Entries from November 2009 ↓
November 30th, 2009 — Watching The World
One of the things that has crossed my mind a lot lately is that I might like to get out of the U.S.. There isn’t anything holding me here and I’ll probably do it as soon as I finish this website. There are a lot of what are referred to as intentional communities and other good ideas that are taking shape, but just in case you just – wanna get away – check out this page from Project Avalon.
George Green, in his important Project Camelot interview Messages for the Ground Crew, refers to The Ground Crew as those who have a responsibility for the ongoing stewardship of the civilization on Planet Earth. He strongly suggests that members of the Ground Crew gather together, in communities, prepared to ride out possible future events for the next few years.
The timing for this, George says, is now.
Much has also been said by others about the need to group in communities. Dr Bill Deagle has spoken about this clearly in his important December 2006 Granada Forum Lecture,
and there’s a great deal of discussion and information on the websites of Steve Quayle and Stan Deyo. In addition, Michael St. Clair also addressed this in the recent Project Camelot Futuretalk II video conversation.
Communities don’t necessarily need to be avant garde groups such as Findhorn or Damanhur. A village is a community – and so may be a street in a town. All that’s needed is a neighborhood in which there’s a strong, stable, mutually supportive connection between the people living there. Inner cities are to be avoided and rural areas are preferable for obvious reasons. The issues are security, water, food, power, transport and general self-sufficiency in a worst-case scenario.
For people living in countries where political, economic or possible earth changes are causing them to consider relocating, they may need to establish groups elsewhere. For example, due to the threat of war or loss of civil liberties, many are moving, or considering moving, to Costa Rica, Panama or Ecuador. There are aware groups of expats in all three countries, and also in some other Latin American countries such as Nicaragua, Bolivia and Brazil (note: this is not an exclusive list). Some, depending on their situations, are moving to Canada, Switzerland, Thailand, or Australia/ New Zealand. The financial commentator Al Martin even suggests relocating to China.
This is not a recommendation for citizens of any given country to leave certain areas where the situation has become difficult. Our intention is to inform. We know many people who are determined to ‘dig in’, take precautions, and ride out whatever happens in the country they love.
Aware people are starting these ventures on farmland in isolated locations all over the world, and it’s natural that those with similar concerns (and maybe complementary skills) will want to connect with one another. One of our roles is to assist in that process.
November 30th, 2009 — Making The World
Has The New World Order Taken Over America’s Free Will, Leaving People Unable To Think For Themselves?
Alan Watt has been fighting to wake-up America for more than a decade, saying people need to understand history before ever having a grasp on what is happening in America today
By Greg Szymanski (www.arcticbeacon.com)
Alan Watt knows the New World Order has all the power and resources that money can buy.
He knows the rulers have been perfecting their system of dominance and control for centuries, using mind control and propaganda as a way to deceive the masses.
According to Watt, who has meticulously studied history to find the answers, the Illuminati’s main goal is to wipe away freewill and individualism, replacing it with the new socialist man, who is unable to think on his own and easily manipulated and controlled.
And if history be the guide, he understands the picture looks bleak for the America since the controllers of the New World Order have devised a program that usually works when they decide to takeover a country.
But like the ultimate free thinker, he feels the diabolical intentions of the rich and powerful, who have infiltrated all major governments and religions of the world, can be defeated once the American people again learn to think and reason on their own without relying on their government and media to do their thinking for them.
Watt’s wit, wisdom and scholarship are well known in a small circle of people who have not fallen victim to the New World Order’s propaganda machine, but he still remains a virtual unknown to the masses since the New World Order’s clamp down on free speech and free thought has reached epidemic proportions.
“There are always going to be a few people who can’t be brainwashed,” said Watt this week on Greg Szymanski’s radio show, the Investigative Journal. “But for the most part the masses remain in the dark, not having a clue how the New World Order plan works and how they really are.
“Everybody has to realize that this is their system, not ours. People have to realize they are led to believe they are free, but really they are not. Mind control is a big part of the New World Order takeover and they use religion as one of their main tools.
“People have to remember that this elitist system has been passed down for hundreds if not thousands of years. They work through secret societies, infiltrating governments and religions and using Freemasonry around the world as their tool.
“The people at the lower levels, of course, don’t understand what’s happening at the top and they provide a good cover for the top levels to carry out their plan of one government and one religion through war and genocide. We are put on this planet for a short time and must try to first understand what is happening by understanding history.”
Watt is known for his scholarship in ancient religions and secret societies, using his study of history as a way explain the problems facing the world today. But Watt is also quick point out, there are solutions.
Here is one answer he gave to an inquisitive emailer on his web site at www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com
“We’ve got to eliminate the crocodiles because apparently they’re running all over the place. Part of the solution again is to expose the control and the control techniques which includes psychological warfare, which has many people spinning into outer space. The solution is for each individual to decide. If the system is corrupt from top to bottom, how can you save it, and would you want to save it, or like most people do you want time to stop with everything you know intact and simply go no further?
“I’ve been deluged with New Agers who’ve swallowed every piece of candy on the bookshelves and their solution is to stare down holes like Mt. Shasta for an answer, try and make piece with the reptiles, or accepting the “fact” that the commoners are a lower slave made DNA type of reptile, therefore there’s nothing you can do. Meanwhile all the little unknown people who’ve been doing all the serious research have it spun into outer space and discredited by psychological warfare techniques.
“The oneness movement was put out there by the top of the establishment for the establishment’s sake. People are divided by all religions including the New Age Religion, the Space Age Religion and the Lord Of The Rings Religion. The only ones who have their names on documents regarding the New World Order and its agenda were conceived and born the same way as everybody else. Until the public demand a say in their own destiny and demand the associations to which every public servant belongs be made available, then these agendas will steamroll on.
“Why would anyone give power of law over one-self to someone or hundreds who’ve sworn allegiance to a secret agenda? Just like with the FTAA, NAFTA, GATT, SOA, the public know by the effects years after the deals have been signed into law. We are only now seeing the effects of the next stage. America is asleep. No one can argue they didn’t notice the unification of Europe and the subjugation of once national governments to that of minor provinces. Where were the people of America while all that was going on? And check the most popular books of that era. Yes, counter-intelligence works very well.”
Much has written about the origins of the New World Order as well as the culprits, but not much has been said about the stages people go through in waking up to the truth or why the waking up process fails to spread quickly through society.
Although Watt believes most people really do not want to know the truth, he provides a much deeper analysis in one of his three books under the main title of Cutting Through: Volumes I, II and III.
As a preface to understanding, I think it necessary to go through the standard phases of “waking up.”
1. An Individual vaguely perceives something is wrong in his/her life. This takes the form of fatigue at trying to “keep up” with real or imaginary crisis, encroachment of government into every aspect of life, increasing taxation and so on. Sometimes it takes the loss of work and the realization that the safety net they contributed to has a gaping hole in the middle.
2. The individual discovers that justice is a joke and that all control mechanisms go up like a pyramid, taking their property, taxes etc. with it. This wealth then is distributed to “help bail-out” or “prop-up” “failing” transnational corporations. Left-overs are channeled via Overseas Developement Corporations to “developing nations,” where the loot is pocketed by front-men and their bureaucrats. Crumbs filter down to social services, which, after being guzzled by directors and staff, leave little for the needy except bundles of forms, in triplicate, of course.
3. The individual looks around for others already exposing “the conspiracy.” These established champions inform him which “conspiracy” books to read. Having then done so, the individual begins to “expose” the corruption, first to friends, then when friendless, he either publishes what he has gleaned or becomes paranoid and withdraws from society altogether.
Why does the waking-up process fail to spread quickly through society?
1. He is terribly naive. He believes the massive corruption “just happened” to begin in his own lifetime, otherwise mummy or daddy or teacher would have warned him. It does not occur to him that his Parents, teachers etc. were as conditioned as he was.
2. Most people do not wish to know. They, like farm animals, have been domesticated. Wild animals (original) have natural instincts of self-preservation. They sense the evil intentions of predators and they survive by trusting their instincts. Wild herds do not “hang around” when one or more members drops dead. Specially bred sheep do.
3. Pavlovian conditioning/response indoctrination has been fed to every individual, through schooling. The media then takes over. Peoples’ opinions are simply sound-bites from news, talk-shows or quotes from glossy magazines.
4. Trust replaces the instinct of self-preservation. It over-rides memory and logic. Controllers and shepherds encourage trust.
5. When threatened with loss of possessions, property, access to health care, etc., people turn to government(predators) for help, or/and organized religion. Should an individual persist in pushing for his “rights,” he will be removed from society and placed in a psychiatric hospital or prison on any number of pretexts. The alternative is death by “accident,” or shot by police while ‘resisting arrest.’
Saying we are truly living in the age of destruction and chaos, Watt added:
“We are truly into the age of chaos, long in the planning and written about openly by the big movers and shakers who lord over us. Some of them, such as Brzezinski have described the coming effects on world-wide societies as akin to the vast population movements which occurred at the beginning of the industrial revolution.
“After the unification of Europe was to follow the unification of the Americas with the resulting clash of cultures and the initial mayhem produced. People slept while the Free Trade Agreement and the subsequent NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) were discussed with deliberate minimum coverage by the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) controlled media. For those who wish to check, the publicly available censored version will see it has to do, in part, with THE FREE FLOW OF GOODS AND LABOR across traditional national boundaries. People are being encouraged to blame the effect (mass influx from south) and to completely forget the cause.
“Out of the mayhem will materialize, as if by magic, a new Constitution of the Americas. This will be presented as the only reasonable and logical direction to go if we are all to live in peace and security. Coupled with this will come the announcement that every citizen of the Americas must accept an INTERNATIONAL Identity Card under the guise that authorities will be able to track criminal elements moving northwards. The problem has been caused, the reaction is underway, and the solution will be presented. This is the standard Hegelian technique which never fails. Read “MILLENNIUM – Winners and Losers in the Coming World Order” by Jacques Attali who helped spearhead the European Union.”
November 30th, 2009 — Watching The World
Financial Crisis in Dubai: Towards a Nightmare Scenario?
By Mike Whitney
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16310
The default in Dubai is not the beginning of Financial Meltdown 2. Don’t look for dominoes here. Yes, it does raise serious questions about the vast debt-overhang in emerging economies–particularly East Europe. But, this is not a “sovereign default” in the strict sense, nor is there any great risk of contagion. Oil-rich Abu Dhabi is loaded with liquid assets, possibly as much as $800 billion. They could pay off Dubai World’s measly $60 billion debt without batting an eye. But Abu Dhabi wants to send its wastrel younger brother a wake-up-call by forcing Dubai to restructure its debt. That means that banks, bondholders and contractors will have to take a haircut, which is not surprising given the abysmal condition of the commercial real estate market.
Dubai World owners were caught up in the same heady debt-fueled commercial construction-binge that swept across the United States. The problem can be traced back to lax lending standards and low interest rates. Now demand has fallen off a cliff and credit is getting tighter. Dubai World can’t roll over its debt or meet its obligations. That’s what typically happens when credit bubbles burst.
On Thursday, Bank of America analysts issued a statement: “One cannot rule out — as a tail-risk — a case where this would escalate into a major sovereign default problem, which would then resonate across global emerging markets in the same way that Argentina did in the early 2000s or Russia in the late 1990s.”
This is nonsense. There will be no sovereign default. Abu Dhabi is not going to send global markets into a nosedive to save a few billion dollars. B of A is blowing smoke. Oil has already slipped $3 per barrel since the crisis began. There will probably be a tentative resolution by the time the markets open on Monday. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t important lessons to be learned from this latest financial calamity. There are.
First, it illustrates that the financial crisis is not over—households, businesses and countries are still de-leveraging. This ongoing process will slow spending and increase defaults, bankruptcies and foreclosures. Government guarantees and stimulus programs will not reverse prevailing trends. More incidents like Dubai World should be expected. These “credit events” will disrupt the recovery and spur greater risk-aversion which will push stocks downward.
Arnab Das of RGE Monitor sums it up like this: “We’re bound to see a rise in risk aversion. The Dubai situation signifies that although the major central banks around the world have stabilized the financial system, they can’t make all the excesses simply disappear. We still have to work out those balance sheet stresses. The recovery is proceeding, but significant challenges still lie ahead.” (Bloomberg News)
Second, when these incidents take place, there’s likely to considerable collateral damage from the unregulated insurance policies (credit default swaps) which underwrite the bonds. These CD derivatives are not sold on a public exchange so no one knows who holds them, in what amount, or whether the issuer has sufficient capital reserves to pay off claims. We should expect a repeat of AIG over and over again (although smaller) until the system is either regulated or CD’s are banned. The bottom line, is that the current financial architecture is not designed to work; it is designed to make a handful of speculators very rich. These speculators own congress, the White House and the financial media, which is why there has been no meaningful change in regulations.
Dubai is not Argentina. There will be a resolution and contractors will get paid, although not “in full.” There will be losses. Big losses. But no contagion.
News of Dubai’s payment “standstill” roiled global markets where investor confidence was already thin. The dollar and yen strengthened and US Treasury’s surged. The “flight to safety” is making it doubly hard for the Fed to reflate asset prices. Dubai-like credit events make investors jittery and they pull in their horns. That extends the slump and deepens the recession.
If the Dubai crisis drags on, the dollar will get stronger and the flourishing carry trade will crash. That means that the maxed-out banks (which are heavily invested in high-risk positions) will get clobbered once again. That’s the nightmare scenario.
The Fed has wrapped its arms around the financial system and provided unlimited guarantees on trillions of dollars of dodgy collateral. But that might not be enough.
November 30th, 2009 — Making The World
Does Everything Cause Cancer, Even Vitamins?
Folate, B-12 and Cigarettes: Guess Who the Real Culprit Is….
(OMNS, November 29, 2009) A newly released study suggests that folate supplements can increase cancer rates in patients who have heart disease [1]. But the data for the study was not collected to test the effect of supplemental folate on cancer, and appears to be biased by the high fraction of smokers and by the low levels of supplements given. All of the groups in the study had high rates of cancer, whether or not they took a folate supplement. The suggested increase in cancer risk is very small, only 1.6%. Because of these problems, the report appears to be biased by uncontrolled factors in the data collection and analysis.
The study combined the data from two recent trials performed in Norway that tested the effect of folate and vitamin B-12, two closely related B vitamins, on the homocysteine levels in the blood and on overall mortality [2,3]. The rationale for these trials was that high levels of homocysteine are known to be a risk factor associated with atherosclerosis, and are sometimes associated with low folate levels [4,5]. Folate and vitamin B-12 are important for growth because they involved in the synthesis of DNA. Folate is crucial for the prevention of spina bifida and other developmental defects in babies. Folate is also known to prevent the occurrence of cancer, and to reduce atherosclerosis and related heart problems [6,7].
Another reason to be cautious about the conclusion of the study is that most of the cancers detected were slow-progressing and would not be expected to be initiated by a relatively low dose of an essential vitamin, such as folate, over the 3-year period of the study. It would appear much more likely that the vitamin supplements actually reduced new cancer incidence as shown in previous studies [7], but that any cancers that showed up later were already initiated but undetected at the start of the study [8]. The real cause of cancer may be connected to the heart disease in these subjects because of their long history of smoking and ill health.
In these two trials, the subjects were selected for having heart disease and were therefore quite ill. The vitamin amounts were small: 0.8 milligrams/day of folic acid; 0.4 mg/day of vitamin B-12, and 40 mg/day vitamin B-6. These amounts are low by comparison with other studies, where commonly much larger amounts of folate and vitamin B12 are given (40 mg/day folic acid, 2 mg/day of vitamin B12) [9]. Orthomolecular (nutritional) physicians maintain that larger nutrient doses are more effective in preventing illness than are small doses.
Indeed, the data from the two trials showed a cancer increase that was non-significant. That’s right, it could be merely random variation. This is important. One reason this is likely is that the point where a subject stopped being considered as part of the statistical significance was either any cause of death, or a heart-related event, or a stroke [2,3]. Thus subjects who died of unrelated causes were tallied in the statistics, which would tend to obscure any effects of the treatment. Other uncontrolled factors, for example the general ill health of the subjects, or behavioral factors like the amount of smoking, very likely contributed to the variability. In an attempt to give more statistical significance the study combined the data from both trials to double the number of subjects. A claimed increase in cancer due to increased folate levels is not borne out by statistics for the population of the US where folate levels have increased recently, because the cancer rates have significantly dropped [7].
Interestingly, health was actually improved in the subjects that received folate plus vitamin B-12, because for them the rates of acute hospitalization for angina and the incidence of stroke were lower by about 4% than for the placebo group.
In conclusion, any apparent increase in cancer risk is close to the expected random variability in the cancer rate, implying that much or all of any alleged “vitamin problem” is purely due to chance.
Findings due to chance are not scientific findings. Isn’t it interesting that a major journal (Journal of the American Medical Association) would publish this research? Perhaps nonsignificant data are acceptable if you have an anti-vitamin orientation. Researchers previously found that in major medical journals, more pharmaceutical company advertising resulted in the journal having more articles with “negative conclusions about dietary supplement safety.” [10] JAMA carries a large number of pharmaceutical ads.
Bottom line: vitamins do not cause cancer. Smoking does.
References:
[1] Ebbing M, Bonaa KH, Nygard O, Arnesen E, Ueland PM, Nordrehaug JE, Rasmussen K, Njolstad I, Refsum H, Nilsen DW, Tverdal A, Meyer K, Vollset SE (2009) Cancer incidence and mortality after treatment with folic acid and vitamin B12. JAMA 301: 2119-2126.
[2] Bonaa KH, Njolstad I, Ueland PM, Schirmer H, Tverdal A, Steigen T, Wang H, Nordrehaug JE, Arnesen E, Rasmussen K; NORVIT Trial (2006) Homocysteine lowering and cardiovascular events after acute myocardial infarction. N Engl J Med. 354:1578-88.
[3] Ebbing M, Bleie O, Ueland PM, Nordrehaug JE, Nilsen DW, Vollset SE, Refsum H, Pedersen EK, Nygard O.(2008) Mortality and cardiovascular events in patients treated with homocysteine-lowering B vitamins after coronary angiography: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 300:795-804.
[4] McCully KS. (2009) Chemical pathology of homocysteine. IV. Excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, and inflammation. Ann Clin Lab Sci. 39:219-232.
[5] Terwecoren A, Steen E, Benoit D, Boon P, Hemelsoet D. (2009) Ischemic stroke and hyperhomocysteinemia: truth or myth? Acta Neurol Belg. 109:181-188.
[6] Imamura A, Murakami R, Takahashi R, Cheng XW, Numaguchi Y, Murohara T, Okumura K. (2009) Low folate levels may be an atherogenic factor regardless of homocysteine levels in young healthy nonsmokers. Metabolism. 2009 Nov 13. [Epub ahead of print]
[7] Drake BF, Colditz GA (2009) Assessing cancer prevention studies: a matter of time. JAMA 302:2152-2153.
[8] Kim YI. (2008) Folic acid supplementation and cancer risk: point. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 17:2220-2225.
[9] Jamison RL, Hartigan P, Kaufman JS, Goldfarb DS, Warren SR, Guarino PD, Gaziano JM; Veterans Affairs Site Investigators. (2007) Effect of homocysteine lowering on mortality and vascular disease in advanced chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 298:1163-1170.
[10] Pharmaceutical advertising biases journals against vitamin supplements. Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, February 5, 2009. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n02.shtml
Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
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November 30th, 2009 — Making The World
“For a long time the colleges have been coming up with the 21st century technology. What happens is these ideas are mostly funded by the military and corporations. They use it and turn it into weapons or profit. The point is, there’s no shortage of ideas. In fact there’s no shortage of anything except the means – which means money.” Wilson
Researchers and scientists are putting on endless effort to make the sources of energy clean and green. There are many devices in the market that run on solar energy. The alternative energy atmosphere is charged with anticipation and excitement. But till now one of the biggest dampeners in green energy scenario is the prices. Fossil fuels are available cheaply all over the world. But solar, wind, geothermal or biofuels are still expensive and out of reach of commoners.
The University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory Mirror Lab has paid attention to this particular aspect. They have produced the first prototype of a solar device that will hopefully not be outrageously priced. The device’s inventor Roger Angel’s expectations will ultimately generate electricity from the sun at a price akin to the cheapest fossil fuels. That’s what manufacturer and consumer both want. Every manufacturer aims for profit and all end users want to save money.
Roger Angel’s prototype makes use of mirrors. These mirrors are arranged in such a way that 21 segments form an array in a parabola on a lightweight aluminum frame. This arrangement helps in focusing the sun’s light on a small solar cell. Its first prototype is supposed to be shipped next week to Raytheon Missile Systems. This design could be used to build portable solar generators for battlefield deployment. This fact is reveled by Eric Betterton. He is a UA professor of atmospheric sciences and he is also the principal investigator for the project.
The prototype costs around about $300,000 to engineer and assemble, with its mirrors forged individually in the mirror lab and hand-coated. This project is undertaken by the UA with grants from Science Foundation Arizona. Angel who is the Mirror Lab’s founder and director, said the device uses only about $200 worth of glass and ultimately could be mass-produced for $1,500. It is estimated that at that price, the device would produce energy for $1 a watt. This is as cheap as coal-burning electrical plants.
Related posts:
November 29th, 2009 — Watching The World
November 29th, 2009 — Making The World
“I know, and you know that the world is chalk full of good people, great minds and so on. Many of our greatest minds have been demonized, ostracized and locked up, their best ideas and inventions – burned. I would say the days of keeping to ourselves must be put behind us. Not only must we insist that the best people have a say in everything: Public policy, health, environment, social welfare etc., but we must be our best possible selves as well.
We can not remain isolated in our imaginations any longer. We must be voices. We must find a way to be heard lest our silence sentence us to servitude”. Wilson
The Rarity of Great Men
by, William Pfaff
http://www.williampfaff.com/
Alessandria, Italy, October 16 ,2009 – The world hungers for great men to liberate them from their griefs. They rarely arrive, and even more rarely are they appreciated at the time for what they are, usually being deprecated or opposed or mocked by their contemporaries, and left to the historians to rediscover. Gratitude, if it ever comes, ordinarily comes too late.
Or it comes prematurely, and inauspiciously. The Nobel Peace Prize given Barack Obama was a naive expression of that need for greatness. The American president, actively engaged in perpetuating the great war against terror and the Talibans — Mr. Obama has naïve dreams too – should have had the insight to decline the award politely, as inappropriate, as did Henry Kissinger’s North Vietnamese fellow-laureate, Le Duc Tho, when the two jointly were named for the 1973 Peace Prize.
The Europeans know that they will soon be badly in need of a great man of their own. They are at a critical point in their construction of European Union. It now seems reasonably sure that the Lisbon Treaty, reforming the terms of EU governance, will finally be put in place.
With Irish and Polish agreement to the Treaty during the past few days, and despite last-ditch opposition by the Czech president, confidence is justified that in the end a way will be found to appease or brush aside the uncooperative President Vaclav Klaus, whose public opinion does not follow him in his opposition to the treaty, and to save both the treaty and David Cameron, prospective prime minister if the Conservative Party wins the next election in Britain, from the Tory Europhobes.
When, and if, the treaty is ratified, Europe will be in need of its George Washington. It was the former French president, Valery Giscard d’Estaing who said that, head draftsman of the European Constitution that France and Holland voted down. (One may think that he had a certain candidate, himself, in mind.)
Europe will have a very hard time finding their George Washington – or his female counterpart. The reason is that Europe will then incorporate not the present 27 presidents of the member states, but at least 28 – so as to include its George Washington.
Europe’s president will like to see himself, and be seen elsewhere, as the leader of Europe. But he will be seen by the European national presidents as their creature, elected to do their bidding.
Neither the Chancellor of Germany, nor the leaders of Europe’s two nuclear powers and UN Security Council permanent members, France and Britain, regard their national interests adequately represented by a European president.
The great are hard to discern because the greatest of them do not act from ambition but from moral conviction, an infrequently encountered quality in political circles. My remarks in this column are inspired by where I am, which is a conference on the problems presented to the world in the twentieth-anniversary year of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The sponsor is the World Political Forum, an organization founded by the man who caused the Berlin Wall to fall, Mikhail Gorbachev. President Gorbachev was not present, having been detained by the need to be in Moscow.
The group’s attention was mainly on what may follow in our world, in which Communism has collapsed and the Cold War is only embers (although some do blow on them).
Capitalism is in distress, and now widely distrusted in the form that it has assumed in recent years in the United States — and internationally as well, to the extent that the American form has been exported by means of American-promoted globalism. Many of the European participants seemed almost to assume U.S. capitalism as dead as Communism. The Americans present cautioned them.
Aside from the organizers, the one who did speak of President Gorbachev was, appropriately, a Russian academic and political figure, Grigori Yavlinsky, Founder of the liberal Yabloko party and a former presidential candidate in Russia.
What he said was simple and eloquent. It was that both we and history must not forget that this one man, on his own initiative, asking no one’s permission or approval, freed some 400 million people from a system of oppression that had cast a shadow over the lives lived within this political system, and under its influence, for some 70 years.
No one caused him to do this. Many opposed him, fearing the consequences of what he was doing. He did it because of his – and one would think, his wife’s — conviction that to do so was an urgent moral necessity and a moral obligation that rested upon himself as the individual in possession of the power to do so. He was thus a great man.
