By Batiushka for the Saker Blog
Introduction: Capitalism or Communism?
A commentator on this site recently accused me of being ‘a visceral anti-Communist’! I was quite amused (but also grateful, as he has inspired this essay). Such an accusation goes back to the old twentieth-century apparent abyss between ‘Left and Right’. Actually, although I have always been a social conservative, I have also always been for social justice, as I have said elsewhere. This would make me, I suppose, both left and right. Indeed, I have elsewhere (in the USA) been accused of being a ‘Socialist’, though it does not take much to be accused of Socialism in the USA. The word ‘justice’ alone is usually enough.
How do we square the circle, reconcile the apparently irreconcilable difference, as it seemed in the last century, between left and right? Let us look at the two systems of governance in today’s world, the Western system of the 13%, which is in effect rule by the few, in Greek called ‘Oligarchy’, and the system of the world’s 87%, rule for the many, which I will call ‘Patriarchy’. (Here I blatantly ignore the stereotypical feminist rejection of such a word, because it means something quite different to what hidebound Western feminists, imprisoned by their ideology, understand by it).
Oligarchy
Oligarchy (1) is simply Neo-Feudalism, rule by robber-barons, in this case, the financial barons who live in their contemporary castles. This is why Oligarchy is Anti-National, Anti-Sovereign, Anti-Traditional Religion, Anti-Traditional Culture, Anti-National Infrastructure and Anti-Family (2). This is why Oligarchy, through its CIA and other assets, has over the generations brought down so many monarchies and national governments, like that of De Gaulle in France in 1968. It does not mind fictitious monarchies, as in the UK, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Spain, as they are simply businesses, manipulations of the masses for large sums of money.
The Oligarchy does not like national identity, it destroys nation-states, as in the EU, for it wants ‘World Government’, which is code for World Dictatorship. This is the Dictatorship of the uprooted, which is why the Jewish component in it is strong (Jews have been uprooted ever since the Romans uprooted them in 70 AD). Oligarchy is based on the priority of accumulating money and therefore guarantees corruption, instability and the boom-bust cycle, because it rules by the financial sector. Hence the importance of Wall Street in New York, The City in London, Frankfurt in Germany and La Bourse in Paris. Hence the importance in all these countries of financial indices, which, so strangely, are always announced in their national news by their media.
Although Neo-Feudalism is also called Neo-Liberalism and is more commonly still known by the euphemism ‘Democracy’, it is run on the base profit motive, known by the euphemism ‘Monetarism’. It is certainly not Democracy because political parties are controlled by ultra-wealthy ‘donors’ and ‘lobbies’, that is, by the Oligarchy. This is why Democracy is also unfairly called ‘Demonocracy’, the choice for voters between a moron and a cretin. Very sadly, judging by recent leaders of the US/UK/EU, perhaps that is not so unfair, for most Western leaders are indeed oligarchs (Bush, Trump), or else the puppets of oligarchs (Macron, Draghi). The Oligarchy’s aim is always to preserve its elitist privileges.
No wonder there are so many conspiracy theories around covid, for example, that the Oligarchy invented covid because it wanted to kill off or zombify seven billion plus in order to create more resources for itself. By definition the profit motive of Oligarchy has no interest in the majority of the world because it wishes to strip their natural resources. Another word for this is ‘Parasitism’. The Oligarchy plunders the rest of the world. This strategy is enforced very aggressively by militaristic crusades (just as in the twelfth century, except now with high tech), forcing others to sell off (‘privatise’) their land, mineral resources, utilities and infrastructure to the Oligarchy’s agents.
This is why the Oligarchy is dominated by two sectors: finance and militarism, by its aggressive economic and military warfare against the rest of the world. Any who resist are threatened by economic sanctions or bombing (‘back into the Stone Age’). This is why the USA has 750 foreign military bases, spread across 80 nations. (After the USA is the UK, with one fifth of the US population, so with ‘only’ 145 bases) (3). Therefore the Oligarchy creates clients around the world wherever it can. These vassals follow exactly what the Oligarchy tells them to do. In other words, they are ‘zelenskyised’, for the Oligarchy has as its strategy looting the rest of the world, as in the Ukraine, Iraq, Libya, Syria etc etc.
Patriarchy
‘Patriarchy’ is rule for the benefit of the people. Patriarchy, exactly the opposite of Oligarchy, is Pro-National, Pro-Sovereignty, Pro-Traditional Religion, Pro-Traditional Culture, Pro-National Infrastructure and Pro-Family. The four great traditional religions of the world, Orthodox Christianity (and its cousin of Latin American, African and Asian Catholicism), Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, are Patriarchal. The bulk of the world, over 6 billion people, Russia, most of Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam…), Africa and Latin America, confess Patriarchy, ‘throne, altar and cottage’ (4). Thus, in the Tsar’s Russia, the State ran the economy through private investors, competing for contracts granted by the State.
Today, China, ruled by Chinese Nationalism, even though it is called Chinese Communism, does much the same, though shunning the central planning that discredited Communism in the Soviet and Chinese past. India does the same. They let people get rich by being creative, by being productive, but add a component of social and national responsibility through reference to the national religious/philosophical ideology. Wealth is to be used widely, for the Nation is a higher value than mere lucre. Although we can find exceptions of corrupt oligarchs, they are the exceptions that prove the rule. When the exceptions get caught in China and Belarus, at least, they are taken out and shot, in China in prison yards, in Belarus in the forest And oligarchs do not always have an easy time of it elsewhere.
The Patriarchal countries of Iran, pre-invasion Iraq, Libya and Syria, Russia and China are the enemies of the Oligarchy because they create industrial development by creating their own infrastructure, they provide everything to help do business and create the conditions for the potential prosperity of all. Patriarchy also provides free education and healthcare. This is exactly what ‘autocratic’ Prussia and Russia did five and six generations ago, with free education and healthcare, social insurance and pensions. Patriarchy provides the infrastructure for the basic human needs of the working people.
The Oligarchy called Patriarchy ‘Autocracy’ (Moghul India, Imperial China, pre-1917 Russia), and now call it ‘Socialism’ or ‘Communism’, because these are the opposite of their elitist ‘Democracy’. Their ‘Democracy’ is what is dictated by Oligarchy. Any country that goes its own way or develops the potential power to go its own way, such as China and Russia, is called a ‘Dictatorship’ by the Oligarchy’s paid hirelings in its propaganda mouthpieces, which it calls ‘the Western media’. For Oligarchy sells off State services like education, healthcare, schools, universities, hospitals, roads, railways and public utilities, water, electricity gas and telecom, in order to pay dividends to shareholders. This is why countries like China and Russia are the Oligarchy’s enemies.
Patriarchy is any country that is strong enough to make its own investments in its national infrastructure, any country strong enough to tax or control the financial sector. Patriarchy keeps banking in its own hands, so that it can finance the creation of infrastructure. It does not create money to lend to speculators to increase their profits, it creates production. So the chief public utility to be kept under the control of the Patriarchy is the banking system and credit creation. Patriarchy promotes just economic development. It prevents people from getting rich merely because they do not provide any productive service.
Conclusion: Why is Oligarchy Supporting the Ukraine?
Today the Ukraine is the battlefield where these two systems, Oligarchy and Patriarchy, are competing. The future of the whole world is being decided there. The Oligarchy has become embroiled ever more in its proxy war there because it intends to destroy Russia so that it can then destroy China. However, in order to do this, the USA must first finish off Russian-supplied Europe. The European elite has followed the Oligarchy’s dictates because its leaders are all only other ‘zelenskies’, whose strings are also pulled by the Oligarchy’s same puppeteers.
This is why the dollar has recently been rising against the pound sterling and the euro (and also the yen). However, seeing this, other countries are seeking alternatives and the USA is threatened with dedollarisation. There is no end game in the Ukraine for the Oligarchy. Meddling in Russia and Europe has meant heading towards economic meltdown. The Oligarchy is now pulling down an iron curtain on the Western world, not to protect it from some imagined foreign military attack, but to imprison the peoples of the USA, UK, EU, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. As those peoples cotton on, this will end badly for the Oligarchy.
21 July 2022
Notes:
1. Western Oligarchy is where Russian ‘oligarchs’ came from. Until Westernisation after 1991 the word ‘oligarch’ was basically unknown in Russia, as also were homelessness and mass suicide, but throughout the 1990s…
2. The Oligarchy’s Anti-Family ethos is the reason why it promotes the gender-bending of the LGBTQ. The Family must be destroyed, as, like the nation state and religious belief, it is a unit of resistance to the Oligarchy. It hates strong families.
4. Some may object to including most Chinese as Buddhists. In explanation, I will repeat my answer several years ago in an interview on religion with the British State media. When the interviewer objected to me that most Russians are not churchgoers, many get divorced and have abortions and therefore are not Orthodox Christians, I replied that he was looking at the question from a narrow Protestant viewpoint. Its essence is moralism and the concept that the only real sins are sexual, whereas all Traditional Religion, like Orthodox Christianity, is a mentality, a set of cultural values, a way of life, and not some mere narrow-minded, moralising and pharisaical Judeo-Christian code of ‘Thou shalt not’. The fact is that most Chinese have an underlying Buddhist mentality, just as most Russians (and actually most Non-Western Catholics) have an underlying Orthodox Christian mentality, regardless of personal moral failings.
For China, it’s more a mix of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism that all have huge influence on Chinese culture but they all promote those family centric, conservative and filial piety values. Actually, Michael Hudson’s works on the phenomena discussed in the article lays out everything pretty well, would highly recommend his works
Oligarchy can be named Globalism and Patriarchy can be named Nationalism. The collective western ‘left’ and ‘right’ have become the same, Globalists. Patriarchy is no guarantee for a better place for normal people, since all systems can become corrupt. As many Patriarchy countries are corrupt. A big problem is greed and still too many are very greedy. Making money with money is THE problem. Interest, stock exchange and even lotteries ARE the problems. For too many people money is a goal instead of a medium of exchange. Centralize is also a problem since it gives too much power to the people at the top, in the centre. Patriarchy can just step in the same mistakes and become a neo-Oligargy over time. When the people behave like ants, there will be always a queen who takes advantage. People must become real humans instead of monkeys with a disfunctional brain.
Huey P. Long had it right, “They’ve got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side, but no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen.”
When money is the basis of the value system the only thing that has value is money.
Only a change of value systems will result in meaningful change.
What chases away greed is remembrance of a Name of God. The same chases away anger, lust, envy, etc. With those demons gone or at bay, one has opportunity and capacity to think straight.
I perform the Shinto equivalent of a Hail Mary (Rokkon Shojo http://yabai.com/p/3320 ) each day once for each time I succumbed to anger in the past day, and it helps me keep that emotion–very frequently provoked these days–in check. I think God gave us these problematic emotions for good reasons, and it is how we deal with them that is the challenge in life.
Well, it is certainly true that oligarchies tend to view and perceive patriarchy as contrary to their own best interests and continued wellbeing. Thus their instigation and promotion of matriarchal feminism in its stead. Emotionally based decision making and popular control is far easier to manipulate than that which is based on rational thought.
Very well said, I honestly despise the undeserved sense of the communists (not to say that they did everything wrong they had good and bad aspects but everything should be taken with a degree of nuance) that peddle their ideology in a way that they makes people beleive that they are the only solution for humanity when its main ideology was born in the West and only existed for 70 years, also alot of the best aspects of the Soviet Union was inspired by the Russian empire whose culture, history and traditions are much older then what the communists have, Russia is successfull now and the communists cannot admit this fact especially not the Western ones which is funny because Russia is the only reason they rose to prominence.
City of London almost succeeded in dismantling Russia and the Russian ethos with this communist nonsense. Afterall Marx lived his latter years in London paid for by the bankers
Uncle Joe then used the jews to flush the bolsheviks and was almost successful
This will never end till this is taken to their doorstep. The square mile in City of London
The large majority of the Bolsheviks were Ashkenazy Jews, probably most of them atheists. Some say 80%. Putin has put it at 95%.
Ditto top tiers of the NKVD, predecessor to the KGB.
Rector, to make your point, which surely is salutary, perhaps a more specific and less hyperbolic, fact-eliding means is available. I refer to differentials between taking time as Kairos and taking time as Chronos, a discussion with which I am sure you are familiar.
The Church (Greek and Latin) takes time as Kairotic more than Chronologic. Both aspects of time are of course always present. However, The Church — because of The Bible and the Fathers (Greek and Latin) — emphasizes time as Kairos in affairs of soteriology. This is the proper emphasis.
The Orthodox (Greek-Russian) Church has been far better than The Latin (Catholic-Protestant) Church at maintaining awareness of time as Kairos more than of time as Chronos. Such awareness comes with the natural emphasis of The Church on soteriology.
I believe that by Oligarchy you reference those who treat time as exclusively Chronos — they are by definition therefore outside The Church — and by Patriarchy you reference those who treat time as most importantly Kairos, albeit without denying time as Chronos. Such are by definition therefore inside The Church, whether their outward title is Moslem, Jew, Christian, Hindu, Zoroastrian/Baha’i, or anything else, including even Atheist, although few Atheists grasp time as Kairos.
The Orthodox Church has performed far better than The Latin Church in adhering to The Church’s preference for taking time as Kairos, albeit while also affirming time as Chronos.
@Rev.Graham.
Thank you for that most important distinction; important from the Existential viewpoint of each individual sentient being with a soul to be saved.
“Chronos” is time measured and counted by a chronometer, while “kairos” is lived and experienced.”
You are most welcome. The differential is from classical Greek philosophy, Hebrew Prophets, at least by implication, and then Greek and Latin Christian Fathers, not from me. Paul Tillich elaborates on the existential phenomena and power of the differential pretty much throughout his writings but especially in the ontological passages, such as Volume I of his Systematic Theology.
“‘Patriarchy’ is rule for the benefit of the people.”
President Putin is a patriarch. So was president FD Roosevelt. So was president de Gaule. So was prime minister Attlee. So were king Frederick of Prussia and Empress Catherine of Russia. So was Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore.
So is the Christian God, “our Father in Heaven who cares for every sparrow that falls”.
Curiously, the Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant, who is called “the man who killed God”, “the philosopher of the Revolution”, and “the philosopher of Freedom”, who had no religion and no family, believed that the best form of government was enlightened monarchy — in other words, Patriarchy.
PS If the author is an Orthodox Christian, ie a member of Christ’s Catholic Church (Kat’ Holos) he is overreaching himself by trying to exclude the Roman Catholic Church by making weaselly distinctions between South American and European Catholicism. Rule from Rome is a political question not a religious one. A good Pope (Papa, pater, father) who brought good to his people, saw that they were fed and cancelled their debt would also be a Patriarch. I do not know enough about Roman history to cite an example.
At the height of his power Lee Kwan Yew over-ruled the people of Singapore thus: “We do what we want to do, never mind what the people say!” He held to the same line as Bush Jnr, either you are w/us or against us, by going after those who were perceived as a potential threat to him and/or his party – he would snuff them out. There’s an interview of a former AG of Singapore, Francis Seow. He was in political exile after he resigned his position as AG, and was planning to contest in the next general election, but things started happening that was intended to disqualify and eliminate his candidacy. I believe he wrote a book “To Catch a Tartar.”
The late Dr Goh Keng Swee, was Singapore’s PM before he stepped down and out of politics in the mid-90s was the unsung architect of the developing island state. Read books written about his contribution (as opposed to LKY dictating his own memoir) and you will see the immense contribution of a truly great man, and one of the several founding fathers of Singapore. One of those who spoke highly of Dr Goh claimed that he would insist that his subordinates test their policies repeatedly to ensure that they do not impact the people negatively before implementation.
The two men, both founding fathers of Singapore after independence from the Malay Federation in 1965, are worlds apart in approach and temperament, and therein the end results too.
Incidentally, he was one of the troika who introduced neoliberal economics to their country. The other two being Reagan and Thatcher. So there are substantial similarity and outcome in devts as a result…
A minor correction in my first response, should be “We do what we want, never mind what the people say.”
After Dr Goh Keng Swee left office and politics he was roped in by the Chinese govt as economic advisor…before he retired, and has since passed on. Salute to the man! Worthy of respect, honour, and the gratitude of Singaporeans who truly benefited from his benevolent stewardship. He did the rounds in office…public housing, defence, finance, economics, industrial, central provident fund, education, arts and cultural devts, etc, were notable.
Perfect.
I would only add that imho there are 3 layers of control operating in oligarchical mode:
— A super-rich level from the shadows with names few people know.
— A (noisy, vulgar) billionaires’ niche for the Gates, Musk, Bezos level – to carry out certain tasks.
— Political gophers aka visible/apparent governments who are the hired actors in national “democracy” shows – the oligarchs’ theater companies.
“…. and not some mere narrow-minded, moralising and pharisaical Judeo-Christian code of ‘Thou shalt not’.”
With God Himself being the lawgiver of such commands, why do you accuse Him of being narrow minded?
God is not narrow-minded, but the ideologists of Protestantism, who replaced spirituality with moralism are. The Ten Commandments were given in a specific context and have been fulfilled/superseded in the New Testament. What is sad is to see that the extremely harmful Protestant ideologists have reverted to Old Testament Judaism, perverting the Christian Faith into something of which you and hundreds of millions of others have been the victims. That is why you are in revolt. That is the evil of the Protestant ideology/religion which is opposed to Faith/spiritual awareness. In that, of course, Marx was absolutely right: ‘Religion’ (State ideology/moralising to control the masses) is indeed the State-supplied opium of the people. Spiritual awareness/faith is something totally different.Read the New Testament. Get up to date, all you Protestant ideologists with your bigoted moralism and condemnations of human love..
Here is Marx’s quote on religion from “Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right”:
“Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions.”
So Marx does not say above (or elsewhere to my knowledge) that religion is a state-supplied opiate of the people. He thought that religion was an illusion and its purpose or effect was to make the masses seek salvation (i.e. freedom from suffering) in the next world instead of in this one.
Marx was talking against how religion like many other tools in the West was used by the ruling elites to keep people down and oppressed and to distract them from their suffering in the hopes of a better life in the next world it was not the case in Russia where they used it for the opposite also there is a real possibility that many things in the Bible was distorted to suit the Wests mentality, many religions in the world have the same roots as Christianity such as Zoroastrianism and some people believe they were all derive themselves from one religion with similar system of beliefs.
Mr. Batushka. Speaking like this falls into Marcionism (Marcion of Sinope) “the god of the Old Testament is jealous, vengeful and full of commandments, while Jesus is a kind of guru of love and tolerance.”
The response of the Church has been the same since ancient times: that dichotomy is wrong, Jesus is the Messiah announced by the prophets and awaited by the People of Israel, and he did not come to abolish the Law of Moses, but to consummate it.
It is true that various Protestant sects are profoundly Judaizing and moralistic. We Catholics also fall; a heresy that has surreptitiously contaminated our Christian, Catholic conscience; It is the moralism that Thibon tells us about, with Jansenist and Protestant roots and, beyond that, pseudo-Augustinian. Ultimately Manichaean.
This paralyzing moralism Belloc called “religion of terror”
But also, 50+% of US-ians agree that “in the next several years, there will be civil war in the United States” a new study by the University of California has found.
For those who havent been following – the trigger will be before either the Midterms or the 2021 Presidential Election, one of the major parties will grant the hordes of immigrants coming over the southern border voting rights.
That will be the last straw.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.15.22277693v1
I just don’t think it’s that complicated.
Satan’s minions are enslaving and destroying societies by infiltrating and subverting concentrated power structures.
And they have nearly succeeded with the world now split into two. Those pro their own people vs the enslaved states aka globalist puppets.
Which btw still serves Satan.
An insightful article. Ultimately oligarchies are a form of fascism. Fascism is about power. And privilege for those in power. All those below are dispensable and disposable. Patriarchal systems are informed by notions of family, with a sense of responsibility for those below. Here in Japan where I live, social systems have been oligarchical for hundreds of years and will not change soon. This leads to an exclusionary “fortress mentality”.
https://julianmacfarlane.medium.com/a-japanese-view-of-fortress-america-6a1d679226a7
were just serfs!!! David Rockefeller…
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years…It would be impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government that will never again know war, but only peace and prosperity for the whole of humanity. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferably to the auto determination practiced in past centuries. It is also our duty to inform the press of our convictions as to the historic future of the country.
and what is that plan ultimately? Aaron Russo https://youtu.be/oygBg6ETYIM
SR Batiushka You say: “Orthodox Christianity, is a mentality, a set of cultural values, a way of life, and not a simple narrow, moralizing and pharisaic mind”.
Understanding, a priori, that the three pillars of Christian faith are based on the Scriptures, Tradition and Magisterium (teaching) where the three light up each other.
I observe that you give more importance to tradition as orthodox, because, it seems to me, it has always been done in the Orthodox Church, above what the Scriptures teach.
The Catholic Church for more than a century, since the times of PIO X, has oversized the Magisterium (in this case) by top of the Scriptures, the Papal Casaism falling. to put it more currently what we have is the vicar of Christ but a Papa-CEO
Could you clarify your appointment?
Thank you Mr Batiushka
Crony Capitalism is the natural destination of all economic systems left to themselves, in the long run.
Oligarchy is also very difficult to avoid, again in the long run.
The West is ailed by a combined onset of both.
Patriarchy is a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line.
“the thematic relationships of the ballad are worked out according to the conventional archetypes of the patriarchy”
a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.
“the dominant ideology of patriarchy”
Wtf are you talking about patriarchy is NOT the opposite of oligarchy…just saying.
You DO know words have multiple definitions, right?
Just one word on the following quotation:
“This is why the Oligarchy is dominated by two sectors: finance and militarism, by its aggressive economic and military warfare against the rest of the world.”
I think there is one more sector to add, no less important than the other two cited.
‘Narrative control’
Thanks for the text Batiushka ;_)
The existence of the Oligarchy is owed to, no thanks to what is called “the Protestant Reformation”, with its egocentric perception of “salvation”.
The roots of western cultural decline go as far 19th century but its real down fall started in 1960s. This BBC documentary (2004) is giving good critical view of “swinging sixties”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw0Rmt2S0uQ
“Why I Hate The Sixties”
” I replied that he was looking at the question from a narrow Protestant viewpoint. Its essence is moralism and the concept that the only real sins are sexual, whereas all Traditional Religion, like Orthodox Christianity, is a mentality, a set of cultural values, a way of life, and not some mere narrow-minded, moralising and pharisaical Judeo-Christian code of ‘Thou shalt not’.”
Tremendously clarifying point. Alan Watts — former Episcopal priest, Zen expert and fan of Orthodoxy, especially their services — said that (Western) Christianity had become “a sexual regulation society” where indeed the only sin is sex: “If someone is said to be ‘living in sin’ it doesn’t mean they are engaged in counterfeiting or selling adulterated baked goods.”
Related, perhaps: Israelis only consider “orthodox” Judaism (as Americans call it; elsewhere it’s “traditional” Judaism, the fur hats and black coats stuff) to be Judaism, for purposes of state support, immigration etc. Why do the largely secular Jews care? Moshe Dyan said: “It don’t go to the synagogue, and the synagogue I don’t go to is Orthodox.”
Communism is the poor creation of wealth and equal distribution of poverty.
Neo feudalism or fascism is the partial creation of limited wealth for the worker drones and the redistribution of great wealth to the ruling members of the system.
Socialism, for me anyway, is the confiscation of more than 10% of privately created wealth from individuals to give to the nanny state to redistribute to those individuals the state judges to be in need.
Laissez-faire capitalism is where an individuals freedoms (of choices) are enabled by their personal capital base. That capital can only be won by the meritocracy of the individual as validated by the choices of other freely choosing individuals who vote for their production by purchasing same at the producers price. In such a system government is limited to the protection of life and private property and may be allowed charitable inputs for the needy in the areas of health care and education. Government revenue for such is collected only on consumption and limited to 10% broken down as 4% for protection, 3% education and 3% health care. The monetary system is market created and valued specie money which have no government inputs.
Laissez-faire capitalism is the unequal creation and unequal distribution of wealth. As the meritocracy within the system grows wealth is generally distributed in a middle class way. Laissez-faire systems do not exist anywhere and social justice in such a system comes from meritocracy and voluntary charity. The wants of the whole cannot trample the rights of a meritorious individual. Everything else is some rationalized form of theft, and the rationalizations for it are many and nuanced. The bible says thou shalt not steal, not even in a rationalized, nuanced and systemic manner; it’s still stealing. There is room for non thieving communists and socialists in a laissez-faire society. Form a voluntary club, pool your money, govern it like a club for your group, and only members live out of their collective pool. Stop trying to be the overarching national ubrella system that allows you to steal from others to finance your own ambitions.
I like Russia not because I think their economic model is worthy of emulation. I like them because their philosophical model of global governance is based on national sovereignty, not imperial fascism. At least in a world like this a nation becomes free to discover a good freedom and wealth producing economic model. As for me I’m keeping an eye on El Salvador to see how they develop economically.
Wow! I love this kind of philosophizing.
I admit, however, a problem with the use of the term ‘patriarchy’ as I have come to see this word representing oligarchy and the Christofascist movement in the US. This pater familias ideology leads to accumulation of goods and power for their own sakes and employs dominance over others, especially women. As such, it is perfect for neoliberalism. I tend to prefer and think of ‘matriarchy’.
Concerning China, the CPC definitely has a strong hand in economic planning, although it has a loose hand in allowing creativity. This, to me, is the magic of “Socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Or, as the author suggests, socialism with Buddhist characteristics.
lots of points in this one. i would say “monarchy” is a better word choice than “patriarchy” based on etymology but whatever. toMAYto/toMAHto.
the quick covid bit is accurate. while i find most covidiots tiresome hicks i also “get” why every major event is met with “derp soros derp gates they’re takin the freedums i THINK i have away!” westerners whining about losing their “freedom” is like a child crying because someone stole his imaginary friend. but with so many overt conspiracies it makes sense to jump to that conclusion even if the “logic” is moronic.
as for china, it’s odd that anyone would deny widespread buddhism. it was persecuted under mao (what wasn’t?) as one of the “four olds” but it never really went away and has had a revival in the past few decades as the government has concerned itself more with economic matters. it helps that it’s a “decentralized” religion with no pontiff or “vatican” to focus on (though some would like to put the dalai lama in that position). it also helps that it always flourished outside the country among expats and of course in neighbors like south korea (and north korea to whatever extent it’s “allowed” by the pudgy troll running the place).
as for the “gays are an anti-family weapon” nonsense, i’m sure those in power see it as a useful “divide and conquer” strategy but to say “family” is threatened by gays people any more than it is from capitalism is just laughable. i come from one of the hickiest states in the US and i can tell you first hand: those mums aren’t single and hooked on opioids because some gay guy lured their lovely husband away. same for urban areas like detroit. do you actually think families there struggle because “the gays” poisoned their drinking water and shipped their jobs of to (gay?) china?
(and for anyone lumping “trans” into the gay umbrella, i’d remind them that most of the loudest and most visible of those twats are straight guys in dresses who want to bang lesbians. why do you think so many ostensibly “cis” guys back them up at every opportunity? “bros (in dresses) before hoes!” i wish i was oversimplifying that but sadly not.)
In 1952, in Greece, communist Nikos Beloyiannis and some of his comrades were trialed and executed. Post WWII Greece was first a UK, then a US protectorate, practically. Although civil war was officially over, not much had changed: presecution, imprisonment, confinment to concentration camps or even execution for anyone accused of being a communist or a “sympathizer” was quite common.
At first, Beloyiannis & his comrads were trialed for being communists – something punished by death until then. When goverment changed the law, converting death penalty for this “crime” into prison term, suddenly a radio transmitter was “found” in their hide-out, so they were trialed again for espionage (still punished by death) by a military court (one of the military judges being George Papadopoulos, the later head of the greek junta- 1967-1974).
Their trial was broadcasted through radio – and people of Greece, even these who were not communist sympathizers, admired Beloyiannis’ original and patriotic apology, where he talked against foreignh intervention, people’s exploitation by the elit and for defending the interests of the country against the US corporate neo-colonialism. Even the then orthodox archibishop of Athens declared that Beloyiannis was just like the early christian martyrs – but better, since he didn’t even believed in life after death! (That was a really daring think to say – even for someone of his rank!)
Most of people in trial were convicted and executed, despite an internation uproar by millions of people, including artists, intellectuals, scientists, world leaders, even the pope himself. So furious US handlers were, that the execution took place late at night, instead of dawn, as it was used to (some say, to prevent any chance of last-minute pardon by the king). Beloyiannis and his comrads were smiling and cheerful until the very end (Picasso made the painting “Man with a carnation” based on a smiling Beloyiannis photograph during his trial).
Among them, though, there was a sad and gloomy guy, an economist who was NOT a communist (you would merely call him center-leftist), someone who was convicted as an accompliser, despite his claims that he was ready to denounce communism in public if asked! His name was Dimitris Basis, editor-in-chief of a respectable economist magazine about post-war reconstruction & development of Greece.
Basis’ only crime was that he wrote a book titled “Heavy Industry in Greece”. In this book, he described how poor and ruined early 1950s Greece could gradually evolve into an industrial powerhouse! It was not about big words and wishful thinking: the book was full of data, in-situ research results and methodical overview: “Greece contains X quantity of fossil fuel, able to produce Y amount of electricity, which will lead to production of Z value of goods” etc.
Americans at that time claim that, beyond “communists”, also their enemies were “useful idiots”: those who manifest for national economic development and national integrity, refusing to open their borders to US imports (the so-called Dalles doctrine)! No wonder why Basis was sent to death, although the greek chief of police (a master on false accusations himself!) declared that there was NOTHING against him and he could not accuse him of ANYTHING!
Basis was shot alongside the others, his book was banned for more than 20 years and Greece, following US dictats, established its development in tourism, maritime, construction, labour immigration and the service sector. This way, the country was tied to external sources of income, never gaining independence from the global capital, in order to be transformed (as american economists proposed) into “a nation of small owners, small landlords, small importers, small-time capitalists”!
Thank you . That was an eye-opening piece of work and it is no different for Germany and the US today . In stopping Russian gas for Germany and Europe , the US is simply ensuring Europe will always be net consumer of American goods and services ie will not grow any further l Why now? Well because the US knows it has peaked, ; socially ,culturally, militarily . So it has to have a Mafia protection racket going on amongst its “allies” .
I would not be surprised if the Iron Curtain has come back, and this time it will be the West that will be in the “Dark Ages”. All countries under Russia and China’s influence will flower with cheap food, energy ,housing ,education and great culture just as the West had in the Fifties to the Early Eighties.
Yes, the New Iron Curtain will have the opposite goal than the old one: to keep the West isolated from the rest of the world, so that its people would not be able to see how the rest of the globe is flowrishing!
Someone would argue that, especially nowdays, this is impossible: how can anybody hide the difference of development or standards of living, given the telecom/media technology available? That’s where propaganda / brainwashing enters the stage: a good spinning campaign can make people believe the western propaganda and NOT their own senses – that’s the goal, anyway.
There’s a sleight of hand here, and it’s right in the title–rule BY the few or rule FOR the many. Rule (supposedly) FOR the many is still rule BY the few.
Socially conservative oligarchs are still oligarchs. Nationalist oligarchs are still oligarchs. A different style of oligarch, but they still end up feathering their own nests at the expense of most people.
Indeed, what the article’s author calls Patriarchy is basically a tool that one faction of the capitalist oligarchy uses when they fear the big time internationalist-type plunder is becoming unstable and unsustainable; it’s a fallback position–when the supply of empty consumer goods runs low, they find something else to fob off the masses with: Equally empty social conservative culture and religion. It’s a tried and true recipe after all–kept the peasants down for many centuries.
What we need is actual rule BY the many, which also requires taking away most of the oligarchs’ stuff. Then people can decide for themselves such questions as how socially conservative they might want their religion. Without a lot of very expensive propaganda on either side.
@ Purple library guy
What we need is actual rule BY the many, which also requires taking away most of the oligarchs’ stuff.
One of the great blessings spoken about in the Bible is seeing ones grandchildren to the forth and even fifth generation.
What I wouldn’t give to have that as my own experience and the incredible amount of self-government that that kind of nuclear family would engender across the years. wow!
And next to this it is also why we find in the Bible the injunction by God Himself to never allow the cry of the windows and orphans to reach his ears in the Promised Land.
and Religion if any bothered to really pay attention to what the scriptures teach is:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
Wow, if only the church was responsible for the poor instead of the government?
Hmmm…? Didn’t the communists despise the nuclear family? from their Manifesto:
“The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about the hallowed co-relation of parent and child becomes all the more disgusting.” and
“their ends can be attained only by the foreseeable overthrow of all existing social conditions.”
and what does being polluted by the world mean? lust of the flesh, the eyes and the pride of life…
For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. John 2:16
I come to the conclusion that you are anti-oligarchy patriarchal. I share your arguments against the oligarchy, but, like almost all patriarchalists, they ignore that “Patriarchy is an analytical concept referring to a system of political, social, and economic relations and institutions structured around the gender inequality of socially defined men and women.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/patriarchy
Acknowledging this injustice of orthodox domination is not the property of “the recalcitrant western feminists”, but of the fighters of east/west, south/north, for a system and practices with social and environmental justice necessary to build a future. A future where the sovereignty of peoples, cultures, religions, the diversity of families and national or regional infrastructures coexist, and where nature is not alienated by profit, nor considered a commodity.
Under that gaze, the oligarchy and the patriarchy have no future. The future lies in evolving conceptually and practically towards community societies of good living and coexistence.
Thank you for helping me understand myself better (being a non-religious Serb)
what you say about relgion makes sense and I’ve notice smiliarities in mentality between Serbs, Latin Americans and Asians.
And on the other side jews, Brits, Americans, Germans, Austrians – the moder day Mordor
What you say makes sense
The world is certainly at a crossroads and major changes are near. God willing, the lucerferin oligarchs will burn in hell.
Many thanks Batiushka, for another brilliant analysis. May God continue to protect and guide you!
I enjoyed the article. I am left wondering what is required, the articles’s understanding assumed as a given by the core of interested parties, to prepare the next generation for being able to restore the general trajectory of western nations back towards a productive, pro-development stance, versus a pro-looting stance. In other words, once the west collapses, we will need a cadre of people capable of knowing how to guide the bootstrapping of society and its industrial base back into operation, with a nation-building politics to promote it. In this sense I think we all mostly agree on the fundamentals of the problem. The harder part is how do we conspire to fix it.
Highlighting the relationship between the creative mind of man (as creator and entrepreneur of innovations, and problem-solving, rather than creative financial looting schemes) and the framework of physical economy, exposes an educational need and a reemphasis on the culture that makes man capable of outflanking oligarchy, classical education eyed towards genius building. The Oligarchies Achilles’ heel has always been when they dumb the people down too much, they kill the economic basis their own empire, because human economy depends on the human mind.
I have noticed an alarmingly few youths are familiar with self-education vocational “garage tinkering”, physics, mechanics, electronics; fewer still with machine-tool, control theory, microprocessor programming, you name it. An alarming amount of teenagers do not know how to even change a tire. These kids are captured in these little bubbles and are not learning much useful fundamentals or skills, meanwhile their morals are being actively corrupted within the schools.
We need more emphasis on actively promoting will to fight for actual classical (re-discovery) and skills-based knowledge, science and technological competence and all that this entails, and morals/virtue, including how to manage one’s attitude while traversing difficult parts of life.
The youth have to know that the oligarchy is trying to deceive them, but they also have to know what the classical methods of truth-seeking are, from a classical-historical perspective, so they can outflank them.
I thought “patriarchy” was the opposite of “matriarchy.”
Paraphrasis of point 4: “Yeah, we are a bunch of hypocrites”.
ahaha bruh, 99.99% of rulers are just tyrannical parasites. “Good government” is the exception to that rule. Of course monarchies and other autocracies, managed by competent groups, tend to “take care” more of their people, in the same sense a slave holder takes care of his assets, to make them more productive and increase his own profit, some of them, from this rational non destructive policy derived a “nobility code of honor and/or ethics”, and a long list of fantasies about how the exploiter and violent dominator of others is in reality a benevolent, almost fatherly “ruler” of his “inferiors”, which can’t of course run their own lives by themselves, being reduced to childlike beings, goes the “authority myth”.
Modern “oligarchies” as you defined them, are managed by scorpions of the scorpion and the frog fable, the scorpion is harmful to the point of stupidity. So these parasites will suck the host dry, with no long term evaluation, and of course no code of ethics whatsoever.
Spare me the mythology. All political power is funded on violence and conquest. Legitimacy is invented afterwards for feelgood purposes.
…and so ? Batiushka is a communist ?
no, because he considers the planification as a failure…
but within an undemocratic assembly (the bolshevik party), it was obvious it would re-create an oligarchy.
Dmitri Orlov wrote about that : raw material should be nationalised + banks, so that any guy with an idea may launch a business with free access to capital.
in my opinion, an higher spiritual conception about the oiko-nomia would lead us to dismiss any sort of entrepreneurship. We should supercede competition for women as a goal in itself (earning money to “buy” women is the essence of capitalism : food and sex, and food for sex).
Geoffrey, communist from Belgium