Science as Liberal Ideology and a Puzzle Contest

Today a bit of a break from the Straight Red Line series: the line that runs from the Counter-Enlightenment movement of the eighteenth century on to Marx and (National) Socialism, to contemporary Postmodern thought patterns: all branches of Relativism as Multiculturalism, and presently in full development: post-democracy Transnational Progressivism, best described as a neo feudal form of Empire.

First another matter that requires our attention, and then I'll wrap it up with a puzzle contest pertaining to the above. On a first received basis the winner gets a copy of Stephen Hicks' ground breaking book, "Explaining Postmodernism".

America has been dealing with this problem for a some time, now it's Europe's turn: Liberal morality being thrust upon the nations, whether its people share the world view, or not. A clarification is required at this stage, the usual caveats with an added dimension: we are not talking Classical Liberalism or Libertarianism here, the Enlightenment version of laissez-faire, of the scientific variety that operates by empiric investigation and submission to falsification.

Instead the subject matter pertains to the atheist variety of the Counter-Enlightenment lot that has usurped the Liberal title and inserted into it a set of its own characteristics to further the ideological ends: collectivism, anti-reason and socialism, that runs counter to the rational, individual liberty of the original thing.

The usurpation doesn't end there: enlightened science is being used as a means to provide the subjectivist, liberal ideology with a rational coat of paint: it is actually a bit of a dirty trick ... like Kim Jong-il saying he's proclaiming North Korea hence a capitalist nation, while secretly maintaining a plan economy and defending the construct as the only respectable and lawful way to conduct a free market.

At stake: the all important existence of God ... God Must Be Averted and Stamped Out, at All Cost ...!

Subject matter is the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly's draft resolution on the dangers of creationism in education. This institution is one of Europe's impermeable political entities, not to be confused with any of the European Union's agencies, but it bears all the hallmarks of the same pseudo democracy, claiming "pluralistic composition of democratically elected members of parliament" while there are very few citizens that have heard of it beyond the evening news, let alone having voted for any of its members.

Its proud President is Mr Van der Linden, in an earlier incarnation a nondescript backbencher of the Christian Democrat persuasion in the Dutch parliament, got respectability by moonlighting in Brussels corridors of power.

This body of crypto dictators have seen fit to draw up a rag of a Subjectivist Manifesto that is typical of the breed. It lives and breaths liberal morality activism: "The theory of evolution is being attacked ...!" it rants. Yes, this is what you do in science with theories: you attack them in order to see if they can stand up to scrutiny.

But it stands to reason: after 150 years the theory is still unproven and the chances of basic enzymes of life arising by random processes are 1 to 1 followed by forty thousand zeroes! So instead of attacking it, it had better be kept in a velvet coated vault for fear of it desintegrating into sub-atomic particles.

The Discovery Institute just the last few days published an article by David Berlinski that sums up the story of "The Origins of Life" rather nicely: some 17 pages of modern science history and not an end in sight. The author concluding that "We must wait end see".

This is the actual state of the scientific investigation, but the Council of Europe have elevated it to gospel truth and wants to root out all forms of alternative investigation and research: "The Parliamentary Assembly is worried about the possible ill-effects of the spread of creationist theories within our education systems and about the consequences for our democracies. If we are not careful, creationism could become a threat to human rights, which are a key concern of the Council of Europe."

There you have it in a nut-shell: consider the consequences for human rights and democracy if God cannot be averted. I don't propose to repeat the entire rag, but this is not the language of lawyers and it certainly isn't scientists talking: this is sheer activism in defense of the politically correct ideology! We are way, way out of line, at present!

I promised a riddle, a little contest ... okay ... but brace yourselves for this one: the full kit of protective totalitarian raid paraphernalia is required. I'll give you the answer who's quoted here tomorrow. Good luck, here goes:

"while the state can compel no one to believe it can banish not for impiety, but as an antisocial being, incapable of truly loving the laws and justice, and sacrificing, if needed, his life to his duty. If, after having publicly recognized these dogmas, a person acts as if he does not believe them, he should be put to death ... the individual particularly ... is surrendered to a new moral and collective body which has its own self, life, body and will. [In moral society, one] coalesces with all, [and] in this each of us puts in common his person and his whole power under the supreme direction of society's leaders."

The Straight Red Line (3): the Really, Really Usefuls

Continued from Part 2: A Carnival of Fallacies

This is the part of the series where I'm running the risk of sounding like my mother. It is however vital and essential for the full extent of the disaster, to become clear.

The KGB de-moral-ization program - as confessed to in the 1984 interview with former KGB agent and Soviet defector Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov, since released on YouTube - became so successful that the brainwashed generations of 'students' far outlived the existence of the Soviet Union.

This success was due to a number of factors: first there is the subversion of morality, making any kind of behavior, personal opinion, or lifestyle of choice, socially acceptable. The absence of objective reality [1] of either good or bad, true or false, has resulted in the moral confusion that lives on to this day. It is now known as Relativism - moral, cultural or otherwise.

The advance and intensity of the program was greatly helped along by three simultaneous, equally pernicious items of fashion, which may have been part and parcel of the program, maybe not: according to Bezmenov the transcendental meditation rage was not, though the KGB was certainly interested in the possibilities of spiritual and mental vacuity techniques.

The first was the propagation of the use of consciousness (perception of reality) altering drugs, the most 'innocent' of which was cannabis, the most toxic LSD - 'innocent' in inverted commas, as I can attest to a number of fatalities in my immediate circle of operation, directly attributable to the use of these substances.

The second was the spiritual leaning towards Eastern, narcissistic, ego-absorbing mysticism, which could at times reach surreal proportions, in itself also life threatening as meditation tended to induce psychosis in some people, as did the use of the drugs that accompanied it.

And finally there is the pseudo philosophical propaganda emanating from "The Institute of Marxism" at Columbia University, the Communist advanced Polit Bureau in the West, also known as the Frankfurt School. Here's an article by Charles Morse, "The Four Horsemen of the Frankfort School". It is well worth reading in its entirety: the amount of damage due to psi-ops, intellectual and ideological manipulation as effected by these fiends can hardly be underestimated.

With hindsight it is hard to believe this drivel was lapped up by the 'intelligentsia' like fluid space cake. At present we are sustaining a recurrence in the guise of political correctness and forms of Relativist thinking, not the least of which is Multiculturalism, also known as Cultural Marxism. Again laws of nature are being suspended in order to render the masses susceptible to the correct ideological messages.

With the fall of the wall in 1989 these dimwitted psychotics didn't miraculously cure themselves of the subversion at the hands of the scions of the revolution, nor did they disappear into thin air. I am a personal witness to the arrested development of these usefuls: almost none ever changed or moved one iota since they sacrificed their souls on the altar of Marxism.

What did happen, is that they kicked the drug habit (during working days at least), and fixed the do and other overt signs of ultra Leftist affiliation. In short, they became socially acceptable. Then they got themselves a respectable job, preferably in public institutions, local or national governments, (higher) education, social work, media: all the strategic places where they'd be able to propagate and disseminate the Relativist message, taking care always to masquerade it as something innocent for the well-being of humanity, like "immigration is enriching Western society".

These remarkable U-turned careers have advanced to the stages where they are at present: well entrenched, to claim pension in about 5-10 years' time when they'll go pick up the thread as full time ideologues. But for now the usefuls are at the height of public power, somehow managing to wreck three thousand years of civilization within the few decades of their sad existence. This is the extent of the success of the KGB ideological demoralization program.

~ To be continued in Part 4, The Founders: Thanks to Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov we now know that this human time bomb was programmed to commit a massive act of treason ... ~

The Straight Red Line (1): It's the Communists After All

No sooner had I taken mental note of the 'Simon-Peter Says' post on the trepidations of education, the thought occurred to me that the current state of the world is reminiscent of a situation in which a global Communist coup has taken place, and by a wild flux in the time-space-continuum, the press and the public were not informed of the fact: as a consequence we'd all be living a totalitarian nightmare of which nobody'd be aware. The majority wouldn't even notice.

It may be a far fetched thought and a awkward dystopia, yet events are occurring on the grander scale of things that are so bizarre, they could normally only have taken place during the seventies, when due to free reign experimentalism, the abnormal had become the standard.

Hardly had I digested above intellectual exercise, or in a serendipitous occurrence 'Atlas Shrugs' released a nuclear time bomb, strategically set to explode in the early stages of the 3rd millennium A.D. and made in the USSR anno 1975. My mother was either a secret clairvoyant or a very smart woman: in any case she is now proved right after all that the Soviet KGB was doing their damnedest in rendering an entire generation of students susceptible to their ideological subversion, also called ideological demoralization, active measures, psi-ops: stage one in the Cold War of Communism on the free world.

The bomb on 'Atlas Shrugs' is a link to a 1984 interview - Cold War still raging with no foreseeable end in sight - that Edward Griffin had with former KGB agent and Soviet defector Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov and since released on YouTube, spilling the beans on the unheralded success of it all. (I apologize and regret I lack the technical skills to insert it here, so please hit the above provided link.)

Bezmenov explains the psychological warfare practiced by the Soviets and how a generation of baby-boomers is now "totally and irreversibly ideologically demoralized", having an altered perception of reality. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? "Cerebly relativized", I would have said in an earlier stage of the investigation, or "Having had a lobotomy, not remembering the lobotomy", sometimes also disguised as Bush Derangement Syndrome, Projection, Displacement, Delusion or Denial, but always with one chief characteristic: altered state of reality.

That particular generation Bezmanov is speaking of, currently happens to be at the height of their power, being some 55-60 years of age, not yet ready to be pensioned off and alas omnipresent in all echelons of crucial areas in society. The Bezmenov list of fields of occupation sounds uncannily like my own postmodern repertory: government, civil service, media, education and business.

~ To be continued Part 2 A Carnival of Fallacies: It also eerily underscores Bezmenov's commentary that the brain-washed generation has become incapable of coming to conclusions and calculations on the basis of facts, refuse to face reality, are desensitized for factual information, logic, their perception of reality having been subverted by the KGB ideological demoralization program ... ~

Transnational Progressivism: an Inexplicable Presumption

The Transnational Progressivism Alerts for today are for the Central European areas and the Balkan peninsula, as well as for the whole of Northern America and parts of Meso-America, and - oh .... what thee eck ... make that for the whole of planet Earth and the surrounding areas!

Foehammer's Anvil, in "Bush dismembers Serbia" is on to the consequences of the impending Kosovo precedent. In instalment number 5 on the transnational state in the series "Neo-Totalitarianism" we have already seen that " ... it is certain that diplomatically and politically something is afoot. The U.N. does not have the legal power to declare countries independent; nevertheless, if Security Council member and Serb ally Russia doesn't veto ... the U.N. will have done exactly that. It will provide for any other area in the world with separatist aspirations or with an axe to grind, to go the same route".

But, if the whole exercise isn't an adexterous attempt at appeasing Radical Islamism, betting heavily on Russia indeed voting the hazardous plan to Neverland, "perhaps this is the very thing the Transnational Progressive community have in mind ... the gradual end to the mono-cultural remnants of the era of "sectarian war after war, and wave after wave of ethic cleansing", as the latest postmodern propaganda slogan goes."

Foehammer is quoting from a 'Accuracy in Media' (AIM) article by Cliff Kincaid dated June 8, 2007 as follows: "What Bush is doing is laying the groundwork for more conflict and upheaval in the world ... Never before in history has the U.N. presided over the deliberate destruction of a sovereign state. Kosovo represents the religious heritage of Serbia's Christians and many Christian churches have already been destroyed by Muslim extremists there. Taking Kosovo from Serbia is comparable to taking Jerusalem from Israel." Amen!

There is that last aspect too, yes. But in today's 'post-Christian' world who cares for a few antiquated churches and monasteries: old bricks and mortar, and a reminder of the terrible world we inhabited before the advent of postmodernity! We are all interdependent now ...!

Yet the relentless diplomatic push towards an independent Muslim state in Kosovo is indeed "ominous ... If ethnic Albanians can take Kosovo from Serbia, then Mexico can take the Southwest from the U.S., making it part of Mexico or making it into a state or region of its own, separate from the U.S. Indeed, there is a plan to do just that. Bush apparently doesn't fear this possibility because he sees Mexico joining Canada and the U.S. in some kind of ultimate trilateral entity. In this kind of world, there would be a common identity card and people would be free to travel anywhere." Hey, let's rock with this transnational progressivism! Burn your passport, delete the border!

That multicultural and multi-ethnic world of empires people lived in before the doctrine of self-determination, autonomy and the national identity was fully developed, and which since has gone out of diplomatic fashion, is described in the book "Not even my name" by Thea Halo whose mother was a Pontian Greek, father an Assyrian, Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire that - along with Armenians - felt the brunt of the Young Turk and Ataturk's policies of 'Turkey for the Turks'. Armenian Aztag Daily had an interview with the American author; it can be read in "Companians in Suffering".

Which begs the question: can Turkey ever become a worthy E.U. member while in denial over its own history of conquest, submission (dhimmitude) and suppression? Germany and South Africa were brave enough, having completed their psychological processes to come to terms with the past and are the better for it; due to their cultures of shame Japan and Turkey are still struggling with the events, the latter being in a state of denial altogether.

The tone for example in which Turkish Daily News recently reported on the matter of a Greek history text book didn't exactly betray awareness of any sensitivities on the Greek side towards past events that happened on their imperial watch, to say the least.
And neither did Turkish P.M. Erdogan betray any empathy when he told Greek P.M. Karamanlis during a meeting in Vienna last Friday, that "there is a lot of sensitivity (on the part of Turkey) to this sort of issue"; this sort of issue being the unveiling of a monument in Thessaloniki, commemorating the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Pontic Greeks during World War I and in the Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922 at the hands of Turkish forces: it "cast a shadow over friendly relations between the two countries", rang the ultimate chutzpah.

The American author has a good point where she stresses that "... by recognizing the genocides they (Turkey) would resolve some of the other important issues as well. For instance ... you don't have to keep jailing your teachers, publishers, and journalists on this issue ... It's a shame that they can't speak freely and learn what happened in their own country without fear."

"The sad thing is that they lost so much, because the Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians had so much culture there ... vibrancy ... wonderful artisans, intellectuals, teachers, musicians. At the time, there were Europeans who were saying "What in the world will Turkey do without the Christians?" After all, it was the Christians who were the intellectuals and business people, who had the education to help Turkey progress into the 20th century."

"When Turkey got rid of the Christian populations, they set themselves back, way-way back. The general Turkish population was not well educated at that time, because the Turkish government didn't bother to educate them the way the Christian missionaries educated the Christian populations. For the most part, the government wouldn't allow Muslims to attend the Christian schools, for fear of conversion, so most Turks of the time remained peasants and farmers" ... whose grandchildren are currently finding their way to permissive, postmodern, liberal societies and don't seem to be able to get over the culture shock.


As history lessons are gradually erased from school curricula, it is not unusual to find Westerners going through their lives with the false idea that Greek temples, Armenian monasteries and Assyrian churches were built by Turks, unaware as they are of the fact that pre-Islamic Turkish tribes only came on the Indo-European scene out of the Mongolian planes, from the thirteenth century onwards, conquering the indigenous Christianized peoples in the process. It is an illusion the Turks do nothing to dispel, claiming the cultural loot as their own.

A similar development occurred from the eighth century onwards with the Islamic conquests of countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa: it may come as a shock to some victims of the postmodern interpretation of history education, but (Islamic) Turks and Arabs don't build churches, or Greek ruins, or Roman aquaducts - never have, never will! Nor are they indigenous to Turkey (Asia Minor, or the Near East) or the Middle East, the Arabs hailing from the Arabian peninsula, roughly present day Saudi Arabia.

The postmodern elite is so much in a hurry towards the progression of the transnational, borderless, multicultural and multi-ethnic empire building, that they rather opt for silence and suppression of unwelcome historical events rather than deal with them, non-offensive policies being the number one on the politically correct order of the day.

U-turning politicians are never a pleasant sight, but nothing is more repulsive and nauseating than the European party big wigs slithering hither and thither in their exculpation of the Turkish atrocities in the face of that country's impending E.U. membership (Belgium's Messrs Johan Vande Lanotte and Yves Leterme and, on behalf of The Netherlands, Wouter Bos).

The most perplexing of the transnational progressive wisdom is, that - apart from the fact that the old empires were neither easy manageable entities from a governmental point of view, nor democratic champions of civil rights - the idea also counters, what not a century ago, was seen as the solution to "sectarian war after war, and wave after wave of ethic cleansing", namely borders, passports, sovereignty, the nation-state.

Neo Totalitarianism (7): the Futuristic View (recap.)

Whereas yours truly is a great skeptic of futuristic vistas (the 1984 dystopia of Orwell excluded) - due to the unforeseen they rarely play out in reality - in the preceding six posts in this series on Neo-Totalitarianism we outlined, how specifically Europe, and possibly large parts of the rest of the world, might look like later on this century. Said sketches are based on the present mega-trends in political, cultural and social-economic thought. As a reminder:

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Multiculturalism and Beyond
Part 3 - Indoctrination and Education
Part 4 - Transnational Progressivism
Part 5 - The Transnational State
Part 6 - Liberty for Social Security

A more or less free flowing train of world events is in the current postmodern constellation out of the question. Developments are largely engineered by liberal meritocracies and intelligentsias on the basis of 'best practice', driven by Left-Liberal political and ideological ideals.

It foresees in the obliteration of the nation state and nationality, and a redefinition of democracy based on proportional power-sharing among minorities; the creation of large, federal entities in which current nations become regions and provincial stretches of real estate; ethnic identity is substituted for identification with a cultural minority group; cradle to grave social security in return for economical prosperity through free market trade, high taxation and compliance with the ideology (political correctness); local government management that carries out the policies set out by a dirigiste, central, federal government, not unlike the erstwhile Soviet Union, on which model the E.U. is based anyway, as explained by Wladimir Bukovsky.

What are the Red Flags, the danger signs to watch out for?

Buzz words to influence public opinion - which is done professionally by lobbyists and P.R. agencies - with any message conveying accomplished fact, or a sense of inevitability ("We are the Borg: resistance is futile; prepare to be assimilated!"):

- "we are all interconnected now";
- "we live in a multicultural society now";
- "immigrants are not going away, so get used to it!";
- "immigration enriches cultures";
- "people have boots, not roots";
- "might is right is crude, uncivil" (Kant, not Hobbes);
- "we have passed the point of no return";
- "these are the (social) forces of history";
- admiration for world citizenship;
- all things multicultural and inter/transnational;

- The creation of a negative atmosphere against national symbols and expressions, by subtlely raising eyebrows at traditions and tut-tutting of other expressions of national unity, conveying they are at best anachronistic (a bit dumb, bourgeois, not sexy), jingoistic offences against political correctness at worst;

- The creation of a negative emotion towards the nation-state and sovereignty, which must be perceived as archaic;

- The discourse is steered away from the globalism versus anti-globalism dichotomy; it is substituted by the question transnational versus international: the notion that nation states and nationality are unsuited to deal with the global problems of the future, suggesting the answer lies in a form of global governance.

Indoctrination through education, combined with whole-sale revisionism:

- continuation of the gradual history lesson eradication program; in the meanwhile:

- re-writing of national history: non-offensive 'narrative' arranged around "themes";

- curricula and school books to be adjusted in accordance with the ideology;

- the abolition of time lines, so nobody is sure which event happened in reaction to what;

- the promotion of an altered perception of reality: nothing is what it seems, objective truth does not exist;

- manipulation of language and value system;

- thought control and preservation of 'self-esteem' at all costs.

Having thus created a receptive and passive state of mind and historical confusion - in essence a void that prevents reference and benchmarking - the creation and dissemination of the dim view that an obscure past consisted largely of disease and poverty, intermittent with ethnic and religious war fare and "wave after wave of ethnic cleansing";

Making religion in general, but Christianity in particular suspect by the message: "look at all the wars and misery that religion has caused" without blinking an eye of course at the millions and millions of victims of the last two world wars and counting, which will only be used in so far as it supports the ideology (see elsewhere: postmodern speech);

- combining moral relativism and subjectivism with dogmatic absolutism where the ideology is concerned;
- severance of the link between nationality and the place of birth;
- mind control through political correctness;
- possibly the declaration of a new era, starting for instance at the third millennium as the year 0 CNE (Common New Era);
- Marxist dialectic of oppressor versus oppressed is maintained;
- continued eradication of objectivism and eternal truths;

Central to the Law are Positive Human Rights that conform to Liberal morality; these are not universally valid across the board: subjective, unequal groups have different rights, the greater their proportion of inequality, the more positive rights; criminalization of moralities that do not conform with Liberal morals (homophobia, Islamophobia); no differentiation between the person and the act (for example condemnation of homosexual acts while respecting gays, as is the current Roman Catholic position);

Cultural group's proportionalism and representation in NGOs, government and other vital institutions, which must also reflect the world perspectives of the various minority groups;

For a typical example of a transnational state we can look at the U.N.'s proposals for the new, independent Kosovo: how its democratic proportional power sharing is supposed to work and how the country is embedded into the large 'federation' of the E.U.; the project is also seen as the cradle of a moderate, liberal, European Islam;

Promoting the acceptance of multiple passports: no loyalty towards a particular national state. According to the theory of the epoch of Fourth Generation Warfare, a period in which we find ourselves currently, multiculturalism is the death of states: cultural loyalties super-cede state loyalties;

The legitimacy of the nation-state (especially those with a persistent lead culture) is undercut wherever the opportunity arises by way of the Kosovo precedent (if it comes to fruition, which is by no means certain), thus paving the way for embedding states into the large multicultural and multi-ethnic federations, or systems of total interdependency;

Ongoing immigration in ever larger numbers, broadening the fiscal base, thus enabling Leftist governments to maintain social security spending for unequal groups;

State dependency of populations through taxation and benefits: the state acts as a parent, taking over the major responsibilities of the individual.

The buzz already is "well, everybody knows immigration is to make up for the low native demographic numbers", but that's just the point: people could know if they were suspicious enough to read between the lines, interpret the goings-on, read the mega trends and extrapolate, but they aren't informed by those whose duty it is, which is possibly the most scandalous of the affair. The media and the politicians deem it a too sensitive a subject to discuss it out in the open, preferring instead public manipulation as the more responsible attitude.

It seems suitable to wrap up the series with remarks from John Fonte's article that "... in the twentieth century the Bolshevik Revolution, the National Socialist revolution, the New Deal, the Reagan Revolution, the Gaullist national reconstruction in France, and the creation of the E.U. were not inevitable, but were the result of the exercise of political will by elites."

In the same vein are the Musings by Maddocks on "Le Québécois Libre" (Part I and Part II) on this same subject: "Just like 'diversity' and 'multiculturalism', transnationalism and global governance aren't the forces of history, but simply ideological tools advocated by the activist elites."

Of Degeneracy, Megalomania and other Anomalies

Today's range of current affairs subjects may differ wildly, but they have one thing in common: Culture War.

After failed attempts to establish a political party for pederasts, and the marketing of sex toys for Mother's Day (what can possibly be wrong with that?!), the Dutch broadcasting society that successfully brought televised sex and drug use education to the nation, is now pushing through a reality game show in which first prize is ... a kidney transplant! Wow, how progressive and liberal can a country possibly get without going to the dogs entirely? Answer: not very.

Let's put it in another way: this country is beyond immoral; it has long passed amoral; it has in effect become a moral black hole! As a consequence, and to make my point, ninety percent will have no idea what I'm on about!

The latest exercise in indifference and contempt for human life has resulted in the headlines "Baby suffocated in car", in two separate incidents of 'forgetfulness' in the Netherlands and in Belgium. Good night!

The good news is, Labour, the party we have to thank for furthering so much of the above, is on the brink of collapse! I could have told them that their boy wonder, Wouter Bos comes across as the cold-hearted, vain, unprincipled, technocrat that he is: a second Ad Melkert. People can sense fake even through the screen of a television. That's why the former Maoist competitor, Jan Marijnissen of the Socialist Party may be a totally misguided idealist, I'd buy a second hand car from him any day, as opposed to Bos whom I wouldn't even trust with the collection of my garbage.
CNN is reporting: Guantanamo detainee 'kills self'. Can anyone explain the function of these inverted commas, suggesting ... what ... foul play?

On to some more serious stuff now, as Venezuela requires our attention. The compassionate Leftist strongman of the proletariat, voted into power for a second time with some sixty percent of the vote as validated beyond doubt by the worst president in United States history, after the best of Marxist traditions is well on his way to megalomaniac totalitarianism. The choice for learning things the hard way seems to be a common human trait. Read here how key institutions have now been brought under Chávista control: ten of the twelve TV stations, the judiciary, the military.

John Allen of The National Catholic Reporter is having some fun with Chávez' "Cubanization policies" that are reflecting the spirit of "the greatest Socialist in history", viz. our Lord Jesus Christ. Apparently Pope Benedict's finer philosophical and theological points on Liberation Theology are lost on the Chávez' household, as might be expected. Enter the Second World War, Adolf Hitler and the Anti Christ, which just goes to show that even the saintly men in Rome can be sorely tested.

Asked Tomas Sancio of Venezuelan Politics Blog what we can do to help the situation in his country: "Write, write and write, that's what we can do, hoping that search engines and public opinion can read our opinions. Providing explanations on why we think totalitarianism is happening now. Opinions and arguments do count. The Venezuelan government pays people to lobby on its behalf (I know the name of one French man that was hired to do that job). Foreign press has for years given Chávez the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully, we can provide our grain of sand to overcome the propaganda."

Yes, the press from hell would be involved, wouldn't they? As they are in furthering the Marxist multicultural agenda as set out by the irrational, totalitarian Unholy Alliance of Islam and the Left in the boycott of Israel. After the 35,000 members of the British National Union of Journalists (NUJ) found it in themselves to declare a boycott against Israel, yesterday also Britain's largest professional body of lecturers (UCU) called upon its 120,000 members to join an international boycott of all Israeli academic institutions.

Israel is going the way of South Africa: singled out for boycott against Apartheid (the worst president in U.S. history has set the tone with a book title turned misnomer), while all measure of barbarism, suppression and crimes against humanity are apologized in the name of Marxist good intentions. Lately I'm having déjà vues from the 1970's.

Apart from the fact that we obviously have the Unholy Alliance here at work, I think we are getting beyond bias now, into the realms of open war fare on the part of Britain's multicultural bastions. Another way of seeing it, is an assault on an independent state by denying its right and first duty of protecting its citizens against terrorism. Put yet in another way: the 'right to commit insurgency' of a virulent minority outweighs the state's prime duty to protect the majority. How does this florid example fit into the transnational progressive agenda of undermining the legitimacy of the nation state?

Let's wrap this up with some good news, the U.N. Security Council has passed a resolution on the creation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. If the Syrians hoped pressure could be exerted by unleashing the international band of marauders of Fatah Islam on Lebanon, these hopes are now truly dashed.

Neo Totalitarianism (6): Liberty for Social Security

In the post "Treason IV: A Vast Left Wing Conspiracy?" I answered the question negatively. I've changed my mind ... I've discovered the trick ... Eurika! How do I know? Because it's logical but above all, it's dead Boring!

The peoples of the West are today living in a crypto, semi totalitarian situation in which taxation, and government provided social security are the linchpin of the Leftist social contract titled "Freedom for Cradle to Grave Social Security".

As Liberalism abandoned objectivism [1], the idea that all men are created equal and that consequently all should be treated the same way in similar cases, the Left - following Marx' dichotomy of the Oppressors versus the Oppressed - instead embraced subjectivism, meaning that perceived unequal groups must be compensated in proportion to their inequality. This had far reaching consequences, as we shall see.

The endless line of unequal 'victimized' groups were identified and subsequently compensated in proportion to their inequality by what usually goes under the category of 'nice things for Leftist people', the 'social hammock', or more parliamentary, social spending: welfare, grants, health care, social work, subsidized art, subsidies for politically correct pet projects, etc. For those who don't happen to belong to any unequal group (usually white men), the social contract means paying taxes in return for the benefit of living in a decent country.

In the meantime the primary, important problems - that are actually the result of the Leftist solution to Leftist problems caused by Leftist policies - are either swept under the carpet, out of sight of the voters and the general public, or are declared taboo, these days preserved to the point of ad hominem attacks in the absence of sound arguments.

This is, because the secondary, soft issues are vital to the Leftist vote. Were they no longer be able to finance subjectivism, this would ring in the end of Socialism, the Social Democracy, the Greens, the collectivist arm of the Christian Democracy, Leftist Liberals or whatever it is they call themselves these days. The news is, that is exactly what will happen if something pretty drastic isn't done very fast.

If the countries with Leftist governments didn't already belong to the most heavily tax burdened, raising rates might have been an option. But if the Left have learned one thing over the past decades, it is that Marxism must never be made applicable to the economy, hence the present concentration on social and cultural versions of Marxism (multiculturalism).

We have already established that requesting the Leftist constituency to cut down on their benefits would simply render Leftist politicians jobless in droves in no time: we have seen the angry reactions on the streets of Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam! So that's another non-starter!

Apart from subjectivism, Liberalism has championed a few other causes over the years: care for the environment being one, another one the 'liberation' of their unequal groups, among them women. Enabling women to stay in jobs longer, making the most of their subsidized higher education, the size of the family over the years tended from smaller to smallest - to the extent that, in some countries in Europe at least, even replacement levels touched danger levels.

Leftist governments could have opted for more family friendly policies, as Germany has belatedly done under Angela Merkel. But these policies are looked upon as Rightist: environmentalists hold the somewhat radical view that children are merely the polluters of the future; and larger families are seen as a phenomenon typical of the overly religious. Women would only be encouraged to become stay-at-home-mums - and that, would never do! Family friendly policies represent to the Left, all it considers anathema!

The Solution to the problem presented itself in the form of immigration, to make up for the rapidly diminishing numbers. Until quite recently - in the Netherlands for example - there was no official immigration policy, Europe being traditionally a contributor to emigration to Australia, the United States or Canada, rather than a magnet for immigrants themselves. All that changed with the arrival of guest workers in the sixties, but that was a brief spell which didn't attract much attention, the numbers still being relatively limited.

Later on, any policy that existed, was largely seen as a technical issue, best solved by multicultural technocrats in the various government ministries and departments. While immigration numbers grew exponentially - primarily through 'marriage and family re-union rights' - at no time were the voters given proper insight into the problem, allowing them a chance to make their own choice for either redefining family planning, or outside replenishment.

At present the problems are staggering. Never at any time after the colonization of the Wild West has any territory absorbed such biblical numbers of peoples! But instead of being straight about it, immigration is presented by the policy makers as a strength: it shows our capacity of 'tolerance' and flexibility; and as an act of God - as a wave coming over us, for which there happens to be no remedy. In the meantime the voters are being coaxed into accepting ever more colonization towards future broadening of the fiscal base, enabling social security spending for unequal groups to remain in tact so the Left can stay in power.

In the series "Treason", for example in the second instalment "Crimes against Europe's Indigenous Peoples" we saw how deep governments stooped in selling out their own peoples. The often lauded Swedish model fairly takes the cake by denying - through an Act of Parliament - Swedes the right to their own land: "The Act implicitly states that Sweden doesn't have a history, only the various ethnic groups that live there. Native Swedes have been reduced to just another ethnic group in Sweden, with no more claim to the country than the Somalis who arrived there last Thursday. As Friedman puts it: "In Sweden, it's almost as if the state has sided with the immigrants against the Swedish working class."

In the same post we read how the treason against the native populations works on the level of city politics, as pointed out by sacked Antwerp social worker Marij Uit Den Bogaard.

One way of cloaking the fact that it is a policy of choice, is by re-framing the issue. For example in the messages: "Get used to it - immigrants aren't going to go away!" and "We live in a multicultural society now", are pieces of public manipulation, deserving of the term demagogy. It carries the message of the accomplished fact as a result of an outside cause, received by the public as a well meant appeal to be nice and tolerant towards immigrants, the issue by now far removed from the actual issue of willful design!

While the above explains the future demographic problems in the West, the most important aspect is that entire populations, either through taxation or by claiming benefits, have become loyal, dependent clients of their governments who know every personal detail, from how you raise your children to the number of surgeries. All jump through hoops, at least if you want to claim what's rightfully yours, where you've paid your taxes for.

For Europeans the news is even worse: the E.U. is presently undertaking steps to usurp yet another national prerogative: immigration policy. So forget petitioning the national governments about their treacherous policies: the E.U. is bailing the national Leftists out, shifting the entire concept of "Freedom for Cradle to Grave Social Security" to a transnational scale. See for example "Treason III: Cultural versus National Borders".

And so we see, that what is on a international level Transnational Progressivism, the locking in of nation-states in large federations to ensure stability by interdependence, is on a national level the social contract, as long as you can ensure the broad tax paying base, that is.

~ To be continued with Red Flags: what are the danger signs to watch out for? ~

Neo Totalitarianism (4): Transnational Progressivism

Fjordman in his refutation "A Great Conversation" of what must have been devastating criticism from Helsinki University to his article "Communism for the 21st Century", brought us up to speed with the chilling 2001 article written by Hudson Institute Fellow John Fonte, "The Ideological War Within the West" in which Fonte foresees the emergence in a few decades hence, of an ideology described as Transnational Progressivism: "post-liberal democratic, and - in the American context, post-Constitutional and post-American ... a universal and modern world view that challenges both the liberal democratic nation-state in general and the American regime in particular."

He describes what I have termed till this day, a borderless, multi-ethnic and multicultural Empire without an Emperor, but ruled by a democratically unaccountable meritocracy. Hence I will take the liberty of adopting Fonte's term as an apt definition and description. Transnational progressivism involves the following:

- Instead of negative individual rights, the emphasis is on mostly, positive rights of unequal groups (racial, ethnic, gender), proportionate to their perceived inequality (see the Easter Egg series);

- The Marxist dichotomy of oppressor (the state, the majority) versus the oppressed (groups, immigrants) has lost nothing of its validity and is supreme;

- Group's proportionalism and representation across the board; no underrepresentation in institutions;

- Democracy means proportional power-sharing among groups (examples are today's trouble spots like Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq, and their political and democratic constructs). These are to take the place of traditional voting systems, as one man, one vote, majority rule, and plurality voting systems like first past the post or winner-takes-all;

- The values of important institutions (governmental and NGOs) must reflect the world perspectives of the minority groups, as opposed to the Western, white, male ethnocentric narrative that is currently taken as universally valid;

- Gradual deconstruction of national narratives: re-writing of history (a recent affair of the re-writing of a Greek history school book to conform with E.U. politically correct non-offensive requirements, comes to mind), abolishing of national symbols, and in time dismantling of national borders, sovereignty, and the national state;

- The promotion of world citizenship, as opposed to national citizenship: severance of the relation between place of birth and the national identity, between blood and soil, or in bogey Third Reich lingo "Blut und Boden" by postmodern messages about "people having boots, not roots!"; dual passports and analogous national loyalties are not perceived as a problem, the crime of treason being already somewhat of an anachronism.

- For the time being the concept of Transnationalism can be used as a tool: providing elites with both an empirical tool (a plausible analysis of what is) and an ideological framework (a vision of what should be).

Transnational Progressivism is basically the next step in global multiculturalism gone berserk, with radical subjectivism as its political ideology (read: the politically correct).

A characteristic of Progressivism is, that it is realized at a snail's pace (about E.U. speed), so that implementation is hardly noticed so as not to be too disturbing. It is a very long-term and gradual project. The dichotomy is steered away from globalism versus anti-globalism, to transnational versus international. For an example of this discourse, see this article on Eurozine.

According to Fonte, "Transnationalism is the next stage of the multicultural ideology. The argument to watch out for, is "that 'globalization requires some form of 'global governance' as the national state and the idea of national citizenship are are unable to deal with the global problems of the future.' The same scholars who touted multiculturalism now herald the coming transnational age."

Add to that the social, economical and monetary implications we will come to speak of in a later part of this series, and voila, Neo-totalitarianism! It's what you get if you allow the Left to lodge itself in all the strategic positions, decade after decade: all levels of teaching and education, liberal arts, humanities, journalism (which is seen as an extension of teaching), advisory boards, all levels of governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations, including the lumpen intelligentsia.

A good example of what transnationals see as wrong with the world are those straight lines in the sand that can be found in any place where history took place, but Africa is a case in point. Those straight borders are perceived as unnatural remnants of a colonial and imperialistic past, blamed for everything from drought and poverty, to tribal warfare and genocide. An example of how the map should look in the transnational view - how all continents ought to be, is shown in the second picture. As it happens this idea of geological order coincides very happily with the Islamist view of the Caliphate. In any case, the lines in the sand, or clay, are set to go into history's dustbin.

One last word about a matter which pops up regularly: the perceived hand of the corporate Right (which by the way is nowadays frequently the corporate Left) in the promotion of globalization and multiculturalism. It is argued that capitalism views people solely as a combination of a labour resource and a consumer market. Western culture is seen as imposed from the top down by global businesses on innocent nations around the globe. What is less often brought up, is that it is frequently Leftist government policies that force corporations to take their employment opportunities off-shore, where the optimum combination of best resources versus lowest overhead is available. Thank heaven that the raison d'être of businesses isn't global social engineering by way of the pay-roll, but the infamous bottom line, which is still the single source of economic wealth, that is so abhorred by nice Leftist people who wallow in materialism.

It seems suitable to wrap up this part of the series with remarks from John Fonte's article that "... in the twentieth century the Bolshevik Revolution, the National Socialist revolution, the New Deal, the Reagan Revolution, the Gaullist national reconstruction in France, and the creation of the E.U. were not inevitable, but were the result of the exercise of political will by elites."

In the same vein are the Musings by Maddocks on "Le Québécois Libre" on this same subject: "Just like 'diversity' and 'multiculturalism', transnationalism and global governance aren't the forces of history, but simply ideological tools advocated by the activist elites."

To the conceptual framework of international politics can be added a fourth dimension, as follows:

1. competition and conflict between nation-states (and the E.U. entity);
2. competition between civilizations;
3. democratic versus undemocratic;
4. conflict between liberal democracies and transnational progressivism.

A typical building bloc of transnational progressivism would be the proposed - for the time being semi autonomous - independent state of Kosovo in the European Balkan heartland, of which more in a separate post in this series.

Further reading on Transnational Progressivism by Ralph Maddocks on Le Québécois Libre: Part I and Part II.

~ To be continued ~

Neo Totalitarianism (3): Indoctrination

"…through schools of the world we shall disseminate a new conception of government - one that will embrace all of the collective activities of men; one that will postulate the need for scientific control and operation of economic activities in the interests of all people."

Harold Rugg, student of psychology and
a disciple of John Dewey, considered to be
a founding father of multiculturalism

Dr Sanity provides us with a wonderful if shocking piece on the history of totalitarian education. Needless to say that indoctrination is the appropriate description. The collection of historical quotes on the site of her colleagues, psychologists Sigmund, Carl and Alfred's is exemplary of what we are dealing with in respect of the totalitarian indoctrination of entire generations of students. What stands out is the shameless arrogance and the heartless brutality which at times, borders the pathological.

Noteworthy is how the source of this educational and pedagogical disaster, who is identified as Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) "was instrumental in creating the 'climate of collectivism' in philosophy (as (philosopher) Stephen Hicks has referred to it) that prevailed in Germany during the late 18th and throughout the 19th century. In this counter-enlightenment climate, the state was worshipped as the source of all reality ... Hegel, building on Kant, Rousseau and Fichte, would go on to write, "It must be further understood that all the worth which the human being possesses - all the spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." Some Europeans find it bizarre that Americans have the constitutional right to bear arms - well, here's their answer!

"Hegel's heirs went on to divide into left- and right-wing camps. The charge of the left was led by leftists like Karl Marx ... the right-wing Hegelians tended to stress the omnipotence of the state ... Both Hegelian offshoots summarily dispensed with free will and human freedom; and between them, they brought forth the philosophical abomination that we now call 'postmodernism'."

"The 20th century was the battleground where the two totalitarian branches of the collectivist philosophers vied for spiritual and physical control over humanity. The amount of death, destruction and misery they ushered in is perhaps unprecedented in human history."

"The goal for the last several decades has been nothing less than to undermine mankind's perception of reality itself. They have been most successful in this goal at all levels of education - elementary, high school and college."

"If you can convince children that objective reality is an illusion; that A does not equal A; that black is white; and that good is bad; if you can make them accept that everything is subjective and relative; then you have successfully breathed new life into doctrines that by all objective measures and standards led to the death and misery of millions of people. Through the careful manipulation of language, everything can be distorted, without the messy need to resort to facts, logic, or reason."

"For the children of postmodernism, what matters is not truth or falsity - only the effectiveness of the language used. Lies, distortions, ad hominem attacks; attempts to silence opposing views - all are strategies that are perfectly satisfactory if they achieve the desired effect - i.e., furthering the collectivist agenda. Ideas and reason make way for reification of feelings; and freedom is replaced by thought control and preservation of 'self-esteem' at all costs."

Is the phenomenon of dumbing down, the psychological immaturity and the distorted view of reality any wonder? A number of these distortions and errors in the processes of thought I've compiled in, which is at present, a list of 14 instances of postmodern fallacies (or the PMF, in short).

Those of you who think that English Departments still teach the finer points of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream had better think again. They are the unofficial faculties and laboratories of Postmodern Thought, i.e. Subjectivism (Relativism) [1], Positivism, Multiculturalism and Deconstructionism (Post-Structuralism). The founding father of the latter was Jacques Derrida, later a political aide to French Socialist leader Lionel Jospin.

Another case in point is Stuart Sim, Professor of Critical Theory - a strain of Marxist thought which can mean either this or that - at the University of Sunderland and author of "Empires of Belief" and "Fundamentalist World: The New Dark Age of Dogma".

Sim is a theorist who shudders at the mere thought of having to live in a mono culture (something which he has probably done most of his life ... and survived!) and who simply hates beliefs and dogmas, unless they happen to be his own. Recently I had the misfortune to try and fail 'fisking' an article of his hand, published on Signandsight, the description of which can be read in the post "Intellectual Flatulence!".

What postmodern thought is promoting and disseminating - in the Universities and into the world at large - is a species of sophistry which requires the suspension of the laws of nature, as described in the post "Post Postmodernism: What are the Options".

Hard to do? Not at all! Hoards of intelligent people have gone before. But a word of caution to those of robust physique, intrigued by the subject: don't go deeper into it than subsurface level if future cerebral activities of any significance are foreseen.

Dr Sanity's further produces some interesting thoughts on the ethics of capitalism (no, this isn't an oxymoron!). Very insightful is the idea, that since the essence of totalitarianism is the crushing of human free will - a requirement for making correct moral decisions - totalitarianism is fatal for morality. "The truth is that neither socialism nor communism nor any kind of religious fundamentalism is compatible with morality at all. Conduct may only be thought of as moral or immoral when it is freely chosen by the individual. It is only then that the moral significance of the action can be assessed." That one's for framing and hanging over the bed. By the way, this also proves the carelessness of equating Christianity with any form of totalitarianism: human free will is its core teaching.

"Conversely, how responsible for our moral choices are we, if living in a (semi) totalitarian world? In Western Europe since the 1960s the state has taken over the responsibilities, from parents and of physically mature individuals alike. In fact, this may be the reason people refuse to grow up into responsible citizens: attitudes and opinions on multiculturalism that are presently displayed, at times are nothing short of an irresponsible and immature intellectual game with people's lives!

But reverting to our educationers, it is of course the fact that these intellectual crimes are perpetrated on children which makes them so abhorrent. "Their total worth is only equivalent to their willingness to be fodder for the good the 'cause'." Yes, it is a totalitarian characteristic that all is subservient to The Cause and the end justifies the means, as we have seen.

And think about the havoc that in turn has brought on generations of people and on society in general! "Only those whose brains have been damaged by a defective educational system to begin with could adhere on the one hand to a philosophy advocating moral relativism and subjectivism, with (on the other) unapologetic dogmatic absolutism. What is outrageous is that anyone - anyone who is capable of thinking anyway - could take these postmodern, brain-damaged collectivists seriously." Now, there's a thought ....!

"The educational system should be a sieve, through which all the children of a country are passed. It is highly desirable that no child escape inspection."

Paul Popenoe, Behavioral Eugenist and co-author:
"Sterilization for Human Betterment"

~ To be continued: "The Ideological War Within the West", in which Fonte foresees the emergence in a few decades hence of an ideology described as transnational progressivism ... ~