There is no right to be stupid. It is not one of the basic rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

Eric Voegelin

What is this business of totalitarians taking over the world? Who are they? Why do they do it? Eric Voegelin says totalitarians are alienated people. A psychologist, who authored a book titled Political Ponerology, says that abnormal psychology is behind it. There is merit in many of these observations. We are dealing with an outbreak of abnormal personalities in the political sphere; that is, people who should never be allowed near political power. And yet, they are drawn to it and nobody stands in their way. Once upon a time abnormal people were persecuted. Today they are “mainstreamed” and celebrated, even elevated. Thus we find strange personalities ascending to power on every side.

In their groundbreaking biography of Mao Zedong, authors Jung Chang and Jon Halliday describe the disappointment Mao felt at the end of his life. It was not enough to have made himself Emperor of Red China. He wanted more – to be recognized as a world leader, as a great thinker, as a god. Mao was extremely egotistic and vain. The authors wrote, “While feeling deeply discontented at having failed to achieve his world ambition, Mao spared no thought for the mammoth human and material losses that his destructive quest had cost his people. Well over 70 million people had perished – in peacetime – as a result of his misrule, yet Mao felt sorry for himself.”[i]

This toxic man craved unlimited self-aggrandizement, feeling no responsibility for other people. Mao was entirely self-involved. The authors noted, “He would cry as he talked about anything he could connect with his past glory and current failure, even watching his own regime’s propaganda films. His staff officers often saw tears flooding down his face, ‘like a spring’ as one of them put it. Self pity, to which Mao had always been prone, was the paramount emotion of the utterly unpitying Mao in his last days.”

It is no odd mischance that Mao’s daughter, Li Na, lapsed into madness. Mao was unconcerned. Another daughter, Chiao-Chiao, had come back to China from living in the Soviet Union at the age twelve. It tickled Mao’s fancy that she spoke Russian. He called her, “my little foreigner.” The child was thrilled at the parental attention, which eventually flagged. Mao tired of seeing her because she was “politically uninteresting.” Being rejected she had a nervous breakdown. While Mao’s oldest son had died in the Korean War in 1950, his surviving son, An-ching, was mentally ill. He was taken care of, but Mao did not care to see him. Mao’s various wives did not fare well in the end. One was left to go insane. Their ultimate fate was of no interest to him. Mao brought misfortune to every one of his family members. Such was his character.[ii]

When we watch leaders who are corrupt, who are egotists, who have no regard for truth or decency or other people, we have to remind ourselves that such are capable of anything – of any and every wickedness. The advent of such rulers today, in so many countries, signifies a period of rising disorder. The old structures of order have largely passed from the scene. These structures included Europe’s warrior aristocracy, the Church, and great cultural figures. All three have lost much of their influence. Today we have celebrities and ideologists.

When Eric Voegelin said that totalitarians represent an alienated milieu, he was offering an explanation. Mao is a perfect example of an alienated person; but so is Joe Biden and other “world leaders.” First, such leaders are alienated from their true (modest) selves, having conceived a grandiose monster in place of the real persons they might might have been. Second, they are alienated from the source of their being. And third, these people suffer from a radical stupidity and live in an ideologically falsified reality. They have no sense of proportion.

Alienated people are addicted to power, though power is an illusion. They self-medicate with power, being drawn to narratives which promise to make them more powerful. The more people die in the process, the more self-affirming the acquisition of power is. Yet, as in the case of Mao, nothing positive is achieved. Mao’s maddest narrative was the Cultural Revolution. One of today’s craziest narratives, aside from the “gender reassignment” of children, is anthropogenic global warming (otherwise known as the Climate Change narrative). It is supposedly a science. A scientist who woke up to the scam of today’s climate change agenda, Judith Curry, has written, “The term ‘climate change’ does not just connote the science of human-caused global warming, but also an entire worldview of society.”

The Climate change agenda is a flanking action of the New Religion (i.e., socialism), a religion that alienated people derive power from. In fact, they sometimes refer to their empowerment and find glory therein. Unfortunately, the climate change narrative is used to justify massive government intervention against essential economic activity and personal liberty. There is even the intention, now and then mentioned, of depriving climate change “deniers” of their right of free speech. Every political question, in fact, takes a back seat for those who claim the human race is about to make itself extinct. As Judith Curry argues, “Climate change has thus become a grand narrative in which human-caused climate change has become a dominant cause of societal problems. This perspective was highlighted on the cover of a recent issue of Time Magazine with the title Climate is Everything. Everything that goes wrong reinforces the conviction that there is only one thing we can do to prevent societal problems – stop burning fossil fuels.”[iii]

Of course, if we stop burning fossil fuels society will collapse. Yet this is what our leaders are determined to do. Their radical stupidity tends toward totalitarian measures, leading to total destruction. Such is the nature of today’s ruling elites (who believe in cutting back fossil fuel use). Andrew Lobaczewski, who described the psychologically abnormal profile of the totalitarian politician, warned that many people spend their lives under the influence of abnormal personalities. Lobaczewski wrote, “When I explained … that they had been under the influence of a psychologically abnormal person for years, accepting her delusional world as real and participating (with perceived honor) in her vindictiveness … the shock temporarily stifled their indignation.”[iv]

When people wake up to being manipulated by abnormal personalities, they do indeed experience shock. Some of them suffer a “disintegration of their human personality” discovering “they have been under the spellbinding and traumatizing influence of a macrosocial pathological phenomenon, regardless of whether they were followers or opponents therof.”[v]

Mao was an abnormal personality who kept his followers spellbound. Now we have abnormal personalities leading us who are even less talented. When history finds itself entangled, the disentangling signifies wars and revolutions, economic collapse and civil strife. This is exactly what we will face if we stop burning fossil fuels to “save the planet.” Global economies will collapse and billions will die. And given the official discouragement presented to the oil industry, we might be approaching a point of no return in the not-too-distant future. Worse yet, Russia and China – along with their bloc partners – will not be curtailing their fossil fuel usage or production. Only the West will collapse in this scenario – which tells the wary strategist all he needs to know about this nonsense. What we have is a subset of the New Religion, which is an old swindle in new form. It is, in essence, the psychopath’s kill shot for bringing down a hated society and an even more hated humanity.

Why does this happen? The alienated man craves power, craves absolutist answers, and is willing to settle for false yet soothing narratives to buttress his angst.[vi]

In discussing these and other problems, I have recorded a program with Alex Benesch in Germany.

My interview with Alex Benesch

Notes and Links

[i] Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story (USA: Anchor Books, 2006), p.613.

[ii] Ibid, pp. 595-6.

[iii] Judith A. Curry, Climate Uncertainty and Risk: Rethinking Our Response (Anthem Press 2023), p. 5.

[iv] Andrew Lobaczewski, Political Ponerology (Kindle edition), at 82 percent.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Eric Voegelin, in a lecture, described alienated man using the following descriptors.

  • Fundamentalism (as defined below by Voegelin)
  • An ignorant Literacy
  • Apocalyptic expectations

Fundamentalist thought, primarily of a secular but also of a semi-religious kind, together with apocalypticism, has led to five centuries of intellectual warfare. Beginning in the sixteenth century we see religious wars lasting more than two centuries, with widespread devastation in Germany, especially; but also in France and later in Great Britain (English Civil War) and Ireland. The Enlightenment was a reaction against this, leading to metaphysical dogmas and ultimately, with the abandonment of metaphysics, to dogmatic political ideologies. In other writings, Voegelin marks a theological break between mystical and intellectual theologizing as characterized by a divergence between the approach of Meister Eckhart versus William of Occam. Voegelin seems to suggest that reason and revelation ceased to work together harmoniously in the emerging culture of modernity. Occam’s nominalism appears to have led to a literalist focus on the physical world, with scientism and apocalyptic socialism not far behind. This formation has led to the radical stupidity of existing elites marked by an ignorant literacy. According to Voegelin, “There is no internal coherence to Western Civilization up to the present. When you have an acculturation … of this order, it is considerably more dangerous than periods of disorder in other civilizations which do have that connection with an original mystical order. We have nothing to fall back on for instances of alienation.” The resulting alienation, where man has lost touch with divinity, is radical. Voegelin sees political ideologies as getting rid of history by falsifying the past. The Soviet state led the way in this process of eradication (loss of memory). “Practically everything that is important in life is removed,” said Voegelin. In fact, the past and history are thought to be meaningless. All meaning is loaded into the future, or the immediate future – also known as the present, which is literalist/apocalyptic and “forward” looking. The great event is expected (the end of history). This expectation is created by the intellectual manipulation of symbols. All hopes based on it are vain.

The-Fool-and-His-Enemy

Subscription to support the site

JRNyquist.blog

$15.00

76 thoughts on “The Totalitarian Takeover, Part I {With Assorted Videos}”

  1. So it seems that the question is about what makes these communists to do such evil things and be so evil, why is it so ?

    Now, why would it matter and what would it change, to know such an answer to this question ? What does it accomplish, if anything ? Therefore more important is to speak about their actual strategies and how to counter them…of course without the essential help from God nothing is possible.

    They all will stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ Our Lord and will have to answer for all they have done, and they will pay for their evils eternally in Hell.

    Thus they have created for themselves a vast overwhelming force which is called controlled opposition, and because of this virtual information blockade the truth about communist plans and evils, and subsequent justice are both cornered and cannot be explained to more people, as this same blockade prevents them from hearing it or rather believing it.

    It is extremely important to publish the truth about these Russian plans, to take over the whole world, to resettle entire nations, to create concentration camps, how these Bolsheviks plan to split entire families, children from their parents, those who are marked as the enemies of the communist “progress”, to re-educate all into accepting this evil nihilistic atheistic philosophy of the devil as the only path of life permitted by those who want to rule everybody’s life, this same Communist criminal Mafia.

    The communists are all possessed by their own denial of the existence of God, by their own ideological consent to the means that always justify the ends, and their fanatical determination to carry them out to the fullest – and they are fully convinced, and their total lack of conscience proves it, that they will succeed in it and that they will rule the world.

    Of course they are mistaken, and they will pay for it at the end, as they are nothing but miserable men who sold their souls to the devil, and that’s why they are so evil.

    The only way to deal with them is to resist them HEAD ON, without the slightest compromise.

    1. Sometimes we can confront an enemy head-on. Sometimes we have to retreat. Sometimes we can attack along an open flank. Because we live at a time of radical and pervasive stupidity, knowing that the elites themselves are radically stupid, bringing us into a dangerous period of disorder, the question of “why” is paramount. How do we find our way back to order? When your car breaks down the first question you have to answer is WHY did it break down? Find and fix the problem. When social order breaks down, you must ask the same question. WHY? When you have the answer you have clarity regarding the means for addressing the breakdown. So the question of “why” is actually important. We cannot avoid it.

      1. That’s the beauty of knowing already why communism is bad, because it has been condemned by the Catholic Church about 187 years ago, even before the 1848 AD Marx manifesto, the encyclical of Gregory XVI Mirari Vos.

        So all true Catholics know the prohibition to become or to join or to approve of, the communist cause, and the penalty is excommunication.

        But certainly, those who are not Catholic, which today is most of this world, such people need to be told why, why communism is evil. Of course that is not the dispute at all, nor is there any other dispute, merely a general statement to the fact, and regarding the proper timing of what needs to be done about this scourge, which is about to become a worldwide evil tyranny.

        In the interview one of the most valuable thing was the fact about Henry Kissinger, and how Mr. Goliniewski was not believed, which is the common ground of all defectors it seems, to the detriment of the western countries, even though there were false defectors sent by the KGB and the subordinates to deceive. But what Kissinger has caused, and how he influenced Nixon, that of itself is the disaster of today, regarding the business connections and dependence on China, because of the fabricated Sino-Soviet split, which was one of the most important and devastating communist operations against the US ever implemented.

        And now they have their man (men) inside the US government, so that their will, the communist cause, gets free pass and even it is being implemented, including the voter’s fraud and such like communist schemes. But nobody honest can claim that they didn’t know, only that they didn’t care or didn’t believe – but they will believe when the time comes.

      2. Communism is a problem, of course. But it is not the only one. The radical stupidity of non-communist elites is perhaps more fundamental. These people have no spiritual sense, no reason, no real regard for truth. There will be totalitarian movements, some of which are not communist. But radical stupidity in Western elites enables them all.

  2. Pingback: Samizdata quote of the day – the totalitarian takeover « Samizdata

  3. That was a really good interview. I could have listened for another couple-few hours. I find it very insightful listening to people from other countries but to hear that the people from Germany on the right and left are falling for the Putin propaganda is so disappointing.
    I read over and over that history repeats itself so I am wondering if there was ever a period in history when a country was this close to the edge and pulled themselves back or is the total destruction of the USA just inevitable?

  4. Among your most thought-provoking essays and video interviews (and most educational). Thank you Jeff. And Alex.

  5. Mexican President Andrés Obrador has invited foreign military delegates like Russia 🇷🇺, China 🇨🇳, Cuba 🇨🇺, Venezuela 🇻🇪 (though a picture of the regiment was not shown in the Outono article*) and Nicaragua 🇳🇮 to participate in the celebratory parade of Mexico’s Independence from Spain. The President was criticized for incoherence in its policy of neutrality, but Obrador defended the invitation anyway saying “All the countries that Mexico has diplomatic relations with were invited”.

    – https://www.outono.net/elentir/2023/09/17/shame-lopez-obrador-invited-soldiers-of-russia-and-other-dictatorships-to-a-parade-in-mexico/

    – https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexican-president-defends-inclusion-russian-military-contingent-independence-103282596

    – *(YouTube video from CNN News18; Venezuela military delegates are shown in 5:49:03)

    1. There were other foreign regiments that participated the event like Brazil, Sri Lanka, Uruguay etc. Even our ally South Korea, its regiment participated in the event.

      2. Well for the ‘neutral’ nations and our South Korean ally (which is under President Yoon Suk Yeol who seemingly supports the sovereignty of Ukraine and also called out Russia’s collaboration w/ North Korea; at least quickly looking about him online), I don’t know why. But for Russia, Red China, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua (including Far-Left Lula controlled Brazil too) participating it? Well…(☭)?

  6. Thank you for you extensive work Jeff!

    Have you come across the ”christian nationalism” movement?

    I was listening to a lecture by William Roach, an apologetic warning about how it is being used in the dialectical war against the US and its constitution. Being used in the scissors stategy against wokeism and all what that brings with it.

    You can find the lecture here on YouTube, or on is site as a PDF:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoyGRxpn1cs

    https://williamroach.org/2023/09/15/christian-nationalism-powerpoints/

    1. This is very interesting. I have encountered Christian nationalism but never examined it closely. Roach delivers a very clear analysis here showing the dangers. We see some common roots of theory in Christian Nationalism with certain kinds of socialism. Thank you.

    2. Like Jeff, I had not looked at Christian Nationalism before. I hope those slides presented an accurate definition of the movement.

      In sum, I can see how Putin is using “Christian Nationalists” as useful idiots to support Russia. Those hypocritical statements on how “Christian” is Russia, and the phony “laws” contra LGBTQ+ publicized in the West, etc., make it sound great to Christian Nationalists as described in the slides.

      One of the slides makes the claim “In sum, Hitler recognized the historical development of Christian Nationalism and used it for his political ends.” What Hitler dealt with was a politically powerful yet majority apostate state (tax supported) church. Because it was majority apostate, the state church as a whole had no problem supporting socialism. All the while, Hitler’s long-term goal was the destruction of all churches. He mercilessly tried to wipe out independent (not state church) churches. This was not the same as Christian Nationalism as described in the rest of the slides.

      “This approach necessarily required the use of transcendental reasoning and the Transcendental Argument for the existence of God.” Not Biblical.

      The slide on “Key Distinctions” provides two contrasting theologies, neither of which is Biblical. They make up a false dichotomy.

      “Two Kinds of Science”? The mere thought of that was ridiculous when I studied science at the university. However, after it was proven that Darwinism could not be science, by definitions of both science and Darwinism, “scientists” have proceeded to muddy, even change, the definition of science so that Darwinism can be called science. Today we no longer have a unified definition of science. (I still hold to the classical definition.)

      “He who is convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.” That doggerel sums up one of the strongest arguments against Christian Nationalism. Conversion according to the New Testament was to be free will, by reasoned argument, not the sword. That requires free speech. We see the sword being used in places like China, where one is free to worship—in a state approved church. I oppose it here.

      1. Putin has been jumping through Russian orthodox hoops for a number of years to give people the impression that he is Christian. Given his lies, corruption, and theft, he is anything but.

        On the other hand, there are many on the so-called right that have bought that lie. In Eastern orthodoxy, it is easy to jump through a few hoops and make a nice pretense. It’s also quite possible to do it as a Protestant. But, as head of state it is particularly easy, and head of the Russian orthodox Church was also a KGB agent as well. So the two share a basic philosophy of life that is inimical to Christian spirituality.

  7. In the Bizarro World of the Marxist Cult… Stupidity is the Solution.

    Applied Wissenschaftlicher Sozialismus is the Scientific Method that Produces
    Maximum Murder.

    “Marx was quite explicit about The Science, which he referred to as Wissenschaftlicher Sozialismus—usually given as “Scientific Socialism,” though the suffix –licher implies that it is more scientific (than science, one might presume). Scientific Socialism is an approach that went on to mischaracterize lowly Verstand science as “bourgeois science,” which in turn led to the unnecessary deaths of possibly more than a hundred million people in the Soviet Union and China. Recalcitrant nature, contra Kelly Oliver, retained its recalcitrance despite the strategery of the Theory.”

    “Strategic theories, Gnostic Theories, turn out only to be good for obtaining power and abusing it, but they cannot deliver Utopia, no matter how many Theorists (Marxian, neo-Marxian, or Woke) spin them in new ways. They cannot remake the broken world into which we have been flung because it is not, in fact, broken in the first place. Vernunft (Theory, usually named Reason) isn’t very reasonable. Socialist Man doesn’t, as it turns out, know better, and he will never be able to reorder the world nearer to his heart’s desire.”

    James Lindsay: The Calamity of Scientific Gnosticism
    https://newdiscourses.com/2021/08/calamity-scientific-gnosticism/

  8. In the Bizarro World of the Marxist Cult… Stupidity is the Solution.

    Applied Wissenschaftlicher Sozialismus is the Scientific Method that Produces
    Maximum Murder.

    “Marx was quite explicit about The Science, which he referred to as Wissenschaftlicher Sozialismus—usually given as “Scientific Socialism,” though the suffix –licher implies that it is more scientific (than science, one might presume). Scientific Socialism is an approach that went on to mischaracterize lowly Verstand science as “bourgeois science,” which in turn led to the unnecessary deaths of possibly more than a hundred million people in the Soviet Union and China. Recalcitrant nature, contra Kelly Oliver, retained its recalcitrance despite the strategery of the Theory.”

    “Strategic theories, Gnostic Theories, turn out only to be good for obtaining power and abusing it, but they cannot deliver Utopia, no matter how many Theorists (Marxian, neo-Marxian, or Woke) spin them in new ways. They cannot remake the broken world into which we have been flung because it is not, in fact, broken in the first place. Vernunft (Theory, usually named Reason) isn’t very reasonable. Socialist Man doesn’t, as it turns out, know better, and he will never be able to reorder the world nearer to his heart’s desire.”

    James Lindsay: The Calamity of Scientific Gnosticism
    https://newdiscourses.com/2021/08/calamity-scientific-gnosticism/

  9. I don’t know about Diana West sometimes. She is certainly quick to defend a lewd Hollywood celebrity against serious allegations simply because he is anti-vaccine and pro-Russia.

    West: “It seems clear that Russell Brand is being publicly executed, media style, for the crime of coming to his senses.”

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/and-about-rusell-89466406?utm_medium=post_notification_email&utm_campaign=patron_engagement&utm_source=post_link&token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJyZWRpc19rZXkiOiJpYTo0ZWEwYzAyYS1jNDUwLTRmZmUtOWYxMS1kMmQwMGJmMTkyYmQiLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo4OTQ2NjQwNiwicGF0cm9uX2lkIjo3MTMxMDI3MH0.zmPf0YAmIH6f_fiuAhSAE6J2foizqWty-xHqO6pZqBs

    Brand is a British celebrity well known for his dazzling verbosity and former promiscuity. He was also a heroin and crack addict. Now he repeats Russian propaganda and rails against the capitalists to his huge Youtube following. He certainly fits the description of a narcissist. The police are investigating the allegations and his Youtube channel has been demonetized.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/19/russell-brand-allegations-latest-news-c4-bbc-live-updates/

    The allegations against Brand came from an apparently comprehensive investigative report conducted by journalists for the Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches over 4 years.
    The allegations were made by four women, who claim Brand committed rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse between 2006 and 2013 – which Brand vehemently denies.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/09/17/the-hypocrisy-of-brand-brand-his-real-addiction-is-power/?WT.mc_id=e_DM206127&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_Edi_New_Sub&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Edi_Edi_New_Sub20230918&utm_campaign=DM206127

    “The most disturbing of these is the accusation of a relationship with a 16-year-old when he was 30.
    As these allegations were about to break, Brand made a video in which he said he “absolutely refutes” the accusations claiming his relationships were “always consensual”. He described them on his incredibly successful YouTube channel as “baroque”.

    …He was celebrated for three years running as Shagger of the Year. Women fell at his feet.
    …The testimony of the 16-year-old girl who claims she was groomed is devastating in its details.

    …Brand was powerful then and is powerful now, as some kind of ‘wellness’ guru with over 6 million Youtube subscribers. He has ‘settled down’, But … he would rather hang out with Alt Right figures with predictable conspiracy theories about vaccines (anti) , Putin (pro) , you name it. His slide from vaguely left to alt right was seamless.
    …Those defending him now are Andrew Tate, Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson, the new #metoo of the men’s movement.”

    1. Yes, I saw the allegations last night on FOX News. Four women coming forward against Brand is significant. The given details are disturbing. My opinion of Peterson, Brand, and others of this group is a mix of wariness and interest. Sometimes they say interesting things, even important things. But sometimes they reveal themselves as spokesmen of radical stupidity. Nihilism is a subtle thing.

  10. The discussion about music is interesting. I notice when I turn on a local radio station, I repeatedly hear ‘Winds of change’ by the Scorpions and ‘Right here, right now’ by Jesus Jones. These obscure songs are about the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and I haven’t heard them in decades since I was a teenager recording them off the radio with my cassette player, playing them, and feeling relieved we would now not be nuked by the Soviets. It’s worth mentioning that said radio station no longer refers to our city by its name, but by the treaty name signed with the natives a couple of centuries ago. They also play the same boring loop of secular Christmas music in December and last year they blanked out the word Eskimo from Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song because we are no longer permitted to say that word.

  11. THE INFO BELOW IS ABOUT THE GUY WHO WAS PORTRAYED BY ACTOR JIM CAVEIZEL I THE MOVIE ‘SOUND OF FREEDOM’. THE ACUSATIONS CAME OUT ON THIS PAST SUNDAY AND THROUGH TO YESTERDAY EVENING:

    Tim Ballard’s Departure From Operation Underground Railroad Followed Sexual Misconduct Investigation

    “O.U.R. is dedicated to combatting sexual abuse, and does not tolerate sexual harassment or discrimination by anyone in its organization,” the organization tells VICE News.

    https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkaqvn/tim-ballards-departure-from-operation-underground-railroad-followed-sexual-misconduct-investigation

    —————————————-

    LDS Church takes down articles promoting Tim Ballard, Operation Underground Railroad

    Removed the same day of Church issuing a statement condemning Ballard for “morally unacceptable” behavior.

    https://www.fox13now.com/news/fox-13-investigates/lds-church-takes-down-articles-referencing-tim-ballard-and-his-nonprofit

  12. “The old structures of order have largely passed from the scene. These structures included Europe’s warrior aristocracy, the Church, and great cultural figures. All three have lost much of their influence. Today we have celebrities and ideologists.”

    By far, the most important of these three pillars of society was the church with its moral authority. Even when corrupted over the ages, it long remained a civilizing force.

    But just as in secular society, when the church became powerful, it became the magnet for people who wanted to make a mark for themselves. Some became known for their silver tongues. The ones most remembered are those who stood out for having unique teachings. The Bible isn’t that big a book, so it’s hard to derive a unique teaching that somebody hasn’t already thought of before, so those who wanted to be remembered corrupted the church’s teachings by importing ideas from pagan philosophers—e.g. Augustine with his neo-Platonism and Thomas Aquinas with his neo-Aristotelianism. Don’t forget that import from Islam, jihad, renamed Crusade.

    The same dynamic happened among Reformed churches—once established, corrupters wormed their way into positions of leadership in their universities and political leadership. In the first decade of the 19th century, a new teaching started in German universities, based on the three pillars of antisemitism (which included hatred of Christianity), evolution and the superiority of northern Europeans. That teaching has gone under several names, most well known as JEPDr theory.

    After churches have become corrupted, some all the way to full paganism, what moral authority do they have left? Many of the small churches in both Europe and U.S. lack the resources for good scholarship, so are left on the fringes of society. We in the U.S. never had great cultural figures, and what’s left of our warrior aristocracy live mostly in the despised South, so what’s left? Especially after the deliberate dumbing down of our education system, following John Dewey and his colleagues? How can the deliberate ignorance not scare us?

    Does a new dark age yawn before us?

    1. There is a golden age before us, the Philadelphian church era, aka the Kingdom of Daniel 2:44, and Daniel 7:18,22. But in the interim will come a brief, but superlatively dark time in the form of the apotheosis of the scarlet system in the western nations, culminating in the worst war in human history with a “great hail” hammering the urban hubs, that is, a nuclear barrage. In 2025, all public witness for the Lord will be silenced in the West through the hate speech laws presently in the bill phase in all the major western countries, but the rainbow flag brigade in the so-called Mega Churches, along with all the other apostate and compromised denominations, will be permitted to carry on (and the Vatican set are included in that – no offence intended to my Catholic friends). When this gagging of the faithful few ministries happens, brace yourself for the world’s descent into the worst turmoil since the dawn of time, starting with a widespread public health emergency, a collapse in the quality of life in the eastern nations, mass civic conflict in the West (perhaps from the wholesale invasion of the West by cultural aliens), an upsurge in oppressive government measures worldwide in a bid to keep a lid on things, followed by pandemonium in the seats of power in the West, then the West losing what economic and geopolitical supremacy it has remaining, and lastly an angry and emboldened East deciding to finally make its move; this is all laid out in Rev 16 in symbolic form, but it will happen and the pieces are plainly falling into place to make it happen.

      As for Jeff’s article, I think it is essential reading for all alarmed conservatives. The atheistic people running the show are indeed psychologically abnormal, or, in old language, “mad” and it is this madness that Satan has not only stirred up in them, but is tapping into to bring everything to a head. He himself is likewise mad; rationally, he knows he cannot win and that all he does shall ultimately bring on further advances for the Lord’s cause, and yet, irrationally, he is a slave to his own destructive and murderous urges. This time that we are living through is his last throw of the dice so he is going to hold nothing back in attempting to stall the coming glorious age. But in so doing, he paves the way for it.

      What is coming in the next few years will be very hard on Christians, but much, much harder on the rest. Pretty much every major city is now a New Sodom and set to receive the same fate as the old; Christians and conservatives need to distance themselves from those areas while there is still a window to do so, not just to evade the coming bombardment, but to get out of the corrupting presence of vile human beings who, increasingly, are every bit as mad as the devils in authority. The time remaining to act is very, very short.

    2. The worst problem with Augustine was not Neo-Platonism but Manicheism. Manicheism was a Persian form of Gnosticism. I have a book on the subject of Calvinism that shows that the system has its roots sunk into Gnosticism. Manicheism has its roots in Greek philosophy and Gnosticism.

  13. I’m glad that you have reiterated the universal systemic failure of Modernity, Mr Nyquist. My approach is more theological one, inclined to a kind of quietism I’ll admit. I don’t try to drive out the devil by the means of the prince of devils, but look at the sinful nature within. That being said, one has the positive duty to fight the external evils. And the primary external evil of this era is Modernity the Zmei Gorynch not it’s multiple heads. I would warn against any too materialistic analysis of the problem therefore except to say that the deception extends to the very nature of consciousness and observable reality itself.

    1. Yes, Vladimir, you are right. The deception does extend “to the very nature of consciousness and observable reality itself.” Most people cannot escape the materialist and/or nominalist assumptions baked into their minds from schooling, or absorbed through entertainment. This is what makes their radical stupidity effective. Materialism even corrupts theological understanding by insisting that everything be understood literally — with few allowances for metaphors or similes, so that spiritual understandings are left in the lurch. What is the relationship between spiritual understanding and literal understanding? That which is literal refers to objects and to prosaic realities. Thus, we are not to utter the name of the Lord in vain; for the word/symbol for the ultimate divinity must not be uttered lightly, or admixed with vulgarity. When a word signifies a transcendental reality, literalism does not suffice. Here we find that the spiritual and the literal are separate categories and should never be confused. Yet we confuse them regularly. And so, the entire subject proves difficult. The modern world prefers the simplicity of physical referents.

      Some academics hold the following position: If we cannot perceive it with our senses, we do not count it as real. This colors their understanding, and cripples them.

      1. Thank you for your reply. Of course I have mentioned before being closest to George Berkeley in what is called ” philosophy”, as I cannot imagine Matter as a self subsistant eternal substance independent of any thinking observer (or, Observer) and their mind. Quantum physics kind of eliminates that old fashioned materialism from scientific discourse anyway, but in the everyday world materialists still act in accordance with those stultified principles. Nominalism is actually an even harder nut to crack, basically practically doing away with Universals and leaving only Particulars. It is of course a failure of the Will first not so much the Intellect, as the person vitiated by sin refuses to examine reality outside the Platonic Cave. Even Plato had this problem though: so it takes a Person from Above to come down and take others by the hand and walk out.

      2. Vladimir: Last year the Nobel Prize in physics when to three scientists who proved that local reality is not primary reality. Many physicists are concerned that the concept of space/time is dead.

      3. Jeff: did you read any of the scientific papers discussing this idea? E.g. from Scientific American? Do you realize that there are two branches of physics, one theoretical and the other experimental?

        For example, for generations physicists worked under the impression based on quantum mechanics that we would never get images of individual atoms, the theoretical physicists told us so. Then an experimental chemist published images of individual atoms. That was about a half century ago. Today individual atoms are regularly manipulated in experiments.

        Lord Russell warned us, “Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.” Keep this warning in mind.

        What is a photon? Do you know? All we have is mathematical formulae that describe its actions. Is it a particle or a wave? Unknown. So here you are basing your whole argument concerning space and time on something known only through mathematical formulae. Yet a Nobel Prize was awarded based on mathematics. Seeing the above, does that make sense? Not to me.

        Yet when I looked at what was supposedly proven through their mathematics, is it relevant when you sit down at the table for breakfast? Or is this an award for what is basically a bunch of mathematical hot air?

        For years now when I see crazy ideas from theoretical physicists based on mathematics, I chuckle and round file them.

      4. Physics has been bumping up against the boundaries of reality for some time now. It is going to get worse as much of what we think we know is going to be called into question. Even parts of Newtonian Mechanics have been affected, from what I have read. I have not had the time to delve into it, but hope to do so in the next year to 18 months.

      5. The claim “local reality is not real” a few weeks ago piqued my curiosity so I started looking into it. (Aside: I understand that your main point was the primacy of the mental/spiritual over the physical and I fully agree with that conclusion. You can quickly get there from a couple of passages in the gospel of John. Modern physics is such a philosophical wasteland that trying to derive any philosophical principal from it is fraught with danger. I highly recommend the book “Not a Chance” by R.C. Sproul – He lays a philosophical axe to the root of several of modern physics’ absurdities.) I found a similar claim in the literature, namely “the universe is not locally real” and I will use that claim as my starting point. The equations are all in space-time, so it would be just as valid to word the claim as “space-time is not locally real”. When the physicist says that it is not locally real, he means that it is cannot be both real and local. (What was actually proved by the experiments was Bell’s inequalities. The claim “the universe is not locally real” is one interpretation of what Bell’s inequalities mean; there seem to be other interpretations, but this is the only one I dug into.)

        What does is mean to be local? If space-time is local, then it means that if two objects are spaced a finite difference apart then they cannot instantly influence one another; in other words, the influence can occur no faster than the distance divided by the speed of light.

        What does real mean? To the philosopher, if something is real it has ontological being, or that it “is”. To be not real means it “is not”, either obviously so or as an illusion. However, that does not seem to be what the physicist means by “not real” – at least not in this instance. What the physicist means is that certain characteristics of a microscopic object, such as position or momentum are not definite, in other words it can have more than one position (or perhaps no position). However, I have not seen anyone question the fact that the object has rest mass or rest energy Of course, if it has rest mass it “is” and therefore is not “not real” from the philosopher’s perspective. (I wonder if a more accurate statement of the claim would be that “the universe is not locally rational”, but since we now have an accurate understanding of what the physicist means by “real”, I won’t pursue that line any further.)

        If it is cannot be both local and real then it has be one of the following: 1) local but not real, 2) real but not local, or 3) neither local nor real. The physicist who claimed “local reality is not real” was going with the first option; this is probably the majority position due to the Einstein’s theory of relativity, but a minority position is that the universe is real but not local.

        The question of definiteness in position, etc, seems to arise from the Copenhagen interpretation of the wave function, namely that subatomic particles are points and the wave function describes the probability that the particle is at a given location. Schrodinger in his initial investigations assumed that the subatomic particles were true waves and that the wave function describes the density distribution of the mass or charge. The Copenhagen interpretation led to Schrodinger’s now-famous Schrodinger cat thought experiment, where he showed that the Copenhagen interpretation – which is currently the majority position – leads to a contradiction, that is, the cat is both alive and not alive at the same time. Of course, the Copenhagen group seems to never miss an opportunity to embrace the irrational, so they embraced the contradiction, called it a paradox, and started parading the Schrodinger cat as a trophy of the “strangeness” of quantum physics. It seems, though, that at least some of the strangeness – as well as the contradiction – goes away when one interprets the particle as a true wave that is distributed in position and momentum instead of a point that has a probability distribution. The interpretation of the particle as a true wave is a minority position among physicists. (I have not seen anyone make the claim and I have not tried digging into the equations, but I wonder if the claim “the universe if not locally real” becomes moot if one interprets the particle as a true wave instead of as a probability distribution, since the particle position and momentum is then distributed instead of a point.) (Aside: the Copenhagen interpretation was made popular by Bohr and Heisenberg. In addition to being famous for his work in quantum physics, Bohr is also famous for the claim that “a great idea is an idea in which the opposite is also a great idea”. One should ask if Bohr’s idea is a great idea – doing so leads to reductio ad absurdum.)

        At any rate, after investigating this and some other offshoots, I have personally gained confidence that when physicists start embracing the rational again, that the concept of space-time will be very much alive and well and the Copenhagen interpretations of physics will go the way of the theory of a flat earth. However, the Copenhagen interpretation has been in vogue for 80+ years, so there does not seem to be much urgency among the majority of physicists for embracing the rational.

    2. Modernism, i.e. the philosophic and social developments of the last half century, also called “post-modern” or “woke”, are de facto a return to the paganism that failed previously. No surprise that it is failing now too.

      As a scientist, I wondered what it was that led to the development of science? Something was different in northern Europe in the way that people thought, different from the rest of the world. No other society developed science. Many had technology, but not a systematic way to acquire knowledge. So what was behind this difference?

      According to historians, it was the Reformation with its literal reading of the Bible. Sure, the Bible has some figures of speech, similes, allegory and similar linguistic uses, but a literal reading of the text allows one to recognize when they are used.

      A literal reading of the Bible also had many other effects on society, not just science. It gives prestige to working at one’s job, with his hands, if it’s an honorable job. Honest business is honored. Universal education is promoted. All these and more were the result of rejecting the allegorical interpretation of the Bible that typified medieval theology changing to a literal reading taught by the Reformation.

      I see all of this being thrown away. And on the street a return to the uncivilized law of the jungle. This is what the latest of “modernism” is coming to.

      https://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2020/01/the-reformation-and-science/

      https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521000963/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkId=0368bcfb60e96cee41748384f56c4283&language=en_US

      1. It’s not fair to the pagans to say modernity is pagan. Modernity is materialist. Ancient paganism was not. At least the pagans believed in a divinity that was a part of Nature, though this concept was superseded with Christianity’s concept of a universal God of Creation. The ancients were not atheists. In fact, Christian philosophy developed out of Greek and Jewish thought. The most successful things in modernity were based on a return to ancient Greek and Roman thinking (i.e., the United States Constitution, modern science itself out of Aristotle, etc.) But the ancient spiritual understandings were very alien to modern folks. Modernity is expedient. So, like robbers, we took some things from the ancients, and left the hard parts behind. We went for egalitarianism and so-called democracy — which the ancients found to be dangerous (as the story of Athens shows). The ancients inspired Columbus in his dream of crossing the oceans. Greece is not northern Europe, of course. Yet Greece gave us many things, centuries in advance. Like science and philosophy. They had technology, but they were not oriented to exploiting it. What caused the Reformation? Widespread literacy and people wanting to decide their own theology, rather than rely on traditional authorities. But did they understand what it meant to break with tradition? Did they know where they would be taking humanity? Now we have created an advanced technological civilization full of dangerous things. Nuclear weapons, AI, mass media, etc. We are now clearly disoriented. Our thinking has been bent to expediency, hedonism, materialism, etc. Enter abortion, feminism, socialism, and a rejection of Christianity. I wonder about the sequence here. Are modern philosophers really wiser than the ancient ones?

      2. Sardian-era believers (which true Christians today are) are obliged to return again to the Reformation, which I take to be the sense of Revelation 3:3, but at the same time, I know almost none will, by the same verse and that accordingly the Lord shall come as a thief in the form of a chastening visitation, which I take to be the imminent silencing of His faithful public ministries.

      3. One reason I referred to the modernity of the last half century and not longer is that much of it has openly returned to the paganism of the past, including spiritualism. The Beatles went to India to visit the Ashram, but now the Ashram has moved to the West. It’s in our public schools. It’s in the newspapers. It’s in common speech on the street.

        Not all of ancient paganism concerned itself with a divinity that is part of nature. For example, Confucianism is functionally atheistic in its agnosticism (don’t offend the people who believe in the local idols). Much of Buddhism is nihilistic. Many of the ancient pagans were atheists. You can’t lump all pagans into the same boat as far as spirituality is concerned.

        But there are some practices that are common among pagans, one of which is a denial of universal moral absolutes. We see this in practice in the pervasive corruption that’s endemic in communism and Islam. It’s also found in Hinduism and Buddhism. It is found in modernism.

        Another aspect of paganism is syncretism. “All roads lead to heaven.” “All truths are true.” even though they may be mutually contradictory. This is one of the central teachings of Hinduism. How can there be clear thinking with such an epistemological mess? The only thing that’s not allowed is the teaching that there’s only one way to heaven, i.e. the teaching of the Bible.

        The Bible stands in stark contrast to ancient paganism, including the paganism of Plato and Aristotle. Jewish thought had abandoned the Bible—already the Maccabean war was primarily a civil war between the “sophisticated” Jews who had accepted Greek religion, including Greek philosophy, and the country Jews who held to the Bible. Philo of Alexandria taught Greek philosophy. The disputations between the Sadducees and Pharisees again dealt with western paganism. The Judaism of the Talmud was not the Judaism of the Bible, rather it is Greek paganism given a veneer of Jewish terminology. Examples include the Platonism of Averroës and Aristotelianism of Maimonides.

        Similarly, many “Christian” philosophers thought they could baptize Greek paganism by giving it a veneer of Biblical terminology. I’ve already named Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Sorry, even after their baptisms, their teachings remain pagan.

        It was widely recognized that the Roman Catholic church had become very corrupt, so when an authority came along that could condemn that corruption, people accepted that authority. That authority was the Bible translated into the vernaculars. The movement that produced those Bible translations was the Reformation.

        After the Reformation, the early scientists explicitly and vocally rejected the teachings of Aristotle. They called his teachings the “pope” that needed to be kicked out of science. They developed the scientific method that is now being rejected by many “scientists”.

        The founders of this country rejected democracy because of the example of Athens, but they also rejected the Platonic philosopher kings because concentrating too much power into too few hands leads to corruption and tyranny. The teaching of the Bible warns against the latter. Modernism is destroying our government.

        Marxism advocates for the philosopher king, only calling him the dictatorship of the proletariat. That engenders a ruthless striving for the top, and only the most evil are able to survive. In that regard, Marxism is pagan too. Because it is based on evil, there’s much corruption even in the lower levels.

      4. Marxism is atheism, not paganism. The Bible does not refer to Plato, and does not discuss political systems except that of Israel, which was a special case. And Israel did have a King. Even a philosopher type of King, named Solomon. You say that Augustine and Aquinas, two of the greatest Church fathers, were “pagans.” Perhaps we should just all count ourselves pagans and be done with this theologizing.

      6. Jeff, I’m Christian because Christianity was not pagan at its inception. It stood in opposition to the paganism of its day. I’m talking about the time that the New Testament was written, ca. 50–100 AD.

        The New Testament is still not pagan.

      8. Jeff: it appears that we two use two very different ways of thinking.

        It appears that you use the way of thinking derived from the Greek philosophers, which looks at form and appearances. In deciding who is a Christian, appearances go by whether or not he claims to be a Christian, or that others claim he is one. In determining what is paganism, do you not make your determination based on certain forms, stated beliefs?

        I know my way of thinking is based on the Bible, which goes according to history and function. A person may claim to be a Christian, but isn’t one because 1) he is ignorant of what it means to be a Christian or 2) he is a hypocrite. He reveals his true nature by his actions and teachings. For example, Putin betrays that he is not a Christian by his actions. Likewise both Augustine and Thomas Aquinas give clues through their actions and teachings that they were not Christians. The same holds true when I look at the functions of paganism. The way of thinking that I learned from the Bible is also the way of thinking used by the science I was taught at the university.

        Is this analysis correct that we use to very different and incompatible ways of thinking? If so, is there any benefit for further discussion?

      10. Look at Augustine’s actions. He threw out large portions of the Bible because of his Platonism, and taught others to do the same. Are those the actions of a Christian?

      11. I’m not willing to say Augustine was not a Chrs9itian. I am, however, willing to say he many times did not act as Christian should. His battle of Pelagius is a good example. From what I have been able to find, Pelagius did not teach what Augustine accused him of. Every time he was allowed to defend himself, he was declared orthodox. Zosimus rescinded his declaration under pressure from the imperial court. Augustine was accused of bribery in the matter.

        Past that, Augustine’s stuff is loaded with error.

  14. We are conditioned by sound bytes. Nyquist is a deep researcher. It is remarkable that most conservatives oppose Ukraine. China and Russia have always been our enemy.
    They produce fruit that is bitter. The stupidity is overwhelming but Nyquist stands tall in the fire fight. Thanks

    1. Thank you for sharing this lecture. Note to others: Download it before it gets subsumed under the search engine.

      1. Mr Nyquist: thank you. As to ” Space-Time” I noted that recently too re: the fear on the part of physicists. Conclusions were made some time before by others, but there is a vested interest by the counter elites to keep people ignorant of all this.

      2. The elites in nearly all Western countries have been poisoned by Marxism, which has “evolved” sexual and environmental narratives to collapse society. The purpose of these narratives is not actually about what they claim to be about. They are about destroying the society — intellectually disarming and destroying it.

  17. Full text: Zelenskyy’s speech to the UN General Assembly
    The Ukrainian president used his 15 minute slot to warn UN members of the dangers of not standing up to aggression.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/20/full-text-zelenskyys-speech-to-the-un-general-assembly
    Published On 20 Sep 2023
    20 Sep 2023

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly in person for the first time since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of his country in February 2022.

    Dressed in his trademark khaki green shirt, he urged member states to come together to oppose Russian aggression and stressed the need for a peace recognising Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

    Here is the full text of Zelenskyy’s speech from September 19.

    I welcome all who stand for common efforts! And I promise – being really united we can guarantee fair peace for all nations. What’s more, unity can prevent wars.

    Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Secretary General! Fellow leaders!

    This hall saw many wars but not as active defender against the aggressions. In many cases, the fear of war, the final war, was the loudest here – the war after which no one would gather in the General Assembly Hall again.

    The Third World War was seen as a nuclear war. A conflict between states on the highway to nukes. Other wars seemed less scary compared to a threat of the so-called “great powers” firing their nuclear stockpiles.

    So, the 20th century taught the world to restrain from the use of the weapons of mass destruction – not to deploy, not to proliferate, not to threaten with, and not to test, but to promote a complete nuclear disarmament.

    Frankly, this is a good strategy.

    But it should not be the only strategy to protect the world from this final war.

    Sign up for Al Jazeera

    Ukraine gave up its third-largest nuclear arsenal. The world then decided Russia should become a keeper of such power. Yet, history shows it was Russia who deserved nuclear disarmament the most, back in 1990s. And Russia deserves it now – terrorists have no right to hold nuclear weapons.

    But truly not the nukes are the scariest now.

    While nukes remain in place, the mass destruction is gaining its momentum. The aggressor is weaponising many other things and those things are used not only against our country but against all of yours as well.

    Fellow leaders!

    There are many conventions that restrict weapons but there are no real restrictions on weaponisation.

    First, let me give you an example – the food.

    Since the start of the full-scale war, the Ukrainian ports in the Black and Azov Seas have been blocked by Russia. Until now, our ports on the Danube River remain the target for missiles and drones. And it is a clear Russia’s attempt to weaponise the food shortage on the global market in exchange for recognition for some, if not all, of the captured territories.

    Russia is launching the food prices as weapons. The impact spans from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the Southeast Asia. This is the threat scale.

    I would like to thank those leaders who supported our Black Sea Grain Initiative, and program “Grain from Ukraine”. United, we made weapons turn back into food again. More than 45 nations saw how important it is to make Ukrainian food products available on the market… from Algeria and Spain to Indonesia and China.

    Even now when Russia has undermined the Black Sea Grain Initiative, we are working to ensure food stability. And I hope that many of you will join us in these efforts.

    We launched a temporary sea export corridor from our ports. And we are working hard to preserve the land routes for grain exports. And it is alarming to see how some in Europe play out solidarity in a political theatre – making thriller from the grain. They may seem to play their own role but in fact, they are helping set the stage to a Moscow actor.

    Second, weaponisation of energy.

    Many times, the world has witnessed Russia using energy as a weapon. Kremlin weaponised oil and gas to weaken the leaders of other countries.

    Now the threat is even greater.

    Russia is weaponising nuclear energy. Not only it is spreading its unreliable nuclear-power-plant-construction-technologies, but it is also turning other countries’ power plants into real dirty bombs.

    Look what Russia did to our Zaporizhzhia power plant – shelled it, occupied it and now blackmails others with radiation leaks.

    Is there any sense to reduce nuclear weapons when Russia is weaponising nuclear power plants? Scary question.

    The global security architecture offers no response or protection against such a treacherous radiation threat… And there is no accountability for radiation blackmailers so far.

    The third example is children.

    Unfortunately, various terrorist groups abduct children to put pressure on their families and societies. But never before the mass kidnapping and deportation would become a part of the government policy. Not until now.

    We know the names of tens of thousands of children and have evidence on hundreds of thousands of others kidnapped by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine and later deported. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrant for Putin for this crime.

    We are trying to get children back home but time goes by. What will happen to them? Those children in Russia are taught to hate Ukraine, and all ties with their families are broken… This is clearly a genocide.

    When hatred is weaponised against one nation, it never stops there.

    Each decade Russia starts a new war. Parts of Moldova and Georgia remain occupied. Russia turned Syria into ruins. And if not Russia, the chemical weapons would have never been used there in Syria. Russia has almost swallowed Belarus. It is obviously threatening Kazakhstan and the Baltic states… And the goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our resources into a weapon against you – against the international rules-based order.

    Many seats in the General Assembly Hall may become empty if Russia succeeds with its treachery and aggression.

    Ladies and gentlemen!

    The aggressor scatters death and brings ruins even without nukes but the outcomes are alike.

    We see towns and villages in Ukraine wiped out by Russian artillery. Levelled to the ground completely! We see the war of drones.

    We know the possible effects of spreading the war into the cyberspace. The artificial intelligence could be trained to combat well – before it would learn to help the humanity. Thank God, people have not yet learned to use climate as a weapon. Even though humanity is failing on its climate policy objectives – this means that extreme weather will still impact the normal global life and some evil state will also weaponise its outcomes.

    And when people in the streets of New York and other cities of the world went out on climate protest – we all have seen them… And when people in Morocco and Libya and other countries die as a result of natural disasters… And when islands and countries disappear under water… And when tornados and deserts are spreading into new territories… And when all of this is happening, one unnatural disaster in Moscow decided to launch a big war and kill tens of thousands of people.

    We must act united – to defeat the aggressor and focus all our capabilities and energy on addressing these challenges.

    As nukes are restrained, likewise the aggressor must be restrained and all its tools and methods of war. Each war now can become final, but it takes our unity to make sure that aggression will NOT break in again.

    And it is not a dialogue between the so-called “great powers” somewhere behind the closed doors that can guarantee us all the new no-wars-era, but open work of all nations for peace.

    Last year, I presented the outlines of the Ukrainian peace formula at the UN General Assembly. Later in Indonesia, I presented the full Formula. And over the past year, the Peace Formula became the basis to update the existing security architecture – now we can bring back to life the UN Charter and guarantee the full power of the rules-based world order.

    Tomorrow, I will present the details at a special meeting of the UN Security Council.

    The main thing is that it is not only about Ukraine. More than 140 states and international organisations have supported the Ukrainian Peace Formula fully or in part. The Ukrainian Peace Formula is becoming global. Its points offer solutions and steps that will stop all forms of weaponisation that Russia used against Ukraine and other countries and may be used by other aggressors.

    Look – for the first time in modern history, we have the chance to end the aggression on the terms of the nation which was attacked. This is a real chance for every nation – to ensure that aggression against your state, if it happens, God forbid, will end not because your land will be divided and you will be forced to submit to military or political pressure, but because your territory and sovereignty will be fully restored.

    We launched the format of meetings between national security advisers and diplomatic representatives. Important talks and consultations were held in Hiroshima, in Copenhagen, and in Jeddah on the implementation of the Peace Formula. And we are preparing a Global Peace Summit. I invite all of you – all of you who do not tolerate any aggression – to jointly prepare the Summit.

    I am aware of the attempts to make some shady dealings behind the scenes. Evil cannot be trusted – ask Prigozhin [the former head of the mercenary Wagner group] if one bets on Putin’s promises.

    Please, hear me.

    Let unity decide everything openly.

    While Russia is pushing the world to the final war, Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that after Russian aggression, no one in the world will dare to attack any nation. Weaponisation must be restrained. War crimes must be punished. Deported people must come back home. And the occupier must return to their own land.

    We must be united to make it.

    Слава Україні! [Translation: Glory to Ukraine!]

  18. The New York Times

    BREAKING NEWS: Breaking News: U.S. will allow nearly 500,000 Venezuelan migrants to work legally:

    The Biden administration will let hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans already in the U.S. live and work legally in the country temporarily.
    Wednesday, September 20, 2023 11:27 PM ET

    The move, announced late Wednesday, followed intense lobbying by New York Democrats before and during President Biden’s visit to New York City this week.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/20/nyregion/biden-adams-migrants.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20230920&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=127946122&segment_id=145281&user_id=c04b5ee9f828b9a8528a5a264bab77fc

  19. THIS IS A MAJOR READ JEFF.

    Inside the Ring: China purges based on Maoist-Stalinist ideology:

    By Bill Gertz – The Washington Times – Wednesday, September 20, 2023

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/sep/20/china-purges-based-maoist-stalinist-ideology/

    NEWS AND ANALYSIS:

    Officials and analysts say the recent spate of purges and disappearances among Chinese government leaders suggest there is growing instability in Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party leadership compound in Beijing.

    But others say the large-scale purges, many within the highest ranks, are not the result of internal political turmoil but part of a carefully orchestrated policy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is following ideological techniques first used by Mao Zedong and Josef Stalin.

    Ely Ratner, assistant defense secretary for Indo-Pacific security affairs, told a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday that the Pentagon is closely watching China regarding several domestic concerns, including potential political instability.

    The list of recently purged officials under Mr. Xi is long, including the publicly televised ouster of former Chinese President Hu Jintao from a major party conference in October; the firing in August of Foreign Minister Qin Gang over what U.S. officials say may have been the fallout of an extramarital affair; the recent disappearance from public view of Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who is said to be under party investigation; and the removal last summer of Gen. Li Yuchao as commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces, China‘s nuclear missile arsenal.

    News outlets including CNN and The Epoch Times said the removals are signs of turmoil within the upper ranks of the Xi government. Other analysts say the removals are standard fare for Mr. Xi, who has emerged as a true-believer communist with unchallenged power.

    John Garnaut is an Australian journalist and China hand who worked briefly for the Australian government in helping identify Chinese influence operations in that country. He gave an internal speech in his country six years ago clearly explaining the ideological roots of Mr. Xi‘s campaign to advance communism.

    The speech was called “Engineers of the Soul” — a term first used by Stalin in describing the work writers and artists were required to carry out. Stalin wrote the “Short Course on the History of the Bolsheviks” that contains the adage “The party becomes strong by purging itself.”

    Mao adopted the same approach after splitting with Stalin’s successor, Nikita Khrushchev, after Stalin died in 1953. The Chinese Communist Party today remains one of the very few in the world that still venerates Stalin, the dictator once called “the great genius” but who has been linked to millions of deaths.

    “What Stalin offered Mao was not only a manual for purging his peers but also an explanation of why it was necessary,” Mr. Garnaut said. “Purging his rivals was the only way a vanguard party could ‘purify’ itself, remain true to its revolutionary nature and prevent a capitalist restoration.”

    Mr. Xi‘s latest personnel moves follow a series of high-level purges carried out shortly after he came to power in 2012. Those ousted early on included rival party regional boss Bo Xilai, Politburo member and security chief Zhou Yongkang, and the two vice chairmen of the People’s Liberation Army Central Military Commission, Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong.

    Mr. Garnaut said the purges were philosophical, not personal.

    “It’s dialectical. And inevitable,” he said. “It’s pushing and accelerating China‘s journey along the inexorable corkscrew-shaped course of history.”

    Mr. Xi in speeches has praised Marx’s theories of dialectical materialism — that all progress comes from struggle — and historical materialism — that world communism is history’s predetermined end.

    Miles Yu, a former State Department China policymaker, said the recent purges within the CCP inner circle conform perfectly to the logic of communist dictatorship. That logic says that “any display, real or imagined, of insufficient absolute loyalty to the supreme leader means absolute disloyalty, which must be squelched without mercy,” said Mr. Yu, now director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute.

    “The history of the Chinese Communist Party is among the bloodiest of all Marxist-Leninist parties,” he said. “What’s surprising is that we should be surprised by it at all.”

    PLA required to study Xi’s ideology

    In a related development, China‘s military announced recently that conformity with communist ideology is being expanded within the 2.8 million troops of the People’s Liberation Army.

    Sr. Col. Wu Qian told reporters Aug. 31 in Beijing that the Central Military Commission, the organ controlling the armed wing of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, published an updated version of “Study Outline of Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military,” first released in 2019. It was published Aug. 1 and distributed throughout the country’s armed forces.

    Col. Wu called the ideological tract “a fundamental guideline for the modernization of our national defense and military and the building of a world-class military in all respects.”

    Like other Chinese communist publications, the study guide has several elements, all labeled with jargon and catchy buzz phrases. For example, the main element of the guide is the “two establishments” — a quasi-religious recognition that “Comrade Xi Jinping” is the core of the party and that the “guiding role” of his ideology is the basis for all military activity.

    The guide also includes “Eleven Clarities” and “Five Insistences” of what it calls “contemporary China‘s Marxist military outlook.”

    One of the directives says that “it is clear” the military must fight and win wars against powerful enemies. Another states that military-civilian fusion is key to modernization. The five “Insistences” include following political guidance and such slogans as “persevere and win if you dare to fight.”

    Col. Wu said an ideological education campaign using the guide is underway within all military units, especially military training groups and service academies.

    “Service members are required to read, study and comprehend the book, and gain a deep understanding of the Eleven Clarifications and Marxist military views and methodology adapted to the Chinese context and the needs of our time,” he said. The campaign will include tutorials on “Xi ideology” and instructs senior military to lecture troops on its contents.

    The PLA has been operating since its formation according to Mao‘s 1938 dictum: “Every communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

    FBI using AI and battling Chinese cyber threats

    FBI Director Christopher Wray said this week that the bureau is using artificial intelligence to boost its counterespionage efforts against Chinese hackers.

    Mr. Wray told a cybersecurity conference that AI is “ripe for potential abuses” from both foreign governments and criminals who are already using the new technology.

    “To stay ahead of the threat, at the FBI, we’re determining how we can ethically and legally leverage AI to do our jobs,” Mr. Wray said. “But we’re also identifying and tracking our adversaries’ and criminals’ uses of AI, while protecting American innovation in the AI arena.”

    Analysts say artificial intelligence — the use of supercomputers and advanced software — can be used in counterintelligence operations to rapidly identify foreign spy operations and cyber activities.

    A major problem, Mr. Wray said, is China: “We’ve been telling anyone who will listen, the Chinese government has been stealing American intellectual property and data for years, and you can be sure they’re not going to stop now and sit back and watch while American companies develop technologies that can change the world.”

    “China already has a bigger hacking program than every other major nation combined,” Mr. Wray said. “In fact, if each one of the FBI’s cyber agents and intelligence analysts focused on China exclusively, Chinese hackers would still outnumber our cyber personnel by at least 50 to 1.”

    “With AI, China is now in position to try to close the cycle — to use the fruits of their widespread hacking to power, with AI, even more powerful hacking efforts,” he said.

    Other cyber threats include hackers from Russia, Iran and North Korea.

    There are indications all four nations’ intelligence services are working with cybercriminals.

    FBI investigators have observed “foreign intelligence officers moonlighting — making money on the side — through cybercrime, or hackers who are profit-minded criminals by day and state-sponsored by night, or nation-states using cybercriminal tools to conduct state-sponsored attacks because they think it gives them some plausible deniability or will hide who’s behind the attacks,” Mr. Wray said.

    2. The doctor in the video said that the Pfizer vaccines were necessary because “our house was on fire.” He has no idea what is actually on fire.

  22. Jeff wrote, “Are modern philosophers really wiser than the ancient ones?” Or are they equally foolish? After all, the modern philosophers use the same thought method as did the ancients, a thought method that leads to the same logical results. One of those results is a split between the spiritual and physical with one emphasized over the other. An example is Hinduism, where the physical is denigrated as Maya, not real.

    Which brings up another question, you have said that you believe that the universe is essentially spiritual. What do you mean by that? Do you mean it in the Biblical and historical sense that God, who is a spirit, created the very real physical universe, and as the creator acts into the space / time physical universe that he created? In other words, there’s no split between the physical and spiritual in the universe? Or do you mean it in the philosophic and Hindu sense that somehow the physical is not really there?

    1. No. Modern philosophers have not used the same thought method as did the ancient Greek and Roman pagans. This is a misunderstanding. The ancient pagan philosophers were coming out of a cosmological/mythic tradition, which saw a unity between nature and the divine. Moderns, under the influence of Christian thinking, envision a transcendental realm and a transcendental God who created nature.

      I do not say the universe is spiritual. I say that the primary reality is spirit and mind. The physical universe is epiphenomenal — being the creation of the ultimate spirit and mind.

Comments are now closed.