Category Archives: 21st Century Feudal

Soviet Anti-Semitism, An Example from Andrew and Mitrokhin’s _The Sword and The Shield_.

29 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Books, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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In January 1953 the MGB was officially accused of “lack of vigilance” in hunting down the conspirators.  The Soviet news agency Tass made the sensational announcement that for the past few years world Zionism and Western intelligence agencies had been conspiring with “a terrorist group” of Jewish doctors “to wipe out the leadership of the Soviet Union.”  During the final two months of Stalin’s rule, the MGB struggled to demonstrate its heightened vigilance by pursuing the perpetrators of this non-existent plot.  Its anti-Zionist campaign was, in reality, little more than a thinly disguised anti-Semitic pogrom.  Shortly before Stalin’s sudden death in March 1953 Mitrokhin was ordered to investigate the alleged Zionist connections of the Pravda correspondent in Paris, Yuri Zhukov, who had come under suspicion because of his wife’s Jewish origins.  Mitrokhin had the impression that Stalin’s brutal security supremo, Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria, was planning to implicate Zhukov in the supposed Jewish doctor’s plot.  A few weeks after Stalin’s funeral, however, Beria suddenly announced that the plot had never existed, and exonerated the alleged conspirators.

Andrew, Christopher and Vasili Mitrokhin.  The Sword and The Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB.  Page 2.  New York: Basic Books, 1999.

In the “Russian Section” (of the in-house library), the above title is appended “UR” for unread.  BackChannels hopes to update that status soon.  Even so, with the theme of anti-Semitism emerging on the second page of a mighty classic, so it appears, among the scholars, the same may inform the character of today’s “Solidarity” organizations and their updates on Soviet disinformation and propaganda programs that produced the privileged and the privileges of the Party.

These historic incidents and the portent of books like The Sword and The Shield may be easily accessed by the lay public as well as scholars, but time having become the new space, information has become the vegetation on the landscape, and large packages so easily spied on Amazon may not be so easily opened.  With each passing year — the volume was published in 1999 — fewer and fewer readers, lay or scholar, are likely to have the experience of seminal works.  For the most part, the public won’t know, won’t have personal or transmitted historic memory, giving cognizant autocrats freedom to deliver the past to their constituents.

Related on BackChannels: “Rhetorical Objects — Anti- Anti-Semitism & Anti-Semitism” (April 20, 2014).

Addendum

This crossed my desktop late this afternoon:

The ultimate goal of state censorship is self-censorship among the citizenry. If you can get the people to police themselves, and each other, it takes part of the burden off the state and also makes people complicit in their own oppression. And so it’s disturbing to see things take this turn in Putin’s Russia. As the New York Times reports, Moscow bookstores removed from their shelves–voluntarily (sort of)–their copies of Maus, the pathbreaking graphic novel of Nazi crimes against the Jews. It’s the “voluntarily” part of this that stands out, and makes it clear that Putinism has not been, and will not be, good for the Jews of Russia.

Mandel, Seth.  “Dark Days Ahead for the Jews of Russia?”  Commentary, April 28, 2015.

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FTAC – Advertising by the Different Jihad’s Anti-Jihad

23 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Politics, Religion, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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If the screenshot banner copy is unclear or too small to read, it says, “‘Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah’ — Hamas MTV.  That’s His Jihad, What’s yours?”

 Comment From The Awesome Conversation

The Geller and Spencer and other anti-Jihad shows ask of Islam sufficient introspection and courage emphasize virtue, reform if necessary, and put both the 20th Century inspiration for the “Muslim Botherhood” and related poison-in-the-head out of business so that more of the world can get to work on other things.

However, the conflict and violence that assaults us daily by way of global media — and investment in this region of discussion — hasn’t only to do with Islam: it has to do with the interpretation of power — absolute and feudal or distributed and democratic. “Putin-Assad-Khamenei” are of a type, and Islam, especially in the middle east, has been “played” (ref.: Pacepa and Rychlak) and plays to their deeply medieval world vision and the image they have of themselves in it.

The Jews continuously, famously, remove themselves from cults of godlike personality and continue eternally in search of the Promised Land. Instead of imposing, the commune invites, and perhaps after Hillel, some ideas about a common humanity become borrowable but also political and little bit crooked (in Judaism, for example, all of the prophets are drawn as faulted humans, deeply so, and kept separate from God). For our grandiose delusional dictators fascists malignant narcissists, the limitation perhaps seems a deep affront and “control”, sadistic and total, becomes their thing. Must we have them? “Syndicate Red Brown Green” and NATO, more or less, are wrestling over it. Hamas is way down on the food chain (thank Khamenei, among others, for keeping it in business) but it’s leveraging some Islamic zeitgeist to produce chaos, fear, and sorrow around itself serves the larger press of the feudal mode.

Not only “the awesome conversation” elicits the above but also simply visiting these themes — conflict, culture, language, psychology — day after week after month after years: things come to the surface.  Some become so familiar as to become blog-based tropes:

No Moses — no Muhammad

Hillel the Elder –> Jesus, Paul, Constantine –> Muhammad

The Torah begins with God

The Torah, closely read, compels progressive ethical and moral argument

Syndicate Red Brown Green (post-Soviet neo-feudal Russia; new national socialists; Islamists)

Expect some items to show up on the “Alpha – Zulu” page of this blog.  Others may be simply plugged into meditative political writing as fit.

The tests of will in conflict that BackChannels has come to perceive has been very much within the medieval vs modern template, which would be fine if the medieval proved good.  The matter, however, has been complicated by a dark portion in psychology, i.e., the compulsive, endless, and helpless fascism and sadism of the malignant narcissist.  Too often, capricious power — power considering itself above all natural laws and inclined to create and make the same to suit itself without limits — comes to impose suffering on others with impunity.  It (!) appears to prize the annihilation of others and the erasing of time out of the urge to exist in a timeless world entirely of its own fashioning — and doing so it dooms itself to annihilation.

Additional Reference

Miller, Michael E.  “Killing Jews is worship posters will soon appear on NYC subways and buses.”  The Washington Post, April 22, 2014.

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Link – Obama and Detente with Iran

22 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iran, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East

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Thanks to retreats like this one, it is Khamenei’s red lines, not Obama’s, that have determined the shape of the emerging deal—a fact that prompts the president’s critics to accuse him of fecklessness and/or naïveté. But these descriptions miss the mark. The president is not wedded to any set of specific demands. For him, the specific terms of the nuclear agreement are far less important than its mere existence. One of Obama’s greatest diplomatic successes is to have persuaded much of the world, including many of his critics, that the primary goal of his Iran diplomacy is to negotiate a nuclear arms-control agreement. In fact, the primary goal is détente with Iran.

Doran, Michael.  “The Tectonic Shift in Obama’s Iran Policy: A nuclear deal is only the beginning. The president’s goal, at the expense of America’s allies, is full-fledged détente with Iran.”  Mosaic, April 22, 2015.

BackChannels comment: It makes complete sense, and I hope it’s completely wrong — but it’s a complete and lucid analysis of a foreign policy that has been wrested from the awareness and perception of most Americans and fellow travelers.

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Link – Nomani – On the Intimidation of Criticism

21 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Religion

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Alongside the honor brigade’s official channel, a community of self-styled blasphemy police — from anonymous blogs such as LoonWatch.com and Ikhras.com to a large and disparate cast of social-media activists — arose and began trying to control the debate on Islam. This wider corps throws the label of “Islamophobe” on pundits, journalists and others who dare to talk about extremist ideology in the religion. Their targets are as large as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and as small as me.

Nomani, Asra.  “Meet the honor brigade, an organized campaign to silence debate on Islam.”  The Washington Post, January 16, 2015.

The above article was mentioned by Ayaan Hirsi Ali in a video featured on another BackChannels post.

The more action taken against the classically liberal world, the more the medieval machinations grinding away at it and Islam’s future become clear.  Lightly linked here “malignant narcissism” within the realm of political psychology, the roots of intellectual stuckness, the propensity for deeply authoritarian and sadistic leadership, become increasingly clear.

As noted on that other post, the discussion of reformation in Islam has been taken up in an earnest fashion by New Age Islam and, of course, there is now no end to criticism from every direction, including from deep within Islam, of an Ummah beset with bloody conflicts and terrorist incidents from Afghanistan to Yemen.

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FTAC – Obama-Putin: Plan A and Plan A+

19 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

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There are two “Plan A’s”. One may written as Putin-Khamenei-(Obama), and that is the plan in evidence and promoted by the conservative right. It draws the fascists or “feudalists” across lines, from chemical warfare in Syria to Iranian expansion in Yemen and on to the infiltration of North American governments and intellectual assets. The alternative is that first “Plan A” is actually encompassed by choreography laid down by the democratic open societies to draw out the “Red Brown Green” crew, their totalitarian methods, and to draw them into war at their disadvantage.

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The arguments for the larger “Plan A” involve greater energy independence in North America and reduced oil revenues — lower oil pricing or market flooding (by the Saudi) — for those aligned with the Putin-Khamenei axis (Red Brown Green).

When you’re able to see that, say, ISIS is a Khamenei project (because if you believe you’re God, why not play both sides of the chessboard?), the greater “Plan A” may prevail.

It has been said that Obama — a true president, not the caricature — has been playing chess while Putin has been laying poker. That may be true, but I would add this: of the Khamenei-Putin arrangements, Khamenei has been using his military and nuclear threat powers to abet Iranian expansion in the middle east and influence around the world, while Putin has been downplaying Russia’s nuclear threat capability in tandem with related ambitions: the problem, imho, is Putin is the more likely to breach the nuclear threshold in a gambler’s (or criminal’s) compulsive moment — and there are “tactical” battlefield nuclear weapons or conventional weapons (like the “barothermic” bomb) that he might deploy where Russian troops are active (as far as I’m concerned, he has already shot down an airliner).

By comparison with this one, it was a sunny day when Obama took office and spoke of being a wartime president and mentioned — as been mentioned in The Awesome Conversation recently — the gathering storm, which BackChannels believes has just about gathered and is dimming to the blue black of gun barrels and spent accelerants.

President Putin has long left behind defending the image of his idea of Russia as a democratic state.  Successfully bridging the KGB to FSB eras, he has transformed the Soviet, post-Soviet state into a feudal oligarchy replete with an internal policing element estimated to have a staffing per capita greater than that of the KGB (reference whatever’s relevant to you in this blog’s “Russian Section” of the library). He has managed to return the modern-looking Russia Today engine to a tool for state propaganda, so much so that station anchor Liz Wahl felt compelled to quit her position in March 2014, and has essentially nulled the meaning of “free elections” and “free press” for Russians.

While the “Vertical of Power” rose to his current heights, the “Detached from Power” (one may suppose) fell to new lows:

Fifty-four per cent of Russians suffer from economic deprivation, up from 46 per cent in 2013, the survey by the Moscow-based Financial University found. The indicator last reached that level in 2010, a year after it hit a peak of 61 percent as the country’s economy contracted by almost eight per cent in the global financial crisis.

Russia, hit by a combination of plunging oil prices and sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the European Union over the Ukraine conflict, is heading into recession this year. President Vladimir Putin warned last month the downturn may last two years and Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev is predicting a 4 per cent to 5 per cent contraction in 2015 if the price of crude oil stays at about $45 a barrel. Inflation reached 11.4 per cent in December, the most among the world’s 10-biggest economies.

Bloomberg News.  “More than half of Russians live in poverty: Moscow-based Financial University says 54% of Russians can’t buy more than basic necessities.”  The Star (Toronto), January 20, 2015.

While the post-Soviet neo-feudal financial drama plays out and plays through the ribs and nodes of the defunct “empire” — yes, BackChannels believes it has been watching of late The Return of the Phantom Soviet — other elements more disturbing have lit up on the radar: the mysterious death of Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman; the assassination of Boris Nemtsov; the apparent recent deployment of chemical weapons in Syria — and all met by Moscow’s shrug of silence.

Additional Reference

BackChannels.  “Ali Khamenei and the Letter from Near Mosul — A Speculation.” January 16, 2015.

BackChannels.  “Alpha – Zulu”.  Page.  Readers may find repeated the schematic definition of “Syndicate Red Brown Green” on this just published (and not yet built out) list of concepts, events, and persons of interest.

BackChannels.  “A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma: Obama.”  April 1, 2015.

Elgot, Jessica.  “Russia Today Host Abby Martin Goes Spectacularly Off-Message in Ukraine Broadcast (VIDEO)”.  The Huffington Post UK, March 4, 2014, updated June 3, 2014.

Troianovski, Anton.  “Germany Seeks to Counter Russian ‘Propaganda’ in Baltics: Berlin to train journalists, provide Russian-language content to broadcasters in region.”  The Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2015.

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Two Videos: Aayan Hirsi Ali on Israel | Anti-Semitism on Campus

15 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology, Politics, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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April 12, 2015.

February 25, 2015.

Associate the theme of this blog, “malignant narcissism”, with “bullying, deceiving, and sabotaging.”

Two videos plus one:

February 24, 2015.

Addendum

The missing Hirsi Ali video had recorded her observations in relation to watching the video that followed.  BackChannels does not (yet) know what happened with regard to that video.  By way of the spirit of this post and the blog that surrounds it, here is a more recent YouTube video featuring Ayaan Hirsi Ali and consistent with the role she has carved out as a public intellectual critical of Islam.

Posted to YouTube April 12, 2015.

Original Post: http://www.c-span.org/video/?325228-1/ayaan-hirsi-ali-national-press-club-luncheon-remarks – 4/7/2015.  (Note: 9/3/2015: the video continues to appear and may be accessed on the C-Span site).

Mentioned in the above video:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/meet-the-honor-brigade-an-organized-campaign-to-silence-critics-of-islam/2015/01/16/0b002e5a-9aaf-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html

A broad and unique Islamic reform conversation may be accessed at New Age Islam.

While the Jewish Virtual Library maintains a page on “Ethical Monotheism”, BackChannels has yet to see a de-ethnicized (set apart from originating ethnolinguistic culture) Jewish option in belief and faith apart from the Ethical Culture Movement launched by Felix Adler.

Published last year, April 4:

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FTAC – Against Despotism

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, A Little Wisdom, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, Politics, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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“So, what do we do?” The answer: continuous jihad against despots.

Know them for “malignant narcissists”.

Know them for their autocratic criminality — for Iran, start with the “chain murders” and dwell a while on Evin and the dismal business of hanging even children on trumped or insufficiently investigated charges.

Know them for what they do for money — and how much (look up Reuters on Setad and Khamenei and have a look at what “Wiki” states about Ali and his brother [$60 billion in amassed wealth]).

Know them for their own feudalism and the company they keep: Putin-Assad-Khamenei + Orban + Erdogan.

And then keep them out of power.

Forever.

God, nature, and the universe are everywhere around and in us, and we humans tend to embrace a conscionable evolution and revolution across time.

May the monster that leads one day look back over his shoulder for followers and find himself surprised to find none.

Fine words, those, but we’ve come to an age in which for each Yanukovych (who got booted from power by way of popular revolt) there seem to be half a dozen copies of Mugabe, who has stayed in power long enough to become an old man and one most likely to die peacefully in his sleep, guilty of nothing in the protective bubble of his kind of consciousness and narcissism.

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