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The Post-1945 Geopolitical Settlement Is Now Crumbling
Excerpted from Bruce Anderson of CapX
The Post-1945 Geopolitical Settlement Is Now Crumbling
A sculpture representing Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schuman, Alcide De Gasperi and Jean Monnet, founders of the European Union
“Stare into the abyss for long enough” wrote Nietzsche, “and it will stare back at you.” In 1945, Europe seemed caught in the abyss’s basilisk gaze. Tens of millions were dead; millions more were refugees. Cities were shattered; with them, economies. Many of the inhabitants of countries which had recently been rich and powerful were cold, hungry and frightened.
That was not the worst aspect of Europe’s predicament. In 1914, the continent had never been more powerful. Its banks and bourses dominated the world economy. It controlled Africa and much of Asia. Even China, once a mighty power, was virtually a ward of European courts. Although the Americas were largely independent, their states could be regarded as European daughter-houses. It seemed that Europe was in a position to shape the rest of the world in its own image, to its own advantage.
Then came the great European civil war. In its aftermath, Ezra Pound described Europe as “an old bitch gone in the teeth… a botched civilisation.” A harsh verdict: by 1945, it seemed incontrovertible. On the edge of the abyss, Europe was still just about alive, but what future role had the former world continent, except to provide the playing-field for a third and final conflict, in which the doom of Europe would rapidly be followed by the destruction. After exemplifying the human condition at its finest, Europe was for the dark.
. . .
History is written backwards but lived forwards. Those of us tempted to disparage the achievements of Nato or the EU should pause to consider how matters must have seemed in 1945. Looking backwards, we think that we see an easy route upwards. They would have seen the most arduous climb over rough ground and rocks, facing an almost vertical gradient. But the daunting challenges were surmounted. For a generation, Nato and the European Community (under its changing nomenclatures) were more successful than the wildest optimists could have foreseen. Europe had survived. The abyss had receded. Europeans forgot how to be pessimistic, and then the troubles started.
1945: Europe was afflicted by implosion. From 1990 onwards, the problem was overstretch. The Russian Empire collapsed. When Empires fall, there is always tumbling masonry: consider the Roman, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and British experiences. In comparison, the Soviet Empire’s expiry was a euthanasia. But there were still risks. They could have been averted, if the Westerners had taken a simple precaution: scrap their concepts while keeping their weaponry. Instead, defence budgets were reduced in order to pay a peace dividend, while Nato expanded.
It is hardly surprising that the Russians took offence, when we seemed determined to keep the Cold War alive and turn their retreat from Empire into a humiliation. Equally, the Russians know that the West’s posture on the Ukraine is based on bluster. At the height of the Cold War, de Gaulle always doubted the efficacy of mutually assured destruction; would the Americans really risk Detroit for Dusseldorf? But Nato’s posture retained its credibility. That is no longer true.
The EU also succumbed to overstretch. It forgot Marx, and tried to make politics determine economics. The Single Currency could only have worked if there had been a single fiscal policy. But that would have required huge democratic support. Without it, the creators of the Euro were trying to build a house, starting from the roof.
There was also the reductio ad absurdum: a Latin phrase for a Greek shambles. Greece was in no position to join the Euro. It had neither the economic strength nor the political stability. Post-war Greece has never recovered from the Civil War, which adds an especial bitterness to the electoral contests between Right and Left. Stalinopoulos would be succeeded by Kleptocrates; neither would bring healing, reform and realism. Admitting Greece to the Single Currency: that was not just overstretch. It was lunacy.
In order to see the world clearly, Europe has to recover from the overstretch mindset. We need a new system of collective security, which would include the Russians, and which could be used to stabilise boundaries and resolve disputes. In the EU, we require a variable geometry, accepting that different countries have different – and legitimate – agendas. It should not have needed the Greek dégringolade to convince the EU that it cannot be based on Procrustes’ bed.
The post-1945 European settlement had many successes. But it is now crumbling. It needs drastic modification. That requires statesmen of the calibre of the men of 1945. It is time for politicians who wish to earn a place in history and upgrade themselves to statesmanhood to step up to the challenge.
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Right now i'm more concerened with shit here in the US but then I guess this site gets read everywhere.
World War 3 cometh.
Balfour 2 cometh [they're gonna need a bigger map]
https://dpmasitm.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/israel-palestine_maps.jpg
Unleash the Kraken
"We must do everything to ensure they (the Palestinian refugees) never do return" David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, 18 July 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar's Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet, Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157.
Of course, the diary entry was made following the attack by the Arab League intended to wipe out the state of Israel. The countries mentioned were all involved in the attack. Ben-Gurion was not one to sit back and play defense while being shelled.
So you're saying that best 'DEFENSE' [for these poor innocent martyrs], is to imperialize Syria, Jordan, Egypt, & WTF, KSA & Iraq while they're at it.
Sure, why not?
You think the other side feels any differently about it?
OK, I'll play...
Please explain to me how Syria & Egypt have 'IMPERIALISTIC' intentions [feel free to go back to Cleopatra times]...
Now... Explain David Ben Gurion, within ONE FUCKING YEAR of being gifted 'Balfour' to the Tribe because his [Balfour's], monarchy [who think of themselves as descendents of the Tribe of David, & consider London 'The New Jerusalem'], underwrote the affair.
I'll wait
<crickets>
Manipulators, in the purest sense, are the trouble. The rest of us just want to get along and live life.
The moment anyone, regardless of race, creed or colour says "you should behave my/our way". They need to be despatched, eurhanased, put out of our misery.
The rest of us can live in peace and anarchy.
anarchy in the original definition - look it up
Sounds like a plan to me. Finishing things one way or the other finishes them. Since the glorious day in Tokyo Bay, we have not been finishing things and now look at the mess we're in. I, for one, would much rather have Netanyahu for President than our current Fearless Leader.
"I, for one, would much rather have Netanyahu for President"
I'm pretty sure that's all anyone needs to know about your opinions.
Very well said.
For those in the know, it is common knowledge that Netanyahu IS already the president of the DC US.
The banksters need to repay us.
"I looked into the abyss, and Zion stared back at me."
I lmao every time somoene posts that. If we could just wait till Hillary gets elected we could actually have the red queen.
About Hillary and the 2016 sheeple census: Just like in 2008, she's a tool of distraction--the "Bandit" to the "Snowman." While the complicit-media has the sheeple all chasing the "Bandit," they'll spring their real "candidate" out in the spring or so of 2016, just like they did CIA-Obama in 2008.
I am predicting that the real new puppet-in-chief will be Perry of Texas.
The banksters need to repay us.
"10-4 good-buddy."
That corndog huffing fool didn't even make it through the primaries. Try again.
my neighbor's mother makes $86 /hr on the computer . She has been laid off for 10 months but last month her pay was $21128 just working on the computer for a few hours. go to the website... www.globe-report.com
that amount of money is not worth sucking dicks 60 hours a week! tell your neighbor's mother to get a better job!
Women and children can afford to be careless, men cannot.
Bring it. We're due for a full reset.
The only reset that's coming is a giant reset to the mean. Small number of rich, large number of poor and just enough middle class to service the rich. As it has been in most societies throughout most of human history.
Don't be so anxious for the reset. It's probably not what you'll be expecting.
Fuck expectations. Those who make it a habit to produce more than they consume, need not answer to anyone.
As soon as we see a reset i am going to take out a home eqyuity loan.
You'll want to do that _before_ the reset.
Any change will be an opportunity to grab more for themselves.
Resets are vehicles for more control.
We have dickheads worrying about stuff like turning off lifesupport to dead people and minimum wage shit; We are no match to their focus and discipline.
Now some dickhead will tell me how they will dust off their gun and protect their gold......
The game is over.
No one ever surrendered their way to victory.
MOAR collective security and political statesmen. Lol, whatever........
I do find it amusing. Especially considering the "statesmen" of that era. Churchill, the war monger, springs to mind.
Yeah, this whole "liberty," "democracy" and "free markets" shit is getting old. We should just go back to Kings and Emperors. In fact, I believe we already are. It's the only way the elites can fully affect the change they seek (neo-feudalism), so you can pretty much take it to the bank that's where we're headed.
It appears there are two FSAs to deal with, namely the top 30% and the bottom 30%. WIth a stablized, fully controlled, single currency global economy, there will not be a need for all the bankers, lawyers, insurance industries, accountants, economists, trading houses, etc.. and even though there would be resources feed them, they add no more value than decades old welfare class. Dark way to look at it, but some do look at it that way.
Note that many of the wealthiest are buying substantial blocks of land / resources. Mini fiefdoms I would tend to think. Been happening for some time. So, be nice, and be useful :-) Nations rise and nations fall.
Top 30%??? Homie. You really need to put some thought into those numbers you are spouting. That was a trite and lazy answer. At best.
no one ever answered the essential question,
not in the financial or political discourse.
naturally, everyone else has been singing
and screaming
the answer all along.
.
musical interlude ...
Grateful Dead - Sugaree 1972 (Studio Version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GikGnKuehms
The bankers want war, and who's going to stop them? Who can stop them? The best we can do is stay light on our toes and hope to dodge the shrapnel as it rains down. Maybe most of us survive. Maybe some of us survive. Maybe few of us survive. Maybe none of us survive. But human beings, our people, have survived a lot. There are credible rumors circulating that we even survive death. As for me, I have faith in the gods. When there's no one else to turn to, it seems that sometimes the spirits listen. Sometimes they even protect us.
The bankers already control the world and are desperately trying to keep things glued together inside their Empire of Deception.
But they have soared a little too close to the Sun with their waxen wings of financial legerdemain and the feathers are pulling loose one by one.
Just a thought... waxen feathers, having soared too close to the sun don't pull lose, they melt...
We are at a 1937 state of mind right now.
We are Edward Snowden, Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald from the Oscar-winning documentary CITIZENFOUR. AUAA.
Wow, Snowden's answer. You should read it http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2wwdep/we_are_edward_snowden_laura...
Overstretch, it's not just Europe: Borrow the money, buy the votes, suck up to the lobbyists, kick the can. Rinse, lather and repeat until the water runs out. I suspect the Fed's time travel robbery of future generations while torturing what is left of the productive class will not be looked upon with joy and admiration by the next up.
Eurocrat clowns.
This silly article assumes the Central Bankers "give a fuck"....
GERMANY HAD BECOME OFF LIMITS TO LOOTERS.
World Jewish leaders brag:
“We have the greatest power on Earth: gold!”
Hitler and his able comrades developed and directed an efficient economic system out of adversity, which endangered the entire capitalist system. The gold price threatened to fall, which would mean universal disaster for these capitalists! This new economic system was not only historically unprecedented, with no basis upon gold, it was, from the beginning, serious competition against capitalism, of East and West.
This new economic system could only be destroyed by war, and our opponents began their preparations quite early.
In his speech at Fulton in 1946, Churchill declared:
“The war was not only waged to defeat fascism (sic) in Germany, but to conquer the German export market. We could have, if we had wanted, prevented war in 1935, without firing a shot, but we did not wish to do so.”
The Jewish World Congress and capitalist England and France declared war on Germany, because their looter-system was in danger, and threatened with losses in the future. Nor will we forget that the U.S. leadership stood in the background from the beginning, as one of the warmongers. The value of their gold was in danger!
GERMANOCIDE
It was taken into account that the war which the Allies wished to force upon Germany would cause the deaths of millions of innocent people. The Second World War caused the deaths of some 55 million people, including 11 million Germans, of whom millions were women and children.
World War II was conducted as a war of genocide against Germany, to kill the maximum number of Germans, while destroying the German economy for all time. The bombardment of German cities resulting in the deaths of more than a million women and children make that policy clearly evident. This war was a many million-fold bloodbath, caused by a small group of Judeo-Anglo-American capitalists, their lackeys and stooges, on behalf of their gold and their money. Today, the archives are open. The truth is known! One needs only to make the effort to track down this secret story, according to Honore de Balzac, for this is where the real causes of war appear.
The “Cold War” temporarily spared the German people from total annihilation, but our elected “representatives” in the Bundestag work openly to dissolve the German Folk, and to replace us with a multi-cultural society, a multi-national state on German soil. Thus will the victors, who conducted genocide against Germany in war, achieve their final goal.
In order to conceal and cover up the real background and causes of the war against Germany, every means is used against Hitler and the Third Reich: defamation, criminalization, the falsification of history and outright lies. It is alleged that the ‘democracies’ had to defend themselves against Hitler’s plans to ‘conquer the world’.
For more info, please visit our main site at stormfront.org and use the pass phrase "nazi moron" in order to be granted full access.
Was fur ein Geschite!
Erstmal, wann kam die krieg in Rusland beginnen?
Die Deutsche Volk war Opfer im Projekt Barbarossa?
Total wahnsin, quatsch!
The one on the right looks like Al Sharpton. No wonder the enterprise is falling apart.
"The caliber of men of 1945". Are you fucking kidding me? The only western European leader that stood up to the Anglo-American Alliance, and showed he had any balls at all was DeGaulle. He also saw that the US was printing too much currency, and demanded payments to France be made in gold bullion. He also refused to allow foreign {read: NATO & American} troops to be stationed on French soil. I've always liked him above all others of his time.
When you're in a digital world where communication is instant, much can go wrong vs a 1945 world that was analog and things moved somewhat slower.
We're here now though and we gotta adapt, acclimate and overcome....or be eaten.
Please, please! Too funny!! Men of High Caliber!? There is no Eisenhower in this current crop, Al Copones? maybe. The Ameriican people, like the Germans will bear the cost of having such High Caliber politcians.
Fuck Eisenhower. When told of the thousands of US troops in Chinese, Russian and North Korean hands during the Korean War, he turned his back on them, consigning them to death and forced labor camps for life. Ditto for his appeasement of Stalin immediately after WW2. And don't forget he also to part in the massacre of the "Bonus Army" in 1932. To hell with him!
Politicians can't fix what Wall Street has been doing, Mr. Anderson.
Mass revolution all over the entire World is the only solution to dithering
academic Economists that are presently losing power and rule. An overthrow of the current banking system is man's only recourse
at this juncture. We are not slaves and we are tasked to act against slavery and indentured servitude just as our forefathers had to in WW1 & WW2. My grandfather fought and lost his leg in France in the First World War. My father was RCAF in the Second World War. I suspect
World War Three to be the zero sum end game that will undoubtedly be the war to end all wars for good. Ontologically, this is reason to be optimistic about a future that will see an end to hoarded wealth, wars, and fighting over resources. As soon as the MIC launches nukes there will be nothing to eat, or drink, for quite some time, America.
"When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes… Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.” – Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, 1815
The bankers have insideously used their one product, loans/debt, to place Governments in their hands.
Look how quickly money has bought Syriza to heel.
Just so I'm clear - a group of people, who were nearly wiped off the face of the planet, numbering less than 1% of the people on the planet, control EVERYTHING? To include (according to some posters), the very war that killed millions of them?
Such convienent scapegoats the Jews.
Between the popups when I try and respond to the idiots here and the idiots themselves, this whole site has gone down in quality.
snatch, you may not be as bright a bulb as you think, most of us use software that prevents the popups,duh,
as for our yewish dislike, how many heads of the fed have been goyim? in the last 30 yrs...
Sheesh!
"We need a new system of collective security, which would include the Russians, and which could be used to stabilise boundaries and resolve disputes. In the EU, we require a variable geometry,"
That sounds like some liberal / progressive / socialist / communist / fascist sophisticate talking it up real big. Because the EU, NATO, UN, and every other bloated, parasitic, and decrepit Euro organization, trade union, or national government just aren't enough layers. Instead of 32 dimensions of already useless bureaucracy, always just one more for the variable geometry they require!
Didn't the leader of the Krauts, with the head Frog in tow, just meet with Boris? What more did that take than a heads up via CP that they were on their way?
The U.S. is no better. How many layers of .gov are needed to fix a problem? It's always just one more...
None of us ever will be any better off as long as such useless drivel keeps getting promoted.
If you build a bigger pyramid, whether in the US, EU, or Russian Commonwealth, there will be a bigger tyrant at the top of it.
Lord Acton was right.
The greater the power entrusted to a man - even a man totally moral at the beginning - the greater the corruption.
You cannot get there from here.
At some point we must realize the inherent suggestibility of the human mind, and that the suggestions inherent in power over others are all destructive.
You cannot get there from here.
The problem with prognosticators is thet they don't understand reality. Here is another guy saying thet better leadership will fix things.
It cannot be fixed now. It began falling apart after world war two when countries started surrendering their sovereignty on the guise of world peace and cooperation. NATO, UN, and eventually the EU are all functions of politico's duping the masses into collectivism. It does not work, cannot work, and will only continue to get worse.
Individual states at least retain some fiscal soundness over other profligate ones. Now, Germany can't push greece out becuase it is obvious that Spain, portugal, and Italy are right on their heals.
The only way out for Europe and the US is to basically scrub all national debt, aboslish central banking idiocy, and provide the pushback against massive failed governmetns by the oeple becoming educated. At least with absolute fiat currencies the world over, abolishing the debt rolls at once would not really mean anything to the individual citizen. It would require a period of hard living and we know that all democracies will never vote in pain for a better future.
Ain't goona happen becuase most people are stupid sheep. It is over. War is next. Sorry.
In 1945 Europe it was "Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man".
In 2015 Europe it is "Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Clown".
There ain't no savin' it.