Russian president, in Sochi, lays down the law in favor of conservatism – says the woke West is in decline
By Pepe Escobar, posted with permission and first posted at Asia Times
The plenary session is the traditional highlight of the annual, must-follow Valdai Club discussions – one of Eurasia’s premier intellectual gatherings.
Vladimir Putin is a frequent keynote speaker. In Sochi this year, as I related in a previous column, the overarching theme was “global shake-up in the 21st century: the individual, values and the state.”
Putin addressed it head on, in what can already be considered one of the most important geopolitical speeches in recent memory (a so-far incomplete transcript can be found here) – certainly his strongest moment in the limelight. That was followed by a comprehensive Q&A session (starting at 4:39:00).
Predictably, assorted Atlanticists, neocons and liberal interventionists will be apoplectic. That’s irrelevant. For impartial observers, especially across the Global South, what matters is to pay very close attention to how Putin shared his worldview – including some very candid moments.
Right at the start, he evoked the two Chinese characters that depict “crisis” (as in “danger”) and “opportunity,” melding them with a Russian saying: “Fight difficulties with your mind. Fight dangers with your experience.”
This elegant, oblique reference to the Russia-China strategic partnership led to a concise appraisal of the current chessboard:
The re-alignment of the balance of power presupposes a redistribution of shares in favor of rising and developing countries that until now felt left out. To put it bluntly, the Western domination of international affairs, which began several centuries ago and, for a short period, was almost absolute in the late 20th century, is giving way to a much more diverse system.
That opened the way to another oblique characterization of hybrid warfare as the new modus operandi:
Previously, a war lost by one side meant victory for the other side, which took responsibility for what was happening. The defeat of the United States in the Vietnam War, for example, did not make Vietnam a “black hole.” On the contrary, a successfully developing state arose there, which, admittedly, relied on the support of a strong ally. Things are different now: No matter who takes the upper hand, the war does not stop, but just changes form. As a rule, the hypothetical winner is reluctant or unable to ensure peaceful post-war recovery, and only worsens the chaos and the vacuum posing a danger to the world.
A disciple of Berdyaev
In several instances, especially during the Q&A, Putin confirmed he’s a huge admirer of Nikolai Berdyaev. It’s impossible to understand Putin without understanding Berdyaev (1874-1948), who was a philosopher and theologian – essentially, a philosopher of Christianity.
In Berdyaev’s philosophy of history, the meaning of life is defined in terms of the spirit, compared with secular modernity’s emphasis on economics and materialism. No wonder Putin was never a Marxist.
For Berdyaev, history is a time-memory method through which man works toward his destiny. It’s the relationship between the divine and the human that shapes history. He places enormous importance on the spiritual power of human freedom.
Putin made several references to freedom, to family – in his case, of modest means – and to the importance of education; he heartily praised his apprenticeship at Leningrad State University. In parallel, he absolutely destroyed wokeism, transgenderism and cancel culture promoted “under the banner of progress.”
This is only one among a series of key passages:
We are surprised by the processes taking place in countries that used to see themselves as pioneers of progress. The social and cultural upheavals taking place in the United States and Western Europe are, of course, none of our business; we don’t interfere with them. Someone in the Western countries is convinced that the aggressive erasure of whole pages of their own history – the “reverse discrimination” of the majority in favor of minorities, or the demand to abandon the usual understanding of such basic things as mother, father, family or even the difference between the sexes – that these are, in their opinion, milestones of the movement toward social renewal.
So a great deal of his 40 minute-long speech, as well as his answers, codified some markers of what he previously defined as “healthy conservatism”:
Now that the world is experiencing a structural collapse, the importance of sensible conservatism as a basis for policy has increased many times over, precisely because the risks and dangers are multiplying and the reality around us is fragile.
Switching back to the geopolitical arena, Putin was adamant that “we are friends with China. But not against anyone.”
Geoeconomically, he once again took time to engage in a masterful, comprehensive – even passionate – explanation of how the natural gas market works, coupled with the European Commission’s self-defeating bet on the spot market, and why Nord Stream 2 is a game-changer.
Afghanistan
During the Q&A, scholar Zhou Bo from Tsinghua University addressed one of the key, current geopolitical challenges. Referring to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, he pointed out that, “if Afghanistan has a problem, the SCO has a problem. So how can the SCO, led by China and Russia, help Afghanistan?”
Putin stressed four points in his answer:
- The economy must be restored;
- The Taliban must eradicate drug trafficking;
- The main responsibility should be assumed “by those who had been there for 20 years” – echoing the joint statement after the meeting between the extended troika and the Taliban in Moscow on Wednesday; and
- Afghan state funds should be unblocked.
He also mentioned, indirectly, that the large Russian military base in Tajikistan is not a mere decorative prop.
Putin went back to the subject of Afghanistan during the Q&A, once again stressing that NATO members should not “absolve themselves from responsibility.”
He reasoned that the Taliban “are trying to fight extreme radicals.” On the “need to start with the ethnic component,” he described Tajiks as accounting for 47% of the overall Afghan population – perhaps an over-estimation but the message was on the imperative of an inclusive government.
He also struck a balance: As much as “we are sharing with them [the Taliban] a view from the outside,” he made the point that Russia is “in contact with all political forces” in Afghanistan – in the sense that there are contacts with former government officials like Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah and also Northern Alliance members, now in the opposition, who are self-exiled in Tajikistan.
Those pesky Russians
Now compare all of the above with the current NATO circus in Brussels, complete with a new “master plan to deter the growing Russian threat.”
No one ever lost money underestimating NATO’s capacity to reach the depths of inconsequential stupidity. Moscow does not even bother to talk to these clowns anymore: as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has pointed out, “Russia will no longer pretend that some changes in relations with NATO are possible in the near future.”
Moscow from now on only talks to the masters – in Washington. After all, the direct line between the Chief of General Staff, General Gerasimov, and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, General Todd Wolters, remains active. Messenger boys such as Stoltenberg and the massive NATO bureaucracy in Brussels are deemed irrelevant.
This happens, in Lavrov’s assessment, right after “all our friends in Central Asia” have been “telling us that they are against … approaches either from the United States or from any other NATO member state” promoting the stationing of any imperial “counter-terrorist” apparatus in any of the “stans” of Central Asia.
And still the Pentagon continues to provoke Moscow. Wokeism-lobbyist-cum-Secretary of Defense Lloyd “Raytheon” Austin, who oversaw the American Great Escape from Afghanistan, is now pontificating that Ukraine should de facto join NATO.
That should be the last stake impaling the “brain-dead” (copyright Emmanuel Macron) zombie, as it meets its fate raving about simultaneous Russian attacks on the Baltic and Black Seas with nuclear weapons.
”The social and cultural upheavals taking place in the United States and Western Europe are, of course, none of our business; we don’t interfere with them. Someone in the Western countries is convinced that the aggressive erasure of whole pages of their own history – the ’reverse discrimination’ of the majority in favor of minorities, or the demand to abandon the usual understanding of such basic things as mother, father, family or even the difference between the sexes /…/ ”
Yes, Putin is tacitly speaking about George Soros (and at least about Bill Gates too if the translation ”Someone /…/ is convinced” — which is based on a subject in singular — isn’t strictly in accordance with Putin’s speech in Russian). What happened was that Soros and his Open Society Foundation were shown the door by The Kremlin six years ago (late 2015) and decided to wreak utter havoc primarily in the West instead, at least for as long as Russia and China stay strong and healthy.
Granted, the West is now so royally screwed that it won’t survive even the present decade. AUKUS, NATO, Ukronazis, masturbating US neocons, Navalny, the Euro-trash (of which the outstanding ”philosopher” BHL is the true embodiment) — all this will be dealt with in no uncertain terms. It will be a matter of friendly controversy among future historians who contributed most to restore sanity and to put an end to imperialism’s despotic rule over the planet: Putin or Soros. They both deserve the epithet éminence grise with Putin being the mastermind of order and sanity on a global scale and Soros similarly the enforcer of chaos and insanity wherever he calls the shots. Putin stays out of the West’s collapse; Soros is working overtime orchestrating it.
You realize that Soros is middle management, right? Or did you actually think that guy is pulling all the strings?
Putin damn well knows who is actually in charge and it ain’t Soros. I think it is a fair assumption that if we’ve heard about them (incessantly even), they’re the front man for someone else. It’s like the whole charade about Musk or Bezos or Zuc or whichever nouveau riche is the flavor of the month being “the wealthiest man of Earth.” Again, guys running organizations that were helped immensely by US alphabet agencies are nothing but front men. The ones you don’t hear about, the ones who send their management teams to Davos to give the marching orders, they are the ones orchestrating things. Gyorgy Schwartz isn’t the big boss. I mean if you subscribe to some sort of paranoia about the Jews controlling everything, even then, that Schwartz ain’t the biggest Schwartz. He’s got a boss, and maybe his boss has a boss. Why would these creatures come out of hiding and put targets on their backs when they can have power, immense wealth and complete anonymity?
”You realize that Soros is middle management, right? Or did you actually think that guy is pulling all the strings?”
For the sake of argument: If it were the total, utter fraudster BHL and his ”philosophy” that were instrumental in bringing down the Western fabric of society (it is not), we could rightfully refer to the collapse as ”the work of BHL” as long as he isn’t just plagiarizing (or receiving his instructions before he pulls off his stunts). People obsessed with looking for an ultimate God/Devil usually end up begrudging any simplification to which there is appreciable substance.
George Soros and the Open Society Foundation he is leading are promoting Western disintegration successfully while other actors such as BHL (an actor in every sense of the word) and the oozing US neocons are just adding some uplifting, funny odours to it. And they are all working for the tribe’s money as well.
Soros and his Open Society are middle men who work for the CIA and State Department, that is obvious. They (Soros) get their share of tax payer money from the US government for their services around the world.
the real bosses are hidden, they don’t appear on the forbes magazine list, they’re mysterious, they’re real.
From “No one ever lost money underestimating NATO’s capacity to reach the depths of inconsequential stupidity” to “Wokeism-lobbyist-cum-Secretary of Defense Lloyd “Raytheon” Austin, who oversaw the American Great Escape from Afghanistan”, to “the last stake impaling the “brain-dead” (copyright Emmanuel Macron) zombie, as it meets its fate raving about simultaneous Russian attacks on the Baltic and Black Seas with nuclear weapons” Pepe perfectly describes the West and its policies.
We have the elegance of Putin’s philosophical ideas and practical actions of the Russian diplomatic efforts versus the manic mantras of the Clown Show called The West.
The Fifth Civilization of humanity is decomposing, not just dying. We aren’t yet certain of the date of death, but worms are eating at it and the buzzards of history are circling the cadaver.
China, India, Russia and Iran will easily fill the space once the corpse is taken away by ants and bacteria.
There won’t be a funeral or memorial service.
Very succinct and elegantly Written eulogy for the corrupt degenerate western world.
Remember, Larch, we are not just the Fifth Civilization but the AngloZionist Empire. The danger is that Zionists of all stripes presume to take the rest of us with them into their apocalyptic Christo-fascist nuclear end-times imaginings. The Union of Concerned Scientists claim that as few as 100 nukes reaching their targets anywhere on the planet will bring on Nuclear Winter and the end of humanity. May Heaven preserve us all from the wrath of the chosenites.
From what understand (and i’m no expert on munitions), you have to warm those things (nuclear weapons) up first, before you decide to use them.
So it takes a military boy to also approve of use, even if your Zionists think one day they should be used to bring humanity down with them. Saying or believing is not doing.
Those nukes are all warmed up and ready to go, Alabama. The end-times scenario that US Christian Zionists pray for is that a 9/11-style false-flag attack, blamed on Iran, would lead to a cataclysmic conflict with Iran and Russia which would go nuclear within hours. I’m certain the real perps of 9/11(Israel) would be more than willing to stage a redo.
You have not convinced me. Sorry.
Israel has plenty of ‘military boys’, so what’s the point of this comment?
The concerned scientists should consider the many open air nuclear tests performed in the ’50s and ’60s.
True, it did coincide with a cooling trend of the global climate during a few decades, making some scientists in the early ’70s even think an ice age was coming.
“Fifth Civilization.” How are you counting Larch? Do you have a good source?
I have five fingers. So, five.
China, India, Russia, Iran (Persian), and the West. Five. 5. 1+1+1+1+1.
I keep it simple.
:-))) ;-)
Are you sure??? Lately 2+2=5 or ??
1+1+1+1+1= 7???
University professor debated the possibility… University!!!
Follow the science :-))))
There is no male or female… they are possibilities… forget the apparatus you have between your legs!!!
Let’s tell that to the rest of Nature.
:-)))
”Messenger boys such as Stoltenberg and the massive NATO bureaucracy in Brussels are deemed irrelevant.”
Says who? These people are quite likely Nobel peace prize laureate material, not least the great, charismatic philanthropist Jens Stoltenberg who is also a Norwegian, mind you. He may be a simple messenger boy, but he is a man of profound talent and intelligence no less.
@Nussiminen: “He may be a simple messenger boy, but he is a man of profound talent and intelligence no less.”
Like Obama, the simple messenger boy in the Oval Office who won the prize.
With the granting of a Nobel prize to Obomba any credibility that organisation might once have had was flushed down the sewer of hypocrisy and irrelevance. If it was on fire one would not waste the left-overs of a good glass of beer to extinguish the flames.
Or did the /sarc get edited out?
henry kissinger did that for me. It’s all B.S.
” but he is a man of profound talent and intelligence no less.”
No he is not, his dead junkie sister was the smart one in that family…
Jensegutt was daddys little boy that saw how easy it was to get rich being a politician, if you understand norwegian i ask you to read/watch old stories/intervjues with him, he is on bush jr level iq wise🤷♂️
Per
Re: Bush Jr IQ and leadership
Bush did not have to be a genius at all. He had two Unshakable and Resolute Pillars of America guiding his steps:
https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7025/3128/1600/cartoon–Rumsfeld_Bush_Cheney-DEATH-Guardian—bellnew512ready.jpg
Who does Stoltenberg have holding his hand?
Vladimir Putin has successfully stabilized and enhanced Russia’s security. However, Russia got money? How come Russian companies are listing abroad? Russian Central Bank isn’t investing in productive endeavors? None has ever asked Putin good questions on Russia’s financials and monetary policies.
If you know Russia well, then please explain its money supply allocation. Also, what are Russia’s key core values and development themes.
Russia is weak financially. Internally it is fragile and externally most of its conflicts frozen. What is the situation with the Astana, Minsk’s, JCPOA,… agreements? The Financial Empire continues to create more challenges for Russia and in its neighborhood. Yet, Russian companies want to raise money in their adversaries financial markets. What are we missing?
Russia has had great philosophers but yet it has suffered immensely in the last century. It was outplayed and betrayed in 1917, 1947, 1991, 2008, 2013, 2019, 2020… Why?
How did the Financial Empire capture the West, particularly the Europe? It controlled West’s credit and made kingdoms fight each other to build their Empires. The Monarchs needed credit to fight their wars and live beyond their means. One by one these monarchs lost their power, kingdoms become Republics. The central bank creation started with Republics and the Private Imperialist Oligarchy captured and controlled them. The Empire brought down the Soviet Union through the financial shenanigans. Will it capture Russia through finances?
https://www.reuters.com/business/russian-companies-prepare-new-ipo-surge-2021-10-08/
U$A – 19+ Russian companies listed in the U$A. More to come…
https://topforeignstocks.com/foreign-adrs-list/the-full-list-of-russian-adrs-2/
London – 35+ Russian companies listed in London
https://topforeignstocks.com/listed-companies-lists/the-complete-list-of-russian-companies-listed-on-london-stock-exchange/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-russian-companies-set-to-join-new-york-ipo-frenzy-11631012328
russia…why has the demented empire coveted russia for generations:? oil, gold, untold minerals, lapis, malachite, incredible intellect:? composers, writers, painters…study the beginning of post modern painters, russian painters were the beginning of the ‘rainbow’, as they could see what was unfolding. above all what the axis of resistance all own: faith, intellect, resources, all things the axis of evil covets.
/Russia is weak financially. Internally it is fragile and externally most of its conflicts frozen./
You’re kidding, right? Russia has the fifth largest gold reserve in the world and a national wealth fund which doesn’t use the USD. It is increasingly de-Dollarrizing its trade, and in a better position to face the chaos when the USD comes down.
I don’t know what you mean by internal issues. Russia’s territorial integrity was preserved by crushing the Chechen rebellion after which there hasn’t been any significant threat of separatism.
Before 2008 South Ossetia and Abkhazia were Russian protectorates and the western bid to forcefully occupy them went terribly wrong in 2008. Contrary to your claims, Crimea was returned to Russia and the Donbass won’t ever be a Ukronazi enclave again. The US knew that they can’t move forward in Ukraine and have a favourable outcome. That’s why they put the burden on Germany and evaded responsibility, but Germany and France know that they are bound to uphold the Minsk agreement. In short, Ukraine can’t gain NATO membership nor can it win back Donetsk and Lugansk. That’s a perfect outcome for Russia.
Besides, Russia moved ahead with the Union State agreement with Belarus and the US/EU plan to disrupt the integration through color revolutions went terribly wrong. As of now, Russia and Belarus are a de-facto unified state snd it’s a matter of time when Lukashenko steps down as Belarus President thus completing the integration.
Regarding gold reserves : Alastair Macleod (Goldmoney.com), whom I find quite credible, among others, firmly believe China conservatively has reserves of between 25 & 30,000 tons, and that Russia has 14,000.
Of course it is impossible to verify these numbers absolutely, but if true, or close to true, it puts a very different complexion on gold backed digital currencies.
@Man With No Name, if you believe Russia is stable, financially strong and sovereign then you should have no issue in stating its “key core values and development themes.” What % of Russia’s money is created by sovereign and private credit/money? Why is Russia practicing usury?
The Financial Empire is relentless, ruthless and reckless. “Only the paranoid survive.”
Vladimir Putin, himself stated in one of his speeches that ‘the Saker’ shared this year, in which he candidly stated that Russia is working towards its economic sovereignty. So Russia isn’t economically sovereign. Why? As stated earlier, Russia’s borders are secure for now and it has good defenses.
One can have all the assets of the world, but as long as they are priced in someone else’s currency, that else controls their demand, value and financial gains. Russia has been blessed with many riches in commodities but hasn’t made the best of them. Why? Who sets the price of gold? London? Yes, Russia has done De-Dollarization. However, its national assets/companies want to dollarize their valuations & ownership. Russia can create money like the U$A/UK and fund their development. Why raise money in the adversaries financial markets? The Empire seeks control.
The Empire has brought down Russia by crashing the financial markets in 1987 (Soviet Union collapse) and 1989 Asian financial crisis (Russian default). Russian has been laggard in the financial realm for centuries and it is one of Russia’s biggest weaknesses along with its traitors. China launched its alternate payment network (CIPS) proactively in 2002. Russia only launched its payment network in 2015/17, after the Ukraine crisis. Similarly, China has been moving its international trade to non-$ currency methodologically at rate of 5% per year over the last decade. Russia started De-dollarization after 2018. Even now one sees Russians interested in moving with the loot to London, EU or the U$A. They buy multiple properties in the U$A. What % of Russia’s international trade is in the US$?
The Financial Empire is working on trapping and capturing Russia. It needs this to accomplish its dream of a global empire. Until China and Russia defeat and dismantle the Empire, they aren’t safe. They will be making a big mistake in underestimating Empire’s evil will and power. (Sauron & Saruman). Name a country that the Empire has sanctioned and not captured it. Russia is being targeted by the Empire. Maybe it is working on the post-Putin era. Create enough assets to be used to capture Russia like 1990s. To dismantle the Soviet Union the Empire started its plan in 1970s. Russia was one of the topics discussed at the 2019 Bilderberg meeting. What were the key points?
The U$A is a suzerainty of this Empire too. Majority (97+%) of the US$ are created by its private banks. Why was Russia earlier trading in the private money (US$)? Even the Soviet Union sold its commodities (oil) in the private money. Why? How did the Empire capture and control the U$A? It started immediately after the creation of the first central bank (1791), “the First Bank of the United States.” Who were the owners of this bank? It was a private central bank. Who were the financiers of the American revolution? The Empire kept on working even after losing multiple battles and finally in 1913 it succeeded with the creation of the Fed. It started on this path in the 19th century by financing the American financiers, funding the railway & oil market market developments, owning the plutocrats and making them partners in its crimes. It played this game-plan in Germany too.
“The true equation is ‘democracy’ = government by world financiers.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien
“Democracy” is a temporary phase of history which allows the Global Financial Syndicate to take control from the earlier generation of dominant power players: the monarchies.
https://www.zeit-fragen.ch/en/archives/2019/no-8-2-april-2019/from-currency-war-to-military-war.html
https://thediplomat.com/2021/10/why-is-china-looking-to-establish-banks-in-nigeria/
Max is right, constitutionally Russia is run like a ressource colony. Every Rubel issued must be backed by the same value-amount of US-Dollars (thus paying tribute the master).
The Ecnomy is in permanent stagnation with fractional growth numbers, the rate of domestic investment is far to low thanks to the extremly restrictive policy of the ‘National’-Bank (as given above bound by constitutional constraints), rates are vicious above the 7% margin. Inflation steadily and deadly eats away on the middle class.
The schooling system is being steadily demolished, heading straight for ‘western’ levels thanks to institutions like Sberbank.
Although time plays for Russia externally, the race against the parasitic domestic liberal elitist elements is far less favorable in outlook.
The initiative started by the President several years ago for a quantum leap of the whole society has no chance of realisation if these detrimental forces are not neutralized before hand who are in almost total control of the media and important points throughout.society.
Very large swathes of the common people would welcome a more aggressive policy against these enemies within.
Max, that is a good reminder: the enemy is not the other country but the financier who controls the currency of both countries.
And western countries are so rich and solvent? Please check their national debt!
Well they are legends in their own minds, and that goes a long way toward good banking relations between tribes.
@ Max Why should Russia risk It’s Gold when you can have other’s risk their capital ,also the Rube is
subseptable to manipulation so why should Russia risk own economic system .
Tom
@ Tom, why does Russia need to risk its gold? Russia can create money like the U$A/UK and fund these companies development. Why raise money in the adversaries financial markets? The Empire seeks control.
Russia made a big mistake by letting its currency float. Why float the currency? There are no free markets. The market is the Fed.
What % of Russia’s money created by sovereign and private credit/money? Why is Russia practicing usury?
@ Tommy Apeiron
I agree with your thought’s about the Chosenites ,most people just can not under stand it ,because the
way they think is not logical , but their thinking goes back 700 ad in Russia and they will never forgive Russia
from remove then from their home lands (from the Black sea to the Caspean sea ) . You know Kevia use to be
the Capital of Russia at one time.
Tom
All very true, Tom. US neocons like Victoria “f-ck the EU” Nuland are mostly descendants of the European Ashkenazim. Many are indeed descendants of the Khazars, but most are also refugees from the Pale of Settlement that Catherine the Great set up in 1791. Consequently, the tribal enmity toward Russia has been a prime mover for US neocons since forever. Ironically, they allied themselves with out-and-out Nazis to bring down the legitimate government of Ukraine in 2014, with CIA/Mossad snipers shooting protestors on both sides of the barricades in Kiev.
It may sound paradoxical but Berdyaev has not been able to shed completely his Marxist skin. And despite his parade of Orthodoxy, he was as far from it as his inspirers, the ‘religious philosophers’ like Vladimir Soloviov, Serghei Bulgakov, Simeon Frank, Pavel Florenski with their ‘millennial expectations’, Gnostic/theosophical (Sophianic!) and Kabbalistic growths, lurid ‘mysticism’, ‘Christian existentialism’, closer to ‘Bolshevism’ that one may think.
I look forward to reading President Putin’s whole speech translated into English.
I am deliberately Not Commenting thus conscientiously giving you All the Free Association and Personal Space which is your True Rights as “What You Are” (the being) which is beyond “Who you are” (the label) –
Nicholas Berdyaev & the Collapse of Civilization
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OQbgQ0FgP8
listen… and learn (if possible at all)
bwbs
p/s another good one Pepe :)
President Putin regularly addresses something that humanity has witnessed since the dawn of time : the fact that societies and individuals have different priorities :
— The individuals, or better the minority of innovators, are driven spontaneously toward novelty. When the novelty they propose is being implemented successfully by their society this opens a path to the emergence of more complexity. The emergence of higher levels of complexity is the ideal of the minority of innovators but it is a societal path that is fraught with risk which the majority resists. This risky path is nevertheless how species gain higher levels of complexity or higher levels of evolution…
— Societies, or better the majority, of individuals, aim to ensure continuity and advocate the conservation of their societal present. The road toward more complexity induces fragility and high risks of collapse and extinction that societies fiercely resist. Societies are indeed always prioritizing the continuity of the existing state of affairs (conservation) over any risk of breakage in the continuity of the “species’ chain of reproduction”.
Western Modernity has been a near millennial triumph of “the search for more complexity” by the individuals who converted to “the reason that is at work in the transformation of money into capital”. But by Late-Modernity this triumph engaged in a form of hyper-individualism that concluded in “the atomization of Western societies”. These last 2 years offered an apt illustration of what societal atomization means in term of individual behavior. The conclusion is now evident for all to see : Western nations have lost the capacity to act each as “one coherent entity” which manifests itself ‒ internally as woke societal madness and tentative totalitarian approaches ‒ externally as brawls by bullies who lost their balls…
During the last centuries the rest of the world, or 90% of the world population, was coerced into submission by the Western-European converts to Modernity. This resulted in the extinction of many civilizations, many societies, and the death of countless hundreds of million individuals… Today’s Western societal atomization is fissuring the ideals of Modernity given by individualism, liberalism, wokism, “the reason that is at work in the transformation of money into capital”, and more generally the hegemony of the West. As a result of this fissuring of its ideals the West got literally shaken in a brain-dead state and… it is very angry at that. A brain-dead West furthermore left the Geo-political sphere in tumult with the most probable outcome that humanity is going to face a long period of regional balancing of national interests in which East-Asia, with China at the core, will be viewed by the rest of the world as a societal lightning rod.
At this crucial junction on the path of humanity it is urgent to rediscover the fundamentals that are the “first principles of life”. They are fundamentals for the good reason that they ensure the continuous reproduction in the future of living species, their societies, and individuals. Going against the grain of these fundamentals is a societal death sentence. The perspective of the “first principles of life” is best approached through the prism of “the long haul history”. Any other approach is indeed bound to be fragmentary which implies being “of little use” to understand humanity’s predicament in this first part of the 21st century something that is best summarized in the concept of “the Great Convergence of Late-Modernity”. Pepe’s article, and President Putin’s speeches, don’t even start to mention the contemporaneity of this inescapable contextual framework ! China, on the other hand, seems to take the long view and is presently attempting to conceptualize and to implement a new societal path that is better aligned with this inescapable contextual framework. The Western reception of this Chinese attempt was incredulity : “What the fuck. The Chinese are committing societal suicide” ! There could be no better testimony that the Chinese are onto something important for the future of humanity…
Interesting. But, time is passing very fast… Have you seen this?
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/538383-plastic-pollution-oceans-global-consumerism/
Perhaps the NATO idiocy and the general idiocy is a show for domestic consumption to set up an enabling narative for a general disengagement and regrouping in the territories the West still controls. Its stated purpose may not be its actual purpose.
If a country is entirely self-sufficient, then money becomes an abstract concept defined internally. A country without debt and a positive foreign accounts balance that has gods and/or services to sell then they enjoy the best of both worlds. A partnership between the SCO countries provides a way to bypass the US dollar hegemony. However, in the past, this always results in attacks by the hegemon. So, to counter that you need just enough weapons systems to annihilate the opposition should they begin to believe their own rhetoric.
The US hasn’t won a war since WWII and even then played a relatively minor role. Japan surrendered in the face of an imminent Soviet invasion not because of nuclear weapons. They are a nuisance at best but do have lethal nuclear systems (assuming they still work which is not 100% guaranteed as nuclear bombs have a limited shelf life and the US hasn’t spent the necessary money to upgrade them). One big factor that no one seems to hone in on is the lack of expertise in the US military despite 250 years of warfare (not one single day of peace in my lifetime). Since the “modernization” after the Vietnam debacle, it has become a self-licking ice cream cone that selects leaders based on committee expertise (or birthright) and lack of ability to make bold decisions without committee consensus. Leaders with any actual leadership skills are eliminated early in their careers. The best leaders don’t enter the service at all and remain in the business sector. So, you have a dumbing down of the military all while generating leaders that can’t lead. Then you put people into positions of authority based on their skin color or gender and disregard merit. The end result is the current US military which talks the talk but can’t walk the walk. What they are very good at is buying toys that don’t work and spending a great deal of money. That is all fine against third-world countries without any real military capabilities. Against a near-peer or equal, there is no possibility of military success. It would have to go nuclear immediately to even break even.
The latter statement I base on the fact that when I was serving in Germany in the late 80’s they performed the annual Warfighter simulation of the Soviet forces invading Germany (at the Warrior Preparation Center). This was the very first time the Germans were invited to attend the simulation. The first thing the Americans did was to put up the “wall of fire” using tactical nukes across the entire border of East and West Germany plus Czechoslovakia. The Germans were horrified and immediately understood what being friends of America meant. The reunification happened within 60 months of that event. A coincidence? It is US doctrine when faced with overwhelming odds to go nuclear using tactical (not strategic) nukes. So, in this sense, the Americans are very dangerous and in some ways insane having no moral compass anymore.
If you look at the global game board the US is applying pressure just about everywhere. This is because they feel threatened to lose the entire game which is obviously happening. No longer can they take out a single country as larger alliances are forming. But, they still have their puppets in the EU plus UK who are being bought with massive bribes to serve their own self-interests and not the citizens of Europe. There is growing unrest though and some drifting right towards nationalism. Poland and Hungary are key to the US survival because if they lose the EU they also lose NATO, an organization desperately searching for a reason to exist.
Old Microbiologist,
I was living in Bonn (West Germany) at the time you describe, as a blissfully ignorant kid.
Germans were totally controlled. This was four decades after end of ww2 at the time. When we visited our favorite supermarket for supplies, I remember relatives whispering to me not to say “SS” aloud to name this supermarket, given similarity to Himmler’s infamous Schutzstaffel (SS). Germans remain occupied and under the thought-police to this day, and like Ukraine, key decisions are made for them.
However, doesn’t “the wall of fire” doctrine you refer to precede Germany by decades? During the Korea War, did not MacArthur want to saturate Korea and dozens of Chinese cities with nukes, and was in great part dismissed by Truman because of this? LeMay was personification of insanity too – see his aerial firebombing of countless Japanese cities (largely made of wooden materials until then), with millions in hidden deaths, even before Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Stanley Kubrick immortalized that senior officer ranks’ mindset in Dr. Strangelove’s Gen. Buck Turgidson..
AHH Yes, it is an old concept but I think the Germans believed they would never be subjected to it. They were completely flabbergasted and as I said this was the first time they were allowed to observe (not participate) in the exercise.
Germany has been an occupied country now since WWII and is very clearly still under American oppression. Interestingly enough the US Army of Occupation Medal (I received one myself) only ended in 1990 for those stationed in Berlin. I was stationed temporarily for a period in Berlin conducting MOUT training at Doughboy Village. I enjoyed being there a lot. I was doing a lot of triathlons at that time of my life and kept up my training by running 10km to the Wannsee where I would then swim 2km and run back. It was required to swim naked so that was unexpected the first time.
I also recall my first tour in Germany in 1972 I was an enlisted sergeant at that time and was there during the Olympic massacre. We had no problems at all doing house-to-house searches on all Germans living in Bavaria without knocking as we were also searching for a cache of stolen RedEye missiles (old MANPADS) which we did actually eventually find and were held by the Baader-Meinhof gang of terrorists. I was actually eating at the Officer’s Club in Weisbaded with my mother-in-law who was a doctor at the USAF hospital there when they blew up the building.
Anyway, the way we treated the Germans is not something someone does to their Allies. Spying on Merkel’s phone is yet another example. We have never treated Germans as equals and always lorded over them our winning WWII (which we absolutely believe we did alone with the Brits). Personally, I always went native and lived on the economy usually far away from the military bases. I speak passable German for that reason only.
“.. Leaders with any actual leadership skills are eliminated early in their careers. ”
you describe not just the US military but even more so their whole civilian structure.
Canadistan is even worse as are probably all other 5 Eyes of the modern day MORDOR.
The title “The world according to Vladimir Putin” inspired me to consider it from another point. It may sound as Mr. Putin rules the world.
Anyway, he rules by one-eighth of it, directly. Well, indirectly, it could reach almost 1/1. Sometimes (always), a paradigm is mightier than all the weapons and money of the world.
In the case of Mr. Putin, the paradigm is very complex, including his character, education, erudition, intelligence, soul, way of life, communication skills etc, etc. Only then it comes the content of messages he sends to public through his speeches, articles, interviews, and his public behaviour at all.
It is such an effective and successful combination of ingredients, composing this entity called Mr. Putin, that one can’t resist admire him, and, if not a Russian, be jealous of why he is not my president (even in the Russophobic EU).
Further question is how Mr. Putin appeared at all. Having in mind almost infinite number of features of a person, variability of these features, and necessity to compose all these features and their values in a combination to create not an ordinary somebody but a leader of the Putin caliber, we could estimate the raw probability of such person to appear as 1 per million (shouldn’t we be more inclined to a figure of 1:5,000,000). That means, there were 140 potential candidates (excluding women – only 75 (it wasn’t my idea, please do not think that I might be a Taliban)).
Then it comes the permeability of the whole system – how it is capable to notice, to recognise and, finally, to pass through (or to support) such a person to reach the highest rank in the pyramid of power.
Let us not forget a well known custom of kings to “eliminate” competitors to power, even their own brothers.
Speaking of the system in Russia, one simply can’t omit the tradition of the Soviet Union, far back to Stalin’s rule, with millions of persecuted.
In the book The dictators: Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia (Richard Overy, 2004, Russian translation 2015) the author claims that during 1942-45 on the East Front, the Russian system of organization and logistics was more efficient and flexible than the German one (although the Germans are famous for their organisation and meticulousness).
The conditions of the system functioning obviously change with time and circumstances, so we couldn’t directly compare Stalin’s period, Brezhnev’s, Gorbachev’s, and Yeltsin’s. But, maybe, there is some system in the background which is stationary, which acts from depths, not much affected by short-time fluctuations on the surface, such as 1917-24, 1990-2000.
In most cases, the Saker’s articles, and those of his contributing writers, are the equivalent of an online university. That’s why I esteem this site so much. Also because it provides news and analysis to support the struggle of the world’s sovereign nations—Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, etc. in their heroic fight to overcome the global offensive mounted by the Western empire.
It is for that reason that it pains me to see many commenters here following blindly a raw, historically questionable anticommunist line that would make many imperialist reactionaries in “the West” smile. First of all, communism, liberalism (bourgeois capitalist ideology), radicalism, leftism, etc., etc, are fluid terms whose actual meaning changes according to epoch and in relation to each other. Second, I feel it is never a good idea to repeat the memes successfully used by the US empire for many generations to propel its own ideology of economic libertarianism at the expense of the commons. The Soviet Union may have been a flawed experiment, the first attempt by humanity, to reach for a system without the obvious core criminality, chaos and irrationality of capitalism, but in its precepts communism remains a far nobler social vision than capitalism will ever be, no matter what hypocritical mask it may choose to wear. For those who see themselves as religious here, let me remind you that communism, despite its supposed rigid atheism (long retired, as we can observe everywhere socialism rules today) is far more congruent in principle and practice than capitalism, not to mention fascism, a total moral abomination and direct offshoot of capitalism’s historical dynamics. In act, there is no real inherent contradiction between any form of socialism/communism and Christianity, AS TRULY PRACTICED. Jesus teachings are honored by many genuine socialists and communists, something we can scarcely say for any of the ruling cliques steering the capitalist hegemon today.
As well, I wanted to mention that the knee-jerk demonisation of Stalin, based largely on spurious and non-contextualised reading of history, is a contribution to the victory of Mordor over humanity. The West has invested literally tons of propaganda in this project, since they know and knew all along that by making Stalin = Soviet Union, and the latter equation equal to communism, they would easily tarnish the latter by simply demonising a man, a lot easier to do and comprehend for the masses’ consumption. Well, guess what, a contextual reading of Stalin’s period ends up painting a picture of Stalin that is not worse and in many instances better than that of contemporary leaders, starting with the depraved Churchill, a genuine war criminal by any honest standard. Such deep dive into history—not by reading the lies disseminated by the establishment historians like T. Snyder—can also alert us to the fact both world wars were largely engineered by the British, and that Hitler himself was largely a creature of British intel, designed to destroy Soviet Russia, Britain’s ancestral enemy, and the “solution” to their general class problem: the destruction of the only nation capable (at the time) to challenge the primacy of capitalist powers. That Hitler, like Frankenstein got out of hand and became a threat to its own creators (and had to be destroyed) is what makes this horrid tale so absorbing.
Not only all that, but he (hitler), left some unfinished business that still has yet to be accounted for.
And so the kids trying to run the candy store, are finding road blocks all the way but naturally continue to steam roll yesterdays bad guy, instead of todays culprits.
Primarily b/c we still don’t know who they are yet.
They are scheduled to jump at the right moment though, this much has been confirmed.
Case in point, Stalin’s opposition to Churchill’s idea of a divided Germany post-WWII. After all, Russia (be it Soviet or Imperial) wasn’t the one who wanted to destroy Germany’s industrial base out of jealousy. Nor did Russia commit
I don’t know about you, but considering that the Soviets bore the brunt of defeating fascism in Europe, I can’t say I see the irony in Stalin’s decision.
People are talking and making comments online in the UK about president Putin’s ground breaking speech, other western countries likely so too, and sounds as if he’s finally getting things across…
It may reflect a previous comment on the thread under the translation of this, that the current human wreckage agendas of childhood and young people particularly, rolled out as humanitarian crime, and together with other facts he delivered seamlessly in his amazing delivery, does I think mark the civilizational divide we experience, and re my point, though in many ways this has a Russia / West leaning, it is bound to be global in effect.
The restraint from verbal maligning and hatred as a counter to the west, often criticized on here, a major feat of intelligence and diplomacy, continues to make him rise higher in people estimation everywhere.
I’m not sure to what extent The president of Russia is a disciple of Nikolay Berdiev, though respecting him greatly, he reads many authors from Russia, and clearly has a real interest in its history and future.
Thanks Pepe!
The latest from Russia about Ukraine and NATO:
https://sputniknews.com/20211024/moscow-says-cannot-prevent-ukraine-from-joining-nato-but-can-minimize-its-consequences-1090172550.html
Far too late and not just because of Crimea. The Zionazis lost in Afghanistan and Syria. And what is NATO to accomplish with this wasteland and depopulating dystopia masquerading as ”Ukraine” which the West destroyed utterly long before Maidan? Indeed, Putin did tell them only a few months ago:
— You crapped in there, You clean it up.
Really, the only frightening prospect would be if the West were to contemplate what in my eyes is the 100% self-evident solution, given the Russophobic agenda: There is a deluded and greedy little NATO member that is coveting the territory of ”Ukraine”, most reputable for happily creating massive, cataclysmic disasters and then making all kinds of insane Russophobic noises when biting the dust afterwards. If the Zionazis in charge of NATO opt for handing over ”Ukraine” to their own hyena, then Russia must take ruthless action immediately, no if:s, no but:s.
Did Russia have a fast plan for Crimea? Yes. Polite Green Men took over, disarmed the Ukies and relieved the public who pulled the guns on Ukies and NATO after they saw what the Maidan was. See Auslander for the facts of the uprising.
Did Russia have a fast plan for Donbass insurrection? Yes. North Wind and Voentorg. They didn’t have to send in regular troops.
Did Russia have a fast plan for color revolution in Belarus? Yes. Immediate Putin and Shoigu warning that the Russian military guarantees Belarus borders and sovereignty, and Russian special services are working with Belarus as needed.
Will Russia have a plan for Ukies going into NATO? Yes. Ukraine will be one third the size, a dwarf of a country, a total welfare state, The rest of Ukraine will belong to others and some big parts will form a confederation which the Russians will protect. How will that happen? Planning, preparation, tradecraft and the propensity of the Ukies to destroy themselves.
Meanwhile Maria Zakharova still twitter’s very pointedly….good.