By Larry Romanoff for the Saker Blog
This essay is an introduction to the topic of Mass Propaganda and, perhaps more importantly, to a brief series of articles detailing how the US has been for more than 100 years the most propagandised and brainwashed nation in the world. The history of this has been buried for generations, but the facts are indisputable. One of the most important elements in this tale, as we shall see, is the employment of propaganda in American war marketing.
To paraphrase Michael Lewis, “One of the qualities that distinguishes Americans from other people is their naive conviction that every foreigner wishes to be one of them, but even the most zealous Japanese patriot has no illusions that other peoples want to be Japanese”. The Americans not only believe everybody secretly wants to be like them, they believe no nation can succeed or even progress without being like them and adopting the entire American value system. It isn’t possible. There are no alternatives to the American way and, if there were alternatives, God would be displeased with them.
The elites in the US government and corporatocracy invented, and for 200 years promulgated, the concept of “manifest destiny”, a theological proposition that “merged religious delusion with boundless hypocrisy and racism” into a popular theory that God was entrusting Americans to rule the world. Reinhold Niebuhr wrote that what promised no end of grief was Americans’ arrogant conviction that “Providence has summoned America to tutor all of humankind on its pilgrimage to perfection”. (1) These ideas of American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny rest on a cornerstone of a pervasive political culture infused with the religious concept of a kind of covenant with God. “The packaging of wars of aggression, genocide and imperialism in the tattered camouflage of liberty with a Divinely-directed spin are old propaganda tricks which have been used to delude the US masses throughout the history of the country to the present moment.” (2) To this day, most Americans fervently believe all of their nation’s unjustified and criminal wars were conducted to “make the world safe for democracy”.
American politicians and their allies in the military, in Hollywood, in publishing, in business and banking, deliberately created and then exploited the nationalistic loyalty of a gullible and uninformed public to shape perceptions and values on a massive scale. Americans have been programmed with religion-based politics for generations, being taught to see the world as black and white, good and bad, to believe that only American virtues and values were good for mankind and would always triumph. Their fabricated historical myths taught them that they, their leaders, and their nation were moral, righteous and upright, selfless benefactors to the world, battling evil wherever it was found. Everything was distorted, based not only on misinformation but on outright deceit. America’s image of itself, and its image of the world’s nations and peoples, were tragically and shallowly twisted to create the narrative of American moral superiority.
Most American holidays other than obviously religious ones like Christmas are infused with political and religious overtones, many of them reinforcing the historical myths of the founding or development of their nation. Their false historical memories are aroused, as are their patriotic emotions and spiritual convictions, making a kind of adhesive that creates a false sense of social identity. The entire concept of American nationality is based on this perverted political religion, creating an extremely ideological national identity that is reinforced almost daily to prevent its collapse.
But it’s all they have. To be an American is not to be bound by a common race or language, nor by history, nor by culture or tradition. In all these, Americans are empty, devoid of culture and civilisation, lacking common traditions, beliefs or history. Americans have only their substandard political religion to bind them together, and there is nothing else for them, no community or belonging beyond being a member of this “team”, their political ideology being the only adhesive. Their entire American existence is founded on this false ideological narrative, the entire regime predicated on these moralistic political-religious myths and fables. If we expose and destroy the myths, forcing Americans to face the bare truths of their nation, the entire narrative collapses, and if the narrative collapses, the regime cannot stand.
Someone appropriately wrote that American patriotism may be best understood as the biggest case of mass hysteria in history. But again, it’s all they have. There is nothing else. This is all that anchors the individual lives. Their entire society, their identity, the very core of the American psyche, are all predicated on this hysterical orgy of an all-inclusive political religion. Because they have nothing else of substance as a people or a nation, this modern McCarthyism is all that prevents the collapse of the American identity. As someone pointed out, if France dissolves, the French people are still French. If America dissolves, Americans are nothing.
From all these and much more, America is an extremely ideological country with American nationalism forming a powerful fabricated jingoism resting on the twin pillars of a dysfunctional and misrepresented multi-party political system and a brutal and self-serving capitalism, all wrapped in a shroud of a dangerously primitive and sacrilegious Christianity.
Nor can Americans understand or fathom concepts of civilisation in other societies. To them, a nation’s references to culture or civilisation are just cheap excuses to avoid the inevitable, which is to become American clones, adopting American so-called values and institutions. Americans know nothing about other nations or cultures, other than their presumed vast inferiority. Few Americans have the ability or inclination to learn another language, and even fewer know anything of the history or culture of other civilisations millennia older than their own. They understand consumerism and pride themselves on their rights, using belligerence and social Darwinism (the American Dream) as a substitute for civilisation, culture and humanity.
Americans have from birth been so overwhelmed with propaganda, so steeped in their natural superiority and God-given exceptionalism that they simply cannot abide any people being different from them, and their primitive and violent Christianity dictates they either convert or kill anyone who is different. These deeply-embedded attitudes affect the entire spectrum of the human experience, exhibited in the mindless jingoism where every American attitude or belief, no matter how vacuous, is automatically converted to a universal value and human right. An American acquaintance once stated that her pet’s right to dog food was a ‘human right’ and therefore included in the definition of democracy.
Not only do Americans universalise most everything but, because of the infusion of Christianity into their political beliefs, they moralise everything, which translates into “Your way is not only different, but it’s wrong” – as in morally wrong. And this attitude, which permits them to take the high moral ground on every debatable issue, obtains from their Right-Wing Christian heritage – the belief that everything they do is “right” because God is on their side. They therefore take an unassailable (in their mind) position that whatever they do, however brutal, repulsive, inhumane or dishonest, is justified by their inherent moral righteousness stemming from God’s approval. Given the Americans’ natural belligerence, these attitudes manifest themselves in an alarming eagerness to use violence to impose their values, institutions, and their will, on all other nations.
This is partly why Americans meddle so much, and the reason for their pathological focus on other forms of government. That’s why a newspaper editorial recently pronounced about Syria, “Even if it were illegal for us to interfere, it would still be right”. So, we should overthrow a legitimate government simply because it doesn’t hold our American values – God’s values, and we can ignore man’s laws because we answer to a higher authority. The death and misery inflicted are irrelevant in this context. The American people see meddling in the affairs of other nations because “it’s the right thing to do”, and it’s the right thing because it is the will of God.
American people are nothing if not naive, gullible and simple-minded, at least in their nation’s foreign affairs. Their government always lies, and they always believe the lies. The hundreds of foreign interventions, wars, coups, invasions, have always been presented as missions to rescue less fortunate people, and Americans always cheer, apparently oblivious to the carnage and misery they inflict. US President McKinley said he was going to war in Cuba to stop “oppression at our very doors”, and they cheered. President Taft said he was overthrowing the government of Nicaragua to promote “real patriotism”, and they cheered. George Bush destroyed and enslaved Iraq to “find WMDs”, and they cheered. Obama destroyed Libya to “liberate” it, and they cheered.
An identical public response obtains with America’s state-sponsored killings and assassinations. In days past, these were darkly secret covert operations but today they are carried out openly and converted into PR events. American law has been rewritten to permit the US President to order the killing of individuals in any country without providing any evidence whatsoever to anyone, and do so without charge or trial. Just as with torture, the propaganda machine has re-defined ‘democracy, freedom and human rights’ to include these killings as part of the American political-Christian religion, certified by US Attorney-General Eric Holder flatly stating that these government killings “are not a departure from our American laws and values.”
This propaganda is effective. The same gullible simple-mindedness from generations of intense programming has created widespread public support for these murders. Bush had Saddam Hussein executed in a public hanging, and Americans cheered in the streets. Moammar Khadaffi was captured, sodomised with a huge knife, then shot in the head, and they cheered in the streets. Obama faked the killing of Osama bin Laden, and they cheered in the streets. Americans fabricate their history by creating popular myths and making even a criminal assassination a celebratory occasion for being on the winning team. Only in America will hundreds of thousands of people party in the streets on the news that their leader has just killed someone in another country that he didn’t like.
In this as in virtually all other aspects of foreign affairs, it is necessary to never forget that democracy is a coin with only one side. You will recall the situation in Iraq where the US deliberately set up Saddam Hussein on the matter of invading Kuwait, and then betrayed him. Following the “liberation” of Kuwait the US propagated allegations that Saddam had put out a hit contract on George Bush for the double-cross. No evidence was presented but if the accusation were true it would hardly be a surprise. In response, the US bombed the bejeesus out of Iraq because, according to US President Clinton, the bombing “was essential to … affirm the expectation of civilized behavior among nations.” – the bombing of innocent civilians apparently conforming to the definition of “civilised behavior”. I can kill you, but you can’t kill me. I love democracy.
Let’s return to Libya for a moment. We saw the outline of the real reasons the US government destroyed that nation and had its leader killed – it was for commercial, military, political and financial advantage but, in the shallow depths of the gullible American mind, their government overthrew a brutal dictator and liberated its people on humanitarian grounds. Listen to Hillary Clinton: “I am proud to stand here on the soil of a free Libya. The United States was proud to stand for you in your fight for freedom and we will continue to stand with you as you continue this journey. This is Libya’s moment. This is Libya’s victory and the future belongs to you.” President Obama, the great American Christian and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was equally charming, declaring Kaddafi’s death “a momentous day” and breathlessly telling the American sheep that because of Libya’s utter destruction “countless lives have been saved.” Lies of this magnitude should be punishable by hanging.
And herein lies part of the tragedy of America, and the reason the country will eventually have to implode: the enormous disconnect between the propagandised ideology of the people and the brutal reality of the thin layer of elites that run their government and military, their corporations, banks and mass media. There is no other nation whose population has such a large gap between myth and reality, between what the people believe their government has done and what it has actually done. When the people one day put the pieces together, the US will have another revolution; I don’t believe anything can prevent it. It was not for nothing that George Bush Sr. said, “If the people knew what we were doing, they would hang us in the streets”. Perhaps one day soon, they will.
*
Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 28 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English-language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes‘. His full archive can be seen at https://www.moonofshanghai.com/ and http://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/
He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com
Notes
(1) https://williamblum.org/aer/read/100
(2) I have lost the source of this quote.
I believe that the US-people perfectly “know” what’s going on. They can spend endless tears on “their people”, but are perfectly cold when it comes to “other people”. Possibly you can see that strongest with someone coming to the US and trying to “integrate”.
An important underlying psychological mechanism here seems obscenity.
Funny thing is, even the new immigrants quickly adopt this same mentality soon after arriving. Hispanics are the group I have the most personal experience with. Every bit as rabidly and naively patriotic as the natives, and in most cases even more so.
American politicians are definitely ideological, as they have to be to even get a sniff at being elected. But the people themselves are strangely mostly just the opposite. Yes, we support the global obscenities on offer, having mostly resigned ourselves to There Is No Alternative (TINA), but the underlying ideology mostly goes unnoticed, in spite of MSM hysteria to trump it up. It’s notable that such an ideology is amply supported as long as someone else is doing the heavy lifting, which is what made the all-volunteer military such an ingenious invention. The consolation prize for the poor that give their lives and their bodies to support the foreign wars is patriotic jingoism and the obligatory “thank you for your service,” which is tossed off perfunctorily as a form of “it sucks to be you.”
Americans, new an old, are mostly just obsessed with the acquisition of material goods and piling up a stash of money to better their conditions (Pink Floyd had something to say about that way back in the day), which these days is a near constant pursuit. The “greed is good” mentality is therefore what passes for culture in the US, and anything or anyone who supports that pursuit in American’s admittedly simplistic minds will be embraced, while anyone who doesn’t won’t be.
Yes, they fully realize that it’s better to be a hammer than a nail; might makes right; love it or leave it; just go with the flow.
The underlying psychological mechanism is ‘compensatory self-enhancement’: ‘a strategy for maintaining self-esteem or public image in which a person responds to poor performance or feedback in one sphere by focusing on or emphasizing his or her positive traits in an unrelated sphere. This emphasis on the positive is intended to offset the unwelcome implications of the bad feedback’. What they seek to overcompensate is a deep seated inferiority complex. Many neurotic symptoms could be traced to overcompensation for this feeling of inferiority.
I agree with you – most people in JUSSA know what is happening but have been brainwashed to think that if they only become more servile, their zio masters might share some of the ill-gotten loot with them…
I agree with the article – but it’s actually even worse – in this sense that people already know what is happening but they don’t want to hear about it – pretending to not know due to being the biggest cowards overall I have ever seen anywhere. At least the Americans I have met during my 14 years spent there.
I also think that at least the tens of millions of US citizens who are either directly or indirectly employed by (or the tens, if not hundreds of millions of domestic and foreign “investors”, both rich and poor, who are invested in) the MIC know exactly what they’re doing and the only two possible destinations their effort and investments must inevitably lead. Every day of the week they are all screaming in one perfectly-synchronized, bipartisan voice of perfect unity a minor variation of Patrick Henry’s purported last-words call to arms — “Give me hegemony or give me death!”
The human beings of the world not screaming the same must somehow come to realize that the one and only way to prevent the former and deliver the literal or figurative latter to the screamers is to never use the USD for anything other than igniting dry kindling.
Any correlation with the Zionist values? I’m thinking here of what the Palistenians are subjected to. Also of the Yahwey relationship with the “chosen nation”
As I have written before, the North American colonies were until 1776 ruled by the English Crown, when they were placed under banker control. George Washington was a Freemason, controlled by the Rothschild’s, who today control the US Fed. On top of that we have the HQ of the Freemasons in Washington DC, which controls the US Congress and Government.
George Washington introduced the concept of the American nation, where geography was used to create a non existent ethnic group, a little subversive trick still used by bankers in other parts of the world. Back in 1776 there were no Americans, proven by the fact that after the “revolution”, you had mass emigration of immigrants back to Europe, who could not understand what was going on.
Was the American ethnic group really formed after 1776 ? Debatable. Between 1861-1865 you had the American Civil War. Various explanations have been given for it’s causes. However, there is little doubt that culture and ethnic composition played a significant part, the Celtic South facing the Germanic North. What contributed to the Civil War was the 1848 revolution in Europe, after which you had mass emigration of Germans to the US, especially to northern US states. They provided many troops to the Union Army, with the result that the Southern generals came to the conclusion that they were fighting an army of Hessian’s.
And today ? Do we have the American ethnic group. Again it’s debatable. As the old saying goes in the US, different ethnic groups in the US do not live together, only side by side. This is hardly a compliment to the famous American “melting pot”, and this fact alone cannot possibly give the US a strong ethnic foothold.
The author has stated:
“And herein lies part of the tragedy of America, and the reason the country will eventually have to implode: the enormous disconnect between the propagandised ideology of the people and the brutal reality of the thin layer of elites that run their government and military, their corporations, banks and mass media”.
Yes, that is true. The US is a masonic creation, created by the rich for the rich. If you take into account the various ethnic groups, who have not really assimilated together, then you have all the preconditions for a political and geographic implosion. The only factors holding the country together are the police and military, backed by MSM neocon political propaganda. However, this political propaganda is getting thin, with many questioning it. The fact that the November elections were stolen from Trump will not help, with repercussions still to be seen.
It’s truly all fraud.
Death.
Deceit.
Delusions.
@ B.F.
Thank you for mentioning the Freemasons. It is utterly unbelievable the extant and power and influence of this organization. Just this one link about the IRS should leave one asking some serious questions:
https://vigilantcitizen.com/sinistersites/sinister-sites-irs-headquarters-maryland/
Next to this is how they have infiltrated every Christian Denomination. In fact I will never ever forget that guy Shuller and the Crystal Cathedral. I remember reading somewhere when he arrived in California to start sic? his ministry he looked up the Freemasons for help? What I thought at the time questioning and then came his love affair with all things Norman Vincent Peale and his book and philosophy The Power of Positive Thinking? Get it hour of power? O good grief really and there it is isn’t it the feel good gospel devoid of anything related to sin and righteousness?
America went from Theists to Deists unfortunately and this is the troubling part. If you study early America under greats like Charles Finney who though an early Freemason came to the conclusion they were a danger to the country and because of him there was a severe backlash against them. Unfortunately it didn’t last and they returned with a vengeance.
Through Finney America was touched by heaven with great miracles and revivals but alas it just didn’t hold because people love the pleasures of sin and idolatry which is what freemasons are involved in idolatry.
They were the ones who placed In God We Trust on their own money with their ordo secolrum pyramid bulldung.
So Romanov easy on Christianity!
American ‘christianity’ is not Christianity. Revivalism with its ‘millenarism’ and ‘perfectionism’ can be hardly differentiated from Marxism.
This is one of the most insightful explanations of the US that I have ever read.
My people refer to that which Mr. Romanoff outlined supra as the Puritan Myth or Lincoln’s Propositional Nation. We, and there are millions of us, have never believed the myth nor the proposition; but we have been and do remain without voice. We even move under the radar of erudite men such as Mr. Romanoff.
I’m calling this article boulderdash. Some of it, I agree with, as mentioned below, but key underlying arguments do not hold in my experience.
From whence my perspective? I was born in the US to an immigrant family, and have since lived on three continents and in many more countries. By the luck of the draw, I lived in the U.S. among a range of social classes – from the desperately poor to the highest level wealthy with names you know, and mingled closely with multiple races through school sports and later graduate academics and teaching.
The bit about nonstop propaganda is true in the U.S. But it is used on the masses to prevent uprising or dissent. Of the vast numbers of Americans I have known, only a tiny percentage actually wanted wars or other foreign interventions. The rest only reluctantly conceded, even after all the brainwashing.
Frankly, most Americans seldom think about what other people from other countries want. They do (did) deeply enjoy religious freedoms, relatively easy social mobility, and the overall sense of opportunity in the U.S.
The author speaks as though the American people set policy. They do not. Statements like the following from the article are absurd:
“Given the Americans’ natural belligerence, these attitudes manifest themselves in an alarming eagerness to use violence to impose their values, institutions, and their will, on all other nations.”
Most Americans (setting aside the current leftist madness) do not have any interest in the affairs of other countries. They simply could not care less. The author sounds like someone who truly hates Americans and is essentially name calling. The average American is far too busy with his or her own problems to think about imposing policies on others. The exception, as noted above, are those on the left who join the brainwashed masses in many other countries in trying to decide who can do what and how. The “everyone should be vaccinated” crowd, for example, can be found in Europe, Australia, and many other places. Such groups are the real “moral” menace.
Many Americans have strongly protested foreign interventions, but were unable to change the system. The brainwashing of the masses did succeed in inflicting dullness upon the society. And this inertia resisted the attempts by the active voices to change foreign policy.
The author may want to travel around the world a bit. Gullibility is easy to find most everywhere, and mass brainwashing is operating full speed ahead in nearly all countries. Only a select few are resisting Though I dislike Erdogan, one must give him credit for putting a thumb on the social media giants.
The U.S. has been the mean alpha dog for a long time, so its natural that the long-chewed-up dogs want a good bite as it falters. But as the Saker has long pointed out, the alpha dog was being driven by a far more brutal master. One can blame Americans for not seeing through the lies during the decades of plenty, but how many now – around the world – can see even in the midst of crises, the evil bearing down upon us all. The intentions behind Schwab’s fantasized reset, for example, makes the sum of American evils look like child’s play.
The author is vilifying Americans, but his real beef, whether he realizes it or not, is with a darkness that we are all facing. Nation bashing isn’t helpful. Will you bash the Chinese people if/when the CCP attacks Taiwan? Are they not brainwashed 24/7? Or shall we try setting up a newspaper in China with views differing from the CCP?
Turning the tables, as usual. What about China?
Someone quoted in a previous post Toqueville about American vanity:
”If I say to an American that the country he lives in is a fine one, “Ay,” he replies, “There is not its fellow in the world.” If I applaud the freedom which its inhabitants enjoy, he answers, “Freedom is a fine thing, but few nations are worthy to enjoy it.” If I remark the purity of morals which distinguishes the United States, “I can imagine,” says he, “that a stranger, who has been struck by the corruption of all other nations, is astonished at the difference.”
There is always someone else who makes them to do bad things. Russia, China…the ‘left’…
Likewise, China (and partly Russia) would rise the admiration of Toceville when compared wit present-day USamerika for the freedom and diversity of opinions and press freedom there enjoyed in comparison with the Samerika, Britain and France.
John TB write: “Gullibility is easy to find most everywhere, and mass brainwashing is operating full speed ahead in nearly all countries. Only a select few are resisting.”
Then in a nation-bashing pronouncement that reveals his own brainwashed gullibility: “Nation bashing isn’t helpful. Will you bash the Chinese people if/when the CCP attacks Taiwan? Are they not brainwashed 24/7?”
As a devastatingly concise Internet meme put it:
A: “I don’t trust anything the US says, but I also don’t trust anything China says.”
B: “Who told you not to trust anything China says?”
Thank you, JohnTB. Your comment eloquently expresses Mr. Romanoff’s embarrassingly superficial estimation of Americans and the America. I was born and reared in the US, in a small northern California town, but have travelled and lived all over the US and the world. Mr. Romanoff’s critical assertions about Americans are valid only to the extent that they apply to varying degrees equally to all peoples in all nations. All peoples everywhere, commoner and elite alike, are vulnerable to the same human weakness and faults. Most elite-controlled governments would do as the US government does, if they could. And most people ruled by an elite-controlled government would react to that fact in much the same way as the American People have.
The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will never go to war against the province of Táiwan, but only against the Republic of China (ROC) which still occupies The Island of Táiwan (a province) and a few minor islands on the coast of Fújiàn Province.
Americans are certainly not unique in being manipulated (Covid!). A long time back: Hermann Goering:
“Why of course the people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don’t want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peace makers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
I agree with your comment. When you say that the ” Of the vast numbers of Americans I have known, only a tiny percentage actually wanted wars or other foreign interventions. The rest only reluctantly conceded, even after all the brainwashing”.
The author of this article fails to mention the small hats who have subverted the USA for a small price.
Adelson’s small contribution of 100 million or other similar contributions are an effective and cheap way to control foreign policy.
The USA is too far gone and will shortly be consumed by the Vampire Squid. There will never be a 3rd world war, unless started by accident. Both Russia and China know this and Iran is expanding the boundaries of the envelope it’s enclosed in and finding out this to be true.
Great critique JohnTB! Essentially this article is a consummate half-truth, the hallmark of propaganda.
Sorting through the hogwash, we see the author correctly identifying the problem:
“American politicians and their allies in the military, in Hollywood, in publishing, in business and banking, deliberately created and then exploited the nationalistic loyalty of a gullible and uninformed public to shape perceptions and values on a massive scale.”
Then instead of proposing a solution or focusing on the admitted culprits (the few who lie to the many), the author absurdly tries to blame the regular Joe for the US military invading Libya.
Later the author correctly prophesies what’s coming,
“And herein lies part of the tragedy of America, and the reason the country will eventually have to implode: […] the brutal reality of the thin layer of elites that run their government and military, their corporations, banks and mass media.”
Removing the false blaming the people insertion, we see that America will eventually implode due to the brutal nature of the ruling elites.
And the world will not shed a tear for its passing.
I suspect America as it is now will dissolve – indeed I’d suggest it has to dissolve. America as it is now is – what 157? years old. Compare this to the ancient civilisations of the world. Russia has been as she is for about 900 yrs, learning and growing. The Heavenly Kingdom much older. The oldest unbroken civilisation was the Aboriginal of Australia, at 65,000 yrs. Until the English came and destroyed it.
America began in a maelstrom of fear of the land they were stealing – few of the first settlers survived their first winter – fear of the strange and frightening people who lived with confidence and knowledge in the strange land, and ultimately fear of the land they had left behind, and fear of each other. Gangs of all sorts of arriving Europeans formed and distrust, suspicion and fear settled with guns and violence was established. The nation began in genocide, slavery, and invasion.
What could it be, by this point, but a collection of misfits trying to force the entire world to dance to it’s tune.?? It has tried to live in direct contradiction of all the Natural Universal Laws. How can it then survive?
It has to collapse as a man with several advanced psychopathies will eventually, either by violent suicide or unsupportable choices.
And then it will start again, in some different way, and this grow more slowly and learn a little along the way.
This is an excellent article. I can myself attest to the fact that almost all, if not all, Amerikastanis who profess to an “anti war” position are only so as long as the war criminal in the White House belongs to the “other” (in reality, of course, the same zio-controlled) political tribe. As soon as the gangster in the White House changes to their tribe they become aggressive pro war imperialists in a millisecond. It is as true for individual “normal” Amerikastanis as it is for “liberal” ones like the cartoonist Darrin Bell, who in an increasingly bad-tempered (on his part) exchange of comments with me said he is “against Amerikastani foreign wars” but who also supports the illegal occupation of east Syria to “protect the Kurds”.
I am however far from convinced that there would be a revolution if they “found out the truth”. Amerikastanis deliberately look to not see the truth. It is impossible, even for brain dead zombies with the attention span of the hind leg of a grasshopper, to avoid information unless they actively look to avoid it. And the average Amerikastani is not just deliberately information-deficient, he looks with extreme suspicion at anyone who’s not information-deficient. In no other country would one prospective presidential candidate (the war criminal John McCain) attack another (Mitt Romney) on the grounds that the latter spoke a foreign language (French). Such people can be made to fight each other, when convenient, but they cannot be made to revolt.
And that’s not even going into the question of the Amerikastani Empire’s slaves, from Canadastan to Polandistan, and from Brutain to Australistan.
That reminds me of a similar gaffe regarding president Bush attacking John Kerry for his same ability to speak French. But yeah, the point still stands.
There is also a degree of Francophobia in Britain as well, but I don’t know whether it extends to the situation you described.
Yeah, its a bit odd the American Francophobia. It was French guns, money, soldiers and a French fleet that made victory for the American colonies possible in the revolution. Plus the sale of Louisiana, doubling the USA size at the time, which was a very big favour.
The USA’s oldest ally is France, while Britain was considered the prime hostile power until WW2 (the British Empire was a significant block on American Corporate interests). Britain’s subservience to American interests since then has supplanted France as “closest friend”, while France’s defeat in WW2 diminished her in the USA’s eyes, American’s don’t like losers, plus France’s political class are prickly at the best of times and don’t like being subservient to anybody, especially those they regard has having an inferior culture. I and you can’t blame them for that!
I don’t think it is francophobia per se.
More like a distrust of “sophisticated” Europeans versus “hay seed” Americans. The writer Henry James explored this interface with subtlety. The native swamp Yankee has a canniness and can-do approach to life that is lost with “advanced” sophistication. Being civilized and sophisticated also by extension means being subtle, manipulative, dishonest, untrustworthy.
This is, actually, a variant on the “noble savage” idea. Explored also in many films, such as African Queen, where the “prissy” sophisticate ends up depending on and in the end falling in love with the “simple man.” Generally the “civilized” figure is the female; the “rough but honest” figure is the male character. The USA is male; Europe (and the rest of the world except maybe the russkies and the Nazis) is female. In light of which it is incredible how deeply the USA political class has glommed on to the whole LGBTQ agenda. Really undermines a key aspect of the American self-image.
When it comes to national foreign policy I agree that most Americans are clueless and don’t really care. They don’t know where anything is. That said—these are vast generalizations. Millions turned out to protest the rush to the upcoming Iraq invasions. Americans did not want to get involved in WW1. They didn’t really want to get involved in WW2 either. So, be fair. The vast propaganda and emotional blackmail machine has been brought to bear to make these wars palatable.
The culture Americans have is local/regional. There is really no “American culture.” This has been pointed out by many writers, with whom Larry Romanoff seems to be unfamiliar. Starting with Colin Woodard, American Nations. Do read this, Mr. Romanoff.
Most Americans are too poorly educated and read to have delved deeply into their national literature and the ideas and themes therein, such as Twain, Emerson, James, Fennimore Cooper, or the great historians such as Parkman. So, they don’t understand where they came from and what the costs have been. So they are receptive to nostrums such as “Give peace a chance” without understanding the structural underpinnings of American imperialism.
Regarding economics, it is all rah rah flag waving for capitalism and “free trade.” The destruction of the American labor movement has also canceled a large portion of our history.
Seems like the only historic fact that figures in the contemporary overview of American history is slavery. Even that factor is distorted to sidestep uncomfortable questions such as who supplied western slave traders n Africa, and slavery as a phenomenon that did not originate in the American colonies.
The after-the-fact application of identity politics to American history is a further layer of obfuscation. As for “if you take America way, the people are nothing” I beg to differ somewhat. Many people would be “nothing,” but many others identify with their town, state, or region. I am from an island in New England and that is actually my “nationality.” Born and bred New Yorkers do not feel like “Americans.” Same goes for born and bred Bostonians, be they Brahmins or Boston Irish. Jews will identify with Israel/judaism. Hyphenated Americans identify with their country of origin. IMO the history of major swaths of the American public is a continuation of that of the countries their forebears came from. If they are lucky. If they know anything about where they came from, and why.
“Millions turned out to protest the rush to the upcoming Iraq invasions.”
I know a few individuals from those millions. One wants to skin George W Shrub alive in 2007. Ten years later she was singing his praises for making an anti Trump speech. Another defended the blood soaked war criminal Barack Hussein Obama’s dropping a bomb every three minutes on seven countries for eight years on the grounds that it was “better than sending troops”. A third in 2007 said Bush should be in prison for invading Iraq. Ten years later this same individual was excoriating Trump for blocking the entry of some Iraqi Quisling who had served as a translator for the occupation as “betrayal of a brave Iraqi who had aided our attempt to bring freedom to Iraq.” Funny how all these people marched against the invasion in 2003.
” Funny how all these people marched against the invasion in 2003.”
Not sure what your point is.
That they just say they marched but they didn’t actually do so?
I agree that Trump Derangement Syndrome has addled many minds. Irrational hatred of Trump and nonstop vilification and distortions has led to a reflexive reaction to approve of whatever appears to be “non-Trump.”
For many.
But I don’t think the piece is really about partisan politics in the USA. I don’t think that is quite
Romanoff’s point.
Rather, his point is the total propagandization of Americans. The anti-Trump campaign certainly has been a part of that general trend to up the ante. The success of the campaign to make Trump the scapegoat for the Dems’ disastrous record and 2016 campaign has been a stunning brainwashihg success.
This does not, however, mean that Americans have never evidenced pushback against propaganda.
When they have done so—not gotten with the program as demanded by elites—it has been the signal to “up the dosage” and clamp down on dissent. As during the Red Scare of the twenties. During the McCarthy era. And as is occurring now.
Katherine
In the 1920s, Amerikastan had a genuine, anti-imperialist, left led by people like Eugene Debs, and Amerikastanis still read and had human attention spans. They did not get their “information ” from 90 second military industrial complex propaganda campaigns dressed up as “news” peddled by their preferred “media” service – CNN or Faux – as they do now.
Therefore your comparison is invalid.
Heads you win, tails I lose.
Your argument, that is. I still don’t quite see what your point is.
Other than generally dissing Americans on any handy metric or basis.
“They did not get their “information ” from 90 second military industrial complex propaganda campaigns dressed up as “news” peddled by their preferred “media” service – CNN or Faux – as they do now. ”
Obviously they do not all get all their “news” , or opinions, as you assert. If they did there would be no need to clamp down.
In point of fact, I think it is noteworthy that despite the constant propaganda and suppression of alternative viewpoints, millions of Americans still see the realities behind the curtain, albeit they interpret what they perceive in different ways.
There is certainly a useful discussion to be had here, but not with you, I am afraid.
Leb wohl.
Katherine
No, Philip, The oldest ally of the United States was not mercurial France, but the empire of Romanov Russia, who had voted Benjamin Franclin into its academy of sciences ten years before any revolutionary ferment brewd in the Americaes. Lso, Russia layde its navies outside New York, Chessapiky Bay and San Francisco during the USofA war againt the Southern Confederacy. And so on: Did not Stalin’s Soviet Union bear the brunt of defeating Nazi Jermany — or what? And did not The USofA stop Soviet subjugation of Japan by using Atom boms in time to claim Japan its own subjugated dominion? RSVP!
Very true and reinforced by their Tiny Hat Masters who own the media and brainwash them endlessly.
Well, I have to admit that what the author says about propaganda and the extent to which Americans have been bombarded with it. Beyond that, I disagree with most of the rest of this article. First and foremost, the author who appears to claim to be so aware of other cultures and nations seems to forget the difference between nation and country when it comes to the USA.
If America dissolves, which looks increasingly likely, it will have nothing to do with defects in the culture and/or traditions of the American nation. When this dissolution occurs Americans will not be “nothing”, they will continue to be Americans just like their parents, their grandparents and great grandparents before them. What will change is that the other 100+ million foreigners who reside within the current USA borders will suddenly be “nothing” in the sense that they will no longer be able to pretend to be “Americans” based upon some piece of paper or action of the corrupt regime in Washington DC. Many of these people, millions upon millions of them, will drift back to wherever they came from after the financial incentives that drew them here in the first place no longer exist. Many others will remain in the areas of the country that will be dominated by leftists.
Americans, real Americans, have a common culture, common language and a common history that does indeed bind them together as a people. These real Americans will persevere with the same tenacity displayed by their forefathers. They will not disappear or magically transform into something else. My prediction is this: Once this process is complete, what will be left is the traditional American nation, existing within roughly its original borders (with some major border adjustments to be sure). Stripped of the foreign flotsam which was imported into our country by a hostile elite to destroy us, America will return to its roots and our focus on “Our Dream”. We will suffer what must be suffered, we will endure what must be endured, we will destroy the real enemies we face, but at the end of the day, we will still be here. If you doubt this, you have no understanding of the real American nation.
If America dissolves, which looks increasingly likely, it will have all to do with defects in the culture and/or traditions of the American nation.
Here I examine a couple of the defects mentioned.
Joan of Arc: Americs’s Joan of Arc starring Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn also in the cast Barrak Obama, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Kamila Harris, , Benjamin Netanyahu, Burnie Sanders , Christopher Steele, Richard Dearlove and Stefan Halper.
https://youtu.be/Zw9lv_ynCug http://www.ablindeye.com/videos/sidney.mp4
After congress suspended the draft the arms manufacturers needed recruits so they made a plan to offer the youth in poverty money, free education and free medical. This is cost the US taxpayer indirectly huge sums. Not the greatest moral exercise in US history.
So, more than half of the military budget is spent not on weapons and the maintenance of the military itself during the service, but on extensive insurance and bonus payments after it ends. Without which it has long been impossible to lure Americans into the ranks of fighters of all branches of the armed forces. And the army is the last argument that supports the reputation of the world’s hegemon.
https://youtu.be/y0szzAiwsfE
Approximately what year separates “real Americans” from the “foreign flotsam?” 1975? 1890? 1776? 2008?
The “Real American Nation” lost its founding principles when its citizens surrendered their gold to a private institution misnamed “The Federal Reserve.” They should have given the banksters the noose. Since then they have been living under a compounding manifold of lies and swindles wrapped in bundles of primitive ugly green paper debt, the value of which decays exponentially. And those 500,000 dead Iraqi children, collateral damage of Empire’s folly and mischief, will still be dead even after post-collapse America attempts to reconstitute itself internally – except their parents, and the rest of the world that survived, will not have forgotten…
When Bobm, above writes: “Americans, real Americans, have a common culture, common language and a common history that does indeed bind them together as a people”, it begs the question: who/what are “real Americans” — especially as Larry Romanoff has convincingly demonstrated that their supposed “common culture, common language and a common history” is largely fictional/illusory/delusional, being based on selective perception/pretenses/fraud/lies.
However, even Bobm has to recognise that “If America dissolves, which looks increasingly likely . . . ” — ultimately, every sentient being has to confront reality, even “Americans”. In that coming event, it is most unlikely that “real Americans” (???) will pull together for their common good. It is more likely that the pretend gel/glue/adhesive will evaporate completely, and that we would see a Hobbesian “war of all against all”.
In this regard, it is indeed wise of Russia and China NOT to respond in kind to US provocations/sanctions/etc., as the country will (soon?) melt down/fracture/collapse from its own internal instabilities/divisions/conflicts. That event can not arrive too soon!
I would like to know what and who are the REAL Americans? The Lutherans who fleed Germany from religious persecution? The Amish maybe? The Irish who fleed the potato famine, the Italia, Greeks, Dutch, French or English which thought to get quick rich? Or maybe the white folks who committed genocide by wiping out 20 million native Indian over two to three generations?
Oh, maybe it was the Wild West with all its depravity and lawlessness so glamorised by Hollywood. Or are the real Americans the cotton farmers down south, who used and abused hundreds of thousand blacks at gunpoint?
Or was it the Chicago Mobsters which almost ruled the country?
Or was it Werner von Braun and his scientists and Engineers, or Oppenheimer and Einstein?
There is no such thing as ‘real Americans’.
Wyatt Earp from Wichita Kansas is now Lehman Brothers or Fannie Mae from Wall St. Horses and gunbelts have been traded with stock market manipulations, takeovers and bankruptcies os a scale which have brought the world to its financial knees.
So Sir, which are the REAL Americans who will save the world from China?
American people are often reminded in the public speeches given by their tyrant trash master-stroker plutocratic oligarchical leaders that “America Is An Idea.” This article nicely describes precisely what that idea is all about: a false ideological narrative.
But why then do so many non-American people from around the world continue immigrating into the US?
And why in hell would they want US citizenship?
Do they really want to participate in this mass hysteria?
Do they really want to shoulder their share of the US National Debt?
Do they really want to be tracked and traced by the IRS for every dollar they earn, forever and where ever on Earth they earn an income of any kind?
Do they really want to share in the complicity of international war crimes spanning a millennium?
Do they intend to partake in an imminent civil war between a CIA-owned and operated AntiFa™ and BLM™ domestic insurgency, and the hordes of jobless, impoverished, homeless, malnourished, abandoned, destitute, forgotten & forsaken, drug & TeeVee-addled Deplorable ‘Mericans?
And isn’t that the kind of CIA-genocidal crap game they were trying to escape from in the first place???????
Do they really want to be trapped in an open air prison and under the cross hairs of devastating inbound Russian strategic defensive weapons?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Or was just ever all about earning and sending those “In God We Trust Dollars” back home while the getting in the Empire is good?
I think the reason people flock to the US is the rosy image peddled by the USian media – especially Hollywood – that glosses over these issues and pretends that the USA is some paradise. At least this is the answer I got the last time I asked – that is, why the US is chosen over countries like Canada and Australia that at least have more bang for their buck.
I’d add a few other questions, if necessary:
Do they really want to lose access to universal healthcare and paid maternal leave, or pay tens of thousands in medical bills?
Do they really want to have a hard time telling dollar bill denominations apart, since they’re all green?
Do they really want to re-learn feet and inches, pounds and ounces, etc.?
Do they really want to sit through horrid public transport and all the hassles in owning a car?
Do they really want to put up with the fake ‘American smile’?
Do they really want to end up with an identity crisis wherein they share the same demonym ‘American’ as everyone else in the Americas?
Do they really want to poison themselves with artificial food chemicals like potassium bromate, or GMO ‘foods’ that have yet to be proven to be safe?
“¿por qué entonces tantas personas no estadounidenses de todo el mundo continúan inmigrando a los Estados Unidos?”: Porque el dólar arruina a los habitantes de las colonias “dirigidas” por la embajada yanqui, el FMI y el Banco Mundial.
¿Y por qué demonios querrían la ciudadanía estadounidense?”: Porque les permite cambiar de cancha e “inmunizar parcialmente” de la miseria provocada por el actual sistema monetario.
Auto – Translation to English – Mod.
“why then do so many non-American people from around the world continue to immigrate to the United States?”: Because the dollar ruins the inhabitants of the colonies “headed” by the U.S. Embassy, the IMF and the World Bank.
And why the hell would they want U.S. citizenship?”: Because it allows them to change courts and “partially immunize” from the misery caused by the current monetary system.”
Romanoff has rewritten an article which I have read hundreds of times already. (Yes, I have been reading for years and years.) I would love to read an article explaining why every new rewriter is totally unaware that he is a new rewriter.
BTW, despite Romanoff’s incredulity, (“American law has been rewritten”, he says), Eric Holder’s statement was 100% accurate.
Great observation, Otter. Most people don’t see it because they need to study Sun Tzu more thoughtfully. They do not see what is being done to them in real time. The west (not just the U.S.) will have their own “How we burned…” (Solzhenitsyn) moment if they don’t react soon.
It is naive to think that the psychopaths driving the U.S. are the world’s singular enemy. If America falls from the scene, the next tyrannical psychopaths will spring up. They are actively preparing the ground now through numerous articles like this one. For an example, check out the response by “Anonymous” to my comment above. High probability it is a CCP psyops worker. Every powerful political group has such operatives working around the clock, writing comments on blogs like this one, rewriting articles like the one above, etc. An entire generation or two in the U.S. have been fed these lines in schools and universities for decades. Sun Tzu.
The message is “Americans bad”, and the follow on will be ” X good”, where X is the next hegemony. But the brainwashing runs deep, and most people simply cannot see it. And they really believe life will somehow get better if/when America falls.
Enough travel reveals that people around the world are not so different. I have deeply enjoyed my time in China, other parts of Asia, South America, Europe, etc. Americans can certainly be criticized for being naive and oblivious to life in other countries, but the vilification is unwarranted, and is a deliberate political tool in action.
JohnTB,
Thanks for another great comment. Brings to mind the book by Qiao Liang, Wang Xiangsui “Unrestricted Warfare-PLA Literature and Arts Publishing House (1999).pdf” — which I have, but have yet to read.
Romonoff is currently rewriting ten books “generally related to China and the West.” So that’s how it’s done, I did wonder !
Writer blames “The Americans”.
That is not right. The catastrophe in USA is not due to The Americans. It is due to the hostile elite. The very same global hostile elite that right now, today, organizes demonstrations against Russia, in Moscow, today.
This hostile elite holds the power over White People in all white countries. Yes, all. Through mass media, social media, banks, Hollywood.
We will never get any better if we do not address the actual problem: The hostile elite.
If anybody thinks that Russia is saved from their attack, think again. The streets of Russian cities have seen the first glimpse of the problems coming their way.
Americans have not wanted to bomb foreign countries in Middle East. You know it. But the hostile elite wants to kill and maim. And you know that too. Next Iran, we know it. And it is not The American, that is for sure.
Leave The Americans out of it. Look carefully and you see exactly who is behind the catastrophe.
It is of no use to go around the subject and analyze to the nth degree without saying the obvious. This way we just create hate between our different countries. We should pull together and get rid of the hostile elite. The Americans, The Russians, The Europeans. Save the civilization. Join forces instead of harping about each other.
ValhallaX,
Agree 100%. The “hostile elite” are, according to many sources, a few hundreds/thousands of families internationally, most/many connected to Freemasonry, and most/many of a certain ethnicity/religion.
‘Americans have from birth been so overwhelmed with propaganda, so steeped in their natural superiority and God-given exceptionalism that they simply cannot abide any people being different from them, and their primitive and violent Christianity dictates they either convert or kill anyone who is different.’
I must say that I have found this ‘exceptionalism’ not only in Americans but in all psychopaths. It is not usually ‘god-given’, it is just in their psyche.
Security Services seek to recruit these types of extremists. Because they are always totally driven by power and greed, they get recruited on greed and controlled through power. They grovel upwards and bully downwards. Women are every bit as much susceptible to this horrrendous psychology as men. ‘Socialists’ as much as ‘capitalists’.
They are all primitive and always emotionally violent. They always have to control or destroy.
I have seen it in medical doctors, in farmers, in academics, in investors, in business owners, in teachers, in politicians, in civil servants.
It is a mental health problem that society refused to deal with, so now society is controlled by it.
The description is very apt. At its core, Americanism is a religion, a political religion. This is important as it means it cannot be defeated by simple logic. No amount of logical argumentation or moral argument will be able to sway a significant number of Americans. They are like a fish in the fishbowl. Unable to consider an alternative viewpoint, they live in a tight, hermetically sealed coherent whole.
The American religion runs on two kinds of fuel. Material abundance, and cheap patriotism. By throwing a little country and throwing it into the wall, the red team get their thrill. Material abundance is for the blue team, it’s the demonstration that their system is the best, despite the Himalayan levels of corruption and graft of Wall Street.
This religion can only be weakened by yanking one of these two things. Either the US will finally get their due and be humiliated by another military power, or their economy will snap. The latter one is not at all obvious ; in the end, no country can go fully broke if it still has significant natural resources, and the US still has deep reserves.
There’s simply no other way. You can argue days or years long, no Americans will be swayed by appeal to morality if they still feel materially secure. This is not totally unique to Americans by the way, what is specific is the sheer mass and power of the US entity in the world today. But it’s useless to think debating will bring you anywhere.
Of course, the difficulty is that no matter what, removing one of those legs will be extremely dangerous. We need to have something like a controlled implosion.
Let’s set a date for the dissolution of the US.
I go for 15 March 2024.
Naturally, easy to note that many comments rather enjoy the demise of Americans. That is exactly what the hostile elite wants. That is what they do: create hate and discord, chaos and despair. They are first class in that.
But think again, my friends.
This hostile elite has its sights already on Russia. They are already working on it.
And once they start it will go like this:
Mass immigration from Africa and Middle East. Gay parades all over the place. “Feminism” all over the place. Social media dictating what is A Fact and what is A Lie.
And not only that. Like a miracle, the Russian state will need loans forever. You will get a veritable Russian version of Wall Street, call it what you like.
The parasites will introduce hedge funds (state covers all losses by taking a loan from the very same parasites a la USA), derivatives, you name it. And suddenly Russian troops will be needed to “protect” the oh so special “democracy”. Prepare for coffins coming back from all over the world.
And in no time at all Russia is in huge debt, streets are full of “refugees” and all hope is lost, no future, just dystopia. And it will look like you always wanted, you actually asked for it.
Make no mistake, that will happen, soon, if you do not address the actual problem.
This elite has done it in The West. For them nothing is easier than to repeat it in Russia. Navalnyi is just a test. They have all the time, and all the money, they can go on with it next 50 years, they love it, they love to see a White country to make a suicide.
The elite want Russian oil, gold, gas, soil, wood, coal, minerals etc etc because even though the US still has resources like oil, gas, arable land and water, there are so many useless eaters (elites, liberals, social studies majors) that the average resource per capita is lower than Russia’s. Make no mistake, the elite do not have any ideology other than wealth.
If this country shows any sign of fracturing, look for the producers, also known as deplorables, to stop caring about nice nice and to start reducing the number of useless eaters. In the instant life boat ethics takes hold, the rule will be row or get out and swim, and the useless eaters, including most liberal professors and think tank wonks, can’t swim.
There will be no call to arms nor organized insurrection; the quiet rage of the deplorables is slowly building to the point where spontaneous civic activism takes over. I would not want to be known as a liberal/leftist/Democrat when that happens.
If you doubt this, then consider that all Orange Man had to do was to say, “Go to Washington,” and Pelosi freaked out.
I agree totally with your analysis, James. As for the gleeful American culture bashing, let us just see in the immediate future whether an imposed culture of narcism ( Hollywood/consumerism) will be shed for a deeper
hard wired understanding of the satisfaction that comes from human solidarity in service of a higher purpose.
Yes, the rage is there but the elites are so frustrated that the American people just won’t “get with the program” and just fight each other…have a race war!! It is with dawning horror that they are seeing the slow emerging of what they thought was a successfully submerged class war. My prediction is that situations have the potential to change and change rapidly in unexpected ways. There are rumblings and I suspect the spring air, once the super cold passes, will be crackling. Emotionality politics will be sloshing about along with the floods of the season.
Re-occupy Wall Street. Retool Wall Street.
Quite.
This elite indeed loves money. It is their Golden Calf.
It goes without saying that they want all the riches, they see all riches belonging to them, that is the way they are, greedy and arrogant.
I agree, there will be a payback.
That’s very much in accordance with Trotsky’s ”brilliant” forecasts about Stalin’s USSR. Western imperialism is invincible, magnificent, and so superior all along the line. Well, too bad Stalin and the USSR that he led wouldn’t have it.
I find it quite interesting that while you’re convinced of Russia’s coming subjugation at the hands of Western imperialism, you take issue with anti-American sentiments as soon as they target more than the US 1%. By contrast, I have a rock-solid confidence in the perseverance of the Russian people, especially now that they have tangible experience of Liberal hell. The US is going down the drain. Can’t say I’m too upset about it, taking understatement to the point of caricature.
Right.
Sure, Russians are tougher, for sure. The majority of people, who could read and write, were culled already by Lenin and Stalin, so the survival genes are well present in the Russian population, no doubt about that.
Still, they face, again, now second time, first Bolshevik Revolution, the same hostile elite. And we saw already in 20’s and 30’s, what they are ready to do. For them Killing Fields are part of the bargain. As long as they are in the Killer position, as they now are, both in The West, and in The Middle East.
That is why I am upset and I hate that, we, White People, attack each other, when the enemy is not the brother or the sister. No, we should pull together now. Resistance now.
One thing I’ve noticed about comments here on this blog. The ones by USAmericans are always about four, five or ten times longer than those by people from elsewhere. And there’s always this tone of having a finger on the pulse. I skip them now.
Great article. Somewhat hyperventilated but I can’t argue with it.
Romanoff’s essay is to be welcomed for foregrounding the religious heart of American exceptionalism and clarifying the extremes of hypocrisy this historical form has so frequently led to. But we won’t realise the depth of this problem till we take it seriously. It’s not just hypocrisy. People really believe this stuff and it’s not just Americans. American’s belief in themselves has turned the tide with many millions throughout the rest of the planet. As Romanoff argues it’s essentially a religious development. it’s about the ultimate meaning of the Protestant Reformation in it’s radical frame. The whole idea was to Reform the world, to ‘do the Lord’s work in the world’. That meant, and still means, to finish off the war against paganism and to bring nature to heel. The radical Reformationists criticised the Roman Church for compromising with pagan traditions when they converted Europe. The iconoclasts aimed to finish the job. But Monarchic and traditional Europe was rather beyond redemption past the precincts of godly Geneva and certain areas of the Low countries. The agenda only really took effect in the new world of the Atlantic colonies. There they would build their White House on the Hill and set themselves as an example to the world.
What we’re talking about here is what used to be known as ‘Whig history’. The theological conceptions of the Reformation were the primary impetus of the historical development we have come to call modernity. The theological idea was that of the soul, endowed with free will, with all souls ‘equal in the eyes of God’. Freedom and equality were established as the new ideals that come to define a new time, a new epoch: modernity. There is no History but Modernity and America is it’s prophet, one might say (though in questionable taste). The essential predicates of freedom and equality form the theoretical fundamentals of liberalism. This came to be the battering ram that destroyed patriarchy and kinship culture not just with us but with all peoples who succumbed to the power of the colonising West, then and still. This is the substance of History: from kinship culture and community to modern society which is based on mediated subjectivity. Enter Hobbes. From estates to the state, from communities to society. That is all.
What is wrong with this? Romanoff puts his finger on the problem when he points out the vast evidence of the most outrageous hypocrisy that this spiritual materialism leads to. The Elect of the Lord are wonderfully invested with this right to murder, steal, cheat, and lie to their hearts content while still asserting a quasi divine right to do just that. This is the sordid story of America’s history from the start. But hypocrisy only takes us so far towards a theory of propagandistic ideology. The problem is deep.
In the writers view, spiritual individualism is not just a false belief as Romanoff seems to claim but is rather intrinsic to the spiritual path. I think this is true whether we view the path in Christian or Buddhist framings (I must refrain from other references). The path begins with some kind of dissatisfaction with the world and with worldliness. For Buddhists, as with the writer, it begins with the intuitions of the First Noble Truth. There’s something wrong with the state of (samsaric) Denmark. Something deeply wrong, wrong enough to set out on a lonely path of renunciation that aims to live apart from the world of passion, aggression, and ignorance that form the heart of suffering that pervades all life. This is the path of the individual. Some remain alone and live in the most frugal manner concentrating on the path that was pointed out to them by their teachers. For others the refuge in this world is the monastery where, it is to be hoped, the spirit of brotherliness prevails.
With the above in view we should remind ourselves that the defining act of the Reformation initiated by Luther was the closing down of the monasteries throughout Protestant Europe. This was accompanied by forced marriages in some cases but more generally a redefining of ‘the calling’ that Max Weber focused on in the pages of The Protestant Ethic. This went along with an emergent problem of trying to square the ethics of ones ‘calling’ with the predestinarian theology of ‘doing the Lords Work in the World’. Much ink has been spilt on this issue back in the day when folks who went to schools read books in a suitably critical fashion, once upon a time. But my concern is to cut to the political chase. The life of the liberated individual in modern times has been conceived of as exactly ‘liberation’ and as such is slated for universal distribution. All a Gods Children are dying to be liberated. What we are ‘liberated’ into is a Hobbesian milieu, an economy of all against all, relieved by moments of consumerist fulfilment. This is the reality but the cover story is one of historical liberation, which entails all these millenialist movements scabbed together to serve the less than elevated purposes of Democratic Party electoral politics. But the point to make, that Romanoff underscores, is this ideology of good vs evil, a religious sanction that obscures the lowest materialistic drives.
The problem with American exceptionalism and modernity more generally is a problem of ‘spiritual materialism’. That’s the Buddhist term. The spiritual path is an individualistic endeavour and it’s a good thing. When the path aspirant sticks to the strait and narrow the way leads to success and causes no harm in this world. But when people who are involved in spiritual disciplines step off the path and turn their efforts to materialistic endeavours then we get what we’ve got, and it’s hell. This is not just the ordinary hells that ensue from ordinary aggression and greed. What we have to deal with is worse because it’s cause is more powerful. The liberal milieu we are familiar with is marked by extraordinary perversity. As an almost random example: on New years Day, Nancy Pelosi introduced a resolution into the house setting out rules for the 117th congress. During the next two years, new gender-inclusive language will outlaw such terms as ‘father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt’ and so on. All these have to go in order to liberate … .. well, it’s hard to say. But it’s not that they’re ‘going too far’. No, actually what’s happening is that they keep repeating the initial move again and again. Modernity began as an assault on patriarchal authority staged for the sake of a certain ‘liberated individual’. Pelosi is still at it. Same thing, over and over again. But each time it gets more and more perverse.
What is at stake here is the ideology of ‘modernisation’ altogether which enshrines American exceptionalism as it’s paradigmatic and authoritative model. It’s a movement of ‘spirit’ from the old estates of Christianity that comes to vivify the modern west and it’s incessant revolutions, all these liberation movements that justify destroying the worlds that have long existed. Perverse is hardly the word. But it’s real. This karmic force has long ago exhausted whatever merit that drove it to its early successes. A mere glance in the direction of the new cancel culture saints should convince us of that. But still very powerful and dark forces inhabit this wraith of freedom.
Last point. There is no real line of criticism of this in the West. For this essay the point of critical entry proceeded from the Buddhist tradition of the Three Lords of Materialism (body, speech, mind). This is helpful towards illuminating some aspects. The other line of criticism, not mentioned here, is Chinese and took the form long ago of a criticism of Legalism, of Lord Shang and Han Fei tzu (sorry for the Wade Giles) on the part of traditional Confucianist humanism. This is the way of the future, as I believe. Now I must thank my patient reader.
Very well written article! It says extremely well what has to be said. Well done!
The ‘Big’ change is that the Rulers rule directly as they control of the Mass mind through their command of the mass media, control techniques have taken a giant leap in effectiveness with the invention of the Cell Phone!
They Rule the Masses directly and if any papers need to be signed,,well, Joe is there to sign the papers!
The problem is, as always, the motivation of the Rulers, The present Rulers, Being Oligarchs, are most concerned with their money, the money that gives them the power to rule, the money that powers their delusions, this is what is really loved, the delusions that Money allows!
Author Morris Berman wrote a trilogy of books detailing the failures of US society culminating in “Why America Failed.” I bought the book 6 years ago, attracted to the title that put the US demise in the past tense.
One of the elements of this failure is what Berman calls a “negative identity.” The idea of continually seeing oneself in opposition to the “other.” Be it the “wild savages” or the “socialists” or the “Russians” or the “conspiracy theorists” this negative identity permeates the culture. It’s on display every night on the evening news.
Danny Haiphong over at Black Agenda Report describes the US as a “settler colonial state.” An interesting term. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it used to describe the US. But the more you think of it, this is a term that describes the US precisely. This fact, along with negative identity explains the need for the constant propaganda. Apart from local and maybe regional identity, which can promote strong social cohesion, the national identity is rife with contradictions and absurdities. As far as I can tell, there is no guarantee that the United States goes on forever.
Re: “settler colonial state”, IMO what doesn’t help is that unlike other countries in the Americas (e.g. Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil) the demonym for anyone or anything of the USA, at least in English*, is simply ‘American’, as if the other nationalities of the Americas, including the four aforementioned ones, are not. What were the Founding Fathers thinking when they came up with the name ‘United States of America’?
(* Spanish at least has a term ‘estadounidense’. Now if one could come up with an analog in English…)
If this is as good as any, one particular contradiction I can think of in the national USian identity, especially for a republic, is the dissing of the metric system and the adherence to a system of customary measurements based on the body parts of dead English monarchs. What’s so surprising is that the USA was even the first English-speaking country to adopt decimal currency (a dollar is equal to 100 cents) at a time when a pound sterling was subdivided into 20 shillings, each being 12 pence. Thomas Jefferson was known to have requested a meter and kilogram to metricate the fledgling 13 colonies. The US was even a member of the 1875 Meter Convention (the British Empire wasn’t in it). I think it was after the USA and Britain became allies when dissing metric became ingrained into the USian identity; even today so-called ‘conservatives’ have been known to conflate the metric system and soccer with communism and socialism.
A thousand accolades for Mr. Romanoff! Americanism is a defect of the spirit. Mr. Romanoff’s is a most fitting characterization of a people who have no other identity than their identification of the nation-state that glories in the power of his government over others. I hope Mr. Romanoff will write an article on the Bonus Army incident of 1932 for all of the “USA cheerleaders” who refuse to understand that the Great Oz will turn his cannon on them, if he must. I recently mentioned this incident to an individual who still lives on the mythical side of the fence, and he refused to watch it. He finds it more comforting to not disturb the “myth and reality” gap that Mr. Romanoff speaks of.
God is watching US! “In God We Trust”
Like good/bad apples, there are good/bad Americans. One can’t generalize, but need to see REALITY. What are America’s core values?
A few good Americans (less than a million) have been sharing reality about fake democracy, crony capitalism, propagandist MSM, unjust & unfair legal system, rigged markets, PRIVATE MONEY racket… They expose the fact that we’re using private money (credit-electronic cash) created by private banks and being debt ENSLAVED. In summary, they share truth.
Many Americans come across this reality and choose to look the other way even though they agree with it. These are Americans without conscience, bad Americans. Catherine Austin Fitts has validated this fact through her reset story and many others. In summary, bad Americans are in majority.
Let’s see what will happen of the American experiment. Will Americans do the right thing or this experiment FAIL? This is the test of America and its values. America got conscience, competence and courage?
The People Have put the pieces together, which is why America is Going through a second revolution.
It is disingenuous to generalise like this article does. The Americans I know are patriotic yes… but their patriotism and love for their country is because they recognise that in America one can be truly free. Yes, this freedom has been quietly curtailed over the generations. Yes, the brainwashing machine is immense and the ideals of freedom have been twisted and coerced so that Some Americans applaud evil… but most do not.
Most no longer accept the lies and rail against them.
Some are still lost, but the vast majority are awake to the crimes of their alleged ‘leaders’.
it s not a question of , ”if the gulag dissolves” but rather When will it dissolve?…it is bound to happen, as this gulag was found on genocide,slave trade and journey of tears., it is universal law that all things end exactly the same way they were began.
for those mericans , who say they are blame less, in way did they offer comfort and safety for those who were raped and maimed and killed with the aid of their tax dollars in a show of awe and wonder? .Did they ever visited the reservation, were to this day the navajos and cherokee’s are housed who have to go through ”quantum blood testing”?to avail of such exclusive separation from the exceptionalist modern mericans?, and why is it till even now the ‘coloured’ are the majority in the ‘for profit’ jail houses?
no man is an island, unless one feel they are the rest of mankind, the blood stain won’t wash off.
What was central to the beliefs of the great Reformation was ‘salvation by faith alone’. As the elect warmed up to doing the Lord’s Work in this World, faith became salesmanship. Morris Berman especially, following Sacvan Bercovitch, has glossed the ideological heart of American culture as so many centuries of hustling. (Berman is must reading)
I think that the Atlantic elites easily went along with union bashing neoliberalism because the offshoring of industrial jobs left them with the one job they felt they did best: salesmanship. This is the soul of America. Recall Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman).
This is not to say that this leading ideological fixation is all there is to it. Indeed, when I think of the outstanding engineering culture of America in its heyday, men like LS Starret or John Moses Browning, it’s downright painful to see their greatly admired achievements merely swept away by the light headed later day subjects of the marketplace. But still, there really is such a thing as ideology and what’s at issue is the leading edge of the whole thing, the form that recurs with some regularity and that over time comes to identify the whole. It’s not the only thing that’s happening but rather the most important and enduring.
This writer should stick to things he knows, instead of speculating on America and Americans. We DON’T think we’re better than other countries – we just want to get along in our OWN country and let them get along in theirs! This writer also sounds like he is anti-Christianity. He has his beliefs so let us have ours. We don’t demean his religion – leave ours alone! I always say to others, when I want to wish them well – I pray you are blessed by whatever God you believe in! And I mean it from my heart. My God may not be yours, but yours isn’t necessarily mine either, so live and let live! While it’s true Americans are propagandized from cradle to grave, the forever wars and interference is from the top deep state and overlords. We’ve had gangsters take over our government, as happens in many countries. The ideology that the founders had was to work hard, treat each other fairly, be free to have religious beliefs of our choosing and be free in general. The propaganda is to keep the people from knowing what their government is up to; to keep Americans divided and fighting among themselves while those at the top get everything else. This is why people keep voting for ‘no more wars’ but the wars continue, because the thugs actually controlling the country WANT those wars – it’s NOT what the American people want. Most Americans just want to be left alone, be able to work and support their families, have some free time for hobbies. Many of the Americans I’ve spoken with feel as I do and we are aghast at the state of our country under these overlords and are trying to fix it!
Please stop using capitals – its shouting – and breaks site rules. Any further will go to trash. Mod.
” Most Americans just want to be left alone, be able to work and support their families, have some free time for hobbies. ”
I think this is true. They are basically innocent and probably don’t wish anyone ill except some commies, and Putin, of couirse, plus of course the Chinese who “caused” covid-19. But still . . . basically decent and naive and don’t really want to nuke anyone or send their children to war zones.
The fly in this ointment is that these kind people don’t understand the features of the worldwide economy and their own economy that make these goals even somewhat reachable—the level of external aggression and internal corruption and in particular the centrality of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency creating a system that allows some groups to have a good lifestyle and the country as a whole to live beyond its means.
Increasingly the system is nor working because so much of the society’s capital and profits have to channeled to the top. So, no money for basics, and this is starting to cut into the standard of living of many, many groups of Americans.
Katherine
Great analysis.
Exceptionalism, arrogance , narcissistic delusions or simply Pride .
Pride – deadly sin No .1 .
“Pride is profound cowardice” and “Cowardice is profound Pride”
said S. Kierkegaard in The Concept of Anxiety.
As being profound Cowards USA can not win any war.
They can make huge destruction, irreparable damages , they are master of creating
the chaos,they are experts in political assassinations, they are using professionally other States weaknesses but can not win the War.
USA can not win the war even with poorest state of Afghanistan.
Awareness that Great America is Great Coward is becoming obvious and that slowly clear
the poisonous air of high- tech propaganda that is biggest weapon of the USA.
There is very little that I can quibble with in the judgment of America and its citizens. The very notion or idea that we are exceptional among all nations, when in fact we have far more blood on our hands in the history of our nation than all nations of history is condemnation enough. I would argue that there are many more enlightened people in this country that long ago realized that all of the virtues, symbols, jingoism, boasting of our history and sacred documents is rotten propaganda meant solely to keep its people blind of the actual truth. The actual faithful readership of The Saker is testimony of a far more enlightened citizenry that you may think. And furthermore it is somewhat degrading to dismiss the people of this country as disrespecting civilization, culture and humanity. You may want to consider that a certain non-politician was elected a mere 4 years ago on the theme of befriending Russia and bringing the troops home from the obscene foreign wars. The only request I make is that the people of this country be given slightly more insight and awareness of the truth of the hypocrisy than you have allowed them in your article.
I would not say Christianity has had much to do with U.S. foreign policy for at least the last fifty years. American myths, statism, and hubris propaganda is where our leaders and the majority of our secular population place their beliefs and support. Christians also support our aggression but they have not been the dominant political force for years. I would say the world monetary system is the driving force in todays world as it has always been. America can only do what we are doing because we control the reserve currency of the world a debt based monetary system that we abuse while the world goes along with the fraud. I believe the vast majority of people do not understand how important honest money is to their liberty and freedom. Trusting governments with the force of legal tender laws is how we are being enslaved with debt in our welfare/warfare so called developed world. The U.S. is not acting alone it has many enablers and they are the Globalist in countries around the world that benefit at our expense. If the world doesn’t return to a honest monetary system as reliable as the North Star we will continue to be killed and enslaved by the Globalist funded with debt based money. It is the market place you and I that should decide what our monetary system should be not the government. This alone would rein in the size and scope of government like nothing else I can think of. Fat chance of that ever happening
America is unlikely to survive as a nation, because the only force holding America together is a dying myth, not a living culture.
“The lie of our culture [is] the root of our failure… we lie to ourselves, and we’ve confused the ordinary citizen who worries that terrorists are hiding in his barbecue pit, or that Russia is subverting ‘our democracy’ with insidious forms of hybrid warfare, or Chinese economics are eating our lunch with their chopsticks.”
— Oliver Stone, famed director of PLATOON and coauthor of SCARFACE
Archie Bunker on America Dissolves
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/archie-bunker-on-politics/
Methinks Mr. Romanoff paints us Americans with too broad a brush. We are a much more nuanced lot than he portrays. Many of us know the founding myths for just that, our history for what it was, and our government for being corrupted with money from foreign sources and special interests. It does not represent we the people. We vote for change and our votes do not count.
We are all faiths and none. Many of us are Christian. From the simple churches of Appalachia to the Chrystal Cathedral to Catholics, to Orthodox you will find people of deep spiritual conviction who practice their faith in their daily lives – actively caring for others here and around the world. I’m sorry Mr. Romanoff doesn’t see this.
We speak up and are silenced by “big tech” and the press. We assemble peaceably and our intentions are twisted or turned violent. The corporate press is an arm of government propaganda. Sadly, some buy into the propaganda. Those who don’t buy in find places like the Saker, where we can write responses like this one.
My people were here from the 1850s. That is not a long time, but through them I am rooted to this land, and my only choice is to strive for improvement. America will not dissolve. The Anglo-Zionist empire will – God willing without taking the world with it. But we will still be here.
I think JohnTB said it well: We are in dark times worldwide.
There is tyranny developing in the technocratic “Great Reset.” It is our responsibility to wake up, prepare, and resist with whatever wisdom we can muster..
please stop trying to confuse the actual culture, traditions, and sentiments of americans, with the agenda and propaganda of the ruling class. You could just as easily apply the very same false reassignment to any state and deconstruct its human culture and national sentiment, as merely a cynical tool of the rulers. That cynical astroturf is being used already, plenty often, whenever some powerful politician or corporation or some shadowy billionaires thinking they are appointed by god to reshape all of humanity as they like… to attack any actual traditions and culture in any society in any place – thats somehow ‘populist’ or ‘reactionary’ or ‘racist’ or whatever the word of the day is. americans have their traditions just as do japanese or russians or french or brazilians and so on – the ruling class in america has about as much to do with the people and culture of america as they do of bangladesh!
in fact the society, culture, and traditions of americans have been under ruthless attack by the ruling class who see it as inconvenient that there are people who value such concepts as limited government, liberty, local soveriegnty (and not the dead and false imitation one sees in the EU ‘subsidiarity’ scam).. those people are persecuted by the ruling class in america as mercilessly as are any other people elsewhere in the world who dare oppose the global oligarchy!
There used to be exceptions to the phenomenon of USamericans busily kissing their own asses. As a young child I lived in Ann Arbor Michigan, where the Jewish professors of psychology and sociology were to some extent aware of social class issues and had some understanding for the Soviet Union. As a teenage Junior in High School we had teachers of German extraction who remembered how their parent generation had been harassed during the First World War, and ain Berkley California the kids in the family I was staying with told me that at the summer school they attended there were teacher of Japanese decent that told about how their families were mistreated and sent to concentration camps during World War I and had homes and possessions stolen by “America”. — Alas, those short instances of honesty seem to have passed even in those university environs!
America was created by avoiding the wheel of history that has trampled for centuries everything in front of it in the rest of the world. It also miraculously deceived the fate of historical currents that affected other nations. That is why they are convinced that God is on their side. In the millennial history of the world, America is a very young nation and they have no historical experience and it is frightening that they do not know what else they have to go through. I was in New Orleans (before Katrina) for a week and I really liked those Americans. I would never wish them any harm, but their foreign policy with its military “component” which is the embodiment of evil … I don’t know. I almost feel sorry for them sometimes. To make such chaos around the world you have to be fucked in the head. I just remember sometimes, “… forgive them, father, because they don’t know what they’re doing.”
This article nicely explains why America hate so much for non-Christian nations who have great civilizations like China and Iran.
Then why they hate/envy Russia ? I think because Russia does not value American ideology, and Americans know/think Russians are more patriotic, more technical and more intelligent than them. I see below reasons,
1. Contribution done by Russia to win the world war 2, which is greatest war man kind ever witnessed.
2. Technical skills and scientific know-hows acquired by Russia.
“Someone appropriately wrote that American patriotism may be best understood as the biggest case of mass hysteria in history. But again, it’s all they have. There is nothing else. This is all that anchors the individual lives. Their entire society, their identity, the very core of the American psyche, are all predicated on this hysterical orgy of an all-inclusive political religion. Because they have nothing else of substance as a people or a nation, this modern McCarthyism is all that prevents the collapse of the American identity. As someone pointed out, if France dissolves, the French people are still French. If America dissolves, Americans are nothing.
From all these and much more, America is an extremely ideological country with American nationalism forming a powerful fabricated jingoism resting on the twin pillars of a dysfunctional and misrepresented multi-party political system and a brutal and self-serving capitalism, all wrapped in a shroud of a dangerously primitive and sacrilegious Christianity.”
This is true.
Or as Harold Pinter once put it:
“The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.
I put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be but it is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self love. It’s a winner.”
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2005/pinter/25621-harold-pinter-nobel-lecture-2005/
In short, America is a Religion–or more accurately a Religious Cult.
Indeed, America is an unofficial religion that rivals Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, or any other -ism that you can name.
And the First Commandment of America, the religion is:
1. Thou Shalt Worship No God but the American (and Zionist) God.
America Is a Religion – An Aggressive One
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/how-its-exceptionalism-makes-america-dumb-and-aggressive/ri12257
Hello Larry,
I fully agree that Bernays’ propaganda is fundamental to understanding how Americans have been “played” into thinking they are special, higher and doing good to the world. I also agree that America does not have the same cultural background as the European nations do, so it does not have the deep history and philosophy and art. However, America was founded on the idea of “inalienable rights” and that each individual should be “free” to pursue their religion, happiness, development. It was also founded on the idea that these rights come from a supreme being, and was not dependent on government or culture.
The actions and writings of Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln, as examples, promoted this philosophical or spiritual basis of the country.
The work of Tali Shorat, neuroscientist, demonstrated that people choose and vote based on belief, not on evidence. This means that beliefs are used by the “robber barons” to manipulate and control the people. The way to free the people is to show them they have been and are being “played”,
I appreciate your work.