By Naresh Jotwani for the Saker Blog
From time to time, certain self-promoting "brainy" people come up with complicated theories about how the world should be organized and run. One imagines that such people dislike doing real work for a living - and grandiose theorizing proves to be an irresistibly tempting gig, with many perks.
Such a theory gets labelled as "something-ism", such as "liberalism", "monetarism", "capitalism", "Marxism", "socialism" and so on. While our aim is to unmask the fraud of "liberalism", a few comments about all such "isms" are in order. In a fundamental sense, all these are birds of a feather.
[Note that "patriotism" is an honourable exception to the discussion here - because it refers not to a theory, but to love of one's country!]
Any "ism" should be analyzed critically. Why? Because, at some point, inevitably, the dictates of any "ism" will be at variance with one's own best judgement and even one's own conscience. Any "ism" becomes dogma even before the ink is dry, so to speak, on its first print. The dogma then becomes a weapon in the hands of self-appointed high priests of the "ism".
Why do "brainy" but otherwise unwise people come up with "isms"?
The usual claim made by the "brainy" ones is that - if all goes as theorized, which of course it never does! - adherence to the dogma will be good for the society, or for mankind, or for the world or something equally vague.
All such claims are delusional and/or deliberately deceptive. The proponents usually go to great lengths to pose as being "brainy", but they are not wise.
By definition, an "ism" is something other than truthful, deep-rooted individual judgement; therefore unthinking adherence to it deadens truthful individual judgement. It is that simple. Can the snuffing out of truthful individual judgement ever be good for anyone, or for the society? No! Never! Indeed it is fundamentally wrong, immoral. It is the murder of truth.
But, as we shall see below, the business of "isms" is hugely profitable. More accurately, "isms" become business tactics of greedy money-monsters.
The modus operandi of the high priests of any "ism" involves non-stop propaganda. As long as the "ism" can be drummed into the minds of gullible multitudes, the high priests can harvest the illegitimate fruits of their devilish cunning. In other words, the whole enterprise is that of exploiting multitudes by cruelly messing with their world-view.
Deng Xiao Peng was smart. He said, "It doesn't matter what colour is the cat, as long as it catches mice". The meaning is very clear: Our focus should be on real-world, sensible objectives - and not on what is being hawked vociferously but dishonestly as "the only means" of achieving well-being in society.
If a society makes the mistake of confusing "voodoo" means with sensible societal goals, then the high priests of "voodoo" - vultures in disguise! - will rob the society of its material wealth, dignity, self-esteem and culture.
A magician distracts his audience by waving one hand, while the out-of-sight other hand performs a deceptive "magical" act. The high priests of an "ism" distract people with mumbo-jumbo of dogma, while sucking them dry.
The cry of "Suck'em dry!" is followed in time by "Alright, who'll be next?"
A crucial point to note is that all such newbie "isms" are malicious, deadly challenges to older, traditional faith-based cultures. Unless the culture in question perceives clearly the challenge, and devises a winning response to it, the culture is doomed; events in Ukraine are an example of the process.
[See the article by F. William Engdahl entitled "An American Oligarch's Dirty Tale of Corruption". The oligarch in question is George Soros; at Davos, he was very recently heard whining about "the end of our civilization". The response can only be: "That is an end devoutly to be wished for!"].
***
"Liberalism" is a perfect and glaring example of the processes outlined, and we shall now pick up the discussion from Part 1. In fact "liberalism" is only the latest mutation of the "ism" virus that has been plaguing humanity.
The enterprise of "liberalism" requires copious amount of money. In any honest economic enterprise, the entrepreneurs put in their own equity. However, in the utterly dishonest enterprise of "liberalism", the "high priests" contrive to seed the profitable business with the victims' own money; that is, the hapless victims bear even the initial capital cost of the enterprise.
The above diagram gives a broad overview of the financial skullduggery involved in the "liberal" political/business enterprise.
Wealth must be made to flow from hard-working people - the true wealth creators - towards greedy money-monsters. The means employed to achieve these wealth flows must be made to appear "legal", because the "high priests" use the cover of "legality" for their merciless deeds. Taxes, debt and liabilities pushed to future generations - that is, societal debt - are the "legal" means.
For every greedy money-monster, there are millions of simple, hard-working people in a society. These can be squeezed steadily, relentlessly - while non-stop propaganda tells them that what they are doing is good for society or country. Expenditure on PR, police et cetera is a tiny fraction of the money raked in; that is, the operating margins in this enterprise are huge.
***
So where does our typical drawing room / classroom, tousled-hair "liberal" fit into this political / business enterprise of "liberalism"?
We shall consider for the present only the well-meaning, truly deluded "liberal" - one who has swallowed hook, line and sinker the PR hype of the "high priests of liberalism".
[The other kind of "liberal" is a cunning, cynical cheat, who has seen through the scam but plans to profit hugely from it, and even dreams of becoming a "high priest" himself one day. As we shall see, the puppet masters of all "liberals" know very well which puppet will dance to which tune].
The typical truly deluded, well-meaning "liberal" is an academic, or perhaps a scientist / techie or physician, intelligent, with excellent "people skills". Things are going well for the person. A "liberal" pose is necessary because, as he would say himself, "One must do one's bit for humanity, you know!". The "liberal" pose is needed as a finishing touch to the personality; one more feather in the cap, so to speak, to be used for self-promotion.
Truly deluded "liberals" are the best possible useful idiots for the "high priests of liberalism". The rewards may be monetary, or they may take the form of fame, celebrity, professional opportunities and so on. These are the "liberals" one meets often, and even engages in well-meaning discussions - but only to discover that the discussions lead nowhere. A loose structure of arguments is presented stylishly, but sustainable understanding is absent.