"We the people" to keep the fruits of our labor

Following digest of another article was published in Facebook by Robert Owen. To encourage reading by those for whom signing up to Facebook might be an obstacle, we reproduce it here. They should consider it though, as the comments section is also instructive reading.

Facebook: "Shall we learn from history?", by Robert Owen

Many liberal commentators have placed the blame for our nation's current economic difficulties on "laissez-faire capitalism," which they never define. George Reisman, Pepperdine University Professor Emeritus of Economics, insists that the term should be defined as "private ownership of the means of production [with government] limited to the protection of the individual's rights against the initiation of physical force." He would welcome a return to such a system. He states: "There are presently 15 federal cabinet departments, nine of which exist for the very purpose of respectively interfering with housing, transportation, healthcare, education, energy, mining, agriculture, labor, and commerce." Claiming that these intrusions are the underlying cause of America's economic travails, he adds, "Under laissez-faire capitalism, 11 of the 15 cabinet departments would cease to exist and only the departments of justice, defense, state and treasury would remain."

Socialism, either overt or the slightly more obtuse version practiced by today's establishment Republicans and Democrats, has been a dismal failure every time, in every culture with no exceptions. In our own history, the Pilgrims started with a socialist economy. After two years of starvation and death they were forced to try free market capitalism with individuals being able to keep the fruits of their own labor. William Bradford, passenger on the Mayflower and second Mayor of the Plymouth Plantation, records the results of the change to free market economics, "This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression."

If our economy is to prosper again, we must stop the bailouts, end all forms of socialist welfare and once again allow "We the people" to keep the fruits of our labor. This formula made our nation the most prosperous civilization, with the most wealth to the greatest number of people, in all of history. This formula also resulted in the most charitable people in all of recorded history, caring for the sick, poor and needy in far better ways than any government program ever devised. Only a return to free market economics will prevent depression, famine and death. On this point the historical record is clear.

- Filed on Articles on "The Ethics of Capitalism" -

The Insidious Welfare State: suicide

... when it comes to state hand-outs and social ills Britain always seems to be a shade worse than other countries, its insidious influence more pronounced; physician-author Theodore Dalrymple has a theory: traditionally it was the Church and the monasteries that cared for the poor; with the onset of Protestantism the monasteries were abolished and Queen Elizabeth I established the first 'welfare state' in Britain; given its age, its ills and evils are far more engrained in Britain than elsewhere - surely a sign of things to come on a global scale ...

EURSOC: "Civilisations Commit Suicide"

(...) "Last week I visited (as a doctor) a family in a council estate. The mother was concerned about her 12 year old son. She was very pleased that her older son was now on incapacity and would therefore do well for himself in terms of money. There is nothing wrong with this older boy that makes him incapacitated, but that is another story. She also had a 14 year old daughter, who while I was there, constantly argued with her mother demanding money for cigarettes. The three children had three different fathers, all absent. The kids, while I could see were still children, gleamed with malignant insolence. I can see them turning into damaged adults. I feel sorry for the trap they are in – the trap created directly by the welfare state whereby the family, and all those in the neighbourhood, see welfare as a lifestyle option. They live in squalor but have more wealth than most people I knew in India; they certainly have more material comforts than I ever had growing up in Delhi.

"The Guardian describes such families as poor. The Labour party wants to throw money at the family. The Guardian readers blame Margaret Thatcher for this state of affairs, smug in their modern pieties, their intellectual laziness, and their stupidity masquerading as sanctimonious concern. I used to work with slum children in Delhi; they had very little, but even the most physically disabled amongst them made an effort. "There is no hope for Britian. Civilisations dont die, they commit suicide. And before they commit suicide, they read and believe the Guardian.

"I truly and deeply feel sorry for all the children who are the victims of the welfare state. Things are much, much worse for the slum children in India, I saw more dignity among them and certainly greater hope. "I am not sure if you will understand this message. I am too tired to explain further. Either you will get or you wont. Either way, it will make no difference to anything." (...) >>>

Nov 27, 2008
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The McCain-Palin Ticket: objective analysis

“If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.”

– John McCain, May 25, 2006 (video footage)

File closed and continued in "GOP, the Loyal Opposition"
_______________________________________________________________

... with objective analysis how both policy proposals would work out in practice ... RECOMMENDED reading ...

WSJ: "McCain's Honor"

A curiosity of this Presidential campaign has been the way former media idolaters of John McCain have suddenly turned on him. (...) John McCain of this campaign is the same as he ever was. The former Navy pilot's politics has always been more personal than ideological. His core convictions are duty, honor and country. He has always been passionate to the point of being impulsive, an unguided policy missile until he locks on target. Then he can be tenacious, and sometimes moralistic. These traits have characterized the McCain candidacy for better or worse and, we suspect, would also mark his Presidency. What the media can't say with a straight face is that they are shocked by any of this; they should admit they've simply found a new romance in Barack Obama. (...) >>>

2nd Nov 2008
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... The Press From Hell are at it again - CNN proudly present their exclusive with Sarah Palin and transcribe it, replete with ehh...ehm ... headlined in screaming graphics in the email quote Palin exclusive: I'm more experienced than Obama unquote - so she is, and that's OBJECTIVELY TRUE ...

CNN: "Palin discusses potential plans for America"

"It's going to be government reform because that, that is what I've been able to do as a mayor and as a governor, you, you take on the special interests and the self-dealings. Yep, you ruffle feathers and you have the scars to prove it," Palin said Tuesday in an interview with CNN's Drew Griffin. (...) >>>
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... and the old war horse is analyzed after ingratiating himself as a turncoat - an Internet rumor has it he's a partner in a clean tech business that has quite a bit to gain from a green tenure ...

WSJ: "Powell Catches the Beltway Breeze - An endorsement of Obama dictated by political winds."

read it all >>>

22nd Oct 2008
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... welcome the agent provocateur (that's a classic!) - this entire thing of 'Mcnasty and his mad followers' has all the hallmarks of a classic agitator set-up ... it has the same phony feel of the stage managed "Kosovo genocide" - I'll tell ya, the media are either in the tank or exceedingly stupid (and no one would ever believe that): WSJ: "The Angry Right-Some disturbing--and embarrassing--behavior by McCain supporters" (...) t

American Thinker: "Sabotaging GOP rallies"

The left is fighting a battle to define Republicans, as exemplified by Sarah Palin (who horrifies them), as a frightening mob, not just unfair to Barack Obama, but a clear and present danger.
Rick Moran defines the 'angry mob' meme, and the double standard at work in media coverage today in a superb AT blog. We have to take these efforts to discredit us seriously. Agents provocateurs cannot be ruled out. We know that leftists infiltrate GOP rallies with intent to harm. The sneering left has outed itself on Kos and Mother Jones, by publishing a picture of a leftist infiltrator, who carefully placed herself to be picked up by cameras. (...) >>>

14th Oct 2008
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... sounds like a political tag to a judicial verdict (or is it? it's an bipartisan ethics committee) ... the US is becoming a banana republic (God keep us all) ...

“Gov. Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda,” the report concludes."

... is it "advancing a personal agenda" to help withdraw from society a loose state trooper, whose moral compass is clearly faulty (tasering a 10 year old)? ...

Thanks to Palin: "SHOCKING: Democratic Ethics Probe Says Palin Abused Her Power"

The troopergate issue has ended in a Democratic-led ethics probe saying Palin was unethical in firing Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan. But, they admitted that she did NOT fire Monegan for his refusal to dismiss Mike Wooten, a state tooper. Instead, they say she abused her power by refusing to stop her husband from using state resources to encourage the firing of Wooten. If that’s not a thin enough case for you, then let me remind you that Mike Wooten, ex-husband of Palin’s sister, was accused of threatening the Governor as well as using a taser on a 10 year old. (...) >>>

12th Oct 2008
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CNN: "Panel: Palin abused power in trooper case"

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her power as Alaska's governor and violated state ethics law by trying to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state police, a state investigator's report concluded Friday. "Gov. Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda," the report states. (...) The investigator's report states Palin's efforts to get Wooten fired broke a state ethics law that bars public officials from pursuing personal interest through official action.

The lawyers representing both Sarah and Todd Palin issued a three-page attack on the investigative report, including the contention that Ethics Act violations can only involve financial motives and financial "potential gain, or the avoidance of a potential loss." "Here, there is no accusation, no finding and no facts that money or financial gain to the Governor was involved in the decision to replace Monegan," the lawyers said. Any abuse of power, they said, was on the part of the Legislative Council members, not the Palins. "Sen. French and Sen. Green may have abused their government power by using public money to pursue a personal vendetta against the Governor, and then agreeing to pursue the PSEA attack against an administration that would not cave in to outrageous union demands." "Put bluntly, Branchflower completely misapplied the Ethics Act and has instead sought to create a headline to smear the Governor," the lawyers wrote.

About 1,000 more pages of documents compiled during the inquiry will remain confidential because they involve private personnel matters, according to the council's chairman, state Sen. Kim Elton. "I believe that these findings may help people come to a conclusion on how they should vote" in the presidential election, Elton said. McCain-Palin campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said Palin would cooperate with the Personnel Board investigation. The Palins' lawyer has said an investigator named by that board wants to question them in late October. Stapleton called the investigation "a partisan-led inquiry" run by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, but hailed its finding that Monegan's firing broke no law.

"Gov. Palin was cleared of the allegation of an improper firing, which is what this investigation was approved to look into," she said. Stapleton went on to say that the Legislature exceeded its mandate in finding an ethics violation. "Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact." Rep. John Coghill, a Republican who criticized the handling of the investigation, said it was "well-done professionally." He said Palin "bumped right against the edges" of the state's ethics laws but that he would give "the benefit of the doubt to the governor, though, at this point." (...)

The state senator managing the probe, Sen. Hollis French, fueled those complaints with a September 2 interview in which he warned the inquiry could yield an "October Surprise" for the GOP. But Palin's lawyers already had begun pushing for the state Personnel Board to launch its own investigation, calling it the proper legal venue for the matter. "The report speaks for itself," French told CNN Friday night. >>>

11th Oct 2008
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The Minority Report: "The Absurdity of the Keating 5 Smear"

The McCain campaign pushed back hard against the new Obama attack over the Keating Five, arguing that the Arizona senator was treated unfairly by the Senate ethics investigation and asserting that John McCain had been much more open about his relationship with disgraced thrift executive Charles Keating than Obama has been about his connection with one-time radical William Ayers. In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, John Dowd, the Washington lawyer who represented McCain during the Senate investigation, called the inquiry a "classic political smear job" by the Democrats running the Senate at the time, saying that they only included McCain to make sure that a Republican was among the targets. "John had not done anything wrong," Dowd said. (...)

In an interview, Bennett said McCain should never have been dragged into the ethics case to begin with. He said that after his own lengthy investigation, he came to the conclusion that the case against McCain and former Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) “should have been dropped” because the evidence suggested that once McCain understood that the Justice Department was investigating Keating, he backed off any involvement. Dowd noted that McCain threw Keating,once a strong supporter, out of his office after Keating pressed him to intervene in his case. (...) >>>

6th Oct 2008
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Regarding the Veep Debate: Palin vs Biden:

- The Next Right: Matt Moon Live Blogs the Debate
- Politeia: "Palin vs Binden: the fourteen lies he told"
- Ms Underestimated: "Sara’cuda Vs. Joe ‘Gaffemaster’ Biden" (includes the complete debate on video)
- Thanks to Palin: "In Case You Missed It"
- Glenn Beck: "Battle of the Headlines - VP debate" (here are Glenn's debate notes)
- NewsMax: "Palin Gets Rave Reviews for Debate"
- Culture 11: "Did Katie Couric win the election for John McCain last night?", by Justin Hart
- Front Page Magazine: "The "Pit Bull" Returns"
- Mensa Barbie: "Bravo Governor Palin!! (VP08!)"
- Atlas Shrugs: "Palin Wins Debate"
- PJM: "Palin Steps Up and Stuns", by Jennifer Rubin

2nd Oct 2008
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The official sites:

- McCain-Palin Campaign official website
- National Black Republican Association
- Not Ready Yet rapid response to Obama Campaign

Private initiatives:
- Thanks to Palin, the Exciting GOP ticket
- Sarah Palin for America, Vice President of the United States - "Change we really can believe in"
- Dissecting the Palin Rumor Mill - keeping tally of the smear machine: 91 to date
- The Palin Lipstick Brigade
- The Other McCain
- Women for Palin
- Jews for Sarah Palin
- Precise News: Palin all the time

Related:

- "The Pomo White House"
- "Americana"


To archive >>>

The Food File: incompetence

Spectator: "How bad government caused the food crisis"

Julian Morris argues that recent shortages and price rises of staple food in Asia and Latin America have been caused as much by parasitical politicians as by poor harvests (...) >>>

Updated: 27th July 2008
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CNN: "Red Cross Raises the Specter of Food Wars"

The International Red Cross warned Tuesday of a possible surge in "food-related violence" because of soaring commodity prices that are increasing hunger around the world. Most of the debate so far on the food crisis has focused on boosting aid to poorer countries, said Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross. But, he said, "The second dimension is there is also the potential of food-related violence." (...) >>>

Updated: 27th May 2008
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Politeia: "Your Guide to Acting Irresponsibly Yet Never go to Jail"

(...) we discussed the Leftist favorite branch of surrogate ethics known as deontology - or the morality of good intent. Whatever the outcome, if intentions are good this is designed to get you out of jail, permanently. (...) The latest episode in a long history of politically motivated sins of this kind, is the scandalous starvation as a result of the current 'food crisis'. Once again, intent is beyond reproach - fixing the environmental crisis, even if so many independent scientists have repeatedly warned not to approach this too dogmatically. Bradley Doucet has the story in Le Québécois Libre: "Going Hungry: Why Biofuels are Bad for People, Prosperity, and the Planet." (...) >>>

Dated: 17th May 2008

Demolished Heritage: radical classicism

The Spectator: "Hail Quinlan Terry: our greatest living architect"

Since the early 20th century, Western society has been in the grip of a culture of repudiation -- rejecting one by one the institutions, offices, traditions and achievements of the past, while having often little but sentimental emptiness with which to replace them. (...) Le Corbusier burst on the scene. His plan was to demolish Paris north of the Seine and to put all the people into glass boxes. Instead of dismissing this charlatan as the dangerous madman that he clearly was, the world of architecture hailed him as a visionary (...) That was how things were when Quinlan Terry, our greatest living architect, entered the Architectural Association as a student in the 1960s. (...)

Richmond Riverside [Radical Classicism] showed that all those traditional goals could be achieved at a density and a cost that trump the rival plans of the modernists. As Terry has frequently pointed out, modernist buildings use materials that no one fully understands (...) No one has been more malicious in the attempt to deprive Terry of work than the great guru of modernism, Richard Rogers (...) the darling of New Labour, heaped with honours for his achievements (...) For the modernists, it is a matter of life and death that the classical tradition should not be allowed to resurface. Once people begin to discover that classical buildings are not just more beautiful, less pretentious and less offensive than their modernist rivals, but also more economical, longer-lasting and more adaptable to changing human needs, the modernists will be out of a job. God speed the day. >>>

Updated: 10th July 2008
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These photos of the site described in the posts "Demolished Heritage" on The Lighthouse and Politeia hopefully convey a sense of the desacration that is going on in what could with right be termed, the cradle of Western civilization. It's no coincidence, of course: all ties with the past must be severed for the lie to be credible: equations, suggesting free, moral choice are suppressed in the nihilist Dystopia.



I think it makes the case for the reconstitution of medieval torture practices for a few classes of humans, contemporary European architects being a prime contender. That out of the way, I'd like to say that the blessings of capital punishment are vastly underrated. I am pleading for a public discourse on the matter.

Liberty Ditched for Sausages: boycott these cowards!

Last Friday we reported here that Jordan is seeking the extradition and prosecution of Dutch Freedom Party politician Geert Wilders on three counts:

- racism - incitement to hatred - insulting Muslims and Islam -

An Amman Court last Monday accepted the charges against Wilders on account of the short film "Fitna" pressed by a Jordanian group called "The Messenger of Allah Unites Us." "Fitna" outlines the dangers of radical Islam for democratic society. (Link to "Fitna")

Today we know which Dutch companies have 'distanced themselves' from Fitna. Politeia proposes a ban of its own against these companies which sell out democratic principles for sausages:

- Caption: "We WillNot Submit!" -

- Zwanenburg (Zwan sausages and luncheon meat)
- KLM (KLM-Air France-North West Airlines)
- Philips ("We make things better")
- Friesland Foods (dairy products:
- Friso (Nutricia, Olvarit, Nutrilon, Bambix dairy and baby foods)
- Milupa (Aptamil - we believe the latter two are all one and the same parent company Nutricia, now part of Danone)

The companies advertise their condemnation of Wilders' equation Islam=violence and distribute posters, stating that the film only serves to provoke.

President Zakaria Sheikh of "The Messenger of Allah Unites Us" is calling for the travel industry to ban KLM.

The publisher of weekly Fact International says the film has no relation with the freedom of expression. "Wilders has insulted all Muslims. He must be punished."

At the companies no one was available for comment, writes De Volkskrant. A KLM spokesman repeated an earlier statement that the airline is unrelated to political and religious movements and distances itself from this controversial film."

Post will be updated throughout.

"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who
maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."
Dante Alighieri
Italian national epic poet (1265 - 1321)

Tibet 1959: after 49 years, 49 days away

Free Tibet 2008:

With the start of the Beijing Olympics only 49 days away, SFT HQ is stepping up our Olympic campaign efforts. To ensure that you are kept up to date with news, analysis, and ways to participate in creative, strategic and effective actions for Tibet leading up to and during the Games, we are excited to launch SFT's Olympics website: http://www.FreeTibet2008.org.

Visit http://www.FreeTibet2008.org now and watch our new SFT Olympics Campaign video, a moving account of what is at stake inside Tibet and the power we have – as Tibetans, supporters, and people of conscience – to make history for Tibet at this crucial time.

We are about to enter the most critical stage in our organization's history, and indeed in the history of the Tibet movement, and we need your help.

After you watch SFT's new Olympics Campaign video, download it and share it with your friends and family. Post it on your Facebook page, send it to all your email contacts and encourage everyone you know to donate to SFT in this Olympic year.

With your help, we will raise the necessary funds to seize this once-in-a-lifetime Olympic opportunity to make history for Tibet.

Make a donation right now: http://www.FreeTibet2008.org/donate

As the Chinese government prepares to launch its single-largest propaganda exercise ever, all of us at SFT are working with ever-greater intensity to keep the world's attention focused on the Tibetan people's cries for freedom. Tibetans continue to speak out despite the terrible risks, and need you in this critical time.

Please support our efforts by donating to SFT's Olympics action fund now.

This is the most urgent time to support SFT as we effectively expend tremendous physical and financial resources toward realizing our goal – and the goal of the Tibetan people – human rights and freedom for Tibet.

This truly is the time. With your help, Tibet will be free.

Yours,
Lhadon Tethong

P.S. Please visit http://www.FreeTibet2008.org today. We've designed it as a one-stop resource for everything related to SFT's Olympics campaign, featuring a media center, a photo and video gallery, resources and tools to help you get involved and take action, and streamlined information and analysis from SFT's website and leading blogs.

Updated: 19th June 2008
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International Campaign for Tibet

The still unfolding demonstrations and unrest in Tibet are bigger than anything since the Dalai Lama fled in 1959.
After 49 years of rule by China, Tibetans throughout the country are showing how they feel about the “progress” China has brought. And it is a resounding vote of "no confidence." ... read on >>>

Update: 19th Mar 2008

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(...) There are now many reports of Tibetans being killed in the streets of Lhasa by security personnel. And many reports of Tibetans damaging Chinese stores. We now have photos of security vehicles overturned and in flames. ... more >>>

Updated: Mar 15th 2008
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CNN: "Clashes leave 10 dead in Tibet" (includes video material)

Violent protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa have left at least 10 people dead as protesters calling for an end to Chinese rule in the region planned more demonstrations in India and Tibet. (...) "The victims are all innocent civilians, and they have been burnt to death," an official with the regional government told Xinhua.

Indian police surrounded the Tibetan community in old Delhi Friday, effectively sealing it to prevent anyone from going in or out after a Friday night protest, a spokesman for the Tibetan Youth Congress told CNN. Police arrested 61 people at the protest Friday night, including four who demonstrated at the Chinese embassy, said Youth Congress spokesman Komchok Yarphel. Yarphel also said that protesters planned to restart a march from the northern Indian city of Dharmsala to the Tibet border that was forcibly stopped Thursday by Indian authorities. Those 100 protesters have been jailed for 14 days, but Yarphel said another 100 will begin the march from Dehra, where the first attempt ended after only three days and 75km. Police have banned the march and are likely to stop it again. The protesters planned to reach the border for a confrontation with Chinese authorities in time for the opening of the Beijing Olympics in August. Dharmsala is home to the Tibetan exile government and the Dalai Lama.

Meanwhile, five days of protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa turned violent late Friday, and at least 10 people were killed, the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua reported, quoting the Tibetan government. Those protests began Monday when hundreds of monks rallied on the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Beijing that forced the Dalai Lama into exile. Police used gunfire and tear gas to quell the Lhasa protest, according to witnesses, human rights groups and Xinhua. A main market in Lhasa, Tromsikhang Market, was set on fire, said Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet. The market has many Chinese traders, and she said Tibetans have been concerned about the influx of Chinese into the area. Some ethnic Tibetan shopkeepers hung scarves outside their stores in an effort to spare them from the protesters' wrath, a witness reported.

Chinese bloggers and U.S.-based human rights groups said Chinese security forces had sealed off the three main monasteries around Lhasa after the violence broke out. The bloggers also said police wearing armored vests were moving toward Lhasa in armored personnel carriers. (...) CNN sought permission to enter Tibet on Friday, but the permission had not been granted by Friday evening Beijing time. CNN reporting on Tibet was being blacked out Friday in mainland China. Chinese authorities blamed the Dalai Lama for the unrest, but the Dalai Lama said the protesters were simply acting out of "deep-rooted resentment" of the Chinese government. (...) >>>

Dated: 15th Mar 2008

Iran Updates, by the Committee for the Present Danger

DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN
Another diplomatic overture, another Iranian rebuke

On June 14th, the European Union’s foreign policy czar, Javier Solana, visited Tehran to offer Iran’s leaders a new diplomatic package designed to defuse the international crisis over their nuclear program. The generous offer included, among other things, a plan to establish a uranium enrichment consortium in Iran to help the Islamic Republic develop civilian nuclear energy. In return, Iran would suspend uranium enrichment while it negotiated with the West – a process European officials say will be measured in “months,” not years.

The offer was clearly weighted in Iran ’s favor so, not surprisingly, the “5+1” countries (Russia, China, the United States, France, Britain and Germany) were optimistic about its prospects. “I hope that the answer will be soon and positive,” Solana told reporters after presenting the offer to Iranian leaders.Iran’s ayatollahs, however, appear to have other ideas. “If the package includes suspension it is not debatable at all,” an Iranian government spokesman announced just hours after his government received the new proposal. The message could not be clearer: Iran now views nuclear capability as non-negotiable, and its leaders see greater security in continuing to enrich uranium than in any deal they might be able to hammer out with the West. All of which should give pause to the politicians, analysts, and statesmen now expounding the virtues of unconditional “engagement” with the Islamic Republic, since their preferred course of action will virtually guarantee that a nuclear Iran becomes a reality. But don’t bet on it.

Updated: 16th June 2008
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Confronting Iran: U.S. options: Harnessing All Elements of U.S. Power

How can the United States prevent the emergence of an emboldened Iran with nuclear weapons? By harnessing all elements of U.S. power “into a strategy that focuses on three key concrete goals…counterproliferation, counterterrorism, and counterinsurgency,” says a new report from the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) and the McCormick Tribune Foundation.

If successful, the strategy would prevent Iran from developing the nuclear capability on which it is making real progress, curtail its ability to sponsor terrorist groups that increasingly destabilize the region, and curb its meddling in Iraq, according to Confronting Iran: U.S. Options[i], the product of a working group co-chaired by McCormick’s Brig. Gen David L. Grange (ret.) and AFPC’s Ilan Berman (a member of the Committee on the Present Danger).

Such a strategy requires action in four key areas. Those areas, and the steps required in each, include:

Diplomatic and international efforts to:
· Educate Americans about the threat of Iran;
· Enhance broadcasting into Iran;
· Spread Western ideas across Iran;
· Use new media to better communicate with Iran’s next generation of leaders;
· De-legitimize the current regime;
· Empower the regime’s opponents; and
· Clearly inform the regime about the costs of its continued rogue behavior.

Intelligence initiatives to:
· Revive human intelligence capabilities within Iran;
· Obtain better access to Iran-related information from our allies;
· Reform the intelligence bureaucracy to respond to, and plan against, the regime; and
· Create a more flexible legal framework to conduct intelligence operations.

Economic measures to:
· Increase the pressure on Iran’s trading partners;
· Enforce unilateral sanctions against countries and companies doing business with Iran;
· Consider embargos and blockades, particularly on Iran’s energy sector; and
· Elevate divestment efforts from state government to the federal government.

Military steps to:
· Comprehensively assess Iran’s operational and tactic vulnerabilities;
· Build the capacity for unconventional warfare within Iran;
· Target Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal to downgrade its offensive and nuclear capabilities; and
· Cut the regime’s ties to its terrorist proxies, with force if necessary.

Updated: 28th Nov. 2007
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Education – Iranian Style Prepping for War Against US and West Through School Texts"

Iran is using its school textbooks to indoctrinate its children in a global war against the “enemies of Islam,” with a special focus on the United States and the West, according to a comprehensive and alarming report from the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace.

As you will see by reading the report or a summary, both available online at CMIP, Iran is training 15 million children to strive for “martyrdom” in attacks against the United States. In fact, the declared goal of the school curriculum is to prepare students for an armed struggle against the United States to put an end to “Western dominion” and establish the reign of Islam.

“Now, in order to continue the Islamic Revolution,” says a book for 7th graders, “it is our duty to continue with all [our] power our revolt against the Arrogant Ones [i.e., the United States], and the oppressors, and not cease until all Islam’s commandments and the spread of the redeeming message of ‘there is no god except Allah’ are realized in the whole world.”

For 11th graders, the message is, “America is known as an Imperialist country, which embarks on military intervention wherever it sees that its interests are in danger. It does not refrain from massacring people, burying alive the soldiers of the opposite side and using weapons of mass destruction (as it did in Iraq). It makes use of atomic bombs (the bombardment of Japan). It uses the weapons of human rights in order to suppress the justice seekers (as it does in its abuses against Islamic Iran). It creates the greatest dictatorships and the most violent and torturing security-oriented regimes, and defends them.

”The 11th graders are called to action: “O Muslims of all countries of the world! Since under the foreigners’ dominance gradual death has been inflicted on you, you should overcome the fear of death and make use of the existence of the passionate and the martyrdom-seeking youths, who are ready to smash the borders of unbelief. Do not think of keeping the status quo.”

This study is important – and directly relevant to the current debates in Washington and in other Western capitals about whether to confront or negotiate with Tehran – because it provides important insights into the regime’s long-term ambitions. We recommend it highly.

Updated: 12th Oct. 2007

Contact: Larry Haas,

Email: larry@larryhaasonline.com

- Earlier in this series: "Iran's Other Proxy War Against the West - Tehran's Troublemaking in Afghanistan"

- Related: "Berlin-Tehran: The Counter-Enlightenment Axis"

- Memri clip: "Children Show Demonstrates Iranian Perspective of Israel-Palestinian Conflict through a Bird Parable" or pedagogic revisionism in action

London Calling: Boris Backed!

That's it! He's done it, but some tender souls might get hurt ... if Leftists are polarizing, this is not destructive Hegelian dialectic, but good for politics. Rightist opposition on the other hand, is bad for everyone ... it's divisive!

CNN: "London's new mayor is eccentric, offensive"
London's new Mayor Boris Johnson divides opinion like few others, a maverick lawmaker loved for his eccentric wit but often maligned for his abrasive tongue. The uncombed, rumple-suited former magazine editor boasts none of the professional sheen of New York's Michael Bloomberg but will lead a booming city that rivals Manhattan as the world's leading economic center and will be host of the 2012 Olympic Games.

His victory over incumbent Mayor Ken Livingstone, a left-winger and member of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's governing Labour Party, will be seen as a boon for opposition Conservative chief David Cameron. Johnson's victory gives the Conservatives their first major political office since their crushing 1997 national election defeat.

But some Cameron supporters warn that Johnson could prove to be a Trojan horse, if his unguarded remarks and buffoonish image undermine the opposition's claim that it is now ready to lead Britain. (...) >>>

Updated: May 3rd 2008
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Politeia: Today Devoted to British Election Results: the Light!

The Conservatives made sweeping gains across the country early today as voters gave Gordon Brown a huge rebuff in his first electoral test as Prime Minister. David Cameron chalked up (...) >>>

Updated: 2nd May 2008
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Reminder: The polls close at 10pm today.

If you support Boris Johnson's plans for a change for the better in London and haven't already voted, please make sure you do before then.

Please be aware that there are Tube delays on some lines so leave plenty of time for travel.

We have feedback from some Labour areas that turnout there has been high. Please don't let Ken Livingstone sneak back in again. This is the last opportunity we have to unseat him for the next four years. Let's not wake up tomorrow having wasted it.

In this very close election, every vote matters.

Thank you
Team Boris

Updated: 1st May 2008
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I thought you would be interested to read my housing manifesto, ‘Building a Better London’, which I published today. Click here to read a full copy of the manifesto.

Update: 17th Mar 2008
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Dear Londoner...

The Home Secretary’s admission that she is too scared to walk around London alone at night offers little hope for Londoners - first Mayor Livingstone said neither he nor the Metropolitan Police Commissioner could solve the problem of gun and knife crime, and now this.

London needs leadership (...) >>>

27 children were killed by other children last year(...) I continue to press this issue (...) >>>

(...) Read it all >>>

Boris at the black cab club

Few people know London better than the cabbies who drive us round it – and they gave Boris their expert opinions last week when he met them at the Royal Oak Taxi Centre in Paddington. Sharing bacon butties and mugs of tea, Boris told them of his plans to improve the lives of cab drivers in London. Click here to watch the video.

(...) Read all about it >>>


Do your bit

Boris is determined to make it to City Hall and give Londoners more from their Mayor: more common sense, more consideration, and more bang for their buck. He can’t get there without the support of thousands of Londoners like you, and this week you can back Boris by encouraging your friends and family to sign up to support the campaign at backboris.com/register.

Together we’ll win back London!

Election Countdown

There are under 100 days to go until London has the chance to make a real change. If you’re not registered to vote yet, go to www.aboutmyvote.co.uk to exercise your rights as a Londoner. (...) >>>

(Updated: 22nd Jan. 2008)

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"Thank you for supporting Boris’s campaign.

It’s been a great 2008 so far, with Boris outlining his vision for a greater London and showing Londoners why it’s time for a change. Now, with 100 days to go until the election, it is essential that we maintain momentum to win back London on May 1st – and momentum means more and more signed-up supporters from across London.

That’s where you come in. We need you to tell your colleagues, friends and family – everyone in your address book – to encourage them to register on the website at www.backboris.com/register and boost Boris’s chances of sweeping to victory in May.

Together we can build a momentum that will eject Mayor Livingstone from County Hall, and give London back to Londoners. Thank you."

(Updated: 19th Jan. 2008)

- Filed on Articles in "London Calling: Back Boris Need Your Help" -

Hegel's Legacy: Historical Events, not Democracy

(...) political Messianism in the sense that it postulates a preordained, harmonious and perfect scheme of things, to which men are irresistibly driven, and at which they are bound to arrive (...) is often refered to in these pages as Hegel's Legacy: nominally democracy subordinated to the state, the latter embodying a vehicle in which Providence expresses itself, culminating in an ethical Utopia - an event on the scale of the Second Coming. In short: progressivism.

American Thinker: "America's Descent Into Totalitarian Democracy", by Lee Cary

Over fifty years ago, Jacob Leib Talmon defined the battle now underway for America's soul by comparing liberal democracy with totalitarian democracy. Talmon (1916-1960), Professor of Modern History at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, wrote The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy (foreword dated 1951, published in English in 1960). His notion of "liberal" democracy was founded on liberty, rather than collectivism. Talmon was a devout anti-Marxist.

In our search for language to describe what then candidate Barack Obama meant when he said, shortly before the election, that, "five days from now we will fundamentally change America," Talmon offers another option. Fundamental change meant the transition into totalitarian democracy. (Michael Barone introduced a tactic of totalitarian democracy with his concept of Obama thugocracy.)

"The essential difference between the two schools of democratic thought as they have evolved is not, as is often alleged, in the affirmation of the value of liberty by one, and its denial by the other. It is in their different attitudes to politics. The liberal assumes politics to be a matter of trial and error, and regards political systems as pragmatic contrivances of human ingenuity and spontaneity. It also recognizes a variety of levels of personal and collective endeavor, which are altogether outside the sphere of politics.

The totalitarian democratic school, on the other hand, is based upon the assumption of a sole and exclusive truth in politics. It may be called political Messianism in the sense that it postulates a preordained, harmonious and perfect scheme of things, to which men are irresistibly driven, and at which they are bound to arrive. (...) >>>

July 27, 2009
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Politeia: "Transnationalism: Manmade Disaster or 'Evolution'"

In the present discussion with Carl Rove and John Bolton at Glenn Beck's we see the ongoing disaster known as transnationalism clearly presented as a manmade process: it is pushed by people and politicians with an agenda. According to others a world government is the logical outcome as man progresses on his way through history and evolution. This meme is the result of a two centuries old phantasy, a theory set out by the reactionary philosophers Kant and Hegel who saw it as the outcome of man passing through history, bringing himself on higher levels of morality through strife and struggle. (...) >>>

April 25, 2009
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Dr Sanity: "Ayers and his Cohorts are what's Wrong with Education Today"

(...) Hegel, building on Kant, Rousseau and Fichte, would go on to write, "It must be further understood that all the worth which the human being possesses--all the spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State."Hegel's heirs went on to divide into left- and right-wing camps. The charge of the left was led by leftists like Karl Marx, who transformed Hegel's "dialectic of Spirit" into an economic and social system that depended on godless dialectic of "oppressors vs oppressed." The right-wing Hegelians tended to stress the omnipotence of the state and were less willing to abandon a deity. For more than a 100 years, the two camps have been battling it out, each trying to impose their utopian vision onto the human species.Both Hegelian offshoots summarily dispensed with free will and human freedom; and between them, they brought forth the philosophical abomination that we now call "postmodernism". (...) >>>

Updated: 25th Apr 2008
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Elsevier: "EU against ban on Turkish Governing Party" (automated translation)

The European Union is against a attempt by the Turkish Justice Dept. to ban the government Islamist AKP party. The highest prosecutor in Turkey has asked for a prohibition because of 'activities against secularism', such as the suppression of the ban on Islamic head scarves on universities. The prosecutor also wants Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul (both AKP) banned for five years from political life. The European Union reacted, rejecting the proposals. "In a normal European democracy political questions are discussed in the parliament, not in the courts", said European Commissioner Olli Rehn (enlargement EU) in a declaration. Rehn hopes that the question does not endanger the reforms, desired by the EU concerning a future accession of Turkey. Reason for the action of the Turkish prosecutor is the ban on head scarves on universities that AKP recently proposed to abolish. The proponents of a secular state believe the AKP wants the Islamisation of Turkey. Erdogan said Saturday in a response that a prohibition of his party "would be against the will of the people". The AKP won last year's parliamentary elections with decisive returns. Erdogan, a pious Muslim, in the past already has been banned from having political functions, after reading a controversial Islamic poem.
>>>

Updated: 16th March 2008
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The Lighthouse: "An Existential Answer"

The question posed yesterday, i.e. is any majority ever justified in abolishing the state of democracy, was not only given in by the constitutional problems presently playing out in Turkey - by which the E.U. blindly sides with fundamentalism over preserving democracy - but also by the remarks made by a Dutch Government Minister that - if such would be the wish of a constitutional majority - it should be possible to impose Sharia Law in The Netherlands. That remark was made some months ago, but frankly - after a storm of protest - I haven't seen him retract the statement! (...) >>>

Updated: May 1st, 2007
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Background of the issue:

Politeia: "Heckling Hegel"

(...) 'World historical figures' as operatives of God's Plan, might be exacting high cost in terms of human lives, but collective historical development is of a higher order than mere morality. This hierarchy of ethics sounds familiar. (...) Europeans (...) have not given up being the pawns of Hegel's 'world historical figures', the new operatives of 'God's work' who happen to be carving out a heroic role for themselves as unelected road-builders to Kantian world government. Admittedly EU citizens were misled by their political leaders, but how else can one account for the civic tolerance of the collectivist, centralist super behemoth, the post-democratic techno-rule that is now controlling most of the continent and the United Kingdom? Is Hegel's hierarchy of ethics, the flow of 'world historic events' before individual rights - empire building before democratic values - alive and kicking in the third millennium?

The EU betrayed its Hegelian credentials in the matter of the wave of Islamic fundamentalism that is encroaching on the Turkish secular democracy, founded by Kemal Ataturk. The latter - knowing his Youngturks from his Liberals - made the military the custodians of the secular government. In a recent crisis (see above "An Existential Answer") the EU made a perhaps not surprising, but very revealing choice. The military were to stay in barracks, Sharia come what may.

This choice should not be interpreted as a mark of respect for the fundamentalists' freedom of conscience: this liberty has officially been subordinated to postmodern moral legislation. This was a choice for sacrificing democracy over military intervention, for putting the flow of 'world political events' before the values of democracy. Collectivist habits die exceedingly hard. >>>

Dated: 27th Mar 2008

The conglomerate of Hegelian thinkers is potentially huge: not just the Leftist parties, but as well the all-powerful Christian Democrat bloc.

Related:

- "Neototalitarianism"
- "Building the State of Europe"
- "Transnational Progressivism"

Review: "In Praise of Prejudice", by Theodore Dalrymple

Pajamas: "Can Prejudice Be a Good Thing?", by Bernard Chapin

“Prejudice is like Nature in the famous line from the Epistles of Horace: you may toss her out with a pitchfork, yet she will soon return.”

Lies propel political correctness in the manner that oxygen fuels life. Without fabrication, melodramatic sacrifices to the shrines of sensitivity and diversity would be impossible.

Reality informs us that human beings, as a rule, are neither sensitive nor pluralistic. Our species intrinsically features both the fiendish and the beatific, yet our elites are oblivious to this fact. They pretend that only certain kinds of people possess goodness, whereas those who oppose them are evil incarnate. But their’s is a special type of evil, a product of miseducation and improper social engineering rather than birth.

Such is the way a person infected by prejudice becomes categorized. Our commentariat has even reached the point in which they are so offended by prejudice that they meld representations of it into scandals. James Bowman noted in his recent book, Media Madness, that the Fourth Estate, in 2007, met the news of the Pope being Catholic with wonderment and indignation.

At one time this phrase was used to describe information that was completely obvious. The Sovereign Pontiff’s proclamation that the identity of the church of Christ must be the Holy Catholic Church was another instance of it, yet the quotation stunned. (...)

While cultural Marxism is vile, easy to ridicule, and often pathetic, it remains remarkably tenacious. The various areas of life in which it has insinuated itself still manage to astound. (...)

With so much effort devoted to constantly defending utterances, it is little wonder that conservatives fair so poorly against radicals in the marketplace of ideas. One spends so many hours explaining why disagreeing with them is not indicative of racism or sexism that little time is left with which to mount a counterattack. That’s the situation most of us find ourselves in, but not Dr. Theodore Dalrymple. His new work, In Praise of Prejudice: The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas, delivers a deluge of resounding blows.

We find here that, in keeping with the Manichean manner of our elites, prejudice has become a word devoid of positive connotation. Those who refuse to discard their preconceptions soon find themselves put up for membership in the “Church of Verbal Atonement.” The author skillfully illustrates, however, that presuppositions are what made civilization distinctly possible. Discrimination once symbolized the possession of sensitivity, good judgment, and connoisseurship. Today it suggests a devotion to homophobia, bigotry, and racism. A word which once illustrated perspicacity has become a pejorative. Judging something better than something else is now deemed undemocratic.

Well, that’s not exactly true because the person who judges is regarded as the moral inferior of the person who refrains from judging. Dr. Dalrymple contends that “it does not follow that because some prejudices are harmful, we can do without prejudices altogether.” As an example he points out that our daily habits are nothing more than a form of behavioral prejudice.

To not discriminate is to not learn from a lifetime of experience. (...) Via a syllogism he demonstrates that only prejudice allows us to separate good from evil. (...) The non-judgmental life is a sentence served in an environment of perpetual amorality.

Suspending discernment is akin to terminating the immune system. (...) What we wish for is not what generally occurs. A far more pro-social value than non-judgmentalism is the recognition that things can always get worse. Political correctness nefariously fills the void of principled authority. (...)

Government’s dedication to non-judgmentalism has given rise to “an urban hell” in which certain groups of people — particularly those on the dole — are not expected to act in a civilized manner, as supporting them is no longer contingent upon the behaviors they exhibit. The Leviathan is above distinguishing right from wrong in the case of its wards.

(...) In closing, the questions Dr. Dalrymple posed in an article within the latest issue of National Review — concerning the archbishop of Canterbury — apply well to the dilemmas outlined here: “At what point does willful blindness become plain cowardice? At what point does intellectual incoherence become downright dishonesty?” Indeed. (...) >>>

Bernard Chapin wrote Women: Theory and Practice and Escape from Gangsta Island, along with a series of videos called Chapin’s Inferno. You can contact him at veritaseducation@gmail.com.

- Filed on Articles in cat. Book Reviews (sidebar) -

"Understanding Change"

Introduction and user notes


Dr Sam C. Holliday has worked out how change - in the very general sense - is effected.

Parts I, II, and III were posted earlier in separate instalments on Politeia. Here you find the integrated single dossier, to which notes and updates may be added at a later stage. At the bottom you will find a link to a printable version.

Part I: "Not Progress, Cycles"

Change has never been so rapid. Is it possible to cope with such change without anxiety, frustration, broken dreams, and despair?

We can view changes as either progress or cycles. Today progress is the assumption of most Europeans and Americans. Yet this "progress" is the pursuit of many different utopias. Yes it is change, but is it building (true progress) or is it decline, the outcome of manipulation by those with a political agenda. Cycles provide an attractive alternative to "progress".

Cycles more accurately describe reality. This conceptual framework helps us understand the past and the present while we contemplate the future, and it can be an assistance to the brave, strong and skillful in their efforts to influence events.

Progress

Plato, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam sowed the seeds for progress. However, progress did not become a common assumption until the science of Western culture surpassed religion as a belief system. Christianity and Islam had provided an end superior to that offered by the myths and mysteries, which preceded them. Then science convinced many that man had achieved mastery of nature and was not a slave to fate. As a result it was possible to consider the possibility of indefinite improvement. Sir Thomas More gave substance to this view and added the word utopia to our language.

In l8th Century Europe the idea of universal human progress through science and secular authority were core concepts of The Enlightenment. Then Karl Marx used Hegel's ideas and defined utopia as a classless society of perfect freedom and equality, which would be realized after a series of class struggles and bloody revolutions. Classical Liberalism and the logic of the hierarchy of knowledge reinforced this view of unstoppable progress.

World War I damaged the belief in science, reason, and progress. It became clear that science, and man's domination of nature, produced bad as well as good consequences. If science could not insure indefinite progress to utopia, what could? Some turned to politics: nationalism, communism, socialism, fascism, the rule of law, or world government. However, World War II showed that politics was no better than science and reason as the basis of unstoppable progress. Today Islamic true believers and postmodernists have their own paths to utopia, based not on science and reason, but on feelings and emotions.

All fundamentalism stresses unquestioned acceptance of doctrine over reason and balance. Such acceptance has produced true believers of pre-Christian mysteries, nature worship, and witchcraft. But of greater significance is the certainty offered by two movements. One is an extreme version of Islam. It is the fuel of the global Islamic revivalist movement known as the Third Jihad. The other is the homogeneity of ideas and lack of intellectual diversity in Western Culture resulting from postmodern thought.

The flaws of all true believers are intolerance for others, the danger of extremism, and the vulnerability of individuals to manipulation. Currently the leaders of the Third Jihad manipulate those seeking a way to know ultimate reality. In the other movement many in the West have sought certainty through postmodernism. This movement has used a vision of a nonjudgmental, nondiscriminatory future, in which disagreements are resolved by debate and compromise. Actually both of these movements have filled new bottles with old wine, yet they gain true believers because they claim to have found "the way" to a better life-in the next world or in this one. However, a clear Utopian message can obscure reality. Unanswered is whether the outcomes of the "progress" offered by these movements will be a rise or a decline.

Cycles

Cycles are probably better than progress as the way to understand change. During the dominance of progress in Western thought, cycles were kept alive by thinkers such as Bodin, Vico, Nietzsche, Spengler, Sorokin, and Toynbee. The rise and fall of families, communities, states, nations, cultures and civilizations are no longer seen as the work of gods, as they were in ancient times. It is now understood that cycles are never identical and that no cycle is deterministic. Each group has its unique origin, growth, contentment, and decline--its own virtues and its own secular authority. However, similarities can be noted and patterns can be found.

Cycles are the oldest attempt to give meaning to change. The most primitive of people saw the natural world as stages in cycles of birth, growth, decay and death. People living close to nature through fishing, hunting or farming think in terms of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Babylonian, Indian, Chinese and Aztec myths were often placed within cycles. Hindu and Buddhist visions are those of an eternal cosmic process, which repeatedly rises to a golden age and then declines into a watery or flaming ruin. Aristotle wrote of civilizations as a continuous "coming to be and falling away." Both Stoics and Epicureans in the Roman Empire saw history as endless cycles. Although the names for the parts of the cycles often changed, the cycles were the primary way to explain change until the rise of Christianity, Islam, and Hegelian dialectic.

It is possible to describe the similarities and patterns in cycles of any group: family, gang, tribe, commune, community, polity, state, or nation. Cycles are never identical and cycles are not the results of antecedent causes. However, each collection of persons related in someway shares some virtues and have some means of governance, and it is possible to identify cycles of four stages--thus to have a conceptual framework to help us understand change.

The distinguishing characteristic of all groups is a common identity--a sense of kinship. Those in a group need not have common genes, or speak the same language, or even have the same culture, but they must think of themselves as "we". As Vico has stated: the past is "the record of the result of wills, of human facts themselves, the order of the succession, and the circumstance of the production.". Some groups spend a long time in one stage, yet others move rapidly through the stages. Other groups are able to reverse to an earlier stage, while others go through several iterations of decline/rally, disorder/order, and stagnation/prosperity. Therefore, it is from the cycles of past organisms with a collective biography, i.e. groups, that we can understand our present and gain a glimpse of our future.

There is no agreement on the names of the four stages of cycles. However, it is suggested that the stages be referred to as Birth, Maturity, Contentment, and Decay, and the first two stages as Building (or Rise) and the last two stages as Declining (or Fall).

A conceptual framework of cycles can only be seen confusedly. However, an attempt to dispel the mist, and to fix the outlines of the vague form that is looming through the mist, is a noble goal. Perhaps words to satisfactorily describe cycles are an impossible dream, yet that should not prevent a quest.

Part II: "The Rising Stages"

Building (Rise) Stages

Birth and Maturity are the first two stages. The building stages of cycles are a time of struggle. The overcoming of obstacles releases the energies of the group to respond effectively to challenges. The survival instinct brings out the ferocity, avarice and ambition in humans; this creates leaders able to build and defend the group. Individuals support the group in their own self-interest. Hegel often refers to each group having a particular "spirit of the people". This is his way of noting the importance of virtues (sacred authority), which are shared moral, ethical, and religious beliefs.

The building stages are the realm of the Faustian man. In literature we find such a person in Shakespeare’s Lear, and Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisler. As expressed by Hegel, history "has ever decided in favor of the stronger, fuller and more self-assured life--decreed to it, namely, the right to exist, regardless of whether its right would hold before a tribunal of waking-consciousness."

While a group is rising the masculine dominates the feminine; although this is less pronounced in the Maturity stage than it is in the Birth stage. For some groups the struggles during the building stages are too great and they are destroyed and absorbed by more powerful groups. Also the tragic truth is, that after the building stages have run their course, the fall begins.

The Birth stage of cycles is a time of troubles and challenges with extinction always close at hand. The driving force of the group is intellectual ignorance and morale baseness. In the group the most violent and enterprising gain power from their ability to provide protection from chaos and extinction. This results in unprecedented effort, unity, sacrifice and loyalty to a single leader who is father, ruler, priest and prophet. The leader is the arbiter of right and wrong, good and bad.

A group in the Birth stage is clearly an organism that is more than its parts, and the parts are not interchangeable; the individual is often sacrificed for the benefit of the group.It is a time for brutish men--not for the timid; for action--not for words; of unity--not of diversity; of passion--not of reason; of myth, legend, custom and tradition--not of science and political correctness; of simple, direct behavior--not of clever, hedonistic behavior; of sacrifice--not of selfishness; of inequality and obedience--not of equality and license.

Some groups are able to skip the Birth stage because they are able to borrow from another group that has failed.

During the Birth stage individuals realize they can only be human as members of a group, for only within the group can they experience the attributes of freedom and morality. Outside of a group an individual would be no more than an animal with sensations. At the end of the Birth stage there is greater personal freedom, greater equality of opportunity, and less reliance on myth and legend.

During the Maturity stage there is an increase in knowledge, numbers, and territory; there is an accumulation of surplus, the development of new technology and new ways to do things. Moreover, the knowledge and technology uses the surplus to increase the power of the group. In the Maturity stage the group exists for the sake of its members, yet the group is still enough of an organism to be able to hold on to the customs, traditions, roles, and sense of duty developed in the Birth stage. While the parts are not interchangeable, there is greater mobility than in the Birth stage.

Heroes are the distinctive feature of the Maturity stage. They become the magistrates of order to provide protection from internal and external threats. The heroes are what some have called "great men" since they are doers and often use wealth to achieve power. They form a ruling class that has a monopoly of both secular and sacred authority, they hold all of the leadership and opinion making positions, and they know how "to win the favor of the gods", i.e., they have earned the "mandate of heaven". They use symbolic language characterized by imagery and metaphors. As Rousseau has said: "What is the object of political association? It is the preservation and prosperity of its members."

Heroes shaped events and are considered the wisest, bravest and best; they are found in different spheres of human activity. Their status is based on merit and is earned by successful performance of duties related to the growth of the group. Among heroes Thomas Carlyle listed: Odin of Scandinavian mythology, Mohammed, Dante, Shakespeare, Luther, Samuel Johnson, Robert Burns, Cromwell and Napoleon. To these could be added: Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Thomas Jefferson, Otto von Bismarck, Rudyard Kipling, Theodore Roosevelt, Cecil Rhodes, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Indira Gandhi, and the Chinese leaders that followed Mao Tse-tung.

In the Maturity stage heroes are examples of loyalty, dedication, and patriotism. Their behavior demonstrates honor, discipline, duty, and a sense of purpose. Their demeanor is stern and severe. They are usually motivated by God’s will and the ecstasy of belief. They enjoy a high degree of individual freedom because a strong internal compass controls their behavior. Most heroes favor rule of the few who have demonstrated dedication to the group’s interests, and are united by their wealth, ability, and vigor. Also most heroes favor the structures and processes of governance that discriminate against those that would shift wealth from the "haves" to the "have-nots" or would create a welfare state.

By the fifth century B.C. in the Greek city-states a ruling-class of heroes had taken power from their Kings, and had evolved into the Maturity stage. From then until the end of the wars with Persia (479 B.C.) there was a struggle between authoritarianism and democracy. This period saw the development of the essence of Greek culture: philosophy of Thales, science of Anaximander, mathematics of Pythagoras, Greek drama, Greek architecture, and the idea that every group has a history. The rich and powerful quarreled and dominated both sacred and secular authority. But the rights of all citizens and the overall, long-range interests of the group could not be ignored.

While most of those living in Greece (foreigners, women, and slaves) were ignored, discontent among merchants, craftsmen, and small farmers created effective political opposition. The phalanx of farmer-citizen hoplites, rather than the cavalry of the heroes, became the decisive element in combat. Yet in Greece the Maturity stage came to an end with the degeneration of the proud citizen-soldier into a mercenary tempted by bribery and

Part III: "The Declining Stages"

Over-sophisticated and corrupt "elites" advancing self-interests--and desires--is the fundamental cause of decline during the Contentment and Decay stages. No longer do all of those with political power work for the interests of the whole group; instead they increasingly advance the agenda of factions, and/or personal interests.

During the declining (fall) stages there is an increase in humanization along with a softening of both customs and laws, and a greater reliance on the rule of law (secular authority). Also the feminine increasingly replaces the masculine.

Edward Gibbon spent his life studying the declining stages and recorded his conclusions in several volumes of "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". He attributes decline to the disappearance of vitality and creative power. He saw the start of the decline with the people replacing their vigor and public spirit with pleasure seeking and factionalism. He saw evidence of the decline in the degeneration of art and literature combined with obsession with materialism. He saw the completion of the decline with the degeneration of the military, first in discipline and then in courage.

The Contentment stage of cycles is a time of eclecticism, easy, comfort, and sophistication with nothing original. Its art is decadent and rarely supports traditional institutions, yet it is widely acclaimed. Its science and technology are complex and costly, yet do little to advance the human spirit. Intellectuals are concerned with causality, feelings, and intentions; they stress thinking rather than action and the ideal rather than the practical. Yet the Contentment stage is often considered a "Golden Age", since there is usually peace, prosperity, rights, a complex legal system, and a privileged intelligentsia.

Respect for authority, discipline, and common identity give way to humane and easy tolerance-to benign, nonjudgmental behavior. Feelings replace reason and right. Many of the characteristics of an organism are lacking in a group in the Contentment stage; it becomes a special kind of aggregate of individuals and factions with patterns of relationships. Roles, rules and standards are either absent or are largely symbolic. Behavior is increasingly controlled by the rule of law rather than shared convictions of right and wrong.

There are increases in material prosperity, social security, humanitarianism, and bureaucracy. With the erosion of virtues (shared moral, ethic and religious beliefs) there is an increased reliance on secular authority (rule of law), which results in an escalation in the wealth consumed on litigation. Secular authority dominates sacred authority (the inner compass of individuals), and even secular authority is "flexible". There is an increase in the number of intellectuals, materialists, and hedonists who believe they are living beyond values, beyond right and wrong. There is advocacy for universal laws to achieve equality among all people in wealth, economic outcomes, and rights.

The Contentment stage is a time of refinement and sophistication. In defending his humanist code of ethics Kug Fu-Tse (Confucius) said: "Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men" While Socrates wished to counter those Sophists who saw the best life as one of self-indulgence or tyrannical power he was not a man of action, and thus he only looked into the human soul, uncovered assumptions, and questioned certainties while the society around him began its slide into chaos.

In the Decay stage the group has become a polyglot, borrowing from others to create a vulgar and violent underclass, yet a delicate, refined, and dissolute upper class. It has crude, disturbing art, and sterile, ethereal beliefs. There is disintegration and a lack of common identity. A group in the Decay stage has become simply an aggregation of individuals with no purpose beyond those of the individual--its organism roots have deteriorated into artifacts of the past.

There is no spirit of sacrifice for the group or sense of duty. Factions within the group are as competitive with each other as they are with those outside of the group. Only secular authority remains and it is often ignored. Equality of outcomes has replaced equality of opportunity. There is economic depression, and a decline in the standard of living. License has replaced freedom. Votes go to demagogues who promise the most. There is ever-increasing hostility and violence between factions, which sometimes becomes a civil war.

The liberal democrat Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) predicted slavish submission during the Decay stage: "The internal strains which have threatened society will be relaxed and eliminated, and the community will settle down upon that servile basis which was its foundation before the Christian faith, from which that faith slowly weaned it, and to which in decay of that faith it naturally returns."

The history of each group with a collective biography has an end. Just as individuals recognize their own mortality, each group will someday be extinct. The group might die from external blows, but most likely the end will come from self-destruction. However, before a group’s end there are usually transfers, which start new groups. The lands a group claims will someday belong to others; their language might remain on paper, their art might remain in museums; other groups might take many of their ideas and much of their technology, but the authority of every group will lose its power--the kinship will no longer survive.

Conclusions

The cycle of Rise through Birth and Maturity, and then Fall through Contentment and Decay is a hypothesis, yet it does not satisfy the rigid requirements some associate with science or the expectations of academic scholarship. Nevertheless, it is a useful way for any one to view the present and consider the future. It does allow us to see more clearly the groups of which we are a part.

As with all hypothesis that presented here it is subject to revision. If the words do not accurately describe reality they need to be changed, or defined, so as to insure communication of the concept. No words are perfect; words are only tools that help or hinder communication. The words must be sufficiently well defined to achieve clear communication, yet accurately describe what happens in the real world.

Some groups are able to skip the Birth stage because of transfers from a previous group that has failed; some groups are able to remain in a stage for a long time while others go rapidly from one stage to the next; some are able to reverse to an earlier stage and gain new impetus; some decline then rally for several iterations; and some groups never make it through the full cycle--they collapse from within or are destroyed from without.

The cycle presented here will surely not receive academic acclaim; hopefully it will be a help to anyone who wants to understand why groups rise and fall and to determine what action should be taken to affect the process. Hopefully, it will be of benefit to the brave, strong and skillful who want to influence events.

What are the advantages of this conceptual framework of cycles? It gives an accurate, simple, generalization of the cycle of any collection of related persons. Rather than seeing history as facts of specific events and times and studying parts, it permits the study of wholes. It dispels the mist that obscures vague conditions, thus helping us understand the past and the present as we contemplate the future. It provides a check on mindless pursuit of some utopia in the name of progress. It helps us cope with change.

The American Presidential Elections

Change has become a key issue in the Presidential campaigns. The candidates seem to define "change" as anything different and expect their version of some Utopia to carry them to victory. This is only surface level change.

So far there seems to be little interest in whether this "change" is an improvement or not. Of course, in keeping with the assumptions of progress, each candidate claims his "change" is an improvement. Why? Because he considers his vision of progress superior to that of others.

This is certainly a very limited view of change. But it is no surprise since that is the focus of most policy debates--and the adversarial approach in general. It is easy to critize past decisions and easy to make promises. Demagogues have always sought power through promises, although their goals are self-interests and self-aggrandizement.The presidential candidates seem to calculate what they say in terms of political advantage, rather than public interest. They want to win votes, not solve problems. Can our politics handle anything beyond surface level change?

It is more difficult to understand the future and to develop policies for the long-term general good. Yet this is what national interests require. This is how any nation builds, grows, and lasts. Has postmodern thought become so dominant that most Americans are only interested in surface level change and their own self-interests?

Is there a better definition of change? It is time we become free from the bitterness and pettiness that are the outcomes of the Hegelian dialectic and the adversarial approach to progress. If we are a nation worthy of the name, it is time to stress both cooperation and conflict; it is time to work with our rivals for the common good. It is time to insure that any change is an improvement, not a decline.

Copyright © 2008 Armiger Cromwell Center

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Earlier by Dr Sam Holliday in Politeia:

- "Reforming Islam: Beware of the Fifth Column"
- "Civil Right vs Human Rights"
- "The Corruption of Patriotism"
- "The Fable of the Water Buffalo and the Sparrow"
- "The Fable of the Knife"
- "Effectively Communicating Jihad: a spade is a spade"

Filed on Articles in "Understanding Change", cat. Philosophy