East vs west: who are the enlightened ones? Part I

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East vs West: Who are the enlightened ones?

By Vince Dhimos

                                               I will be like the most high. Isaiah 14:14

The core mission of New Silk Strategies is to explain the reasons for the Western world’s increasingly conspicuous social, economic, financial, military and foreign policy failures. We have already provided comprehensive reference material for understanding the petrodollar agreement with the Saudis (Part 1,  Part 2,  Part 3) that all but guaranteed a steady series of wars unrelated to the protection of US interests; a comprehensive outline of the US’s designs on Middle Eastern oil along with Chinas’s plans to help Syria protect its own resources (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), and the contribution of Israel to the motivation for US-waged wars, including the irrational antagonism to Iran (here and here), and we have exposed (here) the almost unnoticed role of Christian Zionism in the unquestioned support of Israeli policies that help promote these wars (without most Christians knowing they are part of Zionism).

But we had not yet elaborated on the deeper lying cause, ie, the mentality that makes US and European policy makers and their popular supporters put aside all moral considerations that might give the war makers and their popular base pause. For example, why would most Western officials and the grass roots find it acceptable that Israel should occupy for years a large swath of Syrian territory, the Golen Heights, with no challenge from the US or European governments or the UN?

Why in heaven’s name did the US and Britain declare war on Afghanistan and then Iraq and destroy so much infrastructure in these countries, making a living hell for the lives of the inhabitants, when it was the Saudis and their GCC allies who had founded and sponsored Al-Qaeda, with the tacit support of the US, and the invaded countries had virtually nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks?

Why do the US and Europe still send vast arms shipments to Saudi Arabia? Why does Freedom House, a wholly owned subsidiary of the US government posing as a NGO, list the democratically administered Syria as the worst offender against freedom when the Syrian people are the victims of ISIS, Al-Qaeda rebrandings and other US-supported terrorists in Syria, and not the Syrian government?

And how is it that Iran, a country that contributes mightily to defeating ISIS in Syria, is called the “biggest state sponsor of terror” in the world?

And on the domestic front, how can a Christian country deny life-saving medical insurance to people with pre-conditions, simply allowing them to die under color of protecting the free market?

Why does the US government, whose “enemies” are almost all the product of US provocation (even North Korea, as Andre Vltchek has shown here) or fabricated in the fantasies of government officials and msm, spend on “defense” enough money to solve most of the social, public health and crime problems of the country and invest in projects that create high-paying jobs (projects analogous to the Chinese bank ACIIB and infrastructure project BRI)?

Why have the central bankers and government allowed disastrous financial bubbles and ponderous debt to threaten their own people and the financial stability of the globe?

And why is Africa becoming poorer and poorer even as the IMF lends increasing amounts to that continent (we hope to explore this in further detail later on)?

Finally, why is the West focused on aiding refugees but not on rebuilding the infrastructures of countries, such as Syria, that have been destroyed by terrorism, so that the refugees can go home?

In other words, what is the origin of the underlying lack of all morality, natural law and common sense in Western public life? Is there an ideological bedrock on which all the inequality, injustice, impoverishment and cruelty against people foreign and domestic rest?

Conversely, why is it that Russia and China are not contributing to these problems?

For example, why is Russia’s debt such a tiny percentage of its GDP?

And why does Russia not invade countries, merely going to the aid of countries or regions that have been invaded or assaulted through regime change?

Why is Chinese aid aimed at raising Africa out of poverty instead of exploiting it?

And why are Russia and China focused on rebuilding Syria even as the West continues to impose grossly unfair and impoverishing sanctions on that war torn country?

In summary, why do Russia and China appear to be the humanitarians while the Exceptional Country once describing itself as Christian, along with its allies in Europe, now appear to be the oppressors?

Yes, there is an ideological bedrock underlying all of this that enables us to answer all of these questoins, and we now come to this most thorny and complex issue, namely, Enlightenment thought, originating in the 17th and 18th Centuries, and its extension into the 21st Century. But as we shall see, in its radical form, the word Enlightenment is a cynical misnomer. Yet in its moderate form, it is true to its name. The moderate school, which is a non-ideological problem-solving approach, has been all but eliminated in the West but thrives in the East.
The Enlightenment is generally defined by historians as a movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that sought to apply reason to solve problems facing mankind. It was supposed to be a humanitarian movement and was supposed to replace religious dogma with rationality and enable the common man to overcome the overbearing influence of the rich and powerful, making everyone equal in an enlightened world.

Typically mentioned by historians as the leaders of this Enlightenment are a number of leading philosophers, such as Rousseau and, most famously, Voltaire, whose more radical school of thought generally taught that there could be no compromise with traditionalists or with the ancient wisdom and common sense that were part of the popular European psyche up until them. We could describe this movement and its extension to the modern age as “perpetual revolution.” The radical Enlightenment in its real world embodiment was marked by a zeal not so much to solve problems but to eradicate old ideas and behaviors and to punish those who clung to them. Their targets were common sense and traditional wisdom, particularly of the kind associated with Christianity. The embodiment of this radical school is best illustrated by the French Revolution, the proving ground for the ideology. Unfortunately, the guinea pigs for this trial were the whole of the French people. Such a test of a matter that would necessarily affect the very core of civilization could be compared to a chef elaborating a new recipe on paper and, without first tasting the product, preparing it and serving it to hundreds of select guests in the finest restaurant in Paris. A risk to say the least.

Ultimately, this revolution led to a blood bath, preceded with much fanfare and propaganda consisting essentially of the words “Liberté, égalité, fraternité,” ie, freedom, equality, brotherhood. It failed tragically.

​Related

Knockout games
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-charles-hardie/knockout-game-reducing-vi_b_8361886.html

Russia ushering in the Age of Grace
http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/opinion/russia-ushering-in-the-age-of-grace

East and West: the twain shall meet
http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/news--analysis/east-and-west-the-twain-shall-meet

Making Saudi Arabia great again
http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/opinion/making-saudi-arabia-great-again-pt-2
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In Russian, Their sons of bitches“: US and Britain arm 70 of the world’s dictators
https://eadaily.com/ru/news/2017/10/13/ih-sukiny-deti-ssha-i-britaniya-vooruzhayut-70-mirovyh-diktatorov?utm_source=push


To be continued