Two Quotes on Capitalism

In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated. (...) Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state. (...) “The time for enlightenment has come. (...)

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in a speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 2009

- Caption: "Look to the West", by Nathan Struttman (Quent Cordair Fine Art, Napa) -

If one wishes to advocate a free society - that is, capitalism - one must realize that its indispensable foundation is the principle of individual rights. If one wishes to uphold individual rights , one must realize that capitalism is the only system that can uphold and protect them. (...) Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law. (...) It was with the destruction of individual rights that the destruction of freedom had to begin. A collective tyranny dare not enslave a country by an outright confiscation of its values, material or moral. It has to be done by a process of internal corruption. Just as in the material realm the plundering of a country's wealth is accomplished by inflating the currency - so today one may witness the process of inflation being applied to the realm of rights. The process entails such a growth of newly promulgated "rights" that people do not notice the fact that the meaning of the concept is being reversed. Just as bad money drives out good money, so these "printing-press rights" negate authentic rights.

Ayn Rand, "Man's Rights" from "The Virtue of Selfishness", reprinted in"Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal"

- Caption: Cover design of "The Virtue of Selfishness", by Nick Gaetano (Quent Cordair Fine Art, Napa) -

Putinism Explained: the Power Tool

Here follows an eight part CBC Newsworld documentary "The Putin System," which analyzes the life and politics of Russia's, now Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin.

Specifically those still swooning over 'having looked into his soul' romantics, or transnational idealists harboring otherwise dangerously Utopian One World notions, are strongly advised to watch it closely.

The 'managed democracy' of the 'single economic space' of the reconstituted USSR is the nearest we will ever get in real life to the James Bond antagonist in a number of 007 films, SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Control, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion): total state through a corporation, in this case Gazprom, a gigantic transnational tool for the funneling of public resources to selective private coffers.

As a worthy heir to the manufactured reality that was every day life in the Soviet Union, Putinism proudly includes in its doctrine the contradictions of democracy (or what passes for it) and dictatorship, as well as state and liberalism. The latter is meant strictly nominally, as in "the Democratic Republic of the Congo."

The neotot KGB ship of state is tightly run under the premise that "control is safe, no control is a threat, therefore as many things as possible should be controlled."

The paranoid mass is collectively held together by the Sorelian myths of outside and inside enemies and the lie reaching back to the anti-modernist school of thought, that the individual is insignificant but that the collective is supernaturally powerful. It therefore comes as no surprise that the reversed sequence of events in the Georgian crisis is uncritically lapped up as Smirnoff on the rocks. Some never learn ...

Putinism, as a true total movement, likes 'em young: the Nashi youth organization's growth is prolific!

Whereas the doctrine has dispensed with ideology, it has seamlessly and effortlessly reconstituted all the Soviet trappings. Led by sheer Pragmatism (we unashamedly do whatever is in our interest), what's left is pure, brutal power politics for its own sake.

Those useful idiots in the West who took the communist idealism seriously and who - against all evidence - refused to believe otherwise, could draw some insightful conclusions from this (but they probably won't - as said, some never learn): the essence of the Marxist school of ideology always was a common power-grab and very little else. The core question was, how to get the unwashed to grab power on your behalf?

Putin has come up trumps from his long walk through the nomenklatura. The clever thing is, he's done it almost single-handedly. It is to be hoped that the overplaying of his hand in Georgia will put a number of Western politicians on the highest state of alert.

Now that 'history is back' it may help clear the postmodern, transnational air that can only lead to utter disaster (in fact, the anomaly in international law of Kosovo's unilateral independence has produced the present crisis and can potentially, cause many more besides).

It may well be that the autocrats Russia, China, a number of Muslim countries, and their Third World clients will gang up against the West and Israel. It may also bring about a re-alignment in Euro-American relations and bring them closer together.

If the latter decades of the last century were at times a little boring, developments in the new millennium have already handsomely made up for that. We live in interesting times after all.


get your vodpod

In case of problems the videos can also be accessed from the Vodpod page.

- Filed on Articles in "Rumbling Russia" -

The Heat is on in the Caucasus (update)

Both parties disagree which side upset the status quo: Russia says it is protecting the ninety percent of the South Ossetian population who hold Russian citizenship; Georgian President Shaakashvili claims Georgia has been attacked for its pro Western position. There's no contradiction here thanks to a fateful error made elsewhere by the West. At this point the plot thickens, as a mirror image of Kosovo's secession from Serbia emerges.

Circumstantial evidence or double bluff, Georgia is only now repatriating its troops from Iraq, after the fact.

And what should we read in the fact that both Vladimir Putin and George Bush were attending the Beijing Olympics when the news broke?

Meantime reports have it the fighting has spread to nearby Abghazia, another breakaway region attacking Georgia.

- Caption: ethnic map of the Causasus -

President Saakashvili said 150 Russian tanks invaded Georgian territory on 7th August at 23:50 hours. He claims the Russians have been holding military manoeuvres for months, openly discussing the invasion with the protection of the Russian citizens in S. Ossetia as a pretext. Georgia for its part sought to preserve its territory, but apparently overplayed its hand.

But it is also a fact, that Russia has an entire history of waging war on civilian populations. Its style of warfare is to simply obliterate the will to fight. Residential complexes are indiscriminately bombed - no sensitivities over collateral damage there. Already the burnt out, Soviet style apartment buildings resemble scenes from the Chechen wars (first and second) (image: Grozny).

The Russian Black Sea fleet is preparing a blockade of Georgian ports.

A handful of orthodox thinkers have been warning for years of the dangers of Kosovo breaking away from Serbia, to no avail: how can any number of separatist actions be avoided with that precedent in mind? Ironically it was only Russia that supported Serbia in seeking to preserve its territorial integrity, but the postmodern tranzies wanted Kosovo's independence. Today in Georgia the shoe is on the other foot with Russia in the role of NATO, playing the humanitarian card. But no one is prepared as yet to interpret the Ossetian bit for independence as a 'Lockean revolution.'

CNN just reported that Vladimir Putin has arrived in the region. Just how that will influence the situation will be seen in the coming hours.

Meantime, here's some background information by George Gvishiani:

Georgia and the South Caucasus: "BACKGROUND: Russian Invasion of Georgia"

Please distribute to all relevant platforms on the Facebook or on other websites this statement of the Georgian Embassy in the US (they are my friends). File is attached and main text is in this e-mail below. I've just talked with Government in Tbilisi and with our Embassy here ... Almost all Gov. sites are down. Here is the text. Russian planes are hitting Poti where we have main communication points. (...) During the last 24 hours military forces of the Russian Federation in coordination with the Russian-supported and supplied South Ossetian militia launched combined air and ground attacks on Georgian territory. (...)

The Danger Room has another perspective:

Danger Room: "Did the U.S. Prep Georgia for War with Russia?"

Georgia and Russia are careening towards war. And the U.S. isn't exactly a detached observer in the fight. The American military has been training and equipping Georgian troops for years. The news thus far: Georgia, which has been locked in a drone war over the separatist enclave of Abkhazia, has launched an offensive to reclaim another breakaway territory, South Ossetia. Latest reports indicate that Georgian forces are laying siege to Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital. And Russia, which has backed the separatists, is sending in the tanks. So why should we care? Oh, just the prospect of a larger regional war that could drag in Russia – and involve the United States as well. When I last visited South Ossetia, Georgian troops manned a checkpoint outside Tskhinvali -- decked out in surplus U.S. Army uniforms and new body armor. (...) One of the U.S. military trainers put it to me a bit more bluntly. “We’re giving them the knife,” he said. “Will they use it?” >>>

Update: Here are two links on the oil connection:

SF Gate: "Georgia's oil pipeline is key to U.S. support"

(...) The pipeline that crosses Georgia can pump slightly more than 1 million barrels of crude oil per day, or more than 1 percent of the world's daily crude output. The 1,100-mile pipeline carries oil from Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea fields, estimated to hold the world's third-largest reserves. Its potential vulnerability was already in the spotlight after it was sabotaged this week, apparently by Kurdish separatists. Most of the oil is bound for Western Europe, where gas prices are even higher than the $4 and more a gallon that U.S. consumers are now paying. With only so much oil to go around, what the pipeline carries affects prices elsewhere. The United States also hopes it will be a model for other development projects that could have a more direct effect on the U.S. market. (...) >>>

Reuters: "Russian jets targeted major oil pipeline-Georgia"

Russian fighter jets targeted the the major Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline which carries oil to the West from Asia but missed, Georgia's Economic Development Minister Ekaterina Sharashidze said on Saturday. (...) There have been no independent verifications (...) >>>

Update:

Pajamas: "Russia’s Pathetic Defenders"

(...) Let’s be clear: What happened in Georgia is that Russia gave diplomatic recognition and support to a breakaway region of another country without international agreement, massed troops on the border, repeatedly violated Georgian airspace, shot down a Georgian aircraft, fired missiles into Georgian territory, and attempted to assassinate a major Georgian official in the region. Then it goaded the region into launching an attack on Georgian forces, and when Georgia finally responded with a limited strike against the region, after more than a year of provocation during which Georgia responded only with diplomatic protests, Russian invaded and seized the region, including the use of strategic bombers that destroyed civilian apartment blocks. Now, the breakaway region is engaged in massive attacks on Georgian civilians, in the manner of a pogrom. (...) >>>

- Filed on Articles in "Caucasian Heat" -

On Memory Lane: the Cold War Continues

News is breaking of a US-Russian spat, reminiscent of a rather romantic episode in the good, old bipolar days of the Cold War - the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Russia's Izvestia newspaper this week quoted a "highly placed source" as saying Russia could land Tu-160 supersonic bombers nicknamed "White Swans" in Cuba in response to a planned U.S. missile defense shield in Europe that Moscow opposes.

Reuters in "Cuba silent on Russian bomber report: Fidel Castro" reports that former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Wednesday said Cuba does not have to explain or "ask forgiveness" that Russia might use its Cold War ally Cuba as a refueling base for nuclear-capable bombers. He did not address whether the report was true or false, and Cuban officials have made no comment.

- Caption: August 29, 1962: U-2 photograph showing no construction at San Cristobal -

In marked contrast U.S. Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, that if the Russians did refuel the bombers in Cuba "we should stand strong and indicate that that is something that crosses a threshold, crosses a red line for the United States of America."

According to Reuters, Russian officials have denied the Izvestia report. The Russophobe begs to disagree:

"The possible deployment of Russian strategic bombers in Cuba may be an effective response to the placement of NATO bases near Russia's borders," a former Air Force commander said on Monday.

Russian daily Izvestia earlier on Monday cited a senior Russian military source as saying that Russian strategic bombers could be stationed again in Cuba, only 90 miles from the U.S. coast, in response to the U.S. missile shield in Europe.

"If these plans are being considered, it would be a good response to the attempts to place NATO bases near the Russian borders," Gen. of the Army Pyotr Deinekin told RIA Novosti. "I do not see anything wrong with it because nobody listens to our objections when they place airbases and electronic monitoring and surveillance stations near our borders," the general said.

However, Deinekin said the possibility of Russian bombers being stationed in Cuba is largely hypothetical, because Russia's Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-95MS Bear strategic bombers are both capable of reaching the U.S. coast, patrolling the area for about 1.5 hours, and returning to airbases in Russia with mid-air refueling.

Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans last August, following an order signed by former president Vladimir Putin. Russian bombers have since carried out over 80 strategic patrol flights and have often been escorted by NATO planes.

Robert Kagan it would appear, has a point regarding history retaking its normal course after Europe's strong Kantian/Hegelian push for a global Utopia.

- Filed on Articles in "Freedom isn't Free" -

Something Rotten in the State of Europe ...

Maybe I'm missing something, but my feeling is there's something rotten in Europe. Slowly but surely, some invisible octopus is busy hindering the arms and legs of all of us, Western European citizens.

As everybody, I was watching the news to see Gary Kasparov arrested last week while he protested against Putin's regime. The media were unanimous to condemn this act of intimidation towards a citizen, willing to exercise his freedom of speech and opposition before the elections on Sunday. They pointed out that this kind of repression doesn't forecast anything good for democracy in Russia.

Well, well, well... Look at this picture. Date: September 11, 2007. Location: Brussels. Event: a peaceful demo aimed at commemorating the WTC and Pentagon attacks on 9/11 and to draw attention to the creeping Islamization of Western society - a demo forbidden by Brussels Socialist mayor Thielemans. Freedom of speech? Not in Brussels.

The guy assaulted by policemen in the picture is not a common individual. He's the President of a party voted for by 20% of the electorate, a former Belgian senator, and currently a MEP. I fully agree that this party doesn't look friendly to the remaining 80% (and me) and that the guy isn't very sympathetic. A far right guy... But anyway : he represents many citizens, was voted in democratically.

Nobody in the Belgian media protested against his brutal arrest. Why? To me, there's no difference between the two cases: between the arrest of Kasparov and our Belgian bad guy. It's not the responsibility of authorities to decide who is pleasant (or whom to vote for) or not.

The problem is, we have to deal in Belgium with an archaic Left-wing nomenklatura. In the end, I believe what distinguishes Left from Right is the level of confidence in a population. Leftists believe people can't be trusted. In their minds, the totalitarian temptation will always prevail. Ergo, they believe they have to tell people who is votable or not, who has a reasonable political vision or not.

To push this belief the whole way, they even created what they call a "cordon sanitaire" (line of quarantine) around this particular party: the party won't be part of any coalition, there'll be no debate with its leaders, and the media must do their best to ignore them.

That's what they call protective democracy, and that's what I call the beginning of a dictatorship.

After all, the essential thing is not that the Belgian Leftists isolate a party and its leaders, IT'S THAT THEY ISOLATE 20% OF THE ELECTORATE - AND ABOVE ALL - THAT THEY ISOLATE THE POLITICAL ISSUES NOURISHED BY THE FAR RIGHT MOVEMENT, NAMELY INSECURITY AND UNCONTROLLED IMMIGRATION.

Tackling those problems would be considered a break in the cordon sanitaire, as far Rightist parties end up being the only ones bringing these matters up. My opinion instead is, that in a democracy, no subject should be ignored. The best way to fight extremist parties is to find solutions to the problems they point out.

That is what Nicolas Sarkozy did so courageously during the French campaign last spring, shocking Leftists who accused him of flirting with Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of Front National, the far Rightist party dealing with the same kind of ban we find in Belgium. Result: Sarkozy was easily elected while Jean-Marie Le Pen suffered his worst defeat.

Back to the situation in Belgium, it's pretty obvious that Leftists don't act towards certain parties out of political ethics. We are experiencing a clear demonstration of their lack of political morality these days: an exhibition is taking place in Stavelot (in a former (medieval) abbey!!!) to record Ernesto Che Guevara and his "works". And on this occasion, local authorities were very proud to welcome Camillo, son of the famous MURDERER WHO FOUGHT DEMOCRACY FROM THE MOMENT HE CAME INTO POWER.

So, is a far Rightist leader believed to have an undemocratic vision equal to a former far Leftist leader, convinced of an undemocratic vision? Not in Belgium, ladies and gentlemen!

There are many examples of undemocratic sliding in Belgium. Just one of them: because of the Belgian voting system, voters in (French speaking) Wallonia never get the opportunity to reward or penalize the former Prime Minister in an election, because the guy is automatically Flemish and Walloons can't vote for a Flemish candidate!

And undemocratic sliding isn't exclusively Belgian either ... I believe we can find it all over Western Europe. For instance in Italy the Leftist coalition of Romano Prodi is working on a law called "Levi-Prodi Act" to silence Italian bloggers! This law foresees that you should be able to create a blog only if you're backed by an accredited journalist. Moreover, you should pay a tax for the blog, even though you don't make money out of it!

I could also talk about EU and our mysterious MEPs ... and so on. Fellow readers, I'm curious to know if you are also experiencing some strange behavior in your countries. Drop us a line ... (or visit the Forum)

I may be missing something, but my feeling is there's something rotten in the state of Europe ...