Critical theory without historical materialism is simply ungrounded cleverness. The PMC that you talk about (the "Left") are simply the courtiers to the really powerful, the capitalist owner class. The courtiers will spout whatever nonsense they have to to keep their jobs and have a chance to move upwards, including doing 180 about turns when required. Zionism is not a religious project, it is a nationalist one that hides behind religious symbolism. Iran is a moderate Muslim nation with a significant degree of socialism. Identity politics was driven from 2010 onwards as a divide and conquer strategy after the masses started to focus too much on the ownership class.
Nowhere do you mention the role of the West in destroying the increasingly secular Middle East of the 1950s and the funding and support for the religious fundamentalists to sow division (including within the immigrant community); how many of those "radical" clerics are on the security services payroll? Nor the real economic grievances of the immigrant community, and its righteous anger at the murder and ethnic cleansing of the Gazan population (to add to the Western destruction rent in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and the other Western manipulations of the Arab Spring).
This is not about some "unconscious transference", it is about courtiers doing what courtiers do and the working class (including immigrants) becoming more and more restive against the rulers who don't treat them as fully human. With the real left utterly destroyed, sidelined and penetrated by the security services the only alternative for the working class seems to be the Right Wing, which of course is just the fascist arm of the ownership class. A real left-wing party would easily win, as Corbyn displayed in 2017 in the UK, but the ownership class will make sure that that is not an option.
I am not sure about that description of the Right Wing. Most Right Wing groups I partake in, and they are not extreme or nazi, but most are low key revolutionary. It's small business owners, engineers, highly educated bottom rung office workers, welders etc.
The jargon however is not onw on wanting to do the bidding of the oligarchy. On the contrary the oligarchy and the cryptocracy is constantly referred to, and political action is more or less always prescribed in the same way.
Move out, get skills, get guns, build a community, and wait.
And what are we waiting for? The day of the rope.
So this is not a group of people who are interested in participating in the globalist project, nor any state solution as the state is seek as the tool of oppression of the oligarchy, there to serve the oligarchy.
Which is btw, the fundamental right wing framework, the state is always controlled by a nameless bureaucracy (where there is no personal accountability), acting in the interests of an entrenched power elite.
Ie, what is described here is the Omnitates vs populares, and the modern left is the client network of the omnitates, while the populares are the revolutionary class. Because leftists thought that the underclass would be the ones developing a revolutionary class consciousness, but in reality a revolutionary class consciousness has always been middle class, ie the small business owners, skilled labour etc. Which is why the highly skilled white working class now vote far right, ie populist.
When I was referring to the Right Wing I did not mean the more organic grassroots groups, but the groups that are created by elites (e.g. the Tea Party, Trumpism) or have been infiltrated and controlled by the elites (e.g Brothers of Italy, Meloni has rapidly shown herself to be an elite tool as much as Mussolini was, and the French National Front). The German AfD does not seem to have met this fate yet but I am sure that the elite forces are trying hard to manipulate it. Even grassroots groups can be very quickly infiltrated if they become successful, just look at all the state actors in the crowd on Jan 6th. The Nazi Party was very much a creation of the elites.
Mao was from peasant stock, and Stalin and Gramsci were from a very poor backgrounds as were many others. The access of the working class to intellectual avenues is very important. In places such as the US (McCrathyism etc.), Canada (NDP run by a WEF graduate), UK (Corbyn taken out by the elite), Greece (the Syriza debacle), and Germany (the "woke" Die Linke) the traditional left became utterly debased and disconnected from the working class, leaving the working class to look rightwards for answers.
Just like how the optimates and the populares were controlled or influenced by the Roman elites of the times, they were also representative of real ideological, social, and economic differences; just as with the Nazis, Soviet Communists, and Italian Fascists, their failures lead to catastrophic failure and then collapse of the whole system beyond the control of the elites. What terrifies me is that like in the past, the current elites' desire to Have It All, which includes not comparative, but absolute, domination of the political, social, and economic systems will cause the same kind of catastrophe with the added benefit of climate collapse.
Then there is the fact that I find the current Western leadership and upper classes the most feckless, incurious, and foolish group of people of all the ones I have read of in history. I am sure that there must have been elites more so, perhaps those of the Western Roman Empire circa 470 AD, but it ain't easy to find them.
Why am I not surprised that the most popular comment is a nice little package of conspiracy theories? Let me point out some facts that you conveniently ignore:
1. “Iran is a moderate Muslim nation” – Sure, that's why they deliberately shoot protesting women in the genitals when they don’t beat them to death.
2. “the West in destroying the increasingly secular Middle East of the 1950s and the funding and support for the religious fundamentalists” – Really? Hand waving is nice but did you bother researching the topic? Maybe you’ve noticed Jason Burke’s book on the origins of ISIS in Aurelien’s last post?
3. “the ethnic cleansing of the Gazan population” – Sure, why would an army try to evacuate the civilian population from the fighting zone? Why did Israel evacuate ITS OWN civilian population from the area around Gaza and the border with Lebanon? Maybe they try to save some civilian lives rather than let terrorists target them and use them as shields?
WTF! Well you gave me a damn good laugh this morning! You surely live in an alternative reality inside your own head that is utterly disconnected from the real world.
I see you didn't learn much in academia if your only response to facts is cursing and allegations about my mental state. In my field of study we usually present arguments that we can back with empirical evidence using the appropriate methodology.
They are not "facts" they are the delusional musings of your propagandized mind. I will not engage with you anymore as it is utterly pointless. I leant much in academia, including actual history and the usage of propaganda by states to try to cover up their crimes. You are spouting Hasbara rubbish.
WTF - I have not seen any verified reports of Iranians shooting women in the genitals but this was absolutely done by the IDF against Great March of Return protesters.
There's plenty of documented evidence of West assassinating Arab leaders and actively working to destroy Arab nationalism. The most recent is Libya. Before that, Iraq. Before that, Lebanon.
IDF has a clearly documented history of using Palestinians as human shields. What you describe as Hamas human shields is just IDF indiscriminately killing civilians and announced intent to target hospitals, ambulances, water facilities, and journalists. And again, even had Hamas has pursued the bizarre strategy of building their "secret" tunnels under every hospital, mosque, and school in Gaza, bombing targets that are filled with civilians is still a war crime.
If you had been a German born in 1920, I am sure you would condemn the horrible terrorist violence of the Warsaw ghetto uprising and the absolute right, destiny in fact, of your country to exist.
I hope you do have a God who will make you answer for your lies, in this life and the next. If you have loved ones, that they will learn to be better people than you are and shun you for your monstrousness.
This is what your "most moral army in the world does everyday in the West Bank, where there is no Hamas. The rest of the world see this and even majority of the West sees this and know exactly what it is. Zionism won't be able to hide behind the Holocaust (which was not an unique evil but one proceeded by genocides of indigenous peoples in the global South, who do not have the privilege of crying "antisemitism" every time things don't go their way) for much longer. Good riddance.
No names, no photos. Just vague accusations amplified by known western intelligence dissemination sources. The only pictures shown are untraceable pellets on torso shots. BTW, all this over the baseless Kurd (*Western*) generated Mahsa Amini blood libel.
Everything you Zionists say about your opponents is a confession of what you and your precious state of Israel does on a daily basis.
I’m a student who has recently come back from a solo trip to front line Ukraine. I’ve just published a new piece on my experiences and thought readers here may appreciate it. Please do see what you think. https://irongoose.substack.com/
"Indeed, I think it is now accepted that the doctrine of extreme social and economic liberalism espoused by the PMC has the genuinely enthusiastic support of only a very small part of the western population: perhaps ten per cent at most. The effective capture of major western political parties by the PMC ideology disguises this to some extent, but opinion polls and referenda show with great clarity that western electorates want something else. They may register a protest vote or they may not vote at all, and at a maximum they may vote for whichever of the major parties seems least repulsive that week."
Considering how wildly unpopular most western politicians and their policies are with their respective publics, "democracy" as it is actually practiced is basically a cover for rulers to do what they want. The technical term for this is a "beard".
After all, your elected representatives approved this. So If you don't like it, you can vote for the other carefully vetted corporate imperialist muppet next time around, so until then, shut up and fall in line!
Afterwards, it occurred to me that V.I. Lenin reached a similar conclusion in "State and Revolution".
Most revolutionaries seem not to have given any thought on what should after a successful revolt. The roads still need to be built and maintained, people still need bread, and their must some kind of order, whatever it might be, for any society to function.
The American Founding Fathers, whatever their many, many flaws, were concerned with the effective governance needing for their new country's survival.
Restated, just burning it all down is not a good program for success.
Strangely, PRC and USSR both managed to build plenty of roads, schools, hospitals, farms and factories within 30 years of winning their nationhood. Sufficient to add decades to life expectation of their citizenry and near universal literacy, despite all their external pressures from Western imperialists. Heck of a better than anything ever managed by a "democracy" other than the carefully cultivated Potemkin villages of Japan (run by war criminal Yakuza filled LDP) and West Germany (run by Nazis).
So maybe actually learn some history before venturing your opinion about societies that you haven't bothered to learn the first thing about.
And as for how responsible Americans are for their governments. Yes there are massive amount of power and forces tilting the scales, but there's still the responsibility to fight for what we knows to be right. I am doing less than I could and I feel guilty about it, knowing that in a tiny way I'm not trying to make things better. If the bad blows back to us, I am hell of a lot more responsible for it than the Gazans.
What I don't do is go around to all the online forums to protest how innocent I am, over and over again. Because then it's all about me and my clean conscience, even though I haven't done anything to earn it.
I don't buy this psychological idea of a mass unconscious transference of hate for unfulfilling PMC lifestyles onto Russians and Gazans in the last few paragraphs. You wrote earlier "The Outer Party is subject to discipline, loyalty checks and compulsory ideological conformity...". Correct. So since the Inner Party is committed to the Israel and Ukraine projects, because Empire, members of the Outer Party have to behave this way or risk their jobs, social connections and/or clients.
The successful members of the Outer Party are cynical opportunists, yes, but deep down they really do believe in the Dogma Of The Week. Those who do not are rooted out.
"“Support” is a poor word to describe their hysterical, xenophobic gung-ho posture, less in favour of Ukraine, if the truth be told, than against Russia."
I have said from the outset - take away Russia and Poland would go from America's Special Little Buddy to a rather yappy midtier backwater satrapy, like Colombia with delusions of grandeur but no cocaine.
Ukraine would go from The Beacon Of Democracy to a corrupt, violent, nasty pariah state.
Well if Marx turns out to be right, Europe might not much like the dictatorship of the proletariat. I do think you’re on to something in philosophical and political sense of the issues.
I’ve been struck by how badly the standard Israeli propaganda for the west has worked. I would not have predicted the mass protest movement; I have to assume that the Inner Party didn’t expect it either. This too suggests that at a fundamental level cracks are showing in the facade built by the PMC. Nobody’s protesting their family or friends fighting in a war. It’s not personal (for most). It’s ideological but perhaps more. It feels like protest against the ugliest parts of the world built by the Inner Party.
You might find this book interesting, it’s called a History of Russophobia by Guy Mettan, and it really goes way back to the schism of east/west churches and all kinds of ways in which the west has hated Russia for a thousand years. Immediately thought of it when I started reading your post.
Schisms? You want schisms? Research the origin of Sunni v.s. Shia, now there's a schism!
The schism happened when the prophet died. It's all about whether leadership of Islam derives from merit (Sunni) or simple inheritance (Shia). I believe the numbers were 10x Sunni for every Shia, demonstrating the relative virtue of the two approaches.
These groupings seem to map fully to bourgeois, petite bourgeois, proletariat, and lumpen proletariat, so why not use those terms instead?
I am sorry to say but again I detect the "othering" of Muslims and some "just so" narratives about how the European Muslim communities got radicalized and what happened in Iran. Not mentioned is the West's continued and calculated support of Wahhabi Islam to counter political Islam and Arab nationalism. That ISIS is clearly directed by US and Israeli governments, rather than any sort of authentic expression of the will of more than a tiny minority of Muslims. That most Ukrainians did not want to go to war with Russia in 2014 or 2019 and would not have if they had any say in 2022. That the mainstream western press is completely captured as a tool of elite control as part of the MICIMATT.
In short, this essay manages to speak rather eloquently about some of the symptoms, as seem by a rather perceptive upper ranking member of the European "outer party" but doesn't get into the problem of Western imperialism and capitalism. And that seems like an exercise in examining an elephant's tail without acknowledging the elephant.
Aurelien has written a series of articles focusing on the elephant appendages as though the elephant does not exist. That leads to a misleading picture of the overall problem. I am far from the only one commenting on this.
In fairness to Aurelien, he did reference colonialist attitudes of the elite and of the older generation, and describes the collision between that and the populace as leading to the current impasse. But it's still framed as a Western problem when it's a human problem. I believe the populace is right because as we are now seeing, what the elite is happy to dispense upon the Gazans, they will do to any one of us who threaten their grip on power/wealth. They will murder us in our millions and billions if it extends their stay at the top of the heap for a little longer. These are the stakes and it's not aesthetics.
Let's try to tell the story a little differently: around the 1970s/80s (Vietnam war, civil unrest, communist danger everywhere) the USA/CIA thought that, since religion was the opium of the people, betting on religion was a wise move (the PMC, as you call them, has no face, and this political choice has authors and names, that's why I say USA/CIA - Europe was not so much in the game by that time, I think). Khomeini's return to Iran (as well as his exile in France) was part of that move. It wasn't so much the hippie idea of a world of peace and harmony (but the CIA has since learned how to use it, bien sur), but the deliberate desire to disturb or defeat the secular Left (particularly in the Middle East, but also in Europe).
As one with a functional brain would expect, the move got out of control. Also because the Muslim world (contrary to what your article seems to presuppose), is today a space of intelligent people and advanced technology (and who also agree that religion is an excellent instrument of control). By the way, Putin did more or less the same move in the successful transition from the USSR to Russia. As for the emigration question, one could argue that in the USA they have a Christian Latin-American problem, not a Muslim one
I am sure that the creeps in the CIA had a part, but as a American and Californian, having seen this immigration problem first hand and for forty years, I would make the Democratic and Republican Party more responsible. Both wanted to drive down the cost of labor with the destruction of the unions a nice bonus especially for the Republicans. The Democrats also believed that the new waves of immigrants would be just a Democratic as well as the previous waves had been. Greed, ambition, power, and contempt is a vicious combination.
The fact that almost nobody in the ninety percent of the economic bottom of the population wanted uncontrolled immigration, including the Latinos already here, some of which have lived in the Southwest since the sixteenth century, did not concern the proponents of immigration. There was always the cry of racism and since even the corrupt, often very illegal use, of B1 and B2 visas has been ignored much of the middle class as well as the poor and working classes have seen their income threatened if not just destroyed.
Concurrently, as all the extra workers were imported, there was the sending off of most of the United States' industry was done without the approval of the general population, but often with the enthusiastic support of both major political parties, sometime including tax breaks for doing so. Of course, much of the working class consist of Latinos and Blacks who are disproportionally impacted by all this. Then there is the majority of the working class that is White. Hillary Clinton's Deplorables.
Personally, I do not have a problem with Christian Latinos. Why would I? I might have a problem with the fascist American Christian Nationalists, which is trying to gain more power among the elites. The pool consisting of American social, economic, and political issues can be a deep wade, and it is very different, I suspect, than anything found anywhere else despite the commonalities of American elites with the European elites or the Western elites. It is the interests of some to overly simplified the history of Western Civilization including the various nations and states within it; they strip out all the inconvenient bits and bury what remains with propaganda and lies. This is a project of modern Neoliberalism.
I don't understand how you take the Vendee as representative of the "common people" of France. Of the Paris faubourgs? Who made up the Revoulutionary Armies that stood off the Great Powers of Europe? Who elected the National Assembly (later the Convention) that voted unanimously to convict Louis XVI of treason and (by a single vote-that of his cousin) to execute him? And when did the French Revolution end? With the execution of Danton and the Terror? with Thermidor (the triumph of your "outer party?") with Bonaparte? Or with the final establishment of a grand-bourgoisie state under Louis-Philippe in 1830?
And why do you not mention the terrible role of Stalinism in the collapse of the "Left" in postwar France as in 1929-1933 Germany, for instance the enabling role of the PCF in the murdeerous destruction of the FLN's rival trade union, the Messalist FNSA? And by the way, isn't the term "inner party" a way to avoid talking about its social power. Wouldn't the term "nomenklatura," which is an actuality, the established ruling class in China as it was in the USSR? Do you think the working class, native and immigrant, is dead or just starting to wake from a drugged sleep?
Quite honestly, I usually like your reasoning on various topics, and unlike most I feel many things can be discussed analytically without necessarily constantly referring back to empirical evidence. I feel, like you probably, that numbers are often smoke and mirrors can in fact hide that we have no clue.
Nevertheless, just like polls which are often incredibly inacurate and unreliable, they are still better tools than mere 'I said so'.
For this one I feel like some more data and sources would be much welcome. You make pretty significant claims about the influence of religion on immigrant communities in very direct terms, any data or sources for this? You say the anti-semitic violence come from this contingent rather than traditional far-right activists, any source or data that you are drawing on to make these claims?
Trying to understand the world in my mind necessarily implies doing so with others, which means at least some basis of shared reality and thus 'facts' - however much we may wish to critique these same facts or underline the importance of other 'facts'. Otherwise, it isn't so much 'trying to understand the world' that we are doing, but instead doing straightforward soft politics - which is fine of course, but it's not the same thing.
A fair point. It's an acronym I often use (and id used by others) and I suspect that in the rush I simply forgot to make the link. It's a much discussed concept (it has its own Wikipedia page) although my own conception of the PMC is probably closest to that of Catherine Liu in her book "Virtue Hoarders." I prefer "Caste" to "Class" because I think that it's more accurate, but the practical difference is not great.
I think it is best to think of it as a class that has become close to an inheritable caste especially with the reduction of colleges universities to extremely expensive credentialers. You best be a legacy or to come from a wealthy family to get that credential.
It has become more important, I think, to where a man or woman has gotten their degree instead of what kind or even how much knowledge he has. Wisdom is more of a hindrance, I would say. Just look at the top echelon of American society where it is those who have degrees from the Ivies or from Stanford with precious little of the many other, often still good, colleges represented.
My practical answer: "the people who run everything, but do not own anything". The technocratic middle and middle-upper classes who often have big salaries, big houses, and big mortgages.
see my comment below.. i asked the same thing.. it is almost like we have to go to some specialized school to learn these special abbreviated terms as we aren't told in the article!!
"Now if only we could do something with these disappointing people… if only we could transfer them, send them out, send them home. Of course, because of the knots of ThoughtCrime that the “Left” has tied itself in, such ideas can never be expressed. Indeed, they must not be consciously thought. So instead, we have the indecent enthusiasm of the western “Left” for the expulsion of the Palestinians from Gaza, as a sublimated and unacknowledged substitute."
And in grotesque irony, where do these foolish Europeans think displaced Gazans will GO? Why, straight across the Mediterranean, you fools!!
“So instead, we have the indecent enthusiasm of the western “Left” for the expulsion of the Palestinians from Gaza, as a sublimated and unacknowledged substitute."
And why conflate this attitude with the “Left.” I don’t know anyone on what I consider the “Left” that is in favor of the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. Rather the
“Left” in the US condemns Israeli ethnic cleansing and genocide, as well as both Democratic and Republican parties for supporting Israel in these atrocities. Take a look at the World Socialist WebSite if you want to get a sense of the Left. Certainly not represented in any US MSM publication.
I had the same thought. The enthusiasm for Israel's final solution for Palestinians is even stronger with conservatives in the US. I think it's also true in the UK.
The real left understand that the "Left" are just courtiers for the capitalist owners that utilize "critical" language and constructs that make them appear to be radical, but this radicalism never extends to issues of political economy as that would point the finger at their paymasters and they would rapidly lose career opportunities and quite possibly their jobs. Gramsci (who the "Left" love to cherry-pick disconnected phrases and concepts from) had that all worked out in a prison cell in the 1920s! By making the lives of the "Left" ever more precarious, the capitalist owners tighten their control over them.
Hum... Actually, a few did... But during decades, they were called "ists" or "phobes" of one kind or an other. And promptly silenced as such.
Then now days, as quite a few people abandoned lately their Pavlovian reactions, they try to pretend that it was everybody's fault and not only theirs.
Still... Great article. As often. Even if it took me a couple of paragraphs to get into it.
True. Only one really made sense in the context, to me anyway. Also, to be fair, Aurelien did use the full phrase first, but I'd vote for putting the acronym in parentheses immediately following the first use, so we don't have to wonder, or wander among the Google options. My working life, long past, wasn't spent in the thickets of abbreviations.
"The effective capture of major western political parties by the PMC ideology disguises this to some extent, but opinion polls and referenda show with great clarity that western electorates want something else."
Mediating further upon this, and using the United States as a leading example, I would not say that both legacy parties are PMC mouthpieces. Team D is the political manifestation of the class consciousness of the PMC, while Team R is the Local Gentry at politics. (This is one reason why Team D are staffed by Front Row Kids, while Team R features a lot more muffler shop owners, Land Grant State U graduates, and former football stars). Think of this like the 19th Century Whigs and Tories, the court party vs the country party.
However, the PMC is the hegemonic class, which in means that PMC values are deemed normative, axiomatic, even. So even when Team R opposes Team D, it does so using PMC-coded language and assumes PMC values, because its members cannot imagine things being any different.
Critical theory without historical materialism is simply ungrounded cleverness. The PMC that you talk about (the "Left") are simply the courtiers to the really powerful, the capitalist owner class. The courtiers will spout whatever nonsense they have to to keep their jobs and have a chance to move upwards, including doing 180 about turns when required. Zionism is not a religious project, it is a nationalist one that hides behind religious symbolism. Iran is a moderate Muslim nation with a significant degree of socialism. Identity politics was driven from 2010 onwards as a divide and conquer strategy after the masses started to focus too much on the ownership class.
Nowhere do you mention the role of the West in destroying the increasingly secular Middle East of the 1950s and the funding and support for the religious fundamentalists to sow division (including within the immigrant community); how many of those "radical" clerics are on the security services payroll? Nor the real economic grievances of the immigrant community, and its righteous anger at the murder and ethnic cleansing of the Gazan population (to add to the Western destruction rent in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and the other Western manipulations of the Arab Spring).
This is not about some "unconscious transference", it is about courtiers doing what courtiers do and the working class (including immigrants) becoming more and more restive against the rulers who don't treat them as fully human. With the real left utterly destroyed, sidelined and penetrated by the security services the only alternative for the working class seems to be the Right Wing, which of course is just the fascist arm of the ownership class. A real left-wing party would easily win, as Corbyn displayed in 2017 in the UK, but the ownership class will make sure that that is not an option.
I am not sure about that description of the Right Wing. Most Right Wing groups I partake in, and they are not extreme or nazi, but most are low key revolutionary. It's small business owners, engineers, highly educated bottom rung office workers, welders etc.
The jargon however is not onw on wanting to do the bidding of the oligarchy. On the contrary the oligarchy and the cryptocracy is constantly referred to, and political action is more or less always prescribed in the same way.
Move out, get skills, get guns, build a community, and wait.
And what are we waiting for? The day of the rope.
So this is not a group of people who are interested in participating in the globalist project, nor any state solution as the state is seek as the tool of oppression of the oligarchy, there to serve the oligarchy.
Which is btw, the fundamental right wing framework, the state is always controlled by a nameless bureaucracy (where there is no personal accountability), acting in the interests of an entrenched power elite.
Ie, what is described here is the Omnitates vs populares, and the modern left is the client network of the omnitates, while the populares are the revolutionary class. Because leftists thought that the underclass would be the ones developing a revolutionary class consciousness, but in reality a revolutionary class consciousness has always been middle class, ie the small business owners, skilled labour etc. Which is why the highly skilled white working class now vote far right, ie populist.
When I was referring to the Right Wing I did not mean the more organic grassroots groups, but the groups that are created by elites (e.g. the Tea Party, Trumpism) or have been infiltrated and controlled by the elites (e.g Brothers of Italy, Meloni has rapidly shown herself to be an elite tool as much as Mussolini was, and the French National Front). The German AfD does not seem to have met this fate yet but I am sure that the elite forces are trying hard to manipulate it. Even grassroots groups can be very quickly infiltrated if they become successful, just look at all the state actors in the crowd on Jan 6th. The Nazi Party was very much a creation of the elites.
Mao was from peasant stock, and Stalin and Gramsci were from a very poor backgrounds as were many others. The access of the working class to intellectual avenues is very important. In places such as the US (McCrathyism etc.), Canada (NDP run by a WEF graduate), UK (Corbyn taken out by the elite), Greece (the Syriza debacle), and Germany (the "woke" Die Linke) the traditional left became utterly debased and disconnected from the working class, leaving the working class to look rightwards for answers.
Just like how the optimates and the populares were controlled or influenced by the Roman elites of the times, they were also representative of real ideological, social, and economic differences; just as with the Nazis, Soviet Communists, and Italian Fascists, their failures lead to catastrophic failure and then collapse of the whole system beyond the control of the elites. What terrifies me is that like in the past, the current elites' desire to Have It All, which includes not comparative, but absolute, domination of the political, social, and economic systems will cause the same kind of catastrophe with the added benefit of climate collapse.
Then there is the fact that I find the current Western leadership and upper classes the most feckless, incurious, and foolish group of people of all the ones I have read of in history. I am sure that there must have been elites more so, perhaps those of the Western Roman Empire circa 470 AD, but it ain't easy to find them.
The current Western leadership certainly gives the late Roman leadership a run for their money when it comes to being feckless, incurious and foolish!
Why am I not surprised that the most popular comment is a nice little package of conspiracy theories? Let me point out some facts that you conveniently ignore:
1. “Iran is a moderate Muslim nation” – Sure, that's why they deliberately shoot protesting women in the genitals when they don’t beat them to death.
2. “the West in destroying the increasingly secular Middle East of the 1950s and the funding and support for the religious fundamentalists” – Really? Hand waving is nice but did you bother researching the topic? Maybe you’ve noticed Jason Burke’s book on the origins of ISIS in Aurelien’s last post?
3. “the ethnic cleansing of the Gazan population” – Sure, why would an army try to evacuate the civilian population from the fighting zone? Why did Israel evacuate ITS OWN civilian population from the area around Gaza and the border with Lebanon? Maybe they try to save some civilian lives rather than let terrorists target them and use them as shields?
WTF! Well you gave me a damn good laugh this morning! You surely live in an alternative reality inside your own head that is utterly disconnected from the real world.
I see you didn't learn much in academia if your only response to facts is cursing and allegations about my mental state. In my field of study we usually present arguments that we can back with empirical evidence using the appropriate methodology.
They are not "facts" they are the delusional musings of your propagandized mind. I will not engage with you anymore as it is utterly pointless. I leant much in academia, including actual history and the usage of propaganda by states to try to cover up their crimes. You are spouting Hasbara rubbish.
WTF - I have not seen any verified reports of Iranians shooting women in the genitals but this was absolutely done by the IDF against Great March of Return protesters.
There's plenty of documented evidence of West assassinating Arab leaders and actively working to destroy Arab nationalism. The most recent is Libya. Before that, Iraq. Before that, Lebanon.
IDF has a clearly documented history of using Palestinians as human shields. What you describe as Hamas human shields is just IDF indiscriminately killing civilians and announced intent to target hospitals, ambulances, water facilities, and journalists. And again, even had Hamas has pursued the bizarre strategy of building their "secret" tunnels under every hospital, mosque, and school in Gaza, bombing targets that are filled with civilians is still a war crime.
If you had been a German born in 1920, I am sure you would condemn the horrible terrorist violence of the Warsaw ghetto uprising and the absolute right, destiny in fact, of your country to exist.
I hope you do have a God who will make you answer for your lies, in this life and the next. If you have loved ones, that they will learn to be better people than you are and shun you for your monstrousness.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/dec/08/iranian-forces-shooting-at-faces-and-genitals-of-female-protesters-medics-say
https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-women-protesters-shot-breasts-genitals-report-2022-12
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2213286/middle-east
https://twitter.com/MayadeenEnglish/status/1722841742733463997?t=k_ivmRa-UGC-G3xUMyDGpA&s=19
This is what your "most moral army in the world does everyday in the West Bank, where there is no Hamas. The rest of the world see this and even majority of the West sees this and know exactly what it is. Zionism won't be able to hide behind the Holocaust (which was not an unique evil but one proceeded by genocides of indigenous peoples in the global South, who do not have the privilege of crying "antisemitism" every time things don't go their way) for much longer. Good riddance.
No names, no photos. Just vague accusations amplified by known western intelligence dissemination sources. The only pictures shown are untraceable pellets on torso shots. BTW, all this over the baseless Kurd (*Western*) generated Mahsa Amini blood libel.
Everything you Zionists say about your opponents is a confession of what you and your precious state of Israel does on a daily basis.
I’m a student who has recently come back from a solo trip to front line Ukraine. I’ve just published a new piece on my experiences and thought readers here may appreciate it. Please do see what you think. https://irongoose.substack.com/
these nice gentlemen could be on the payroll of the security services. ;-) https://twitter.com/Crypto_Intel/status/1721509641484746822/photo/1
Yep!
great comment roger.. thanks..
"Indeed, I think it is now accepted that the doctrine of extreme social and economic liberalism espoused by the PMC has the genuinely enthusiastic support of only a very small part of the western population: perhaps ten per cent at most. The effective capture of major western political parties by the PMC ideology disguises this to some extent, but opinion polls and referenda show with great clarity that western electorates want something else. They may register a protest vote or they may not vote at all, and at a maximum they may vote for whichever of the major parties seems least repulsive that week."
Considering how wildly unpopular most western politicians and their policies are with their respective publics, "democracy" as it is actually practiced is basically a cover for rulers to do what they want. The technical term for this is a "beard".
After all, your elected representatives approved this. So If you don't like it, you can vote for the other carefully vetted corporate imperialist muppet next time around, so until then, shut up and fall in line!
Afterwards, it occurred to me that V.I. Lenin reached a similar conclusion in "State and Revolution".
Most revolutionaries seem not to have given any thought on what should after a successful revolt. The roads still need to be built and maintained, people still need bread, and their must some kind of order, whatever it might be, for any society to function.
The American Founding Fathers, whatever their many, many flaws, were concerned with the effective governance needing for their new country's survival.
Restated, just burning it all down is not a good program for success.
Strangely, PRC and USSR both managed to build plenty of roads, schools, hospitals, farms and factories within 30 years of winning their nationhood. Sufficient to add decades to life expectation of their citizenry and near universal literacy, despite all their external pressures from Western imperialists. Heck of a better than anything ever managed by a "democracy" other than the carefully cultivated Potemkin villages of Japan (run by war criminal Yakuza filled LDP) and West Germany (run by Nazis).
So maybe actually learn some history before venturing your opinion about societies that you haven't bothered to learn the first thing about.
And as for how responsible Americans are for their governments. Yes there are massive amount of power and forces tilting the scales, but there's still the responsibility to fight for what we knows to be right. I am doing less than I could and I feel guilty about it, knowing that in a tiny way I'm not trying to make things better. If the bad blows back to us, I am hell of a lot more responsible for it than the Gazans.
What I don't do is go around to all the online forums to protest how innocent I am, over and over again. Because then it's all about me and my clean conscience, even though I haven't done anything to earn it.
I don't buy this psychological idea of a mass unconscious transference of hate for unfulfilling PMC lifestyles onto Russians and Gazans in the last few paragraphs. You wrote earlier "The Outer Party is subject to discipline, loyalty checks and compulsory ideological conformity...". Correct. So since the Inner Party is committed to the Israel and Ukraine projects, because Empire, members of the Outer Party have to behave this way or risk their jobs, social connections and/or clients.
The successful members of the Outer Party are cynical opportunists, yes, but deep down they really do believe in the Dogma Of The Week. Those who do not are rooted out.
"“Support” is a poor word to describe their hysterical, xenophobic gung-ho posture, less in favour of Ukraine, if the truth be told, than against Russia."
I have said from the outset - take away Russia and Poland would go from America's Special Little Buddy to a rather yappy midtier backwater satrapy, like Colombia with delusions of grandeur but no cocaine.
Ukraine would go from The Beacon Of Democracy to a corrupt, violent, nasty pariah state.
They are both on the way there as you speak ...
Well if Marx turns out to be right, Europe might not much like the dictatorship of the proletariat. I do think you’re on to something in philosophical and political sense of the issues.
I’ve been struck by how badly the standard Israeli propaganda for the west has worked. I would not have predicted the mass protest movement; I have to assume that the Inner Party didn’t expect it either. This too suggests that at a fundamental level cracks are showing in the facade built by the PMC. Nobody’s protesting their family or friends fighting in a war. It’s not personal (for most). It’s ideological but perhaps more. It feels like protest against the ugliest parts of the world built by the Inner Party.
You might find this book interesting, it’s called a History of Russophobia by Guy Mettan, and it really goes way back to the schism of east/west churches and all kinds of ways in which the west has hated Russia for a thousand years. Immediately thought of it when I started reading your post.
Schisms? You want schisms? Research the origin of Sunni v.s. Shia, now there's a schism!
The schism happened when the prophet died. It's all about whether leadership of Islam derives from merit (Sunni) or simple inheritance (Shia). I believe the numbers were 10x Sunni for every Shia, demonstrating the relative virtue of the two approaches.
i have read this book and i highly recommend it..
These groupings seem to map fully to bourgeois, petite bourgeois, proletariat, and lumpen proletariat, so why not use those terms instead?
I am sorry to say but again I detect the "othering" of Muslims and some "just so" narratives about how the European Muslim communities got radicalized and what happened in Iran. Not mentioned is the West's continued and calculated support of Wahhabi Islam to counter political Islam and Arab nationalism. That ISIS is clearly directed by US and Israeli governments, rather than any sort of authentic expression of the will of more than a tiny minority of Muslims. That most Ukrainians did not want to go to war with Russia in 2014 or 2019 and would not have if they had any say in 2022. That the mainstream western press is completely captured as a tool of elite control as part of the MICIMATT.
In short, this essay manages to speak rather eloquently about some of the symptoms, as seem by a rather perceptive upper ranking member of the European "outer party" but doesn't get into the problem of Western imperialism and capitalism. And that seems like an exercise in examining an elephant's tail without acknowledging the elephant.
There is only so much material you can cover in these few pages. Sounds like you believe you can better comment on the "elephant".
Aurelien has written a series of articles focusing on the elephant appendages as though the elephant does not exist. That leads to a misleading picture of the overall problem. I am far from the only one commenting on this.
In fairness to Aurelien, he did reference colonialist attitudes of the elite and of the older generation, and describes the collision between that and the populace as leading to the current impasse. But it's still framed as a Western problem when it's a human problem. I believe the populace is right because as we are now seeing, what the elite is happy to dispense upon the Gazans, they will do to any one of us who threaten their grip on power/wealth. They will murder us in our millions and billions if it extends their stay at the top of the heap for a little longer. These are the stakes and it's not aesthetics.
Let's try to tell the story a little differently: around the 1970s/80s (Vietnam war, civil unrest, communist danger everywhere) the USA/CIA thought that, since religion was the opium of the people, betting on religion was a wise move (the PMC, as you call them, has no face, and this political choice has authors and names, that's why I say USA/CIA - Europe was not so much in the game by that time, I think). Khomeini's return to Iran (as well as his exile in France) was part of that move. It wasn't so much the hippie idea of a world of peace and harmony (but the CIA has since learned how to use it, bien sur), but the deliberate desire to disturb or defeat the secular Left (particularly in the Middle East, but also in Europe).
As one with a functional brain would expect, the move got out of control. Also because the Muslim world (contrary to what your article seems to presuppose), is today a space of intelligent people and advanced technology (and who also agree that religion is an excellent instrument of control). By the way, Putin did more or less the same move in the successful transition from the USSR to Russia. As for the emigration question, one could argue that in the USA they have a Christian Latin-American problem, not a Muslim one
I am sure that the creeps in the CIA had a part, but as a American and Californian, having seen this immigration problem first hand and for forty years, I would make the Democratic and Republican Party more responsible. Both wanted to drive down the cost of labor with the destruction of the unions a nice bonus especially for the Republicans. The Democrats also believed that the new waves of immigrants would be just a Democratic as well as the previous waves had been. Greed, ambition, power, and contempt is a vicious combination.
The fact that almost nobody in the ninety percent of the economic bottom of the population wanted uncontrolled immigration, including the Latinos already here, some of which have lived in the Southwest since the sixteenth century, did not concern the proponents of immigration. There was always the cry of racism and since even the corrupt, often very illegal use, of B1 and B2 visas has been ignored much of the middle class as well as the poor and working classes have seen their income threatened if not just destroyed.
Concurrently, as all the extra workers were imported, there was the sending off of most of the United States' industry was done without the approval of the general population, but often with the enthusiastic support of both major political parties, sometime including tax breaks for doing so. Of course, much of the working class consist of Latinos and Blacks who are disproportionally impacted by all this. Then there is the majority of the working class that is White. Hillary Clinton's Deplorables.
Personally, I do not have a problem with Christian Latinos. Why would I? I might have a problem with the fascist American Christian Nationalists, which is trying to gain more power among the elites. The pool consisting of American social, economic, and political issues can be a deep wade, and it is very different, I suspect, than anything found anywhere else despite the commonalities of American elites with the European elites or the Western elites. It is the interests of some to overly simplified the history of Western Civilization including the various nations and states within it; they strip out all the inconvenient bits and bury what remains with propaganda and lies. This is a project of modern Neoliberalism.
I don't understand how you take the Vendee as representative of the "common people" of France. Of the Paris faubourgs? Who made up the Revoulutionary Armies that stood off the Great Powers of Europe? Who elected the National Assembly (later the Convention) that voted unanimously to convict Louis XVI of treason and (by a single vote-that of his cousin) to execute him? And when did the French Revolution end? With the execution of Danton and the Terror? with Thermidor (the triumph of your "outer party?") with Bonaparte? Or with the final establishment of a grand-bourgoisie state under Louis-Philippe in 1830?
And why do you not mention the terrible role of Stalinism in the collapse of the "Left" in postwar France as in 1929-1933 Germany, for instance the enabling role of the PCF in the murdeerous destruction of the FLN's rival trade union, the Messalist FNSA? And by the way, isn't the term "inner party" a way to avoid talking about its social power. Wouldn't the term "nomenklatura," which is an actuality, the established ruling class in China as it was in the USSR? Do you think the working class, native and immigrant, is dead or just starting to wake from a drugged sleep?
Quite honestly, I usually like your reasoning on various topics, and unlike most I feel many things can be discussed analytically without necessarily constantly referring back to empirical evidence. I feel, like you probably, that numbers are often smoke and mirrors can in fact hide that we have no clue.
Nevertheless, just like polls which are often incredibly inacurate and unreliable, they are still better tools than mere 'I said so'.
For this one I feel like some more data and sources would be much welcome. You make pretty significant claims about the influence of religion on immigrant communities in very direct terms, any data or sources for this? You say the anti-semitic violence come from this contingent rather than traditional far-right activists, any source or data that you are drawing on to make these claims?
Trying to understand the world in my mind necessarily implies doing so with others, which means at least some basis of shared reality and thus 'facts' - however much we may wish to critique these same facts or underline the importance of other 'facts'. Otherwise, it isn't so much 'trying to understand the world' that we are doing, but instead doing straightforward soft politics - which is fine of course, but it's not the same thing.
What the heck is PMC, is it Private Military Company? Is PubMed Central? Undefined abbreviations are FUBAR.
A fair point. It's an acronym I often use (and id used by others) and I suspect that in the rush I simply forgot to make the link. It's a much discussed concept (it has its own Wikipedia page) although my own conception of the PMC is probably closest to that of Catherine Liu in her book "Virtue Hoarders." I prefer "Caste" to "Class" because I think that it's more accurate, but the practical difference is not great.
I think it is best to think of it as a class that has become close to an inheritable caste especially with the reduction of colleges universities to extremely expensive credentialers. You best be a legacy or to come from a wealthy family to get that credential.
It has become more important, I think, to where a man or woman has gotten their degree instead of what kind or even how much knowledge he has. Wisdom is more of a hindrance, I would say. Just look at the top echelon of American society where it is those who have degrees from the Ivies or from Stanford with precious little of the many other, often still good, colleges represented.
I prefer "cult" myself
Professional and Managerial Caste. It's in the first paragraph.
I have looked it up - I think it is ‘Professional Managerial Class’ 😎
My practical answer: "the people who run everything, but do not own anything". The technocratic middle and middle-upper classes who often have big salaries, big houses, and big mortgages.
see my comment below.. i asked the same thing.. it is almost like we have to go to some specialized school to learn these special abbreviated terms as we aren't told in the article!!
Google...
it turns up a ton of possibilities..
"Now if only we could do something with these disappointing people… if only we could transfer them, send them out, send them home. Of course, because of the knots of ThoughtCrime that the “Left” has tied itself in, such ideas can never be expressed. Indeed, they must not be consciously thought. So instead, we have the indecent enthusiasm of the western “Left” for the expulsion of the Palestinians from Gaza, as a sublimated and unacknowledged substitute."
And in grotesque irony, where do these foolish Europeans think displaced Gazans will GO? Why, straight across the Mediterranean, you fools!!
“So instead, we have the indecent enthusiasm of the western “Left” for the expulsion of the Palestinians from Gaza, as a sublimated and unacknowledged substitute."
And why conflate this attitude with the “Left.” I don’t know anyone on what I consider the “Left” that is in favor of the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. Rather the
“Left” in the US condemns Israeli ethnic cleansing and genocide, as well as both Democratic and Republican parties for supporting Israel in these atrocities. Take a look at the World Socialist WebSite if you want to get a sense of the Left. Certainly not represented in any US MSM publication.
I had the same thought. The enthusiasm for Israel's final solution for Palestinians is even stronger with conservatives in the US. I think it's also true in the UK.
The real left understand that the "Left" are just courtiers for the capitalist owners that utilize "critical" language and constructs that make them appear to be radical, but this radicalism never extends to issues of political economy as that would point the finger at their paymasters and they would rapidly lose career opportunities and quite possibly their jobs. Gramsci (who the "Left" love to cherry-pick disconnected phrases and concepts from) had that all worked out in a prison cell in the 1920s! By making the lives of the "Left" ever more precarious, the capitalist owners tighten their control over them.
Outstanding article. Thanks!
"Nobody thought it was a big issue at the time."
Hum... Actually, a few did... But during decades, they were called "ists" or "phobes" of one kind or an other. And promptly silenced as such.
Then now days, as quite a few people abandoned lately their Pavlovian reactions, they try to pretend that it was everybody's fault and not only theirs.
Still... Great article. As often. Even if it took me a couple of paragraphs to get into it.
True. Only one really made sense in the context, to me anyway. Also, to be fair, Aurelien did use the full phrase first, but I'd vote for putting the acronym in parentheses immediately following the first use, so we don't have to wonder, or wander among the Google options. My working life, long past, wasn't spent in the thickets of abbreviations.
"The effective capture of major western political parties by the PMC ideology disguises this to some extent, but opinion polls and referenda show with great clarity that western electorates want something else."
Mediating further upon this, and using the United States as a leading example, I would not say that both legacy parties are PMC mouthpieces. Team D is the political manifestation of the class consciousness of the PMC, while Team R is the Local Gentry at politics. (This is one reason why Team D are staffed by Front Row Kids, while Team R features a lot more muffler shop owners, Land Grant State U graduates, and former football stars). Think of this like the 19th Century Whigs and Tories, the court party vs the country party.
However, the PMC is the hegemonic class, which in means that PMC values are deemed normative, axiomatic, even. So even when Team R opposes Team D, it does so using PMC-coded language and assumes PMC values, because its members cannot imagine things being any different.