Good to drink some fresh water of optimism - from you and Graeber - in this contemporary desert of despair! I am convinced that you are right that 9/11 and the "War on Terror" was, in part at least, "a major counter-insurgency campaign designed to quell the swelling revolutionary movement that was challenging imperialism on its own turf". The anti-globalisation movement scared the criminocracy, because it targeted them directly in the way the "Left" generally doesn't - hence the efforts to steer the movement in another direction. The Trots of the SWP in the UK parachuted into the scene with their "Globalise Resistance" recuperation project and then we had all the identity politics and ridiculous ideological posturing obliterating the soul of the resistance. The US empire, in its current form, has no doubt passed its sell-by date, as the British one did before, and that wave of Zapatista-inspired revolt must have helped that along. But - and this is a point where I don't agree with you - there is also a deliberate plan to switch to a "multi-polar" BRICS-based world order, which will be the same empire in new clothing. I suspect the plan for this, and the whole Great Reset clamp-down, may have been brought forward because of popular resistance all over the place (such as the Gilets Jaunes here in France). That gives cause for hope. I do agree with you that their plans are not advancing as they would have hoped and that they are starting to panic with the realisation that too many people are on to them now - that the toothpaste of truth is out of the tube and it's not going back in again!
Exactly! If things were going so great for the Powers That Shouldn't Be, we wouldn't be onto them.
As to your view about international banksters switching their support to BRICS countries, I don't disagree. Indeed, it would be interesting to compare our positions more closely. How do you feel about Iran and North Korea? Neither of those countries has a central bank, and both have powerful militaries. China is allied with both. How does all of this fit together?
(If that sounded like a rhetorical question, it's not. I don't claim to have it all figured out!)
I think that both Russia and China have imperial ambitions, as does Turkey. And I think that each of these three countries is on its own side, although politics is of course a forever-shifting messy web of alliances, most often of convenience & expediency. But I can't see China wanting to keep Israel around. Why would they? Do you not think that China has noticed how Israel treats its "allies"?
I think that China is playing the long game, and I can't imagine that they wouldn't have noticed what a huge liability the Zionists are. So I think that they've been smiling and nodding along, waiting for the right time to knock them off. And it seems to me that they're doing a masterful job.
I'd like to think that the Chinese state was potentially independent of the global criminocracy, but unfortunately I don't think that is the case. They were taken over a long time ago. It's not even really a question of Zionists, but of the worldwide mafia of which Zionism is a pseudo-political manifestation. The übermafia uses local mafia - triads in China, freemasons etc elsewhere - to exert its control, without low-level people knowing who they are really working for. Communist activists (in China or elsewhere) and NATO military personnel are in the same boat. They *think* they are doing their bit for The Party or for The Nation or The Free World, but in fact they are acting as enforcers and controllers for the self-concealing criminal overlords. It's a bleak view, I know, but I still think that people power - unleashed by knowledge and understanding of this utterly unacceptable domination by a tiny and evil clique - will win the day. If, and only if, we all put everything we have into the struggle.
What about Iran and North Korea? Do you think they're under the thumb of the same overlords as everyone else? If so, why don't they have central banks?
I don't know. I would have hoped not, but if Iran has been sucked into the BRICS scam... Any "communist" state is suspect, by the way. Communism is not an alternative to the rule of Capital, it's just a different and disguised way for Capital to rule. The state remains the principal tool of domination and control.
I agree! Maybe I've been too influenced by Robert Anton Wilson, but I reject any conspiracy theories that boil down to "One Big Conspiracy"... I consider it more likely that "a multitude of conspiracies contend in the night".
That said, I have a friend who's currently travelling in Iran and he tells me that Iran is not at all planning to go to war... and that the regime's tough talk is mostly sabre-rattling. He claims that something like 80% of Iranians oppose their government.
Take that for what you will! He's a savvy guy, but I'd be skeptical about claims to understand a country's politics after a few months. I still don't understand Mexican politics!
I think that China really is the new King of the Mountain, and that they see North Korea and Iran as useful strategic partners/allies... but I don't think those regimes are fully under the thumb of China's ruling party. But I'll fully admit that I'm guessing.
Is China being the new top dog better or worse for the world? Well, time will tell, I suppose. They seem to be far more oppressive domestically, but their foreign policy is not nearly so bellicose. And one good thing is that they don't seem to engage in Gladio-style "Strategy of Tension" tactics. That could change of course, though.
They also have big internal problems we don't hear much about... they partnered with the triads and are engaged in blackmail operations in Canada... they've infiltrated the Canadian government to the point where the damage is almost certainly irreversible... So the future of Canada is anyone's guess. I would venture to guess that they would be happy to exercise "soft power" rather than direct military conflict, but there's still a big job to do: disarming the American people.
Or maybe not. Maybe they want Americans fighting each other while they build up their power over time... I really do feel that, unfortunately, a civil war may well be the cards for the U.S. in the near future... which would conveniently suit Chinese interests.
But then again, I've also been predicting the collapse of the U.S. dollar for about 20 years now... and it hasn't happened yet! Why? Could it be because China is keeping the bubble going by holding onto U.S. treasuries? It seems plausible to me...
I think you’re very close to being right over target - about everything, including maybe even the jubilee and the butt-kicking. Still, lotsa folk ain’t making it to the jubilee. And the timing of all this is uncertain. I’m guessing this grinds on for quite a while. The Beast Gang seen to think they’re five yrs in to a ten yr plan but they don’t have the manpower or tech to pull this off. So it’s gonna be regional, which will continue to drive upheaval and global migration, and there will be lotsa places that will be horrible and lotsa places that will be ok. Like now but more. We’ve got to wade through the complete collapse of this beast and that is going to take some time. It’s a very large beast.
Yep! I personally think that we should frame shift away from "saving the world" - type narratives. Focus on a particular bioregion. If you don't think where you live is a good place to be during the collapse, relocate. And remember that we will, as a species, get through this. But there will almost certainly be far fewer of us on the other side.
Interesting that 9-11 killed off the anti-corporate globalization movement and the Covid pandemic killed off the worldwide protest movement prior to 2020 (see Vincent Bevins book “If We Burn”). Both involved governments imposing restrictions on our freedoms and both involved the purposeful use of fear by the state.
And as you rightly point out the anti corporate globalization movement was not a failure. The World Trade Organization was neutered. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are far less powerful. Mexico ended the PRI control of the national government. The MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment) was 100% stopped. Canada did not fully join the Iraq invasion and war.
I think one of the problems of current fights against war and corporate globalization is the failure of young activists today to listen to those of us from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s that were successful. Cause, as a white dude, I am racist. Interesting that outside of the West foreign activists do not give a shit about my identity markers. Hence, my involvement in international movements.
Yeah, the kids actually forced the movement elders out! Including myself... I'm 37 and I'm a movement elder... that's not good! The kids thought that they knew better because the old school activists weren't hip with their gender-inclusive language and their identity markers... in other words it was about fashion, not trying to achieve real goals.
Trans ideology really does deserve quite a big share of the blame here... but it goes back to feminism. Jordan Peterson traces everything back to "cultural Marxism", but he doesn't know what he's talking about. Feminism was heavily infiltrated in the 1970s and has been a thorn in the side of every movement since. We always end up having to talk about feelings all frigging day long, which quickly results in people with jobs, responsibilities, kids, etc going away. And then you're left with a bunch of people who have too much time on their hands. That's not the demographic you want as your constituency.
We need a NORM-CORE movement of people who have their shit together. And of men who aren't scared to contradict women.
We expend an awful lot of energy on trying to convince ourselves that our efforts were not wasted. If the evidence was clear, we'd probably not need to. Good money after bad. It's vanity to claim for ourselves power and influence that we don't really have. I get nostalgic for that movement too, it was fun for the pugilistic types, but I can't say I sincerely believe it had any impact. It's a nice narrative though. Consoling. I think many of us who were active at that time have moved on from battles and movements and are just waiting quietly for the inevitable end.
Ah, I see. Well, about your comment about us needing to convince ourselves that what we're doing is valuable, you've got a point. My piece is intentionally written as a morale-booster, but take the trucker's convoy: that ended the COVID nightmare in Canada. Many people have the impression that activism is pointless, and it isn't.
The EZLN has another successful movement before them in the organization of students in 1968, they were so effective that they put one of the most represive governments at the time in check
I think there is a lot of economic ignorance and misdirected energy on the part of so-called anarchists and revolutionaries.
I think 9/11 was primarily about strategic advantage, resources and money. I think ratcheting more control over the people with The Patriot Act and Defense Authorization Act was more of a tertiary concern/benefit to the state.
Good to drink some fresh water of optimism - from you and Graeber - in this contemporary desert of despair! I am convinced that you are right that 9/11 and the "War on Terror" was, in part at least, "a major counter-insurgency campaign designed to quell the swelling revolutionary movement that was challenging imperialism on its own turf". The anti-globalisation movement scared the criminocracy, because it targeted them directly in the way the "Left" generally doesn't - hence the efforts to steer the movement in another direction. The Trots of the SWP in the UK parachuted into the scene with their "Globalise Resistance" recuperation project and then we had all the identity politics and ridiculous ideological posturing obliterating the soul of the resistance. The US empire, in its current form, has no doubt passed its sell-by date, as the British one did before, and that wave of Zapatista-inspired revolt must have helped that along. But - and this is a point where I don't agree with you - there is also a deliberate plan to switch to a "multi-polar" BRICS-based world order, which will be the same empire in new clothing. I suspect the plan for this, and the whole Great Reset clamp-down, may have been brought forward because of popular resistance all over the place (such as the Gilets Jaunes here in France). That gives cause for hope. I do agree with you that their plans are not advancing as they would have hoped and that they are starting to panic with the realisation that too many people are on to them now - that the toothpaste of truth is out of the tube and it's not going back in again!
Exactly! If things were going so great for the Powers That Shouldn't Be, we wouldn't be onto them.
As to your view about international banksters switching their support to BRICS countries, I don't disagree. Indeed, it would be interesting to compare our positions more closely. How do you feel about Iran and North Korea? Neither of those countries has a central bank, and both have powerful militaries. China is allied with both. How does all of this fit together?
(If that sounded like a rhetorical question, it's not. I don't claim to have it all figured out!)
I think that both Russia and China have imperial ambitions, as does Turkey. And I think that each of these three countries is on its own side, although politics is of course a forever-shifting messy web of alliances, most often of convenience & expediency. But I can't see China wanting to keep Israel around. Why would they? Do you not think that China has noticed how Israel treats its "allies"?
I think that China is playing the long game, and I can't imagine that they wouldn't have noticed what a huge liability the Zionists are. So I think that they've been smiling and nodding along, waiting for the right time to knock them off. And it seems to me that they're doing a masterful job.
I could be wrong, though.
I'd like to think that the Chinese state was potentially independent of the global criminocracy, but unfortunately I don't think that is the case. They were taken over a long time ago. It's not even really a question of Zionists, but of the worldwide mafia of which Zionism is a pseudo-political manifestation. The übermafia uses local mafia - triads in China, freemasons etc elsewhere - to exert its control, without low-level people knowing who they are really working for. Communist activists (in China or elsewhere) and NATO military personnel are in the same boat. They *think* they are doing their bit for The Party or for The Nation or The Free World, but in fact they are acting as enforcers and controllers for the self-concealing criminal overlords. It's a bleak view, I know, but I still think that people power - unleashed by knowledge and understanding of this utterly unacceptable domination by a tiny and evil clique - will win the day. If, and only if, we all put everything we have into the struggle.
Some links re China:
https://winteroak.org.uk/2023/07/17/brics-in-the-wall-of-global-greed/
https://winteroak.org.uk/2023/09/06/the-acorn-86/
https://winteroak.org.uk/2023/11/01/the-acorn-88/
What about Iran and North Korea? Do you think they're under the thumb of the same overlords as everyone else? If so, why don't they have central banks?
I don't know. I would have hoped not, but if Iran has been sucked into the BRICS scam... Any "communist" state is suspect, by the way. Communism is not an alternative to the rule of Capital, it's just a different and disguised way for Capital to rule. The state remains the principal tool of domination and control.
I agree! Maybe I've been too influenced by Robert Anton Wilson, but I reject any conspiracy theories that boil down to "One Big Conspiracy"... I consider it more likely that "a multitude of conspiracies contend in the night".
That said, I have a friend who's currently travelling in Iran and he tells me that Iran is not at all planning to go to war... and that the regime's tough talk is mostly sabre-rattling. He claims that something like 80% of Iranians oppose their government.
Take that for what you will! He's a savvy guy, but I'd be skeptical about claims to understand a country's politics after a few months. I still don't understand Mexican politics!
I think that China really is the new King of the Mountain, and that they see North Korea and Iran as useful strategic partners/allies... but I don't think those regimes are fully under the thumb of China's ruling party. But I'll fully admit that I'm guessing.
Is China being the new top dog better or worse for the world? Well, time will tell, I suppose. They seem to be far more oppressive domestically, but their foreign policy is not nearly so bellicose. And one good thing is that they don't seem to engage in Gladio-style "Strategy of Tension" tactics. That could change of course, though.
They also have big internal problems we don't hear much about... they partnered with the triads and are engaged in blackmail operations in Canada... they've infiltrated the Canadian government to the point where the damage is almost certainly irreversible... So the future of Canada is anyone's guess. I would venture to guess that they would be happy to exercise "soft power" rather than direct military conflict, but there's still a big job to do: disarming the American people.
Or maybe not. Maybe they want Americans fighting each other while they build up their power over time... I really do feel that, unfortunately, a civil war may well be the cards for the U.S. in the near future... which would conveniently suit Chinese interests.
But then again, I've also been predicting the collapse of the U.S. dollar for about 20 years now... and it hasn't happened yet! Why? Could it be because China is keeping the bubble going by holding onto U.S. treasuries? It seems plausible to me...
In either case, we're in for some dark days.
I think you’re very close to being right over target - about everything, including maybe even the jubilee and the butt-kicking. Still, lotsa folk ain’t making it to the jubilee. And the timing of all this is uncertain. I’m guessing this grinds on for quite a while. The Beast Gang seen to think they’re five yrs in to a ten yr plan but they don’t have the manpower or tech to pull this off. So it’s gonna be regional, which will continue to drive upheaval and global migration, and there will be lotsa places that will be horrible and lotsa places that will be ok. Like now but more. We’ve got to wade through the complete collapse of this beast and that is going to take some time. It’s a very large beast.
Yep! I personally think that we should frame shift away from "saving the world" - type narratives. Focus on a particular bioregion. If you don't think where you live is a good place to be during the collapse, relocate. And remember that we will, as a species, get through this. But there will almost certainly be far fewer of us on the other side.
Nature bats last.
¡Exactamente señor!
Right on!
Interesting that 9-11 killed off the anti-corporate globalization movement and the Covid pandemic killed off the worldwide protest movement prior to 2020 (see Vincent Bevins book “If We Burn”). Both involved governments imposing restrictions on our freedoms and both involved the purposeful use of fear by the state.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_We_Burn
And as you rightly point out the anti corporate globalization movement was not a failure. The World Trade Organization was neutered. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are far less powerful. Mexico ended the PRI control of the national government. The MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment) was 100% stopped. Canada did not fully join the Iraq invasion and war.
I think one of the problems of current fights against war and corporate globalization is the failure of young activists today to listen to those of us from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s that were successful. Cause, as a white dude, I am racist. Interesting that outside of the West foreign activists do not give a shit about my identity markers. Hence, my involvement in international movements.
Yeah, the kids actually forced the movement elders out! Including myself... I'm 37 and I'm a movement elder... that's not good! The kids thought that they knew better because the old school activists weren't hip with their gender-inclusive language and their identity markers... in other words it was about fashion, not trying to achieve real goals.
Trans ideology really does deserve quite a big share of the blame here... but it goes back to feminism. Jordan Peterson traces everything back to "cultural Marxism", but he doesn't know what he's talking about. Feminism was heavily infiltrated in the 1970s and has been a thorn in the side of every movement since. We always end up having to talk about feelings all frigging day long, which quickly results in people with jobs, responsibilities, kids, etc going away. And then you're left with a bunch of people who have too much time on their hands. That's not the demographic you want as your constituency.
We need a NORM-CORE movement of people who have their shit together. And of men who aren't scared to contradict women.
We expend an awful lot of energy on trying to convince ourselves that our efforts were not wasted. If the evidence was clear, we'd probably not need to. Good money after bad. It's vanity to claim for ourselves power and influence that we don't really have. I get nostalgic for that movement too, it was fun for the pugilistic types, but I can't say I sincerely believe it had any impact. It's a nice narrative though. Consoling. I think many of us who were active at that time have moved on from battles and movements and are just waiting quietly for the inevitable end.
Inevitable end of what?
Western Civ/industrialism/the empire
Ah, I see. Well, about your comment about us needing to convince ourselves that what we're doing is valuable, you've got a point. My piece is intentionally written as a morale-booster, but take the trucker's convoy: that ended the COVID nightmare in Canada. Many people have the impression that activism is pointless, and it isn't.
Congrats on maintaining your sobriety. I should have said that already!
Thanks!
The EZLN has another successful movement before them in the organization of students in 1968, they were so effective that they put one of the most represive governments at the time in check
https://www.scribd.com/document/428428610/Mis-valedores-Al-poder-popular-Tomas-Mojarro
"What do you think?"
I think there is a lot of economic ignorance and misdirected energy on the part of so-called anarchists and revolutionaries.
I think 9/11 was primarily about strategic advantage, resources and money. I think ratcheting more control over the people with The Patriot Act and Defense Authorization Act was more of a tertiary concern/benefit to the state.
...
So put your email out here and I'll email you for address and send you a book........................