lewrockwell--2020-09-14--The West’s Rejection of God Will End in Misery and Terror

Originally appeared at : The Voice Crying in the Wilderness As a survivor of the Communist Holocaust I am horrified to witness how my beloved America , my adopted country , is gradually being transformed into a secularist and atheistic utopia , where communist ideals are glorified and promoted , while Judeo-Christian values and morality are ridiculed and increasingly eradicated from the public and social consciousness of our nation .
Under the decades-long assault and militant radicalism of many so-called “ liberal ” and “ progressive ” elites , God has been progressively erased from our public and educational institutions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of delusion , perversion , corruption , violence , decadence , and insanity .
It is no coincidence that as Marxist ideologies and secularist principles engulf the culture and pervert mainstream thinking , individual freedoms and liberties are rapidly disappearing .
As a consequence , Americans feel increasingly more powerless and subjugated by some of the most radical and hypocritical , least democratic , and characterless individuals our society has ever produced .
Flux Phenom Reinforced ... Best Price : $ 27.17 ( $ 27.17 / count ) Buy New $ 28.95 ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us who have experienced and witnesses first-hand the atrocities and terror of communism understand fully why such evil takes root , how it grows and deceives , and the kind of hell it will ultimately unleash on the innocent and the faithful .
Godlessness is always the first step towards tyranny and oppression !
Nobel laureate , Orthodox Christian author , and Russian dissident , Alexander Solzhenitsyn , in his “ Godlessness : the First Step to the Gulag ” address , given when he received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Russian revolution and the communist takeover were facilitated by an atheistic mentality an a long process of secularization which alienated the people from God and traditional Christian morality and beliefs .
He rightly concluded : “ Men have forgotten God ; that ’ s why all this has happened.
” The text of his Templeton Address is provided below .
The parallels with the current crisis and moral decay in American society are striking and frightening .
Those who have ears to hear , let them hear !
More than half a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a child , I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia : Men have forgotten God ; that ’ s why all this has happened .
Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution ; in the process I have read hundreds of books , collected hundreds of personal testimonies , and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people , I could not put it more accurately than to repeat : Men have forgotten God ; that ’ s why all this has happened .
Katadyn Micropur MP1 W ... Buy New $ 13.95 What is more , the events of the Russian Revolution can only be understood now , at the end of the century , against the background of what has since occurred in the rest of the world .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ universal significance .
And if I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century , here too , I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again : Men have forgotten God .
The failings of human consciousness , deprived of its divine dimension , have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century .
The failings of human consciousness , deprived of its divine dimension , have been a determining factor in all the major @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of these was World War I , and much of our present predicament can be traced back to it .
It was a war ( the memory of which seems to be fading ) when Europe , bursting with health and abundance , fell into a rage of self-mutilation which could not but sap its strength for a century or more , and perhaps forever .
The only possible explanation for this war is a mental eclipse among the leaders of Europe due to their lost awareness of a Supreme Power above them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moved ostensibly Christian states to employ poison gas , a weapon so obviously beyond the limits of humanity .
The same kind of defect , the flaw of a consciousness lacking all divine dimension , was manifested after World War II when the West yielded to the satanic temptation of the “ nuclear umbrella.
” It was equivalent to saying : Let ’ s cast off worries , let ’ s free the younger generation from their duties and obligations , let ’ s make no effort to defend ourselves , to say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our ears to the groans emanating from the East , and let us live instead in the pursuit of happiness .
If danger should threaten us , we shall be protected by the nuclear bomb ; if not , then let the world burn in Hell for all we care .
The pitifully helpless state to which the contemporary West has sunk is in large measure due to this fatal error : the belief that the defense of peace depends not on stout hearts and steadfast men , but solely on the nuclear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a stage which , if it had been described to preceding centuries , would have called forth the cry : “ This is the Apocalypse !
” Yet we have grown used to this kind of world ; we even feel at home in it .
Dostoevsky warned that “ great events could come upon us and catch us intellectually unprepared.
” This is precisely what has happened .
And he predicted that “ the world will be saved only after it has been possessed by the demon of evil.
” Whether it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to wait and see : this will depend on our conscience , on our spiritual lucidity , on our individual and combined efforts in the face of catastrophic circumstances .
But it has already come to pass that the demon of evil , like a whirlwind , triumphantly circles all five continents of the earth… super-cute pepper spra ... Buy New $ 37.99 By the time of the Revolution , faith had virtually disappeared in Russian educated circles ; and amongst the uneducated , its health was threatened .
In its past , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social ideal was not fame , or riches , or material success , but a pious way of life .
Russia was then steeped in an Orthodox Christianity which remained true to the Church of the first centuries .
The Orthodoxy of that time knew how to safeguard its people under the yoke of a foreign occupation that lasted more than two centuries , while at the same time fending off iniquitous blows from the swords of Western crusaders .
During those centuries the Orthodox faith in our country became part of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of our people , the forms of daily life , the work calendar , the priorities in every undertaking , the organization of the week and of the year .
Faith was the shaping and unifying force of the nation .
But in the 17th century Russian Orthodoxy was gravely weakened by an internal schism .
In the 18th , the country was shaken by Peter ’ s forcibly imposed transformations , which favored the economy , the state , and the military at the expense of the religious spirit and national life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enlightenment , Russia felt the first whiff of secularism ; its subtle poisons permeated the educated classes in the course of the 19th century and opened the path to Marxism .
By the time of the Revolution , faith had virtually disappeared in Russian educated circles ; and amongst the uneducated , its health was threatened .
It was Dostoevsky , once again , who drew from the French Revolution and its seeming hatred of the Church the lesson that “ revolution must necessarily begin with atheism.
” That is absolutely true .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a godlessness as organized , militarized , and tenaciously malevolent as that practiced by Marxism .
Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin , and at the heart of their psychology , hatred of God is the principal driving force , more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions .
Militant atheism is not merely incidental or marginal to Communist policy ; it is not a side effect , but the central pivot .
The 1920 ’ s in the USSR witnessed an uninterrupted procession of victims and martyrs amongst the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , one of whom , Veniamin of Petrograd , had been elected by the popular vote of his diocese .
Patriarch Tikhon himself passed through the hands of the Cheka-GPU and then died under suspicious circumstances .
Scores of archbishops and bishops perished .
Tens of thousands of priests , monks , and nuns , pressured by the Chekists to renounce the Word of God , were tortured , shot in cellars , sent to camps , exiled to the desolate tundra of the far North , or turned out into the streets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shelter .
All these Christian martyrs went unswervingly to their deaths for the faith ; instances of apostasy were few and far between .
For tens of millions of laymen access to the Church was blocked , and they were forbidden to bring up their children in the Faith : religious parents were wrenched from their children and thrown into prison , while the children were turned from the faith by threats and lies… VIPERTEK VTS-989 - 58 ... Buy New $ 20.99 For a short period of time , when he needed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hitler , Stalin cynically adopted a friendly posture toward the Church .
This deceptive game , continued in later years by Brezhnev with the help of showcase publications and other window dressing , has unfortunately tended to be taken at its face value in the West .
Yet the tenacity with which hatred of religion is rooted in Communism may be judged by the example of their most liberal leader , Krushchev : for though he undertook a number of significant steps to extend freedom , Krushchev simultaneously rekindled the frenzied Leninist obsession @ @ @ @ @ @ @ something they did not expect : that in a land where churches have been leveled , where a triumphant atheism has rampaged uncontrolled for two-thirds of a century , where the clergy is utterly humiliated and deprived of all independence , where what remains of the Church as an institution is tolerated only for the sake of propaganda directed at the West , where even today people are sent to the labor camps for their faith , and where , within the camps themselves , those who gather to pray at Easter are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that beneath this Communist steamroller the Christian tradition would survive in Russia .
It is true that millions of our countrymen have been corrupted and spiritually devastated by an officially imposed atheism , yet there remain many millions of believers : it is only external pressures that keep them from speaking out , but , as is always the case in times of persecution and suffering , the awareness of God in my country has attained great acuteness and profundity .
It is here that we see the dawn of hope : for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tanks and rockets , no matter what successes it attains in seizing the planet , it is doomed never to vanquish Christianity .
The West has yet to experience a Communist invasion ; religion here remains free .
But the West ’ s own historical evolution has been such that today it too is experiencing a drying up of religious consciousness .
It too has witnessed racking schisms , bloody religious wars , and rancor , to say nothing of the tide of secularism that , from the late Middle Ages onward , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gradual sapping of strength from within is a threat to faith that is perhaps even more dangerous than any attempt to assault religion violently from without .
Twelve South Curve for ... Buy New $ 59.99 Imperceptibly , through decades of gradual erosion , the meaning of life in the West has ceased to be seen as anything more lofty than the “ pursuit of happiness , “ a goal that has even been solemnly guaranteed by constitutions .
The concepts of good and evil have been ridiculed for several centuries ; banished @ @ @ @ @ @ @ replaced by political or class considerations of short lived value .
It has become embarrassing to state that evil makes its home in the individual human heart before it enters a political system .
Yet it is not considered shameful to make dally concessions to an integral evil .
Judging by the continuing landslide of concessions made before the eyes of our very own generation , the West is ineluctably slipping toward the abyss .
Western societies are losing more and more of their religious essence as they thoughtlessly yield up their younger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ film about Jesus is shown throughout the United States , reputedly one of the most religious countries in the world , or a major newspaper publishes a shameless caricature of the Virgin Mary , what further evidence of godlessness does one need ?
When external rights are completely unrestricted , why should one make an inner effort to restrain oneself from ignoble acts ?
Or why should one refrain from burning hatred , whatever its basis–race , class , or ideology ?
Such hatred is in fact corroding many hearts today .
Atheist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a younger generation in a spirit of hatred of their own society .
Amid all the vituperation we forget that the defects of capitalism represent the basic flaws of human nature , allowed unlimited freedom together with the various human rights ; we forget that under Communism ( and Communism is breathing down the neck of all moderate forms of socialism , which are unstable ) the identical flaws run riot in any person with the least degree of authority ; while everyone else under that system does indeed attain “ equality ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eager fanning of the flames of hatred is becoming the mark of today ’ s free world .
Indeed , the broader the personal freedoms are , the higher the level of prosperity or even of abundance–the more vehement , paradoxically , does this blind hatred become .
The contemporary developed West thus demonstrates by its own example that human salvation can be found neither in the profusion of material goods nor in merely making money .
This deliberately nurtured hatred then spreads to all that is alive , to life itself , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sounds , and shapes , to the human body .
The embittered art of the twentieth century is perishing as a result of this ugly hate , for art is fruitless without love .
In the East art has collapsed because it has been knocked down and trampled upon , but in the West the fall has been voluntary , a decline into a contrived and pretentious quest where the artist , instead of attempting to reveal the divine plan , tries to put himself in the place of God .
Here again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worldwide process , with East and West yielding the same results , and once again for the same reason : Men have forgotten God .
Digital Electronic Cas ... Buy New $ 55.99 With such global events looming over us like mountains , nay , like entire mountain ranges , it may seem incongruous and inappropriate to recall that the primary key to our being or non-being resides in each individual human heart , in the heart ’ s preference for specific good or evil .
Yet this remains true even today , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the most reliable key we have .
The social theories that promised so much have demonstrated their bankruptcy , leaving us at a dead end .
The free people of the West could reasonably have been expected to realize that they are beset · by numerous freely nurtured falsehoods , and not to allow lies to be foisted upon them so easily .
All attempts to find a way out of the plight of today ’ s world are fruitless unless we redirect our consciousness , in repentance , to the Creator of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be illumined , and we shall seek it in vain .
The resources we have set aside for ourselves are too impoverished for the task .
We must first recognize the horror perpetrated not by some outside force , not by class or national enemies , but within each of us individually , and within every society .
This is especially true of a free and highly developed society , for here in particular we have surely brought everything upon ourselves , of our own free will .
We ourselves , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tight that noose… Our life consists not in the pursuit of material success but in the quest for worthy spiritual growth .
Our entire earthly existence is but a transitional stage in the movement toward something higher , and we must not stumble and fall , nor must we linger fruitlessly on one rung of the ladder .
Material laws alone do not explain our life or give it direction .
The laws of physics and physiology will never reveal the indisputable manner in which the Creator constantly , day in and day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each of us , unfailingly granting us the energy of existence ; when this assistance leaves us , we die .
And in the life of our entire planet , the Divine Spirit surely moves with no less force : this we must grasp in our dark and terrible hour .
To the ill-considered hopes of the last two centuries , which have reduced us to insignificance and brought us to the brink of nuclear and non-nuclear death , we can propose only a determined quest for the warm hand of God , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spurned .
Only in this way can our eyes be opened to the errors of this unfortunate twentieth century and our bands be directed to setting them right .
There is nothing else to cling to in the landslide : the combined vision of all the thinkers of the Enlightenment amounts to nothing .
Our five continents are caught in a whirlwind .
But it is during trials such as these that the highest gifts of the human spirit are manifested .
If we perish and lose this world , the fault will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Godlessness : the First Step to the Gulag ” .
Templeton Prize Lecture , 10 May 1983 ( London ) .

Originally appeared at: The Voice Crying in the Wilderness
As a survivor of the Communist Holocaust I am horrified to witness how my beloved America, my adopted country, is gradually being transformed into a secularist and atheistic utopia, where communist ideals are glorified and promoted, while Judeo-Christian values and morality are ridiculed and increasingly eradicated from the public and social consciousness of our nation.
Under the decades-long assault and militant radicalism of many so-called “liberal” and “progressive” elites, God has been progressively erased from our public and educational institutions, to be replaced with all manner of delusion, perversion, corruption, violence, decadence, and insanity.
It is no coincidence that as Marxist ideologies and secularist principles engulf the culture and pervert mainstream thinking, individual freedoms and liberties are rapidly disappearing. As a consequence, Americans feel increasingly more powerless and subjugated by some of the most radical and hypocritical, least democratic, and characterless individuals our society has ever produced. Flux Phenom Reinforced... Best Price: $27.17 ($27.17 / count) Buy New $28.95 ($28.95 / count) (as of 02:24 UTC - Details)
Those of us who have experienced and witnesses first-hand the atrocities and terror of communism understand fully why such evil takes root, how it grows and deceives, and the kind of hell it will ultimately unleash on the innocent and the faithful. Godlessness is always the first step towards tyranny and oppression!
Nobel laureate, Orthodox Christian author, and Russian dissident, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his “Godlessness: the First Step to the Gulag” address, given when he received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion on May of 1983, explained how the Russian revolution and the communist takeover were facilitated by an atheistic mentality an a long process of secularization which alienated the people from God and traditional Christian morality and beliefs. He rightly concluded: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”
The text of his Templeton Address is provided below. The parallels with the current crisis and moral decay in American society are striking and frightening. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear!
* * *
“Men Have Forgotten God” – The Templeton Address
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.
Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.
Katadyn Micropur MP1 W... Buy New $13.95 (as of 09:45 UTC - Details) What is more, the events of the Russian Revolution can only be understood now, at the end of the century, against the background of what has since occurred in the rest of the world. What emerges here is a process of universal significance. And if I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, here too, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: Men have forgotten God.
The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century.
The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century. The first of these was World War I, and much of our present predicament can be traced back to it. It was a war (the memory of which seems to be fading) when Europe, bursting with health and abundance, fell into a rage of self-mutilation which could not but sap its strength for a century or more, and perhaps forever. The only possible explanation for this war is a mental eclipse among the leaders of Europe due to their lost awareness of a Supreme Power above them. Only a godless embitterment could have moved ostensibly Christian states to employ poison gas, a weapon so obviously beyond the limits of humanity.
The same kind of defect, the flaw of a consciousness lacking all divine dimension, was manifested after World War II when the West yielded to the satanic temptation of the “nuclear umbrella.” It was equivalent to saying: Let’s cast off worries, let’s free the younger generation from their duties and obligations, let’s make no effort to defend ourselves, to say nothing of defending others-let’s stop our ears to the groans emanating from the East, and let us live instead in the pursuit of happiness. If danger should threaten us, we shall be protected by the nuclear bomb; if not, then let the world burn in Hell for all we care. The pitifully helpless state to which the contemporary West has sunk is in large measure due to this fatal error: the belief that the defense of peace depends not on stout hearts and steadfast men, but solely on the nuclear bomb…
Today’ s world has reached a stage which, if it had been described to preceding centuries, would have called forth the cry: “This is the Apocalypse!”
Yet we have grown used to this kind of world; we even feel at home in it.
Dostoevsky warned that “great events could come upon us and catch us intellectually unprepared.” This is precisely what has happened. And he predicted that “the world will be saved only after it has been possessed by the demon of evil.” Whether it really will be saved we shall have to wait and see: this will depend on our conscience, on our spiritual lucidity, on our individual and combined efforts in the face of catastrophic circumstances. But it has already come to pass that the demon of evil, like a whirlwind, triumphantly circles all five continents of the earth… super-cute pepper spra... Buy New $37.99 (as of 04:27 UTC - Details)
By the time of the Revolution, faith had virtually disappeared in Russian educated circles; and amongst the uneducated, its health was threatened.
In its past, Russia did know a time when the social ideal was not fame, or riches, or material success, but a pious way of life. Russia was then steeped in an Orthodox Christianity which remained true to the Church of the first centuries. The Orthodoxy of that time knew how to safeguard its people under the yoke of a foreign occupation that lasted more than two centuries, while at the same time fending off iniquitous blows from the swords of Western crusaders. During those centuries the Orthodox faith in our country became part of the very pattern of thought and the personality of our people, the forms of daily life, the work calendar, the priorities in every undertaking, the organization of the week and of the year. Faith was the shaping and unifying force of the nation.
But in the 17th century Russian Orthodoxy was gravely weakened by an internal schism. In the 18th, the country was shaken by Peter’s forcibly imposed transformations, which favored the economy, the state, and the military at the expense of the religious spirit and national life. And along with this lopsided Petrine enlightenment, Russia felt the first whiff of secularism; its subtle poisons permeated the educated classes in the course of the 19th century and opened the path to Marxism. By the time of the Revolution, faith had virtually disappeared in Russian educated circles; and amongst the uneducated, its health was threatened.
It was Dostoevsky, once again, who drew from the French Revolution and its seeming hatred of the Church the lesson that “revolution must necessarily begin with atheism.” That is absolutely true. But the world had never before known a godlessness as organized, militarized, and tenaciously malevolent as that practiced by Marxism. Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin, and at the heart of their psychology, hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions. Militant atheism is not merely incidental or marginal to Communist policy; it is not a side effect, but the central pivot.
The 1920’s in the USSR witnessed an uninterrupted procession of victims and martyrs amongst the Orthodox clergy. Two metropolitans were shot, one of whom, Veniamin of Petrograd, had been elected by the popular vote of his diocese. Patriarch Tikhon himself passed through the hands of the Cheka-GPU and then died under suspicious circumstances. Scores of archbishops and bishops perished. Tens of thousands of priests, monks, and nuns, pressured by the Chekists to renounce the Word of God, were tortured, shot in cellars, sent to camps, exiled to the desolate tundra of the far North, or turned out into the streets in their old age without food or shelter. All these Christian martyrs went unswervingly to their deaths for the faith; instances of apostasy were few and far between. For tens of millions of laymen access to the Church was blocked, and they were forbidden to bring up their children in the Faith: religious parents were wrenched from their children and thrown into prison, while the children were turned from the faith by threats and lies… VIPERTEK VTS-989 - 58 ... Buy New $20.99 (as of 05:50 UTC - Details)
For a short period of time, when he needed to gather strength for the struggle against Hitler, Stalin cynically adopted a friendly posture toward the Church. This deceptive game, continued in later years by Brezhnev with the help of showcase publications and other window dressing, has unfortunately tended to be taken at its face value in the West. Yet the tenacity with which hatred of religion is rooted in Communism may be judged by the example of their most liberal leader, Krushchev: for though he undertook a number of significant steps to extend freedom, Krushchev simultaneously rekindled the frenzied Leninist obsession with destroying religion.
But there is something they did not expect: that in a land where churches have been leveled, where a triumphant atheism has rampaged uncontrolled for two-thirds of a century, where the clergy is utterly humiliated and deprived of all independence, where what remains of the Church as an institution is tolerated only for the sake of propaganda directed at the West, where even today people are sent to the labor camps for their faith, and where, within the camps themselves, those who gather to pray at Easter are clapped in punishment cells–they could not suppose that beneath this Communist steamroller the Christian tradition would survive in Russia. It is true that millions of our countrymen have been corrupted and spiritually devastated by an officially imposed atheism, yet there remain many millions of believers: it is only external pressures that keep them from speaking out, but, as is always the case in times of persecution and suffering, the awareness of God in my country has attained great acuteness and profundity.
It is here that we see the dawn of hope: for no matter how formidably Communism bristles with tanks and rockets, no matter what successes it attains in seizing the planet, it is doomed never to vanquish Christianity.
The West has yet to experience a Communist invasion; religion here remains free. But the West’s own historical evolution has been such that today it too is experiencing a drying up of religious consciousness. It too has witnessed racking schisms, bloody religious wars, and rancor, to say nothing of the tide of secularism that, from the late Middle Ages onward, has progressively inundated the West. This gradual sapping of strength from within is a threat to faith that is perhaps even more dangerous than any attempt to assault religion violently from without.
Twelve South Curve for... Buy New $59.99 (as of 02:45 UTC - Details) Imperceptibly, through decades of gradual erosion, the meaning of life in the West has ceased to be seen as anything more lofty than the “pursuit of happiness, “a goal that has even been solemnly guaranteed by constitutions. The concepts of good and evil have been ridiculed for several centuries; banished from common use, they have been replaced by political or class considerations of short lived value. It has become embarrassing to state that evil makes its home in the individual human heart before it enters a political system. Yet it is not considered shameful to make dally concessions to an integral evil. Judging by the continuing landslide of concessions made before the eyes of our very own generation, the West is ineluctably slipping toward the abyss. Western societies are losing more and more of their religious essence as they thoughtlessly yield up their younger generation to atheism. If a blasphemous film about Jesus is shown throughout the United States, reputedly one of the most religious countries in the world, or a major newspaper publishes a shameless caricature of the Virgin Mary, what further evidence of godlessness does one need? When external rights are completely unrestricted, why should one make an inner effort to restrain oneself from ignoble acts?
Or why should one refrain from burning hatred, whatever its basis–race, class, or ideology? Such hatred is in fact corroding many hearts today. Atheist teachers in the West are bringing up a younger generation in a spirit of hatred of their own society. Amid all the vituperation we forget that the defects of capitalism represent the basic flaws of human nature, allowed unlimited freedom together with the various human rights; we forget that under Communism (and Communism is breathing down the neck of all moderate forms of socialism, which are unstable) the identical flaws run riot in any person with the least degree of authority; while everyone else under that system does indeed attain “equality”–the equality of destitute slaves. This eager fanning of the flames of hatred is becoming the mark of today’s free world. Indeed, the broader the personal freedoms are, the higher the level of prosperity or even of abundance–the more vehement, paradoxically, does this blind hatred become. The contemporary developed West thus demonstrates by its own example that human salvation can be found neither in the profusion of material goods nor in merely making money.
This deliberately nurtured hatred then spreads to all that is alive, to life itself, to the world with its colors, sounds, and shapes, to the human body. The embittered art of the twentieth century is perishing as a result of this ugly hate, for art is fruitless without love. In the East art has collapsed because it has been knocked down and trampled upon, but in the West the fall has been voluntary, a decline into a contrived and pretentious quest where the artist, instead of attempting to reveal the divine plan, tries to put himself in the place of God.
Here again we witness the single outcome of a worldwide process, with East and West yielding the same results, and once again for the same reason: Men have forgotten God.
Digital Electronic Cas... Buy New $55.99 (as of 02:44 UTC - Details) With such global events looming over us like mountains, nay, like entire mountain ranges, it may seem incongruous and inappropriate to recall that the primary key to our being or non-being resides in each individual human heart, in the heart’s preference for specific good or evil. Yet this remains true even today, and it is, in fact, the most reliable key we have. The social theories that promised so much have demonstrated their bankruptcy, leaving us at a dead end. The free people of the West could reasonably have been expected to realize that they are beset · by numerous freely nurtured falsehoods, and not to allow lies to be foisted upon them so easily. All attempts to find a way out of the plight of today’s world are fruitless unless we redirect our consciousness, in repentance, to the Creator of all: without this, no exit will be illumined, and we shall seek it in vain. The resources we have set aside for ourselves are too impoverished for the task. We must first recognize the horror perpetrated not by some outside force, not by class or national enemies, but within each of us individually, and within every society. This is especially true of a free and highly developed society, for here in particular we have surely brought everything upon ourselves, of our own free will. We ourselves, in our daily unthinking selfishness, are pulling tight that noose…
Our life consists not in the pursuit of material success but in the quest for worthy spiritual growth. Our entire earthly existence is but a transitional stage in the movement toward something higher, and we must not stumble and fall, nor must we linger fruitlessly on one rung of the ladder. Material laws alone do not explain our life or give it direction. The laws of physics and physiology will never reveal the indisputable manner in which the Creator constantly, day in and day out, participates in the life of each of us, unfailingly granting us the energy of existence; when this assistance leaves us, we die. And in the life of our entire planet, the Divine Spirit surely moves with no less force: this we must grasp in our dark and terrible hour.
To the ill-considered hopes of the last two centuries, which have reduced us to insignificance and brought us to the brink of nuclear and non-nuclear death, we can propose only a determined quest for the warm hand of God, which we have so rashly and self-confidently spurned. Only in this way can our eyes be opened to the errors of this unfortunate twentieth century and our bands be directed to setting them right. There is nothing else to cling to in the landslide: the combined vision of all the thinkers of the Enlightenment amounts to nothing.
Our five continents are caught in a whirlwind. But it is during trials such as these that the highest gifts of the human spirit are manifested. If we perish and lose this world, the fault will be ours alone.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Godlessness: the First Step to the Gulag”. Templeton Prize Lecture, 10 May 1983 (London).


America’s Color Revolution

I have provided evidence that the military/security complex , using the media and the Democrats , intends to turn the November election into a color revolution here , here and here .
The CIA is very experienced at color revolutions , having pulled them off in a number of countries where the existing government did not suit the CIA .
As we have known since CIA Director John Brennan ’ s denunciations of President Trump , Trump doesn ’ t suit the CIA either .
As far as the CIA is concerned , Trump is no different from Hugo Chavez @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Manuel Zelaya , Evo Morales , Viktor Yanukovych , and a large number of others .
Russiagate was a coup that failed , followed by the failed Impeachgate coup .
Faced with Trump ’ s reelection and the realization that upon reelection Trump will be able to deal with the treason against him , the Deep State has decided to take him out with a color revolution .
The evidence of a color revolution in the works is abundantly supplied by CNN , MSNBC , New York Times , NPR , Washington @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the CIA and the foundations and corporations through which it operates , all of which are committed to Trump ’ s ejection from the Oval Office .
The American public does not realize the extent to which the institutions of a free society have been penetrated and turned against freedom .
All of these media organizations are establishing the story in the mind of Americans that Trump will not leave office when he loses or steals the election and must be driven out .
Hanger Diversion Safe ... Best Price : $ 15.01 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from readers in the UK and Europe reporting that the British and European media are at work preparing the acceptability of the CIA ’ s color revolution against President Trump .
It is taken for granted by both media and politicians in Europe and the UK that Trump can not win reelection because he ( 1 ) is a Putin agent , ( 2 ) abuses the power of his office , ( 3 ) represents racist “ Trump Deplorables , ” ( 4 ) is a womanizer— “ grab them by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ responsible for America leading the world in Covid-19 cases and deaths , ( 6 ) doesn ’ t support NATO ( a sinecure for many Europeans ) , ( 7 ) is an outsider and not a member of The Establishment and “ is not like us , ” ( 8 ) “ has orange hair ” ( orange is considered a low class color ) .
You can add your own to the list .
The scenarios for what the American , British , and European media assume to be a necessary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are : • Trump loses the election , refuses to leave office and must be dislodged or democracy is lost .
• Trump wins the election by fraud and must be dislodged or democracy is lost .
The scenarios do not accommodate Trump actually winning the election by the vote of the people .
That outcome is outside the possibilities .
According to the media , Trump can only lose or steal the election .
With Antifa and Black Lives Matter now experienced in violent protests , they will be unleashed anew on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Trump election victory .
The media will explain the violence as necessary to free us from a tyrant and egg on the violence , as will the Democrat Party .
The CIA will be certain that the violence is well funded .
AUKEY Car Phone Mount ... Best Price : $ 17.59 Buy New $ 19.99 Trump , isolated in his own government , which has failed to bring charges against the Obama regime officials who tried to frame the President of the United States and drive him from office—Barr and Durham @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or law—will be cut off from Twitter , Facebook and from the print and TV media .
All Americans and the world will hear is that Trump lost and must go or Trump won by vote fraud and must go .
It will be impossible for Trump or anyone to refute the charges .
The weak-minded , weak-willed Republicans will collapse .
Republicans are not people capable of combat .
Republicans believe that to disparage the military/security complex is unpatriotic .
Thus , they are sitting ducks .
The CIA , the National @ @ @ @ @ @ @ etc.
, have used color revolution against others who stood in the way of the American National Security State .
Only Maduro has survived them .
So far .
The Secret Service cooperated with the CIA and the Joint Chiefs in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy .
What is a reelected President Trump going to do when the Secret Service refuses to repel Antifa and Black Lives Matter when they breach White House Security ?
There is no doubt whatsoever that the Secret Service is penetrated by the CIA .
How @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
American Democracy is on the verge of being ended for all times , and the world media will herald the event as the succesful overthrowing of a tyrant .
The Best of Paul Craig Roberts

I have provided evidence that the military/security complex, using the media and the Democrats, intends to turn the November election into a color revolution here, here and here. The CIA is very experienced at color revolutions, having pulled them off in a number of countries where the existing government did not suit the CIA. As we have known since CIA Director John Brennan’s denunciations of President Trump, Trump doesn’t suit the CIA either. As far as the CIA is concerned, Trump is no different from Hugo Chavez, Nicolas Maduro, Charles de Gaulle, Manuel Zelaya, Evo Morales, Viktor Yanukovych, and a large number of others.
Russiagate was a coup that failed, followed by the failed Impeachgate coup. Faced with Trump’s reelection and the realization that upon reelection Trump will be able to deal with the treason against him, the Deep State has decided to take him out with a color revolution.
The evidence of a color revolution in the works is abundantly supplied by CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, NPR, Washington Post and numerous Internet sites funded by the CIA and the foundations and corporations through which it operates, all of which are committed to Trump’s ejection from the Oval Office. The American public does not realize the extent to which the institutions of a free society have been penetrated and turned against freedom. All of these media organizations are establishing the story in the mind of Americans that Trump will not leave office when he loses or steals the election and must be driven out. Hanger Diversion Safe ... Best Price: $15.01 Buy New $15.80 (as of 03:09 UTC - Details)
Emails are arriving from readers in the UK and Europe reporting that the British and European media are at work preparing the acceptability of the CIA’s color revolution against President Trump. It is taken for granted by both media and politicians in Europe and the UK that Trump cannot win reelection because he (1) is a Putin agent, (2) abuses the power of his office, (3) represents racist “Trump Deplorables,” (4) is a womanizer—“grab them by the pussy,” (5) is responsible for America leading the world in Covid-19 cases and deaths, (6) doesn’t support NATO (a sinecure for many Europeans), (7) is an outsider and not a member of The Establishment and “is not like us,” (8) “has orange hair” (orange is considered a low class color). You can add your own to the list.
The scenarios for what the American, British, and European media assume to be a necessary color revolution to drive Trump from office are:
Trump loses the election, refuses to leave office and must be dislodged or democracy is lost. Trump wins the election by fraud and must be dislodged or democracy is lost.
The scenarios do not accommodate Trump actually winning the election by the vote of the people. That outcome is outside the possibilities. According to the media, Trump can only lose or steal the election.
With Antifa and Black Lives Matter now experienced in violent protests, they will be unleashed anew on American cities when there is news of a Trump election victory. The media will explain the violence as necessary to free us from a tyrant and egg on the violence, as will the Democrat Party. The CIA will be certain that the violence is well funded. AUKEY Car Phone Mount ... Best Price: $17.59 Buy New $19.99 (as of 02:45 UTC - Details)
Trump, isolated in his own government, which has failed to bring charges against the Obama regime officials who tried to frame the President of the United States and drive him from office—Barr and Durham represent The Establishment, not the President or law—will be cut off from Twitter, Facebook and from the print and TV media. All Americans and the world will hear is that Trump lost and must go or Trump won by vote fraud and must go. It will be impossible for Trump or anyone to refute the charges. The weak-minded, weak-willed Republicans will collapse. Republicans are not people capable of combat. Republicans believe that to disparage the military/security complex is unpatriotic. Thus, they are sitting ducks.
The CIA, the National Endowment for Democracy, Radio Liberty, etc., have used color revolution against others who stood in the way of the American National Security State. Only Maduro has survived them. So far.
The Secret Service cooperated with the CIA and the Joint Chiefs in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. What is a reelected President Trump going to do when the Secret Service refuses to repel Antifa and Black Lives Matter when they breach White House Security? There is no doubt whatsoever that the Secret Service is penetrated by the CIA. How else could President Kennedy have been assassinated?
American Democracy is on the verge of being ended for all times, and the world media will herald the event as the succesful overthrowing of a tyrant.
The Best of Paul Craig Roberts


lewrockwell--2020-09-14--A New Age Is Upon Us and It Threatens to Devour Us

The noted English professor and philosopher , John N. Gray , is controversial for his views expressed in a number of highly-touted books .
If I can summarize one of his main contentions it is this : the experiment in universalist “ democratic liberalism , ” unleashed by the 18th century Enlightenment ( and partially fulfilled by the American Revolution in conservative fashion , but by the Socialists and Marxists in a more radical fashion ) , is coming to a gagging and sputtering end .
In a certain—if remote—sense , what Gray is saying is what the traditionalist Christian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ famously wrote in his epic poem “ The Hollow Men ” ( 1925 ) , written in the disastrous aftermath of the devastation , both intellectual and material , after World War I : “ This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper.
” In the following essay , Gray examines the current woke rebellion in the streets , but also in the ivory halls of academe and among our elite government and cultural classes .
The Age of Enlightenment Liberalism , he asserts , is ending .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , his short piece seems to go hand-in-hand with something I published recently both at The Abbeville Institute and LewRockwell.com .
My essay titled , “ Cancel Culture Comes South , ” in a different version , was first issued in the MY CORNER series on September 6 , as “ Cancel Culture and the Religious Origins of the Revolution in the Streets.
” I rewrote it to give it more emphasis on the effects of “ cancel culture ” in the South , and in that new version it was published…and it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , immediately after Gray ’ s essay .
Arcturus Packable , Reu ... Buy New $ 19.97 Gray compares the present day woke Social Justice Warriors ( SJWs ) to chiliastic millenarians—religious hyper-fanatics of the past—who attempted to overturn and in effect destroy the traditions of Western Christianity .
Those movements , including the Cathares , Lollards , Puritans and Fifth Monarchy Men , and in particular , the Anabaptists with their supreme leader John of Leiden [ AKA , Jan Bockelson ] , sought to either destroy those traditions , or , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them .
And what followed was inevitably a period of social and political anarchy , and quickly the imposition of an authoritarianism more severe and brutal than anything established historic Christianity ever contemplated .
They would bring on the thousand year terrestrial reign of the Deity , even if it took the massacre of every human life where they dwelt to do it .
Although there are striking parallels between those earlier millenarian movements and today ’ s zealots , there are also some significant differences .
While both illustrate a kind of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ millenarians are mostly characterized by a dominant anarchism .
Their religious zeal is secularized .
Save for “ defunding the police ” and demands for total ( but ill-defined ) equality and reparations of some kind , much of their rhetoric betrays a lack of precision and deeper thought .
And unlike earlier movements , our present SJWs are being funded and to some degree directed by our elites , ensconced many times in Silicon Valley , or Hollywood , and on Wall Street .
It follows that those empowered elites wish to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and praised Black Lives Matter campaign for their own purposes , their own well-being , and their own power .
And , thus , they have literally cowed and shamed most of our political class into submission ; who now dares criticize Black Lives Matter or the s0-called demands for “ equality ” ( and some form of reparations for “ white oppression ” and past “ injustice ” ) without bringing down the wrath of the entirety of the media and most political leaders ?
And this includes Republicans and establishment conservatives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the tall grass .
Waterpik Water Flosser ... Best Price : null Buy New $ 69.49 Notice one more significant characteristic : many of the street terrorists are rich white kids , children of wealth and position , educated usually ( and badly ) at places like Harvard , Princeton , Dartmouth , UNC , and Duke , and with families who can afford to live in gated communities , and who , in fact , in their insouciant and sneering liberalism , disdain and despise what the Jewish writer Philip Roth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” In other words , anyone outside of those centers of power and wealth who might possibly challenge their hegemony .
For them the SJWs are effective storm troopers…that is , as long as they don ’ t get out of control , or go into those posh neighborhoods where a Nancy Pelosi or Madonna live .
Or , if it seems that politically the street terrorism appears to get out of hand , maybe favoring President Trump politically .
Ah , then those elites must offer their pro forma , generalized condemnations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real encouragement of the revolution .
Never mind , Gray seems to say , the American faith in a secular universalist redemption and the myth that somehow we are a kind of New Jerusalem , that shining City of a Hill , is dying and we can hope only to pick up the pieces in the new age that is being born .
See The woke have no vision of the future and Cancel Culture Comes South .

The noted English professor and philosopher, John N. Gray, is controversial for his views expressed in a number of highly-touted books. If I can summarize one of his main contentions it is this: the experiment in universalist “democratic liberalism,” unleashed by the 18th century Enlightenment (and partially fulfilled by the American Revolution in conservative fashion, but by the Socialists and Marxists in a more radical fashion), is coming to a gagging and sputtering end. In a certain—if remote—sense, what Gray is saying is what the traditionalist Christian poet and author T. S. Eliot once famously wrote in his epic poem “The Hollow Men” (1925), written in the disastrous aftermath of the devastation, both intellectual and material, after World War I: “This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper.”
In the following essay, Gray examines the current woke rebellion in the streets, but also in the ivory halls of academe and among our elite government and cultural classes. The Age of Enlightenment Liberalism, he asserts, is ending.
And in reading and thinking about it, his short piece seems to go hand-in-hand with something I published recently both at The Abbeville Institute and LewRockwell.com. My essay titled, “Cancel Culture Comes South,” in a different version, was first issued in the MY CORNER series on September 6, as “Cancel Culture and the Religious Origins of the Revolution in the Streets.” I rewrote it to give it more emphasis on the effects of “cancel culture” in the South, and in that new version it was published…and it is that version that I offer today, immediately after Gray’s essay. Arcturus Packable, Reu... Buy New $19.97 (as of 03:59 UTC - Details)
Gray compares the present day woke Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) to chiliastic millenarians—religious hyper-fanatics of the past—who attempted to overturn and in effect destroy the traditions of Western Christianity. Those movements, including the Cathares, Lollards, Puritans and Fifth Monarchy Men, and in particular, the Anabaptists with their supreme leader John of Leiden [AKA, Jan Bockelson], sought to either destroy those traditions, or, at the very least to completely re-invent them. And what followed was inevitably a period of social and political anarchy, and quickly the imposition of an authoritarianism more severe and brutal than anything established historic Christianity ever contemplated. They would bring on the thousand year terrestrial reign of the Deity, even if it took the massacre of every human life where they dwelt to do it.
Although there are striking parallels between those earlier millenarian movements and today’s zealots, there are also some significant differences. While both illustrate a kind of frenzied religious fanaticism, these latter day millenarians are mostly characterized by a dominant anarchism. Their religious zeal is secularized. Save for “defunding the police” and demands for total (but ill-defined) equality and reparations of some kind, much of their rhetoric betrays a lack of precision and deeper thought. And unlike earlier movements, our present SJWs are being funded and to some degree directed by our elites, ensconced many times in Silicon Valley, or Hollywood, and on Wall Street. It follows that those empowered elites wish to use the street warriors and the widely-diffused and praised Black Lives Matter campaign for their own purposes, their own well-being, and their own power. And, thus, they have literally cowed and shamed most of our political class into submission; who now dares criticize Black Lives Matter or the s0-called demands for “equality” (and some form of reparations for “white oppression” and past “injustice”) without bringing down the wrath of the entirety of the media and most political leaders? And this includes Republicans and establishment conservatives who run as fast as they can to the tall grass.
Waterpik Water Flosser... Buy New $69.49 (as of 09:00 UTC - Details) Notice one more significant characteristic: many of the street terrorists are rich white kids, children of wealth and position, educated usually (and badly) at places like Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, UNC, and Duke, and with families who can afford to live in gated communities, and who, in fact, in their insouciant and sneering liberalism, disdain and despise what the Jewish writer Philip Roth once called despectively, “fly-over country.” In other words, anyone outside of those centers of power and wealth who might possibly challenge their hegemony. For them the SJWs are effective storm troopers…that is, as long as they don’t get out of control, or go into those posh neighborhoods where a Nancy Pelosi or Madonna live.
Or, if it seems that politically the street terrorism appears to get out of hand, maybe favoring President Trump politically. Ah, then those elites must offer their pro forma, generalized condemnations, just to be on record…despite their real encouragement of the revolution.
Never mind, Gray seems to say, the American faith in a secular universalist redemption and the myth that somehow we are a kind of New Jerusalem, that shining City of a Hill, is dying and we can hope only to pick up the pieces in the new age that is being born.
See The woke have no vision of the future and Cancel Culture Comes South.
Reprinted with the author’s permission.


lewrockwell--2020-09-14--The Historic Clash of Two Opposing Geopolitical Paradigms

Compared the great initiatives taken on behalf of freedom and anti colonialism throughout the past 260 years , today ’ s America appears to be a strange and foolish creature running roughshod over the dignity of people and nations in a race for mass nuclear extermination .
Such is the image projected by Mike Pompeo ’ s ranting anti-China attacks or the relentless demonization of Russia sweeping across mainstream media ever day- both nations who have repeatedly called for cooperation and friendship with the USA .
If it were simply belligerent words then we could brush off these childish attacks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these words are backed by extraordinarily dangerous action .
From escalating military maneuvers on Russia ’ s border , to belligerent military expansion in China ’ s backyard , everywhere one looks , we find the same lemming-like commitment to playing a nuclear game of chicken in the hopes of psychologically breaking the Multipolar Alliance .
However , as China ’ s Ambassador Cui Tiankai recently stated , “ China and the USA need to recapture the spirit of cooperation from WWII and join hands to confront our common enemies in the new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more .
America : The Farewell ... Hedges , Chris Best Price : $ 7.29 Buy New $ 13.29 As the Ambassador invoked the spirit of Lincoln citing the beautiful quote : “ the best way to predict the future is to create it ” , I think it ’ s wise to revisit the two opposing global policy options the USA had available to it at the turn of the last century while the Civil War hero William McKinley still presided in the office of the presidency in 1901 .
At this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was still undetermined whether America would hold on to its anti-imperial traditions or slip into the trap of a new imperial identity .
As Martin Sieff eloquently laid out in his recent article , President McKinley himself was an peacemaker , anti-imperialist of a higher order than most people realize .
McKinley was also a strong supporter of two complementary policies : 1 ) Internally , he was a defender of Lincoln ’ s “ American system ” of protectionism , internal improvements and black suffrage and 2 ) Externally , he was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defined America ’ s anti-imperial foreign policy since 1823 .
The Munroe Doctrine ’ s architect John Quincy Adams laid out this principle eloquently on July 4 , 1821 : It was an aging John Quincy Adams whom a young Abraham Lincoln collaborated with in ending the imperial Mexican-American war under Wall Street stooge James Polk in 1846 .
When Adams died in 1848 , Lincoln picked up the torch he left behind as the London-directed “ proto deep state ” of the 19th century worked to dissolve the republic from within .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Adams ensured that America ’ s only concern was “ staying out of foreign imperial entanglements ” as Washington had earlier warned and keeping foreign imperial interests out of the Americas .
The idea of projecting power onto the weak or subduing other cultures was anathema to this genuinely American principle .
The New Map : Energy , C ... Yergin , Daniel Buy New $ 38.00 A major battle which has been intentionally obscured from history books took place in the wake of Lincoln ’ s murder and the re-ascension of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decades after the Union victory of 1865 .
On the one hand America ’ s role in the emerging global family of nations was being shaped by followers of Lincoln who wished to usher in an age of win-win cooperation .
Such an anti-Darwinian system which Adams called “ a community of principle ” asserted that each nation had the right to sovereign banking controls over private finance , productive credit emissions tied to internal improvements with a focus on continental ( rail/road ) development , industrial progress and full spectrum economies .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Sergei Witte and Alexander II , Germany ’ s Otto von Bismarck , France ’ s Sadi Carnot , and leading figures within Japan ’ s Meiji Restoration .
On the other hand , “ eastern establishment families ” of the USA more loyal to the gods of money , hereditary institutions and the vast international empire of Britain saw America ’ s destiny tied to an imperial global partnership with the Mother country .
These two opposing paradigms within America have defined two opposing views of “ progress ” , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ law ” which have continued to shape the world over 150 years later .
A champion of the former traditionally American outlook who rose to the international scene was William Gilpin ( 1813-1894 ) .
Gilpin hailed from a patriotic family of nation builders whose patriarch Thomas Gilpin was a close ally of Benjamin Franklin and leading member of Franklin ’ s Philosophical Society .
William Gilpin was famous for his advocacy of America ’ s trans continental railway whose construction he proselytized as early as 1845 ( it was finally begun @ @ @ @ @ @ @ completed in 1869 as I outlined in my previous paper How to Save a Dying Republic [ LINK ] ) .
In his thousands of speeches and writings , Gilpin made it known that he understood America ’ s destiny to be inextricably tied to the ancient civilization of China- not to impose opium as the British and their American lackies were want to do , but to learn from and even emulate !
Poisoner in Chief : Sid ... Stephen Kinzer Best Price : $ 17.03 Buy New $ 17.07 With Lincoln @ @ @ @ @ @ @ became Lincoln ’ s bodyguard and ensured the president survived his first assassination attempt en route to Washington from Illinois .
During the Civil War , Gilpin was made Colorado ’ s first Governor where he successfully stopped the southern power from opening up a western front during the war of secession ( applying Lincoln ’ s greenback system to finance his army on a state level ) and winning the “ Battle of Glorieta Pass ” , thus saving the union .
After the war Gilpin became a leading advocate of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political economy ” which Lincoln applied vigorously during his short-lived presidency .
Citing the success of Lincoln ’ s system , Gilpin said : “ No amount of argument will make America adopt old world theories… To rely upon herself , to develop her own resources , to manufacture everything that can possibly be manufactured within her territory- this is and has been the policy of the USA from the time of Alexander Hamilton to that of Henry Clay and thence to our own days ” .
Throughout his speeches Gilpin emphasizes the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It is a simple and plain proposition that Russia and the United States , each having broad , uninhabited areas and limitless undeveloped resources , would by the expenditure of 2 or 3 hundred millions apiece for a highway of the nations threw their now waste places , add a hundredfold to their wealth and power and influence ” And seeing in China ’ s potential the means to re-enliven the world- including the decadent and corrupt culture of Europe : “ In Asia a civilization resting on a basis of remote antiquity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pause , but a certain civilization- although hitherto hermetically sealed up has continued to exist .
The ancient Asiatic colossus , in a certain sense , needed only to be awakened to new life and European culture finds a basis there on which it can build future reforms.
” In opposition to the outdated British controls of “ chock points ” on the seas which kept the world under the clutches of the might of London , Gilpin advocated loudly for a system of internal improvements , rail development , and growth of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people through scientific and technological progress .
Once a global system of mutual development of rail were established , Gilpin stated “ in the shipment of many kinds of raw and manufactured goods , it will largely supersede the ocean traffic of Great Britain , in whose hands is now carrying the trade of the world.
” Gilpin ’ s vision was most clearly laid out in his 1890 magnum opus “ The Cosmopolitan Railway ” which featured designs for development corridors across all continents united by a “ community of principle ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jinping ’ s New Silk Road today , Gilpin stated : Alfred Thayer Mahan ( 1840-1914 ) represented an opposing paradigm which true American statesmen like Lincoln , Secretary of State James Blaine , William Seward , President Grant , William Garfield , and McKinley detested .
Sadly , with McKinley ’ s murder ( run by an anarchist ring with ties to British Intelligence ) and the rise of Teddy Roosevelt in 1901 , it was not Gilpin ’ s but rather Mahan ’ s worldview which became the dominant foreign policy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ despite a few brief respites under FDR and JFK ) .
The Last Gold Rushu202 ... Haynes , Bill Buy New $ 28.00 Mahan is commonly credited for being a co-founder of modern geopolitics and an inspiration for Halford Mackinder .
Having graduated from West Point ’ s naval academy in 1859 , Mahan soon became renowned as a total failure in actual combat having crashed warships repeatedly into moving and stationary objects during the Civil War .
Since reality was not his forte , Mahan focused his post-war career on Ivory tower @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and fawning over Britain ’ s power as a force of world history .
His “ Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783 published in the same year that Gilpin published his Cosmopolitan Railway ( 1890 ) was a total break from the spirit of win-win cooperation that defined America ’ s foreign policy .
According to the Diplomat , this book soon “ became the bible for many navies around the world ” with the Kaiser of Germany ( now released from the influence of the great rail-loving statesman Otto von Bismarck @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all of his offers read .
Later Teddy Roosevelt ordered copies for every member of Congress .
In Mahan ’ s book , the geopolitician continuously asserts his belief that it is America ’ s destiny to succeed the British Empire .
Taking the British imperial definition of “ commerce ” which uses free trade as a cover for the military dominance of weak nations ( open borders and turning off protectionism simply makes a people easier to rob ) , Mahan attempts to argue that America need not continue to adhere to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doctrine since the new order of world empires demands America stay relevant in a world of sea power and empire .
Mahan writes : “ The advance of Russia in Asia , in the division of Africa , in the colonial ambitions of France and in the British idea of Imperial Federation , now fast assuming concrete shape in practical combined action in South Africa ” demands that the USA act accordingly .
Attempting to refute the “ outdated habits ” of rail development which consume so many foolish statesmen around the globe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ competes in vain with a river… because more facile and copious , water traffic is for equal distances much cheaper and because cheaper , more useful ” .
Like those attacking today ’ s Belt and Road Initiative , the power of railways is that their returns are not measurable by simple monetary terms , but are rather QUALITATIVE .
The long-term construction of rail systems not only unite divided people , increase manufacturing and industrial corridors but also induce closer powers of association and interchange between agriculture and urban producers .
These @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spectrum economies and also a culture ’ s capacity for creative thought .
Everything Was Forever ... Yurchak , Alexei Best Price : $ 29.56 Buy New $ 30.28 The attempt made to justify sea traffic merely because “ larger amounts of goods can be shipped ” is purely quantitative and monetaristic sophistry devoid of any science of real value .
While Gilpin celebrates the successful awakening of China and other great nations of the world , in the Problem of Asia ( 1901 ) Mahan says : “ It is scarcely desirable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the Chinese constitute should be animated by but one spirit ” .
Should China “ burst her barriers eastward , it would be impossible to exaggerate the momentous issues dependant upon a firm hold of the Hawaiian islands by a great civilized maritime power.
” Mahan ’ s adherence to social Darwinism is present throughout his works as he defines the political differences of the 3 primary branches of humanity ( Teutonic , Slavic and Asiatic ) as purely rooted in the intrinsic inferiority or superiority of their race saying : “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find concrete expression in differences equally marked of political institution , of social progress and of individual development .
These differences are… deep seated in the racial constitution and partly the result of the environment ” .
Mahan goes onto restate his belief that unlike the superior Teutonics “ the Oriental , whether national or individual does not change ” and “ the East does not progress ” .
Calling China a carcass to be devoured by an American eagle , Mahan writes : “ If life departs , a carcass can be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; the gathering to it of the eagles is a natural law , of which it is bootless to complain… the onward movement of the world has to be accepted as a fact.
” Championing an Anglo American alliance needed to subdue and “ civilize ” China as part of the post-Boxer Rebellion , Mahan says “ of all the nations we shall meet in the East , Great Britain is the one with which we have by far the most in common in the nature of our interests there and in our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In case there was any doubt in the minds of Mahan ’ s readers as to the MEANS which America should assert its dominance onto China , Mahan makes clear his belief that progress is caused by 1 ) force and 2 ) war : “ That such a process should be underlain by force… on the part of outside influences , force of opposition among the latter themselves [ speaking of the colonial European monarchies racing to carve up China in 1901 -ed ] may be regrettable , but it is only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forward in the march that has opened in China to trade has been gained by pressure ; the most important have been the result of actual war.
” They ’ re Not List ... Hill , Harlan Best Price : $ 18.97 Buy New $ 17.15 The chaos induced by the anti-foreigner Boxer Rebellion of 1899 which spread quickly across China resulted a heated battle between imperial and anti-imperial forces in both Russia and the USA .
Where Transport Minister Sergei Witte who spearheaded the development of the Trans Siberian rail line ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , McKinley was busy doing the same .
The boxers soon attacked the Manchurian rail connecting Russia to China by land and Witte succumbed to pressure to finally send in troops .
The reformers of China who attempted to modernize with American and Russian assistance under Emperor Kuang Hsu and Li Hung Chang fell from power as total anarchy reigned .
The outcome of the Boxer chaos involved the imperial powers of France , Germany and England demanding immense financial reparations , ownership of Chinese territory and mass executions of the Boxers .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s imperial turn , the reality is just the opposite .
The Spanish-American war begun in 1898 was actually launched unilaterally by Anglophilic racist Theodore Roosevelt who used the 4 hour window he had while Undersecretary of the Navy ( while the actual Secretary was out of Washington ) to send orders to Captain Dewey of the Pacific fleet to engage in a fight with the Spanish over their Philippine territories .
McKinley had resisted the war hawks until that point but found himself finally bending to the momentum .
In China @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to reject taking territory resulting in great fears from the British oligarchy that a U.S.-Russia alliance led by McKinley and Witte was immanent .
The assassination of McKinley on September 18 , 1901 catapulted Mahan-loving Vice President Teddy Roosevelt into high office , who enmeshed America into a new epoch of Anglo-American imperialism abroad , a growth of eugenics and segregation at home and the creation of an independent police state agency called the FBI .
As Sieff writes : “ Roosevelt devoted his next eight years in the presidency and the rest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ States and the British Empire into a seamless web of racial imperialist oppression that dominated Latin America , sub-Saharan Africa and Asia and that destroyed the cultural history and heritage of the Native North American nations.
” In Russia , the 1902 Anglo-Japan Treaty led to the disastrous Japan-Russo war of 1905 which devastated the Russian navy , ended the political career of Sergei Witte and threw Russia into chaos leading to the fall of the Romanovs ( Czar Nicholas II was the last statesman occupying high office that this author is aware @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Strait Tunnel rail connection in 1906 .
It wasn ’ t until FDR ’ s Vice President Henry Wallace met with Foreign Minister Molotov in 1942 that the idea resurfaced once more ) .
While the “ open door ” rape of the China was attempted by the Anglo-Americans , a fortunate rear guard maneuver orchestrated by another follower of Abraham Lincoln named Sun Yat-sen resulted in a surprise overthrow of the Manchu dynasty in 1911 and the institution of the Republic of China with Sun Yat-sen as the acting President .
While @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in opposition to the Mahanists on the issue of rail and industrial development ( illustrated in his extraordinary 1920 International Development of China program ) , the intrigues that sank the world into World War I made any hopes of this early development of China impossible in Sun Yat-sen ’ s lifetime .
Today ’ s Belt and Road Initiative , and strategic friendship established between Russia and China has re-awoken the forgotten vision of William Gilpin for a world of cooperating sovereign nation states .
Does President Trump have the moral and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disintegrating long enough to accept a Russia-U.S.-China alliance needed to revive McKinley ’ s American System or will we slip into a new World War ?
The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation .

Compared the great initiatives taken on behalf of freedom and anti colonialism throughout the past 260 years, today’s America appears to be a strange and foolish creature running roughshod over the dignity of people and nations in a race for mass nuclear extermination.
Such is the image projected by Mike Pompeo’s ranting anti-China attacks or the relentless demonization of Russia sweeping across mainstream media ever day- both nations who have repeatedly called for cooperation and friendship with the USA. If it were simply belligerent words then we could brush off these childish attacks as mere foolish rhetoric, but sadly these words are backed by extraordinarily dangerous action. From escalating military maneuvers on Russia’s border, to belligerent military expansion in China’s backyard, everywhere one looks, we find the same lemming-like commitment to playing a nuclear game of chicken in the hopes of psychologically breaking the Multipolar Alliance.
However, as China’s Ambassador Cui Tiankai recently stated, “China and the USA need to recapture the spirit of cooperation from WWII and join hands to confront our common enemies in the new era.”
I couldn’t agree more. America: The Farewell ... Hedges, Chris Best Price: $7.29 Buy New $13.29 (as of 05:25 UTC - Details)
As the Ambassador invoked the spirit of Lincoln citing the beautiful quote: “the best way to predict the future is to create it”, I think it’s wise to revisit the two opposing global policy options the USA had available to it at the turn of the last century while the Civil War hero William McKinley still presided in the office of the presidency in 1901.
At this crucial moment in world history, it was still undetermined whether America would hold on to its anti-imperial traditions or slip into the trap of a new imperial identity.
Munroe Doctrine or Empire?
As Martin Sieff eloquently laid out in his recent article, President McKinley himself was an peacemaker, anti-imperialist of a higher order than most people realize. McKinley was also a strong supporter of two complementary policies: 1) Internally, he was a defender of Lincoln’s “American system” of protectionism, internal improvements and black suffrage and 2) Externally, he was a defender of the Munroe Doctrine that defined America’s anti-imperial foreign policy since 1823.
The Munroe Doctrine’s architect John Quincy Adams laid out this principle eloquently on July 4, 1821:
“After fifty years the United States has, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations, while asserting and maintaining her own. That the United States does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. That by involving itself in the internal affairs of other nations, the United States would destroy its own reason of existence; the fundamental maxims of her policy would become, then, no different than the empire America’s revolution defeated. It would be, then, no longer the ruler of itself, but the dictator of the world.” America’s march is the march of mind, not of conquest. Colonial establishments are engines of wrong, and that in the progress of social improvement it will be the duty of the human family to abolish them”.
It was an aging John Quincy Adams whom a young Abraham Lincoln collaborated with in ending the imperial Mexican-American war under Wall Street stooge James Polk in 1846. When Adams died in 1848, Lincoln picked up the torch he left behind as the London-directed “proto deep state” of the 19th century worked to dissolve the republic from within. The foreign policy conception laid out by Adams ensured that America’s only concern was “staying out of foreign imperial entanglements” as Washington had earlier warned and keeping foreign imperial interests out of the Americas. The idea of projecting power onto the weak or subduing other cultures was anathema to this genuinely American principle. The New Map: Energy, C... Yergin, Daniel Buy New $38.00 (as of 04:30 UTC - Details)
A major battle which has been intentionally obscured from history books took place in the wake of Lincoln’s murder and the re-ascension of the City of London-backed slave power during the decades after the Union victory of 1865. On the one hand America’s role in the emerging global family of nations was being shaped by followers of Lincoln who wished to usher in an age of win-win cooperation. Such an anti-Darwinian system which Adams called “a community of principle” asserted that each nation had the right to sovereign banking controls over private finance, productive credit emissions tied to internal improvements with a focus on continental (rail/road) development, industrial progress and full spectrum economies. Adherants of this program included Russia’s Sergei Witte and Alexander II, Germany’s Otto von Bismarck, France’s Sadi Carnot, and leading figures within Japan’s Meiji Restoration.
On the other hand, “eastern establishment families” of the USA more loyal to the gods of money, hereditary institutions and the vast international empire of Britain saw America’s destiny tied to an imperial global partnership with the Mother country. These two opposing paradigms within America have defined two opposing views of “progress”, “value”, “self-interest” and “law” which have continued to shape the world over 150 years later.
William Gilpin vs Alfred Mahan: Two Paradigms Clash
A champion of the former traditionally American outlook who rose to the international scene was William Gilpin (1813-1894). Gilpin hailed from a patriotic family of nation builders whose patriarch Thomas Gilpin was a close ally of Benjamin Franklin and leading member of Franklin’s Philosophical Society. William Gilpin was famous for his advocacy of America’s trans continental railway whose construction he proselytized as early as 1845 (it was finally begun by Lincoln during the Civil War and completed in 1869 as I outlined in my previous paper How to Save a Dying Republic [LINK]).
In his thousands of speeches and writings, Gilpin made it known that he understood America’s destiny to be inextricably tied to the ancient civilization of China- not to impose opium as the British and their American lackies were want to do, but to learn from and even emulate!
In 1852, Gilpin stated:
“Salvation must come to America from China, and this consists in the introduction of the “Chinese constitution” viz. the “patriarchal democracy of the Celestial Empire”. The political life of the United States is through European influences, in a state of complete demoralization, and the Chinese Constitution alone contains elements of regeneration. For this reason, a railroad to the Pacific is of such vast importance, since by its means the Chinese trade will be conducted straight across the North American continent. This trade must bring in its train Chinese civilization. All that is usually alleged against China is mere calumny spread purposefully, just like those calumnies which are circulated in Europe about the United States”.
Poisoner in Chief: Sid... Stephen Kinzer Best Price: $17.03 Buy New $17.07 (as of 10:56 UTC - Details) With Lincoln’s 1861 presidential victory, Gilpin became Lincoln’s bodyguard and ensured the president survived his first assassination attempt en route to Washington from Illinois. During the Civil War, Gilpin was made Colorado’s first Governor where he successfully stopped the southern power from opening up a western front during the war of secession (applying Lincoln’s greenback system to finance his army on a state level) and winning the “Battle of Glorieta Pass”, thus saving the union.
After the war Gilpin became a leading advocate of the internationalization of the “American system of political economy” which Lincoln applied vigorously during his short-lived presidency. Citing the success of Lincoln’s system, Gilpin said: “No amount of argument will make America adopt old world theories… To rely upon herself, to develop her own resources, to manufacture everything that can possibly be manufactured within her territory- this is and has been the policy of the USA from the time of Alexander Hamilton to that of Henry Clay and thence to our own days”.
Throughout his speeches Gilpin emphasizes the role of a U.S.-Russia alliance: “It is a simple and plain proposition that Russia and the United States, each having broad, uninhabited areas and limitless undeveloped resources, would by the expenditure of 2 or 3 hundred millions apiece for a highway of the nations threw their now waste places, add a hundredfold to their wealth and power and influence”
And seeing in China’s potential the means to re-enliven the world- including the decadent and corrupt culture of Europe: “In Asia a civilization resting on a basis of remote antiquity has had, indeed, a long pause, but a certain civilization- although hitherto hermetically sealed up has continued to exist. The ancient Asiatic colossus, in a certain sense, needed only to be awakened to new life and European culture finds a basis there on which it can build future reforms.”
In opposition to the outdated British controls of “chock points” on the seas which kept the world under the clutches of the might of London, Gilpin advocated loudly for a system of internal improvements, rail development, and growth of the innate goodness of all cultures and people through scientific and technological progress. Once a global system of mutual development of rail were established, Gilpin stated “in the shipment of many kinds of raw and manufactured goods, it will largely supersede the ocean traffic of Great Britain, in whose hands is now carrying the trade of the world.”
Gilpin’s vision was most clearly laid out in his 1890 magnum opus “The Cosmopolitan Railway” which featured designs for development corridors across all continents united by a “community of principle”.
Echoing the win-win philosophy of Xi Jinping’s New Silk Road today, Gilpin stated:
“The cosmopolitan railway will make the whole world one community. It will reduce the separate nations to families of our great nation… From extended intercommunication will arise a wider intercourse of human ideas and as the result, logical and philosophical reciprocities, which will become the germs for innumerable new developments; for in the track of intercommunication, enterprise and invention invariably follow and whatever facilitates one stimulates every other agency of progress.”
Mahan Derails America’s Anti-Imperial Identity
Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) represented an opposing paradigm which true American statesmen like Lincoln, Secretary of State James Blaine, William Seward, President Grant, William Garfield, and McKinley detested. Sadly, with McKinley’s murder (run by an anarchist ring with ties to British Intelligence) and the rise of Teddy Roosevelt in 1901, it was not Gilpin’s but rather Mahan’s worldview which became the dominant foreign policy doctrine for the next 120 years (despite a few brief respites under FDR and JFK). The Last Gold Rushu202... Haynes, Bill Buy New $28.00 (as of 04:04 UTC - Details)
Mahan is commonly credited for being a co-founder of modern geopolitics and an inspiration for Halford Mackinder. Having graduated from West Point’s naval academy in 1859, Mahan soon became renowned as a total failure in actual combat having crashed warships repeatedly into moving and stationary objects during the Civil War. Since reality was not his forte, Mahan focused his post-war career on Ivory tower theorizing gushing over maps of the world and fawning over Britain’s power as a force of world history.
His “Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783 published in the same year that Gilpin published his Cosmopolitan Railway (1890) was a total break from the spirit of win-win cooperation that defined America’s foreign policy. According to the Diplomat, this book soon “became the bible for many navies around the world” with the Kaiser of Germany (now released from the influence of the great rail-loving statesman Otto von Bismarck whom he fired in 1890) demanding all of his offers read. Later Teddy Roosevelt ordered copies for every member of Congress. In Mahan’s book, the geopolitician continuously asserts his belief that it is America’s destiny to succeed the British Empire.
Taking the British imperial definition of “commerce” which uses free trade as a cover for the military dominance of weak nations (open borders and turning off protectionism simply makes a people easier to rob), Mahan attempts to argue that America need not continue to adhere to “outdated” habits like the Munroe doctrine since the new order of world empires demands America stay relevant in a world of sea power and empire. Mahan writes: “The advance of Russia in Asia, in the division of Africa, in the colonial ambitions of France and in the British idea of Imperial Federation, now fast assuming concrete shape in practical combined action in South Africa” demands that the USA act accordingly.
Attempting to refute the “outdated habits” of rail development which consume so many foolish statesmen around the globe, Mahan states: “a railway competes in vain with a river… because more facile and copious, water traffic is for equal distances much cheaper and because cheaper, more useful”. Like those attacking today’s Belt and Road Initiative, the power of railways is that their returns are not measurable by simple monetary terms, but are rather QUALITATIVE. The long-term construction of rail systems not only unite divided people, increase manufacturing and industrial corridors but also induce closer powers of association and interchange between agriculture and urban producers. These processes uplift national productive powers building full spectrum economies and also a culture’s capacity for creative thought. Everything Was Forever... Yurchak, Alexei Best Price: $29.56 Buy New $30.28 (as of 04:50 UTC - Details)
The attempt made to justify sea traffic merely because “larger amounts of goods can be shipped” is purely quantitative and monetaristic sophistry devoid of any science of real value.
While Gilpin celebrates the successful awakening of China and other great nations of the world, in the Problem of Asia (1901) Mahan says: “It is scarcely desirable that so vast a proportion of mankind as the Chinese constitute should be animated by but one spirit”. Should China “burst her barriers eastward, it would be impossible to exaggerate the momentous issues dependant upon a firm hold of the Hawaiian islands by a great civilized maritime power.”
Mahan’s adherence to social Darwinism is present throughout his works as he defines the political differences of the 3 primary branches of humanity (Teutonic, Slavic and Asiatic) as purely rooted in the intrinsic inferiority or superiority of their race saying: “There are well recognized racial divergencies which find concrete expression in differences equally marked of political institution, of social progress and of individual development. These differences are… deep seated in the racial constitution and partly the result of the environment”. Mahan goes onto restate his belief that unlike the superior Teutonics “the Oriental, whether national or individual does not change” and “the East does not progress”.
Calling China a carcass to be devoured by an American eagle, Mahan writes: “If life departs, a carcass can be utilized only by dissection or for food; the gathering to it of the eagles is a natural law, of which it is bootless to complain… the onward movement of the world has to be accepted as a fact.”
Championing an Anglo American alliance needed to subdue and “civilize” China as part of the post-Boxer Rebellion, Mahan says “of all the nations we shall meet in the East, Great Britain is the one with which we have by far the most in common in the nature of our interests there and in our standards of law and justice”.
In case there was any doubt in the minds of Mahan’s readers as to the MEANS which America should assert its dominance onto China, Mahan makes clear his belief that progress is caused by 1) force and 2) war: “That such a process should be underlain by force… on the part of outside influences, force of opposition among the latter themselves [speaking of the colonial European monarchies racing to carve up China in 1901 -ed] may be regrettable, but it is only a repetition of all history… Every step forward in the march that has opened in China to trade has been gained by pressure; the most important have been the result of actual war.”
A Last Anti-Imperial Push
They’re Not List... Hill, Harlan Best Price: $18.97 Buy New $17.15 (as of 04:30 UTC - Details) The chaos induced by the anti-foreigner Boxer Rebellion of 1899 which spread quickly across China resulted a heated battle between imperial and anti-imperial forces in both Russia and the USA. Where Transport Minister Sergei Witte who spearheaded the development of the Trans Siberian rail line (1890-1905) tried to avoid military entanglement, McKinley was busy doing the same.
The boxers soon attacked the Manchurian rail connecting Russia to China by land and Witte succumbed to pressure to finally send in troops. The reformers of China who attempted to modernize with American and Russian assistance under Emperor Kuang Hsu and Li Hung Chang fell from power as total anarchy reigned. The outcome of the Boxer chaos involved the imperial powers of France, Germany and England demanding immense financial reparations, ownership of Chinese territory and mass executions of the Boxers.
While McKinley is often blamed for America’s imperial turn, the reality is just the opposite.
The Spanish-American war begun in 1898 was actually launched unilaterally by Anglophilic racist Theodore Roosevelt who used the 4 hour window he had while Undersecretary of the Navy (while the actual Secretary was out of Washington) to send orders to Captain Dewey of the Pacific fleet to engage in a fight with the Spanish over their Philippine territories. McKinley had resisted the war hawks until that point but found himself finally bending to the momentum. In China, McKinley, like Witte worked desperately to reject taking territory resulting in great fears from the British oligarchy that a U.S.-Russia alliance led by McKinley and Witte was immanent.
The assassination of McKinley on September 18, 1901 catapulted Mahan-loving Vice President Teddy Roosevelt into high office, who enmeshed America into a new epoch of Anglo-American imperialism abroad, a growth of eugenics and segregation at home and the creation of an independent police state agency called the FBI.
As Sieff writes: “Roosevelt devoted his next eight years in the presidency and the rest of his life to integrating the United States and the British Empire into a seamless web of racial imperialist oppression that dominated Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia and that destroyed the cultural history and heritage of the Native North American nations.”
In Russia, the 1902 Anglo-Japan Treaty led to the disastrous Japan-Russo war of 1905 which devastated the Russian navy, ended the political career of Sergei Witte and threw Russia into chaos leading to the fall of the Romanovs (Czar Nicholas II was the last statesman occupying high office that this author is aware of to have actively promoted the Bering Strait Tunnel rail connection in 1906. It wasn’t until FDR’s Vice President Henry Wallace met with Foreign Minister Molotov in 1942 that the idea resurfaced once more).
While the “open door” rape of the China was attempted by the Anglo-Americans, a fortunate rear guard maneuver orchestrated by another follower of Abraham Lincoln named Sun Yat-sen resulted in a surprise overthrow of the Manchu dynasty in 1911 and the institution of the Republic of China with Sun Yat-sen as the acting President. While Sun Yat-sen sided with Gilpin and Lincoln in opposition to the Mahanists on the issue of rail and industrial development (illustrated in his extraordinary 1920 International Development of China program), the intrigues that sank the world into World War I made any hopes of this early development of China impossible in Sun Yat-sen’s lifetime.
Today’s Belt and Road Initiative, and strategic friendship established between Russia and China has re-awoken the forgotten vision of William Gilpin for a world of cooperating sovereign nation states. Does President Trump have the moral and intellectual fortitude to keep his nation from disintegrating long enough to accept a Russia-U.S.-China alliance needed to revive McKinley’s American System or will we slip into a new World War?
The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation.