Time to use "the board of education"...
just call me Thumpy McThumpyerface.
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Kotkin in Austria
Recently (I know not how recently) Prof. Steve Kotkin gave a lecture in Vietnenna. As ever, he was an engaging speaker, a champion of liberalism. Interestingly, for whatever reason, he thought it politic to mention his GOLF game, make of that what you will. More interestingly, he spoke of biopolitics, which happens to be the forte of one of my mentors.
An ethnic German, I am ever wary of biopolitics. Suffice it to say the eugenics wars were less than successful, possibly a tribute to human hubris. Yet, Kotkin's points are worth directly addressing.
He is correct to expect the rise and importance of biopolitics, just as I am correct to point out the rise of solarpunk. This is because the unimaginable scientific progress in biology has repeatedly pushed back the frontiers of science. Kotkin is also correct not to fear biowar, and pointed out the USA most quickly developed the MRNA vaccine, which is his indirect admission of the now obvious fact, a fact I pointed out from day -15, that China's virus was a bioweapon, but was an accident, and not a deliberate attack.
Apparently, Kotkin's own biography is Polish-Jewish-Catholic, not that this should matter terribly, though it does explain his love of liberalism. Despite liberalism having failed to prevent or rescue Jews and other persecuted minorities from literal genocide they are dumbstruck by liberalism, whether because of the liberal ideals of "freedom" or at least tolerance or because liberalism and capitalism go together like dick and vag I do not know. They love money, and that is a weakness they have: it bites them in the ass, cash makes great bait. Anyway, I presume a similar biography explains Anne Applebaum (though likely Western rather than Eastern Yiddish, I am that into languages) as well of course the late Albright, and Soros. These people are enamored of liberalism despite liberalism’s failings because they can't see or develop a better alternative, as seen from the failure of Marxism in Europe, which was in fact heavily influenced by various Jewish thinkers such as Marx and Engels, inter alia. Because Jewish people and Jewish influenced people, like Chinese people, are really into reading and writing, they have an outsize intellectual influence, which sometimes bites them in the ass, leading to various accusations from evil blood libels to paranoid political conspiratism through to ugly mafia accusations. It’s easy to hate and downpunch a successful minority, and this is one of the reasons you need authoritarianism.
I point this out so that others understand where my authoritarianism comes from, and why I have quite consciously rejected the liberalism that these people mistakenly believe is their salvation from the sea, or is it a horde, of masses, are those pitchforks? Liberalism already fucked them over at least once around 1940, but dog loyal with giant hopeful puppy eyes they come back for more. Time to disillusion them, it's for their own good.
Authoritarianism means the power of the State to smash certain things, which the justifying logic of state power defines as meriting such ill treatment. I point out, entirely correctly, that authoritarianism must be democratic, not autocratic, and Putin is an example why, as well as exemplifying why we cannot encourage cults of personality. I also argue that authoritarianism is best to direct a limited state, one which tries not to do all things for all people. Capitalism tries to split state power and economic power, and its tendency to mute factionalism thereby (see Federalist 10) and in other ways too, is wise, as various factional states prove by negative example.
All this, by the way, is happening before the example of the failed World War III; I mean failed in the sense of thwarted. World War III has already been thwarted, in part because of the application of the formula for world peace developed in various ways over the past 75 years:
deterrence+collective security+functionalist specialization+free trade+cross border investment+human rights=world peace.
China, in fact, in actual practice, was a key reason a third world war has been averted. Recently there are admissions of sales of thousands of Chinese sourced drones to Ukraine, for example. It is the liberals, not China, which wish to see Iran crippled, at least, as a military power. This is because China like the USA and EU and the UK and Commonwealth would like to prevent rather than incite a third world war. We must try to understand the limits of liberalism, so we can help it to course-correct, though frankly their arrogance and hubris limit our capacity to save liberals from themselves.
Perhaps the key problem of liberalism is hubris: Frank Fukuyama is the easiest example. They truly believe they have unlocked the formula for domestic and global governance, a one-size fits all model for political and economic development (neoliberalism and the Washington consensus respectively). That is fairly evidently not the case. If neoliberalism and the Washington consensus were so wonderful
1) the ex USSR would not in the 1990s have been a mafia state with mass murder as norm and governance as well as the many wars in the ex USSR most notably Chechnya.
2) the ex Yugoslavia in the 1990s would likewise never have met its genocidal fate.
3) probably the same is true of the Rwanda genoicde in the 1990s
4) South Africa likewise would not have devolved into murder and more murder.
5) The past 20 years of failed US foreign policy would have been otherwise and the USA would have won the peace in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Ukraine, and anywhere else they tried their neoliberal color revolution strategy.
They hate it when you tell them their shit stinks. Too fucking bad. Your shit stinks.
The Marxist state which did not collapse into mass murder was the Marxist state that did not pursue neoliberalism and the Washington consensus, namely the PRC.
Lest there be any doubt, in the 2000s along came Putin, specifically rejecting neoliberalism, and while people rightly complain about Putin's tossing various enemies out of windows there is much less such violence in Putin's illiberal Russia than was the case in Yeltsin's liberalist Russia. South Africa and ex Rhodesia, meanwhile went from bad to worse in the 2000s -- both are failed states, and they failed because of neoliberalism and the Washington consensus. It's fair to blame their failure on factionalism and literal tribalism, but failed they are and the ideologies that dominated their failure were neoliberalism and the Washington consensus.
Currently, China's governance model is not like neoliberalism: it is essentially "agnostic", neutral, non-interventionist, an economic rather than political model. That may change as people like me increasingly point out the obvious flaws in liberalism -- flaws that have led the USA to a declining life expectancy, around 100,000 deaths by drug overdose per year, flaws that will be corrected by authoritarianism, even though I think Trump has no political future, the demographic and ideological forces that brought him to power persist. I aim to shape them. How'm I doin'?
In any case, I expect biopolitics and solarpunk to be the way forward because the breathtaking advances in biological science mean that I expect human life expectancy to increase, perhaps even to increase by several decades. Having cured the problem of global war we can expect biological sciences to be able to focus on augmenting life expectancy and improving quality of life among the elderly, for examples.
Free ebooks then another shorter video & WOTD:
Globalization with Chinese Characteristics
The Tao of Christ
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9FG5YSK
Real Property Law Quiz Questions & Explanatory Answers
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CDVZPND3
Tetiana's Adventures In Wonderlaw
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1523328398
Solomon’s Gate: Strategic Analysis of Current Mid East Conflicts (Netanyahu’s War)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D8GS1M5C
Military Strategies to Win Wars With
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJ25Y646
Hostomel
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHYHKB91
China’s Future in Focus:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJRXZL7D
Word of the day: "War of attrition":
1. English: War of attrition
2. French: Guerre d'usure
3. Spanish: Guerra de desgaste
4. German: Abnutzungskrieg (m)
5. Estonian: Jälgimis- ja kõikumissõda (n)
6. Russian: Война на истощение (f)
7. Ukrainian: Війна на виснаження (f)
8. Mandarin Chinese: 消耗战 (xiāohào zhàn)
Sample sentence:
- Ukraine is in a war of attrition that it will win by an elastic defence alongside deep strikes inside Russia with drones, missiles, and sabotage raids.
- L’Ukraine est dans une guerre d'usure qu'elle va gagner grâce à une défense élastique et des frappes en profondeur en Russie avec des drones, des missiles et des raids de sabotage.
- Ucrania está en una guerra de desgaste que puede ganar con una defensa elástica y ataques profundos dentro de Rusia con drones, misiles y incursiones de sabotaje.
- Die Ukraine befindet sich in einem Abnutzungskrieg, den sie mit einer elastischen Verteidigung und tiefen Schlägen innerhalb Russlands mit Drohnen, Raketen und Sabotageangriffen gewinnen wird.
- Ukraina on jälgimis- ja kõikumissõjas, mida ta võib võita paindliku kaitse ja sügavate löögideta Venemaal, kasutades droneid, ohvitsereid ja sabotaažirüüki.
- Украина ведет войну на истощение, которую она может выиграть благодаря гибкой обороне и глубоким ударам внутри России с использованием дронов, ракет и диверсионных рейдов.
- 烏克蘭正在進行一場消耗戰，它会通過在俄羅斯境內使用無人機、導彈和破壞性突襲的彈性防禦來贏得勝利。
- 乌克兰正在进行一场消耗战，它会通过在俄罗斯境内使用无人机、导弹和破坏性突袭的弹性防御来赢得胜利。
Final line:
- English: Good luck and stay strong, Ukraine!
- French: Bon courage et restez forts, Ukraine !
- Spanish: ¡Buena suerte y fuerza, Ucrania!
- German: Viel Glück und bleibt stark, Ukraine!
- Estonian: Palju õnne ja jätku jõudu, Ukraina!
- Russian: Удачи и держитесь, Украина!
Ukrainewill win. Acharai.