offguardian--2020-10-23--The Cult of the Brave New Normal

The Cult of the Brave New Normal

In March , it was just a three-week lockdown , to flatten the curve so as not to overwhelm the NHS .
The narrative has quickly evolved .
It has progressed from what seemed a reasonable idea of keeping NHS bed space free based on the completely false Neil Fergusson prediction that hospitals would be overwhelmed by patients suffering from COVID19 .
This never happened .
Many weeks passed where face masks were not needed and then suddenly in July , long after the majority of supposed COVID19 deaths had occurred , face masks were made compulsory .
Indeed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Chris Whitty and the World Health Organisation was that face masks were not effective in stopping the spread of COVID19 or in contracting it ; science does not change that quick – anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar .
The result is that we have now fallen deep into a Covidian Cult , a totalitarian psychotic narrative that has little connection to reality or to the facts .
The opposition to official government narratives regarding Covid19 are well known .
I will not bother again telling you what is already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Suffice to say , one just needs to type into Google “ The Great Barrington Declaration ” or ACU2020 , where one can read about the doctors , scientists and lawyers who are opposing multi-governmental COVID19 restrictions and laws of social distancing , lockdown , mandatory/coerced consent to vaccines , and mandatory face masks , amongst other things .
Their essential argument , contra the multi-government policy on COVID19 , is that virus is not the danger we are being told it is ; the data on COVID19 is clear : we do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the economy , or frighten people into death as they are scared to leave home for fear of catching COVID19 or seek medical treatment for non-COVID19 illness , which has happened .
Specifically , many doctors and scientists argue that face masks are not protective and could be very harmful .
Dr Jay Bhattacharya , a signatory of the Great Barrington Declaration , which 40,000 medical , public health scientists and medical practitioners have signed , said that the use of face masks are not supported in the scientific literature .
There is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are effective in reducing the spread of COVID19 .
Indeed , face masks have no effectiveness in the spread of influenza .
This is backed up by the fact that social distancing and face masks have not made a difference on yearly rate of influenza deaths in the UK .
On the 15th October 2020 the stark reality that we are being led by a psychotic Covidian cult narrative became even more evident ; Nicola Sturgeon , the First Minister of Scotland , announced with great glee that couples marrying would no longer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the knot .
Of course , the Priest , Vicar , or Registrar etc conducting the ceremonies never had to wear a mask to conduct the marriage ceremony .
What kind of political leader would impose on couples , who for all intent and purposes will be living together and spending the night together after the wedding , have to wear a mask during their wedding ceremony ?
Would a mask be required for the happy couple to consummate their marriage on their wedding night ?
This ridiculous face mask rule imposed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ side of Scottish politics .
It is ridiculous because Nicola Sturgeon ( as well as all the other MSP ’ s and Holyrood staff ) has met many people from other households indoors in parliament ( before and after face masks were imposed ) , whilst at the same time continually telling the masses that they can not meet people from other households indoors .
One rule for me , one for thee .
The paranoid fuelled COVID19 rules delivered by Sturgeon on a daily basis during the week and even reiterated on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and the blatant inconsistent and illogical nature of these rules , are not meant to console or comfort the masses .
No , they are a deliberate attempt to disorientate and control the minds of the masses .
Cult leaders do this to their followers to short circuit their critical thinking .
Cult leaders will also change the rules or the narrative at a whim for no apparent reason .
Hence the change of now being able to get married without a face mask , even though the COVID19 restrictions are being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it makes no sense , its not meant to , and the masses are meant to follow , not question and obey .
Cult leaders want to make the masses follow chaos .
This kind behaviour is equally applicable to the realm of BDSM ( bondage , domination , sado-masochism ) or the Master-Slave dialectic .
In the world of BDSM , a master or mistress will impose illogical rules , but demand to be obeyed .
As a slave in BDSM scenario might say , “ Mistress is correct even when Mistress @ @ @ @ @ @ @ basis for a human subject becoming an object , of becoming alienated from themselves .
This logical structure underpins the dictates from politicians in relation to COVID19 restrictions .
The blatant flaunting of the dictates by the likes of Catherine Calderwood , Neil Fergusson , Dominic Cummings , Margaret Ferrier ( and the many more we have not heard about yet ) is testament to the fact that they don ’ t really take this COVID19 restrictions all that seriously .
This abusive objectification and alienation are what totalitarians and cult leaders want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Initiation rituals like mask wearing ( especially when getting married ) and social distancing , attack a person with terror , pain , humiliation and subjugation .
Of course , anyone who has been in an abusive relationship will tell you that pointless rituals or behaviours are demanded by the abusive and sadistic abusive partner to wear the other person down .
As is so often found in cults and individuals in abusive relationships , the cult members or abused partner will even go to great lengths to defend the cult leader @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abuses them .
In our current predicament , this is highly ironic as the Scottish government have recently introduced psychological abuse as a crime .
This abusive dialectic that is playing out between the UK government/Scottish government/devolved assemblies and the masses might explain why so many people can not perceive the totalitarianism that is being inflicted upon them right in front of them , or right on their faces in the guise of masks and up till recently masked up in front of the alter getting married .
The problem we have is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ difficult to recognise the delusional nature of a totalitarian master narrative .
One case in point was Nazi Germany ; cognitive dissonance was a prevalent characteristic of people during these times .
People who can not see the totalitarian moves made upon them are not ignorant or unintelligent ; they have been initiated into a cult through the methods of initiation , chaos , confusion and the short circuiting of critical thinking .
We are being initiated and conditioned for a future way of life where there will be no return to normality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a virus .
This is why children are being socially distanced in schools , are made to wear masks in certain contexts , are treated like bio-hazards by their teachers and are frightened half to death by being made to obsessively wash their hands multiple times a day with an abrasive hand sanitiser .
Drawing on psychoanalytic thought , such directives pushed onto children will ensure that many children will grow up to be socially anxious and fearful of social interaction .
It begs belief that the Adverse Childhood Experiences “ movement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ utterly silent about the harms being committed upon children as a result of these scientifically challengeable COVID19 restrictions and rules .
As the Centre for Disease Control state , the survival rate estimates for people aged 0-19 years for COVID19 is 99.997 % , 20-49 years is 99.98 % , 50-69 years 99.5 % , and 70 years+ 94.6 % respectively .
And now we have a casedemic where the rates of false positives ( 89 % -94 % of positives potentially false ) and the PCR test does not even test for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Of course , the politicians ignore the fact that the PCR test was never intended to be a diagnostic instrument to be used to inform public health policy , never mind mandate it .
The culture of deindividuation that the totalitarian abusive cult-like rituals of social distancing , mask wearing and not being able to meet people freely is also primed to be ramped up even further ; Nicola Sturgeon has stated that she is considering face masks to be compulsory even in outside spaces-seven months into this COVID19 nightmare-another illogical and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We are now entering a precarious tipping point ; not from the virus , but from deindividuated members of the cult slavishly following these new rules and not challenging the wearing of masks outside .
No doubt the “ nudging ” from the Government will work a treat on the masses This is because the UK and Scottish governments are manipulating , coercing and frightening us into following the rules and shaming us when we don ’ t .
The UK and Scottish Governments are using applied behavioural psychology , breaking the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ramp up fear in the population .
A group of psychologists called Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours ( SPI-B ) of SAGE have been tasked with advising the UK and Scottish Governments how to get people to adhere to COVID 19 restrictions .
From their document which is freely available on the UK Government website , it is written : The psychologists of SPI-B and the UK government knew fear alone would not be enough .
Therefore , SPI-B suggested to government to use and promote social approval for desired behaviours , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behaviours , and to consider the use of social disapproval for failure to comply .
They have used the Mainstream Media and Social media , along with false fact-checking and censorship to get their message across and it has been working .
The tactics of the SPI-B psychologists informing UK and Scottish Governments ’ policies on the COVID19 response are in my opinion contrary to the ethical and practice guidelines of The British Psychological Society ( BPS ) ; the psychology equivalent of the Hippocratic oath for medicine .
The mainstream media are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ramping up people ’ s sense of personal threat , creating a culture of feeling shame to follow COVID19 regulations and encouraging people to shame others for not following regulations .
From the reports of several mental health charities , UK and Scottish Government reports , mental ill-health is in a crisis because of the COVID19 response/measures .
Suicide risk factors have undoubtedly been hugely multiplied ( house repossessions , unemployment , poverty and stress etc ) ; when the official figures are completed , I have no doubt that there will have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ come , many suicides because of the COVID19 lockdown and associated measures .
Our political leaders , despite their lip service to mental health , are aware of the mental health and suicide crisis that now engulfs us , yet they proceed onwards with the COVID19 agenda regardless complicit in more psychological abuse being foisted upon people , knowing full well that this will cause untold misery .
Vladimir Bukovsky , a Soviet dissident who was imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital ( enforced incarceration for political dissidents ) described well our current predicament @ @ @ @ @ @ @ monstrous phenomenon is again the use of science and medicine against the masses by many Governments in the battle against COVID19 .
Not only do our political leaders want to “ keep us safe until a vaccine ” but they seem to want to destroy the economy , create huge unemployment and destroy businesses .
They also want to monitor our every move and impose restrictions on work , travel and social and family life .
There will be no end to this nightmare ; there never is an end when one is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ always keep moving .
The victim is broken down until they can offer no resistance .
Indeed , Bill Gates recently indicated that even if we get a vaccine for COVID19 , there will be no return to normal as it will probably take a second or third generation vaccine to get us back to normal .
Of course , we know full well , when we get that second or third generation vaccine , it will not herald a return to the old normal .
Unfortunately , at the moment there is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mainstream media journalists ) with the necessary courage to call out the tyranny and call out the abuser .
Historically this has also been a problem ; politically and within an abusive context ( e.g.
, the victim finds great difficulty calling out their abuser ) .
In a critical remark and warning to the West , Alexander Solzhenitsyn said in his Harvard address in 1973 : Is this Scotland ’ s beginning of the end ?
Will the masses start to wake up to the dictatorial and totalitarian measures ?
Only time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ late .
If it is the end , just don ’ t say you didn ’ t see it coming or nobody told you .
There is hope .
We can learn from history and enact that famous dictum after World War II ; it should never happen again .
Perhaps our politicians should mediate upon the Nuremberg Code of guidelines for determining what constitutes a war crime and UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights Article 6 .
The Nuremberg Code and UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights Article @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comes to governmental mandates or ideas in the pipeline regarding COVID19 .
Just think of face masks ( especially for children ) , social distancing , travel restrictions , work restrictions , immunity passports and ideas about giving people a rushed out unlicensed vaccine for COVID19 ( which will be indemnified ) which has not been assessed for the long-term side effects .
The cult-like nature of the Brave New Normal that is COVID19 is insidiously pervading more and more aspects of our lives , with seemingly less and less science to back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by those in power as an opportunity to reshape our society , not for our good , but for the good of those in power .
Perhaps we should all think about what all this means for us , our children , our grandchildren and democracy in the UK and wider world .
Dr Bruce Scott is a Psychoanalyst in Edinburgh/Scottish Borders who trained with the Philadelphia Association , London .
He is the author of Testimony of Experience : Docta Ignorantia and the Philadelphia Association Communities ( 2014 ) and a contributor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Divided Self ( 2012 , edited by Theodor Itten and Courtenay Young ) , both published by PCCS Books Ltd .
He is also the English language Edition Editor of Psychotherapy with life : intensive therapeutic life , by Alexander Alexeychick ( 2019 ) , Published by Angelika Belolipetskaya .
He can be reached through his website , twitter , youtube and bitchute .

Dr Bruce Scott
In March, it was just a three-week lockdown, to flatten the curve so as not to overwhelm the NHS. The narrative has quickly evolved. It has progressed from what seemed a reasonable idea of keeping NHS bed space free based on the completely false Neil Fergusson prediction that hospitals would be overwhelmed by patients suffering from COVID19.
This never happened. Many weeks passed where face masks were not needed and then suddenly in July, long after the majority of supposed COVID19 deaths had occurred, face masks were made compulsory.
Indeed, the UK government advice from the likes of Chris Whitty and the World Health Organisation was that face masks were not effective in stopping the spread of COVID19 or in contracting it; science does not change that quick – anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.
The result is that we have now fallen deep into a Covidian Cult, a totalitarian psychotic narrative that has little connection to reality or to the facts.
The opposition to official government narratives regarding Covid19 are well known. I will not bother again telling you what is already known or can be readily ascertained.
Suffice to say, one just needs to type into Google “The Great Barrington Declaration” or ACU2020, where one can read about the doctors, scientists and lawyers who are opposing multi-governmental COVID19 restrictions and laws of social distancing, lockdown, mandatory/coerced consent to vaccines, and mandatory face masks, amongst other things.
Their essential argument, contra the multi-government policy on COVID19, is that virus is not the danger we are being told it is; the data on COVID19 is clear: we do not need to lockdown society, wreck the economy, or frighten people into death as they are scared to leave home for fear of catching COVID19 or seek medical treatment for non-COVID19 illness, which has happened.
Specifically, many doctors and scientists argue that face masks are not protective and could be very harmful. Dr Jay Bhattacharya, a signatory of the Great Barrington Declaration, which 40,000 medical, public health scientists and medical practitioners have signed, said that the use of face masks are not supported in the scientific literature. There is no randomised data to indicate if they are effective in reducing the spread of COVID19.
Indeed, face masks have no effectiveness in the spread of influenza. This is backed up by the fact that social distancing and face masks have not made a difference on yearly rate of influenza deaths in the UK.
On the 15th October 2020 the stark reality that we are being led by a psychotic Covidian cult narrative became even more evident; Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, announced with great glee that couples marrying would no longer have to wear face masks when tying the knot. Of course, the Priest, Vicar, or Registrar etc conducting the ceremonies never had to wear a mask to conduct the marriage ceremony. What kind of political leader would impose on couples, who for all intent and purposes will be living together and spending the night together after the wedding, have to wear a mask during their wedding ceremony? Would a mask be required for the happy couple to consummate their marriage on their wedding night?
This ridiculous face mask rule imposed by Nicola Sturgeon shows quite clearly the dark side of Scottish politics. It is ridiculous because Nicola Sturgeon (as well as all the other MSP’s and Holyrood staff) has met many people from other households indoors in parliament (before and after face masks were imposed), whilst at the same time continually telling the masses that they cannot meet people from other households indoors. One rule for me, one for thee.
The paranoid fuelled COVID19 rules delivered by Sturgeon on a daily basis during the week and even reiterated on her twitter account on a frequent basis, and the blatant inconsistent and illogical nature of these rules, are not meant to console or comfort the masses. No, they are a deliberate attempt to disorientate and control the minds of the masses.
Cult leaders do this to their followers to short circuit their critical thinking. Cult leaders will also change the rules or the narrative at a whim for no apparent reason. Hence the change of now being able to get married without a face mask, even though the COVID19 restrictions are being tightened again all over the UK; it makes no sense, its not meant to, and the masses are meant to follow, not question and obey.
Cult leaders want to make the masses follow chaos.
This kind behaviour is equally applicable to the realm of BDSM (bondage, domination, sado-masochism) or the Master-Slave dialectic. In the world of BDSM, a master or mistress will impose illogical rules, but demand to be obeyed. As a slave in BDSM scenario might say, “Mistress is correct even when Mistress is wrong”.
This forms the basis for a human subject becoming an object, of becoming alienated from themselves. This logical structure underpins the dictates from politicians in relation to COVID19 restrictions. The blatant flaunting of the dictates by the likes of Catherine Calderwood, Neil Fergusson, Dominic Cummings, Margaret Ferrier (and the many more we have not heard about yet) is testament to the fact that they don’t really take this COVID19 restrictions all that seriously.
This abusive objectification and alienation are what totalitarians and cult leaders want to achieve and impose on their followers. Initiation rituals like mask wearing (especially when getting married) and social distancing, attack a person with terror, pain, humiliation and subjugation. Of course, anyone who has been in an abusive relationship will tell you that pointless rituals or behaviours are demanded by the abusive and sadistic abusive partner to wear the other person down.
As is so often found in cults and individuals in abusive relationships, the cult members or abused partner will even go to great lengths to defend the cult leader’s demands or the person who abuses them. In our current predicament, this is highly ironic as the Scottish government have recently introduced psychological abuse as a crime.
This abusive dialectic that is playing out between the UK government/Scottish government/devolved assemblies and the masses might explain why so many people cannot perceive the totalitarianism that is being inflicted upon them right in front of them, or right on their faces in the guise of masks and up till recently masked up in front of the alter getting married.
The problem we have is this: people generally find it very difficult to recognise the delusional nature of a totalitarian master narrative. One case in point was Nazi Germany; cognitive dissonance was a prevalent characteristic of people during these times. People who cannot see the totalitarian moves made upon them are not ignorant or unintelligent; they have been initiated into a cult through the methods of initiation, chaos, confusion and the short circuiting of critical thinking.
We are being initiated and conditioned for a future way of life where there will be no return to normality, and it has nothing to do with a virus. This is why children are being socially distanced in schools, are made to wear masks in certain contexts, are treated like bio-hazards by their teachers and are frightened half to death by being made to obsessively wash their hands multiple times a day with an abrasive hand sanitiser.
Drawing on psychoanalytic thought, such directives pushed onto children will ensure that many children will grow up to be socially anxious and fearful of social interaction. It begs belief that the Adverse Childhood Experiences “movement” (ACEs) in Scotland are utterly silent about the harms being committed upon children as a result of these scientifically challengeable COVID19 restrictions and rules.
As the Centre for Disease Control state, the survival rate estimates for people aged 0-19 years for COVID19 is 99.997%, 20-49 years is 99.98%, 50-69 years 99.5%, and 70 years+ 94.6% respectively. And now we have a casedemic where the rates of false positives (89%-94% of positives potentially false) and the PCR test does not even test for COVID19 (See ACU, 2020). Of course, the politicians ignore the fact that the PCR test was never intended to be a diagnostic instrument to be used to inform public health policy, never mind mandate it.
The culture of deindividuation that the totalitarian abusive cult-like rituals of social distancing, mask wearing and not being able to meet people freely is also primed to be ramped up even further; Nicola Sturgeon has stated that she is considering face masks to be compulsory even in outside spaces-seven months into this COVID19 nightmare-another illogical and ridiculous idea with no basis in science.
We are now entering a precarious tipping point; not from the virus, but from deindividuated members of the cult slavishly following these new rules and not challenging the wearing of masks outside. No doubt the “nudging” from the Government will work a treat on the masses
This is because the UK and Scottish governments are manipulating, coercing and frightening us into following the rules and shaming us when we don’t. The UK and Scottish Governments are using applied behavioural psychology, breaking the ethical guidelines for psychologists, to deliberately ramp up fear in the population. A group of psychologists called Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) of SAGE have been tasked with advising the UK and Scottish Governments how to get people to adhere to COVID 19 restrictions.
From their document which is freely available on the UK Government website, it is written:
A substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened.”
And:
The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging.”
The psychologists of SPI-B and the UK government knew fear alone would not be enough. Therefore, SPI-B suggested to government to use and promote social approval for desired behaviours, to consider enacting legislation to compel required behaviours, and to consider the use of social disapproval for failure to comply.
They have used the Mainstream Media and Social media, along with false fact-checking and censorship to get their message across and it has been working.
The tactics of the SPI-B psychologists informing UK and Scottish Governments’ policies on the COVID19 response are in my opinion contrary to the ethical and practice guidelines of The British Psychological Society (BPS); the psychology equivalent of the Hippocratic oath for medicine.
The mainstream media are silent on these unethical practices of deliberately ramping up people’s sense of personal threat, creating a culture of feeling shame to follow COVID19 regulations and encouraging people to shame others for not following regulations. From the reports of several mental health charities, UK and Scottish Government reports, mental ill-health is in a crisis because of the COVID19 response/measures.
Suicide risk factors have undoubtedly been hugely multiplied (house repossessions, unemployment, poverty and stress etc); when the official figures are completed, I have no doubt that there will have been, and there will be to come, many suicides because of the COVID19 lockdown and associated measures.
Our political leaders, despite their lip service to mental health, are aware of the mental health and suicide crisis that now engulfs us, yet they proceed onwards with the COVID19 agenda regardless complicit in more psychological abuse being foisted upon people, knowing full well that this will cause untold misery.
Vladimir Bukovsky, a Soviet dissident who was imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital (enforced incarceration for political dissidents) described well our current predicament:
The peculiar features of the Soviet political system, the Communist ideology, the uncertainties and difficulties of the science of psychiatry, the labyrinths of the human conscience-all these have weirdly woven themselves together to create a monstrous phenomenon, the use of medicine against man.”
Forward from Russia’s political hospitals, 1977 (S. Bloch and P. Reddaway) by Vladimir Bukovsky.
Like the Soviet Union today the monstrous phenomenon is again the use of science and medicine against the masses by many Governments in the battle against COVID19. Not only do our political leaders want to “keep us safe until a vaccine” but they seem to want to destroy the economy, create huge unemployment and destroy businesses. They also want to monitor our every move and impose restrictions on work, travel and social and family life.
There will be no end to this nightmare; there never is an end when one is in an abusive relationship. The goalposts always keep moving. The victim is broken down until they can offer no resistance.
Indeed, Bill Gates recently indicated that even if we get a vaccine for COVID19, there will be no return to normal as it will probably take a second or third generation vaccine to get us back to normal. Of course, we know full well, when we get that second or third generation vaccine, it will not herald a return to the old normal.
Unfortunately, at the moment there is not enough people (especially politicians and mainstream media journalists) with the necessary courage to call out the tyranny and call out the abuser. Historically this has also been a problem; politically and within an abusive context (e.g., the victim finds great difficulty calling out their abuser). In a critical remark and warning to the West, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said in his Harvard address in 1973:
A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations…..Should one (have to) point out that from ancient times declining courage has been considered the beginning of the end?”
Is this Scotland’s beginning of the end? Will the masses start to wake up to the dictatorial and totalitarian measures? Only time will tell. It might be too late. If it is the end, just don’t say you didn’t see it coming or nobody told you.
There is hope. We can learn from history and enact that famous dictum after World War II; it should never happen again. Perhaps our politicians should mediate upon the Nuremberg Code of guidelines for determining what constitutes a war crime and UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights Article 6.
Nuremberg Code: The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not random and unnecessary in nature. The experiment should be so designed and based on the results of animal experimentation and a knowledge of the natural history of the disease or other problem under study that the anticipated results will justify the performance of the experiment. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury. No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects. The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment. Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability, or death. The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons. The highest degree of skill and care should be required through all stages of the experiment of those who conduct or engage in the experiment. During the course of the experiment the human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or mental state where continuation of the experiment seems to him to be impossible. During the course of the experiment the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probable cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith, superior skill and careful judgment required of him that a continuation of the experiment is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.
UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights: Article 6 – Consent Any preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information. The consent should, where appropriate, be express and may be withdrawn by the person concerned at any time and for any reason without disadvantage or prejudice. Scientific research should only be carried out with the prior, free, express and informed consent of the person concerned. The information should be adequate, provided in a comprehensible form and should include modalities for withdrawal of consent. Consent may be withdrawn by the person concerned at any time and for any reason without any disadvantage or prejudice. Exceptions to this principle should be made only in accordance with ethical and legal standards adopted by States, consistent with the principles and provisions set out in this Declaration, in particular in Article 27, and international human rights law. In appropriate cases of research carried out on a group of persons or a community, additional agreement of the legal representatives of the group or community concerned may be sought. In no case should a collective community agreement or the consent of a community leader or other authority substitute for an individual’s informed consent.
The Nuremberg Code and UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights Article 6 make for sobering reading when it comes to governmental mandates or ideas in the pipeline regarding COVID19.
Just think of face masks (especially for children), social distancing, travel restrictions, work restrictions, immunity passports and ideas about giving people a rushed out unlicensed vaccine for COVID19 (which will be indemnified) which has not been assessed for the long-term side effects.
The cult-like nature of the Brave New Normal that is COVID19 is insidiously pervading more and more aspects of our lives, with seemingly less and less science to back it up, and curiously being seen by those in power as an opportunity to reshape our society, not for our good, but for the good of those in power.
Perhaps we should all think about what all this means for us, our children, our grandchildren and democracy in the UK and wider world.
Dr Bruce Scott is a Psychoanalyst in Edinburgh/Scottish Borders who trained with the Philadelphia Association, London. He is the author of Testimony of Experience: Docta Ignorantia and the Philadelphia Association Communities (2014) and a contributor to RD Laing: 50 Years since the Divided Self (2012, edited by Theodor Itten and Courtenay Young), both published by PCCS Books Ltd. He is also the English language Edition Editor of Psychotherapy with life: intensive therapeutic life, by Alexander Alexeychick (2019), Published by Angelika Belolipetskaya. He can be reached through his website, twitter, youtube and bitchute.


offguardian--2020-10-24--Who was that masked man?

Who was that masked man?

Hello , my fellow Americans .
I ’ m Joe Biden .
Remember me ?
You may have heard of me from time to time over the past months – especially after my opponents in the Democratic primaries were all bullied into dropping out of the race to ensure I ’ d be the nominee .
That made the process a lot simpler , don ’ t you think ?
We all like simple things .
I know I do .
Well , today I ’ m happy to announce that , based on poll results , I expect very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ States Senate .
What ’ s that ?
Oh – I meant to say , to the presidency of Delaware .
No , no , of the country .
Yes , the whole country , the United States !
That ’ s what I said the first time , isn ’ t it ?
I ’ m sure you know that this victory comes after a hard-fought presidential campaign .
And I want to personally thank each and every one of you who chipped in something to the fund to help keep me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you by long-distance video with this mask over my face even while nobody else is around – just to show you how much I care .
Actually , I can ’ t personally thank each of you , because I can ’ t see anybody down here in the basement .
But that ’ s okay ; money doesn ’ t mean much to me , except when I ’ m doing favors for the credit card companies or getting cushy jobs for my son Hunter .
So why should your money mean @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knows where I get my money .
But I ’ ll say it again anyway : I haven ’ t taken one red cent from the Russkies , unlike some presidents I could name – not that I ’ m going to say which bastard I have in mind , because that wouldn ’ t be polite .
And if you think I ’ m not being polite right now – do you , Fats ?
Well then , how ’ d you like to do some push-ups with me ?
See , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Come to think of it , that reminds me of something else I don ’ t like about that bastard I ’ m too polite to name .
But I can ’ t remember what it was now .
About this mask .
I wear it over my face because every loyal American should know that the most important thing we can all do right now is to stay safe .
And that ’ s just what I ’ ve been doing – staying safe in my basement , going out as little @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to debate someone ( I won ’ t say who ) or to give a speech to a live audience without cue cards .
So you see , I ’ m living proof that staying safe is good for you .
For me , it ’ s a part of the way my team is fixing – I mean , winning this election .
For you , it may mean losing your job and your health insurance , going hungry , and living under house arrest without having committed a crime .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ different ways .
In a couple of months , I ’ m going to swear an oath to preserve , protect and defend the Constitution of the United States .
And that ’ s another reason I wear this mask .
You see , the orders requiring you to dress like mummies all violate the Constitution – something I ’ m sure you ’ d know if the liberal newspapers ever told you about it .
We didn ’ t want to bother with that pesky process of asking your elected representatives if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ muzzle yourselves .
So , just like everything else we wanted you to do since this election cycle got going , we had the masks ordered by a bunch of state governors who agreed it was time to get rid of “ democracy ” for the good of the country – which is all we care about .
I mean , all those wild stories about a Killer Virus helped us see to it that you ’ d stay safe at home , keeping out of dangerous things like politics so that I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overweight bast…well , you know who I mean .
Hell , I might have actually lost the election if it hadn ’ t been for that story in March claiming that a million Americans were certain to die of COVID19 within a few months .
Okay , it wasn ’ t true , but it certainly made people more willing to give up their rights .
Anyway , the bottom line is that forcing people to wear masks required pretty much the overthrow of this country ’ s system of law .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how important the mask is , I don ’ t know what does .
Why , it ’ s more important than the Constitution , more important than democracy , more important than the “ separation of powers ” that used to prevent people like me from becoming dictators .
It ’ s even more important than the Bill of Rights , that old piece of paper that says Americans have freedoms no one can take away without due process of law .
Amazing , isn ’ t it ?
And would you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actually refuse to wear a mask !
Some people just don ’ t know what ’ s good for them .
As for me , I wear my mask proudly .
And not just because it prevents you from seeing my whole face .
The mask tells everybody what I stand for .
Remember when I praised Strom Thurmond , the Senate ’ s leading segregationist , because , I said , he had made sure black people could go to prison for possessing “ a piece of crack cocaine no bigger than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then that was the safe thing to do .
Now it ’ s safer to pretend that I never said things like that .
So I ’ m consistent : I always put safety first .
It ’ s the same thing with this virus .
It ’ s not safe to let people walk where they want and say what they like unless you can expect them all to vote Democratic .
Why , I ’ ve even opposed the idea of Americans going to the polls at all – because that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I know we had normal voting in the middle of the Hong Kong Flu pandemic back in 1968 .
But in those days , we thought Hubert Humphrey might actually win in an honest vote .
I mean , that fellow could talk !
Without even stealing another politician ’ s phrases , or borrowing another person ’ s history .
Oh – it looks like somebody else wrote those last words onto my cue card .
Scratch that part .
These days , I ’ m staying safe by never doing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people even richer .
That ’ s why , seven months ago , I supported the giveaway of trillions of dollars to Big Business and the tanking of the economy for just about everybody else .
Yes , it ’ s true that the other guy – you know , that guy in the White House – supported the giveaway too .
But there ’ s a big difference between us .
You can ’ t trust him .
I mean , have you taken a good look at his hair ?
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I ’ ve come to save you from yourselves .
I hate to put it like this , but if you guys weren ’ t all a bunch of good-for-nothing dopes , you would never have elected that – you know who – in the first place .
So it ’ s obvious that we can ’ t mess around with any more nonsense like personal freedoms or representative government .
Now it ’ s time for masks – to remind every one of you that your fellow citizens are the greatest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world , that what we used to call democracy , or community politics , is really bioterrorism .
Look at it this way : either you give up everything you ’ ve always been taught to believe in – the Bill of Rights , democracy , the U.S. Constitution , the rule of law – or else there ’ s a chance , a small chance but still a chance , that you might catch a flu .
And good heavens , if you do catch one , you ’ ll only have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chance of survival !
Now that ’ s an easy choice to make , don ’ t you think ?
So thank you for making me your next President .
Yes , I know there are some people who say we won ’ t really know the outcome of the election until after the election .
But that ’ s doing things the old-fashioned way .
You read the papers , don ’ t you ?
This election has already been settled by the media , by the public intellectuals , by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anything to do with it , really .
I ’ m going to be President because that ’ s the way it has to be – or else there wouldn ’ t be a happy ending .
You see it , don ’ t you ?
As I ’ m saying all this , there ’ s a bad guy trying to blow up Washington , and I ’ m the Lone Ranger .
Don ’ t I look like him , kind of ?
Right now we ’ re almost at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is playing fast , the fuse on the powder keg is burning lower and lower , and I ’ m riding to the rescue… .
Hiyo , Silver !
Make sure you stay home and don ’ t see me on Inauguration Day !
Michael Lesher is an author , poet and lawyer whose legal work is mostly dedicated to issues connected with domestic abuse and child sexual abuse .
His latest nonfiction book is Sexual Abuse , Shonda and Concealment in Orthodox Jewish Communities ( McFarland & Co. , 2014 ) ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , was published by The High Window in 2019 .
A memoir of his discovery of Orthodox Judaism as an adult – Turning Back : The Personal Journey of a “ Born-Again ” Jew – will be published in September 2020 by Lincoln Square Books .

Michael Lesher
Hello, my fellow Americans. I’m Joe Biden. Remember me? You may have heard of me from time to time over the past months – especially after my opponents in the Democratic primaries were all bullied into dropping out of the race to ensure I’d be the nominee. That made the process a lot simpler, don’t you think? We all like simple things. I know I do.
Well, today I’m happy to announce that, based on poll results, I expect very soon to be elected to the United States Senate. What’s that? Oh – I meant to say, to the presidency of Delaware. No, no, of the country. Yes, the whole country, the United States! That’s what I said the first time, isn’t it?
I’m sure you know that this victory comes after a hard-fought presidential campaign. And I want to personally thank each and every one of you who chipped in something to the fund to help keep me here in my basement, talking to you by long-distance video with this mask over my face even while nobody else is around – just to show you how much I care.
Actually, I can’t personally thank each of you, because I can’t see anybody down here in the basement. But that’s okay; money doesn’t mean much to me, except when I’m doing favors for the credit card companies or getting cushy jobs for my son Hunter. So why should your money mean anything to you?
Besides, everybody knows where I get my money. But I’ll say it again anyway: I haven’t taken one red cent from the Russkies, unlike some presidents I could name – not that I’m going to say which bastard I have in mind, because that wouldn’t be polite. And if you think I’m not being polite right now – do you, Fats? Well then, how’d you like to do some push-ups with me? See, I’m in great shape. Come to think of it, that reminds me of something else I don’t like about that bastard I’m too polite to name. But I can’t remember what it was now.
About this mask. I wear it over my face because every loyal American should know that the most important thing we can all do right now is to stay safe. And that’s just what I’ve been doing – staying safe in my basement, going out as little as possible to where I might have to debate someone (I won’t say who) or to give a speech to a live audience without cue cards. So you see, I’m living proof that staying safe is good for you. For me, it’s a part of the way my team is fixing – I mean, winning this election.
For you, it may mean losing your job and your health insurance, going hungry, and living under house arrest without having committed a crime. But we all do our part in our different ways.
In a couple of months, I’m going to swear an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. And that’s another reason I wear this mask. You see, the orders requiring you to dress like mummies all violate the Constitution – something I’m sure you’d know if the liberal newspapers ever told you about it. We didn’t want to bother with that pesky process of asking your elected representatives if they liked the idea of making you muzzle yourselves.
So, just like everything else we wanted you to do since this election cycle got going, we had the masks ordered by a bunch of state governors who agreed it was time to get rid of “democracy” for the good of the country – which is all we care about. I mean, all those wild stories about a Killer Virus helped us see to it that you’d stay safe at home, keeping out of dangerous things like politics so that I could become President, instead of that overweight bast…well, you know who I mean.
Hell, I might have actually lost the election if it hadn’t been for that story in March claiming that a million Americans were certain to die of COVID19 within a few months. Okay, it wasn’t true, but it certainly made people more willing to give up their rights.
Anyway, the bottom line is that forcing people to wear masks required pretty much the overthrow of this country’s system of law. And if that doesn’t tell you how important the mask is, I don’t know what does.
Why, it’s more important than the Constitution, more important than democracy, more important than the “separation of powers” that used to prevent people like me from becoming dictators. It’s even more important than the Bill of Rights, that old piece of paper that says Americans have freedoms no one can take away without due process of law.
Amazing, isn’t it? And would you believe it, I know folks who actually refuse to wear a mask! Some people just don’t know what’s good for them.
As for me, I wear my mask proudly. And not just because it prevents you from seeing my whole face. The mask tells everybody what I stand for. Remember when I praised Strom Thurmond, the Senate’s leading segregationist, because, I said, he had made sure black people could go to prison for possessing “a piece of crack cocaine no bigger than this quarter”?
Well, back then that was the safe thing to do. Now it’s safer to pretend that I never said things like that. So I’m consistent: I always put safety first.
It’s the same thing with this virus. It’s not safe to let people walk where they want and say what they like unless you can expect them all to vote Democratic. Why, I’ve even opposed the idea of Americans going to the polls at all – because that’s not safe either. Yeah, I know we had normal voting in the middle of the Hong Kong Flu pandemic back in 1968. But in those days, we thought Hubert Humphrey might actually win in an honest vote.
I mean, that fellow could talk! Without even stealing another politician’s phrases, or borrowing another person’s history. Oh – it looks like somebody else wrote those last words onto my cue card. Scratch that part.
These days, I’m staying safe by never doing anything that won’t make rich people even richer. That’s why, seven months ago, I supported the giveaway of trillions of dollars to Big Business and the tanking of the economy for just about everybody else. Yes, it’s true that the other guy – you know, that guy in the White House – supported the giveaway too. But there’s a big difference between us. You can’t trust him. I mean, have you taken a good look at his hair? But you can trust me.
You see, I’ve come to save you from yourselves. I hate to put it like this, but if you guys weren’t all a bunch of good-for-nothing dopes, you would never have elected that – you know who – in the first place. So it’s obvious that we can’t mess around with any more nonsense like personal freedoms or representative government.
Now it’s time for masks – to remind every one of you that your fellow citizens are the greatest threats to your safety in the whole world, that what we used to call democracy, or community politics, is really bioterrorism.
Look at it this way: either you give up everything you’ve always been taught to believe in – the Bill of Rights, democracy, the U.S. Constitution, the rule of law – or else there’s a chance, a small chance but still a chance, that you might catch a flu. And good heavens, if you do catch one, you’ll only have, at least, a 99.8% chance of survival! Now that’s an easy choice to make, don’t you think?
So thank you for making me your next President. Yes, I know there are some people who say we won’t really know the outcome of the election until after the election. But that’s doing things the old-fashioned way. You read the papers, don’t you? This election has already been settled by the media, by the public intellectuals, by the experts. You don’t have anything to do with it, really. I’m going to be President because that’s the way it has to be – or else there wouldn’t be a happy ending.
You see it, don’t you? As I’m saying all this, there’s a bad guy trying to blow up Washington, and I’m the Lone Ranger. Don’t I look like him, kind of? Right now we’re almost at the end of the episode, the music is playing fast, the fuse on the powder keg is burning lower and lower, and I’m riding to the rescue…. Hiyo, Silver!
Make sure you stay home and don’t see me on Inauguration Day!
And don’t forget that mask!
Michael Lesher is an author, poet and lawyer whose legal work is mostly dedicated to issues connected with domestic abuse and child sexual abuse. His latest nonfiction book is Sexual Abuse, Shonda and Concealment in Orthodox Jewish Communities (McFarland & Co., 2014); his first collection of poetry, Surfaces, was published by The High Window in 2019. A memoir of his discovery of Orthodox Judaism as an adult – Turning Back: The Personal Journey of a “Born-Again” Jew – will be published in September 2020 by Lincoln Square Books.


offguardian--2020-10-24--WATCH: Your Guide to The Great Reset

WATCH: Your Guide to The Great Reset

You ’ ve all heard by now that The Great Reset is upon us .
But what is The Great @ @ @ @ @ what does it mean for the future of humanity ?
Join James for this in-depth @ @ @ @ @ of the New World Order agenda and its vision of a post-human Fourth Industrial Revolution @ @ @ @ @ and an audio-only version click here .

You’ve all heard by now that The Great Reset is upon us. But what is The Great Reset, exactly, and what does it mean for the future of humanity? Join James for this in-depth exploration of the latest rebranding of the New World Order agenda and its vision of a post-human Fourth Industrial Revolution.
For links, shownotes and an audio-only version click here.


offguardian--2020-10-25--Death, Money, and the Dueling Frauds: Trump and Biden

When The New York Times and CNN recently referred to the staged town hall spectacles of Biden and Trump as dueling events , they inadvertently revealed the truth that US presidential elections are America ’ s favorite movie and that the corporate media is in the entertainment business .
While it is ludicrous to imagine these tottering actors crossing swords in tights , their skirmishes in suits and ties are good for a few laughs , if you have the stomach to watch them .
Only people who still believe in professional wrestling would think these clowns don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Umbrella People , aka the power elites , the national security state , etc.
, who own the country and choose their stooges to represent their interests in the White House .
The columnist Russell Baker once said the purpose of such political entertainment is to “ provide a manageably small cast for a national sitcom , or soap opera , or docudrama , making it easy for media people to persuade themselves they are covering the news while mostly just entertaining us.
” As for debates and town hall farces in television @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that “ the charm of television entertainment is its ability to bridge the chasm between dinner and bedtime without mental distraction.
” Now let ’ s proceed to the dark side , where the sardonic screams of laughter dissolve into tears .
For such entertainment serves a devious distracting purpose : to conceal the nature of social evil and the driving forces behind American politics today .
It is not particularly complicated unless the syllogism – All cats die/Socrates is dead/ therefore Socrates is a cat – rings true .
We are not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I know .
But like them , we will also die .
Everyone knows this , but the thought of death is not particularly “ have-a-nice-dayish , ” so people deny it as much as possible in a host of ways .
Most people prefer life over death , and when death does approach and can no longer be denied , most hope for immortality in some way , shape , or form .
Yes , there are those who assert this isn ’ t true for them , and there is no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are philosophical arguments to support their position , such as that of the Roman poet Lucretius in his famous poem De rerum natura ( On the Nature of Things ) .
But I would maintain with the great psychoanalyst Rollo May that all such naturalistic efforts , including Lucretius ’ s , to explain away human anxiety rooted in death , founder on the human emotions of pity , grief , love , and loneliness .
Rational explanations take us only so far .
In their efforts to deny the human condition and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and the daimonic , they open the door to madness , as is happening today with the push by the world ’ s economic elite to convince people that they are machines and that their machine dreams will conquer death .
For those who love life , it seems axiomatic to me that some form of perpetuation and redemption of an individual ’ s life in the face and fear of death is widely desired .
This can take many forms : a literal afterlife , fame , heirs , monuments , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is quite clear that people have always sought some way of transcending their physical fates .
This was aptly noted by Graham Greene , the English novelist , when , as an old man approaching death , he was asked if he was disappointed at not receiving the Nobel Prize , and he said no , since he was hoping for a greater prize .
In his important book , The Denial of Death ( Pulitzer Prize 1974 for general non-fiction ) , the cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker , puts it succinctly : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then , overwhelmed from childhood with a sense of one ’ s own ultimate physical powerlessness but being symbolic creatures as well as physical ones , the normal person learns to repress the terror of death by building various defenses that allow one to believe that he ultimately controls his death .
One ’ s natural impotence is then hidden within “ the vital lie of character ” ; one lives within the manageable social world that helps one blot out existential awareness by offering various social games and cultural symbols , agreed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
One learns to adjust .
The aim is to cut life down to manageable proportions , domesticate terror , and trust in the cultural and social authorities for protection and reassurance .
Obedience is key .
Listen to Big Daddy and he will rescue you , especially when he first tells you that Mr. Pumpkin Head is coming to get you unless you run into his protective embrace .
These days , it ’ s Halloween all year round in the land of the free and the home of the brave where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like poisoned candy and Big Daddy waits at the door disguised as everyone ’ s benevolent grandfather .
To be treated , you must be masked .
That is his trick .
“ Stay well , ” he mutters , after he drops a dollop of sweet fear into your bag and cackles behind his face .
Everywhere you look these days , people are doubly masked .
The paper kind and by definition , since the the word person , being derived from the Latin , persona , means mask , while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that also means mask or ghost or evil spirit .
Clearly there is a dance contest underway , a danse macabre .
And who will win nobody knows .
“ Every conflict over truth , ” wrote the psychoanalyst Otto Rank , “ is in the last analysis just the same old struggle over…immortality.
” This is exactly what is going on now with the fierce disagreements over Covid-19 .
Like the attacks of September 11 , 2001 , the anthrax attacks , the ginning up of terrorism fear with Homeland “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the lies about weapons of mass-destruction , and the coronavirus early warning systems , people have adopted positions upon which they stake their psychological lives .
To admit you were snookered is a little death that is hard to swallow .
We are being subjected to mind-control on a vast scale , the continual pumping up of the fear of death to control the population .
Americans have been living in an atmosphere of dread for almost twenty years .
It ’ s so old and so obvious but cuts so deep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You don ’ t want to die , do you , so come here into Big Daddy ’ s arms.
” In Nineteen Eighty-Four , George Orwell writes that “ The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake.
” It is a famous quote that is not true when taken out of context .
The Umbrella People and their lackeys don ’ t seek power entirely for its own sake .
They have a larger agenda : immortality .
If one reads Orwell carefully , one comes upon a key passage that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ O ’ Brien , the torturer and member of the Inner Party who poses as a member of the resistance to Big Brother ( sound familiar ? )
, asks his victim Winston Smith to reverse the slogan from “ Freedom is Slavery ” to Slavery is Freedom : All power is fundamentally power to deny mortality .
This is true whether it is the power of the state or church .
And it is always sacred power .
Many often ask why do the super-rich and powerful always want more .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transcend their pre-existing human mortality and become gods – immortals .
They stupidly believe that if they can lord it over others , kill , dominate , achieve status , become billionaires , presidents , magnates , celebrities , etc.
, they will somehow live in some weird forever .
In a process that has spanned at least a hundred and fifty years or so , our traditional cultural/religious symbol systems have been radically undermined , most momentously by the Faustian creation of Lord Nuke .
All forms of symbolic immortality ( theological @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and experiential ) that formerly provided a sense of continuity have been severely threatened .
This is the haunting specter lurking in the background of life today .
What is death ?
How to defeat or transcend it ?
How to affirm life in the face of death ?
One paradoxical way that political leaders do this is by killing .
Followers who accede to such killing join their leaders , not simply to see others dead , but to acquire power over death itself – to kill their own deaths .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ summed up in the saying to love the bomb joyously , to experience the nightmare of oblivion as ecstasy .
Isn ’ t this what the philosophy of voting for the lesser of two evil is about ?
At least he will be our killer .
Our evil killer , but not as bad as yours .
You lose .
I have read that there is a painting still visible at the entrance to a house in ruined Pompeii that tells us much about power and wealth .
It perfectly symbolizes the meaning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – e.g .
those behind the World Economic Forum , the CIA , the presidential candidates , the corporate media – and the rest of us .
It pictures a man weighing his penis on a scale of gold coins .
Gold , God , wealth , and power .
It ’ s an old story .
Today , however , there is a difference , for the spirit of nihilism has grown as belief in the spiritual dimension and God has diminished dramatically .
Money or gold , wealth in all its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immortality symbol , a sign that one is powerful and can conquer death .
What else are Trump ’ s gold-emblazoned Tower and hair , and Biden ’ s boastfully admitted threat to withhold one billion dollars from Ukraine unless they fire the prosecutor investigating his son , Hunter .
The greasing of palms , bribery , tax theft , etc .
– par for the course in a corrupt society run by thieves and criminals .
Becker says of this wealth obsession : Enter Covid-19 .
Like the attacks of September 11 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ large .
An insidious terrorist threat .
Invisible , sneaky , ready to pounce .
Fear and trembling .
So-called surprise attacks that were preceded by simulations and live drills .
Numerous parallels , too many to mention .
Let ’ s not .
Have a nice day !
Stay safe !
So what do the super-rich controllers want now ?
What are the World Economic Forum ’ s Claus Schwab , Google and the Defense Department ’ s Eric Schmidt , Bill Gates , Ray Kurzweil of Google and “ The Singularity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Covid-19 has so many cowering in fear ?
These people have realized that the thing that their money and power must do is to create a world where trans-humanism must triumph and people of flesh and blood must be induced and forced to become the machines they have been told they are .
If you doubt this is underway , research the World Economic Forum ’ s agenda , see what the Great Reset is about , the Build Back Better slogans , the massive push to create on-line existence for everyone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I saw says : “ The world is going digital.
” The goal of these mad technocratic elites is to create a fabricated reality where the visible world becomes nearly meaningless once the screen world becomes people ’ s “ window on the world.
” An electronic nothingness to replace reality as people in the industrialized countries gleefully embrace digital wraparound apparitions and the poor and vulnerable of this world suffer and die out of sight and out of mind .
It is the fundamental seismic shift of our era and perhaps the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sort of end-times desperate gambit .
And “ it just so happens ” to revolve around the use of death fear to accomplish its goals .
But for the elites , there will be no death .
For having realized that their stolen wealth and power can only take them so far , and they too will become food for worms , they have commandeered science and medicine to undertake their immortality projects .
If medicine fails to find for them the secret of immortality , then computer science and Artificial Intelligence will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ computers and live forever in their beloved cyberspace .
Digital immortality is not a joke for these people – see Kurzweil ’ s ( the director of engineering at Google ) “ The Singularity , ” etc .
– for they are actually insane but hold key positions throughout the computer and biotechnology industries .
Check where the super rich invest their money to confirm this .
None of it is secret .
Having heeded Russell Baker ’ s words about television offering no mental distraction between dinner and bedtime , I took @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Tweedledum would be dueling again , this time in what they humorously called a debate .
I was surrounded by my stuffed animals that protected me and I slept safe and sound .
Upon awakening , I read that the gladiators had exchanged blows but that both were left standing for the big showdown on November 3 .
I also noticed that each had used the words “ dark winter ” in reference to Covid-19 .
Biden said one was coming and Trump said he didn ’ t know .
Neither , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Winter Exercise , a senior level war game conducted on June 22-23 , 2001 , about a biological attack , a smallpox outbreak , the public health response , the lack of vaccines , the need for quarantine and isolation , the restriction of civil liberties , and the role of the Defense Department and the military in the response .
Nor did they speak of anthrax attacks , but the Canadian researcher , Graeme MacQueen , will here fill you in on both , in case you don ’ t know .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ am sure they didn ’ t talk about the elements of Trump ’ s “ Operation Warp Speed , ” but if you wish to understand how we are being gamed , Whitney Webb will tell you here .
Was there any mention of the Russians ?
I haven ’ t heard .
They are always a kind of a solution .
As my friend Joe Green has said : Maybe many are still Waiting for the Barbarians .
Edward Curtin is a writer whose work has appeared widely .
He teaches sociology @ @ @ @ @ @ @ His website is http : //edwardcurtin.com/ .
He is the author of the new book Seeking Truth in A Country of Lies

Edward Curtin
When The New York Times and CNN recently referred to the staged town hall spectacles of Biden and Trump as dueling events, they inadvertently revealed the truth that US presidential elections are America’s favorite movie and that the corporate media is in the entertainment business.
While it is ludicrous to imagine these tottering actors crossing swords in tights, their skirmishes in suits and ties are good for a few laughs, if you have the stomach to watch them. Only people who still believe in professional wrestling would think these clowns don’t work for the same bosses – the Umbrella People, aka the power elites, the national security state, etc., who own the country and choose their stooges to represent their interests in the White House.
I much prefer Mel Brooks, a genuinely funny guy.
The columnist Russell Baker once said the purpose of such political entertainment is to “provide a manageably small cast for a national sitcom, or soap opera, or docudrama, making it easy for media people to persuade themselves they are covering the news while mostly just entertaining us.”
As for debates and town hall farces in television prime time, the witty Baker said that “the charm of television entertainment is its ability to bridge the chasm between dinner and bedtime without mental distraction.”
Now let’s proceed to the dark side, where the sardonic screams of laughter dissolve into tears.
For such entertainment serves a devious distracting purpose: to conceal the nature of social evil and the driving forces behind American politics today. It is not particularly complicated unless the syllogism – All cats die/Socrates is dead/ therefore Socrates is a cat – rings true.
Then it’s an impossible conundrum.
We are not cats or Socrates, as far as I know. But like them, we will also die. Everyone knows this, but the thought of death is not particularly “have-a-nice-dayish,” so people deny it as much as possible in a host of ways. Most people prefer life over death, and when death does approach and can no longer be denied, most hope for immortality in some way, shape, or form.
Yes, there are those who assert this isn’t true for them, and there is no reason to doubt their sincerity. There are philosophical arguments to support their position, such as that of the Roman poet Lucretius in his famous poem De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things).
But I would maintain with the great psychoanalyst Rollo May that all such naturalistic efforts, including Lucretius’s, to explain away human anxiety rooted in death, founder on the human emotions of pity, grief, love, and loneliness.
Rational explanations take us only so far. In their efforts to deny the human condition and dismiss the spiritual dimension, the irrational, and the daimonic, they open the door to madness, as is happening today with the push by the world’s economic elite to convince people that they are machines and that their machine dreams will conquer death.
For those who love life, it seems axiomatic to me that some form of perpetuation and redemption of an individual’s life in the face and fear of death is widely desired. This can take many forms: a literal afterlife, fame, heirs, monuments, money, children, etc. History is quite clear that people have always sought some way of transcending their physical fates.
This was aptly noted by Graham Greene, the English novelist, when, as an old man approaching death, he was asked if he was disappointed at not receiving the Nobel Prize, and he said no, since he was hoping for a greater prize.
In his important book, The Denial of Death (Pulitzer Prize 1974 for general non-fiction), the cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, puts it succinctly:
Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet goes back into the ground a few feet in order blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever.
Faced with such an impossible situation, then, overwhelmed from childhood with a sense of one’s own ultimate physical powerlessness but being symbolic creatures as well as physical ones, the normal person learns to repress the terror of death by building various defenses that allow one to believe that he ultimately controls his death.
One’s natural impotence is then hidden within “the vital lie of character”; one lives within the manageable social world that helps one blot out existential awareness by offering various social games and cultural symbols, agreed forms of madness that narcotize the fear. One learns to adjust. The aim is to cut life down to manageable proportions, domesticate terror, and trust in the cultural and social authorities for protection and reassurance. Obedience is key.
Listen to Big Daddy and he will rescue you, especially when he first tells you that Mr. Pumpkin Head is coming to get you unless you run into his protective embrace.
These days, it’s Halloween all year round in the land of the free and the home of the brave where the fear of death is handed out like poisoned candy and Big Daddy waits at the door disguised as everyone’s benevolent grandfather. To be treated, you must be masked. That is his trick. “Stay well,” he mutters, after he drops a dollop of sweet fear into your bag and cackles behind his face.
Everywhere you look these days, people are doubly masked. The paper kind and by definition, since the the word person, being derived from the Latin, persona, means mask, while there is another Latin word, larva, that also means mask or ghost or evil spirit. Clearly there is a dance contest underway, a danse macabre. And who will win nobody knows.
“Every conflict over truth,” wrote the psychoanalyst Otto Rank, “is in the last analysis just the same old struggle over…immortality.”
This is exactly what is going on now with the fierce disagreements over Covid-19.
Like the attacks of September 11, 2001, the anthrax attacks, the ginning up of terrorism fear with Homeland “Security’s” color-coded warning system, the lies about weapons of mass-destruction, and the coronavirus early warning systems, people have adopted positions upon which they stake their psychological lives. To admit you were snookered is a little death that is hard to swallow.
We are being subjected to mind-control on a vast scale, the continual pumping up of the fear of death to control the population. Americans have been living in an atmosphere of dread for almost twenty years. It’s so old and so obvious but cuts so deep it works like a charm. “You don’t want to die, do you, so come here into Big Daddy’s arms.”
In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell writes that “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake.” It is a famous quote that is not true when taken out of context. The Umbrella People and their lackeys don’t seek power entirely for its own sake. They have a larger agenda: immortality.
If one reads Orwell carefully, one comes upon a key passage that clarifies the previous quote. The evil O’Brien, the torturer and member of the Inner Party who poses as a member of the resistance to Big Brother (sound familiar?), asks his victim Winston Smith to reverse the slogan from “Freedom is Slavery” to Slavery is Freedom:
Alone – free – the human being is always defeated. It must be so, because every human being is destined to die, which is the greatest of all failures. But if he can make complete, utter submission, if he can escape from his identity, if he can merge himself in the Party so that he is the Party, then he will be all-powerful and immortal. The second thing for you to realize is that power is power over human beings. Over the body – but, above all, over the mind. Power over matter – external reality as you would call it – is not important. Already our control over matter is absolute.
All power is fundamentally power to deny mortality. This is true whether it is the power of the state or church. And it is always sacred power.
Many often ask why do the super-rich and powerful always want more. It’s simple. They wish to transcend their pre-existing human mortality and become gods – immortals. They stupidly believe that if they can lord it over others, kill, dominate, achieve status, become billionaires, presidents, magnates, celebrities, etc., they will somehow live in some weird forever.
In a process that has spanned at least a hundred and fifty years or so, our traditional cultural/religious symbol systems have been radically undermined, most momentously by the Faustian creation of Lord Nuke. All forms of symbolic immortality (theological, biological, creative, natural, and experiential) that formerly provided a sense of continuity have been severely threatened. This is the haunting specter lurking in the background of life today.
What is death? How to defeat or transcend it? How to affirm life in the face of death?
One paradoxical way that political leaders do this is by killing. Followers who accede to such killing join their leaders, not simply to see others dead, but to acquire power over death itself – to kill their own deaths. It is perverse of course, and is summed up in the saying to love the bomb joyously, to experience the nightmare of oblivion as ecstasy. Isn’t this what the philosophy of voting for the lesser of two evil is about? At least he will be our killer. Our evil killer, but not as bad as yours. You lose.
I have read that there is a painting still visible at the entrance to a house in ruined Pompeii that tells us much about power and wealth. It perfectly symbolizes the meaning of the economic gap between the super-rich – e.g. those behind the World Economic Forum, the CIA, the presidential candidates, the corporate media – and the rest of us. It pictures a man weighing his penis on a scale of gold coins. Gold, God, wealth, and power. It’s an old story.
Today, however, there is a difference, for the spirit of nihilism has grown as belief in the spiritual dimension and God has diminished dramatically. Money or gold, wealth in all its forms, is today’s foremost immortality symbol, a sign that one is powerful and can conquer death. What else are Trump’s gold-emblazoned Tower and hair, and Biden’s boastfully admitted threat to withhold one billion dollars from Ukraine unless they fire the prosecutor investigating his son, Hunter. The greasing of palms, bribery, tax theft, etc. – par for the course in a corrupt society run by thieves and criminals.
Becker says of this wealth obsession:
The only hint we get of the cultural repression seeping through is that even dedicated financiers wash their hands after handling money. The victory over death is a fantasy that cannot be fully believed in; money doesn’t entirely banish feces [decay and death that is of course defeated with toilet paper as Covid-19 has proven], and so the threat of germs and vulnerability in the very process of securing immortality.
Pseudo immortality.
Enter Covid-19. Like the attacks of September 11, 2001, it is death writ large. An insidious terrorist threat. Invisible, sneaky, ready to pounce. Fear and trembling. So-called surprise attacks that were preceded by simulations and live drills. Numerous parallels, too many to mention. Let’s not. Have a nice day! Stay safe!
So what do the super-rich controllers want now? What are the World Economic Forum’s Claus Schwab, Google and the Defense Department’s Eric Schmidt, Bill Gates, Ray Kurzweil of Google and “The Singularity,” et al. pushing now that Covid-19 has so many cowering in fear?
These people have realized that the thing that their money and power must do is to create a world where trans-humanism must triumph and people of flesh and blood must be induced and forced to become the machines they have been told they are. If you doubt this is underway, research the World Economic Forum’s agenda, see what the Great Reset is about, the Build Back Better slogans, the massive push to create on-line existence for everyone, etc. As a recent ad I saw says: “The world is going digital.”
The goal of these mad technocratic elites is to create a fabricated reality where the visible world becomes nearly meaningless once the screen world becomes people’s “window on the world.” An electronic nothingness to replace reality as people in the industrialized countries gleefully embrace digital wraparound apparitions and the poor and vulnerable of this world suffer and die out of sight and out of mind. It is the fundamental seismic shift of our era and perhaps the greatest propaganda operation ever undertaken. A sort of end-times desperate gambit.
And “it just so happens” to revolve around the use of death fear to accomplish its goals.
But for the elites, there will be no death. For having realized that their stolen wealth and power can only take them so far, and they too will become food for worms, they have commandeered science and medicine to undertake their immortality projects. If medicine fails to find for them the secret of immortality, then computer science and Artificial Intelligence will, and they will be uploaded into computers and live forever in their beloved cyberspace. Digital immortality is not a joke for these people – see Kurzweil’s (the director of engineering at Google) “The Singularity,” etc. – for they are actually insane but hold key positions throughout the computer and biotechnology industries. Check where the super rich invest their money to confirm this. None of it is secret.
Having heeded Russell Baker’s words about television offering no mental distraction between dinner and bedtime, I took to my crib early, knowing Tweedledee and Tweedledum would be dueling again, this time in what they humorously called a debate. I was surrounded by my stuffed animals that protected me and I slept safe and sound.
Upon awakening, I read that the gladiators had exchanged blows but that both were left standing for the big showdown on November 3. I also noticed that each had used the words “dark winter” in reference to Covid-19. Biden said one was coming and Trump said he didn’t know.
Neither, of course, spoke of the Dark Winter Exercise, a senior level war game conducted on June 22-23, 2001, about a biological attack, a smallpox outbreak, the public health response, the lack of vaccines, the need for quarantine and isolation, the restriction of civil liberties, and the role of the Defense Department and the military in the response. Nor did they speak of anthrax attacks, but the Canadian researcher, Graeme MacQueen, will here fill you in on both, in case you don’t know. Maybe the boys just forgot.
I am sure they didn’t talk about the elements of Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed,” but if you wish to understand how we are being gamed, Whitney Webb will tell you here.
Was there any mention of the Russians? I haven’t heard. They are always a kind of a solution. As my friend Joe Green has said:
All dissenting opinions are Russian. I think Socrates said that. I’m paraphrasing.
Maybe many are still Waiting for the Barbarians.
Edward Curtin is a writer whose work has appeared widely. He teaches sociology at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. His website is http://edwardcurtin.com/. He is the author of the new book Seeking Truth in A Country of Lies


offguardian--2020-10-25--Three New Reads – October

Three New Reads – October

China leads the race for 5G leadership , a fact not only deeply alarming to Washington and Wall Street but with dire implications for a Europe left in the dust .
Meanwhile a French Professor of Philosophy has a word or two to say on the links between liberalism and fascism .
Last but not least , this month saw what would have been the hundredth birthday of the man who made “ an offer he can ’ t refuse ” a household phrase .
Last April Mike Pompeo bragged of a CIA which : Fifteen years earlier , Dubya @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had jeered that : Not that the DNC have been any less energetic .
In the interim a black Democrat in the Oval Office and his female Secretary of State had bombed and laid to depleted uranium waste – and tortured and droned at will – across the middle east and beyond .
But how does the mightiest empire of all time react when an entity outside its orbit is not only rising but has in some arenas already surpassed it ?
In this my first read , another gamekeeper turned poacher [ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , gives one answer .
As the race to set 5G standards intensifies , it is not Silicon Valley but China which is forging ahead .
[ 2 ] And taking Russia with it .
At first blush it seems odd that Crooke sees a parallel between the perilous situation currently unfolding , and that in the summer of 1914 : the five sleepy weeks between a late June shooting in Sarajevo , and outbreak of WW1 in early August .
Diplomats of course understood that two heavily-armed alliances were potentially on a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ episodes of sabre-rattling for several years before , whose failure to come to a head had induced a sense that the status quo would extend indefinitely .
Opinion then had been influenced by Norman Angell ’ s 1909 best-seller , The Great Illusion , arguing that war had become impossible , because global trade and capital flows were too closely interlinked .
What they did not understand at that earlier moment was that the circumstances of mid-1914 ( the Sarajevo moment ) seemed so propitious both for Germany to aspire to empire , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could quash it utterly .
Just as circumstances are believed – by some in Washington – to be serendipitous today .
Trump et al seem convinced that the US can use its financial and trade muscle – whilst America still predominates – to crush China ’ s rise , contain Russia , and arm-twist Europe into tech vassalage .
The Balkan war in the early 20th century locked Germany ’ s fickle ally Austria-Hungary into Germany ’ s greater fight against Russia .
And today , Pompeo hopes to lock ( fickle ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russia .
The Nordstream threats and the Navalny scam are just some of Pompeo ’ s ‘ levers ’ .
NB Crooke ’ s piece appeared on the Strategic Culture Foundation site on October 5 .
Later in the month he wrote a related piece I also recommend : an 1800 worder , The Two Undersides to Geo-Politics .
Gabriel Rockhill is a Franco-American philosopher , activist and professor at Villanova University .
My first exposure paired the photo of a dashing forty-something with a prose style to make Derrida and Lacan seem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I promptly bracketed the man as the kind of faux left poseur who dazzles his adoring students with obscurantism in the day , screws them two at a time at night .
To be fair on Derrida and Lacan , it is not entirely clear to a non French speaker like me how much of their legendary opacity is due to their own shortcomings , how much to those of their translators .
It may be that this applies also to Rockhill , whom I assume fluent in both languages , though that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of his French output .
Whatever the reason , subsequently read pieces – like that on les gilets jaunes and the failure of the French intelligentsia in The Philosophical Salon last April – suggest that first encounter to have been an anomaly .
Mr Rockhill has a straight from the shoulder style , and grasp of both marxist theory and empirical detail , which instantly engages .
Here he uses these qualities to good effect in showing how , historically and in logic , liberalism and fascism are not opposites but two sides @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I recommended a second October piece by Alastair Crooke , so do I recommend that a reading of this one be followed by a second and related October piece from Gabriel Rockill .
The US did not defeat fascism in WWII assembles in some detail the facts on how Washington co-opted fascists before , after – and during – “ the war on Nazi tyranny ” .
He never met a real gangster , but his mafia melodrama remains timeless ( 2723 words ) And now for something different .
Ever on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our capitalist ruling class – a mission sketchily discussed in a recent post , Politics and language – I ’ ve taken of late to calling them gangsters .
Hardly original , I know , but new to my lexicon .
It happens that two of my favourite films – after Some Like it Hot , of course – are Godfathers I and II .
The man who created the Corleones , Mario Puzo , was born a hundred years ago this month and is rightly celebrated in this enjoyable Independent piece from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Godfather scenes , in book and film both , has New York ’ s five Mafia families coming together , ostensibly to prevent the kind of all-out internecine war – following a failed attempt on Don Corleone ’ s life , and successful one on his would-be assassin ’ s – which is not good for business .
At a certain point in the parlay , the head of a rival family protests : It ’ s not a compliment but an accusation .
Its subtext is a complaint , understood by all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extent to which he controls judges and police chiefs ; judges and chiefs whose favours it is unchristian of him not to share : So too is Mario Puzo too modest when he says Francis Ford Coppola ’ s films are far better than his own book .
Magnificent as the first two films are , they are matched by the elegance , insight , scope and story-telling genius on display in the greatest crime thriller of its century .
( Thomas Harris comes a fair second with Hannibal Lecter , but lacks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) And novels have one signal advantage , generally speaking , over drama .
As their characters hold forth we are simultaneously privy to their thoughts .
Since so much of the mafia ’ s grip on our imagination lies in the disparity between speech and thought , text and subtext – those glorious euphemisms [ 3 ] of ‘ offers he can ’ t refuse ’ … ‘ the olive oil business ’ … ‘ sleeping with the fishes ’ and ‘ godfather ’ itself – Coppola ’ s films , masterpieces @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could not surpass Mario Puzo ’ s writing .
More to the point here , those calmly insane euphemisms , and the gangsters who deploy them , seem to me fitting metonyms for our times .
Take another look at the Pompeo and Rove quotes I opened with .
Consider too the similarities between Vito Corleone ’ s monopoly of judges and police chiefs – at the expense of the ‘ legitimate ’ aspirations of the other New York families – and Britain ’ s 1914 monopoly of the sea lanes – at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legitimate ’ imperial aspirations .
I ’ ve no need to update this analogy .
Alastair Crooke has done that for me .

Philip Roddis
China leads the race for 5G leadership, a fact not only deeply alarming to Washington and Wall Street but with dire implications for a Europe left in the dust. Meanwhile a French Professor of Philosophy has a word or two to say on the links between liberalism and fascism. Last but not least, this month saw what would have been the hundredth birthday of the man who made “an offer he can’t refuse” a household phrase.
Now read on.
*
Last April Mike Pompeo bragged of a CIA which:
… lied, cheated and stole … we had, like, entire training courses on this. It … er … reminds you of the glory of the American Experiment.
Fifteen years earlier, Dubya’s Chief of Staff Karl Rove had jeered that:
We’re an empire now. We create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too. We’re history’s actors and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.
Not that the DNC have been any less energetic. In the interim a black Democrat in the Oval Office and his female Secretary of State had bombed and laid to depleted uranium waste – and tortured and droned at will – across the middle east and beyond.
But how does the mightiest empire of all time react when an entity outside its orbit is not only rising but has in some arenas already surpassed it? In this my first read, another gamekeeper turned poacher[1] former British diplomat Alastair Crooke, gives one answer.
As the race to set 5G standards intensifies, it is not Silicon Valley but China which is forging ahead.[2] And taking Russia with it.
At first blush it seems odd that Crooke sees a parallel between the perilous situation currently unfolding, and that in the summer of 1914: the five sleepy weeks between a late June shooting in Sarajevo, and outbreak of WW1 in early August.
Diplomats of course understood that two heavily-armed alliances were potentially on a collision course, but there had been episodes of sabre-rattling for several years before, whose failure to come to a head had induced a sense that the status quo would extend indefinitely. Opinion then had been influenced by Norman Angell’s 1909 best-seller, The Great Illusion, arguing that war had become impossible, because global trade and capital flows were too closely interlinked. What they did not understand at that earlier moment was that the circumstances of mid-1914 (the Sarajevo moment) seemed so propitious both for Germany to aspire to empire, and for Britain to believe that it could quash it utterly. Just as circumstances are believed – by some in Washington – to be serendipitous today. Trump et al seem convinced that the US can use its financial and trade muscle – whilst America still predominates – to crush China’s rise, contain Russia, and arm-twist Europe into tech vassalage. The Balkan war in the early 20th century locked Germany’s fickle ally Austria-Hungary into Germany’s greater fight against Russia. And today, Pompeo hopes to lock (fickle) Europe into America’s containment of Russia. The Nordstream threats and the Navalny scam are just some of Pompeo’s ‘levers’.
NB Crooke’s piece appeared on the Strategic Culture Foundation site on October 5. Later in the month he wrote a related piece I also recommend: an 1800 worder, The Two Undersides to Geo-Politics.
*
The widespread idea that fascism was ultimately defeated by liberalism in WWII, due primarily to the U.S. intervention in the war, is a baseless canard … 80% of the Nazis who died in the war were killed on the Eastern Front, where Germany had deployed 200 divisions (versus 10 in the West). 27 million Soviets gave their lives fighting fascism, whereas 400,000 American soldiers died. It was, above all, the Red Army that defeated fascism in WWII, and it is communism — not liberalism — that constitutes the last bulwark against fascism. The historical lesson should be clear: one cannot be truly antifascist without being anti-capitalist.
Gabriel Rockhill is a Franco-American philosopher, activist and professor at Villanova University. My first exposure paired the photo of a dashing forty-something with a prose style to make Derrida and Lacan seem models of lucidity. With inexcusable prejudice I promptly bracketed the man as the kind of faux left poseur who dazzles his adoring students with obscurantism in the day, screws them two at a time at night.
(That said, #MeToo, for all its contempt for the presumption of innocence, has – I hope – called time on those days. In any case I’m sure that M. Rockhill is the last word in academic rectitude on this front. As, indeed, was I.)
To be fair on Derrida and Lacan, it is not entirely clear to a non French speaker like me how much of their legendary opacity is due to their own shortcomings, how much to those of their translators. It may be that this applies also to Rockhill, whom I assume fluent in both languages, though that would not rule out third party translations of his French output.
Whatever the reason, subsequently read pieces – like that on les gilets jaunes and the failure of the French intelligentsia in The Philosophical Salon last April – suggest that first encounter to have been an anomaly. Mr Rockhill has a straight from the shoulder style, and grasp of both marxist theory and empirical detail, which instantly engages.
Here he uses these qualities to good effect in showing how, historically and in logic, liberalism and fascism are not opposites but two sides of one coin. And just as I recommended a second October piece by Alastair Crooke, so do I recommend that a reading of this one be followed by a second and related October piece from Gabriel Rockill. The US did not defeat fascism in WWII assembles in some detail the facts on how Washington co-opted fascists before, after – and during – “the war on Nazi tyranny”.
*
And now for something different. Ever on the lookout for new and fresh descriptors for our capitalist ruling class – a mission sketchily discussed in a recent post, Politics and language – I’ve taken of late to calling them gangsters. Hardly original, I know, but new to my lexicon.
It happens that two of my favourite films – after Some Like it Hot, of course – are Godfathers I and II. The man who created the Corleones, Mario Puzo, was born a hundred years ago this month and is rightly celebrated in this enjoyable Independent piece from Martin Chilton.
One of many memorable Godfather scenes, in book and film both, has New York’s five Mafia families coming together, ostensibly to prevent the kind of all-out internecine war – following a failed attempt on Don Corleone’s life, and successful one on his would-be assassin’s – which is not good for business.
At a certain point in the parlay, the head of a rival family protests:
Don Corleone is too modest!
It’s not a compliment but an accusation. Its subtext is a complaint, understood by all present, that Vito Corleone downplays the extent to which he controls judges and police chiefs; judges and chiefs whose favours it is unchristian of him not to share:
… naturally he should charge a fee for these services. After all … [the plaintiff looks with an expansive gesture around the august table to appreciative smiles from all but one] … we aren’t communists!
So too is Mario Puzo too modest when he says Francis Ford Coppola’s films are far better than his own book. Magnificent as the first two films are, they are matched by the elegance, insight, scope and story-telling genius on display in the greatest crime thriller of its century. (Thomas Harris comes a fair second with Hannibal Lecter, but lacks the Godfather’s sheer scale.)
And novels have one signal advantage, generally speaking, over drama. As their characters hold forth we are simultaneously privy to their thoughts. Since so much of the mafia’s grip on our imagination lies in the disparity between speech and thought, text and subtext – those glorious euphemisms[3] of ‘offers he can’t refuse’ … ‘the olive oil business’ … ‘sleeping with the fishes’ and ‘godfather’ itself – Coppola’s films, masterpieces though they are, do not and could not surpass Mario Puzo’s writing.
More to the point here, those calmly insane euphemisms, and the gangsters who deploy them, seem to me fitting metonyms for our times. Take another look at the Pompeo and Rove quotes I opened with.
Consider too the similarities between Vito Corleone’s monopoly of judges and police chiefs – at the expense of the ‘legitimate’ aspirations of the other New York families – and Britain’s 1914 monopoly of the sea lanes – at the expense of Germany’s ‘legitimate’ imperial aspirations. I’ve no need to update this analogy. Alastair Crooke has done that for me.
*
NOTES: [1] Gamekeepers turned poacher are very much a sign of our polarised times. Alastair Crooke’s name is to be added to the burgeoning list of establishment renegades – ambassadors, CIA officers, UN weapons inspectors, Reagan appointees, right wing media hosts and even one or two rogue journalists – who’ve broken ranks in disgust at the contempt in which our rulers and their media hold truth. [2] Apart from the commercial and socio-political implications of 5G, its importance to the ‘internet of things’ enhances China’s ability to defy US military might. Reduced ‘latency’ – delay in response – on tiny chips is of huge significance to missile/anti-missile technologies. [3] The mafia’s ‘glorious euphemisms’ are hilariously foregrounded in Billy Wilder’s Some Like it Hot: “friends of Italian Opera” … “something in the cake disagreed with him” … “join us” (subtext, “add yourselves to the body count in Chicago’s St.Valentines Day massacre”) ...