By Cynthia Chung for the Saker Blog
“Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to public opinion. This is the weak point of our defenses, and the part to which the enemies of the system will direct all their attacks. Opinion can be so perverted as to cause the false to seem true; the enemy, a friend, and the friend, an enemy; the best interests of the nation to appear insignificant, and the trifles of moment; in a word, the right the wrong, the wrong the right. In a country where opinion has sway, to seize upon it, is to seize upon power. As it is a rule of humanity that the upright and well-intentioned are comparatively passive, while the designing, dishonest, and selfish are the most untiring in their efforts, the danger of public opinion’s getting a false direction is four-fold, since few men think for themselves.”
-James Fenimore Cooper
Democracy is something that has been completely taken for granted here in the West. There is an ongoing triumph over past laurels, without paying heed to the road we have strayed from. We criticize others for failing to uphold a standard we consider ourselves the leaders of, but democracy is not something simply “acquired” and subsequently “retained,” it is not a “possession.” This is because a system of democracy is at every moment of its existence defined by the character of its citizenry. Democracy only exists if it is upheld, and if a citizenry fails to do so, it renders itself defenseless to an ever-creeping tyranny.
For such a “creeping tyranny,” control is conditional to whether the citizenry is satisfied with an ever-growing “illusion of democracy.” Such a construct needs to give its subjects the impression that they have “free choice” in what shapes their future and their way of life, including: who will be their “friends” and who will be their “foes.”
And thus, War has always depended on a reliable system to spread its propaganda.
The Arthashastra written by Chankya (350-283 BCE) who was chief advisor to the Emperor Chandragupta (the first ruler of the Mauryan Empire) discusses propaganda and how to disperse and apply it in warfare. It is one of the oldest accounts of the essentialism of propaganda in warfare.
Propaganda is vital in times of war because it is absolutely imperative that the people, who often need to make the greatest sacrifices and suffer the most, believe that such a war is justified and that such a war will provide them security. To the degree that they believe this to be true, the greater the degree of sacrifice and suffering they are willing to submit themselves for said “promised security”.
It is crucial that when the people look at the “enemy” they see something sub-human, for if they recognise that said “enemy” has in fact humanity, the jig is up so to speak.
And thus we are bombarded day after day, hour after hour of reminders as to why the “enemy” is not human like us, not compassionate like us, not patient, just and wise like us.
No doubt, war has been a necessary response when tyranny has formed an army to fight for its cause, but I would put forth that most wars have been rather unnecessary and downright manipulated for the design of a small group of people.
During WWI, on Dec 25th 1914, something rather unexpected occurred and a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front took place between the French/British soldiers and the German soldiers. Some even ventured into “no man’s land”, given its name since none left it alive, to mingle with the “enemy” and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps. A game of football took place as well. It is said that these truces were not unique to the Christmas period but that they were much more widespread during the holiday season.
These fraternisations would understandably make it quite difficult to return to combat against one another…for no apparently good reason. Some units needed to be relocated since they had developed friendships with the opposing side and now refused to fight them.
The lesson was quickly learned and propaganda was heavily pumped down the throats of the Allied countries, and by the course of just a few years, they no longer viewed the Germans as human.
The Battle For Your Mind
“Politicians, Priests, and psychiatrists often face the same problem: how to find the most rapid and permanent means of changing a man’s belief…The problem of the doctor and his nervously ill patient, and that of the religious leader who sets out to gain and hold new converts, has now become the problem of whole groups of nations, who wish not only to confirm certain political beliefs within their boundaries, but to proselytize the outside world.”
– William Sargant “Battle of the Mind”
Mass propaganda is the very reason why in this so-called “age of information”, we are more confused and divided from each other than ever…
It had been commonly thought in the past, and not without basis, that tyranny could only exist on the condition that the people were kept illiterate and ignorant of their oppression. To recognise that one was “oppressed” meant they must first have an idea of what was “freedom”, and if one were allowed the “privilege” to learn how to read, this discovery was inevitable.
If education of the masses could turn the majority of a population literate, it was thought that the higher ideas, the sort of “dangerous ideas” that Mustapha Mond for instance expresses in “The Brave New World”, would quickly organise the masses and revolution against their “controllers” would be inevitable. In other words, knowledge is freedom, and you cannot enslave those who learn how to “think”.
However, it hasn’t exactly played out that way has it?
The greater majority of us are free to read whatever we wish to, in terms of the once “forbidden books”, such as those listed by The Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1). We can read any of the writings that were banned in “The Brave New World”, notably the works of Shakespeare which were named as absolutely dangerous forms of “knowledge”.
We are now very much free to “educate” ourselves on the very “ideas” that were recognised by tyrants of the past as the “antidote” to a life of slavery. And yet, today, there is a fear of that very thing, that to “know” will label you an outcast from a “healthy” society. That the simple desire to know is the beginning of rebellion.
It is recognised, albeit superficially, that who controls the past, controls the present and thereby the future. George Orwell’s book “1984”, hammers this as the essential feature that allows the Big Brother apparatus to maintain absolute control over fear, perception and loyalty to the Party cause, and yet despite its popularity, there still remains today a lack of interest in actually informing oneself about the past.
What does it matter anyway, if the past is controlled and rewritten to suit the present? As the Big Brother interrogator O’Brien states to Winston, “We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not? [And thus, are free to rewrite it as we choose…]”
Of course, we are not in the same situation as Winston…we are much better off. We can study and learn about the “past” if we so desire, unfortunately, it is a choice that many take for granted. And thus, by our failure to ask the right questions and seek the appropriate answers, we find ourselves increasingly in the unsettling position of a Winston…we are enslaved by the very lack of our own will.
In Orwell’s “1984”, there are three main super states in the world: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia that are in one combination or another constantly at war with each other and have been so for the last 25 years.
In the case of Winston, he has only known Oceania (the British commonwealths and U.S.), he knows essentially nothing of either Eurasia or Eastasia, except that sometimes Oceania is at war with Eurasia and sometimes it is at war with Eastasia. In fact, even this memory, that the enemy is not constant, is not something Winston is supposed to recollect or acknowledge. Just by doing this very thing, he is committing a “thoughtcrime”.
Winston’s experience begs the questions, if one were born into a fascist, totalitarian state would they know it? Of course, the state itself would not describe itself as such. How would you be able to compare your “freedom” with the “oppression” of the enemy, when all you were given was what the state chose to give to you?
How do you know that what has come to shape your convictions, your beliefs, your fears really belong to you, and were not placed there by another?
We are all very sensitive to this unsettling question because ironically, that has also been placed in us. It was what started this whole business of “mind control”, you see, it had to be done…for our “protection”.
Warfare in the 21st Century
For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the pinnacle of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the pinnacle of skill.
– Sun Tzu
There a many different forms of warfare, but namely there is warfare that exists in the physical domain of aggression vs defense and warfare that exists in the mental domain of ideas.
The majority of tyrants from the ancient times to present day, have always had a network of powerful people behind them (whether they were aware of it or not) that opened up a path for them to sit on the throne so to speak. For example, we now know that there was a very direct support of Hitler coming from the Bank of England amongst other very influential institutions. That is, Hitler did not arise to power ‘naturally’ or by his mere merit.
The desperation of that economic environment in Germany was predictably formulated as a direct consequence of the Treaty of Versailles which was essentially a death sentence to the German people. And Hitler who had started to make a small name for himself was selected and endorsed as the ‘face’ of what had already been decided would be the fate of Germany.
Wars have almost always been the result of funding and organising from powerful groups with geopolitical interests, often of empire, who create an environment of disinformation and desperation amongst the people through economic and military warfare along with color revolutions.
However, once there was the creation of nuclear bombs, geopolitical warfare was changed forever.
Though we still use much of the same old strategies today, war is ever more located on the plane of ideas, and along with this the ever increasing focus on the manipulation of information and the populace’s perspective of who is good and who is bad.
The war that needs to be fought against the present tyranny is thus increasingly a mental war. In the case of the populace, all together they hold more power than they realise. The real crisis of today’s western thinking is that the people have forgotten how to think. Attention spans have gone down drastically along with a functional vocabulary. People are becoming more and more dominated by image based messages rather than content that requires more than a 10 minute attention span. Articles in the news keep getting shorter and shorter because people seemingly cannot be bothered with too much reading. Along with the serious decline in reading in replacement for quick entertainment (more successful than any book burning in history), people no longer bother to work for a comprehensive viewpoint. Information becomes an annoying barrage of ad campaigns, each yelling louder and more frequently than the other.
The solutions to our problems such as the oncoming economic collapse (in case you haven’t noticed we are doing everything the same as pre-2008), have their solutions in what Russia and China are presenting.
The initiation of war has almost always been presented as a false ‘necessity’, that is in response to the dominating geopolitical ‘balance’, which is basically meant to service the present system of empire, and the erroneous belief in zero sum game.
However, the idea that humans exist in a zero sum game, doomed to battle forever over a diminishing return of resources, was disproven time and again in modern history through the application of successful principles of national political economy. Notable examples of which include Colbert’s dirigisme of France’s 17th century (later revived during the presidency of Charles De Gaulle), the Hamiltonian system of America as exemplified by Abraham Lincoln’s Greenbacks, FDR’s New Deal, and JFK’s space program as well as its most recent expression of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
This system understands that fast money is parasitical and acts in direct opposition to the long-term investments required for projects that will revolutionise a nation’s infrastructure, including science-driver programs.
That debt for such long-term projects is not qualitatively the same as the present debt we see accruing today, and that debt towards investing for the future will always yield a higher return than the cost over time. This is why debt towards long-term investment on infrastructure and science driver projects, such as space exploration, will always be sustainable with a massive return quantitatively and qualitatively. Whereas, the gambling of fast money will very predictably lead to a collapse as was clearly indicated by the 2008 financial crisis, and which insanely has yet to be addressed with a serious bank reform.
The higher battle ground is being fought on the plane of ideas and which proposed ‘new system’ will replace the current collapsing one we are presently in. On the one side the hegemonic rule of a one world government who thinks that they can use force and oppression to rule and on the other side a multi-polar system of cooperating nation states committed to progress that will offer a real qualitative return for the future.
The Art of Doublethink
“WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”
George Orwell’s “1984” (Big Brother Mantra)
A truly immersive system of propaganda, which necessarily will be full of contradictions to the truth, absolutely requires that its subjects are compliant with “doublethink,” that is, the ability to accept two contradictory thoughts in your mind without acknowledging that they are in fact opposites.
Orwell identifies this under two forms of “doublethink”, which are “crimestop” and “blackwhite”. “Crimestop” meaning the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of a dangerous thought.
Orwell further states “It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments…and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop in short, means protective stupidity.”
“Blackwhite”, is the act of contradiction of plain facts, applied to an opponent. And when applied to the Party, it is the willingness to say black is white when the Party discipline demands it so.
As Orwell describes it “it means the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past…The alteration of the past is necessary for two reasons…The subsidiary reason is that…he must be cut off from the past, just as he must be cut off from foreign countries, because it is necessary for him to believe that he is better off… [the precautionary reason] by far the more important reason for the readjustment of the past is the need to safeguard the infallibility of the Party.”
Orwell continues “The splitting of the intelligence which the Party requires of its members, and which is more easily achieved in an atmosphere of war, is now almost universal, but the higher up the ranks one goes, the more marked it becomes. It is precisely in the Inner Party that war hysteria and hatred of the enemy are strongest.”
That is, it is the Inner Party members who are the most indoctrinated, the best at inducing “mind control” or “doublethink” on themselves, and at the same time believe that it is the best and right thing to do.
Orwell describes “doublethink” thus: “The process has to be conscious , or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence guilt…To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink.”
What many fail to grasp when reading “1984” is that Orwell is not only the character Winston, he is also the character O’Brien. He is the Outer Party member-turned-revolutionary, and he is the Inner Party disciplinarian.
He is simultaneously the tormentor-programmer as well as the tormented-programmed.
Winston eventually breaks and releases the one thing that kept him human, his love and loyalty to Julia. In the end, an announcement is made that Oceania is ever nearer to winning the war and Winston looks up at a large poster of Big Brother and cries gin-filled tears of joy and relief, for he had finally come to love Big Brother.
He had become O’Brien.
So Who is the Said “Enemy”?
The enemy is our lesser selves.
Our most base fears, desires and obsessions. The voice that whispers in our ears telling us not to believe in anything genuine or honest, that the world we live in will ultimately destroy itself and thus it is all about looking out for number one. That it is our fate to be the playthings of higher powers.
This is the voice of a prisoner of Plato’s cave, neck shackled and looking at only shadows on a wall. This is not reality. This is the voice of someone who has been enslaved for most of their life. The voice of someone who has become so disempowered that they wholly accept whatever ugly condition is imposed upon them and will even work to defend it as necessary.
There is a way out of all of this, but you will have to become an optimist in order to see the solution.
“We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
– Abraham Lincoln
Footnote:
- The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of forbidden books, which were judged to be dangerous to the faith and morals of Roman Catholics, and had a suspicious gravitation towards works by platonic humanists. Among the banned works would include those of Dante, Erasmus and all of Machiavelli’s books. For more refer to my paper on this subject.
The author can be reached at cynthiachung@tutanota.com
The Khazarian Mafia have been masters of deception throughout history. Look at what they have achieved, control of the Central Banks. That makes them trillionaires. This is going to get exponentially worse due to technology, i.e. Artificial Intelligence.
AI will practice this on a massive and micromanagement scale. It will be tracking all communications which are moving to exclusively electronic (part of the plan). It will deceive the public in the most effective way with positive and negative reinforcements of ideas, disruptions, censorship, and violence. It will mislead militaries with miscommunications that lead to them destroying their own militaries.
Along with all of this, they will cause all babies to be born in laboratories, and they will re-engineer the DNA to create the most perfect slaves to their system.
David, you are in the battle that the author describes so incredibly well, but I don’t necessarily believe your assessment that you (as well as all hopes for Humanity!) are already dead, that we are all, already….. mortal casualties on the battlefield of The Struggle of Good vs Evil.
You may be wounded, you may be currently (in your mind…..the terrain of the struggle for sanity and freedom Cynthia describes)…… a POW..…… but that does not mean that “they” (The Khazarian Mafia…..as your preferred, “nutshell” Image of the Invincible Enemy) can force you to type such resigned, defeated nonsense……as the sad promoter of the Inevitability of THEIR Triumph of Evil.
Removed. Mod.
Especially I urge you to grab on to this particular sentence from the article………..free your mind:
“There is a way out of all of this, but you will have to become an optimist in order to see the solution.”
Cheers!
“But when war becomes literally continuous, it also ceases to be dangerous. When war is continuous there is no such thing as military necessity. Technical progress can cease and the most palpable facts can be denied or disregarded… Efficiency, even military efficiency, is no longer needed.”
~ “1984,” George Orwell
Please note, David, that what Orwell described is only true in continuous war, where there are no true enemies other than the people someone is already subjugating. However, that is not true today. Eurasia, Orwell’s corrupt super-state around the USSR collapsed almost 40 years after he wrote the book, and in spite of some propaganda, the USSR is never coming back. Furthermore, China is siding with Ex-Soviet, Christian Russia, so the Eastasia super-state may not form at all.
This means the Khazarian Mafia needs people under it to create technical progress and it cannot completely ignore facts; otherwise, Russia, China, Iran, etc. will develop and maneuver past the Mafia. On the other hand, as we can tell from Google’s anti-drone protests, people smart enough to make those advances for the Mafia are also smart enough to challenge the Mafia.
How can the Khazarian Mafia continue reconciling that contradiction? If Orwell’s remaining corrupt super-state, Oceania, the one around the US and UK is just as unstable as the others, then the Mafia will run out of rope.
The forces that have brought humanity to this present Threshold in not political ,it is not even human. The Adversary has dominion in the human world structure. It has been this way since the Fall of Man. The Adversary Spirit lives through the false-accusers and abusers of Law in all its forms. This Dominant Spirit has permeated into the souls of man and infects us all one way or another. The Kingdom of God ,which can only arrive by the will of God, not man’s, has been hijacked by imposters which have done all They could throughout history to deny God’s Law by replacing it with Their own. Christ will consume Them and All who follow that way, with flaming firery vengance. But We all know this! And because We know this ,We do not participate.Even to the death or pain of shame and disgrace. There remains a Promise to the Sheep of His Fold, and if the Bible is propaganda, the I must conclude We are All Dead.
I feel privileged to be able to read Cynthia Chung. I am so glad she has done and is doing all the hard work of scholarship to be able to produce brilliant articles such as the present one. Thank you Cynthia.
Yes yes ,attaboy Cynthia. Preach it.
Thumbs Up to Cynthia and Ali, Very clear Ms. Chung and just what I would have said if I was gifted with the talent to say it!
Yes! I assume this is the same Cynthia Chung who contributes at Strategic-Culture.org. Brilliant and very enjoyable piece. We have met the enemy, and they are us.
I appreciate greatly this mechanistic review of Orwell’s 1984. Many can only view it through an ideological lens, in which case it only reflects Orwell’s rabid anticommunism.
There is absolutely hope for a better future, but it will be challenging. How can “Socialism with Western Characteristics” be built, in the shadow of the West’s extreme synthetic individualism? It does seem that the pandemic has caused a global shift in attitude on the merits of Western political-culture, but is it enough for the West itself?
From an interesting article written by Jon Rappoport I read this morning, quoting several times from Gary Allen’s book, None Dare Call it Conspiracy, From Gary Allen’s classic, None Dare Call It Conspiracy, published 50 years ago:
“We are being socialized in America and everybody knows it. If we had a chance to sit down and have a cup of coffee with the man in the street…he might say: ‘You know, the one thing I can never figure out is why all these very, very wealthy people like the Kennedys, the Fords, the Rockefellers and others are for socialism. Why are the super-rich for socialism? Don’t they have the most to lose…?’ In reality, there is a vast difference between what the promoters define as socialism and what it is in actual practice. The idea that socialism is a share-the-wealth program is strictly a confidence game to get the people to surrender their freedom to an all-powerful collectivist government. While the insiders [Oligarchs] tell us we are building a paradise on earth, we are actually constructing a jail for ourselves.”
Rappoport draws a conclusion at the end of the article which I see as being accurate: Don’t get caught in the word game which confuses Communism, Socialism, the Corporate State, Fascism, and Crony Capitalism.
When you put all these terms through the wash, they come out looking the same. They mean power at the top, disguised to appear as popular movements.
Socialism, communism, blah blah–what its proponents refer to is an inclusive, “people-centered system of government”.
Names are just names. Hitler calling his fascist ideology “national socialism” does not actually change its nature. Likewise for other scams by billionaire demagogues.
How do we construct people-centered forms of government in the West?
That quotation has a fundamental disconnect from reality. The very rich were never for socialism. They do indeed have the most to lose from it, and so they have spent an enormous amount of energy squashing it. If you want to talk about con games, that book sounds like one to me.
I doubt that much of what this author has written is disputable, but I would like to add a little something.
The entire power of propaganda relies not only on it’s dispersion, but on the power a huge group collective has; thus the vulnerability to fall.
Huge groups, such as the big cities of nation states and nations, where millions of people are gathered tightly together, flies against what we know of the optimum state for humans to live. And the greatest power any power-monger has is the fear 95% of people have of being shunned; isolated; pushed out from the “group”. This is what the Milgram Experiment showed – that people will do something they know to be wrong, and feel dubious about, if pushed by an “authority” figure and believing that they have to conform to what everyone else is doing.
it’s been shown by any number of social experiments in fact. Only about 5% of a mass of people will be automatic “leaders” – and will stand by their own conclusions. But also shown is that nearly all of us have a “shell” system of social interaction. Few have more than 6 people in their “closest of all, inner inner circle”. The shells expand outwards, in number, but people in general will interact best in groups no larger than 300, or less.
This brings us to the most stable of all social structures, so stable it lasted for millenia across India, back of China and “Burma”, Russia, even Europe and UK. That is the village structure. In India, each village was ruled by a “panchayat” a group of 5 men, elders and respected. They solved disputes, and decided the rules the village needed. Were they to be wrong, the villagers had no hesitation on putting them right during the durbar r, the open meeting for discussions of issues.
The stability of this is shown by the endurance and wide spread of the system. The coming of cities, the enlargement of cities especially after the Industrial revolution led to that current dominant paradox – that the more people together you have, the greater the isolation and loneliness, and thus susceptibility to the propaganda which promises to nullify the worst of the fears thus generated.
And, of course, huge numbers of susceptible people also are a smorgasbord for the psychopath. What kick can such a Predatory Ruling type get from a handful of 300 people, when s/he could be owning millions??
But how to revert? Advanced Systems Theory tells us that a broken complex system cannot be fixed, it can only be allowed to fall and then new, smaller, systems constructed. But one thing very interesting to me about this “Pandemic” which I suspect the Predatory Rulers had not expected – the move to leave cities {B. Johnson, UK getting to actually ordering some people to return} and work from home. For many this is impossible, for many it is very possible – and very attractive.
Perhaps the Law of Unintended Consequences will kick in here, too. And then watch out Predators. Try to propagandise people living in small communities, and working from home, where they feel secure and happy and no-one can stop them discussing issues between themselves.
Cynthia, I cannot thank you enough for doing this for Saker blog, please come back with more! Together with Matthew Ehret you are the most incredible sources of much-needed information, ideas and what’s more, HOPE.
This is exactly what the world needs right now.. THANK you!
Democracy needs eternal vigilance to exist, it didn’t happen in the West and the international criminals took over (we know who they are by name.)
The first thing the criminals do is promote fellow criminals into key positions and set out their agenda of control, the main aim is to confuse the intelligent with concepts and ideas and to amuse and dumb down the rest.
Then you can rob under the populations noses with the worthless paper trick.
What Pogo said is true of us we have found the enemy and he is us.
I remember well in my youth reading about the American Civil War and how at Westpoint there was a visible division among brothers who just days earlier were in chapel together singing hymns and praying together only to kill each other on the battlefield mere weeks later. That led me on a quest to ask too many questions of so many events especially surrounding WW 1&2 with the battle of Passendaele being the most significant. I asked why were members of the same denomination killing members of their own but different nationalities? Puzzled me to no end and now to come across this article it brings up so many memories and questions.
Actually I have wanted and probably could write a similar article but unfortunately it would be far too religious in nature.
The thesis statement would start with Rev. 2:4
.
Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown. Rev. 2:10
Yeah, I have never believed in the Separation of Church and State and never will and what galls me the most is to learn about freemasonry and guess what? Where the separation of Church and State is banned and deplored the Freemasons have the freedom to do as they please united in both thought and deed behind everyone’s back!!!
see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Council,_Scottish_Rite_(Southern_Jurisdiction,_USA)#/media/File:Scottish_Rite_Mason_Temple_DC.JPG
Yeah, we were told that a kingdom divided against itself will never stand and Christ’s kingdom unfortunately doesn’t stand as a testimony too much? However, Satan’s kingdom is all well and good and marching on to fulfilling its kingdom quickly enough.
You know if you are going to fight for something make it for something that really counts Eternal Life and for a King who will thank you in the end. All that is manmade is worthless!
Lastly, do you know what is the single greatest political statement ever made by anyone at any time in any period in the whole history of mankind? Do you know what it is and it is a POLITICAL STATEMENT!!!!? Simple:
Mathew 6:9-13
The answer to it all but “My people are destroyed from a lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6
This applicable even to us from the 6th Century BC?
Where’s Sun Tzu to hear these words or the rest of the quoted above?
Yeah, I know to religious in nature right?
“Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown. Rev. 2:10”
And what if that above are words of a slave owner in order for the slave to accept his suffering willingly?
@ Anon
Ah, but the slave owner did accept His suffering willingly to purchase the slave who didn’t know he/she was a slave to another. Even the suffering of the cross!
Christ bought us with His blood and made us free from the Law. In that way, the Law could not punish us. Christ did this by carrying the load and by being punished instead of us. It is written, “Anyone who hangs on a cross is hated and punished.”. Galatians 3:13-15
and
You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? 1 Corinthians 6: 20
Note Christ isn’t finished with any one of us, a work of perfection is still in order. Job knew it well and so did Daniel:
But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23:10
Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. Daniel 12:10
and Daniel 12:2
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
Some to everlasting life,
Some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Those who are wise shall shine
Like the brightness of the firmament,
And those who turn many to righteousness
Like the stars forever and ever.
Don’t you know and understand Anon that Adam and Eve weren’t naked in the garden but were clothed in light and God wants to return us to that.
Sin is such a weed that just keeps coming back over and over again. If perfection needs testing and punishment so be it!
Better to suffer for what is right than for what is wrong surely. 1 Peter 4
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.
16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
Sin such a weed!!! And look the secret they knew Jesus was alive and because He lives we shall live also.
Christ a two thousand year, old thirty three year old though I would imagine He is a great deal older being an eternal being!
I’d be his slave any day!!!! Who wouldn’t?
They say that “you can’t judge a book by its cover”. Our society has been trained to do just that. Why do police and soldiers wear uniforms and have a designated rank? Why do we wear national costumes? Why do we take off our hat in the courtroom? Why are fast food outlets allowed to force their employees to wear silly little hats and clothing which identifies them as employees of that establishment. Why do girls in many pubs wear revealing clothing? Well we/they/us do it to promote nationalism, tradition, uniformity, standards, safety, and eliminate violence, gangs, and distractions, but sometimes we do it to attract attention. If the editors feel that we do not need a dress code, I wonder how they would feel if tomorrow every employee came to work naked?
Why do Muslims dress their women like “beekeepers” in 40-degree weather? It is a God thing, which is bull. It is self-interest. God knows best and down it goes the father and the son know better than the wife or the daughter, which is more bull. Dress codes like many other restrictions against women is a process invented by men for control of women. Men view women as possessions. It is kind of like if I cannot have you no one else will. Muslim men cover their women from prying eyes of others. Women in the Muslim world are possessions just like they were in our world until some 50 years or so ago. Enlightened fathers, unlike their conservative counterparts, educated their daughters who then fought for equal rights for their sisters. That darn socialism thing again. Non-secular men who believe in a theocracy do not want their women to attract sexual attraction from those other than her husband.
Democracy which has never existed since humans started walking upright. Self-interest was always sold by the dominant group in society as democracy where every person sits at a decision table. Society is constantly brainwashed to believe that the door to this club is open. Therefore, both dictatorship and democracy fear understanding and reason.
It is not a God thing. It is a lust thing.
And how would you address the issue of the well-fed man’s urge to have sex with every woman he sees? Legalizing prostitution? Porn? Or the absolute aberration which is modern casual sexual relationships?
In most cases, it is the mother that is responsible for a girl’s hijab, not the husband.
I don’t think you have actually lived in a Muslim country. For one, hijab is not compulsory in the greater part of Muslim countries. As far as I know, it is only compulsory in Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.
I call tell you for a fact that in Iran it is the women that wear the proverbial pants in the relationship. And many women wear hijab that is more of a fashion statement than actual hijab. Google “tehran hijab style” — oh, the horror, those poor oppressed girls.
Also, I don’t think you are familiar with the degree of sexual debauchery in Arabia before Islam.
“there were four types of marriage during the ancient Arab period. One … type of marriage was that a group of less than ten men would assemble and enter upon a woman, and all of them would have sexual relations with her. If she became pregnant and delivered a child and some days had passed after her delivery, she would send for all of them and none of them could refuse to come, and when they all gathered before her she would say to them “You (all) know what you have done and now I have given birth to a child. So it is your child O so and so!” Naming whoever she liked and her child would follow him and he could not refuse to take him.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_marriage
Which is more degrading to a woman, being the centerpiece of a gangbang, or wearing a scarf on her head?
The temperature was 35 degrees Celsius as I was taking pictures of Monk Seals and strolling with my wife on a beach in Kauai. Some hundred meters in the distance I saw two couples at the water’s edge taking pictures. I was unable to take a picture and include both couple in the same frame. The blonde in a skimpy slingshot, a postage size cloth covering her exposed body was chatting with her partner as she looked over the water. Fifty feet away was another couple., a woman in a hijab, sandal’s and only her face exposed, her partner next to her was wearing a similar bathing suit to the man with the blonde. My question to you : Which of the two women was abused by social norms? By the way I was born in a country where Muslim families made up about 20% of the population and I never understood until much later why Muslim homes had two meters high walls surrounding their yards. .
You assume that “beach holiday” which is a value according to materialist-hedonist western culture, is one that the original Muslims shared.
A true Muslim is a person who is in the world trying to achieve a supreme spiritual goal, which is the feat of holding on to your individuality after you die. The world and what is in it is only of concern so far as it relates to well-being and survival. Otherwise, it is just a distraction from the true path.
Mortal man has at best a handful of years to realize and solve the mystery of his existence, barely enough time at all, if you ask me. Beach holidays and sun bathing in a bikini are not necessary for one’s well-being or survival, thus, they are superfluous activities, a waste of time, a distraction.
A true Muslim would not be at the beach wasting his or her time in the first place. The people you are talking about are victims of a culture clash. They are Muslims meet the modern world, which has been designed to be incompatible and antithetical and hostile to all religions.
Do you believe that the average Christian woman from a hundred years ago would have put on a bikini? Do you know how modestly Christian women dressed?
You believe having to endure a hot day at the beach is abuse, but women reduced to sex objects, which is what western culture does, is not?
All this is not to say that the couple you saw at the beach could not have been simply a couple of idiots, because it certainly sounds like they could have been. Life is hard and abusive for all idiots, not just Muslim idiots.
My Muslim friend you miss my point in the question that I asked. Science math and enlightenment was given to the world by the Arab people. All that ended when religion started to dominate the Arab World. Of course the barbarians had something to do with that. When the Huns and later Ottoman invaded Europe the Dark ages descended on the previous cultures.
Islam is a derivative of other religion just like Christianity. If you believe in religion than you cannot believe in science.. First there were snakes, fire, wild animal, volcanoes and earthquakes that were your and my ancestral Gods. We imagined them and feared them and because we did not understand them our ancestors worshiped them. Human race has a history of Gods Other than the ones I mention above we went from Egyptian, Greek, Judaism, to Christianity and Islam.
One after the other we gave these Gods up. Islam and Christianity will be gone with education. Every one of these religions saw women as possessions and that was because men invented religion which placed women to serve men’s needs. The women on the beach, and you missed the point in my question, live in a society where they continue to be abused, sexualized and exploited by men. The woman in the slingshot probably equally if not more exploited than the one in the hijab.
Women in the Christian West were not allowed to be lawyers, doctors and other p[professionals and many were not allowed to vote until some 50 years ago. Christian women 100 or so years ago dressed like nuns do today. Women in many Arab countries women are not allowed to vote to this day nor are they allowed to drive a car, and male doctors are not allowed to treat women.
Time to shake one’s head and once you do that you will see the intellectual wasteland because women are not allowed to participate as full members of the human family.
You see the people on the beach enjoying nature as idiots represents years of your indoctrination so it is no wonder that democracy in your society and in the west for that matter as Capitalism exploits them is moving one step forward two steps back…
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Walter, you realize the reason that “Capitalism exploits them” is because corrupt oligarchs and systems they control like money, corporations, governments, etc. become the gods or ultimate authorities in society, correct? George Soros actually said he “feel[s] comfortable about… consider[ing] yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything;” one of his “miracles” was Maidan’s IMF coup in Ukraine. And yes, the majority of the militia members defending Donbass from the Maidanites and “neo-Nazi” battalions are Christians.
Soros is not the only example of what happens to people’s ability to be objectively moral when they reject the higher authority for morality. As Karl Marx wrote in “Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right,” “The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun.” This is a very self-centered, subjectively moral spiritual foundation, and what says “fashion… reality [and] discarded… illusions” like Stalinists and Maoists unpersoning politically inconvenient individuals from historical records…?
“Christianity, which has declared that all men are equal in the sight of God, will not refuse to acknowledge that all citizens are equal in the eye of the law… Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith… Despotism may govern without faith, but not liberty.”
~ “Democracy in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville, 1831
The Islamic Golden Age ended when the Mongols destroyed and massacred the Muslim world. The Muslims of the Golden Age believed in their religion very strongly, mate. Islam was never a hindrance to knowledge, like the Catholic Church. Mohamad himself said: seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave, and seek knowledge even as far away as China.
Islam and Christianity are both derived from Zoroastrian doctrine, whose tenets are all empirical. A science that begins with the assumption that we are material objects living in a material world will never reach the point of experiencing and verifying the spiritual-energetic truths which are contained in the doctrine of Zarathushtra, echoed in Islam and Christianity.
You are incorrect about the origins of the gods. If you are interested in learning about an opposing view, look up and read my comments on the following article, and I will happily debate God, the gods, and all manner of religious ideology with you.
/the-world-has-gone-absolutely-insane/
I agree with you about the situation of women. But the situation is part of a broader context, which you do not see. During the Bronze Age, matriarchal cultures dominated the civilised world. Cities and towns that had no walls, did not engage in warfare, spent their time in arts and mystical pursuits, and did not have a word for father, believing pregnancy to be caused by spirits. The pre-Greek civilization in Greece is one example, and Robert Graves brushes on it slightly in his book of Greek myths, if you are interested in knowing more.
Human society is engaged in a pendulum motion of swinging back and forth between matriarchy and patriarchy. And in each new age, the dominant gender takes revenge on the other for oppression and tyranny, real or imagined, in the previous age. The patriarchal culture that swept the Bronze Age world and put an end to matriarchy, did so with a religious fervor, believing they were putting an end to a great evil.
Just look at the militant feminism that is rising in the world today, and you will see the how the cycle is repeating itself.
What we need is equality and partnership between the sexes. Not patriarchy, nor matriarchy; both have driven mankind astray.
Your arguments are those of Procrustes the metalworker. Arab world before Islam represented the Golden Age. You write that “Islam was never a hindrance to knowledge”. I disagree since Islam encouraged learning not thinking for one reason and that was to spread the teachings in the Qurʾān and the Sunnah. Deviation from that ended badly as it did for Malala Yousafzai. Christianity, Catholicism in particular, reserved learning for the clergy so that the Clergy could maintain their top position on the ladder.
We are not dealing with the Bronze Age. This is the 21st century and those who want to apply democratic principles of the Bible or the Qurʾān developed 3000 years ago by camel and goat herders to modern society, is just ludicrous.
The Code of Hammurabi like most codes that followed borrowed laws and rules from ancient time present in both written and oral history which almost always ignored democracy. These ancient laws represented service from those below to those above, which is represented in the Great Chain of Being.
Democracy today has many meanings. Just because I support equal rights for women you might say hey Walter believes in democracy, but if you ignore what else Walter supports you have no idea if he believes in democracy, If Walter thinks more like Hobbes rather than Locke than you have some idea where he stands
Popularization of the term democracy in America ignores the fact that there is not one, but that there are dozens of modern, popular interpretations of this term. America is not a democracy it’s a republic and none of the Middle Eastern countries are democracies they are for the most part a theocracy which do not tolerate differences.
You are wrong. Iran is a democracy.
Rouhani ran for president with the promise that he would make a deal and restore relations with the West. The ayatollah Khamenei was opposed, and stated clearly that the West is untrustworthy. The people overruled Khamenei, voted for Rouhani, and the rest is history.
When did I say the Arab world before Islam was the golden age?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Golden_Age
Islam was never a hindrance to knowledge, mate. My mother is a surgeon, educated in Shiraz. My father is a professor, educated in Tehran.
There are more girls studying in Iranian universities than boys today.
You are so wrong and confused in your thinking, I don’t really know how to respond to you.
Good luck with whatever, mate.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20291-iran-is-top-of-the-world-in-science-growth/?ignored=irrelevant
Iran’s leap in science and technology happened after the Islamic Revolution.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Iran
Your argument about Islam and knowledge simply does not stand.
The first Islamic Golden age of arts and sciences also happened right after an Islamic Revolution, the original one.
You really don’t know what you are talking about at all, mate. I’m not saying this to put you down, I swear. I just want you to know that you don’t know, so you will make an effort to educate yourself.
Iran is not a democracy but it’s for Iran to decide what political system to follow, You have parties from the RIGHT whose policies are theocratic and you have parties from the LEFT whose policies support use of modernism in culture. In foreign policy, the Right Party is radical and the Left Party is liberal. In economic issues all parties believe in the free market economy and the expansion of trade. There are similarities between political sides but I would suggest there are more differences. I have read the Bible and the Qua ran. I bought the Quran in Sarajevo many years ago just to see what it said and I have a copy Buddhist teaching which encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on original teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhist teaching appeals to me the most as it deals with human nature. I had friends who travelled in Iran, loved it, so one has to have an open mind. You, my friend, seems to have closed yours. You don’t know me nor do you know my educational background or my political views and yet you judge me as not knowing what I am talking about. Every day is an education for me and much of it I get from my grandchildren. The other day I said to my ten-year-old grandson that the door to learning is always open. He replied “yes Dida, you told me the other day that learning only happens when the door swings in both directions”..
You have never been to Iran, and yet you have the nerve to school me about the country that I have lived half of my life in? How rich.
I don’t need to know your background, mate. Your words are all I need.
I have lived in Canada for some years. I have also lived in a few other Western countries. The people and what they want is absolutely irrelevant in the West.
I still maintain that Iran is a democracy.
My village of under a thousand souls has an elected council that has almost unrestricted prerogatives as far as running the affairs of the village is concerned.
Covid has been killing hundreds every day here in Iran since Spring. The government and the health ministry have intended to impose lockdowns multiple times, and yet public opinion is against it, so there has been no lockdown since a two week period in March.
You are right about something, though. My mind is closed. It is closed to someone who has never been to Iran telling me how things are or aren’t here.
@ Walter and Jamshyd
I was on a bus in the country of Jordan travelling between Petra and Aqaba in 1994 while visiting Israel. I sat alone being a foreigner but across the aisle on the seat next to me was a woman with her son. The son kept glancing at me and then talked with her mother who was draped in the Hijab head to toe. I couldn’t help glancing back too and was stressed out by the stupid bus driver and his blaring music. It was so discomforting you could hardly hear yourself think really so loud was the arabic music. The lady noticed my discomfort and said something to her son too and he just kind of nodded his head. I sat there thinking about the kind of life these people truly have and felt sorry for the lady. To be dressed like that in the desert head to toe in black must be stifling and hard to deal with. I then realized wow look at that she is even wearing gloves? The one question that reverberated through my mind was what kind of culture would do this to their woman?
Back in Aqaba down at the waters edge was another family swimming in the Red Sea with the woman dressed head to toe in black?
Other questions to started to confront me about the boys and teenagers who grow up in such a place and say too myself can you imagine with hormones raging if one transplanted these into the West what would happen?
Years later I met and worked with an expat Syrian and he left and married a Canadian girl and the questions wow they just keep on coming?
Lastly I saw a picture of Petra on a womans magazine and bought it to read. The author was a woman academic who was working on a project about Jordan’s archaeological past and what she went through and sufferred in Amman was telling. She made a fateful mistake of not learning about the culture and couldn’t understand the total lack of respect for her while in that city. She couldn’t walk anywhere without the woman whistling dixie lol at her in disgust and the men leering at her. It took some time for her to learn the truth of it was they all believed that because she was single she was only in the country for men to get married and such? She said she was always trying to communicate to them that she was there to learn about the past and do some work for a university project. That never was accepted by the people a single woman trying to educate herself about the Nabateans and such was so out of character and so more whistling dixie.
Many years later back in Canada I get a job and meet a woman who did guess what? She went to Egypt to find a husband because as a Christian Zionist she was all Romatized by the Joseph and Israel story and found herself a husband a Moslem and brought him back to Canada?
Lady, I thought you are a Christian and you have never once read what St. Paul said:
Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14
Wow, I further thought too myself this can’t be happening to me and the questions they keep on coming?
He married her just to get into Canada probably and how do their faiths mix? Does he attend her church and vice versa? And what about her Hijab when she goes to Egypt etc etc etc?
and family etc, etc to?
Maybe she should have went to Jordan and got the whistling Dixie treatment?
Yep, what POGO said is true of us we have found the enemy and he is us!!
Saker had a good essay up Our world has gone insane certifiably insane!
And I could go on and on.
Had to get a mortgage renewed and voila who was the lady sitting behind the desk? An expat Egyptian who worked as a travel guide in Cairo and the talk we had was telling. A great Christian lady but it dumbfounded me that in a small Canadian town I’m dealing with an immigrant from Egypt who has access to all my financial records and that of numerous other Canadians? Right? How do you go from being a tour guide in Cairo to a desk in a major Canadian Bank?
Wow, if the walls could talk?
Gerry I am a Canadian. Came to Canada in 1953. I had a farm where I had bees and in the summer when I worked around them, I had to enclose myself in a beekeeper’s suit and I can tell you this when I was done I was drenched in sweat.
Jews and Muslims do not eat pork, and they circumcise their boys and some Muslims do it to the girls as well and not for the same reasons. As far as I am concerned this is child abuse. Circumcision was done because of infections and cleanliness. Water was scarce and washing was limited so infections were common so circumcision. Similarly, pork has tricomona and spoils in the heat and people got sick so it was forbidden.
Trichomoniasis is an infection with a tiny parasite spread by sexual contact or by eating meat with the bug in it.
Gerry in your case re the Egyptian lady people can learn . In Canada, we have many immigrants from Punjab who wear a turban which is usually abandoned second or third generation. I have no problem with religion but keep it in your temple and out of the school and political life.
@ Walter
Yes, of course, thank you. I was a cook for many years.
You should know that the one common denominator that we all have is of course money and trying to make a living. When I visited Petra my guide and I upon turning a corner came across a woman with no hijab due probably to her age 50’s and the tourist area of Petra. She was trying desperately to make a living upon seeing me immediately stood up in a welcoming fashion pointing to her wares. There was nothing on her table that was appealing really and given the location far away from the main arteries the guide looked at her and said or shook rather his head and said no and tried to get her to understand she would find no success where she was or what she was doing. I felt so sorry for her.
Back in Canada all this culture shock came to a head to one day when that Syrian guy I met and worked with for a short time well we had numerous interesting conversations and he was blown away by what I did travelling. Was surprised I made it out of there alive actually.
The one story that always stood out though was he worked for a time as a porter for a Vancouver Hotel. He got called up to a room to deliver something and when the door opened the guy called him inside and there spread out in all her glory was a beautiful girl on the bed sleeping. The guy all full of himself said to Sam look what I had last night!
Well, I replied to him tell me as a Moslem what do you think of that? He didn’t say much of course just smiled and I knew guys back home would die for that kind of experience.
The bible prophecies that in the end violence will fill the earth and one can see it occurring in current day France. I can’t for the life of me understand how anyone can think multiculturalism can work?
Further unlike in the past the media is or rather has opened Pandora’s box and the horrors that await us all I’m afraid.
Lastly Sam the Syrian well because he was in the Syrian military and an immigrant guess who keeps an eye on him? Government intelligence?
The article is propaganda written by a Zionist in Canada.
You look to be surprised at the fact. Actually, it has become a part of the furniture in place, whatever the reasons. This should be obvious to anyone who has critically viewed it since a long enough time. Don’t expect any inquire into the reasons to be tolerated, however. Any true criticism aimed at certain spots is sent to the Index Commentariorum Prohibitorum (“ad hominem”, “personal atack”, etc.).
Cynthia, Excellent piece!!
Why is it that those who profess to love freedom and so artfully articulate the need for its defense, ironically, insanely, wind up their arguments by quoting Abraham Lincoln to buttress their case? Lincoln was the absolute antithesis of the idea of ‘freedom.’ He shredded the Constitution by conducting an illegal war on Americans seeking freedom from an oppressive central government, imprisoned critics and publishers without trial and shut down newspapers who disagreed with his policies. Lincoln was ultimately responsible for the deaths of some 700,000 soldiers and non-combatants – all of this to ‘save the union.’ From what? The ‘union’ was supposed to be a voluntary confederation of sovereign States – except, much to their surprise, it was ‘Hotel California’ – you could check out but you could never leave, thanks to Lincoln. If the lunatic had been shot in 1861 instead of ’65, the behemoth central government we have today would likely not exist, and Americans might witness 50 different expressions of ‘freedom,’ with the freedom to choose which expression best suits them.
The heralding of Lincoln as our great liberator is one of the most successful propaganda accomplishments in US history.
@Flankspeed60
I don’t remember the details perfectly but I read somewhere that Lincoln became terribly angry with one of his generals who didn’t push some battle to its end and because of it a victory was lost. The author summed up that up by saying that had Lincoln understood what the General and the men were experiencing, the enormity of the bloodshed and sufferings he would have at least had some sympathy for what the General was going through on the battlefield and why he stopped.
Bankers and politicians should themselves visit the horrors of war and see firsthand the shock and horror of missing limbs and hear the screams of the wounded and dying. Especially the American Civil War when medicine was in its infancy.
“Have designs already been formed to sever the Union? This great and glorious Republic would soon be broken into a multitude of petty States, without commerce, without credit… loaded with taxes to pay armies… trampled upon by the nations of Europe.”
~ President Andrew Jackson, 1837; 26 years before the Republic was broken by the American Civil War
Flank, did you forget that the United States formed “united” to avoid being trampled by the “European” banker gangsters if the states were divided? And yes, England was preparing to continue trampling the US by sending naval ships to aid the Confederacy. Fortunately, Russia sent its own ships to stop this. Please find Tarpley’s “U.S. Civil War: The US-Russian Alliance that Saved the Union.”
Tsar Alexander II had actually ended serfdom, slavery by another name, in Russia years before Lincoln did so in the US. Is “freedom,” even to have slaves, the kind of “freedom” we should want…? Because the banksters want that kind of “freedom”…
Good article! There is a non-stop promotion of the theme that democracy, and its connotation of justice, fairness, and peace, resides in the Western world. Whereas in China, Russia, Africa, and the Middle East, the people and therefore governments are undemocratic. In reality democracy and justice and fairness are very fragile in the West. The West can afford democracy in the last 200 years is because technological advance has made the west quite well off compared to other regions. Once the wealth is squandered, and China challenges, one can see the bigotry and inner violence cropping up from Westerners. The call for war against China has little to do with the fact that China is locking up Ugihurs, or arresting Hong Kong protestor, but has to do with destroying a fierce competitor. England and Germany were good friends in the late 1800’s. But the economic tables showed that Germany will soon surpass England. It was these data tables that convinced the British elite to plot war against Germany. When Germany revived during the 1930’s, again, the Brits made sure a war happened. The British were able to achieve the 2 impressive victories because the Germans were like little children who responded to any “dare” by the more cunning Brits, without understanding that the Brits always had a strategic goal of destroying Germany. Today, the USA non-stop “dares” China with Huawei, TikTok, trade war, sanctions, lies, naval maneuvers, smearing, Hong Kong, Uighurs, Tibet, etc, etc. But the Chinese are not little children and China is a more difficult target than the earlier Germans.
The following link showed how lies and deception are part and parcel of the US trade war against China:
https://silkscreen9.blogspot.com/2020/09/new-blog.html
I disagree with some of your conclusions
1. Economic progress in the West was built on theft from others —-colonialism
2. Weapons— the west developed better weapons guns and steel
3 Russia defeats the Swedes and Prussia becomes independent rising power
3.France was the main continental power until 1815 The other powers were Austria, Spain, Turkey and Russia. After defeat of Napoleon Russia player in Europe expands agains Turkey threat to British Empire Brits seek allies
In 1871 under Prussian leadership 48 German states united to create Germany
Britain and Germany became allies to keep Austria and France In check Wars with Austria France and Russiaa brought Britain into alliance with Prussia
Competition for Empire in Africa leads Britain into war with Germany
Alliances were created and the rest is history
The present anti Ri
Us Sia China situation is due to BRICS pushing for trade in domestic currencies thus US is doing everything to destabilize the countries that are joining this trade group and they are after the big fish China andRussiadestabilize Russia wars in former Soviet republics NATO pushing east to destabilize China they are trying to destabilize China’s economy Its not working as China and Russia are ready for them
”Although pre-[World War One] Germany had a private central bank, it was heavily restricted and inflation kept to reasonable levels. Under government control, investment was guaranteed to internal economic development, and Germany was seen as a major power. So, in the media of the day, Germany was portrayed as the prime opponent of World War One, and not just defeated, but its industrial base flattened.”
~ “All Wars Are Bankers’ Wars,” Michael Rivero
So no, Walter, Manuel is correct in that regard. The “competing empires” argument against Germany is similar to the “competing empires” argument against China today: Both are wrong.
Yes, your additions are also important, but several things should be made clear.
1. Of course theft through colonialism made a big part of the wealth of the West, but it should be understood that the West should be credited with a lot of technology breakthroughs which also aided in this wealth creation. It was a confluence of ideas, gold and silver (from the Americas mostly), turning to science instead of religion, and other effects that created this wealth. Just theri time in history.
2. While competition for colonies in Africa strained relations between Britain and Germany, it was the economic tables that showed Germany to eclipse Britain that seal the fate of the world. Same as today. China and the US are competing in Africa, but the important point is that China is about to eclipse the US that made the US plotting war against China.
One of the main reasons for the decline of Britain and rise of Germany was technology. The Industrial Revolution in England was a result of cheap raw materials from the colonies, cheap labor at home and new innovations in the textile industries. For an economy to move forward new technology must replace the old every 25-30 years . This did not happen to the industrial base in Britain other than in military naval developments. German innovations in steel making (Bessemer) and new ships double hulled and faster with bigger guns (Westphalen) challenged the industrial stagnation and sea domination of Britain. This challenge forced Britain to seek an understanding with France and then an alliance with her and Russia.
Wait a minute, Manuel: Where would that leave the US eclipsing the UK? The UK actually stopped its anti-US warmongering.
This has more to do with the banker gangsters assuming control of the US. As Major General Smedley Butler pointed out in “War is a Racket,” him acting like “a high–class muscle man for Big Business” occurred several years before the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
Conversely, the banksters were not able to control Germany like they could the UK and US, so they flattened Germany. The US proved difficult to control during the Vietnam War with Americans protesting, deserting, fragging corrupt officers, etc., so the banksters used their corporations to outsource production to China while deindustrializing the US. However, now that China has turned firmly against the banksters and the rich-get-richer conflicts, we see the anti-China warmongering ramping up.
If China were more obedient to the corporatists, do you think the warmongering would still be this serious…?
Yeas Butler said lots more than that. In 1933, he was offered by the bankers a position as the Führer if he led the WWI disgruntled soldiers in a putsch. Today the bankers are at war with the BRICS . The bankers want to take them down using General Fabian’s (Quintus Fabius Maximus) approach when in battle against a formidable enemy. The BRICS elephant was growing bigger and bigger so the bankers decided to eat it one bite at the time. They went after would be members mostly oil producers and eliminated them, then they went against bigger fish Brazil using the old guard the generals. Russia was next with color revolutions all over the former Yugoslav and Soviet republics. The only way to get at China was to destabilize its economy and that battle is ongoing as we write.
Yes, Walter, you are correct about General Butler and the Business Plot. FDR mentioned something related the same year: “A financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson — and I am not wholly excepting the Administration of W.W. (Woodrow Wilson). The country is going through a repetition of Jackson’s fight with the Bank of the United States…”
However, FDR largely kept the “financial elements,” the banker gangsters in place, had the US supply and fight for the banksters rather than against them, and now, Japan’s national debt is a ridiculous 240% of GDP (Russia’s is currently around 13%) while Germany is making nuclear-capable submarines for “Israel” and its Samson Option. The BRICS pushing back against the banksters just means those countries are being targeted for the same treatment.
One of the major differences now, though, (and this connects back to Cynthia’s article) is the counter-propaganda. Back in the 1945, it took Chicago Tribune journalist Walter Trohan 2 weeks after Japan got nuked to tell regular people that Japan was trying to surrender for over 7 months.
In 2013, we were able to see evidence and analysis for why Syria’s “moderate” terrorists were behind the chemical weapon attacks, not the Assad government within hours of the attacks. The Armed Forces Tea Party, American military could organize anti-war protests within days.
@ Cynthia
just watched a great video about ‘Authority Symbols’ and thought immediately of you and this essay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44X4Ap8PEbo
“So Who is the Said “Enemy”?
The enemy is our lesser selves.
Our most base fears, desires and obsessions.”
I have nothing to add.
Read the article through, made many digressions following the links, also written by the author.
Everything well written, Mrs. Chung, and to the best of my knowledge, true.