Listen to a reading of this article: The other day an Australian journalist was giving me a hard time for not criticizing Russia and China the way I go after the US empire, calling me "morally bankrupt" for not criticizing all governments equally. He said the ethical thing to do would be to criticize the US, but also criticize the governments the US doesn't like for balance.
For US readers, NPR broadcast the most despicable "parody" of the Chinese Communist Party this morning (in the form of juvenile cultural and political revision of trashy US movies). It was dripping jingoism with a heavy dose of war mongering narrative formation. Insanely disgusting. This is what decadent declining empires do the "others" they seek to make war on.
Yesterday I was at the main Edinburgh railway station with my "Free Assange" T-shirt and my cloth bag "Nuclear Weapons banned from 22.Jan.2021" when a Aussie woman said to me that she agreed with me. Thinking she meant "Free Assange", I said the Australian Government needs to do more for him. Unfortunately, she did not mean Assange, but said she agreed with the Nuclear Weapons sentiment, however, North Korea was the issue. I pointed out that at least 50 countries ratified the treaty but not the Nuclear Weapon states and North Korea would very likely be invaded if it did not possess them. It was a short encounter but it disappointed me that Assange was not a concern for her and North Korea was being used as an alibi to deal with Nuclear Weapons issue. I guess she might have been an Australian diplomat visiting Edinburgh for the Festival.
What really disappoints me is that there is a venue called "House of Oz" devoted to Australian shows behind my tenement block but not a single one deals with Julian Assange and his plight. I guess because it is Australian Government funded. I am sure in Australia there are lots of theatre in support of Julian Assange. I guess that Aussie journalist who took a pot shot at you would find such censorship acceptable by the Australian Government.
It's been eerie being born and growing up as an American, even being patriotic and somewhat proud of my country in my youth, but then having the mask of illusion slowly ripped off. Partially, because the country has I believe become much more corruptly run - yes, it was corrupt before, but now it is blatant corruption and the wealth disparity gap has become obscenely large, and economic exploitation hearkens back to feudal age work slavery and serfs - and partially because I bought the now pretty obvious propaganda disseminated via the media networks in my younger days.
It is sad to see so much potential be used for destructive purposes - destruction of ordinary lives of both Americans and so many human lives abroad, destruction of the planetary ecosystem, destruction of the hopes and dreams of people who are forced to live in the chains of poverty through no fault of their own, in a system that exploits mercilessly anyone that wasn't born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
And the only way this corrupt American system justifies itself is by demonizing the "other". Demonizing Russia and China. Like any classic psychological projection - the enemy is out there, and can't be within our own borders.
“As I learn more and more about global power dynamics and interact with more and more people around the world responding to the things I have to say, I find myself growing more and more disdainful of those who live directly under the thumb of the US empire and yet spend their time criticizing unabsorbed governments like Russia and China. It's literally the most pathetic, snivelling, power-serving position anyone can possibly take at this point in history.”
There’s a word for that: slave morality. They’re unable to think about the plank in their eye, but rail about the needles in the eyes of others.
As Confucius once said, “the strong man is hard on himself, the weak man is hard on others.” They are fake Timocrats. They feign virtue and honor, but they’re really just operating based on tribal affinity and the desire for personal gain. They rely on imitating the behaviors of those who actually care, but only to the extent they can leverage them for their own personal interest or that of their tribe. We saw a lot of this in religion and politics. These are the truly weak people, the ones with no humility, terrified of turning the mirror on themselves. There are plenty of people who will do something bad or commit crimes, but they won’t try to convince you that it’s Good or right. The fake Timocrats and “Democrats” in Plato’s Republic, where he very accurate describes the decline of the states, the different stages of defer degeneration, are the main pretenders, the “imitators.” Finally, at the end of all this, a Tyrant usually comes in to bring order and push back against these tribes, but then finds himself with absolute power, which he won’t relinquish.
The solution is to abandon tribal affinity and pursue the real thing, namely ie to love of wisdom. Without that, we can talk about any and as perfect a political system as one can dream of, but it will always fall and lead to chaos and destruction of this seemingly unimportant or abstract notion, wisdom, is kicked to the curb. It’s the most practical thing that can be done, as both Confucius and Plato well understood.
Good post, thanks. Too many seem bent on blaming anyone other than themselves or their country for what is wrong. These problems so supersede any nation on Earth. All nations have glaring faults though some with more power abuse that power with greater force and more hypocrisy. Either we the people learn to work it out or it’s over. When you really think about it the lunacy of having rank opportunists (kleptocrats) in a position to negotiate for us is clear. Hopefully we can survive these international crooks.
You are spot on with this one. Even when Americans are warned about their policy makers evil deeds they just burry their heads in the sand. GWB giving lectures on leadership, what a joke. Vincent Bugliosi’s “The prosecution of GWB for Murder” was ignored but I knew at the time he was a useful idiot and his leadership would help accelerate our road to dystopia. Even Edward Snowdens warnings, and Julian
Assange’s exposure of corruption are accepted as National Security threats.
The profitability of key areas of the Australian media depends on government advertising. The business model of the MSM requires complaints with the government on key issues. Journalists know that their current and future employability depends on conformism.
The independent press died with the old Fairfax company. The late Sir Warwick Fairfax allowed his editors to commission investigative journalism. This threatened a range of villains across the entire Establishment, including the ALP and the Coalition, organised crime, big business, corrupt police and the US Gov't (remember Nugan Hand and the CIA heroin trade?). The royal commissions into corruption and espionage were a gigantic headache to the elite...some of the findings are still embargoed (I think). After Sir Roderick died his son and heir, young Warwick, was IMO set-up and encouraged to make a corporate take-over. He ultimately failed, the company was sold off and the 'troublemakers' were out in the cold, to the enduring relief of the villains. Australia has never been the same since.
Caitlin.....excellent article and we are essentially fellow travellers. I am an American living in Chiina and make no secret of my shared point of view with you. However, I am a 12 year guest here doing career and life design counseling and training of counselors and my mission and government censorship preclude what passes for First Amendment rights in the USA. Nevertheless, Chinese people are going through their own phases as they shake off the relentless horrors of social upheaval and wars from at least the Tanping Rebellion of 1850-64 to the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76. The intergenerational traumas are passed down, not through genetics but through the transfer of psychological distress from grandparents to parents to their children. I have learned firsthand that we are all human beings no matter our national origins and struggle for basically the same things i.e. personal happiness and some modicum of success in family and social life and in our work or productive life. The American Empire is the most powerful and dangerous in the world and we Americans do very much need to cast off the propaganda of our own culture and embrace the mindset transformation that will make sustainable life on our planet attainable. Extinction of modern civilization rides on it.
I'm old enough to remember the 2000-2008 period vividly, when Bush was considered Satan personified in the U.S. But Biden has always been a warmonger, and now that he is senile and the beneficiary of the stolen 2020 election, he is more than happy to:
* Kill
* Censor
* Inflict dictatorial mandates, like demanding people give up their bodily autonomy and take the vax
* Suck up to Klaus Schwab
* Get rich off of China.
Biden hates us when he's lucid, which is not very often.
I'm always disappointed by how blithely my fellow U.S. people ignore our horror show, while in same breath repeating blatant propaganda aimed at others who are so much less influential than we are. It's like the garment of that is the U.S.A is this tattered, damaged, holes gaping, oversized, hanging, ill-fitting mess that people prop up and half heartedly mend with sole stitch here and there, to an obsessive and yet obviously lazy standard. Pride is a weak show of denial. It's based on nothing anyone can point to in recent times. Defenders of flag go all the way back to WWII and pretend that's enough to justify our worse behavior throughout our ENTIRE history. To be an honest American enduring this constant, weak show of systemic denial is now a given. It's why point fingers everywhere else. Some of us are trying our damndest to shed some light on where we are and where we need to go. We are getting more takers but those in obsessive denial are manic and dangerous.
Thanks Caitlin, I’m a physician as are most of my friends, great majority of them are brainwashed by the most powerful and crucial tool of the US arsenals. Something that you have clearly recognized and referred in your blogs👍
The idea that all evil is equal and evenly spread out, and no country and its representatives is worse than any other, is pure bogus. It derives from the idea of original sin- it's just the way we are and if we don't take control, sometimes employing the evil but natural tendencies we all have, well someone else will, with worse results. That's the story, but any kid of twelve that hasn't already been brain-washed could see through it. It's bad logic, and bad policy and the evidence is smacking us in the face -unless facing annihilation right now from several sources can be called the successful outcome of a successful policy going back at least from the end of WW II.
No, having "bad thoughts", usually about sex, is not in the category of supporting the Cold War, and the demonization of a country 28 million people of which died fighting Nazis the West encouraged by its demonization of that suffering country. But that's what I was told: "look into your own soul and its tiny confines, and let us take care of the big stuff" by my school and my church. That's what my country maintained as part of the Western Hemisphere: we will decide what is best for us and the world: just give us a mandate: sign on the dotted line.
And the same BS goes down, without blinking or blushing, right now: just the names China and Russia are enough to send chills down the backs of some people, sensitized as they have been, like Pavlov's dog. Poor things.
What, we don't have an MSM to criticize Russia and China for every possible sin, real and imagined, daily?
Vladimir Pozner commissioned a study to find positive MSM mentions of Russia since 2008 or so. The study found none.
For US readers, NPR broadcast the most despicable "parody" of the Chinese Communist Party this morning (in the form of juvenile cultural and political revision of trashy US movies). It was dripping jingoism with a heavy dose of war mongering narrative formation. Insanely disgusting. This is what decadent declining empires do the "others" they seek to make war on.
Yesterday I was at the main Edinburgh railway station with my "Free Assange" T-shirt and my cloth bag "Nuclear Weapons banned from 22.Jan.2021" when a Aussie woman said to me that she agreed with me. Thinking she meant "Free Assange", I said the Australian Government needs to do more for him. Unfortunately, she did not mean Assange, but said she agreed with the Nuclear Weapons sentiment, however, North Korea was the issue. I pointed out that at least 50 countries ratified the treaty but not the Nuclear Weapon states and North Korea would very likely be invaded if it did not possess them. It was a short encounter but it disappointed me that Assange was not a concern for her and North Korea was being used as an alibi to deal with Nuclear Weapons issue. I guess she might have been an Australian diplomat visiting Edinburgh for the Festival.
What really disappoints me is that there is a venue called "House of Oz" devoted to Australian shows behind my tenement block but not a single one deals with Julian Assange and his plight. I guess because it is Australian Government funded. I am sure in Australia there are lots of theatre in support of Julian Assange. I guess that Aussie journalist who took a pot shot at you would find such censorship acceptable by the Australian Government.
It's been eerie being born and growing up as an American, even being patriotic and somewhat proud of my country in my youth, but then having the mask of illusion slowly ripped off. Partially, because the country has I believe become much more corruptly run - yes, it was corrupt before, but now it is blatant corruption and the wealth disparity gap has become obscenely large, and economic exploitation hearkens back to feudal age work slavery and serfs - and partially because I bought the now pretty obvious propaganda disseminated via the media networks in my younger days.
It is sad to see so much potential be used for destructive purposes - destruction of ordinary lives of both Americans and so many human lives abroad, destruction of the planetary ecosystem, destruction of the hopes and dreams of people who are forced to live in the chains of poverty through no fault of their own, in a system that exploits mercilessly anyone that wasn't born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
And the only way this corrupt American system justifies itself is by demonizing the "other". Demonizing Russia and China. Like any classic psychological projection - the enemy is out there, and can't be within our own borders.
“As I learn more and more about global power dynamics and interact with more and more people around the world responding to the things I have to say, I find myself growing more and more disdainful of those who live directly under the thumb of the US empire and yet spend their time criticizing unabsorbed governments like Russia and China. It's literally the most pathetic, snivelling, power-serving position anyone can possibly take at this point in history.”
There’s a word for that: slave morality. They’re unable to think about the plank in their eye, but rail about the needles in the eyes of others.
As Confucius once said, “the strong man is hard on himself, the weak man is hard on others.” They are fake Timocrats. They feign virtue and honor, but they’re really just operating based on tribal affinity and the desire for personal gain. They rely on imitating the behaviors of those who actually care, but only to the extent they can leverage them for their own personal interest or that of their tribe. We saw a lot of this in religion and politics. These are the truly weak people, the ones with no humility, terrified of turning the mirror on themselves. There are plenty of people who will do something bad or commit crimes, but they won’t try to convince you that it’s Good or right. The fake Timocrats and “Democrats” in Plato’s Republic, where he very accurate describes the decline of the states, the different stages of defer degeneration, are the main pretenders, the “imitators.” Finally, at the end of all this, a Tyrant usually comes in to bring order and push back against these tribes, but then finds himself with absolute power, which he won’t relinquish.
The solution is to abandon tribal affinity and pursue the real thing, namely ie to love of wisdom. Without that, we can talk about any and as perfect a political system as one can dream of, but it will always fall and lead to chaos and destruction of this seemingly unimportant or abstract notion, wisdom, is kicked to the curb. It’s the most practical thing that can be done, as both Confucius and Plato well understood.
My mother had a saying : "Clean your own closet before you start in on others' "
Good post, thanks. Too many seem bent on blaming anyone other than themselves or their country for what is wrong. These problems so supersede any nation on Earth. All nations have glaring faults though some with more power abuse that power with greater force and more hypocrisy. Either we the people learn to work it out or it’s over. When you really think about it the lunacy of having rank opportunists (kleptocrats) in a position to negotiate for us is clear. Hopefully we can survive these international crooks.
You are spot on with this one. Even when Americans are warned about their policy makers evil deeds they just burry their heads in the sand. GWB giving lectures on leadership, what a joke. Vincent Bugliosi’s “The prosecution of GWB for Murder” was ignored but I knew at the time he was a useful idiot and his leadership would help accelerate our road to dystopia. Even Edward Snowdens warnings, and Julian
Assange’s exposure of corruption are accepted as National Security threats.
The profitability of key areas of the Australian media depends on government advertising. The business model of the MSM requires complaints with the government on key issues. Journalists know that their current and future employability depends on conformism.
The independent press died with the old Fairfax company. The late Sir Warwick Fairfax allowed his editors to commission investigative journalism. This threatened a range of villains across the entire Establishment, including the ALP and the Coalition, organised crime, big business, corrupt police and the US Gov't (remember Nugan Hand and the CIA heroin trade?). The royal commissions into corruption and espionage were a gigantic headache to the elite...some of the findings are still embargoed (I think). After Sir Roderick died his son and heir, young Warwick, was IMO set-up and encouraged to make a corporate take-over. He ultimately failed, the company was sold off and the 'troublemakers' were out in the cold, to the enduring relief of the villains. Australia has never been the same since.
Caitlin.....excellent article and we are essentially fellow travellers. I am an American living in Chiina and make no secret of my shared point of view with you. However, I am a 12 year guest here doing career and life design counseling and training of counselors and my mission and government censorship preclude what passes for First Amendment rights in the USA. Nevertheless, Chinese people are going through their own phases as they shake off the relentless horrors of social upheaval and wars from at least the Tanping Rebellion of 1850-64 to the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76. The intergenerational traumas are passed down, not through genetics but through the transfer of psychological distress from grandparents to parents to their children. I have learned firsthand that we are all human beings no matter our national origins and struggle for basically the same things i.e. personal happiness and some modicum of success in family and social life and in our work or productive life. The American Empire is the most powerful and dangerous in the world and we Americans do very much need to cast off the propaganda of our own culture and embrace the mindset transformation that will make sustainable life on our planet attainable. Extinction of modern civilization rides on it.
I'm old enough to remember the 2000-2008 period vividly, when Bush was considered Satan personified in the U.S. But Biden has always been a warmonger, and now that he is senile and the beneficiary of the stolen 2020 election, he is more than happy to:
* Kill
* Censor
* Inflict dictatorial mandates, like demanding people give up their bodily autonomy and take the vax
* Suck up to Klaus Schwab
* Get rich off of China.
Biden hates us when he's lucid, which is not very often.
I'm always disappointed by how blithely my fellow U.S. people ignore our horror show, while in same breath repeating blatant propaganda aimed at others who are so much less influential than we are. It's like the garment of that is the U.S.A is this tattered, damaged, holes gaping, oversized, hanging, ill-fitting mess that people prop up and half heartedly mend with sole stitch here and there, to an obsessive and yet obviously lazy standard. Pride is a weak show of denial. It's based on nothing anyone can point to in recent times. Defenders of flag go all the way back to WWII and pretend that's enough to justify our worse behavior throughout our ENTIRE history. To be an honest American enduring this constant, weak show of systemic denial is now a given. It's why point fingers everywhere else. Some of us are trying our damndest to shed some light on where we are and where we need to go. We are getting more takers but those in obsessive denial are manic and dangerous.
Thanks Caitlin, I’m a physician as are most of my friends, great majority of them are brainwashed by the most powerful and crucial tool of the US arsenals. Something that you have clearly recognized and referred in your blogs👍
Stand with Russia -- it stands for all of us against bipartisan US War party !!
The idea that all evil is equal and evenly spread out, and no country and its representatives is worse than any other, is pure bogus. It derives from the idea of original sin- it's just the way we are and if we don't take control, sometimes employing the evil but natural tendencies we all have, well someone else will, with worse results. That's the story, but any kid of twelve that hasn't already been brain-washed could see through it. It's bad logic, and bad policy and the evidence is smacking us in the face -unless facing annihilation right now from several sources can be called the successful outcome of a successful policy going back at least from the end of WW II.
No, having "bad thoughts", usually about sex, is not in the category of supporting the Cold War, and the demonization of a country 28 million people of which died fighting Nazis the West encouraged by its demonization of that suffering country. But that's what I was told: "look into your own soul and its tiny confines, and let us take care of the big stuff" by my school and my church. That's what my country maintained as part of the Western Hemisphere: we will decide what is best for us and the world: just give us a mandate: sign on the dotted line.
And the same BS goes down, without blinking or blushing, right now: just the names China and Russia are enough to send chills down the backs of some people, sensitized as they have been, like Pavlov's dog. Poor things.
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