foreign policy

On looking out for one's country's best interests

Virtually all countries have something good about them. In fact, name a country, and if I know anything worthwhile about it I shall probably be able to name one good thing about them.

The U.S., for instance, has a laudable tradition for innovation, self-sufficiency and even freedom of speech  - real or perceived. There is also a spirit of innovation in the U.S. that is nothing short of admirable. What I admire most about the U.S. currently, however, is the absolutely stunning growth of authentic Catholicism in the country - often referred to as traditionalism due to the diabolically disoriented times in which we find ourselves. I have met many American traditionalists and I am often humbled by the joy they display and the hope the inspire, and to think we have communities of them sprouting up all over the country gives me some hope that maybe not all is lost over there.

Sweden, for its part, has a population which is very superficially friendly, so a visitor coming to Sweden will meet pretty much only friendly folks - those that engage in conversation anyway. People in this country allow emotions to drive the debate, instead of reason, which of course has its downsides, but one of its few upsides is that for instance, we do not (yet) have euthanasia. However, when it does come to Sweden I fear it will be in a vastly more aggressive form than we have in other countries for the aforementioned reason. Then we have the 'allemansrätt' laws, which allow people to access private lands so long as they do not disturb the landowners, such that the whole population can enjoy much of the beautiful nature that we have in this country. It's what they had in England pre-protestant revolt, if my historical understanding serves me well.

There is too much good about Italy for me to even begin narrowing it down. China, for its part, has pride in its own culture and history - real or perceived - and we have to admit that no matter how ruthless the Chinese have been, they have managed to get more people out of poverty than could have been envisioned 3 generations ago. Of course, it is not worth destroying churches and killing hundreds of millions of unborn and infants, but we cannot argue that at least they have found an economic model which seems to ensure that the economic initiative of the globe will be Eastwards for some time to come. There also seems to be a genuinely-accepted principle in China that interfering in other countries' internal affairs is a bad thing, and this is a principle they actually seem to honour, as opposed to the Western countries which speak of human rights and freedom, but merely as weapons with which to bludgeon countries they propagate against more than principles they accept or encourage.

"What does this have to do with looking out for one's contry's best interests?", you might well be asking. Well, it has to do with Mother Russia.

You see, it too has much to admire and perhaps most admirable is how much value-for-money Russia seems to get out of its technicians and engineers. Another thing no less admirable is the Russia insistence on self-reliance and independence. In fact, Vladimir Putin has labeled Russia's independence "axiomatic": Russia would cease to be Russia were it not an independent and autonomous country. This is integral to Russia's 'goodness'.

Sadly, most of Europe does not seem to share this kind of view. For instance, we see much of Eastern Europe shaking off the chains of the Sovient Union only to shackle itself first to the E.U.'s chains, and then to be lackey's of the U.S. whatever threat this poses to their own security or economic interests. Western Europe, on the other hand, is occupied territory and has been such since World War II, though it seems to be something not to be mentioned in polite company, and seems to revel in this occupation.

Anyway...It may seem somewhat enigmatic that pretty much the closest thing we have to a Christian nation today - Russia (although that says more about the sad state of former Christendom than it does about Russia's virtues) - would choose to forge an alliance with communist China which has outlawed Christianity. Russia has built over 10,000 churches since the collapse of communism; China demolishes churches, frequently and gleefully, as often as they can.

It is probably not until we consider that Russia attempted to make peace and friendship with the West, and was brutally shunned, humiliated and ransacked that we begin to see why Russia felt that the only way to turn was Eastwards. It is not for a lack of trying that Russia is not on good terms with the West; there is simply too much at stake for the political elite in Europe to drive the narrative that Russia is an enemy. Russia, for its part, tired of trying, and decided to take its economic interests elsewhere, and it is turning out well for them.

This topic is the debale on "Bear & Dragon", an episode of the best show on TV - Russia Today's "Crosstalk" programme hosted by Peter Lavelle. It often has very engaging discussions and most of the time one can learn something worthwhile.

For anybody wanting to learn why Russia has drifted closer to China, and why it has drifted away from the West - through no initiative of its own, one hastens to add - this episode might well prove to be an eye-opener.

What one has to remember as well is that with Russia now attempting to integrate itself more with the East and the South, the barrier of the West towards both Russia and China, as well as their trade partners increases. Trade creates partnerships and relationships, and done well and with respect - which both Russia and China do much better than the West which tries to...

The schism that isn't, and a narrative so deceptive it is scary - Sunday 1st to Saturday 7th of October

We shall start with Cardinal Burke stating that the SSPX is in schism. These words he uttered a while back and they are, of course, regrettable. Normally, what the Church's top canonist says should be respected, but as the Vatican actually has the Ecclesia Dei dealing with the SSPX, and that commission has always insisted that the SSPX is not in schism, we can safely disregard his words on this one.

The curious thing about the SSPX's so-called schism is that nobody can actually pinpoint what it is they do that would cause them to be in shcism, especially now that their bishops have had their excommunications lifted. ChurchMilitant.tv was ecstatic at hearing the cardinal using the word schism, and they put it that the cardinal had "confirmed" that the SSPX was in schism, as if comments made at a gathering outside his official statements and offical role count as confirmation for anything. The only confirmation we received was that Cardinal Burke does not much like the SSPX, but that is not exactly news, now is it? As hopeful as we may be on Cardinal Burke, we must realise that he is a Vatican II bishop and his idea is that Vatican II itself was not bad but that it was corrupted, a hard idea to sell given that the very people who participated in the council are those who implemented it.

It is almost difficult to imagine that there is bad stuff which goes outside the Church given how bad things within the Church have gone, but for sure bad stuff abounds...

The most widely-publicised tragedy of the week was the shooting in Las Vegas which left hundreds injured and around 60 killed. The most remarkable thing about this incident is that the official narrative - now narratives since they keep changing all the time - is so absurd that nobody who spends 10 minutes examining the inconsistencies can end up believing it. There are doubts about the identity of the shooter, whether there was one or more, the timeline of events, people who were supposed to have been killed being alive, violations of such basic things as securing scenes of investigation and a whole lot more.

In fact, pretty much the only part of the narrative that seems to be truthful is the notion that bullets move faster than people.

My attitude towards conspiracy theories is that there is no conspiracy theory that I am not willing to entertain, so long as its basic premises make sense. However, one does not even have to be in the least open to cospiracy theories to realise that the story that the public is being fed is completely off. Some links at the bottom of this article point out some of the inconsistencies.

It also happened that Catalonia had a referendum. The Spanish government interfered in a heavy-handed way, which was very bad for public relations. However, it seems as though the Catalonian government is the one which has come out worst off in this scenario. They obviously pushed the situation to a head without any reason for doing that and the repercussions have not been to their expectation. The Spanish government responded by making it easier to move businesses out of Catalonia and some big financial institutions have already moved their headquarters.

As usual, the hypocrisy of the EU and the Western states regarding independence movements was telling. The EU was more or less completely silent, the same EU which has encuraged/condemned independence movements  around the world, alternating condemnation with encouragement based on its own or the US foreign policy interest, or in many instances, simly against the interests of Russia or its allies.

Returning to the mess in the Church, Bergoglio urged the Church to join the cultural revolution. As I have remarked many times before, the man does not even try to hide that he is an enemy of the Church. He simply seems to have nothing good to say about the Church, Her mission or Her teaching.

 

 

 

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