Wow – my streak of amazing timing backup from other writers continues! (touch wood)
For any who felt I skipped over the back room history a bit fast or loose, here’s brilliant Cynthia Chung with an absolutely fantastic piece about most of the key historical markers I invoked – and she not only draws extraordinary and revealing lines of connnection (superb scholarship) but names names (nerve!)
“Western Europe has only 20 to 30 more years of democracy left in it; after that it will slide, engineless and rudderless, under the surrounding sea of dictatorship, and whether the dictation comes from a politburo or a junta will not make that much difference.”
– Willy Brandt (German Federal Chancellor, right before he stepped down in 1974)
and
“...NSC-68 would be drafted the same year, declaring that the U.S. was in the moral equivalent of war with the Soviet Union and called for a massive military buildup to be completed by 1954 dubbed the “year of maximum danger”, the year JIC-502 claimed the Soviets would achieve military superiority and be able to launch war against the U.S. This proposed military buildup would increase the defense budget from $10 billion to $40 billion from 1950-53.
During this same period another security doctrine was drafted, titled “NSC-75: A Report to the NSC by the Executive Secretary on British Military Commitments”. The report concluded that if the British Empire collapsed, and Britain could no longer carry out these deployments, in defending the “free world” against the Soviets, the U.S. would not be able to carry out its current foreign policy, including NSC-68.
It was thus concluded in the report that it would be more cost-effective to aid Britain in saving its Empire!
If you were ever wondering why the CIA was constantly found paired with British Intelligence, starting from its very inception, in a series of coups in countries they had no reason to be in, now you know why.”
Cheers Braz - so glad you caught this one (I know you've seen a whole lot more 'back rooms' than I, and probably watched the degradation of hope up-close, for decades).
Hope all is going well for you!
I have become convinced that the path forward involves hard contact with reality in common - which means our modern personal duty includes overcoming our politically destabilizing tribalisms, so that we can again come together across all the (ruinous and in many cases left-academic powered) proliferating divides, to form a popular front.
Same kind of broad coalition of left and people of faith that won workers rights, then decades later, civil rights. Our reliance on politics for sport entertainment is dangerous.
(and frankly, we need a turn toward mutual respect just as much in terms of community and personal happiness, as we do in terms of economic and political survival).
Nobody but all of us, together, can hope to wrest power away from the (narrative and economy) controlling nutcases at the top and keep it citizen spirited and directed.
(And the generational and hidden cabal who were raised with the presumption of rulership, are at least a thousand times more dangerous than all these showy nouveaux wrecker types who they send forth to distract and entertainingly enrage us).
More love than anger is the recipe. (Or perhaps, the needed spiritual alchemy)
And if we can't do that, how would we possibly pretend to be trying or good?
Exceptionally well-written logic I concur with. The caveat is my pessimism. However, in my pitiful defence, my protest for Gaza was giving up Nestle Crema Coffee.
Thank you sincerely, Mike - my own pessimism is a constant struggle also - I do my best to leaven my rational conclusions with scaling modesty (yeah, but what do I know, I'm an idiot).
Plus, let's face it "F@ck 'em if they can't take a joke" is perhaps the great Xer battlecry!)
Wow – my streak of amazing timing backup from other writers continues! (touch wood)
For any who felt I skipped over the back room history a bit fast or loose, here’s brilliant Cynthia Chung with an absolutely fantastic piece about most of the key historical markers I invoked – and she not only draws extraordinary and revealing lines of connnection (superb scholarship) but names names (nerve!)
“Western Europe has only 20 to 30 more years of democracy left in it; after that it will slide, engineless and rudderless, under the surrounding sea of dictatorship, and whether the dictation comes from a politburo or a junta will not make that much difference.”
– Willy Brandt (German Federal Chancellor, right before he stepped down in 1974)
and
“...NSC-68 would be drafted the same year, declaring that the U.S. was in the moral equivalent of war with the Soviet Union and called for a massive military buildup to be completed by 1954 dubbed the “year of maximum danger”, the year JIC-502 claimed the Soviets would achieve military superiority and be able to launch war against the U.S. This proposed military buildup would increase the defense budget from $10 billion to $40 billion from 1950-53.
During this same period another security doctrine was drafted, titled “NSC-75: A Report to the NSC by the Executive Secretary on British Military Commitments”. The report concluded that if the British Empire collapsed, and Britain could no longer carry out these deployments, in defending the “free world” against the Soviets, the U.S. would not be able to carry out its current foreign policy, including NSC-68.
It was thus concluded in the report that it would be more cost-effective to aid Britain in saving its Empire!
If you were ever wondering why the CIA was constantly found paired with British Intelligence, starting from its very inception, in a series of coups in countries they had no reason to be in, now you know why.”
https://cynthiachung.substack.com/p/the-enemy-within-a-story-of-the-purge-d2f
I find myself agreeing with you Paul. A moral decadence is on a roll. Not sure where we go from here. WE are not the rich, powerful, nor corrupt....
Cheers Braz - so glad you caught this one (I know you've seen a whole lot more 'back rooms' than I, and probably watched the degradation of hope up-close, for decades).
Hope all is going well for you!
I have become convinced that the path forward involves hard contact with reality in common - which means our modern personal duty includes overcoming our politically destabilizing tribalisms, so that we can again come together across all the (ruinous and in many cases left-academic powered) proliferating divides, to form a popular front.
Same kind of broad coalition of left and people of faith that won workers rights, then decades later, civil rights. Our reliance on politics for sport entertainment is dangerous.
(and frankly, we need a turn toward mutual respect just as much in terms of community and personal happiness, as we do in terms of economic and political survival).
Nobody but all of us, together, can hope to wrest power away from the (narrative and economy) controlling nutcases at the top and keep it citizen spirited and directed.
(And the generational and hidden cabal who were raised with the presumption of rulership, are at least a thousand times more dangerous than all these showy nouveaux wrecker types who they send forth to distract and entertainingly enrage us).
More love than anger is the recipe. (Or perhaps, the needed spiritual alchemy)
And if we can't do that, how would we possibly pretend to be trying or good?
Cheers man - love and hugs to you and Sasha both!
Exceptionally well-written logic I concur with. The caveat is my pessimism. However, in my pitiful defence, my protest for Gaza was giving up Nestle Crema Coffee.
Thank you sincerely, Mike - my own pessimism is a constant struggle also - I do my best to leaven my rational conclusions with scaling modesty (yeah, but what do I know, I'm an idiot).
Plus, let's face it "F@ck 'em if they can't take a joke" is perhaps the great Xer battlecry!)
Victoria Nuland, Elon Musk, and Helen Zille probably make the same joke as us.
ouch! (but yeah)