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The coup from above and The Decline of Civilization
Ignazio Silone (14), an important theorist of Italian fascism is reported to have said: "When fascism returns, it will not say: 'I am fascism' No, it will say: 'I am anti-fascism'." And I say: we are on the threshold of an internationalized super-fascism, which merely uses new, more perfidious and, above all, more complex methods than the traditional one.
The traditional one was based on nationalist-racist-ethnic ideologemes and came to power through the terror of street and hall battle shock troops of fascist militias.
The traditional one was based on nationalist-racist-ethnic ideologemes and came to power through the terror of street and hall battle shock troops of fascist militias.
The coup from above
Democracy is abolished, an "elitist" caste completely disconnected from the needs of the people marches towards a centralized superstate.
by Ullrich Mies
[This article posted on 2/2/2023 is translated from the German on the Internet,
In the search for an apt paraphrase for the current struggle within German society, the following statement fits to a T: A largely "left-liberal," party-politically and ideologically aligned political establishment is in a "fight against the right." Across all party lines, the German political establishment defines itself as "left-wing," "centrist," liberal or green, conservative, but definitely not "right-wing." The reality, however, looks depressingly different. In fact, the German political milieus that set the tone are almost exclusively devoted to big business, both the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats, the "liberals," the turncoat SED old cadres as well as the "green" up-and-comers.
Since the rise of the Greens, those who have dropped out of university, who have not completed their vocational training, who lack life experience and who are "endowed" with an excess of corpulence have increased their chances of holding a political office or even a ministerial post. It is becoming increasingly obvious that German "parliamentarians" are taking orders from the executive branch, the US and German transatlanticists, and the WEF/UN dictates of Agenda 21 (1).
Their mission: to drive the nation-state - as a "stronghold of right-wing sentiment" - against the wall, i.e. to chaotize it to the best of their ability, to de-culture it, to deprive it of its rule of law and to wind it up as a livable state entity. There has long been no talk of the welfare of Europe or of the individual national states and their populations. Most party representatives in parliaments, ministries and the EU bureaucracy are united not only by this basic attitude but above all by their main interest in benefit-free provision and pension security.
"Those who were recently still committed supporters of the Soviet empire are today setting the tone as lackeys of the USA or the European Union under German leadership. And they have identified as their enemies the then and now anti-communists who are the only ones representing national interests" (2).
And immediately the question arises: How can it be that "left" forces of all people - or those who once called themselves "left" in the dim and distant past - cooperate in shoulder-to-shoulder with the darkest reaction since 1945, or have mutated into darkies themselves?
How can they chum up to the "Transnational Capitalist Class", its military force arm NATO and corporate Europe - as auxiliary troops? I call the International of Globalists and the supporters of Global Governance in the governments Global Fascists (3). The reason is that they have put democracy ad acta and are unrestrainedly whipping through their agenda:
the abolition of democracy as we knew it, i.e. a coup against the Basic Law and inalienable rights, the establishment of "Global Governance", i.e. the anti-democratic centralization of power and wealth involving so-called "stakeholders", i.e. relevant power groups such as corporations, governments, specific NGOs, UN, WEF, WHO, OECD, G7, NATO, the decimation and total control of the world population via "vaccination" and climate target regimes, the introduction of a biopolitical hygiene dictatorship via WHO and GAVI, the expropriation of the broad masses - "You own nothing and you are happy", according to WEF head Klaus Schwab, the shipping of parts of humanity to MEGA smart city gulags known as smart cities, the mass "human import" from NATO war zones under the pretext of "humanitarian aid", a hybrid Pentagon war strategy aimed at massive domestic dislocation, the eradication of national and regional identities and cultures under the signum of a homogenized MEGA culture, the total control of humanity via digital ids, the censorship of all opinions contrary to the program of the global fascists, the abolition of cash under the mendacious pretext of fighting crime, a so-called transhumanism with the supposed goal of "human improvement," the consolidation of power of the EU as an authoritarian-totalitarian anonymous supranational bureaucratic rule accountable to no one, and the consolidation and imperialist expansion of NATO as the West's geopolitical military force in the fight against Russia and China.
Everything is the result of the rampage towards centralization. But centralization exists only at the price of the complete dissolution of national democratic structures. This is exactly the process we are in, and this is exactly what the German Minister of Economics, Robert Habeck, said recently in Davos. Whose interests he and his war-drunk Berlin political mishmash are serving with this is evident.
Together against the democratic state
It is a catastrophe for society that "leftists", in a time of the highest concentration of capital in world history so far (4) and in times of the highest danger of world war since 1945, withdraw to side tracks of social woke fights and exhaust themselves in them. In other words, the Deep State (5) created state-financed "luxury" niches for this pseudo-left, so that it would not turn to its real task as opposition: the social struggle against political and economic power. The critical bourgeoisie has seized on this void and is now generally mobbed, defamed, terrorized and censored out of social discourse as "right-wingers."
The doctrinaire vulgar Marxist left could and can do nothing with the "bourgeois state" anyway, or regards it as its enemy. Obviously, it has escaped its notice that the "bourgeois state", as we knew it, also secured for the citizens protective and defensive rights against the state, which have now been cashed in under the Corona terror regime.
That doesn't bother this sort of "leftist." It desperately wants to be part of the power elite and made/makes common cause with the ultra-right transatlantic globalist regimes, under Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz against the democratic state, which is already in ruins.
"Since the beginning of modern political history, the fundamental right to individual freedom has never been a priority for the majority of representatives of the left, while a religious worship of the garb of the state is deeply rooted in the left, and even more so among its extremes. Moreover, the "progressive" left-wing affluent circles have tended toward elitism and class contempt since the 19th century. Mainly because the pesky plebeians tend to cling ridiculously to their little homeland, even though the logic of human progress leads to globalization, internationalism, mobility, and 'cosmopolitanism.' Worse, they fail to grasp that their true path to happiness is to become genderless, propertyless, and ethnically homogenized network nodes running around an Amazon factory for twelve tokens an hour (...) This claim to be part of a superior cultural class conveys, perhaps unconsciously, a sense of kinship with the corporate ruling class, especially when the latter tends to merge with high-ranking national or international 'public servants'." (6)
To make matters worse, citizens also aliment the political caste. These alimented by taxpayers' money also lack any appreciation of the achievements of small and medium-sized businesses, farmers, craftsmen and small businessmen.
How stubborn, indeed how stupid, do you have to be to negate their contribution to the country's prosperity? That succeeds only if one does not contribute anything! The fact that the hypercapital of BlackRock (7), Vanguard, State Street as well as innumerable "locusts" fillet, swallow and finally liquidate exactly this small and middle class in the way of the capital concentration, bothers neither left dogmatists nor parasitic politicians of the systemically synchronized party machines (8). The process of capital concentration appears logical within the framework of capitalist development. However, the fact that the hyper-capital concentration only came about through the "deregulation of the financial markets" and thus through its own political betrayal of democracy and the rule of law does not even occur to the political establishment.
Coup d'état from above
They are deliberately overlooking the collapse of the bourgeois state and of the German Basic Law, which at least guaranteed civil rights, even if it did not always uphold them. Ignorance is a tradition among leftist dogmatists. Since 9/11, they have been on the side of the globalists, i.e. the proponents of global governance, and have no problem whatsoever in supporting the dirty politics of the state of emergency since the beginning of the Corona regime. That the German transatlantic subdivision of the globalists - called government - is transforming the state from above more and more into a tyranny (9) is not a real issue not only for doctrinaire leftists, but also for social democrats at the nadir of their party history - and that is saying something - as well as green warmongers and their youth sections. The neo-racist hatred of the "disgusting white majority society" (10) includes "the Germans" and their country in general.
"In the salon culture of these luxury women living parasitically at the expense of the community, one no longer even bothers to preserve even the semblance of a thought of all the supposedly indispensable restrictions that are otherwise demanded of the rabble, from saving energy for the climate and freezing for the Ukraine, to frugality and waste avoidance, to wearing masks and protection against infection; not to mention the remnant of decency of a professional professional distance of the former guardian media.
Here we see all the audacity of an aloof political-media caste, which is not only completely removed from the reality of life of the population, but also relish incessantly burdening the latter with the consequences of its own permanent failure and afflicting it with harassment and paternalism." (11)
All of these Germany-haters are merely completing the 16-year order cycle of the Merkel clique as the U.S. statist regime to wind up the country. With the presumably few exceptions of those who intellectually see through the current development, the vast majority of the fourth-rate political personnel hope for career advancement in the pseudo-democratic, highly corrupt, party-based parliamentary system in order to transform Germany into a "failed state" in closed back rooms.
From the point of view of a democratic society, the states of the EU have long since degenerated into "Failed States". For the EU it is: "Failed Superstate".
After the final liquidation, the former citizens as well as the downtrodden working class will have the task to honor and fatten a neo-feudal globalist UN/WEF/WHO/NATO/BlackRock & Co. parasite caste and their totalitarian state executors - the "new parasite nobility". Citizens and working class then become serf tributary neo-slaves within the aspired "New World Order", the "New World Order".
Mirror battle against "right
That the responsible persons in politics, authorities and media propaganda industry, which I also call media war criminals and civil war industry, lead a mirror battle "against right", is a particularly bad staircase joke in the political smear theater of the ruined republic. But the stuffy fug of cowardly fellow travelers and denunciators already poisoned all areas of German society before 1933, not least the universities. Hans-Albert Walter wrote in this regard in 1972:
"The relationship of the state to those journalists and publicists, writers and artists who argued for a change in society or even for the fulfillment of bourgeois-democratic promises - the relationship of the state to these intellectuals was in many cases anything but liberal. Literary works with radical democratic, socialist or communist content were confiscated and banned in innumerable cases, their authors were accused, put on trial, often sentenced, in the least defamed. The reactionary officialdom and judiciary could be sure of support from the political right and from a large part of the press controlled or steered by it. From the beginning, administrative and judicial measures by the state were joined by journalistic attacks by the moderate to extreme right. They were directed against all progressive expressions in literature and art. Like the state's practice of interventions and bans, the journalistic-propagandistic practice of defamation and slander, of targeted threats and agitation can be traced from the beginnings of the Republic to its end. (...) the cultural - intellectual development in the twenties and early thirties has received very specific features through these processes. What was practiced here was a class struggle from above, was part of social oppression. The state measures accumulated, and the journalistic campaigns characteristically increased in ferocity during the periods of political-economic crisis." (12)
As if this text were written today! Many university professors, physicians and artists who were bullied out of their professions can sing a song about it. Journalistic and scientific whores abound, they have always been eating out of the hands of the political apparatuses, ducking away, not raising their voices and thus denying their distressed colleagues who are under pressure or have been disgusted from cultural institutions and universities and clinics. The practice of silencing, defaming, and slandering to the point of existential annihilation of critical thinkers has always accompanied every totalitarian regime (13).
Ignazio Silone (14), an important theorist of Italian fascism is reported to have said:
"When fascism returns, it will not say: 'I am fascism' No, it will say: 'I am anti-fascism'."
And I say: we are on the threshold of an internationalized superfascism, which merely uses new, more perfidious and, above all, more complex methods than the traditional one.
The traditional one was based on nationalist-racist-ethnic ideologemes and came to power through the terror of street and hall battle shock troops of fascist militias. The "brand" core of fascism - imperialist conquest - has remained. This has merely expanded from the nation to the "Western community of values" in toto. And in this is valid: The internationalized superfascist "leader" of the "western community of values" is the USA, its military power and secret services, which have never let go of their world domination agenda for over 100 years and which after the fall of communism merely brought Ukraine into position against Russia as a predetermined breaking point in order to set foot on the Eurasian plate, to eliminate Russia as a "global player" and to ruin it by all means. All this the history-forgetting US-servile German political establishment could know. All it would have to do is read Zbigniew Brzezinski's books and take note of the dangers involved. The following hierarchy applies unwaveringly in the "Western world": USA first, then nothing for a long, long time, and finally, as a willing follower, the German political establishment, which is also driving the EU into the abyss.
A corruption-laden servant of the financial industry and green-woke from young-leadership programs have made it in Germany with CIA and other ideological shock troops up to the highest state offices. Quite obviously they accept the Third World War with all consequences, in order to take possession of the Russian resources for the "free west". What legitimacy, then, accrues to the Russophobic NATO-aligned U.S. deputy-HSH-Nordbank-cum-ex-Olaf-Scholz-lawyer-industry-Nancy-Faeser regime, which not only risks World War III but collaborates in all the perversions outlined above?
Sources and Notes:
(1) See for this: Vernon Coleman, Endgame. The Hidden Agenda 21, Warsaw 2021
(2) Michel Onfray, Theory of Dictatorship, Dresden 2021, p. 13
(3) Ullrich Mies, Coup d'état of the global fascists, Rubikon, July 12, 2022 and July 16, 2022.
https://www.rubikon.news/artikel/staatsstreich-der-globalfaschisten; https://www.rubikon.news/artikel/staatsstreich-der-globalfaschisten-2
(4) See on this: Peter Phillips, The Giants, The Global Power Elite, New York 2018; Werner Rügemer, Expropriate BlackRock & Co.: On the Trail of an Unknown World Power, Cologne 2022.
(5) See on this: Ullrich Mies, Jens Wernicke, eds.), Facade Democracy and Deep State. Towards an Authoritarian Age, Vienna, 2017.
(6) Matt Smyth, How and why global governance relies on the "left," uncut-news, November 12, 2022:
https://uncutnews.ch/wie-und-warum-sich-global-governance-auf-die-linke-stuetzt/
(7) See on this: Werner Rügemer, Expropriating BlackRock & Co. On the tracks of an unknown world power, Cologne 2021.
(8) Werner Rügemer, Die Kapitalisten des 21. Jahrhunderts: Gemeinverständlicher Abriss zum Aufstieg der neuen Finanzakteure, Cologne 2021.
(9) Anselm Lenz, Ullrich Mies, Der Ausnahmezustand als Regel, in: Ullrich Mies, Brave New World 2030: On the Fall of Democracy and the Rise of the Totalitarian Order, Vienna 2022, pp. 29 - 38
(10) Marcel Leubecher, "Eklige weiße Mehrheitsgesellschaft" - Die Grüne Jugend und ihr Deutschlandbild, welt-online, October 12, 2021:
https://www.welt.de/politik/bundestagswahl/plus234372910/Parteinachwuchs-Eklige-weisse-Mehrheitsgesellschaft-Die-Gruene-Jugend-und-ihr-Deutschlandbild.html
(11) Theo-Paul Löwengrub, Sawsan, Ricarda, Enissa & Konsorten: Berliner bffs in der linken Wohlstands-Bubble, ANSAGE!, November 14, 2022:
https://ansage.org/sawsan-ricarda-enissa-konsorten-berliner-bffs-in-der-linken-wohlstands-bubble/
(12) Hans-Albert Walter, Deutsche Exilliteratur 1933-1950, vol. 1, Bedrohung und Verfolgung bis 1933, Darmstadt 1972, p. 35f
(13) Hans-Albert Walter, op. cit.
(14) Ignazio Silone, Fascism. Its Origin and Development, (original 1934), Frankfurt 1978.
Ullrich Mies is a social and political scientist. He studied in Duisburg and Kingston/Jamaica. His main interests are international political conflicts, organized peacelessness, state terrorism, neoliberalism, erosion of democracy, criticism of capitalism and militarism as well as the conservation of biodiversity. He has been self-employed since 1994 and has lived in the Netherlands for 30 years. He writes for Rubikon, Neue Rheinische Zeitung, Neue Debatte and many others. In 2017 he and Jens Wernicke published as editors "Façade Democracy and Deep State: Towards an Authoritarian Age", in 2019 as sole editor the book "The Deep State Strikes: How the Western World Creates Crises and Prepares Wars" and in 2020 the book "MegaManipulation: Ideological Conditioning in Façade Democracy".
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Call: Stop the war!
by The Left party (Die Linke)
[This appeal posted on 1/24/2023 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.marx21.de/aufruf-stoppt-den-krieg/.]
We hereby document the appeal "Stop the war!" by members of DIE LINKE, who warn against an escalation of the war in Ukraine
One year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the consequences of the war are devastating. Tens of thousands of people are reported to have already been killed on both sides.
Nearly 18 million people have crossed the Ukrainian border since February 24, 2022, because of the war. Eight million people are believed to be living outside the country as refugees in January 2023. The destruction of cities and infrastructure is enormous.
People around the world are suffering the consequences of the war and sanctions.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was imperialistic and illegal under international law. DIE LINKE has condemned it clearly and unequivocally.
In this time it needs a strong voice and clear stance against war. We want to contribute to the fact that DIE LINKE is perceived without ifs and buts as an anti-war party.
In this war, the Putin administration is concerned with a brutal assertion of power and geopolitical interests.
NATO and the EU are each concerned with expanding their geopolitical influence and bringing Russia to its knees. Annalena Baerbock expressed the goal as early as May that Russia should not be allowed to get back on its feet.
In the meantime, it is clear to see that the war is predominantly a war between Russia on the one sideand NATO on the other. Ukraine is the battlefield on which this war is being fought.
The war over Ukraine can only be understood from the brutal logic of imperialist competition.
The continuous supply of weapons from NATO and other allied countries has contributed to the fact that the invasion has turned into a war of attrition with no end in sight.
While it was initially argued that the West was sending weapons for defense, the war's objectives have shifted and Germany is moving deeper and deeper into the war.
Last March, U.S. President Joe Biden was still warning that the delivery of offensive equipment, as well as the deployment of aircraft and tanks with American pilots and crews, amounted to a "Third World War."
Then, as early as April, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he wanted to weaken Russia to the point where it would no longer be able to carry out invasions like the one in Ukraine. By mid-December, the U.S. administration could be heard saying that it was no longer advising Kiev against attacking Russia directly.
Accordingly, NATO also said goodbye to a negotiated solution early on and opted for intensified confrontation, the goal of which is the complete defeat of Russia. Such an escalation (im)logic toward a nuclear power carries the danger of a fire-threatening global escalation.
Prospects of a negotiated solution, as they were on the table in the first months, have receded into the distant future. Instead, the U.S., U.K., France and Germany have announced plans to deliver more heavy weapons, such as the Marder and Bradly infantry fighting vehicles or the battle-tested French AMX-10 RC armored reconnaissance vehicle.
The delivery of infantry fighting vehicles and battle tanks will not end the war; on the contrary, it threatens further escalation.
That is why we unequivocally oppose the delivery of Marder infantry fighting vehicles, Leopard2 battle tanks and other weapons.
An immediate ceasefire is needed to end the death and suffering. A withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine is needed, as is strong criticism of NATO's placing its interests higher than a quick peace settlement.
At the same time, we stand up for the rights of refugees from Ukraine and Russia and organize practical solidarity with them.
The same applies to conscientious objectors, hundreds of thousands of reservists and other people who want to escape the war. Our solidarity goes out to these people. They must be helped in solidarity and without bureaucracy, so that they are not burned out in the bloody war of attrition.
We are in solidarity with all those who stand up for peace and democratic rights.
There is growing skepticism among the population that arms deliveries could end the war. DIE LINKE must express its displeasure with the policies of the German government.
It must courageously and offensively criticize the war and rearmament policies of the federal government and the EU.
DIE LINKE must bring the demand for a stop to the war and for de-escalation to the streets and can thus contribute to strengthening and renewing the anti-war movement.
It needs a strong voice against the war. We call to become visibly active against war and arms deliveries. On 24.2., for the Easter march and beyond.
Initiator:inside:
Heinz Bierbaum,
Christine Buchholz (member of the party executive),
Özlem Alev Demirel (Member of the European Parliament),
Claudia Haydt (Vice President, European Left),
Tobias Pflüger (former deputy party chairman)
The entire initiative can be found at Home - stoppt-die-eskalation.de
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The Decline of Civilization
Every human society inevitably perishes - ours is already well on its way.
By Felix Feistel
[This article posted on 1/25/2023 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.rubikon.news/artikel/der-untergang-der-zivilisation.]
For several years now, but even more so since the staged Corona crisis, the apocalyptic invocations of the downfall of the world have been getting louder and louder. Whether on the left or the right, everywhere there seems to be a growing unease in the face of today's civilization. The majority think they see the end coming, are still trying to prevent it, or are preparing for the downfall. However, this is not a new phenomenon. In the course of history, there have always been ideas of doom or sudden change. This is hardly surprising, since every civilization has perished at some point, and so will ours.
Wherever one looks, the downfall seems to be omnipresent. Be it the "decline of the Occident," for which the influx of refugees on the one hand and the energy transition on the other are supposedly responsible, or be it the decline due to "climate change," which in turn provides apocalyptic forebodings that encourage radical protest. Here as there, this fear of doom includes one thing above all: the fear of the decline of our civilization and thus the loss of the comfortable prosperity in which we have settled, and ultimately also the fear of our own death.
There have been doomsday visions at all times in history. Every religion, for example, lives from the prophecy of doom, which then leads to a divine redemption in which the unjust are punished and the upright rewarded. Again and again, there have also been prophets who thought that this downfall was near. Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, have predicted the imminent downfall of the world on several occasions, but without this coming to pass. And also now by apocalyptic climatic change theater, stranger fear and prosperity loss a large Weltuntergangsszenario is developed, which prepares many humans, perhaps also only subconsciously, concerns. What they all have in common is a dark sense that we have lived in considerable, unprecedented prosperity in recent decades, and that this cannot be a permanent state. Many instinctively sense that change must and will occur.
The same fate of rise, peak and inevitable demise has befallen every advanced civilization to date. Be it the Roman Empire, ancient Egypt or Greece, they all rose to power and prestige, but then disappeared just as quickly. The testimonies of their greatness can still be found today in many cases integrated into our present civilization as relics of a long forgotten time. Such a demise can also be very costly. In the Bronze Age, for example, there were great cultures in the eastern Mediterranean region from which significant civilizational progress emanated. Their decline was followed by a long period of darkness. Much knowledge was lost in the decline, writing, knowledge of building and other cultural techniques fell into oblivion, and for centuries people were again concerned exclusively with their own survival.
The reasons for the decline are manifold. Historians distinguish between internal and external factors. The external, that is, those that afflict civilization from the outside, include the invasion of an enemy or, as in the Roman Empire, a great migration of peoples that society simply no longer knows how to deal with. Not to mention epidemics or natural disasters. The downfall can be gradual, as in ancient Rome, or sudden. Most of us are familiar with the ancient city of Pompeii, which was destroyed rather abruptly by a volcanic eruption. But strong civilizations can withstand almost all of these catastrophes. They fall victim to them only when their inner strength has already been extinguished by other factors and their resilience has been weakened.
Inner decay
American historian and philosopher Will Durant sums it up this way: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."
Historian John Bagot Glubb likened civilizations to biological organisms that have a natural life span with a natural progression from birth, a period of growth to inevitable decay. This pattern repeats itself in all civilizations regardless of factors such as climate, culture, and religion. In this, great civilizations usually begin with a sudden eruption of energy. For example, a time of pioneers discovering new land or building something new. They are often poor and ill-equipped, but determined or simply have no choice. Precisely because of this, however, they manage to overcome every obstacle and overcome every danger and challenge, but this never happens without casualties.
This is followed by a phase of construction, extraction of natural resources, production and trade. This is the phase of commerce, in which the centers of civilization expand and prosperity increases. Infrastructure is built and art and culture flourish. This is what Glubb calls the peak of a civilization's prosperity. But it also lays the foundations for collapse. Because shortly after reaching the peak, a phase of egoism, greed and vanity begins. Civilization, or rather people, especially those in power, become corrupt. Money is no longer a by-product of virtuous action, but is elevated to an end in itself and seen as a ticket to salvation.
What follows is a period of decay of morality, of cynicism and pessimism. Money thus destroys the moral sense of a civilization. A spoiled society, writes American political scientist and ecologist William Ophuls, rots from within.
This is compounded by rising costs for social welfare. The state increasingly makes use of its monopoly on the use of force and takes some of the people's money in order to ensure their own health care, but also the social welfare of another part. A sense of entitlement emerges, along with the feeling that no one should be left behind. At the same time, the sense of personal responsibility and independence is lost. This, as Glubb writes, is not the cause of the demise, but it is a way marker. A phase of intellect dawns, leading to a one-sided, rational view of the world. Nietzsche writes about this that rationality turns into a tyrant. Thus, the entire life is organized according to rational criteria. The irrational truths of religion and mythology are discarded, although they are the basis of a civilization and provide a certain cohesion. Thus civilization loses a foundation on which it was built. Without myth, Nietzsche argues, any civilization loses its healthy, natural creative energy.
This leads to moral relativism, which replaces all meaning with existential nihilism. Thus, more and more people begin to believe that there is no objective truth and that culture, and even life, have no meaning. Society loses its values and no longer believes in anything or constantly exchanges its values and morals. It no longer really takes anything seriously.
This is where the age of civilization's decline begins. This last stage of development inevitably leads to its end. Without a superior ideal or goal, disorientation, confusion and moral decay take hold. Most people live empty, meaningless lives and must distract and numb themselves to endure. Mental illness becomes the norm. At this stage, a civilization can no longer withstand external dangers. Be it invasion by an enemy, ecological problems, or a natural disaster. What civilization could have overcome at its peak now causes it to collapse.
Corruption and mismanagement of a ruling class, in concert with inflation, also play a major role in the decline of civilizations. Inflation, the inflation of the money supply, benefits those closest to the state or central bank. Even before inflation is reflected in the market, this group can use the newly created money supply for investment, repayment of debt, or purchase of goods and land at terms that do not adequately reflect the real value of money. This is what happened in ancient Rome, where Emperor Nero had the silver content of the denarius reduced in order to be able to mint more money. The result was inflation, which eventually led in the third century to the denarius losing its value completely and taxes now being levied in the form of goods. This meant that the state could no longer pay its soldiers. As a result, they deserted and plundered their own population. Thus, those peoples, also called "barbarians", were able to invade the territory of the empire, plunder and pillage. Civil wars were almost the order of the day and no ruler lasted long. Finally, hyperinflation occurred. Every attempt to restore the denarius to its value failed. The great Roman Empire was heading towards its demise.
Thus, the downfall of any civilization is preordained, as it is impossible to escape these stages. If we look at today's civilization, whether it is called capitalist or Western, we must conclude that it has long passed its peak. Greatness and strength have long since given way to a widespread decline in morality, myth and religion have given way to cold rationality, and many people live in existential nihilism, focusing on the purely material, elevating money to the absolute purpose of life.
Disorientation, confusion and mental illness are on the rise in the so-called "value West". Nowadays, this is joined by economic decline, rising inflation, ecological catastrophes and large-scale immigration into Western societies, starting from the countries that the West has previously plundered, overrun with war and sent into poverty.
Thus, one can sum up: Our society is in the phase of decline. And indeed, as early as the 1960s, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) predicted the demise of our civilization for the year 2040 in a model study. The scientists took into account a whole range of factors, such as economic growth and industrial capacity, population growth and the use of natural resources. They also included the interrelationship of these various factors and fed it all together into a computer model - the first of its kind. One result of this study was the Club of Rome's report, The Limits to Growth.
Transience
Although one must be cautious with computer models, they do illustrate one truth: Our civilization will inevitably perish in one way or another. This thought frightens many people, since the fear of one's own death is linked to the thought of the demise of the civilization in which one lives. Thus, people try to deal with this constant feeling of threat and possible death at any time. This is exemplified in the literature of the Baroque period. Against the background of the Thirty Years' War, which affected large parts of Europe, poets found two opposing concepts. On the one hand, there is the memento mori, the "remembrance of death," which exhorted virtuous and godly behavior in this world, in anticipation of the transition to the divine paradise at any time. On the other hand, there was "Carpe Diem," which called for living in the moment and indulging in pleasure and hedonism. However, "vanitas," the transience from which one or the other behavior emerges, hovered over both lifestyles.
Something similar can be observed today. Thus, many try to resist this doom by falling for radical ideas and trying to redeem themselves through special moralism, health fanaticism or spirituality. Others call for collectivism, in which the individual must make sacrifices for the benefit of the collective. But historians have also described the period of decline as a time when people abandon their personal individuation in favor of mass conformity. Collectivism is nothing else. Into such collectivism, in turn, we have been thrust by the Corona narrative. Nietzsche, too, saw in moralism and collectivism the real decadence and despised both equally. On the other side is hedonism, which can be found in the form of rampant consumerism, especially in the Western world. Netflix or Amazon series, alcohol and drug excesses, addictions, shopping sprees and pleasure addiction are supposed to liberate us from the idea of mortality and make us believe that we are living a fulfilled life. Behind it, however, lies emptiness and dejection.
Thus the time of decadence, i.e. the creeping decay of civilization, in which we find ourselves again today, is characterized by fear, nihilism, radicalism and depression. The decline is seen as the unalterable end of a nostalgically transfigured past, with the passing of which life loses all meaning. But art has also understood decadence in a completely different way. It was captured as the last rebellion of pleasures and intoxication, as the stylish staging of an unleashed freedom, whereby death is not denied and thus intoxication is misused as a distraction from mortality, as escapism, but is celebrated as a boundless celebration of life whose end is immovably fixed. Thus, one can also reinterpret these times of demise into true artistic and philosophical upliftment and come to deep spiritual insights.
That being said, one need not face decay at the mercy of it. Instead, one can begin to free oneself from the prevailing paradigms of intellectualism, nihilism, and materialism, and create one's own islands that pursue a radically different way of life.
This does not stop the decline on a large scale, but it preserves cultural techniques and lays the foundations for a new civilization. One can be a pioneer within the collapsing civilization, who creates the new one with.
All civilizations have perished sooner or later. However, none was as global as ours today. Therefore, the downfall of this civilization is probably more devastating than any before. Especially in the western world, people have lost many skills of survival. Hardly anyone is still familiar with nature, can grow crops naturally, hunt, gather and fish, build houses and huts or make tools. We have become dependent on an industry that takes care of everything for us, and have built an illusory reality consisting of glass facades, concrete and digital surfaces. However, this will not ensure our survival once its foundations disappear. Then we will be on our own again, without all these tools. This lack of capabilities will have devastating consequences for the vast majority of people in the West. It could be that a decline of today's civilization means a similar regression as the decline of the Mediterranean cultures in the Bronze Age. A dark age could follow in which much of the knowledge, techniques and skills would simply be irretrievably lost, if only because much of it is stored on digital data carriers that do not reveal their secrets without electricity.
It seems all the more imperative to lay the foundations for the beginning of a new civilization, in addition to the exhilarating experience of the demise and one's own vitality, instead of merely indulging in fatalistic symbolic acts such as buying valuable paintings or protesting against the influx of foreigners. Because none of this will stop the downfall, but we can shape the time after.
Felix Feistel, born in 1992, writes in many ways about the idiocy of this world and also against it. In a world reduced to numbers and data, which has always been alien to him, he searches for humanity and the meaning of life. He tries to use his powers and talents to create a world worth living in by opposing injustice and destruction. Despite the madness that is rampant everywhere, he is not ready to give up his belief in the goodness of man and his potential to transform the planet into a paradise. He is a member of the Rubicon Youth Editorial Board and writes for the Young Feathers column.
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Threatened thinking
Democracy is abolished, an "elitist" caste completely disconnected from the needs of the people marches towards a centralized superstate.
by Ullrich Mies
[This article posted on 2/2/2023 is translated from the German on the Internet,
In the search for an apt paraphrase for the current struggle within German society, the following statement fits to a T: A largely "left-liberal," party-politically and ideologically aligned political establishment is in a "fight against the right." Across all party lines, the German political establishment defines itself as "left-wing," "centrist," liberal or green, conservative, but definitely not "right-wing." The reality, however, looks depressingly different. In fact, the German political milieus that set the tone are almost exclusively devoted to big business, both the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats, the "liberals," the turncoat SED old cadres as well as the "green" up-and-comers.
Since the rise of the Greens, those who have dropped out of university, who have not completed their vocational training, who lack life experience and who are "endowed" with an excess of corpulence have increased their chances of holding a political office or even a ministerial post. It is becoming increasingly obvious that German "parliamentarians" are taking orders from the executive branch, the US and German transatlanticists, and the WEF/UN dictates of Agenda 21 (1).
Their mission: to drive the nation-state - as a "stronghold of right-wing sentiment" - against the wall, i.e. to chaotize it to the best of their ability, to de-culture it, to deprive it of its rule of law and to wind it up as a livable state entity. There has long been no talk of the welfare of Europe or of the individual national states and their populations. Most party representatives in parliaments, ministries and the EU bureaucracy are united not only by this basic attitude but above all by their main interest in benefit-free provision and pension security.
"Those who were recently still committed supporters of the Soviet empire are today setting the tone as lackeys of the USA or the European Union under German leadership. And they have identified as their enemies the then and now anti-communists who are the only ones representing national interests" (2).
And immediately the question arises: How can it be that "left" forces of all people - or those who once called themselves "left" in the dim and distant past - cooperate in shoulder-to-shoulder with the darkest reaction since 1945, or have mutated into darkies themselves?
How can they chum up to the "Transnational Capitalist Class", its military force arm NATO and corporate Europe - as auxiliary troops? I call the International of Globalists and the supporters of Global Governance in the governments Global Fascists (3). The reason is that they have put democracy ad acta and are unrestrainedly whipping through their agenda:
the abolition of democracy as we knew it, i.e. a coup against the Basic Law and inalienable rights, the establishment of "Global Governance", i.e. the anti-democratic centralization of power and wealth involving so-called "stakeholders", i.e. relevant power groups such as corporations, governments, specific NGOs, UN, WEF, WHO, OECD, G7, NATO, the decimation and total control of the world population via "vaccination" and climate target regimes, the introduction of a biopolitical hygiene dictatorship via WHO and GAVI, the expropriation of the broad masses - "You own nothing and you are happy", according to WEF head Klaus Schwab, the shipping of parts of humanity to MEGA smart city gulags known as smart cities, the mass "human import" from NATO war zones under the pretext of "humanitarian aid", a hybrid Pentagon war strategy aimed at massive domestic dislocation, the eradication of national and regional identities and cultures under the signum of a homogenized MEGA culture, the total control of humanity via digital ids, the censorship of all opinions contrary to the program of the global fascists, the abolition of cash under the mendacious pretext of fighting crime, a so-called transhumanism with the supposed goal of "human improvement," the consolidation of power of the EU as an authoritarian-totalitarian anonymous supranational bureaucratic rule accountable to no one, and the consolidation and imperialist expansion of NATO as the West's geopolitical military force in the fight against Russia and China.
Everything is the result of the rampage towards centralization. But centralization exists only at the price of the complete dissolution of national democratic structures. This is exactly the process we are in, and this is exactly what the German Minister of Economics, Robert Habeck, said recently in Davos. Whose interests he and his war-drunk Berlin political mishmash are serving with this is evident.
Together against the democratic state
It is a catastrophe for society that "leftists", in a time of the highest concentration of capital in world history so far (4) and in times of the highest danger of world war since 1945, withdraw to side tracks of social woke fights and exhaust themselves in them. In other words, the Deep State (5) created state-financed "luxury" niches for this pseudo-left, so that it would not turn to its real task as opposition: the social struggle against political and economic power. The critical bourgeoisie has seized on this void and is now generally mobbed, defamed, terrorized and censored out of social discourse as "right-wingers."
The doctrinaire vulgar Marxist left could and can do nothing with the "bourgeois state" anyway, or regards it as its enemy. Obviously, it has escaped its notice that the "bourgeois state", as we knew it, also secured for the citizens protective and defensive rights against the state, which have now been cashed in under the Corona terror regime.
That doesn't bother this sort of "leftist." It desperately wants to be part of the power elite and made/makes common cause with the ultra-right transatlantic globalist regimes, under Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz against the democratic state, which is already in ruins.
"Since the beginning of modern political history, the fundamental right to individual freedom has never been a priority for the majority of representatives of the left, while a religious worship of the garb of the state is deeply rooted in the left, and even more so among its extremes. Moreover, the "progressive" left-wing affluent circles have tended toward elitism and class contempt since the 19th century. Mainly because the pesky plebeians tend to cling ridiculously to their little homeland, even though the logic of human progress leads to globalization, internationalism, mobility, and 'cosmopolitanism.' Worse, they fail to grasp that their true path to happiness is to become genderless, propertyless, and ethnically homogenized network nodes running around an Amazon factory for twelve tokens an hour (...) This claim to be part of a superior cultural class conveys, perhaps unconsciously, a sense of kinship with the corporate ruling class, especially when the latter tends to merge with high-ranking national or international 'public servants'." (6)
To make matters worse, citizens also aliment the political caste. These alimented by taxpayers' money also lack any appreciation of the achievements of small and medium-sized businesses, farmers, craftsmen and small businessmen.
How stubborn, indeed how stupid, do you have to be to negate their contribution to the country's prosperity? That succeeds only if one does not contribute anything! The fact that the hypercapital of BlackRock (7), Vanguard, State Street as well as innumerable "locusts" fillet, swallow and finally liquidate exactly this small and middle class in the way of the capital concentration, bothers neither left dogmatists nor parasitic politicians of the systemically synchronized party machines (8). The process of capital concentration appears logical within the framework of capitalist development. However, the fact that the hyper-capital concentration only came about through the "deregulation of the financial markets" and thus through its own political betrayal of democracy and the rule of law does not even occur to the political establishment.
Coup d'état from above
They are deliberately overlooking the collapse of the bourgeois state and of the German Basic Law, which at least guaranteed civil rights, even if it did not always uphold them. Ignorance is a tradition among leftist dogmatists. Since 9/11, they have been on the side of the globalists, i.e. the proponents of global governance, and have no problem whatsoever in supporting the dirty politics of the state of emergency since the beginning of the Corona regime. That the German transatlantic subdivision of the globalists - called government - is transforming the state from above more and more into a tyranny (9) is not a real issue not only for doctrinaire leftists, but also for social democrats at the nadir of their party history - and that is saying something - as well as green warmongers and their youth sections. The neo-racist hatred of the "disgusting white majority society" (10) includes "the Germans" and their country in general.
"In the salon culture of these luxury women living parasitically at the expense of the community, one no longer even bothers to preserve even the semblance of a thought of all the supposedly indispensable restrictions that are otherwise demanded of the rabble, from saving energy for the climate and freezing for the Ukraine, to frugality and waste avoidance, to wearing masks and protection against infection; not to mention the remnant of decency of a professional professional distance of the former guardian media.
Here we see all the audacity of an aloof political-media caste, which is not only completely removed from the reality of life of the population, but also relish incessantly burdening the latter with the consequences of its own permanent failure and afflicting it with harassment and paternalism." (11)
All of these Germany-haters are merely completing the 16-year order cycle of the Merkel clique as the U.S. statist regime to wind up the country. With the presumably few exceptions of those who intellectually see through the current development, the vast majority of the fourth-rate political personnel hope for career advancement in the pseudo-democratic, highly corrupt, party-based parliamentary system in order to transform Germany into a "failed state" in closed back rooms.
From the point of view of a democratic society, the states of the EU have long since degenerated into "Failed States". For the EU it is: "Failed Superstate".
After the final liquidation, the former citizens as well as the downtrodden working class will have the task to honor and fatten a neo-feudal globalist UN/WEF/WHO/NATO/BlackRock & Co. parasite caste and their totalitarian state executors - the "new parasite nobility". Citizens and working class then become serf tributary neo-slaves within the aspired "New World Order", the "New World Order".
Mirror battle against "right
That the responsible persons in politics, authorities and media propaganda industry, which I also call media war criminals and civil war industry, lead a mirror battle "against right", is a particularly bad staircase joke in the political smear theater of the ruined republic. But the stuffy fug of cowardly fellow travelers and denunciators already poisoned all areas of German society before 1933, not least the universities. Hans-Albert Walter wrote in this regard in 1972:
"The relationship of the state to those journalists and publicists, writers and artists who argued for a change in society or even for the fulfillment of bourgeois-democratic promises - the relationship of the state to these intellectuals was in many cases anything but liberal. Literary works with radical democratic, socialist or communist content were confiscated and banned in innumerable cases, their authors were accused, put on trial, often sentenced, in the least defamed. The reactionary officialdom and judiciary could be sure of support from the political right and from a large part of the press controlled or steered by it. From the beginning, administrative and judicial measures by the state were joined by journalistic attacks by the moderate to extreme right. They were directed against all progressive expressions in literature and art. Like the state's practice of interventions and bans, the journalistic-propagandistic practice of defamation and slander, of targeted threats and agitation can be traced from the beginnings of the Republic to its end. (...) the cultural - intellectual development in the twenties and early thirties has received very specific features through these processes. What was practiced here was a class struggle from above, was part of social oppression. The state measures accumulated, and the journalistic campaigns characteristically increased in ferocity during the periods of political-economic crisis." (12)
As if this text were written today! Many university professors, physicians and artists who were bullied out of their professions can sing a song about it. Journalistic and scientific whores abound, they have always been eating out of the hands of the political apparatuses, ducking away, not raising their voices and thus denying their distressed colleagues who are under pressure or have been disgusted from cultural institutions and universities and clinics. The practice of silencing, defaming, and slandering to the point of existential annihilation of critical thinkers has always accompanied every totalitarian regime (13).
Ignazio Silone (14), an important theorist of Italian fascism is reported to have said:
"When fascism returns, it will not say: 'I am fascism' No, it will say: 'I am anti-fascism'."
And I say: we are on the threshold of an internationalized superfascism, which merely uses new, more perfidious and, above all, more complex methods than the traditional one.
The traditional one was based on nationalist-racist-ethnic ideologemes and came to power through the terror of street and hall battle shock troops of fascist militias. The "brand" core of fascism - imperialist conquest - has remained. This has merely expanded from the nation to the "Western community of values" in toto. And in this is valid: The internationalized superfascist "leader" of the "western community of values" is the USA, its military power and secret services, which have never let go of their world domination agenda for over 100 years and which after the fall of communism merely brought Ukraine into position against Russia as a predetermined breaking point in order to set foot on the Eurasian plate, to eliminate Russia as a "global player" and to ruin it by all means. All this the history-forgetting US-servile German political establishment could know. All it would have to do is read Zbigniew Brzezinski's books and take note of the dangers involved. The following hierarchy applies unwaveringly in the "Western world": USA first, then nothing for a long, long time, and finally, as a willing follower, the German political establishment, which is also driving the EU into the abyss.
A corruption-laden servant of the financial industry and green-woke from young-leadership programs have made it in Germany with CIA and other ideological shock troops up to the highest state offices. Quite obviously they accept the Third World War with all consequences, in order to take possession of the Russian resources for the "free west". What legitimacy, then, accrues to the Russophobic NATO-aligned U.S. deputy-HSH-Nordbank-cum-ex-Olaf-Scholz-lawyer-industry-Nancy-Faeser regime, which not only risks World War III but collaborates in all the perversions outlined above?
Sources and Notes:
(1) See for this: Vernon Coleman, Endgame. The Hidden Agenda 21, Warsaw 2021
(2) Michel Onfray, Theory of Dictatorship, Dresden 2021, p. 13
(3) Ullrich Mies, Coup d'état of the global fascists, Rubikon, July 12, 2022 and July 16, 2022.
https://www.rubikon.news/artikel/staatsstreich-der-globalfaschisten; https://www.rubikon.news/artikel/staatsstreich-der-globalfaschisten-2
(4) See on this: Peter Phillips, The Giants, The Global Power Elite, New York 2018; Werner Rügemer, Expropriate BlackRock & Co.: On the Trail of an Unknown World Power, Cologne 2022.
(5) See on this: Ullrich Mies, Jens Wernicke, eds.), Facade Democracy and Deep State. Towards an Authoritarian Age, Vienna, 2017.
(6) Matt Smyth, How and why global governance relies on the "left," uncut-news, November 12, 2022:
https://uncutnews.ch/wie-und-warum-sich-global-governance-auf-die-linke-stuetzt/
(7) See on this: Werner Rügemer, Expropriating BlackRock & Co. On the tracks of an unknown world power, Cologne 2021.
(8) Werner Rügemer, Die Kapitalisten des 21. Jahrhunderts: Gemeinverständlicher Abriss zum Aufstieg der neuen Finanzakteure, Cologne 2021.
(9) Anselm Lenz, Ullrich Mies, Der Ausnahmezustand als Regel, in: Ullrich Mies, Brave New World 2030: On the Fall of Democracy and the Rise of the Totalitarian Order, Vienna 2022, pp. 29 - 38
(10) Marcel Leubecher, "Eklige weiße Mehrheitsgesellschaft" - Die Grüne Jugend und ihr Deutschlandbild, welt-online, October 12, 2021:
https://www.welt.de/politik/bundestagswahl/plus234372910/Parteinachwuchs-Eklige-weisse-Mehrheitsgesellschaft-Die-Gruene-Jugend-und-ihr-Deutschlandbild.html
(11) Theo-Paul Löwengrub, Sawsan, Ricarda, Enissa & Konsorten: Berliner bffs in der linken Wohlstands-Bubble, ANSAGE!, November 14, 2022:
https://ansage.org/sawsan-ricarda-enissa-konsorten-berliner-bffs-in-der-linken-wohlstands-bubble/
(12) Hans-Albert Walter, Deutsche Exilliteratur 1933-1950, vol. 1, Bedrohung und Verfolgung bis 1933, Darmstadt 1972, p. 35f
(13) Hans-Albert Walter, op. cit.
(14) Ignazio Silone, Fascism. Its Origin and Development, (original 1934), Frankfurt 1978.
Ullrich Mies is a social and political scientist. He studied in Duisburg and Kingston/Jamaica. His main interests are international political conflicts, organized peacelessness, state terrorism, neoliberalism, erosion of democracy, criticism of capitalism and militarism as well as the conservation of biodiversity. He has been self-employed since 1994 and has lived in the Netherlands for 30 years. He writes for Rubikon, Neue Rheinische Zeitung, Neue Debatte and many others. In 2017 he and Jens Wernicke published as editors "Façade Democracy and Deep State: Towards an Authoritarian Age", in 2019 as sole editor the book "The Deep State Strikes: How the Western World Creates Crises and Prepares Wars" and in 2020 the book "MegaManipulation: Ideological Conditioning in Façade Democracy".
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Call: Stop the war!
by The Left party (Die Linke)
[This appeal posted on 1/24/2023 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.marx21.de/aufruf-stoppt-den-krieg/.]
We hereby document the appeal "Stop the war!" by members of DIE LINKE, who warn against an escalation of the war in Ukraine
One year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the consequences of the war are devastating. Tens of thousands of people are reported to have already been killed on both sides.
Nearly 18 million people have crossed the Ukrainian border since February 24, 2022, because of the war. Eight million people are believed to be living outside the country as refugees in January 2023. The destruction of cities and infrastructure is enormous.
People around the world are suffering the consequences of the war and sanctions.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was imperialistic and illegal under international law. DIE LINKE has condemned it clearly and unequivocally.
In this time it needs a strong voice and clear stance against war. We want to contribute to the fact that DIE LINKE is perceived without ifs and buts as an anti-war party.
In this war, the Putin administration is concerned with a brutal assertion of power and geopolitical interests.
NATO and the EU are each concerned with expanding their geopolitical influence and bringing Russia to its knees. Annalena Baerbock expressed the goal as early as May that Russia should not be allowed to get back on its feet.
In the meantime, it is clear to see that the war is predominantly a war between Russia on the one sideand NATO on the other. Ukraine is the battlefield on which this war is being fought.
The war over Ukraine can only be understood from the brutal logic of imperialist competition.
The continuous supply of weapons from NATO and other allied countries has contributed to the fact that the invasion has turned into a war of attrition with no end in sight.
While it was initially argued that the West was sending weapons for defense, the war's objectives have shifted and Germany is moving deeper and deeper into the war.
Last March, U.S. President Joe Biden was still warning that the delivery of offensive equipment, as well as the deployment of aircraft and tanks with American pilots and crews, amounted to a "Third World War."
Then, as early as April, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he wanted to weaken Russia to the point where it would no longer be able to carry out invasions like the one in Ukraine. By mid-December, the U.S. administration could be heard saying that it was no longer advising Kiev against attacking Russia directly.
Accordingly, NATO also said goodbye to a negotiated solution early on and opted for intensified confrontation, the goal of which is the complete defeat of Russia. Such an escalation (im)logic toward a nuclear power carries the danger of a fire-threatening global escalation.
Prospects of a negotiated solution, as they were on the table in the first months, have receded into the distant future. Instead, the U.S., U.K., France and Germany have announced plans to deliver more heavy weapons, such as the Marder and Bradly infantry fighting vehicles or the battle-tested French AMX-10 RC armored reconnaissance vehicle.
The delivery of infantry fighting vehicles and battle tanks will not end the war; on the contrary, it threatens further escalation.
That is why we unequivocally oppose the delivery of Marder infantry fighting vehicles, Leopard2 battle tanks and other weapons.
An immediate ceasefire is needed to end the death and suffering. A withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine is needed, as is strong criticism of NATO's placing its interests higher than a quick peace settlement.
At the same time, we stand up for the rights of refugees from Ukraine and Russia and organize practical solidarity with them.
The same applies to conscientious objectors, hundreds of thousands of reservists and other people who want to escape the war. Our solidarity goes out to these people. They must be helped in solidarity and without bureaucracy, so that they are not burned out in the bloody war of attrition.
We are in solidarity with all those who stand up for peace and democratic rights.
There is growing skepticism among the population that arms deliveries could end the war. DIE LINKE must express its displeasure with the policies of the German government.
It must courageously and offensively criticize the war and rearmament policies of the federal government and the EU.
DIE LINKE must bring the demand for a stop to the war and for de-escalation to the streets and can thus contribute to strengthening and renewing the anti-war movement.
It needs a strong voice against the war. We call to become visibly active against war and arms deliveries. On 24.2., for the Easter march and beyond.
Initiator:inside:
Heinz Bierbaum,
Christine Buchholz (member of the party executive),
Özlem Alev Demirel (Member of the European Parliament),
Claudia Haydt (Vice President, European Left),
Tobias Pflüger (former deputy party chairman)
The entire initiative can be found at Home - stoppt-die-eskalation.de
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The Decline of Civilization
Every human society inevitably perishes - ours is already well on its way.
By Felix Feistel
[This article posted on 1/25/2023 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.rubikon.news/artikel/der-untergang-der-zivilisation.]
For several years now, but even more so since the staged Corona crisis, the apocalyptic invocations of the downfall of the world have been getting louder and louder. Whether on the left or the right, everywhere there seems to be a growing unease in the face of today's civilization. The majority think they see the end coming, are still trying to prevent it, or are preparing for the downfall. However, this is not a new phenomenon. In the course of history, there have always been ideas of doom or sudden change. This is hardly surprising, since every civilization has perished at some point, and so will ours.
Wherever one looks, the downfall seems to be omnipresent. Be it the "decline of the Occident," for which the influx of refugees on the one hand and the energy transition on the other are supposedly responsible, or be it the decline due to "climate change," which in turn provides apocalyptic forebodings that encourage radical protest. Here as there, this fear of doom includes one thing above all: the fear of the decline of our civilization and thus the loss of the comfortable prosperity in which we have settled, and ultimately also the fear of our own death.
There have been doomsday visions at all times in history. Every religion, for example, lives from the prophecy of doom, which then leads to a divine redemption in which the unjust are punished and the upright rewarded. Again and again, there have also been prophets who thought that this downfall was near. Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, have predicted the imminent downfall of the world on several occasions, but without this coming to pass. And also now by apocalyptic climatic change theater, stranger fear and prosperity loss a large Weltuntergangsszenario is developed, which prepares many humans, perhaps also only subconsciously, concerns. What they all have in common is a dark sense that we have lived in considerable, unprecedented prosperity in recent decades, and that this cannot be a permanent state. Many instinctively sense that change must and will occur.
The same fate of rise, peak and inevitable demise has befallen every advanced civilization to date. Be it the Roman Empire, ancient Egypt or Greece, they all rose to power and prestige, but then disappeared just as quickly. The testimonies of their greatness can still be found today in many cases integrated into our present civilization as relics of a long forgotten time. Such a demise can also be very costly. In the Bronze Age, for example, there were great cultures in the eastern Mediterranean region from which significant civilizational progress emanated. Their decline was followed by a long period of darkness. Much knowledge was lost in the decline, writing, knowledge of building and other cultural techniques fell into oblivion, and for centuries people were again concerned exclusively with their own survival.
The reasons for the decline are manifold. Historians distinguish between internal and external factors. The external, that is, those that afflict civilization from the outside, include the invasion of an enemy or, as in the Roman Empire, a great migration of peoples that society simply no longer knows how to deal with. Not to mention epidemics or natural disasters. The downfall can be gradual, as in ancient Rome, or sudden. Most of us are familiar with the ancient city of Pompeii, which was destroyed rather abruptly by a volcanic eruption. But strong civilizations can withstand almost all of these catastrophes. They fall victim to them only when their inner strength has already been extinguished by other factors and their resilience has been weakened.
Inner decay
American historian and philosopher Will Durant sums it up this way: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."
Historian John Bagot Glubb likened civilizations to biological organisms that have a natural life span with a natural progression from birth, a period of growth to inevitable decay. This pattern repeats itself in all civilizations regardless of factors such as climate, culture, and religion. In this, great civilizations usually begin with a sudden eruption of energy. For example, a time of pioneers discovering new land or building something new. They are often poor and ill-equipped, but determined or simply have no choice. Precisely because of this, however, they manage to overcome every obstacle and overcome every danger and challenge, but this never happens without casualties.
This is followed by a phase of construction, extraction of natural resources, production and trade. This is the phase of commerce, in which the centers of civilization expand and prosperity increases. Infrastructure is built and art and culture flourish. This is what Glubb calls the peak of a civilization's prosperity. But it also lays the foundations for collapse. Because shortly after reaching the peak, a phase of egoism, greed and vanity begins. Civilization, or rather people, especially those in power, become corrupt. Money is no longer a by-product of virtuous action, but is elevated to an end in itself and seen as a ticket to salvation.
What follows is a period of decay of morality, of cynicism and pessimism. Money thus destroys the moral sense of a civilization. A spoiled society, writes American political scientist and ecologist William Ophuls, rots from within.
This is compounded by rising costs for social welfare. The state increasingly makes use of its monopoly on the use of force and takes some of the people's money in order to ensure their own health care, but also the social welfare of another part. A sense of entitlement emerges, along with the feeling that no one should be left behind. At the same time, the sense of personal responsibility and independence is lost. This, as Glubb writes, is not the cause of the demise, but it is a way marker. A phase of intellect dawns, leading to a one-sided, rational view of the world. Nietzsche writes about this that rationality turns into a tyrant. Thus, the entire life is organized according to rational criteria. The irrational truths of religion and mythology are discarded, although they are the basis of a civilization and provide a certain cohesion. Thus civilization loses a foundation on which it was built. Without myth, Nietzsche argues, any civilization loses its healthy, natural creative energy.
This leads to moral relativism, which replaces all meaning with existential nihilism. Thus, more and more people begin to believe that there is no objective truth and that culture, and even life, have no meaning. Society loses its values and no longer believes in anything or constantly exchanges its values and morals. It no longer really takes anything seriously.
This is where the age of civilization's decline begins. This last stage of development inevitably leads to its end. Without a superior ideal or goal, disorientation, confusion and moral decay take hold. Most people live empty, meaningless lives and must distract and numb themselves to endure. Mental illness becomes the norm. At this stage, a civilization can no longer withstand external dangers. Be it invasion by an enemy, ecological problems, or a natural disaster. What civilization could have overcome at its peak now causes it to collapse.
Corruption and mismanagement of a ruling class, in concert with inflation, also play a major role in the decline of civilizations. Inflation, the inflation of the money supply, benefits those closest to the state or central bank. Even before inflation is reflected in the market, this group can use the newly created money supply for investment, repayment of debt, or purchase of goods and land at terms that do not adequately reflect the real value of money. This is what happened in ancient Rome, where Emperor Nero had the silver content of the denarius reduced in order to be able to mint more money. The result was inflation, which eventually led in the third century to the denarius losing its value completely and taxes now being levied in the form of goods. This meant that the state could no longer pay its soldiers. As a result, they deserted and plundered their own population. Thus, those peoples, also called "barbarians", were able to invade the territory of the empire, plunder and pillage. Civil wars were almost the order of the day and no ruler lasted long. Finally, hyperinflation occurred. Every attempt to restore the denarius to its value failed. The great Roman Empire was heading towards its demise.
Thus, the downfall of any civilization is preordained, as it is impossible to escape these stages. If we look at today's civilization, whether it is called capitalist or Western, we must conclude that it has long passed its peak. Greatness and strength have long since given way to a widespread decline in morality, myth and religion have given way to cold rationality, and many people live in existential nihilism, focusing on the purely material, elevating money to the absolute purpose of life.
Disorientation, confusion and mental illness are on the rise in the so-called "value West". Nowadays, this is joined by economic decline, rising inflation, ecological catastrophes and large-scale immigration into Western societies, starting from the countries that the West has previously plundered, overrun with war and sent into poverty.
Thus, one can sum up: Our society is in the phase of decline. And indeed, as early as the 1960s, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) predicted the demise of our civilization for the year 2040 in a model study. The scientists took into account a whole range of factors, such as economic growth and industrial capacity, population growth and the use of natural resources. They also included the interrelationship of these various factors and fed it all together into a computer model - the first of its kind. One result of this study was the Club of Rome's report, The Limits to Growth.
Transience
Although one must be cautious with computer models, they do illustrate one truth: Our civilization will inevitably perish in one way or another. This thought frightens many people, since the fear of one's own death is linked to the thought of the demise of the civilization in which one lives. Thus, people try to deal with this constant feeling of threat and possible death at any time. This is exemplified in the literature of the Baroque period. Against the background of the Thirty Years' War, which affected large parts of Europe, poets found two opposing concepts. On the one hand, there is the memento mori, the "remembrance of death," which exhorted virtuous and godly behavior in this world, in anticipation of the transition to the divine paradise at any time. On the other hand, there was "Carpe Diem," which called for living in the moment and indulging in pleasure and hedonism. However, "vanitas," the transience from which one or the other behavior emerges, hovered over both lifestyles.
Something similar can be observed today. Thus, many try to resist this doom by falling for radical ideas and trying to redeem themselves through special moralism, health fanaticism or spirituality. Others call for collectivism, in which the individual must make sacrifices for the benefit of the collective. But historians have also described the period of decline as a time when people abandon their personal individuation in favor of mass conformity. Collectivism is nothing else. Into such collectivism, in turn, we have been thrust by the Corona narrative. Nietzsche, too, saw in moralism and collectivism the real decadence and despised both equally. On the other side is hedonism, which can be found in the form of rampant consumerism, especially in the Western world. Netflix or Amazon series, alcohol and drug excesses, addictions, shopping sprees and pleasure addiction are supposed to liberate us from the idea of mortality and make us believe that we are living a fulfilled life. Behind it, however, lies emptiness and dejection.
Thus the time of decadence, i.e. the creeping decay of civilization, in which we find ourselves again today, is characterized by fear, nihilism, radicalism and depression. The decline is seen as the unalterable end of a nostalgically transfigured past, with the passing of which life loses all meaning. But art has also understood decadence in a completely different way. It was captured as the last rebellion of pleasures and intoxication, as the stylish staging of an unleashed freedom, whereby death is not denied and thus intoxication is misused as a distraction from mortality, as escapism, but is celebrated as a boundless celebration of life whose end is immovably fixed. Thus, one can also reinterpret these times of demise into true artistic and philosophical upliftment and come to deep spiritual insights.
That being said, one need not face decay at the mercy of it. Instead, one can begin to free oneself from the prevailing paradigms of intellectualism, nihilism, and materialism, and create one's own islands that pursue a radically different way of life.
This does not stop the decline on a large scale, but it preserves cultural techniques and lays the foundations for a new civilization. One can be a pioneer within the collapsing civilization, who creates the new one with.
All civilizations have perished sooner or later. However, none was as global as ours today. Therefore, the downfall of this civilization is probably more devastating than any before. Especially in the western world, people have lost many skills of survival. Hardly anyone is still familiar with nature, can grow crops naturally, hunt, gather and fish, build houses and huts or make tools. We have become dependent on an industry that takes care of everything for us, and have built an illusory reality consisting of glass facades, concrete and digital surfaces. However, this will not ensure our survival once its foundations disappear. Then we will be on our own again, without all these tools. This lack of capabilities will have devastating consequences for the vast majority of people in the West. It could be that a decline of today's civilization means a similar regression as the decline of the Mediterranean cultures in the Bronze Age. A dark age could follow in which much of the knowledge, techniques and skills would simply be irretrievably lost, if only because much of it is stored on digital data carriers that do not reveal their secrets without electricity.
It seems all the more imperative to lay the foundations for the beginning of a new civilization, in addition to the exhilarating experience of the demise and one's own vitality, instead of merely indulging in fatalistic symbolic acts such as buying valuable paintings or protesting against the influx of foreigners. Because none of this will stop the downfall, but we can shape the time after.
Felix Feistel, born in 1992, writes in many ways about the idiocy of this world and also against it. In a world reduced to numbers and data, which has always been alien to him, he searches for humanity and the meaning of life. He tries to use his powers and talents to create a world worth living in by opposing injustice and destruction. Despite the madness that is rampant everywhere, he is not ready to give up his belief in the goodness of man and his potential to transform the planet into a paradise. He is a member of the Rubicon Youth Editorial Board and writes for the Young Feathers column.
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