This is Part One of a series of interviews with Nevin, who is author of Turning the Page: My Evolution from Conservative to Civic Nationalism

What Opposing Marxism Really Means

106 thoughts on “Interview With Nevin Gussack”

  1. Of course it is against American psyche, America is an empire living at the expense of the rest of the world. According to Lenin, there can be no revolution in such a country.

    1. “at the expense of the rest of the world”— Isn’t that the other way around? The world is living off the expense of the USA, considering all the money, military bases/protection, and other aid we provide across the entire planet. We have a trillion dollar deficit and the Pakistanis, who hid Osama Bin Laden from us, still received 600+ million from us just a couple of years ago (though I think in 2020 it might have gotten cut down to “only” a 100 million or so). The Germans are such parasites off of the USA that they don’t even have a real military. They’ve gone to NATO exercises with only brooms. Friends have informed me they can’t get things like socks or boots. Large numbers of their tanks and air force are not fit for service. And even their nuclear submarines were all out of service for repairs for a long time, all simultaneously–they might still be, but I haven’t checked on the status of their nuke subs for a few years now.

      The United States is bled dry each year by the world, and the moron Communists still tell us the USA is somehow exploiting the world! Yeah, we’re exploiting them so hard these countries are rich off of American’s foreign aid and our unfair free trade policies that put America LAST.

      2. > We have a trillion dollar deficit

        Who do you think funds your trillion $ deficit which is basically a free lunch? You purchase products of other people’s labor for just printed money. Michael Hudson’s books are a good start.

        > The Germans are such parasites off of the USA

        the Germans pay your pensions by their rents and my mortgages

        > Osama Bin Laden

        seriously? You believe he was still alive at that time? That guy was a fiction, played by different actor on each tape. David Ray Griffin’s books are a good starting source on 9/11.

      3. “You purchase products of other people’s labor for just printed money.”

        No kidding, dummy! And look what all that printed money has gotten for China: it brought them out of the dark ages and now it seems they’re ready to kill us all with their nuclear missiles, biological programs, and lots and lots of guns.

        (Note: I stopped reading after I read this first sentence of yours. No point!)

      4. Ricardo Galvan

        at least you can pretend to be rich as long as others accept your printed money, can’t wait when the music stops play. Good luck replacing all the free imports with domestic resources and funding your military at the same time.

      5. “Good luck replacing all the free imports”

        Imagine living in such a fantasy world that you think enriching China is exploiting them and that we’re buying their crap “for free”, and then you even boast that you’re looking forward to the day when “the music stops.” I have a feeling you won’t survive for very long in such a world.

      6. > and that we’re buying their crap “for free”

        when you consume more than produce, some of the consumption must be for free, unless you count printed money into production.

    2. The process by which this happens with Empires has been called different things, but it doesn’t take being a Marxist-Leninist to see it. I think that Capitalism is stronger than Lenin and his present-day acolytes ever thought it would be. A historian looking at the stupidity of Athens dealing with her ”allies” in the Delian League as if they were vassals could draw the same conclusion about America and NATO/EU, for the same reasons.

      This is the world, we can call it evil and we’d be right, but it does not change in it’s essence, of being in a fallen state. Revolution in all it’s sick reality-denying forms is no solution to the problems of the world. It only adds to the problems.

      There can be no genuine Revolution in any country, the true reality eventually seeps back in no matter how much one fights it. What remains? A mummy in Red Square, a mummy of a man who only wanted to be buried with his family and in whose dying last moments gestured, as if asking for forgiveness, looking out at the furniture…A Scarlet Banner, that for most represents a Holy War for the survival of a 1000 year old nation, not the Red Flag of International Socialism.

      1. Did Spartan spys infiltrate Athens command structure? Did Athens or Sparta have ICBMS? The West never intimidated EU into a collective military. Neither did Athens with its allies. The whole Greek world was devastated by a plague. We are not there yet. There was no surprise attack by the Spartants on the Athenians. An age old conflict between 2 powerful states. Honor of gods was involved, desecration of Temples. The founding of Colonies in Epidamnus by Corinthians loyal to Athens etc tech. The West is not the Delian League. Great book by Thucydides. It’s free. I’d say l more but cell phone. Dct

  2. Fabulous conversation! Probably the best talk show format you’ve ever been engaged in! Looking forward to the eposides to follow! Once again. congratulations!

    1. Heyyy, I read your entire blog many times why do you not post more frequently. You have a lot to share

      1. Thank you so much, Perseus, for your interest in my humble elaborations (well, they are admittedly not always humble, but they are still humble, if you know what I mean). Anyway, something more to come, and soon..

  3. BB, you wrote concerning Greek history and the comparison with our own day that I made, asking;

    ”Did Spartan spies infiltrate Athens command structure?” They didn’t need to in any case; Sparta’s cause was not unpopular among the more Aristocratic and sane Athenian citizens, some of whom you might recall their names to this day.

    ”Did Sparta or Athens have ICBM’s?” How is that relevant, if I might ask?

    ”The West never intimidated EU into a collective military” Might be debatable, but Athens never started to intimidate her Delian league allies until later, not in the beginning when the fear of the Persians was greater and so exactions and sacrifices for the common effort could plausibly be justified…

    ”Neither did Athens with it’s allies” As I said, not a factor in the beginning of the alliance, when the Persian threat was real.

    ”The whole Greek world was devastated by a plague” And the whole world is devastated to an extent now. I believe that it could have been far worse had it not been for leaders like President Trump.

    ”We are not there yet” History rhymes, it does not repeat.

    ”There was no surprise attack by the Spartans on the Athenians”. There didn’t need to be, the Athenians came up with the lunatic idea of conquering Syracuse in the middle of their war with Sparta, and the expedition ended in total disaster, as anyone with sense could have known. Plenty of parallels with madness, hubris, and nemesis.

    ”An age old conflict between two powerful states” There is no parallel there, actually….

    ”Honor of gods were involved, destruction of temples” How Un-Tragic; ”all the gods of the gentiles are devils”. Most modern states allow the worship of all ”gods” and religions, and of none, and some even allow the open worship of the ”Prince of this World”. Actually maybe there is a parallel with Pagan Hellenistic times after all.

    And so forth…

    I read Thucydides. What I do note also is that neither Sparta nor Athens ultimately profited from their war, the Persians did though, and later, the Macedonians under Philip and Alexander. Maybe it would be profitable to learn that parallel lesson for our own times too.

      1. I take especial offense regarding people who mock another’s Christian name, being as the name is that of the Baptizer of Rus, Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Saint Vladimir. He was born a Pagan (although his Grandmother St. Olga was Christian) and lived the life of a great sinner before his conversion and baptism. After that, like Saul became St. Paul, St. Vladimir changed and enlightened his nation, fulfilling the plan of God, and living up to his name.

        Your case was not ”made”, but was accusatory and mocking, the sure sign of nullity.

  4. Bombshell Report Says Covid-19 ‘Has No Credible Natural Ancestor’ And Was Created By Chinese Scientists Who Then Tried To Cover Their Tracks

    Daily Mail: EXCLUSIVE: COVID-19 ‘has NO credible natural ancestor’ and WAS created by Chinese scientists who then tried to cover their tracks with ‘retro-engineering’ to make it seem like it naturally arose from bats, explosive new study claims

    * An explosive new study claims researchers found ‘unique fingerprints’ in COVID-19 samples that they say could only have arisen from manipulation in a laboratory

    * DailyMail.com exclusively obtained the new 22-page paper authored by British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr. Birger Sørensen set to be published in the Quarterly Review of Biophysics Discovery

    * The study showed there’s evidence to suggest Chinese scientists created the virus while working on a Gain of Function project in a Wuhan lab

    * Gain of Function research, which was temporarily outlawed in the US, involves altering naturally-occurring viruses to make them more infectious in order to study their potential effects on humans

    * According to the paper, Chinese scientists took a natural coronavirus ‘backbone’ found in Chinese cave bats and spliced onto it a new ‘spike’, turning it into the deadly and highly transmissible COVID-19

    * The researchers, who concluded that COVID-19 ‘has no credible natural ancestor’, also believe scientists reverse-engineered versions of the virus to cover up their tracks

    * ‘We think that there have been retro-engineered viruses created,’ Dalgleish told DailyMail.com. ‘They’ve changed the virus, then tried to make out it was in a sequence years ago.’

    * The study also points to ‘deliberate destruction, concealment or contamination of data’ in Chinese labs and notes that ‘scientists who wished to share their findings haven’t been able to do so or have disappeared’

    * Until recently, most experts had staunchly denied the origins of the virus were anything other than a natural infection leaping from animals to humans

    * Earlier this week, Dr. Anthony Fauci defended US funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, saying the $600,000 grant was not approved for Gain of Function research

    An explosive new study claims that Chinese scientists created COVID-19 in a Wuhan lab, then tried to cover their tracks by reverse-engineering versions of the virus to make it look like it evolved naturally from bats.

    The paper’s authors, British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr. Birger Sørensen, wrote that they have had ‘prima facie evidence of retro-engineering in China’ for a year – but were ignored by academics and major journals.

    Dalgleish is a professor of oncology at St George’s University, London, and is best known for his breakthrough creating the first working ‘HIV vaccine’, to treat diagnosed patients and allow them to go off medication for months.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9629563/Chinese-scientists-created-COVID-19-lab-tried-cover-tracks-new-study-claims.html

    WNU Editor: The above two researchers are world renown and their research needs to be examined. It is unbelievable to me that major scientific journals did not want to publish their work until recently. But on a positive note, this tells me that we are not only witnessing a 180 reversal from the media, tech companies, and political leaders on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, but within the scientific community as well.

    I say it is about time.

      1. Long story short, we are injecting people with a toxin which is the spike protein. Dr Bridle using peer reviewed science confirms that Dr Mike Yeadon was correct.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sis1Sddzbqk&feature=youtu.be

        Dr Bridle is an associate professor and viral immunologist in the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Guelph. His research interests include developing a better understanding of how the immune system responds to viral infections as well as designing immunotherapies for the treatment of cancers and infectious diseases.

      2. Together with toxic exposure to various chemical substances in our environment (herbicides and pesticides), the human immune system is known to turn against itself. To then weaponize our immune system with the capacity to produce its own spike protein is madness. As someone who has suffered from an auto-immune illness for the past decade, I would not wish it on my worst enemy. But here our government authorities are risking such a reaction by injecting hundreds of millions of people with a vaccine that has not been tested as it should have been. I hope they know what they are doing. But then, without a decade of proper testing they cannot know, can they? By definition, the authorities are using entire nations as test subjects. If this is not wrong then what is? On its face, it is monstrously irresponsible.

  7. What Is India’s Real Covid Death Toll?

    The true coronavirus death toll in India could be as many as 1.6 million compared to the official 310,000 fatalities reported, experts fear. Last week the virus-ravaged Asian nation recorded around 4,500 deaths in one day, the biggest daily toll of any country during the pandemic

    Daily Mail: What is India’s REAL Covid death toll? Experts say as many as 1.6 MILLION people could have died as the country’s health service buckled

    * True Covid death toll in India could be as many as 1.6 million, experts say

    * Conservative estimate by New York Times is 600,000 – double the official toll

    * The worst-case scenario could be as high as 4.2 million in major undercount

    The true coronavirus death toll in India could be as many as 1.6 million compared to the official 310,000 fatalities reported, experts fear.

    Last week the virus-ravaged Asian nation recorded 4,529 deaths in one day, the biggest 24-hour toll in any country during the pandemic.

    But an analysis by the New York Times suggests the number could be at least double the official figure, at 600,000 – sparking concerns of huge under-counting.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9622963/What-Indias-REAL-Covid-death-toll-Experts-say-1-6-MILLION-people-died.html

    WNU Editor: On a more positive note. It appears that India’s Covid numbers are trending downward …. India’s lowest COVID spike in weeks, South Asia records 30m cases (Al Jazeera).

  8. Friends Don’t Let Friends Become Chinese Billionaires

    a Chinese billionaire dies every 40 days…unnatural deaths have taken the lives of 72 mainland billionaires over the past 8 years…15 were murdered, 17 committed suicide, 7 died from accidents and 19 from illness. 14 were executed. (Welcome to China.)”

    Which means that if you’re one of China’s 115 current billionaires, as listed on the 2021 Forbes Billionaires List, you should be more than a little nervous.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/raykwong/2011/07/25/friends-dont-let-friends-become-chinese-billionaires/?sh=3e580e3e2dda

    1. Wade, the article you cited is from 2011. Maybe we should do some research on the billionaires since 2011.

      1. I seem to recall that even being admitted in the backstory of one of the ”Bourne” movies. Every Modern Nation-State has a ”Deep State”, a ”National-Security/Military-Industrial Complex” tied in with an Oligarchy of Elites, who rule their Nations behind a screen of hired political and economic-technocratic managers. It’s called ”Synarchism”, and it works… For them, anyway.

  9. Jeff, not sure if you can comment, this post illustrates one of the comments from the people who took part in the interview where the Hong Kong Independence Party Members were present. This is from a group called Stand with Hong Kong asking for democracy in Hong Kong under Chinese Communist Party Sovereignty. I believe in the interview the group Stand with Hong Kong was discussed and members of the Hong Kong Independence Party see the group Stand with Hong Kong as controlled opposition:

    https://www.facebook.com/standwithhk/posts/1218075955289737

  10. Jeff, in the interview you got interrupted by Nevin when you were telling the story about, when you were young, some Communists took you to dinner, assuming you were one of them because of your interest in their ideas. You said they told you they needed “some sort of commitment.” How did you respond to that? The story got cut off at that point.

    1. It was an older lady who took me to lunch. She was a communist. I put her off during the lunch, but as we were walking back to the Social Science Tower I told her that I could not make a commitment because I did not believe in Marxism.

    2. Hello Gretchen: Thanks for listening to the interview and my sincerest apologies to you and Jeff for the interruption. Hope you continue to listen to my future interviews with Jeff.

  11. Jeff can you tell me what do you think will happen next year or in this year? Things are nearing their end and the strategy is in its last phase so what do you think will happen and when?

    1. Something is happening soon. Russia is not renewing visas for Americans and the U.S. State Department is advising Americans to leave Russia by 15 June. With all the military preparations in China, plus trouble in the Middle East, a war could be coming. The United States is in a weakened state. Watch events closely after 15 June. Watch for an economic crisis or events that might trigger mass economic panic.

      1. absolutely, as putin once said, if a fight is inevitable then always strike first. and thats whats going to happen, the world is going to flip upside down so suddenly and so violently and things will be over before anyone has time to understand, and i dont think that the americans will understand even if they wanted to.

      2. I hope that the Russian leadership are as hyper-cautious as they have seemed to be in recent years. I am told by sources that China is pushing for war and Russia is somewhat reluctant. I hope this is true and Putin’s cold feet stops the process. But the global situation is nearing destabilization. That means any country can get into deep trouble very fast. America and Russia each have serious problems. But China is the scary one right now. Such serious problems! And such a crazy system of governance! As Harry Wu said, the CCP leaders are “murderers.” These are the people who could trigger a global calamity, and we empowered them. The stupid Americans opened the door to this. Now we cannot close the door.

      3. According to your sources, what kind of war is China pushing for? Simultaneous attack on Ukraine and Taiwan, or the full on assassin’s mace on our heads?

      4. Last May/June I was receiving information from multiple sources about a planned war. They had no timeline and few specifics. One source, originating in an Asian communist country, said that events would unfold “toward thunderous war” in which Russia and China would fight the United States. The reasons for this were vague but, in context, might have been related to the virus coming out of China. No other details were given, except that bloc countries were advised to keep part of their leadership in bunkers at all times as if some kind of retaliation might be expected at some point.

      5. Jeff, would it be possible for you to provide a source for the claim that Americans are being asked to leave Russia by June 15? I couldn’t find it on the state department website. Thank you.

      8. “If you are a U.S. citizen present in Russia and your visa has expired, we strongly urge you to depart Russia before the June 15 deadline set by the Russian government. If you plan to remain in Russia past this deadline, please visit your local Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) office to start the necessary paperwork as recently suggested by MVD.”

      9. Jeff i don’t think russia is reluctant at all, i hope you understand that putin is only a figure head of the party, he doesnt do what he wants to do, its the party that decides everything, and he is part of the party.do not forget about the strategy of 1960. this is its culmination, if anything putin is accelerating. do not think ukraine is western ally, ukraine is still ruled by communist party. the maidan is controlled from the beggining just like prague spring and the so called collapse of ceaucescu communist state, it was violent but it was controlled and it gave legitimacy to perestroika. jeff i know its hard but no emotion or bias for good analasys. what coming is unavoidable and inevitable . the west as a whole is nearing its end and we are here to see it

      12. Wow! That really does look serious. Thank you for the references Jeff.

      13. I talked to a friend with connections in the State Department. He said that for some reason they are expecting trouble in Eastern Europe by mid August. Not sure why. People with security clearances are being guarded. I sense real anxiety.

  12. My AmbGun review of a Chinese optic has the worst likes to dislikes ratio of all of my videos. And coincidentally thereafter my channel’s exponential growth flattened. Disappointed that so many Americans defend Chinese products even those with a martial purpose.

    https://youtu.be/9pNWaQFJ8oQ

  13. See Chris Martenson’s Peak Prosperity latest YT video, he was on top of things a year ago

  14. Mr. Nyquist, some of what you and Mr. Gussack are saying is interesting from another angle; some nations want war because their intelligence agents feeding their leadership information are entirely lacking in common sense (as you say), they come to believe that it seems that it should be so easy to roll over another country or three. easy victories, little blow back that cannot be handled, the right people make a lot of money. Nobody has suffered much from war back home.

    Other countries know war, and don’t have the luxury of stupidity, having faced an existential crucible and come out of it with a keen sense that if one must have a war, one must devote every resource to absolute victory. No weakness in themselves or their potential enemies is overlooked, no strengths downplayed out of some prejudice or cultural bias. Never again will the risk be taken that another world war results in extinction.

    What happens when two power blocs with these contrary attitudes, roughly equal in strength, come into contact?

    1. There is no two blocs the us and its allies have been infiltrated to the bone and its citizens subverted, Russian agents roam freely in western countries knowing that they have crippled the western intelligence services to the ground, the only reason Russia and the china, Iran, nk, haven’t nuked the US yet is because theyre still sucking free money from them, but its going to be really soon, so soon that most people wont know what hit them. the Russians have mastered deception do you really think they’re the 11th in terms of GDP? or that they cant armatas and su57s? do you think they just waste billions on developing tanks and planes just so that they don’t produce them? do you think Russia has unrest?do you think that Ukraine,Georgia,Armenia etc really is aligned with the west and against Russia? if you think so youre badly mistaken , the soviet countries are all without exception still communist they have managed to infiltrate nato and the EU the bases near russias borders are a godsend once the war starts the host countries will just capture them and poof most of you bases in europe have fallen to the russians in hours. people think that the closer the bases to russias borders the better its the other way around, if these bases were in france for example the only way to destroy them would be through nukes or precision strikes, but if you lure the nato to move the bases to the Ex soviet countries then you can easily take them with your allies . as for ukraine its a trap for the west so is the nagorno karabakh war for turkey. as for navalny he is a kgb agent and so is every party in russia , also putin isnt the sole leader of russia the true leaders are the ones you dont see, the politburo, the central comittee ,

      1. I once asked Colonel Stanislav Lunev what the logic was in the timing of a future war against America. He said, “When they have taken all the money and technology they can get out of you.”

    2. Leaders often think they are choosing to start a small war when they are actually choosing a big war. Sometimes leaders are trapped by earlier choices. To understand the consequences of a political act is not always easy. The present world order is a house of cards. It stands for now. But for how much longer?

      1. Sometimes too it can be better for peace if a ”house of cards” world order is reshaped by responsible and good men, honorable and patriotic leaders who do not value foreign adventures. We just need those righteous men, perhaps collective repentance, humility and prayer can avert cataclysm.

  15. Mr. Nyquist, in response to bringing up the history of the Greeks and the Parallels with today, you said;

    ”The emptiness of grandiose scheme finally comes into view. Depressing! ”

    It is. It reminds me of that poem by Shelley, ”Ozymandias”, where what is represented by the statue is seemingly quite dead;

    ”I met a traveller from an antique land
    Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
    Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
    Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
    And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
    Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
    The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
    And on the pedestal these words appear:
    “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
    Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
    Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
    Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
    The lone and level sands stretch far away.” ”

    But also of Alexander Puskin’s ”Bronze Horseman”, with Tsar Peter’s statue in St. Petersburg, and what it represents (the same force as the statue of ”Ozymandias”) is really very much ‘alive’;

    http://www.tyutchev.org.uk/Download/Bronze%20Horseman.pdf

    .”…Darkness filled His eyes. The prey of passions blazing Within him, he stood sullenly Before the royal effigy; And quivering with fury, raising His fist, as if compelled by some Dark force to blind, impulsive action, He hissed through teeth clenched in distraction: ‘You … builder of grand schemes! I’ll come And get you!’ –and then ran off, numb With terror from a sudden vision: He thought the fearsome tsar had turned By slow degrees his face, which burned With righteous anger and derision …And through that dark, deserted square Yevgeny ran, and was aware Of cumbrous hooves behind him pounding The roadway, crashing and resounding Like thunder in the still night air; For after him, with arm extended,The Bronze Colossus on its steed Charged at the gallop and offended The moonlit calm with its stampede.And then, no matter where he wended His way, he found that all night through –Poor, hapless wretch –he was attended By bronze hooves beating their tattoo….”

    Alexander Pushkin, the Shakespeare of Russia, was in fact the grandson of Tsar Peter’s Ethiopian personal man-servant, Hannibal, who had married a Russian woman, settling far from his African home…

  16. Such a good discussion. Good to see Jeff “in person” after so many years. I ran into Jeff in 2000 on the old LibertyWorks Radio Station where he did a coast to coast news hour with Betsy Gibson. I looked up articles he suggested, and I bought most of the books of the authors he suggested. He is spot-on with everything he knows and discusses. I read everything he writes. I see his picture of the world unfolding in the world today.

    1. You remember my show with Betsy. Wow. That was a fun show that we started almost 22 years ago. The late Barry Farber helped us a little with that. Nice that you remembered. It has been several years or more since I talked to Betsy. I think she lives in Georgia now.

      1. The late Great Army Veteran, who spoke 13 languages (including Serbo-Croation): Barry Farber provided me with my primary education (in No Uncertain Terms) on the True Nature of the Communist Slave Masters and their World Wide Slave Empire.

        I was glued to his radio broadcasts.

        Barry Farber truly opened my eyes to the Harsh Geo-Political Realities regarding Communism. He trumpeted the Virtues of America.

        My unapologetic, Take No Prisoners, No Quarter Asked…(And No Quarter Given) style of discussing and debating Marxists and Communism was Barry’s standard approach and it is what I learned from Listening to Barry Farber.

        Barry is Missed.

  17. also jeff i think the last russian mobilization was just a cover for a wayyy bigger mobilization

    1. The recent mobilizations were billed as training. They were rotating troops in and out. What makes you think a larger mobilization is coming? Also, what do you know about Russia asking all undocumented workers to leave Russia by 15 June?

      1. Most of those would be from the Central Asian countries, of whose citizens there are many in the larger cities and towns.

      1. APPARENTLY, THIS NEW VARIANT FOUND IN VIETNAM IS A CROSS BETWEEN THE BRITISH & INDIA VARIANTS. IT IS A CROSSBREED MUTATION. THE NEW VIETNAM VARIANT HAS BEEN FOUND TO BE SUPER CONTAGIOUS CAN REPLICATE ITSELF VERY EASY.

      1. Perhaps Luka is playing a double game between East and West. And, he is aware that in the Great Patriotic War, Byelorussians lost more people than any other Russian land, over 1 out of every 3 people died. The principle of ”Pamyat”, the ”Memory”, is a very important one to many people there, still. Consider too that the gentleman taken off the plane is said to have been a Neo-Nazi who fought in the Donbass. Who knows? Lots of games being played, and this could well be one of them, a political stunt of some sort.

  20. Excellent interview! I am looking forward to the rest. In the years you recall (85-89), I was in junior high school. I had a teacher who told us that we were a socialist country like the Soviet Union, and we took care of our citizens as they did. Interestingly, only a few years previously, I had been crying myself to sleep for fear of Andropov. I’d say they were getting to much younger children in elementary grades in very subtle ways at the same time, or possibly many years before (I have read Bella Dodd and listened to her recorded testimonials from the 50s). My children are learning at home now, and I am switching to a classical curriculum next year. (I am planning for
    the future, regardless of what happens.) Was it Plato who said the purpose of education is to light a fire, not fill an empty vessel? We need to ask ourselves first, what is the truth?

    1. I applaud your decision to homeschool, but I would caution you about falling into the trap of disdaining “mere facts,” ie filling an empty vessel. In more than a quarter of a century of work in the charter school arena, I have concluded that “our people are dying for lack of knowledge.” Facts are stubborn things, and a solid foundation of them has saved many a person from succumbing to demagogy and ideology, which often appeal to the emotions (lighting a fire) rather than to reason. Where would Jeff and Nevin be without their staggering accumulation of facts, to which they have brought to bear the faculties of analysis and synthesis, bringing out things both old and new? Consider what Cardinal John Henry Newman, often considered the patron saint of classical education, had to say: “[A] boy’s business when he goes to school is to learn, that is, to store up things in his memory. For some years his intellect is little more than an instrument for taking in facts, or a receptacle for storing them….and little does he make his own in a true sense of the word, living rather upon his neighbours all around him.” And, “Geography, chronology, history, language, natural history, he heaps up the matter of these studies as treasures for a future day.” Finally, there is this snapshot of what Newman would regard as a good education:
      “Consider…what a discipline in accuracy of thought it is to have to construe a foreign language into your own; what a still severer and more improving exercise it is to translate from your own into a foreign language. Consider, again, what a lesson in memory and discrimination it is to get up, as it is called, any one chapter of history. Consider what a trial of acuteness, caution, and exactness, it is to master, and still more to prove, a number of definitions. Again, what an exercise in logic is classification, what an exercise in logical precision it is to understand and enunciate the proof of any of the more difficult propositions of Euclid, or to master any one of the great arguments for Christianity so thoroughly as to bear examination upon it; or, again, to analyze sufficiently, yet in as few words as possible, a speech, or to draw up a critique upon a poem.” The emphasis is entirely on the mind, not on the emotions, or whipping up enthusiasms. The latter element crept in with the romantic movement and dominates progressive education.

      1. The mind must have knowledge. In my recent conversation with the leaders of the Hong Kong Independence Movement, they regretted that young people in Hong Kong were not sufficiently knowledgeable about history. This knowledge was critical, they said.

    1. The Russians posture to support the right as the Chinese support the left. This is not competition in the normal sense, but a coordinated scissors strategy.

  22. For several decades, Hong Kong has been thoroughly immersed in the same kind of global civic education, devoid of real content but heavy on socialization, that has its roots in the United Nations and has infected schooling in the U.S. It was amazing to me that there was still enough visceral repugnance to this kind of indoctrination among Hong Kong students for them to push back at all.

    Of course they don’t know history. The teaching of history is the first casualty in this regimen.

    1. In the Hong Kong schools they have actually brought in Chinese nationalism in its communist-guided form. This is what I am told.

      1. This research paper would suggest what you say is true. A few quotes:

        “The Guidelines on Civic Education in School (DCC, 1996) published in 1996 also emphasized human rights education, education for democracy, education for the rule of law, national education, global education and education for critical thinking (Leung, Chai & Ng, 2000). [Global education and education for critical thinking are buzzwords for the U.N.-type education template.] Nevertheless, there were requests from local people and pro-China officials in Hong Kong pressing for more national education. A number of research studies revealed that the knowledge of Hong Kong pupils about China was very limited, “civic attitudes” towards China were low and the sense of being a citizen of Hong Kong was much stronger than the sense of being Chinese (Lau,1997; Wong & Shum, 1996; CDC, 1995).”

        “The New Focus for Citizenship Education: Nationalistic Education

        “The promotion of national education has become a central element in curriculum development since 1997. Soon after 1997, government circulars were issued to remind schools to raise the national flag on significant occasions and to use national symbols (Lee, 2008). The first Chief Executive, Tung Chee-hwa, highlighted national education and patriotism to develop a nation identity and called on the community to work together to foster patriotic Chinese citizens. A set of new curricular guidelines replaced the 1996 version, with the express purpose of helping children and teenagers become “good citizens”, shouldering duties and obligations of the individual to society, having virtues associated with traditional Chinese culture and values, and having a strong attachment to ethno-cultural nationalism (Morris, Kan & Morris, 2000; Tse, 2007). In 1998, the Curriculum Development Institute established a working group examining China-related elements in the curriculum and completed a report, China Elements in the School Curriculum: Curriculum Examination Report (CDC, 1998) suggested an increase in China elements in subject contents. A National Education Center was also established under the management of a pro-China education body, the Federation of Education Workers, in 2004.”

  23. Mr. Nyquist, you had asked me on the previous article comment section if there is a relation between the ”Old Believer” traditional Orthodox Christians and the ”Old Calendar” Orthodox Christians, both so-called. Old Believers (and there are different groups, whose positions depend on their assessment of the severity of the situation the world and Church is in) are mainly Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, etc.., but groups do actually exist around the world, with missions in different places for other peoples. They hold to Orthodoxy Christianity in their view entirely without innovations and novelties, even of a liturgical sort much less theological ones. ”Old Calendar” traditional Orthodox Christians do not accept the revised Julian calendar of the 1920’s and a number of other more modern novelties and errors such as Ecumenism and Liberalism. Both have groups that have had talks with each other, and both movements have smaller groups of people who are in some kind of relation with the larger ”official” churches of Orthodoxy. Others are so far out that they themselves stumble and become weird Heterodox cults.

    Historically in periods of great schism and heresy, the Orthodox Church can take a rather long time before they fully anathemize and cast out innovators. Such periods usually happen because the innovators, the heretics and schismatics, are in political power over the true Orthodox, and it takes time for us to restore what is broken and heal the apostasy from our midst.

    As I said, I sympathize with such groups for a whole lot of reasons, but am not prepared at this time-lacking the competence and very wary of spiritual pride and deception-to jettison myself from the many millions of the ”Official World Orthodoxy”. I trust and have no doubts whatsoever in the promises of Christ towards what we regard as His Church.

      1. Hmm, interesting to me that today is the feasts of the fathers of the seven ecumenical councils, and of Saint Prince Dimitri Donskoy, who defeated the Golden Horde at the great battle of Kulikovo, blessed by St. Sergius of Radonezh…

        Yes, there is a trend of a broad sort across all modern nations, both consciously promoted and also absorbed as if by osmosis through the air (waves), the errors and other problems raised by Modernism. One of the differences between the Latins and Orthodoxy being that with Orthodoxy, there is no real disagreement on theological matters, especially with the laity and a majority of the clergy. De facto Schism and Canonical irregularities are far more common than outright error. With Rome, all one needs to do to make the Roman belief change directions is capture the Papacy, the ”fish rots from the head”. The Old Believers by contrast survived for over 200 years without Bishops, before canonically renewing their whole Orthodox Heirarchy when a Greek Bishop of Sarajevo (forcibly retired by the Turks) consecrated several new Bishops on his authority in the emergency situation.

        If a Bishop or group of bishops fall away, priests and laity even, as long as there are true Orthodox the Faith flourishes elsewhere. When Constantinople fell (we recently reflected on the anniversary of it’s fall a couple days ago) in 1453 AD, Moscow and the Russian people were ready to take up the tasks of the Roman Empire and of Orthodoxy.

    2. Vladimir, You might be interested to know that the old-time religion as first setup by the Lord Jesus Christ has been restored. I refer you to:

      https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/the-restoration-of-the-fulness-of-the-gospel-of-jesus-christ/a-bicentennial-proclamation-to-the-world?lang=eng

      I can further testify by the power of the Holy Ghost of the truth of Ephesians 4:11-14. That Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, etc., are in said Church and are operating and receiving truth and revelation today.

      https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/eph/4?lang=eng

      1. God forbid. It is just more Cacodoxy, not the Apostolic teaching passed down unbroken from Christ Himself.

  24. Gretchen, thanks for your kind words. I have written a series of articles (unpublished) in which I examine the so-called classical Christian education movement, with some specific attention to the Catholic liberal arts renewal subset because I am a Catholic. This movement took off about thirty years ago as a reaction to mainstream education and what it repudiated as its vocational and utilitarian character. My analysis contends that 1) the contemporary mainstream education template, enshrined in the Common Core, did indeed bill itself as a practical program for promoting “workplace readiness,” but in reality was an indoctrination program for molding students through “social and emotional learning” into docile, ignorant, globalist subjects. And 2) that the classical Christian movement unfortunately was in many respects a mirror image of the Common Core. The emphasis on emotion over reason, highlighted in my earlier post, is just one of these mirror image elements.

    1. Deborah, you made the argument so beautifully, especially with the insightful quotes from the cardinal. I’m a former schoolteacher, and I was impressed.

  25. In response to Mr. Nyquist, not ”ignored”, but rather the Old Believers (those who believed that priests and bishops and the sacraments can and should be maintained in these times) had to search the world over for a Bishop or Bishops who would hold to the Old Believer Orthodox Christian traditions and start consecrating other Bishops and ordain Priests. In other words, maintain the Heirarchy as they see it should be.

    In keeping with the feast day of Saint Dimitri Donskoy, I thought it proper to show a link to a children’s show in Russia about the battle of Kulikovo, let me know what you think (British English dubbing);

  26. The principal duty of the pope is to preserve the deposit of faith and instruct the faithful to know it and observe it. The pope cannot “change the faith.” A bad pope can betray this charge, and he and the hierarchy can corrupt the visible church, but he cannot change the faith. I attend a parish which sounds very much like what Vladimir describes; it is full of believers who utterly dismiss the scandalous statements and actions of the present occupant of the papal chair and do not engage in the error of “papalotry.” That plenty of Catholics have been betrayed by corrupt teaching is a tragedy and a sin for which those responsible will face God. Furthermore, there is a sizeable portion of faithful Catholics who do not believe that the present occupant is the validly elected pope, and there is a variety of arguments for this view, including the canonically incorrect formula used by the previous pope to announce his resignation. If true, it would explain a lot.

    1. This is a fairly pithy encapsulation of the traditional roman catholic position or positions, to be sure. I guess I should have looked closer at what Mr. Nyquist was asking me, about traditional Orthodox basically ”ignoring” the official Heirarchy. Basically the classic solution in any vigorous traditional Christian community has been in fact not only ”ignoring” such heretical and schismatic clergy, but anathemizing them and replacing them with clergy more worthy of the offices which are held. The Orthodox typically (and it’s become formalized) cry out ”Axios!” when Clergy are ordained, when in origin the cry could also be ”Anaxios!”, or ”he is not worthy!”

      The problem with any Church that claims to be such, the Church established by Christ that has Apostolic Succession, is that replacing heretics and schismatics has to follow Canonical rules established over the centuries. In Orthodoxy today, some Bishops would have a dubious or problematic Canonical status because of the 3rd Canon of the 7th Ecumenical Council;

      ”Every appointment of a bishop, or of a presbyter, or of a deacon made by (civil) rulers shall remain void in accordance with the Canon which says: “If any bishop comes into possession of a church by employing secular rulers, let him be deposed from office, and let him be excommunicated. And all those who communicate with him too.””

      And furthermore the Apostolic Canon footnote cited by the previously mentioned Ecumenical Synod Canon;

      ”If any bishop makes use of the rulers of this world, and by their means obtains to be a bishop of a church, let him be deprived and suspended, and all that communicate with him.”

      Obviously, a pretty big deal, using or being used by the powers of this world to gain a spiritual leadership position. And so the question remains in the spiritual world as in the political; just how bad is the situation? And how long has the situation been running amok, out of control?

      This is why people are tempted to underestimate how bad things are, minimize the issues, ignore them, maybe it will go away. Although there are souls who go the opposite extreme, the natural inclination is to pretend that there isn’t a problem. Most of us love peace and quiet, lack of contention.

      1. This is an interesting discussion which raises many questions we all are facing in terms of spiritual leadership, legitimacy and what can be done in practical terms.

      1. The present apostasy of the Church has been prophesied both in Scripture (“But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith…) and in apparitions, both approved and not approved. At Garabandal, for example, Our Lady in her second message in 1965 told the young seers, “Before, the cup was filling up. Now, it is overflowing. Many cardinals, many bishops, and many priests are on the road to perdition and are taking many souls with them.” This was long before the bitter fruits of Modernism would become fully apparent to the Catholic world at large. It was also this group of seers who referred to the “return of Communism” in the depth of the cold war, when the pronouncement could only produce bewilderment.

        The “solution” in my opinion and in that of others far superior to me, is personal sanctification. We can only heal and purify the Church by becoming saints.

      2. Indeed, and made worse. For the price of trying to hold to the Old Russian Orthodox Christian faith without change was mass murder (Solzshenitsyn estimated at least 15 million Russians killed for holding to the original ways, over a 300 year period by the Romanov Tsars) and lots of torture; tongues and hands cut off, noses slit, blindings, beatings and whippings, mass rapes, homes burned, entire groups of Old Belief villagers locked into barns and the barns set on fire, people put into barrels with blades or spikes on the inside and rolled, many simply burned at the stake, many other fiendish tortures, exile to Siberia, etc…. Locked out of the Civil Service or Military (except the Cossacks) No civil or religious rights until 1905…And then the Bolsheviks took over in 1917.

        And yet, in every war in which modern Russia needed defending, they fought like heroes for her, right up to the Second Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

  27. Thank you for posting this, Jeff! I have a few questions if you don’t mind. What are some steps we should take to prepare to survive war in the USA/Canada? Do any books or guides come to mind? What books/reading list would you recommend to have a good base knowledge of communism? I know about a few, such as New Lies for Old, but would like to extend my knowledge on the subject. Thank you in advance!

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