that those of US and UK are also very bleak–more austerity for the 99%, more manufactured wars, more death and destruction. How can we get out of this hole, in the absence of a Putin-like figure in any of these three countries?
I think this is the first thing ever read of yours. Yes, a Hegelian collapse. Because ideas have the weight of stones.
“What really brought down the Soviet Union was something entirely different: an unbearable cognitive dissonance or, to put it more simply, an all-prevailing sense of total hypocrisy”
-nb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVvW8iRtYnQ
Russia should not be idealised please remember Chechen war and the enormous numbers of civilian deaths far more exceeding these in Ukraine, and in the second war it was not Yeltsin who ran it.
This time Russia has just taken the right side, separatists should be able to vote and count the votes themselves under third party cocontrol.
insightful exposition of the relevance of truth to current and historical situations. your comments on Khruschev are thought-provoking. I disagree with your emphasis on that man and not on stalin, whose crimes are IMHO some of the worst in history and whose ultra-leftist zealousness served the interests of few and harmed those of most until the need arose for a strong leader during the war. but the heart of the piece, i.e., the hypocrisy of the americans and their zionist parasites, is exactly correct. it is only because of the ignorance and fear of the american sheeple that this can continue. as evidenced by one of the comments below, the truth hurts…..
I am sorry. But not really. Lenin was political organizational and economic genius.
He was working on revision of Marks economic directives when he was murdered.
Lenin detected early on that something is not right.
Lenin was followed by analphabet’s who solely relied on enthusiasm of the people.
Nobody dared to change directives of Marks.
Eventually enthusiasm of the people did run its course and evaporated.
A rather encouraging read all in all .. :)..
The Saudi eugenics war on Yemen mirrors the eugenics war of Washington, the UK, Israeli and the EU US NATO members on the whole Islamic Middle East . Washington’s war has created from 45 to 65 million (UNHC numbers)refugees desperately looking for a peace they will never find as they die from starvation and rejection from any country they try to enter.Among those increasing millions are the infants in utero, in arms, toddlers soon dead. Then the aged, infirm and wounded next that cannot be sustained in the crush of desperate humanity.
Humans carefully never mentioned in 98% of any media but reaching a massive proportion of the world population of 7 billion humans. Soon more than one billion will be searching for that the world no longer cherishes: the human reality, it’s voice. The real illustration of America power is the fact that American policy has focused on genocide since first Roman Catholic brutal Spanish and Portuguese entered and claimed the Americas as their own. It has supported and enabled Israeli genocide of the Palestinians for close to 100 years. A policy of genocide of the WW11 Nazis now the policy of the Kiev, Ukraine, US paid, Nazis, as they exterminate all Russian Ukrainians and Europe just watches. Accusing Russia for doing what the US/UK/EU/Israel are doing.
The one percenters of the West who were the richest in the Western world at the end of the 19th and 20h centuries believed the global population had to be ‘pruned’. Hitler was one who was the global advocate of this process as he proceeded to choose which groups were the most damaging to the concept of human purity, then to efficiently exterminate them. The group that now acts out the same policies is the US CIA, as it now rules the power structures in the United States of America. As well as most in all Europe.
Since Russia won WW11 hands down and this fact enraged and frightened the Western elites, the bombing of Japan with atom bombs was to enact the pretence that America won WW11 with those two bombs. The Cols War was the US extension of WW11in order to finally erase Russia from the map of the world, an effort in action today.The US changed all it’s history and text books to proclaim it alone won WW11, then changed all of them in England, now they are being changed across Europe by US NSA connected Google. Note the erasure of key repositories or archives of ancient history across the world. Germany, Russia, Netherlands, France. The fiscal austerity hobbling Europe is to make erasing each country identity easier. Splitting the continent into an internally lost group of humans to easily manipulate, as is in action across the Middle East.
On-point observation, Saker.
I will share this with people who need to know.
Peace!
Id like to add: Nearly 1000 US military installations around the World. Radar installations for using satellites for warfare circling around the globe. In Norway : Vardo base -Globus ll -in northern Norway, very close to Russia, violating ABM Treaty- 1972-Denmarl: the enlarging of the Thule base on Greenland, And I forgot Norway: the installations of Svalsat on Svalbard, US radars(unlawful and against Svalbard Treaty of 1920) not far from Russia. Steady yearly wartrainings by the US, and other Nato countries, in the North of Sweden, which for the time beeing is neutral and nonaligned. US has installed military bases in Estonia, Latvia and Lituania and conducts almost on daily bases, war games against St Petersburg, one of Russias biggest cities.
I am with you on the almost all points. I am not on a single one. I agree Stalin was not worse than Lenin, Trotsky or Khrushchev. His political skills are obvious, as well. I agree that he was a bloody and absolutely ruthless dictator.
What is more, I would add, for his rule and much praised development, the country paid with an unimaginable terror and millions of deaths in peace, if this word can be used here. On the eve of WWII he killed 250 Soviet generals, almost all of them. His genius paid the Soviet victory in war with another 27 million lives.
Now, if Khrushchev ‘..also showed that the Soviet Union was ruled by complete hypocrites who had no personal beliefs and who stood for nothing except for their own power.’, was it him who ‘poisoned’ the state (whatever kind of scumbag he could have been) by telling everyone?
Or was it the truth of this, the whole bolshevik leadership being ruthless killers for power, killing everyone, each other included, that was the real poison for the country?
It seems that Bolsheviks have destroyed the previous Russian elites so thoroughly – destroying even their own one – that even after the complete disillusionment in their ideology, the Russians somehow still have no other truth, but what Bolsheviks left over.
Attaining such victories in peace or war by using millions of people like matches would ‘poison’ any ideology. Now, saying who Stalin really was and all the things he did smears the central figure of the Great Patriotic War. That is where it hurts, I suppose, and understand, but still prefer the truth.
Relations between Germany and Russia are in a state of severe crisis. At latest since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict, but also even before, the relationship was under stress. The new federal government will have to face the challenge of finding ways to deal with the root causes of the crisis. The intuitive response in this situation would be to take steps for improving bilateral relations and to find a way out of the current impasse. However, the root of the problem reaches deeper than the bilateral level.