Is Putin the ‘Preeminent Statesman’ of Our Times?

If we were to use traditional measures for understanding leaders, which involve the defense of borders and national flourishing, Putin would count as the preeminent statesman of our time.

“On the world stage, who could vie with him?”

putinPatrick J. Buchanan So asks Chris Caldwell of the Weekly Standard in a remarkable essay in Hillsdale College’s March issue of its magazine, Imprimis. [How to Think About Vladimir Putin, March 2017]

What elevates Putin above all other 21st-century leaders?

“When Putin took power in the winter of 1999-2000, his country was defenseless. It was bankrupt. It was being carved up by its new kleptocratic elites, in collusion with its old imperial rivals, the Americans. Putin changed that.

“In the first decade of this century, he did what Kemal Ataturk had done in Turkey in the 1920s. Out of a crumbling empire, he resurrected a national-state, and gave it coherence and purpose. He disciplined his country’s plutocrats. He restored its military strength. And he refused, with ever blunter rhetoric, to accept for Russia a subservient role in an American-run world system drawn up by foreign politicians and business leaders. His voters credit him with having saved his country.”

Putin’s approval rating, after 17 years in power, exceeds that of any rival Western leader. But while his impressive strides toward making Russia great again explain why he is revered at home and in the Russian diaspora, what explains Putin’s appeal in the West, despite a press that is every bit as savage as President Trump’s?

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Savage Barbarians rule the World

humanKatherine Frisk – Is the human race a total, utter and complete lost cause? It deludes itself with lies at every turn. It creates illusions for itself to justify theft, greed, murder and slavery of its own species. The human race is mentally unbalanced and insane. It is beyond help. It is beyond rehabilitating.

Go back in history and then forward into the present and the future. There is no difference at all. It is the same game, the same story line; it is not even ingenious or creative. Or even variegated. It is totally predictable no matter in which time frame you may look at it.

The human race, unlike other life forms has free will, the ability to reason, the ability to determine its own future, but over and over again chooses suffering, slavery and disempowerment.

It chooses to subject itself to abusive people and abusive bodies of power. It chooses to stay in childlike subservience and idolize others and give their power away rather than grow up and take responsibility for themselves.

The only conclusion I can come to is that the human race can be put into two categories. Masochists and sadists. The Masochists need the sadists as much as the sadists need the masochists and in-between the very few “sane” people in all races, religions, cultures and nations barely stand a chance, barely have a voice for survival and the civilized choice. Their voices are blocked out between the fanatic lunatics on both sides of the divide that control this world.

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Trump This and Bern That!

Elective Bargaining

WomanScalesJusticeWaterIam Saums – It is a presidential election year and the masses are emerging from their political slumber.  Every four years the nation becomes encumbered and ensnared within the duality that is the American voting process.  Like a college sports rivalry, politics divides couples, families, friends, business associates and communities.  As always, the powers that be are ratcheting up the politico machine to amuse, deceive, distract, enrage, hypnotize, intrigue and stupefy society.  The establishment plays us all like a maestro their instrument.  Every time, we take the bait, note for dissonant note.

Elusive Leadership

We are all born leaders, yet we are not educated, empowered, encouraged, raised or supported in our leadership.  For most of us, this lifestyle is not an option.  Not because we don’t choose this path or aren’t adept in its practice.  It is mostly because we are discouraged, distracted and suppressed by the arrogant and bold sociopathic few that were born into the right family.  We are bewildered, enchanted, envious and ultimately subservient to politicians because of their charisma, celebrity and popularity.  We acquiesce to their inauthentic guidance and importance for fear or lack of our own.

Slight of View

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A Tale of Two Leaders: Obama vs. Putin at the UNGA

putinMakia Freeman – Watching Obama and Putin at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was a very interesting glimpse into the world of geopolitics and diplomacy. It was a tale of two leaders, or rather a misleader and a leader. Obama delivered the same old hollow rhetoric of “democracy and peace” we’ve come to expect from the US Teleprompter-in-Chief, while Putin was amazingly upfront and honest, though couching his words in diplomatic speech so as to avoid being too confrontational. Putin managed to avoid using the terms “United States” or “America” all the while directing strong admonitions towards the USA, and even asking at one point: “Do you realize what you have done?”

Obama – More Gross Hypocrisy

Obama’s speech praised “cooperation instead of conflict“, a new world system which prevents “bigger countries from imposing its will on smaller countries” and decried those who believe that “might is right“, that “order must be imposed by force” and that “individual rights don’t matter“. As usual, the gross hypocrisy of his speech was starkly evident right from the start. Obama is a fine orator and his words always sound so nice, but it is rare indeed to find his actions matching up to his words. Continue reading

Why Is Independence So Frightening To Some People?

“The point is, the fight for liberty is not a follower’s game. It is a fight that begins with individuals taking individual measures first and foremost, and if anything, inspiring others through their actions, not demanding fealty for themselves, or their pet strategies.” – B Smith

FollowersIn past articles I have examined the nature of power and division in our society and have always come to the same conclusion, that there are only two types of people: the people who want control over others and the people who just want to be left alone. However, there are also subgroups that swim within the boundaries of each end of the spectrum. Often, psychologists and self-help gurus attempt to promote the idea that the defining quality of the average person’s life is whether he is a follower or a leader. I have seen this spectrum applied to every political and social organization.

Ironically, I have heard so-called “leftists” argue that the nature of their ideology makes them more adept at leadership and that conservatives are more prone to become followers (ostensibly because conservatives tend to be more religious). I have heard the same argument from people on the so-called “right,” only in reverse. The problem is that very few people in our society understand anymore what it actually means to be a leader. Most Americans today are followers, whether they know it or not.  And sadly, followers tend to also seek out control over other people, if only to make up for the lack of control they feel in their own lives.  That is to say, most followers tend to pursue petty opportunities for leadership.

The concept of leadership has become ridiculously warped. Many people feel that to become a leader, one must clamor his way through the system — be it government or corporate — and achieve artificial status, which others are conditioned to recognize and respect. One cannot become a designated “doctor”, no matter how personally skilled the individual, without earning the correct accolades from the establishment, accolades that are essentially bought at the right price or given as a pat on the head to those who excel at parroting the mainstream consensus. The same goes for scientists, economists, political authorities, etc. This creates a professional class, a percentage of the population whose opinions are treated with immediate reverence simply because of their titles. Continue reading