How the Guardian newspaper fulfills George Orwell’s prediction of ‘Newspeak’

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Douma victims—an staged event.

On Sunday April 15th, Britain’s Guardian bannered “OPCW inspectors set to investigate site of Douma chemical attack” and pretended that there was no question that a chemical attack in Douma Syria on April 7th had actually occurred, and the article then went further along that same propaganda-line, to accuse Syria’s Government of having perpetrated it. This ‘news’ story opened [and clarificatory comments from me will be added in brackets]:

UN chemical weapons investigators were set on Sunday to begin examining the scene of a chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma, which had prompted the joint US, French and British strikes against military installations and chemical weapons facilities near the capital, Damascus.

The arrival of the delegation from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) came as the Syrian military announced that it had “purified” [no source provided, but this — from 7 March 2018 — is the only source that existed prior to the April 14th missiles-invasion of Syria, and its meaning is very different: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=https://sana.sy/fr/%3Fp%3D113016&prev=search] the region of eastern Ghouta, of which Douma is a part, after a two-month campaign that killed nearly 2,000 civilians [no source provided as regards either the number, or that all of them were ‘civilians’ and that none of them were jihadists or “terrorists”], following years of siege.

The propaganda-article continued directly:

“Units of our brave armed forces, and auxiliary and allied forces, completed the purification of eastern Ghouta, including all its towns and villages, of armed terrorist organisations,” the general command statement said.

No source was provided for that, but this sentence is a sly mind-manipulation, because here is what the Syrian Government’s General Command had actually said: “Statement of the Army General Command declaring Eastern Ghouta clear of terrorism” as headlined by the Syrian Government itself.

In other words: the Guardian’s ‘journalist’ had substituted the word “clear” by the word “purify” and did this after having already asserted but not documented, that the Government had just completed “a two-month campaign that killed nearly 2,000 civilians.” When the Syrian Government announces that an area has been “cleared of terrorists (or of terrorism),” the U.S.-allied propagandist uses the word “purify,” such as “purified the region of eastern Ghouta” or “the purification of eastern Ghouta, including all its towns and villages, of armed terrorist organisations.” But by the time that the reader gets there to “purification … of armed terrorist organisations,” the reader has already been indoctrinated to believe that Syria’s Government is trying to “purify” land, or perpetrate some type of ethnic-cleansing. That’s professional propaganda-writing; it is not professional journalism.

Later, the article asserts that, “The OPCW mission will arrive in Douma eight days after the chemical attack, and days after the area fell to the control of Russian military and Syrian government forces. That delay, along with the possibility of the tampering of evidence by the forces accused of perpetrating the attack, raises doubts about what the OPCW’s inspectors might be able to discover.” However, a fierce debate is being waged over whether this was not any real “chemical attack” but instead a staged event by the jihadists in order to draw Trump back into invading Syria. In other words: any journalistic reference yet, at this time, to the event as “the chemical attack” instead of as “the alleged chemical attack” is garbage, just as, prior to the guilty-verdict in a murder trial, no journalistic reference may legitimately be made to the defendant as “the murderer,” instead of as “the defendant.” That is lynch-mob ‘journalism’, which Joseph Goebbels championed.

The Joseph-Goebbels-following ‘journalist’ has thus opened by implying that the Russia-allied Syrian Government is trying to crush a democratic revolution, instead of the truth, that the U.S.-allied Governments are trying to overthrow and replace the Russia-allied Syrian Government. It’s a big difference, between the lie, and the truth.

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]nother story in the April 15th Guardian was “Pressure grows on Russia to stop protecting Assad as US, UK and France press for inquiry into chemical weapons stockpiles” and this one pretended that the issue is for “Russia to stop protecting Assad,” who is the democratically elected and popular President of Syria, and not to stop the invasion of Syria since 2011 by U.S. and Saudi backed foreign jihadists to overthrow him. Furthermore, as regards “press for inquiry into chemical weapons stockpiles,” the real and urgent issue right now is to allow the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) into Douma to hold an independent and authoritative investigation into the evidence there. Russia pressed for it at the U.N. Security Council and the U.S. and its allies blocked it there. But the OPCW went anyway — even after the U.S.-allied invasion on April 14th — and this courageous resistance by them against the U.S. dictatorship can only be considered heroic. Now that they are there, the remaining jihadists in Douma are firing shots at them to drive them away.

That type of ‘news’-reporting is virtually universal in The West, among the U.S. and its allied governments, which refer to themselves as ‘democracies’ and refer to any Government that they wish to overthrow and replace by their own selected dictator, as ‘dictatorships’, such as these regimes had referred to Iraq in 2003, Libya in 2011, Syria forever, and Ukraine in 2014. It’s Newspeak.

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org

About the author

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity. Besides TGP, his reports and historical analyses are published on many leading current events and political sites, including The Saker, Huffpost, Oped News, and others.

What will it take to bring America to live according to its own self image?

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Mao’s legacy defended, and famous swim decoded, for clueless academics

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WUHAN, CHINA: A picture released by the Chinese official news agency shows some 5,000 Chinese following Chairman Mao Zedong's example swimming 16 July 1966, in the Yangtze river, near Wuhan, displaying floating portraits of the Great Helmsman and slogans calling for him a "10,000 year" life.

Part 4 will take a very different tack….

There is a great and hilarious story about Mao during the Cultural Revolution, which is relayed in the Western university-standard textbook, China: A New History by “the West’s doyen on China” – John King Fairbank.

In late 1965 the rumblings of the Cultural Revolution had begun, due to grumblings over corruption, revisionism (“taking the capitalist road”, selling out socialism, etc.) and the snooty technocratism of urbanites. The party, led by Mao, saw these trends as threats to the common good, the revolution, and the Party’s “Heavenly Mandate” – the millennia-old concept that China’s rulers are chosen by Heaven to rule, and that they must actually display this divinity via perfectly moral conduct and leadership…or else revolt is justified.

Mao, being the great progressive leader he was, was against these anti-socialist trends… but there was only so much he could do about it on his own. Mao had launched no less than seven anti-corruption campaigns since 1949, but to no avail: the problem was deeply embedded, and beyond the reach of one man – even if one assumes Mao to be the totalitarian “Mao the Terrible” the West portrays him as.

With decades of anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist fighting clearly under threat from domestic reactionaries, in 1966 Mao supervised the Party’s May 16 Directive to state the threat clearly: “… they will seize political power and turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.” Decoded: the corrupt pro-capitalists will turn China into a West European (bourgeois) democracy.

And from a foreign policy perspective in 1966, a crisis was undoubtedly at China’s doorstep: the US was massively invading Vietnam, and the largest communist party in the world not in power was being the victim of a literal genocide in Indonesia, with US support. (Why is “genocide” only for ethnic/racial groups and not ideological groups?)

Other than making political statements to a Party which contained many cadres who were only concerned about increasing their profits, he had only one other recourse – popular opinion.

That was all preamble. This brings me to that great and hilarious story:

‘Crossing the great river’: to seize the moment you have to first understand the meaning

The retelling of Fairbanks:

“In the second phase of the Cultural Revolution from August 1966 to January 1967 Chairman Mao was a great showman. The dutiful Liu Shaoqi, already doomed for destruction, was orchestrating the anti-revisionist movement among the party faithful. In July 1966 the Chinese public was electrified to learn that Mao had come north, pausing on the way to swim across the Yangzi. Since rural Chinese generally could not swim and few adventurers had ever tried the Yangzi this was like the news that Queen Elizabeth II had swum the Channel. He was obviously a paragon of athleticism capable of superhuman feats. (Photos showing his head on top of the water suggest Mao did not use a crawl, side stroke, backstroke, or breaststroke but swam in his own fashion standing upright in – not on – the water. He was clocked at an unusually fast speed.)

Hilarious! And written with maximum effort for humour, too! What the heck was Mao doing?! Those inscrutable Chinese – we’ll never figure them out! Mao was just being Mao – a capricious tyrant – but that one takes the cake! Elizabeth II swimming the Channel, LOL – good show!

It’s too bad that Fairbanks – one of the key American shapers of thought on China for decades – had no idea why such a move “electrified” China. Fairbanks implies that Mao’s demonstration was pure self-aggrandisement in the most Western-individualist, election campaigning of fashions: “I am so superhuman that I can crush all dissent – just watch me doggy-paddle over the Yangzi.”

That makes no sense at all.

Time and again Mao’s swim is reported by Westerners as being “loaded with symbolism for the Chinese people”, but I have never seen the symbolism actually explained.

That is too bad, because what this story does prove is just how close Mao was with the public and how he spoke their language; why the public adored him (still do and always will); and why he was such a People-trusting, People-liberating democrat.

Beyond political ‘theater’ & into the realm of political religiosity

This was the meaning Fairbanks missed and which many of the People of China did not:

The ethical book of the Chinese is the I Ching, the “Book of Change”, which is the world’s oldest book in the world for a reason: it can be foolishly used as a divination tool – just as opening the Koran to a random page is used to “give advice” to some Muslims – but the I Ching is truly a master guidebook of human and Heaven-based morality.

Briefly, the I Ching examines 64 ethical, personal and social concepts, conditions and states. One meditates at length on a range of concepts – “Mutual Influence”, “Bringing Together”, “Darkness”, “Proceeding Humbly”, “Not Yet Fulfilled”, etc. – and the book discusses their true meaning, how they progress in stages and how they interrelate with other concepts.

Indeed, the interrelatedness of this first-ever binary system reaches a sort of “Social String Theory” level of unity, and with social morality & divine guidance omnipresent (though not Abrahamic, of course). By studying the I Ching one can see how, when and why these 64 ethical concepts / opportunities are appropriate (or not), and also get instruction on how they are likely to change – change being the only constant in this mortal world.

In this book is occasionally a phrase: “Favorable to cross great rivers.”

When the I Ching reads that it is “Favorable to cross great rivers” – that means it is the right time to dare the greatest of undertakings. Indeed, this sentence reflects the maximum amount of good and luck possible – it’s the best possible news, and means Heaven above could not look upon you or your plans more favourably.

I Ching judgments can be negative, neutral, slightly favourable, etc. If it reads “Not favourable to cross great rivers”, it means – stop what you are doing and don’t try it.

But nothing is better than “Favorable to cross great rivers.” It means: “take courage, Heaven smiles upon you, you are just, you are in tune with ethics, in tune with the Tao (a Chinese concept very similar to the Holy Spirit), humanity and nature,” etc.

So for Mao to literally cross the great river in July 1966 was to emphatically, physically tell all the Chinese People: “Join me in daring this great undertaking of the Cultural Revolution. Cross the great river now – in real life.”

When one is thus able to look at Mao’s swim through the eyes of a Chinese person and can fully understand the cultural context, as well as the historical/political context…then we finally see how it could have “electrified” China: For the Chinese, it is truly as if he had re-enacted a scene from the Bible.

The only way I could compare it for Iranians is thusly: In order to defend Iran’s sovereign right to a nuclear energy program, Supreme Leader Khamenei travels to Karbala, Iraq,…and has a boxing match with Mike Tyson. (f you don’t understand this…please don’t pretend to tell me that you know Iran, our religion, and our culture.) I’m sure Iranians are smirking, not because of Khamenei’s advanced age and the absurdity of such a fight, but because they know exactly what I mean: This would be a reenactment of the glorious and assured annihilation – thus the martyrdom – of Imam Ali, which inspires all Shia as much as the suffering of Jesus does for Christians (even more in 2018, I would say, as the annual multi-million pilgrimages to Karbala show…and which Western media certainly does NOT want to show).

To explain it to the French: In order to demand the reversal of Brexit, neoliberal Macron goes to Rouen and fields media questions as he’s tied to a stake. For the Americans: acquiescing to Russophobia, Trump invites Putin over for diplomatic talks, but then personally captains a ship across the Potomac to surprisingly capture the Russian leader, like George Washington.

Did Mao know what he was doing? As the son of a rich farmer he went to school, where he was undoubtedlyinstructed in the Chinese classics, as education centered around them. Mao also knew that other educated people were similarly instructed in the I Ching. The only question which I cannot definitely answer, as I have never been embedded in Chinese popular culture, is: how likely is it that the average person have been familiar with the sayings of the Chinese classics and the I Ching?

I think we can say with confidence: “At least somewhat familiar”, no? Grow up in the West and you will be familiar with Biblical sayings even if you aren’t Christian. It is universally reported that the swim somehow galvanised the nation, and I doubt it was the view of an old man doing the doggy-paddle. In a perpetual question in semiotics: why this, and not that? I.e., why not climb a mountain to “electrify” the people, or chop down a cherry tree, or save a lamb? You certainly can’t argue with the results – we can only try to explain them.

And yet Fairbank – the China scholar best-known to the US public and academia alike – clearly had no idea of what Mao was doing, what it represented, and why it was inspirational. Fairbank clearly had not even read the I Ching, perhaps the single most important foundation of Chinese culture, despite being Harvard University’s first-ever China “scholar”. That is a recipe for terrible scholarship, terrible teaching and ignorant-but-arrogant students.

It is a scholarship which is typical of the West, and which was debunked so superbly by Edward Said’s Orientalism. It is scholars who don’t go to foreign lands to learn and respect the local culture – they go there to proselytise their own ideas and to return with stories which confirm the standard stereotypes, almost as if they had never been there at all. Just as those who used to be called “Oriental scholars” never read the Koran, I highly doubt that Fairbank’s knowledge of China extended beyond the superficial and beyond what was useful for him as an American.

So there is little wonder, to one who understands the cultural significance, how China did not erupt in delirious, sweet, modern – and violent – revolution against reactionary forces shortly after the swim. The swim was Mao’s obviously successful attempt to get the People inspired, and to reassure the People that (some of) their leadership was on their side, and on the side of preserving the popular revolution the nation worked so hard to install.

There are other facts and anecdotes of history to relate to defend Mao, but I chose this one because it illustrates how Fairbank and the Westerners who have studied for China, and have given us our “wisdom” of Mao’s alleged tyranny, actually have very little comprehension of the Chinese soul. Their scholarship exists to defend their own ideas, not to understand the amazing qualities of other cultures, and are genuine only in their reactionary anti-socialism, And yet these are the people who inform today’s students, journalists and citizenry in the West.

But new scholars, such as Jeff J. Brown and his superb, factual account of Chinese history since 1949, China is Communist, Dammit, wades unapologetically into the tidal wave of Western disapproval to deliver a history which is actually sympathetic to Chinese people.

I could have continued giving more and more facts and statistics to prove that Mao’s tenure greatly benefitted the average person – how long do you have? – because there are many. Thankfully, unlike when I was growing up, they are now actually available on the internet for all to find.

Instead of using statistics,I thought this anecdote showed just how pathetically lost, how uninterested, how much lack of soul the people informing the West on China really have had. Unlike Brown, establishment scholars on China are not trying at all to learn from, to understand, or to defend the Chinese people – they are trying to trying to conquer it culturally. If that fails – then to conquer it militarily.

To prove my objectivity: A Chinese person is better qualified to verify the relationship between Mao’s swim and the I Ching…but what if they haven’t read the Chinese classics? I have talked to two handfuls of Chinese people I know and none have read them – all are under 40 years old – and therefore they are not qualified to make this verification. This hypothesis thus remains for the Chinese to verify…but I say the circumstantial evidence is weighty: just because I have not seen this hypothesis elsewhere, that only confirms that very few people have read the Chinese classics, and analysed them in a political sense, and written about that analysis in a Western language.

Fairbank did not do this, even though it was his charge to do exactly that. Hopefully some Chinese political scholar can confirm my theory…but how many of them read English? Such is the slow pace of cultural globalisation / awareness, but the internet is speeding these things up, as this article shows.

Rehabilitating Mao is unlikely – there is no will to change in the West

John Lennon had it right: “If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao / you ain’t gonna make it with anyone, anyhow”.

Why, because few people in the 1960s in the West were truly political (excepting African-Americans). Obviously nearly nearly none were dedicated revolutionaries because the West had zero revolutions. They looked to minstrels like the Beatles to lead a Revolution – but their famous song “Revolution” is clearly designed to appropriate the word away from the political sphere: the lyrics are not just apolitical but 100% anti-politics.

Many in the 1960s sure postured like revolutionaries, though. My impression is that their main goal was to “make it” with the opposite sex, and that is really not something revolutionary in human history….

The irony is that if Lennon understood Mao – if Lennon had grasped the goal of the Cultural Revolution, which I related in the previous article of this series – he would have seen that Mao’s 1960s anti-establishment, anti-corrupt “middle aged / old people” view, his slogans like “It Is Right To Rebel”, was incredibly rock and roll!

Politically, the fault is not with Mao, but with Lennon. Lennon is a typical Western political & spiritual nihilist, after all.

In his song “God ”, Lennon says he believes in nothing, including the I Ching, even listing it before the Bible. He also doesn’t believe in people, ideas or methods: he only believes in himself. “I believe in me/ Yoko and me/ and that’s reality”.

So Lennon believed in individualism and his romantic love – that’s nice…for him.

Lennon concludes by opining that “the dream is over” – and that he, “was the dream weaver”. The literal meaning for Lennon the ‘60s icon seems clear – or perhaps he was giving us a Hindu-inspired “life is a dream” idea. Lennon finishes by saying that, in 1970, “You just have to carry on / the dream is over”. This reminds us today of the slogan “Keep calm and carry on” which swept England doing the 2009 financial crisis, a paean to their wilfully-blind conservatism which will not countenance even the idea of discussing the idea of changing the status quo regardless of any crisis.

What’s sure is that, culturally, Lennon led the way for the West, and in 1970 he presaged their descent into total individualism & nihilism instead of maintaining his own cultural revolution.

So when it comes to Lennon and Mao: whom is the man of the People, the social revolutionary and the ethicist, and whom is merely another self-centred ego-freak? Whom is the man of social change, and whom is the status quo man urging everyone not to even bother trying? The answer is clear, and it is certainly the opposite of the West’s mainstream belief.

Indeed, who would have thought that drug-using minstrels would ultimately get bored by worldly, wonkish, societal issues…? Maybe the West can next turn to a heroin-using jazz drummer for advice on urban planning models, hmmm?

If you want to hear some raw guitar and a great singing voice – one may turn to Lennon; but the incredible thing is that Westerners turn to him for political guidance….

Should we defend Mao?

No, it will make us look uncool, and the John Lennons of the world will call us “squares”.

The bad news is: you are certainly a square if you have read this far!

Seriously: Yes, we should, mainly to humbly acknowledge the superior judgement of the Chinese people. The Chinese People defend Mao, and that should be enough for leftists worldwide.

It is arrogance which refuses to defer to the judgement of locals, because unless you deeply know their culture, language, history, have lived there extensively, etc., it is pure arrogance to pass judgement on their key cultural matters. That is why I openly admitted the limitations of my interpretations of Chinese popular culture regarding my “Mao swim & I Ching” hypothesis.

Popular approval is a nearly infallible judge, no? Castro, Khomeini, Ho Chi Minh, Sankara, Mao – all are universally loved in their home countries. Pol Pot, for example, is a leftist leader who is not revered by Cambodians so it’s not as if all leftists are loved (Pol Pot was a rabid xenophobe, and thus not a true leftist). Libya is also a bit split on the legacy of Khadaffi, who certainly must appear better in retrospect….

Therefore, we must defend Mao, because we must defend the judgment of the Chinese people; to do otherwise is to claim that more than 1 billion people are incapable of thinking clearly. If 50 million Elvis fans can’t be wrong, how can 1 billion Mao fans?

I think that Fairbank, even if he actually did talk to average Chinese people about Mao, was never willing to honestly report their opinion.

Brown, however, has talked to “thousands” of Chinese people over his decades living there. He says that, while they criticise aspects of the Communist Party…:

“But through it all, I can safely say that about 98% of the Chinese I’ve talked to like Mao and what he did for China. His image adorns taxi cabs, like an amulet of St. Christopher, to ward off accidents. He is on walls of privately owned offices, businesses, restaurants – these are private, not government. They are citizens who have decided to show their admiration for the man, on their own. He’s everywhere. How can this be in the face of relentless demonization by Western media, educators, historians and politicians?”

People will say: it’s because the Chinese government blocks the truth about Mao – oh, if only they could hear our pure Western voices!

Such a response, again, inaccurately and arrogantly implies that the West knows Chinese history and culture better than the Chinese themselves. The government has openly stated that Mao was “70% right and 30% wrong”, so it’s not as if there is an all-dominating, state-sponsored cult of personality.

Beyond respecting obviously better-informed local opinion – a point which most treat as secondary – I almost refuse to have the “Mao was evil” conversation for more than 15 seconds. I give 15 seconds because I was raised to be polite….

– To equivocate Mao with Hitler is to equivocate two people who fought against each other – it’s inherently absurd.

– To claim Mao was as bad as Japanese fascists or American capitalists is also to equivocate groups with sharply different belief systems and goals.

– To claim Mao is worse or as bad as American, French & English leaders who terminated millions while Mao tried to defend those millions from these foreign invasions, is absurd.

In 1978, two years after Mao’s died, China’s Gini coefficient (the most commonly used measurement of inequality) was a sparkling 0.16. The lowest score is currently 0.25 (Finland). It’s fair to say that Mao’s single most-important goal was to create an equal society: he succeeded better than almost anyone, ever.

So I’m done with that one, and quickly.

Mighty Mao was never the West’s to take away, and he’ll never leave

The West’s discussion of Mao – along with the Great Leap Forward’s famine and the Cultural Revolution – is based on ignorance, arrogance and the political nihilism of failed “revolutionaries” and hardened reactionaries.

To repeat, for hard statistics about the socio-economic improvement for the average Chinese person during Mao’s stewardship (and not just since Deng’s reforms) you can buy Brown’s book. Brown explains how Mao overcome a blockade worse than Iran’s to produce massive growth with equality – Mao clearly had his cake and ate it too…and with his fellow citizens!

But, as cynical Lennon shows, it was always difficult for the West to grasp the moral and ethical nation-inspiring and nation-building revolution Mao personified: they took two very different paths. What is so typically Western is that they insist on pulling China onto their toll road, instead of being content to live and let live in mutual peace.

Lennon famously said that Elvis died when he joined the army, but that’s not true: Elvis died when he joined Hollywood after his discharge, and was no longer a great musician but just another phony actor. When did Lennon die as a revolutionary? I can’t say for sure, but his dismissal of Mao is a good place to start.

No one is going to say Lennon did not succeed wildly in his chosen field, but how long can the judgment of Fairbank and other top Western “scholars” endure when we can so easily prove how they did not respect or understand Chinese culture?

Even though it is fundamental for understanding China, nobody cares about Confucianism in the West – all you will hear about is its yin, feminine, passive counterpart – Daoism. Plenty of Daoism books in the local Western bookstore, for sure – how many on Confucianism? I guess yang, masculine, creative, dynamic, propagating Confucianism doesn’t go well with acid trips, or high-intensity pharmaceutical drugs?

I’m not surprised that Communist Party is back to promoting Confucianism – the I Ching is not banned in China – and I’m not surprised they prefer it over Daoism, which says, “Cross the great river? What for? What river? Is this thing on?”

(Clearly I’m even worse scholar of Daoism than I am of Confucianism.)

I’m not amazed that the Western media views Mao as “100% wrong”: The West has been an imperialist, extremist, racist culture for 500 years, and a rabidly anti-socialist one for 100 years.

But I am surprised that Western leftists don’t defend Mao even 30%. Their main problem is: they have not bought books like Brown’s…because books like Brown’s simply did not exist until very, very recently. Prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, a book like Brown’s would have gotten you jailed in the West, or worse. The internet is changing this, and that cannot be stopped – only slowed.

Kudos to Brown and eternal kudos to Mao, for being as right and as brave as any of the top politicians of the 20th century.

And no apologies if my picture of Chairman Mao ain’t gonna make it with anyone, anyhow. I know it’s gonna be…alright. For China, at least.

***********************************

This is the 4th article in an 8-part series which compares old versus new Western scholarship on China.

Here is the list of articles slated to be published, and I hope you will find them useful in your leftist struggle!

Old vs. new scholarship on the continent of China – an 8-part series

Daring to go beyond Western propaganda on the Great Leap Forward ’s famine

When Chinese Trash saved the world: Western lies about the Cultural Revolution

Mao’s legacy defended, and famous swim decoded, for clueless academics

The Cultural Revolution’s solving of the urban-rural divide

Once China got off drugs: The ideological path from opium to ‘liberal strongman’ Macron

Prefer the 1% or the Party? Or: Why China wins

China’s only danger: A ‘Generation X’ who thinks they aren’t communist

About the author

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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DAVID PEAR IN PALESTINE-SLOW MOTION FASCISM AND GENOCIDE IS HUMANITY’S SHAME.

DAVID PEAR IN PALESTINE-SLOW MOTION FASCISM AND GENOCIDE IS HUMANITY’S SHAME. CHINA RISING RADIO SINOLAND 180414

Dateline: April 13, 2018

Picture above: Today’s guest is David Pear on the left and China Rising Radio Sinoland host Jeff J. Brown is on the right.

Downloadable SoundCloud podcast (also at the bottom of this page), as well as being syndicated on iTunes and Stitcher Radio (links below).

In the first book of my China Trilogy (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2017/05/19/the-china-trilogy/), called 44 Days Backpacking in China- The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass (https://ganxy.com/i/88276/), I wrote that even for China, the fate of Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine and so much more, is the axis upon which all world geopolitics turn. After hosting David Pear on the show today, my convictions are considerably reinforced. Not much has changed in the last 5,000 years, with the gates of this ancient city changing “owners” 44 times (a coincidence to my book’s title). One day, the history books will be talking about the 45^th turn of the global mandala.

In today’s show, David and I share our stories about being in Palestine, myself back in the 1980s and David three times in the last few years. You will not believe what you hear. It is shocking and sobering, yet essential listening to truly understanding how humanity works and colossally fails all notions of decency and justice.

In the interview, I strongly recommended that everyone watch Al-Jazeera’s magnificent five-part documentary about the history of Palestine, called Al-Nakba, which means disaster in Arabic. It’s like having been blind all one’s life and then suddenly being given the power to see light. Watching Al-Nakba caused a transformation in me. It is that good, so I hope you will do that same.

Here is my posting about Al-Nakba, with all the links:

http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2018/01/16/the-real-truth-about-palestine-and-israel-china-rising-radio-sinoland-181116/

David and I did an earlier interview focused on Korea. News and surprises are happening so rapidly now on the Peninsula, that it’s enough to make your head swim. David’s global experiences are something we can all benefit from,

http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2018/01/28/david-pear-talks-with-jeff-j-brown-on-the-hair-trigger-tinderbox-in-korea-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180128/

Note: When finished reading, listening to and/or watching this column and podcast, sharing is caring about humanity’s future and getting the non-mainstream truth out to a wider audience. Please tell your family, friends and colleagues about China Rising Radio Sinoland (www.chinarising.puntopress.com – https://twitter.com/44_Days – https://www.facebook.com/44DaysPublishing – http://apps.monk.ee/tyrion), post and follow it on all your social media. Sign up for the email alerts on this blog page, so you don’t miss a beat. China is your key to understanding how the world works and where you are headed into the 21^st century. So, read “The China Trilogy”. You will be so glad you did! (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2017/05/19/the-china-trilogy/)

ABOUT JEFF BROWN

Punto Press released China Rising - Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations (2016); and for Badak Merah, Jeff authored China Is Communist, Dammit! – Dawn of the Red Dynasty (2017).

The Greanville Post, where he keeps a column, Dispatch from Beijing. He also writes a column for The Saker, called the Moscow-Beijing Express. Jeff interviews and podcasts on his own program, China Rising Radio Sinoland, which is also available on SoundCloud, YouTube, Stitcher Radio and iTunes.
In China, he has been a speaker at TEDx, the Bookworm and Capital M Literary Festivals, the Hutong, as well as being featured in an 18-part series of interviews on Radio Beijing AM774, with former BBC journalist, Bruce Connolly. He has guest lectured at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences and various international schools and universities. Jeff grew up in the heartland of the United States, Oklahoma, much of it on a family farm, and graduated from Oklahoma State University. He went to Brazil while in graduate school at Purdue University, to seek his fortune, which whetted his appetite for traveling the globe. This helped inspire him to be a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia in 1980 and he lived and worked in Africa, the Middle East, China and Europe for the next 21 years. All the while, he mastered Portuguese, Arabic, French and Mandarin, while traveling to over 85 countries. He then returned to America for nine years, whereupon he moved back to China in 2010. He lives in China with his wife. Jeff is a dual national French-American, being a member of the Communist Party of France (PCF) and the International Workers of the World (IWW).

Jeff can be reached at China Rising, jeff@brownlanglois.com, Facebook, Twitter and Wechat/Whatsapp: +86-13823544196.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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• "44 Days Backpacking in China- The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass" by Jeff J. Brown @ www.44days.net on Ganxy!function(d,s,i){var j,e=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(i)){j=d.createElement(s);j.id=i;j.async=true;j.src="https://ganxy.com/b.js";e.parentNode.insertBefore(j,e);}}(document,"script","ganxy-js-2");

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VOICES OF THE SYRIAN PEOPLE

HELP ENLIGHTEN YOUR FELLOWS. BE SURE TO PASS THIS ON. BREAKING THE EMPIRE'S MEDIA MONOPOLY IS UP TO YOU.

Damascus looked largely normal today, and even defiantly jubilant. Their morale had not been broken, and there was no sign of intimidation.

Text: Andre Vltchek

Photos: by various Syrian citizens who are happy to share them with the world

The attack against Syria - this proud and independent country - has just taken place.

Three countries with zero moral mandate to judge or punish anybody; three countries already responsible for hundreds of millions of human lives lost on all continents for centuries, showered Syria with their missiles.

They tried to scare Syria to death, and to break its determination, but they failed. Most of the Syrian people stood proudly by their government.

71 out of 103 of the Western missiles were shot down, and the rest fell on empty facilities, which have nothing to do with a 'production or storage of chemical weapons'. To begin with, Syria has no chemical weapons program and no chemical weapons factories, as well as no warehouses, so nothing could really fall on something that does not exist.

This was yet another gross violation of international law, but again, the West has been violating international laws for decades and centuries, brutalizing the entire Planet. Therefore, no one is surprised. Many people are angry, even outraged, but surprised - no.

The Russian forces are now on combat alert, while the massive Chinese fleet has left its ports, staging firing drill and exercises near Taiwan, in what many see as a clear warning to the West, and expression of support and solidarity with Russia and Syria.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Syrian Ambassador to the U.N., Dr. Bashar Jaafari, accused the US, UK, and France of blatantly violating the UN Charter. As reported by Syria's SANA news agency, he declared:

"I would clarify here that the history of these three states is built on using lies and fabricated stories to wage wars in order to occupy states, seize their resources, and change governments in them by force."

Russia is clearly indignant. As reported by RT:

"While none of the cruise missiles launched by the US and its allies reached the Russian air defense zones, the strikes sparked outrage in Moscow.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the US-led strikes hit a war-ravaged country "that has been trying to survive terrorist aggression for many years." In a statement posted on Facebook, she compared the invasion to the start of the 2003 Iraq War, which was based on claims that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction."

China opposed the strikes. According to Press TV, it called for 'return to the framework of international law':

"Chinese Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Saturday that Beijing was "opposed to the use of force" following the tripartite aerial assaults against Syria and called for a "return to the framework of international law.

We consistently oppose the use of force in international relations, and advocate respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries," she said in a statement."

The voices of protest are mounting, all over the world.

The most important, however, is the reaction of the Syrian people. Confronted with tremendous danger, they are demonstrating both courage and resolve to protect their motherland.

Vanessa Beeley—They don't come more beautiful or more courageous. Finest example of citizen journalism.

Vanessa Beeley, an editor of the 21st Century Wire, and a veteran correspondent, who has been bravely covering the Syrian war for several years, expressed her admiration for the people of Syria. For this report, she stated:

"Syrian people are celebrating a historic victory in a battle that threatened to take the entire world to war.

This is a victory for Syria using antiquated equipment and missiles that cost a fraction of those US, UK and French 'Tomahawks', at $1.4 million each - they repelled a concerted attack from three of most aggressive and powerful neocon nations. The damage was severely limited. This was a costly failure for the imperialists and a show of courageous defiance by Syria in the face of asymmetric force."

Yes, truly costly (both financially, but above all, morally) and embarrassing failure!

I asked several Syrian citizens from all walks of life to comment on the recent attacks against their country:

From Ms Fida Bashour, an economist from Damascus:

"I was scared when I woke up but now things are better. I went out to the city center in the morning and just came back home. Things are actually fine and yes, we will win!"

From Mr Essa Tahhan, an engineer from Aleppo:

"The people of Aleppo, and other Syrian governorates condemn the American attack on Syria ... Americans claim that they believe chemical weapons were used in Duma ...That was a justification for the attack. This morning people gathered in Saadallah Jabri Square to condemn this assault ... and they support the Syrian army, which confronted it. Before the attack, people had already been inventing jokes against President Trump, just to have fun... For example, a university student wrote on his Facebook page: 'Will you Trump beat Syria tomorrow? Because I have an exam to take tomorrow at my university ... so if you plan to attack, I should not study and instead prepare myself for you.'"

From Dr Hiam Bashour. She is a medical doctor working and living in Damascus:

"I am very angry after the night of horror that we had to live through. It all makes me feel furious... After seven years of lies being spread against Syria. In spite of everything, Syrian people are resilient and will continue to love the country, fight for the country, and unite for the country.

Tens of thousands of caricatures are now making fun of the situations. They have been going around on the social media and through the WhatsApp groups, for the past three or four days. These drawings clearly reflect the irony of this war. We know, we realize how sad all this is, but it is an innovative way of the Syrian people to cope with this irony, sadness and brutality."

Mr Fadi Loufti, a hairdresser in Damascus:

"I was awoken at 4am hearing a very loud sound of an explosion. My house was shaking terribly. I immediately checked FaceBook and realized that we were under attack. Trump is such a fool to think he can destroy us. He can attack us again and again, but we will not surrender."

Two Syrian students in Damascus expressed their support for the government, as well as for the Syrian armed forces:

Ms Rana a 21 years old woman from Damascus:

"We were horrified when we heard the explosions last night, but we have faith in our army and in our leadership and as we all know now, the Syrian army succeeded in shooting down most of the missiles. We consider this to be our victory. And we see it as a humiliation of the attackers "

Mr Majd, a male student from Homs, commented:

"Today is a day off for most Syrians but we are all out in force, to show our support to the army and to our government. We do not fear their missiles and we will always shoot them down if they come. Syria has gone through through a horrible war for the last seven years, and now this latest attack would definitely not manage to break our spirit."

The following simple but powerful analyses, based on pure logic, were shared with me by a close friend; a young Syrian intellectual, who prefers to remain anonymous:

"One of the biggest lies both France and the United States are busy spreading, is that they targeted a chemical weapon research facility and a warehouse designated for storing these weapons. The research facility is located inside the city of Damascus, and if it would really be a facility for producing chemical weapons, then we should have seen a lot of people being killed after the attack, due to the leakage of those chemical materials. But no one died from any leakage, which clearly proves that the West lied.

Also, the warehouse the West targeted is located in the surroundings of the city of Homs, also in the midst of a heavily populated area, but no one died from the leakage there either. Again, it proves that the warehouse was not what the West claims it was."

Instead of falling on their knees, (as the West expected them to do), just a few hours after the attack Syrian people flooded the squares, parks and avenues, dancing on the streets, waving their national flag and celebrating.

In many places, Syrian and Russian flags were flying side by side. They still are. And they always will.

Syria! It is a nation that does not know how to beg, a nation of brave men, women, and children. It will not be defeated, and its victory may soon become the first nail in the coffin of the Western expansionism and imperialism.

{first published by New Eastern Outlook]

About the Author

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Syria is the Spain of our generation. We salute the heroism of the Syrian people.

Parting shot—a word from the editors
The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found

In his zeal to prove to his antagonists in the War Party that he is as bloodthirsty as their champion, Hillary Clinton, and more manly than Barack Obama, Trump seems to have gone “play-crazy” -- acting like an unpredictable maniac in order to terrorize the Russians into forcing some kind of dramatic concessions from their Syrian allies, or risk Armageddon.However, the “play-crazy” gambit can only work when the leader is, in real life, a disciplined and intelligent actor, who knows precisely what actual boundaries must not be crossed. That ain’t Donald Trump -- a pitifully shallow and ill-disciplined man, emotionally handicapped by obscene privilege and cognitively crippled by white American chauvinism. By pushing Trump into a corner and demanding that he display his most bellicose self, or be ceaselessly mocked as a “puppet” and minion of Russia, a lesser power, the War Party and its media and clandestine services have created a perfect storm of mayhem that may consume us all.— Glen Ford, Editor in Chief, Black Agenda Report

Meditations on Skripal

Parisians, and those who roam the streets of Paris to take upon themselves the Frenchness of things, will no doubt know or remember the elegant, historic and fashionable Place Vendome.

There is a history in all men’s lives⁽¹⁾ and in what they built. In the instance, however, I only refer to the Duke of Vendome, (1654-1712), in whose honor the square is named.

He was a Marshal of France and a successful general, notably in the Nine Years’ war (1688-1697) – a global war of sorts, featuring France against a proto-coalition of the willing that included Austria, the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic, Spain, England and Savoy.

The Duke, as expectable in a successful general, had a reputation of directness in interpersonal communications, as we would say today.

One of his secretaries was Cardinal Alberoni. During an exchange with his master, the Duke became upset. He told the cardinal, “Kiss my ass,” and proceeded to remove trousers and underwear to make the feat possible. Alberoni duly obeyed and on completion of the command exclaimed, “Truly, the ass of an angel!”

Theresa May belongs to a long strain of individuals whose qualities are purely negative, and whose whole art consists in avoiding compromising oneself by deviating from the will of the master. It is servility beyond the boundaries of servility.

The episode sprung to memory when first I watched that simulacra of a woman, whose tongue more poisons than the adder’s tooth (1), and who goes under the name of Theresa May, current prime minister of England. Watching her flashing wrathful glances at an invisible enemy, and hurling fantastic accusations at Russia for the Skripal affair. She belongs to a long strain of individuals whose qualities are purely negative, and whose whole art consists in avoiding compromising oneself by deviating from the will of the master. It is servility beyond the boundaries of servility.

And the Vendome-Alberoni incident suggested almost an actual re-enactment when hearing a host of back-benchers expressing their compunct “indignation” at Russia, and consensus with Theresa May for her words of condemnation. It was as if the British Parliament had fallen into a “vacio de pensamiento,”, a vacuum of thought – an actual example, reflecting the era of the post-real, post-industrial, post-democratic, post-modern and posterior in every possible way.

Theresa May lying and bloviating, to obsequious aproval.

This was also displayed in the handling of the arguments presented by the Russian ambassadors in the UK and at the UN. For the abusive and obstinate opposition made to the logical and polite confutations by the Ambassadors, shows that some dormant, assumed and unchallengeable privilege had been attacked.

Equally demonstrating with how much industry subterfuges and evasions are sought, to deflect the pressure of resistless argument – and how often the state of the question is altered, how often the antagonist is willfully misrepresented, and in how much perplexity the clearest positions are purposely confused by the enemies of what, at one time, was called truth.

Without even mentioning Boris Johnson, a character inherently comic in demeanor, appearance and language, more suited to a burlesque theater than to the British parliament. Though, as we well know, with powerful backing, even incompetence becomes a resource.

The same who, on the occasion, made an ass of himself by declaring “beyond any doubt” true what was patently false. And, shortly later, by refusing to acknowledge his lies by the extremely worn-out, but ever-in-force method of affirming that ‘yes’ means ‘no’, and ‘no’ ‘yes’, depending on interpretations. And who, Johnson, further increased his ridicule by making a half-assed reference to Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” showing, as the Russian Ambassador noted, that he never actually read the novel. And proving, with his pseudo-literary performance, the truth of the adage that “it will come to pass that every braggart shall be found an ass.” ⁽²⁾

Boris Johnson, each and all, are but shameless ass-kissers of not-so-hidden masters, unknown only to those who refuse to know them. They have shown themselves quick in conjecturing their masters’ desires, flexible to their present humor, active in supplying their wants, and dexterous in intercepting paradoxes and inconsistencies before they approach near enough to disturb their masters’ will.

Altogether, May, Johnson, the backbenchers and the servile media, generated the rankest compound of villanous smell that ever offended nostril (3)– just not to say ‘bullshit.’

The facts and the aftermath of the event have been reported so extensively that to repeat them would equate to say that day is day, night is night, and time is time,⁽⁴⁾ therefore wasting night, day, time and the patience of my 25 readers.

Regrettably, or fortunately, Theresa May and her cohort of talking parrots assume to have great talent for make-believe. Maybe they do, who knows. However, by a fortunate, though illogical dispensation of providence, those who delight to hoodwink others are themselves, as a rule, most easily hoodwinked.

And, not to leave the generalization unproven, most of us may recall Colin Powell’s showing a vial of milk at the United Nations, stating it was poison produced by Saddam Hussein. With the same Powell, years later, regretting the event as “a blot on my conscience.” No doubt a great comfort for the 4000 plus Americans killed in the Iraqi wars, the countless wounded and maimed, let alone the millions dead among the ‘enemies.’

Meantime, during the re-enactment of the Vendome-Alberoni episode by the UK establishment, the European media announced and confirmed that London has currently a higher murder rate than New York City, for the first time in contemporary history.

Which is meaningful. For one, England has a complete ban on private ownership of guns, and knives are the most expedient method of assassination.

The London’s murder rate and the Skripal story may appear unrelated – except that drugs (military or otherwise), and a drug culture, are fertile ground for violent crime and depravity.

Whatever the poison that affected the Skripals – some even suggested bad Sushi consumed in a restaurant nearby – street narcotics are the most widely diffused chemical weapons in the world. And from what we can gather from various publications, most man-produced narcotics are chemical compounds that trigger an aggressive and bellicose state of mind.

We have read of the meth epidemic in the Philippines, which created waves of unimaginable violence, as drug users are transformed into violent creatures whose residue of human nature has been literally sucked away. Whereupon President Duterte (whatever politically-correct liberaloids may think of him), decided that diseases desperate grown, by desperate appliances are relieved, or not at all ⁽⁵⁾.

Similar problems exist in the US and elsewhere, even if the media ignores what is politically unpalatable.

Western militaries and intelligence agencies have long been involved in the development of chemical weapons that we now call “drugs”. In the 1950s and 1960s, the drug commonly known as LSD was invented by the US military and the CIA. It was first tested on soldiers before being released to the public, where its effects, as a so-called “recreational drug,” were monitored closely by the intelligence agencies.

As an aside, contributing to the popularity of LSD in the “revolutionary” climate of the 1960s was the school of so-called “Cultural Marxism.” Namely, a cluster of philosophers, mostly belonging to one sect, who predicated that races do not exist (except for one), sexual orientation is an option, family is a patriarchal anomaly and civilization is rotten – plus promoting homosexuality, casual sex, transgenderism, multiculturalism, globalism, miscegenation and limitless immigration – and recently even pedophilia.

During the Vietnam war, soldiers were given strong amphetamines and other drugs to increase aggression on the battlefield. Which, in turn, contributed to the unusually high cases of psychological illness among veterans returning from the war. How much the effect of drugs contributed to the notorious mass-massacres and physical extermination of entire Vietnamese villages by the Americans, is unknown, or if known, not made public.

In the 1980s, journalist Gary Webb exposed how the CIA aided cocaine smuggling into the United States, and used the profits of the notorious narcotics trade to fund the Contra insurgents fighting the legitimate government of Nicaragua.

Meanwhile in the US, people who supported the Contras, orwellianly named Nicaraguan Democratic Force (NDF) managed to alter the smuggled cocaine into what became known as crack, before selling it on the street using their drug dealer associates. This fueled a dangerous epidemic in major North American cities, and is responsible for much of the urban decay associated with the era. Complemented by turning American factories into relics of rust, while moving productions to countries where labor was almost a euphemism for slavery.

As it can be regrettably expected, the master-servile media, instead of applauding Webb’s work, showed its hatred in full colors, with relentless and merciless attacks, eventually driving Webb to suicide. On fait-accompli Hollywood, never leery about making a buck out of everything, made a movie out of Webb, titled, “Kill the Messenger.”

Currently, terrorist organizations across the world run narcotics smuggling operations. Apparently, or allegedly, in secret alliances with the CIA – which may seem questionable only if the doubter wishes to ignore the diabolic history of the organization. And terrorists themselves are known and documented users of chemical stimulants.

Given this background on chemical poisons and weapons, the Skripal affair cannot but seem a massive distraction, fueled by enormous coverage. Coverage that ignores the easily available chemical weapons, orwellianly referred to as ‘powerful narcotics,’ possibly to shield the powerful forces behind their development, production and distribution.

No one knows how long the Skripal business will continue to polarize the attention of government puppets and media trumpeters. For the information industry has conditioned the mind of its followers to ever expect new sound bytes and stimuli. So that any possible pause, required to reason on the information received, is clouded by the intervention of other novelties. Probably Skripal will swiftly fade to a vague remembrance.

Meanwhile…, in the Dantesque Inferno of Gaza, Israeli sharpshooters amuse themselves by killing the inhabitants of Hell, guilty of demonstrating for the right to return to the land stolen from them.

An image appeared in the Israeli paper “Daily Sabah”, showing a group of young Israelis, sitting by the Gaza border installed in a make-shift observation tower, as if they were in an outdoor cinema. Cheering and applauding the Israeli soldiers launching bombs at the Palestinians, and sharp-shooters firing at the unarmed demonstrators as if they were practice targets. See also here

As I am writing this, at least 35 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds severely wounded… Showing that the murder of 35 human beings and the maiming of other hundreds are less significant than the illness and expeditious recovery of the Skripals, convenient human pawns on the chess-board of international politics.

But not all is lost. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the brutal killings of Palestinians by the Israeli military, and has called for an independent investigation to hold those responsible for the killings accountable.

Which means less than nothing, for “accountable” and “unacceptable” are adjectives of no value whatsoever in the circumstances. Their use helps justify the presence of the aforesaid “High Commission for Human Rights,” where “high” refers both to the high salaries of its members, and to the high disregard for the Commission at large, and in particular by those whom it may (but it won’t) investigate.

I will conclude these reflections with a lexical consideration on the whole business, the Skripal pantomime, the drugs, the crime rate, the false flags and the ignored Palestinians – borrowing the thoughts from a witty and anonymous Italian writer.

We, who happen to live in a so-called neo-con, neo-liberal, market-economy climate, where high-crime is a good deed, chaos is order and war is peace, need courage to show the nakedness of the emperor. Alternatively, we need unawareness and unjustified optimism, to coat with fancy lucubrations the bare, barren and brutal reality.

But the courage required and needed is not what is actually expressed by the word itself. ‘Courage’ refers to a kind of passionate mode of action. This meaning derives from a semantic twist in the Indo-European word formation. It connects the root of the word (courage) more to the ability to suffer than to the will to take the initiative in the name of an ideal.

The root of ‘courage’ is the Latin ‘cor’ meaning ‘heart,’ along with its derivatives, added to the language of the decadent Roman Empire, at the brink of its extinction. The new words (based on the root ‘cor’ = ‘heart’), reflected, in some way, the impotence, the powerlessness of the Romans, and the act of their sheltering within the shrinking boundaries of the empire.

In classic Latin, ‘courage’ as we think of it, was expressed by the words ‘animus’ (referring to strength of soul but also to ‘action’, ‘animation’, ‘initiative’.) As well as by the word ‘virtus’ whose root is ‘vir’, that is ‘man’, his strength and (hopefully) ‘virility.’ But also by the word ‘mos,’ which came to mean ‘habits, costumes,’ but originally it referred to ‘will’ and ‘desire.’

In turn, the Indo-European root of ‘mos’ is also found in the German words ‘Mut’, ‘Mod’ that stood for ‘aspiring’, ‘creating’ – the same root, by the way, of the word ‘Mutter – mother.’

‘Mod’ is also the origin of the word ‘mood’ in English. For, after William the Conqueror took over in 1066 AD, the original German meanings associated with ‘mod’ were replaced by the word ‘courage.’

In essence, what we express with ‘courage’ was something different. It was will, conviction, vision, determination, rather than the meaning of ‘acting passionately’ or ‘without reflection.’

The same German root is found in the Latin verb ‘mactare,’ which, among its meanings includes, to celebrate, to consecrate, to have strength. In fact, the interjection ‘macte’ corresponded to current expressions as “Come on,” “Fight on,” “We won” etc.

In summary, what was originally meant by ‘courage’ had to do with creation, will, action, less tied to emotion or to the capacity of overcoming fear. It meant the strength to question the established order of things, to create something new, or conversely, to use strength to prevent something evil from occurring.

All this to say that the sterility of ideas and the impotence towards the current flow of things, are not a free choice, but the servitude to a courage that we have not had.

Courage that does not mean (or at least is not limited to) demonstrating in the streets, defying the batons and the tear-gas of the police. Rather, it means a vibrant refusal to transform man into goods, as prescribed by the market economy. For when man is but goods he is also a pawn to be moved at the beck and call of self-appointed, undeserving and despicable masters.

Unfortunately, the courage displayed in a street-brawl or demonstration, cannot match the courage needed for a revolution.

References:

** (1) King Henry IV, p1
** (2) All’s Well That Ends Well
** (3) Merry Wives of Windsor
** (4), (5) Hamlet

About the author

Jimmie Moglia is a Renaissance man, and therefore he's impossible to summarize in a simple bioblurb. In any case, here's a rough sketch, by his own admission: Born in Turin, Italy, he now resides in Portland, Oregon. Appearance: … careful hours with time’s deformed hand, Have written strange defeatures in my face (2); Strengths. An unquenchable passion for what is utterly, totally, and incontrovertibly useless, notwithstanding occasional evidence to the contrary. Weaknesses: Take your pick. Languages: I speak Spanish to God, French to men, Italian to women and German to my horse. My German is not what it used to be but it’s not the horse’s fault. Too many Germans speak English. Education: “You taught me language and my profit on it Is, I know how to curse.” (3); More to the point – in Italy I studied Greek for five years and Latin for eight. Only to discover that prospective employers were remarkably uninterested in dead languages. Whereupon I obtained an Engineering Degree at the University of Genova. Read more here.

Source: Your Daily Shakespeare.

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