Le dernier mot: Washingtonian Madness
by Srdja Trifkovic
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My farewell column has a melancholy air not only because all partings are inherently sad, but because the times are genuinely grim. The world is changing . . . not for the better, and America is making a disproportionate contribution to the process. There is a malaise at the very core of this country’s foreign-policymaking, on both sides of the dominant duopoly in Washington. At its poles there may be differences over tactics and means, but the alleged necessity of America’s continued, open-ended “engagement” in faraway lands is never questioned—and it will not be questioned under the new regime.
The madness is an amorphous beast, and it is still remarkably unaffected by the awful financial and economic reality. It has many names—multiculturalism, one-worldism, tolerantism, inclusivism, antidiscriminationism—that demand engagement abroad and wide-open doors at home. Both abroad and at home, the impulse is neurotic; its justification, gnostic. It reflects the collective loss of nerve, faith, and identity of a diseased society, producing a self-destructive malaise that is literally unprecedented in history.
The intoxication is the arrogant belief that our reason and our science and our technology can resolve all the dilemmas and challenges of our existence, and, in particular, that enlightened abstractions—democracy, human rights, free markets—can be spread across the world and are capable of transforming it in a way that would ultimately turn Muhammads into Joes (which is what they all want, we are assured, or would choose only if they could think clearly). Both the madness and the intoxication have a “left,” essentially Wilsonian, narrative (one-world, postnational, compassionate, multilateralist, therapeutic) and a “right,” or neoconservative, one (democracy-exporting, interventionist, monopolar, boastfully self-aggrandizing).
Though differing in practice, both outlooks are utopian and firmly rooted in the legacy of the Enlightenment and the rejection of any power independent of “the market” and the ostensible will of the multitude. Both hold that Man is naturally good and improvable, that human conflict is unnatural and vanquishable, that chaos and bloodshed around the world are primarily the fruits of some flawed policies of the West (Wilsonians) or the result of our insufficient “engagement” (neoconservatives).
The former find remedies in endless self-examination, in the supranational mechanisms of “collective security” controlled by themselves, and in the promotion of “dialogue” with every Third World tyrant and madman, for as long as he declares a grievance against us. The latter rely on the use of force to impose their benevolent global order on a supposedly grateful pre-postmodern humanity. Both are determined to make the world as they want it to be rather than to deal with the world as it is. This produces policies that are invariably flawed, often evil, and occasionally fatal. Both are united in their loathing of the realist view of America not as an ever-expanding empire but as a republic with definable borders and interests rooted in her history, culture, and tradition. When a realist warns of the Hobbesian nature of the real world and advocates national interest as the foundation of this country’s external affairs, they both cry in unison, “Isolationism!” “Racism!” or some other ism.
It is incorrect to describe Wilsonianism and neoconservatism as two “schools” of foreign policy. They are, rather, two sects of the same Western heresy that has its roots in the Renaissance and its fruits in liberal democracy. Their shared denominational genes are recognizable not in what they seek but in what they reject: polities based on national and cultural commonalities; durable elites and constitutions; and independent economies. Both view all permanent values and institutions with unrestrained hostility. Both exalt state power and reject any political tradition based on the desirability of limited government at home and nonintervention in foreign affairs. Both claim to favor the “market” but advocate a kind of state capitalism managed by the transnational apparatus of global financial and regulatory institutions.Their shared core belief—that society should be managed by the state in both its political and its economic life—is equally at odds with the tenets of the liberal left and those of the traditional right. Far from being “patriotic” in any conventional sense, they both reject the real, historic America in favor of a propositional construct devoid of all organic bonds and collective memories.
The two sects’ deep-seated distaste for the traditional societies, regimes, and religion of the European continent was manifested in President Clinton’s war against the Serbs in 1999 and in their unanimous support for Kosovo’s independence today.
For the same reason, they share a visceral Russophobia, a soft spot for Chechen jihadists, and a commitment to NATO expansion. Both Wilsonians and neoconservatives are united in opposing democracy in postcommunist Eastern Europe, lest it produce governments that will base the recovery of their ravaged societies on the revival of the family, sovereign nationhood, and the Christian Faith. Inevitably, they have joined forces in creating and funding political parties and NGOs east of the Trieste-Stettin Line that promote the entire spectrum of postmodern isms that have atomized America and the rest of the West for the past four decades. From Bratislava to Bucharest to Belgrade, both present the embrace of deviancy, perversion, and morbidity as the litmus test of an aspirant’s “Western” clubbability. Ultimately, both sects share the Straussian dictum that the perpetual manipulation of hoi polloi by those in power is necessary because they need to be told what is good for them.
The essential similarity of Wilsonians and neoconservatives is undeniable. The inability of most patriotic, traditionalist Middle Americans to recognize that similarity and its implications is a problem. Many have no difficulty in recognizing the weirdness or evil of, say, Hillary Clinton, but they would be hard-pressed to detect identical traits in an equally radical sectarian who has morphed into a self-styled “conservative” of the Weekly Standard variety.
As Brian Mitchell notes in the conclusion to his book Eight Ways to Run the Country, the obvious disharmony between the genuine conservatism of ancient ideals—whether Anglo-American or orthodox Christian—and the ruthlessly new ideology of “democratic capitalism” embodied in Michael Ledeen’s Creative Destructionism is lost on the average “Red” American who votes Republican and watches FOX News:
It remains to be seen how far capitalism will carry us before social conservatives awake to its dangers. When free men are allowed to amass great fortunes from global rackets in gambling, pornography, prostitution, narcotics, weaponry, and usury, the permanent things can only expect short shrift. Ultimately, such unrestrained capitalism is on the side of our enslavers. In a thoroughly capitalist world, men will buy and sell each other. Only a power independent of the free market can save us from the slave market.
Historically, Mitchell notes, only two institutions have been up to the task: the institutions of nondemocratic governments that guard against accumulation of wealth outside government control, and a unified Christian Church whose wealth and power are committed to nonmarket purposes. “Democracy alone is no match for the market,” Mitchell concludes, “for democracy is itself a market, selling power to the highest bidder.” Indeed, democracy in America is a corrupt “democratic process” run by an elite class that conspires both to make secondary issues important and to treat important issues as either irrelevant or illegitimate: One party may be in; another, out; but the regime is in power permanently.
The global power of the Wilsonian-neoconservative regime is unlikely to be broken incrementally by an America gradually coming to her senses. It will indeed be broken, but the price will be paid in Middle American blood and treasure. We cannot know when and how this will happen—but happen, it will. We cannot know what will be the theme of after-dinner discussions a hundred years hence, but we do know it will not be the global grandeur of the liberal-democratic-capitalist Pax Americana.
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1 Comment by Caedmon on 31 December 2008:
Dr. Trifkovic, we are genuinely sad to see you leave Chronicles. Many are asking where they may go to read your future articles. Are you at liberty to tell us?
2 Comment by Grumpy Old Man on 31 December 2008:
Going out with a bang, not a whimper, that’s for certain.
This piece and the prior one are among your best.
3 Comment by PcH on 31 December 2008:
Merci, cher profésseur pout votre dernier mot entier. Que le Dieu de l’espérance vous remplisse de toute joie et de toute paix dans la foi, pour que vous abondiez en espérance, par la puissance du Saint Esprit!
4 Comment by Robert on 31 December 2008:
“The intoxication is the arrogant belief that our reason and our science and our technology can resolve all the dilemmas and challenges of our existence, and, in particular, that enlightened abstractions—democracy, human rights, free markets—can be spread across the world and are capable of transforming it in a way that would ultimately turn Muhammads into Joes”
Thank you Dr. Trifkovic for all that you have stood for over the years and for daring to speak the truth. You will be sorely missed by Chronicles readers.
5 Comment by T. Chan on 31 December 2008:
Thank you, Dr. Trifkovic, for all of your hard work and writings for Chronicles!
6 Comment by Boba on 31 December 2008:
I can’t imagine a major world event without Trifkovic’s analysis , nor Srdja Trifkovic without writing it. You are a great man , an amazing writer and exceptinal intellectual. I am so sorry to hear you are standing down from your column. I concur wholeheartedly with the above commentators. You are too precious a commodity not to be heard by a wide audience.
— An Irish blessing says:
A sunbeam to warm you,
A moonbeam to charm you,
A sheltering angel, so nothing can harm you!
7 Comment by Kirt Higdon on 31 December 2008:
Thank you, Dr. Trifkovic, for this final insightful essay and for so many others. May God go with you!
8 Comment by David on 31 December 2008:
Farewell Srdja. Can we know where to find you in the future? I do hope we can, from time to time, see your analyses here on the Chronicles blog or elsewhere. Quo vadis? Warmest good wishes,
9 Comment by george on 31 December 2008:
One of the major problems are these NGOs that interfere in foreign nations and are affiliated with the most radical policy advisors and receive grants for columnists and individuals to write books or compile research. A good example: the Neocons who are affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute.
“For the same reason, they share a visceral Russophobia, a soft spot for Chechen jihadists, and a commitment to NATO expansion.” This is part of the average European and American mindset.
With regards to Serbia they dislike true Orthodox people. It is no surprise Russia — being the largest Orthodox nation and the church actively being sponsored by the state — are the number one target and the major geopolitical rival to US hegemony.
10 Comment by Gerry T. Neal on 31 December 2008:
Dr. Trifkovic, I was very sorry to read in the December issue of Chronicles that you were stepping down as the magazine’s foreign affairs editor. May God continue to be with you and to bless you.
11 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 31 December 2008:
Don’t let me read too much into it, but most commentators are saluting Dr. Trifkovic wishing him the only wish worth of such a unique, worthy individual, a renaissance man, and a thinker with no boundaries. Dr. Trifkovic is most rare of all men. He can interweave African tribal infighting, Bret-Litovsk treaty, orbiting of Jupiter and Russian conquest of the North Pole undersea, all in one sentence never loosing a sight of his main thread. We are all (collectively and individually) directed towards our faith in God and God will surely smile on people like Dr. Trifkovic where-ever his path takes him. Equally as the fellow commentators, I wish to know where Dr. Trifkovic will be published as of 2009.
“More is thy due, than more than all can pay”. I even went as far as doing a spell check before posting (as to avoid my hasty trade-mark of huge typos). Just imagine what will the next generations have to say about a man who singlehandedly broke the illusions of Islam being anything but a farce or a cult, while masquerading as a religion for nearly 13 centuries. Not many men can stand up to such winds. Thank you again.
12 Comment by robert m. peters on 31 December 2008:
Dr. Trifkovic,
I have learned in through the school of life that ignorance is my shadow, always present even as I gain a modicum of light which leads to some knowledge or to a little understanding. I have not long frequented this cyber version of Chronicles – two years perhaps. Your columns have accomplished two paradoxical ends in my intellectual life: made me even more aware of my ignorance and given me such light that I might successfully soldier on in these times, which as you say are “genuinely grim.” It is my personal prayer that God will give you the strength, the health and the courage to continue to speak and write the truth with the elegance and clarity which you have demonstrated in your pieces in and on Chronicles.
13 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 31 December 2008:
Et en français : Dernier mot ?
Jamais.
Je trouverai plus de mots de Dr. Trifkovic n’importe comment dur il est.
So there.
14 Comment by metamars on 31 December 2008:
I have trouble even imagining Chronicles without Trifkovic.
Best of luck.
15 Comment by Martin on 1 January 2009:
Dr. Trifkovic,
My very best wishes to you in all your endeavours.
16 Comment by Allen Wilson on 1 January 2009:
It looks as if the time of the breaking of the Wilsonian-neoconservative regime is not all that far off.
I echo the statements above. Thank you so much for your articles during the past few years from which I have learnt so much, and I certainly would like to know where we can find your articles in future.
17 Comment by george on 1 January 2009:
@15Allen Wilson
The Obama-Clintonian regime isn’t going to be much better.
Instead of bombing the Mid East were going to have WW1 style geo-politics in Europe against Russia and new offensives in the Balkans.
18 Comment by Michael Averko on 1 January 2009:
In DC, a certain libertarian leaning think tank saw some competent analysts leave it. This was followed by that org. adding on at least one person with the kind of views the neolibs and neocons prefer at home and abroad.
Some orgs. get hijacked with $ issues in mind. Others can depreciate for reasons where personal matters come into play. At present, there appears to be a gap. The best case scenario has Dr. T at another significant venue, with Chronicles continuing to provide intelligently thought provoking insight. There’s a good deal of talent out there.
Along with Antiwar.com and Counterpunch, I’ve considered Chronicles as one of my preferred American online political punditry webzines.
A giant is leaving one of them.
19 Comment by roho on 1 January 2009:
“AWESOME”!…………………I will miss your wrting and logic very, very, much.
20 Comment by Swede on 1 January 2009:
Thank you for this time Master Trifkovic and the best of luck for the future. We are many that will continue to read your articles in the future wherever you may write them. They are true masterpieces, each one.
21 Pingback by Srdja Trifkovic’s Last Column Up at Chronicles | Conservative Heritage Times on 1 January 2009:
[...] it is a good ‘un. There is a malaise at the very core of this country’s foreign-policymaking, on both sides of the [...]
22 Comment by NGPM on 1 January 2009:
We Occidentals have come to know Russian writers as “intense.” After over four years of reading Dr. Trifkovic, I must say, with all due respect to the Russians, they had better make sure they never become less numerous than the Serbians, lest they be rapidly dethroned.
Yet even this column scarcely does justice to the magnitude of the catastrophe about to strike this country. Not that this is any shortcoming on the part of Dr. Trifkovic. Indeed, it would seem difficult, if not impossible, to discuss it without overdoing onesself.
I am happy that Dr. Trifkovic will, in parting, remain clearly Dr. Trifkovic. I wish him the best in this next phase.
23 Comment by nikopiko on 1 January 2009:
Dr. Trifkovic-
I am at a loss of words. Wish you all the best.
24 Comment by Zoran Masirevic, M.A.; M.F.A. on 1 January 2009:
This is a sad, sad day for all of us who read Chronicles. To lose an exquisite critical-analytical mind such as Dr. Trifkovic’s is an irreparable loss not only for this magazine, but for the public arena of the American political discourse in general.
I can only hope that Dr. Trifkovic will find a new media entity as a vehicle for his brilliant elaborations of the current world affairs, and that he will continue to deliver his insightful, uncompromising and courageous thoughts, which, as we know, are always veiled in the ultimate truth.
In the meantime, we can only pray for the survival of humanity, which ia arguably the most endagered of all species on the face of the earth in these times of ” multiculturalism, one-worldism, tolerantism, inclusivism, antidiscriminationism…”
Thank you Srdja.
25 Comment by Michael Averko on 1 January 2009:
“We Occidentals have come to know Russian writers as ‘intense.’ After over four years of reading Dr. Trifkovic, I must say, with all due respect to the Russians, they had better make sure they never become less numerous than the Serbians, lest they be rapidly dethroned.”
****
He’s a rarity amog ALL humankind. He reflects a way of looking at things which a good number of English language mass media propped propped Russian and Serb pundits stay away from (this excludes the likes of Dr. T and NM).
The greater censorship is the one quite evident but not highlighted.
26 Comment by jack bailey on 1 January 2009:
three cheers for the good doctor!
27 Comment by george on 1 January 2009:
Srdja Trifkovic should create his own blog were can comment on occasion on events when something major happens in the Balkans or Eurasia
“We Occidentals have come to know Russian writers as ‘intense.’ After over four years of reading Dr. Trifkovic, I must say, with all due respect to the Russians, they had better make sure they never become less numerous than the Serbians, lest they be rapidly dethroned.”
I find that Russia has failed miserably on this issue. There no good English language Russian writers who do a good critic like Serbian writers do and the reality of what’s going on in the Balkans.
There is only a handful of writers who do a good analysis on Russia and they are American.
28 Comment by Dragan Acamovic on 1 January 2009:
I’ve always been impressed with your position on many issues & I too would like to know where your talent will take you.
29 Comment by Rade Radovich on 1 January 2009:
Sorry to see you leave Chronicles, best wishes for the future.
30 Comment by John Lofton, Recovering Republican on 1 January 2009:
Forget “conservatism,” please. It has been Godless and therefore irrelevant. Secular conservatism will not defeat secular liberalism because to God both are two atheistic peas-in-a-pod and thus predestined to failure. As Stonewall Jackson’s Chief of Staff R.L. Dabney said of such a humanistic belief more than 100 years ago:
“[Secular conservatism] is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today .one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt bath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain. It .is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It intends to risk nothing serious for the sake of the truth.”
Our country is collapsing because we have turned our back on God (Psalm 9:17) and refused to kiss His Son (Psalm 2).
John Lofton, Editor, TheAmericanView.com
Recovering Republican
JLof@aol.com
31 Comment by Tom Piatak on 2 January 2009:
An outstanding piece.
32 Comment by Michael Averko on 2 January 2009:
It’s unanimous.
Srdja should continue having a high profile column.
33 Comment by Bob Johnson on 2 January 2009:
Just not on Chronicles.
I think I am understood.
34 Comment by Michael Averko on 2 January 2009:
Why such a specification and why do you continuously hyperlink your name to MSN (asked with some trepidation)?
35 Comment by P. Stwart on 2 January 2009:
You will be sorely missed from this site, Dr. Trifkovic. Thank you so much for your articles here. I do hope we will see you published elsewhere soon…..
Mnoga ja ljeta!
36 Comment by Bob Johnson on 2 January 2009:
Mr. Averko,
Trifkovic is quite a weakling when you get down to it.
It sickened me when he suggested, after all the Zionists did to to his precious little Serbian friends in Kosovo, that a “demystified” continuation of the military alliance between the USFG and the Zionist Entity would be a good idea.
At other occasions he has suggested such lunatic and braindead notions as that the USFG should support the attainment of Nuclear Weapons by South Korea and Japan, a suggestion so retarded that it caused me to wince that I had to descend to the level of refuting it.
On other, even more disgusting occasions, Trifkovic defended as somehow honorable the military record of the worthless air pirate and noted late night talk show plaything John McCain.
If we ever get to a point where’s there’s nothing left of America except its precious military, it will be because of short-sighted imbeciles like Dr. Trifkovic and John McCain.
They should all be put in a home where they can watch old war movies and be attended to by cheap robot laborers cooked up by DARPA.
37 Comment by george on 2 January 2009:
Maybe Michael Averko or Srdja Trifkovic can answer this one: Who is Alexander Nevsky, and what is his background? He was recently voted most famous Russian. Of course the western media continued with the “Russia wants to resurrect the USSR” theme by highlighting the fact that at 11.5% Stalin was voted into third place. Pravda published a good opinion piece on it.
http://english.pravda.ru/russia/history/31-12-2008/106884-most_popular_russian-0
Here in Britain we voted as number 1 that greatest genocidal warmonger/criminal Winston Churchill, who — as Buchannan pointed out — got Britain to start WW2 with war guarantee to Poland to intervene on its behalf if Germany invaded; they were slaughtering ethnic Germans in Poland given to them after Versailles.
38 Comment by Sean Scallon on 2 January 2009:
Farwell, thy good and faithful servant
39 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 2 January 2009:
Even a short passage like the one I quoting, shows that Dr. Trifkovic’s vision and farsightedness capable of identifying the ills (from decadence to downright stupidity) which permeates our society. This is what caught my eye:
“The madness is an amorphous beast, and it is still remarkably unaffected by the awful financial and economic reality. It has many names—multiculturalism, one-worldism, tolerantism, inclusivism, antidiscriminationism—that demand engagement abroad and wide-open doors at home. Both abroad and at home, the impulse is neurotic; its justification, gnostic. It reflects the collective loss of nerve, faith, and identity of a diseased society, producing a self-destructive malaise that is literally unprecedented in history.”
I had a long talk with my 27 year old son last night and forewarned him that “Cyclopic” – view of the world may not necessarily be all true, accurate and correct. He replied with the standard American brainwash “checks and balances” – naturally on paper it sounds great but there are so many ways to bypass the “checks and balances” – whereby even a mediocre person can be inventive enough to hire MPRI, L3, Wackenhut, and nominally claim that “our troops in Iraq are under the 90,000 military persons, but naturally that does not include all sorts of “support staff” hired by private contractors (including Dick Chaney’s Halliburton), and the combined number of Americans in harm’s way well exceeds 150,000 persons. Rather than count on the honesty and integrity in this Godless society, we are better off getting the South to separate again and form a neo-confederate states of America – let the Detroit bail itself out, let the Detroit mosques get financed by some other source not our tax dollars, let the NYC financial moguls work out their own bail-out without my tax dollars. For the first time in years my son did not oppose me – he’s a hard working typical American middle class worker who finds himself in the same predicament as the rest of us, but, again like the rest of us, he, too, has been brainwashed by CNN, fake crisis about some dog on a Los Angeles Freeway one sided view of the world which offers us panem et circensis (just as Mr. Buchanan quoted Hamlet very recently “something is rotten in the state”). Our constitution is almost perfect – people enforcing the laws and proposing new bills (Patriot Act – thoroughly UNAMERICAN, and contrary to the ideas the founding fathers had) – yes getting the activities of most mosques monitored would be acceptable but that should not involve me taking off my shoes at every airport. I feel needlessly humiliated, only because our law enforcement is blinded by who the real enemies are.
After that we shift into the second gear – increased taxes, extra cost per luggage, higher airport fees – do I feel any safer against Muslim encroachment? No I don’t.
Third gear: multi-ethnical, multi-racial, multi-cultural, BY DECREE. How can any such nonsense be mandated? Even if there were such a legal codex – the enforcement can not be mandated.
Whatever happened to our right to dissent?
I don’t know about the rest of us, but each article Dr. Trifkovic has written gets me to ask some profound questions, even going as far back as our basic rights, constitution, etc. That’s only one, most visible part of his greatness. Thank you for your honesty in such times where other forces dominate our daily lives and honesty is well out of sight.
40 Comment by Cato Censor on 2 January 2009:
Is the PcH writing in comments on this column and elsewhere the same PcH who accused Chronicles’ editor of being a proponent of open immigration in order to flood the country with Catholics? All those arguments, as has been pointed out, have been recycled into the slanderous Wikipedia article on Fleming, which replaced the previous balanced and accurate entry. If this is the same PcH, why doesn’t the webmaster ban this jerk?
41 Comment by Maciano on 2 January 2009:
Mr. Trifkovic,
I’ve long read your writings with interest. May you resurface somewhere else for all our understanding.
A happy new year.
42 Comment by John Willson on 2 January 2009:
A few more years and Trifkovic’s name will rank with Kennan’s.
43 Comment by Sebastian on 2 January 2009:
Sad to see you go. Stay clear of matters Balkan and you’ll be alright. Over-invest in them and you’ll never be heard from again.
44 Comment by Petar Borojevic on 2 January 2009:
Re: # 42
..Trifkovic’s name will rank with Kennan’s.”
You are right. Given his wisdom and knowledge Trifkovic can be one of the finest advisors, diplomats, political scientists, and historians that America ever had.
I’m wishing you God-speed, Srdja!
45 Comment by polemicscat on 2 January 2009:
I hope to see your perceptive and articulate
writing in other venues. Best wishes.
46 Comment by Richard Spencer on 2 January 2009:
Serge,
Even when I’ve disagreed with some of your conclusions, I’ve always profited by reading your articles. As an analyst of foreign affairs, you’re second to none.
Best wishes!
47 Comment by Mark Schaeber on 2 January 2009:
Go with God, Mr. Trifkovic, and may Luck walk with you.
48 Comment by Ken Schneider on 2 January 2009:
Dr. Trifkovic,
Let me also join those who will be sad to see you leave Chronicles. The University of St. Thomas in Houston Texas is my alma mater where you also taught for a short time. I have always enjoyed your articles and you are the light in a dark tunnel. You will be sorely missed and I wish you all the best in the future!
Thank you for all of your insight,
Ken Schneider
49 Comment by mike h on 2 January 2009:
Whether you like Dr. Trifkovic or not ( I do, and apparently Mr MSNBC does not) he brings a perspective that you simply don’t (and won’t) get from anyone else. His is an important voice
50 Comment by Michael Averko on 2 January 2009:
For sure # 47.
George:
Let’s respect the moment.
In brief answer to your inquiry:
Stalin apparently wanted to pattern himself after AN. A rather famous 1930s era Soviet film on AN was apparently produced with that idea in mind. The Pravda link you gave is a pretty good summation.
51 Comment by RichardH on 2 January 2009:
Say it ain’t so Srdja, I weep!
52 Comment by Robert Bruce on 3 January 2009:
Geez, his last article was his best by far. A no nonsense hit between the eyes as it were for why the nation is probably doomed barring a miraculous awakening of the American people. I hope you are not going to stop writing Dr. Trifkovic, you are on top of your game in the world of conservative pundits/writers, and I have enjoyed just about all of your past articles. Will we be able to read your articles in a new sight? I sure hope so!!!! Best wishes though regardless!!!!!!! You are just about the best around!!!
53 Comment by Robert Bruce on 3 January 2009:
I actually saw that propaganda piece about Nevsky and the Battle on the Ice against the Teutonic knights. A silent film if remember correctly. It made the Teutonic Knights look really bad and a traitor priest gets lynched at the end. Of course Prince Nevsky is made the brave hero fighting back the Germanic horde. Fairly big production for the day, although it looked like it was produced in the real early 20th century and not the 30’s. Obviously the Soviets were behind in film technology back then.
54 Comment by Peter Kuypers on 3 January 2009:
What do you mean, farewell?? The main reason I have this website in my favorites is because of Mr. Trifkovic outstanding contributions.
55 Comment by Etienne Gervaise on 3 January 2009:
Srdja, you’re a smart fellow and I’m sure you’ll land on both feet. It seems that right now a man of your talent could find a position with Russia Today. These might be a good couple of years to avoid the USA, but unfortunatley some of us will have to stay and fight heroically keeping your writings in mind as inspiration. You’ve taught us well. Merci mille fois!
56 Comment by Etienne Gervaise on 3 January 2009:
@30 John
True! I hope 2009 becomes the year that Christians become committed to focused prayer — an underground movement that the forces of darkness cannot co-opt. I believe the Lord will bind wicked individuals if we have the guts to name names before Him, and as long as we avoid acts of self-aggrandizement such as appearing on television.
57 Comment by Michael Averko on 3 January 2009:
EG
RT appears to be on a limited budget, while periodically falling under the sway of English language mass media biases. Among others, ST would be a plus for that station.
All this is said by someone who very much supports RT’s originally and (if I’m not mistaken) currently stated intent.
Robert & George:
Here’s a left wing neocon (for lack of a better categorization) perspective of Stalin:
http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh/2008/12/30/the-rebirth-of-the-stalin-cult/
I posted some comments about it there (pardon misspelling of Petlura). An additional set of comments I submitted is currently awaiting “moderation.”
Robert:
That film was obviously produced with a certain intent. Stalin sensed an upcoming war. He failed miserably in knowing when it would happen.
58 Comment by NGPM on 3 January 2009:
“left wing neocon”
That’s redundant.
59 Comment by Michael Averko on 3 January 2009:
There’s a difference between some of them. Some if not all of the “left wing neocons” (as categorized in some circles) probably object to even being put in the neocon category.
60 Comment by george on 3 January 2009:
@53Michael Averko
I posted a comment there too, and awaiting “moderation.” I seriously doubt it will get posted by our self-appointed censors, although what I said was factual providing a link mentioning who was behind Communism and how Russia became Communist in the first place.
I also critiqued Russia during the 90’s and why the US and EU has a problem with Putin and modern Russia and who controls the US.
61 Comment by Boba on 3 January 2009:
“…the … new ideology of “democratic capitalism”…..
Reuters reports that the assets of failed U.S. mortgage lender IndyMac ( estimated at $13.9 billion) are being bought by a group of private equity and hedge fund firms, including Dune Capital Management and J.C. Flowers & Co, which are putting up $1.3 billion in cash…. Affiliates of billionaire investor George Soros and Michael Dell, the chief executive of computer maker Dell Inc, are also involved with the consortium buying IndyMac…”
Instead of locking them up at Guantanamo they are allowed to buy the by themselves “deleveraged” assets for peanuts.
As a friend correctly pointed out that “The real crime is that the purchase is being funded with TARP funds – tax payers’ money – and no one takes notice.
The “democratic capitalism” has turned the American dream into a nightmare.
62 Comment by george on 3 January 2009:
@57Boba
American has become a democratic Oligarchy like the British they fought independence from.
That’s why the founding fathers wanted a constitutional Republic because people vote or make opinions presented to them with a particular viewpoint by the media masters which the Oligarchy control case in point Rothschild owned Guardian media group in the UK and Soros MoveOn.org and B92 in the Balkans advocate foreign and domestic policy to further there financial empire.
Immigration is good not because of cheap labour but because it makes a country more “democratic” and sending our manufacturing base abroad is good to compete with the global economy.
63 Comment by Michael Paris on 3 January 2009:
Mr. Trifkovic, please let us know where we can read your future articles!!!
64 Comment by Ike on 3 January 2009:
Robert,
the film in question is Sergei Eisenstein’s ‘Alexander Nevsky’. It is not silent, and it made the Teutonic Knights look anything but bad. In fact, it made them ‘look good’ – visually – and this is what counts in movies. The impeccable white tunics with crosses, the strange, threatening helmets, which put Darth Vader to shame; the beautifully choreographed liturgy scene which suggests a worthy and aristocratic enemy. Certainly not a ‘German horde’. If anything, Russians are the ones represented as a people’s army. Indeed, Eisenstein’s Teutons are much like D. Vader in ‘Star Wars’ – they invoke fascination and respect.
How about that famous scene when they charge on their horses. We actually only see the actors swaying in the saddle, holding a spear…What a director!
Let’s not forget that Soviets did not lag behind in film making.
Eisenstein is considered a pioneer of modern cinema by all western accounts (see Battleship Potemkin)
The Soviet film school grew out of the Russian modernist movement, and was on par with German and American cinema at the time. Some even say that later Russian cinema, from soc-realist to Tarkovsky falls far short of Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov.
65 Comment by george on 3 January 2009:
@51Etienne Gervaise
Do you ever comment on Peter Lavelle’s Blog on Russia Today website?
http://www.russiatoday.com/employee/27
I sometimes post comments there under the name James.
I posted a comment there recently with a link to this article.
Actually I tried to see if there is contact information to see if they will be carrying daily coverage of the Karadzic trail at The Hague.
I doubt they will but it will be good if they did because if it is anything like the revelations revealed during the Milosevic trail it will further dismantle the Clintonites in Obama’s staff narrative of what went on in Bosnia during the 90’s maybe even re-evaluating the nature of America’s War on Terror.
66 Comment by Anonymous on 3 January 2009:
I am very sad to see you go, Dr. Trifkovic. I have enjoyed reading your articles on foreign policy for two years now; I wish it could have been longer. I have referenced and cited your articles numerous times in debates I have had regarding American foreign policy and foreign affairs, especially with regard to the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict. This, your last article, was exceptional as usual.
May God bless you always.
67 Comment by Michael Averko on 3 January 2009:
George: They posted them, along with some other comments that took issue with RR’s piece. That’s the least could do, given PJM’s slant.
http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh/2008/12/30/the-rebirth-of-the-stalin-cult/
Come to think of it, there’s no disrespecting of Dr. T by bringing up such matter here. His commentary delves into such topics.
68 Comment by Robert Bruce on 3 January 2009:
John Lofton @30,
Nice post, too bad your words would fall on deaf ears to many belonging to the Religious Right. Too many think that the GOP still is a Christian adversarial vehicle to the secualar leftism of the Democrats.
69 Comment by george on 4 January 2009:
@61Michael Averko
Slanted opinions and negative viewpoints seem to be the norm in regards to Russia.
I can’t mention how many times I see comments posted on blogs that Russia is Gog and Magog in the bible and that it’s secretly preparing to invade or annex parts of neighbouring countries.
I think its part of the genetic psyche of Europeans and Americans.
The majority EU, US populace on any topic concerning Russia is always negative even when they know the facts case in point the recent Georgia conflict.
China suffers from this to but not as much as Russia.
Perhaps Russia should view itself as a Eurasian country rather than a European one.
Domestically Japan is more representative of its people’s interest and better governed than Britain or the US so why should Russia adopt US democratic style government rather than Japan’s or South Koreas?
70 Comment by William Dorich on 4 January 2009:
If Dr. Trifkovic’s departure is of his own choosing then Zbogom! (Go with God); if it is not, then the loss is surely that of the publisher.
As the ancient Chinese say…”May you live in interesting times.”
Dr. Trifkovic is a brilliant man and a brilliant writer who is blessed with great communication skills that will surely take him to higher levels in these “interesting times.” His passion and his knowledge have been a wonderful gift to his readers. I wish him continued success.
71 Comment by Ljubinko Jovicic on 4 January 2009:
A BIENTOT
Dear Dr. Trifkovic,
We have been very sad by reading your Mot d’adieux.
Cronicles is the only magazine in USA I could have published my accounts in (“An Open Letter to British journalists- Kosovo, Mr. Blair and Others,” Habsburgs islamization of Raska, Kosovo, Kosovo again, and some aperc,u. The article “Fuerst Schwarzenberg Protected Orthodox Colonists in Slavonia” I have not send yet.)
I am looking forward to seeing you in Belgrade, where — after the colapse of the old regime, more than eight years ago — we were too weak to stop the infiltration of the red cameleons into the political parties, the press, diplomacy and into the governing strata. In this pseudo democratic Serbia, the interpretation of history is neocommunis, the economy socialist: no restitution whatever, nationalisated property is “privatised”, the press censored, the law for the rehabilitation of the victims of communism is a farce. This is the consequence of the old American policy not to help dissidents, but to bargain with red comrades for change. Rather with turncoats than with havebeens, as a Canadian diplomat has said.
If you visit us, you could be well informed trough the contacts with our Silent Majority, with the scions of the last genuine middle class citzens. A forum with your leadership as eyeopener, could help folks here to discern the trouth.
Mot de passe: Liberte’ sans bombardement
a l’Europe, mais ne pas a l’OTAN.
With kind regards
Ljubinko Jovicic
72 Pingback by The New Zonka Blog » Blog Archive » Le dernier mot: Washingtonian madness on 4 January 2009:
[...] Le dernier mot: Washingtonian madness by Srdja Trifkovic http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/?p=838 [...]
73 Comment by gargi on 4 January 2009:
Dr. Trifkovic,
You understand very well the nature of Islam and Islamic culture. Many thanks on behalf of all Kashmiris who lost their ancestral homes to Jihadists for bravely pointing out the truths about Islam in your articles.
74 Comment by J Meng on 4 January 2009:
Adios, amigo; via con Dios.
75 Comment by Michael Averko on 5 January 2009:
Well said William Dorich.
To elaborate on Ljubinko Jovicic’s salient points, it’s great to have venues like Chronicles, Antiwar.com and Counterpunch. However, significant ground is gained when the Srdja Trifkovics get their points across in English language mass media.
George: I wouldn’t get too hung up on European versus Eurasian. So-called “globalization” shouldn’t negate Russia’s historic and geographical realities.
Note how the West has been heavily involved with Asia. Also note the Asian backgrounds of some non-Russian peoples of Europe. The point being that some Russia-unfriendly types out there use the harped on Europe v Eurasia issue for unnecessarily divisive reasons.
Dr. T’s commentary has involved delving into the propagandistic use of words like “Europe.”
You might be interested in this poll:
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/32548/russians_would_save_symbols_of_communism/
Get ready for the propaganda to downplay that only 5% of Russians support a return of such symbols.
People who seek to “preserve” symbols can do so in ways different from how some suggest. In NY, there’s a long running weekly military affairs show. The Jewish host of that show observed how a good number of Nazi regalia collectors are Jews.
76 Comment by NGPM on 5 January 2009:
@Michael Averko: The definition of neocon is of course rather tenebrous; strictly speaking it should refer to a former communist or soft-core social democrat who became a conservative. In the Bush Era it took on the conotation of one who supports some form of bloodthirsty “Benevolent Global Hegemony,” due largely to the fact that the chief instigators were often the intellectual (or biological) descendants of the first people to call themselves “neocons.” That is Wilsonianism by any other name and perhaps by convergent intellectual evolution, but it is a page ripped right out of the Enlightenment. That was the sense in which I took your use of the word “neocon” and hence why I suggested that the use was “redundant”: post-Bush, the essence of what makes a “neocon” a “neocon” is a basically leftist global vision.
77 Comment by H.F. Wolff on 5 January 2009:
67Michael Averko:
“…a good number of Nazi regalia collectors are Jews…”.
And why not, since there were about 150,000 Jewish soldiers and officers in the German armed forces, at least some of them with offspring.
Even many Jews don’t believe the swindle of National Socialist culpability.
I’m certain my position will attract the ire of Dr Wilson, who berates the North’s version of the civil war, yet denies me the same for WWII with regards to Germany.
H.F. Wolff
78 Comment by Etienne Gervaise on 5 January 2009:
Perhaps Srdja is needed more in China. On a road trip yesterday I stumbled on NPR’s On the Media reporting on a book called Wolf Totem about what’s wrong with the modern Chinese people.
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/01/02/03
BROOKE GLADSTONE: In Wolf Totem you offer harsh and constant criticism of the Han Chinese. You write that the Han Chinese are weaker than the Western races because the Western nomadic races handed down their vitality and their intelligence to their descendants. Do I have that right?
JIANG RONG [VIA INTERPRETER]:
Yes, it is. The ancestors of Han were a nomadic nation who were very tough but as they came to the land of China their characteristics changed.
Among the four great ancient civilizations, the drainage areas of Yangtze River and Yellow River are the world’s biggest farming areas. But agriculture needs peace. The ruling class found that as long as farmers could plow the field, they would be meek, easy to rule. All the ruling classes in Chinese history understood this. And over thousands of years, the Han personality turned meek as sheep.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: You’ve been criticized for equating peacefulness with sheepishness, and the book has also been accused of being both racist and, I think, crypto fascist. What do you think?
JIANG RONG [VIA INTERPRETER]:
I don’t agree. The distinction is not between good and bad, but between weak and tough. I don’t mean China is a bad nation, I mean that its character is weak. It’s proved by thousands of years of history. Otherwise, China would not have been ruled by nomadic minorities for so long, or colonial and semi-colonial society more recently.
That’s why I have to criticize the personality of Chinese people. Chinese people only demand a full stomach and a peaceful life, not democracy and freedom. Their personality is too weak. The Western spirit that pursues freedom and democracy is scarce in Chinese people.
79 Comment by Michael Averko on 5 January 2009:
The initially stated point on that subject relating to how wanting to “preserve” symbols isn’t necessarily meant as supporting an active return of them. This is true as per the results of this previously linked poll: http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/32548/russians_would_save_symbols_of_communism/
NGPM
I think we’re understood. Neocons are certainly to the left in the way you describe. At the same time, among neocons, I sense more left tendencies within that grouping.
80 Comment by gargi on 6 January 2009:
@Etienne Gervaise
“That’s why I have to criticize the personality of Chinese people. Chinese people only demand a full stomach and a peaceful life, not democracy and freedom. Their personality is too weak. The Western spirit that pursues freedom and democracy is scarce in Chinese people.”
I think Chinese are happy to be left alone. They have always been that way throughout history. Why is this bad? The Chinese have never attacked other countries and have never been imperialists–their meddling in Burma is recent after they became Communist and learned from the West to meddle in other people’s countries and poke their noses where they do not belong. China has thousands of years of civilization behind it–it might not be the kind of civilization you approve of or like but it is nevertheless their kind of civilization. What is a few hundred years to a country that old? If they are to advance and regain their lost place in the world, the last two hundred years will probably be seen as a brief period in which the let their country be controlled by outsiders.
81 Comment by H.F. Wolff on 6 January 2009:
70Etienne Gervaise:
“…The Western spirit that pursues freedom and democracy…”
Surely thou jest?
When is the last time you have experienced this spirit?
All I have observed over the last 30-odd years is political correctness and the stifling of free speech. And our democracy is where the densest cave-dweller has the same say (vote) as an educated, degreed, tax-paying, family man, raising 5 children?
You will forgive me if I fail to see that spirit.
The Chinese, on the other hand, have run a reasonably successful society for what, over 4,000 years?
H.F. Wolff
82 Comment by Etienne Gervaise on 6 January 2009:
It was NPR on the radio. It just so happened that program was the most interesting thing on as I by-passed Richmond. I was surprised that a Chinaman would tattle tell on his own nation in that manner. But other Chinese I know corroborate that statement. The remark about having a full stomach could just as easily apply to any Euro-westerner.
83 Comment by Etienne Gervaise on 6 January 2009:
@72 gargi
The Opium Wars instigated by the evil Sassoon family did China no good. Communism ended regionalism and united the several states. In 1957 the Reds took over Tibet who for centuries had raided and oppressed the Han sod-busters. China is ascendant, and Europe is in decline, and both deserve their place.
@73 H.F. Wolff
It doesn’t show up much in the newspapers, but there are missionaries who run hospitals in Yemen and pay with their lives. Look anywhere but Washington — or the newspapers.
84 Comment by Richard Colucci on 8 January 2009:
It is with sadness that I see Dr. Trifkovic is leaving Chronicles. His articles were much anticipated by me each month.
I remember meeting him once when he spoke at a John Randolph Conference in Georgetown some years ago. During a break, we both shared some conversation and a cigarette outside the hotel. He said “Being both a Serb and a smoker, I’m a double pariah.” What a great line.
85 Comment by St. Patrick's Purgatory on 9 January 2009:
Should anyone have more info re. Dr. Trifkovic’s new whereabouts, please share them with this audience. I have always enjoyed his thoughtful articles and no-nonsense analysis, and I hope to
enjoy them soon again.
God bless you, Dr. Trifkovic. You are a valiant and much-needed proponent of all that is good (faith, culture, history), and we are all in your debt.
Vale!
86 Comment by Marc on 9 January 2009:
God Bless Serdja! Please tell us where to find your writings! Your wisdom got me through many a dark day in world affairs.