A helicopter airlifts staff from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan
Pepe Escobar – The Unz Review Jan 18,2024
Emmanuel Todd, historian, demographer, anthropologist, sociologist and political analyst, is part of a dying breed: one of the very few remaining exponents of old school French intelligentzia – a heir to those like Braudel, Sartre, Deleuze and Foucault who dazzled successive young Cold War generations from the West down to the East.
The first nugget concerning his latest book, La Défaite de L’Occident (“The Defeat of the West”) is the minor miracle of actually being published last week in France, right within the NATO sphere: a hand grenade of a book, by an independent thinker, based on facts and verified data, blowing up the whole Russophobia edifice erected around the “aggression” by “Tsar” Putin.
At least some sectors of strictly oligarch-controlled corporate media in France simply could not ignore Todd this time around for several reasons. Most of all because he was the first Western intellectual, already in 1976, to have predicted the fall of the USSR in his book La Chute Finale, with his research based on Soviet infant mortality rates.
Another key reason was his 2002 book Apres L’Empire, a sort of preview of the Empire’s Decline and Fall published a few months before Shock & Awe in Iraq.
Now Todd, in what he has defined as his last book (“I closed the circle”) allows himself to go for broke and meticulously depict the defeat not only of the US but of the West as a whole – with his research focusing in and around the war in Ukraine.
Considering the toxic NATOstan environment where Russophobia and cancel culture reign supreme, and every deviation is punishable, Todd has been very careful not to frame the current process as a Russian victory in Ukraine (although that’s implied in everything he describes, ranging from several indicators of social peace to the overall stability of the “Putin system”, which is “a product of the history of Russia, and not the work of one man”).
Rather, he focuses on the key reasons that have led to the West’s downfall. Among them: the end of the nation-state; de-industrialization (which explains NATO’s deficit in producing weapons for Ukraine); the “degree zero” of the West’s religious matrix, Protestantism; the sharp increase of mortality rates in the US (much higher than in Russia), along with suicides and homicides; and the supremacy of an imperial nihilism expressed by the obsession with Forever Wars.
The Collapse of Protestantism
Todd methodically analyses, in sequence, Russia, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Germany, Britain, Scandinavia and finally The Empire. Let’s focus on what would be the 12 Greatest Hits of his remarkable exercise.
- At the start of the Special Military Operation (SMO) in February 2022, the combined GDP of Russia and Belarus was only 3.3% of the combined West (in this case the NATO sphere plus Japan and South Korea). Todd is amazed how these 3.3% capable of producing more weapons than the whole Western colossus not only are winning the war but reducing dominant notions of the “neoliberal political economy” (GDP rates) to shambles.
- The “ideological solitude” and “ideological narcissism” of the West – incapable of understanding, for instance, how “the whole Muslim world seems to consider Russia as a partner rather than an adversary”.
- Todd eschews the notion of “Weberian states” – evoking a delicious compatibility of vision between Putin and US realpolitik practitioner John Mearsheimer. Because they are forced to survive in an environment where only power relations matters, states are now acting as “Hobbesian agents.” And that brings us to the Russian notion of a nation-state, focused on “sovereignty”: the capacity of a state to independently define its internal and external policies, with no foreign interference whatsoever.
- The implosion, step by step, of WASP culture, which led, “since the 1960s”, to “an empire deprived of a center and a project, an essentially military organism managed by a group without culture (in the anthropological sense)”. This is Todd defining the US neocons.
- The US as a “post-imperial” entity: just a shell of military machinery deprived of an intelligence-driven culture, leading to “accentuated military expansion in a phase of massive contraction of its industrial base”. As Todd stresses, “modern war without industry is an oxymoron”.
- The demographic trap: Todd shows how Washington strategists “forgot that a state whose population enjoys a high educational and technological level, even if it is decreasing, does not lose its military power”. That’s exactly the case of Russia during the Putin years.
- Here we reach the crux of Todd’s argument: his post-Max Weber reinterpretation of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, published a little over a century ago, in 1904/1905: “If Protestantism was the matrix for the ascension of the West, its death, today, is the cause of the disintegration and defeat.”
Todd clearly defines how the 1688 English “Glorious Revolution”, the 1776 American Declaration of Independence and the 1789 French Revolution were the true pillars of the liberal West. Consequently, an expanded “West” is not historically “liberal”, because it also engineered “Italian fascism, German Nazism and Japanese militarism”.
In a nutshell, Todd shows how Protestantism imposed universal literacy on the populations it controlled, “because all faithful must directly access the Holy Scriptures. A literate population is capable of economic and technological development. The Protestant religion modeled, by accident, a superior, efficient workforce.” And it is in this sense that Germany was “at the heart of Western development”, even if the Industrial Revolution took place in England.
Todd’s key formulation is undisputable: “The crucial factor of the ascension of the West was Protestantism’s attachment to alphabetization.”
Moreover Protestantism, Todd stresses, is twice at the heart of the history of the West: via the educational and economic drive – with fear of damnation and the need to feel chosen by God engendering a work ethic and a strong, collective morality – and via the idea that Men are unequal (remember the White Man’s Burden).
The collapse of Protestantism could not but destroy the work ethic to the benefit of mass greed: that is, neoliberalism.
Transgenderism and the Cult of the Fake
- Todd’s sharp critique of the spirit of 1968 would merit a whole new book. He refers to “one of the great illusions of the 1960s – between Anglo-American sexual revolution and May 68 in France”; “to believe that the individual would be greater if freed from the collective”. That led to an inevitable debacle: “Now that we are free, en masse, from metaphysical beliefs, foundational and derived, communist, socialist or nationalist, we live the experience of the void.” And that’s how we became “a multitude of mimetic midgets who do not dare to think by themselves – but reveal themselves as capable of intolerance as the believers of ancient times.”
- Todd’s brief analysis of the deeper meaning of transgenderism completely shatters the Church of Woke – from New York to the EU sphere, and will provoke serial fits of rage. He shows how transgenderism is “one of the flags of this nihilism that now defines the West, this drive to destroy, not just things and humans but reality.”
And there’s an added analytical bonus: “The transgender ideology says that a man may become a woman, and a woman may become a man. This is a false affirmation, and in this sense, close to the theoretical heart of Western nihilism.” It gets worse, when it comes to the geopolitical ramifications. Todd establishes a playful mental and social connection between this cult of the fake and the Hegemon’s wobbly behavior in international relations. Example: the Iranian nuclear dear clinched under Obama becoming a hardcore sanctions regime under Trump. Todd: “American foreign policy is, in its own way, gender fluid.”
- Europe’s “assisted suicide”. Todd reminds us how Europe at the start was the Franco-German couple. Then after the 2007/2008 financial crisis, that turned into “a patriarchic marriage, with Germany as a dominant spouse not listening to his companion anymore”. The EU abandoned any pretention of defending Europe’s interests – cutting itself off from energy and trade with its partner Russia and sanctioning itself. Todd identifies, correctly, the Paris-Berlin axis replaced by the London-Warsaw-Kiev axis: that was “the end of Europe as an autonomous geopolitical actor”. And that happened only 20 years after the joint opposition by France-Germany to the neocon war on Iraq.
- Todd correctly defines NATO by plunging into “their unconscious”: “We note that that its military, ideological and psychological mechanism does not exist to protect Western Europe, but to control it.”
- In tandem with several analysts in Russia, China, Iran and among independents in Europe, Todd is sure that the US obsession – since the 1990s – to cut off Germany from Russia will lead to failure: “Sooner or later, they will collaborate, as “their economic specializations define them as complementary”. The defeat in Ukraine will open the path, as a “gravitational force” reciprocally seduces Germany and Russia.
Before that, and unlike virtually any Western “analyst” across the mainstream NATOstan sphere, Todd understands that Moscow is set to win against the whole of NATO, not merely Ukraine, profiting from a window of opportunity identified by Putin in early 2022. Todd bets on a window of 5 years, that is, an endgame by 2027. It’s enlightening to compare with Defense Minister Shoigu, on the record, last year: the SMO will end by 2025.
Whatever the deadline, inbuilt in all this is a total Russia victory – with the winner dictating all terms. No negotiations, no ceasefire, no frozen conflict – as the Hegemon is now desperate spinning.
Davos enacts The Triumph of the West
Todd’s ample merit, so evident in the book, is to use history and anthropology to take Western society’s false consciousness to the divan. And that’s how, focusing for instance in the study of very specific family structures in Europe, he manages to explain reality in a way that totally escapes the brainwashed collective West masses lingering under turbo-neoliberalism.
It goes without saying that Todd’s reality-based book will not be a hit among the Davos elites. What’s happening this week in Davos has been immensely enlightening. Everything is out in the open.
From all the usual suspects – the toxic EU Medusa von der Leyen; NATO’s warmongering Stoltenberg; BlackRock, JP Morgan and assorted honchos shaking hands with their sweaty sweatshirt toy in Kiev – the “Triumph of the West” message is monolithic.
War is Peace. Ukraine is not (italics mine) losing and Russia is not winning. If you disagree with us – on anything – you will be censored for “hate speech”. We want the New World Order – whatever you lowly peasants think – and we want it now.
And if all fails, a pre-fabricated Disease X is comin’ to get you.
If the demise of the West is due to the decline of Protestantism,
Then the Solution must be clear.
The Return to True Protestantism.
Seems to miss the point: your owners are tearing your way of life to pieces precisely so that they can rebuild it as one great big war machine country. It isn’t failing. They aren’t losing. If they were, there’d be millions fighting back and succeeding in doing so. Only they know when it’ll be, but at some point you WILL be fighting a war against their enemies – and slaughtering yourselves in the process.
How could anyone write this without once mentioning Jewish Power?….How ridiculous.
The whole of the Middle East has been set aflame by them!.
PS…they have banned me from this forum….he prefers commentary from Jewish fruitcakes like smoking mirrors.
Brilliant work by Todd and Escobar’s summary and comments as well. All very true and tactfully written without naming the Jew.
kick that little dilletante escobar`s face into a pulp
fake dipshit nonentity thats never done an honests days work
he likes to live in `developed` countries that he denigrates..
typical 3rd world hypocritical wanker
Marxists who hate White People have bored me for a long time
the man who unites christian and muslim in peace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqq47tMuKpg
He calls it the “liberal west” – talk about an insult, but he would be correct, sir. The west is in rapid decline precisely because of this. But “liberalism” itself is an oxymoron, because the liberal droppings of jew money goes directly to the self-chosen bolshevik sick dweebs at the top. Even if some of the droppings miss the funnel, they’re filtered back to little jar of scum.
But he is correct about one thing, de-industrialization of the west – also by design, made it a weak hell-hole of shallow, self absorbed, anti-social media addicted weenies.
The fall of USSR / Communism in Russia? Gimme a break. It’s the same phenomena as Ukraine soldiers wearing swastikas, I can wear a dress but that don’t make me Queen Victoria. Talk to some russians that lived through the mythological fall of communism, they’ll tell you nothing whatsoever changed.
Albert Pike predicted the big conflict which I predict will start before the farcical election which Trump would clearly win by a landslide – also engineered. It is strange that Pike railed against the god of the jews, praising lucifer (not the same idea as satan)… while his group has always served that “god” of violence and deceit in modern times.
TOMMY ROBINSON EXPOSED
Tommy Robinson denies refusing to leave a small pro jewish march
Controversial t figure Tommy Robinson had denied refusing to leave a march and claimed he was not paid by jewish groups
The 40-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon, is accused of failing to comply with a direction to leave an area in Westminster on November 26 of last year.
Robinson was arrested near the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where the demonstration began, after organisers said he would not be welcome at the event.
Robinson denied the charge of one count of failing to comply with a dispersal order.
Alistair Williamson KC, defending, made an application to the court to prevent the publication of Robinson’s address.
He said that his client had been subject to 12 police visits where he was warned of threats to his life, known as Osman warnings.
Tristan Kirk, a journalist from the Evening Standard, opposed the application on behalf of the press.
He referred to the principle of open justice, and noted that the application had been made at the last minute, with little time for the press to prepare.
Judge Briony Clark refused the application.
Asked to give his address to the court, Robinson said that he had no fixed address.
Bail conditions that prevent Robinson from entering within the M25, or attending or organising a protest within London, remain in place.
During his arrest, officers sprayed Robinson with synthetic pepper spray and handcuffed him.
He uploaded a video of himself with partially closed eyes to social media after the confrontation.
Other footage of him arguing with police officers was also posted on his X account, with Robinson claiming to be present as a journalist at the march.
One has to question the intellect of anyone who spells intelligentsia with a ‘Z’ (yes a ‘zed’ not a zee..which of course sounds like the title some whiskery bulldog faced imbecile in silk knickers and a tutu refers to itself when brainwashing the future Khmer Rouge* in infant school) ..
… however for peepee that seems somewhat apt… because of course Escobar is really an anti-white mole..unwilling to separate the detonation of Western Society..from the hook nosed creatures that have captured it through central banking many years since… and for their Dark Lord…Oh yes..
and that of course… there isn’t and most certainly wont be cause to cheer the horrors on the way down the pike…. for Joe and Jane Doe…
So to speak…
* yes..RED again…
jkfdkjdasfölöafdk
The Jews won & defeated the West the moment they got the white man to adopt some rabbi (Jesus) preaching ‘Salvation is from the Jews’ (John 4:22) to be his God. Ever since then, the race has been slaves to these Semitic mongrels.
What’s the solution? When enough whites adopt ‘The Book of the Law’ as the new Aryan religion & join the A.A. then the power of the Jews, Christians, Muslims & subhumans is finished. There is no other way.
A.A.
It is to be hoped this interesting work will be swiftly translated into English. But I doubt it, more likely people will be arrested for owning it as a Hate Book which undermines the Hymnal for War being sung by the EU Ruling Order.
Significantly, this article discusses the implosion of the Paris-Berlin Axis after 2008. Now its death in 2022 when Nordstream was sabotaged by the US and its enforcers leaves Scholz and Macron as impotent voyeurs. Its displacement by the London Kiev Warsaw Axis might however be very short lived indeed.
hoots mon
The Albert Pike ‘letter’ is spurious–its actually a post WWII production likely fabricated by some Christian.
From all the usual suspects – the toxic EU Medusa von der Leyen; NATO’s warmongering Stoltenberg..
Toxic Medusa…😁😁😁😄😄🤣Well said. Ugly witch Satanist child eater… vampire 🧛♀️ in
I agree. This article do not mention the jews.. the perpetrators and main actors of this horror frightening live movie on earth…
Only God will finish with these assassins of the human race… traitors of God..
Both east and west are controlled by the same Judeo- Masonic oligarchy. The power base is now being shifted from U.S.to the BRICS countries to serve as the vehicle for the final stage of the JWO agenda. The previous ” collapse ” of the Soviet Union was also scripted That restrictive system needed to be dissolved in order to allow for 30 years of globalization. Nothing really changed within the countries formerly within the Soviet system.. They still remained under the yoke of JWO , like a grand reopening of a restaurant — same ownership with new name on the facade.
Before I joined the A.A. I was addicted to drugs, booze, tv negro sports, materialism and my smartphone. Then Damien told me these are tools of the Jews to degrade the race & told me to read and study ‘The Book of the Law’ to discover my true will. Thanks to Damien I now have a new higher meaning and purpose to my life. He told me that without a new faith or religion the white race will die out and the world will be nothing more than a Semitic sewage pit populated by billions of simians and mongrels. But now that we have Damien & the A.A. showing us the way, the truth and the light–we are destined to be the future masters of the earth.
A.A.
Let’s put “first things” first if we are really interested in how the present mess of the West ensued.
The West was well on its way to asserting global dominance before the Protestant Reformation which began in the early 1500’s. The concentration and spread of learning in the establishment of universities and learning in the West came from the RC Church and largely from the monastic schools established in the late Middle Ages and early Medieval times. The Renascence flowering in Europe was not a Protestant creation, but a result of the learning applied to both the arts and the sciences. Apart from the good things it also fed many divisions based more on a “this world” orientation and various cultural and linguistic-based nationalisms, which together with the moral corruption of the Church in Rome triggered the Reformation.
As for the spread of “learning” to the common people before and for centuries after the Reformation, that was more of a direct result of what a family could afford, or what schools they could send their children, and of the printing technology started mainly by the Gutenberg printing “revolution” before the Reformation. Johannes Gutenberg existed before Luther or the Reformation was even conceived. He died around 1463 and thereafter many texts and printed bibles were circulated far and wide. Records have it that he was devote Catholic. Luther was born in 1483 and the Reformation began in 1517.
Throughout the second millennium AD, the Western imperium mindset and direction has been fueled largely though its higher-learning institutions, where we see the pendulum swinging from Platonic-based top-down orders supporting monarchies and empires, to Aristotelian-based and more-materialistic cultures of diversity. With God removed ever further from the Apex then with the increasing focus on “this-world” comforts and riches as the purpose and end of life, the same pendulum crashes from side to side with increasing violence, destruction, and disorder.
For all of this, the solution is simple. Whether they be cultural Marxists, communists, secular-humanists, Jewish oligarchs or Nazi WEF plutocrats, the people running the West have done a damn good job in F%$#ing everything up, and mainly by ruling through massive deceptions and fear, and by sowing discord and every form of moral depravity to keep the people divided and from taking back control of their nations and their lives.
all science goes back to India where it
once came from !
clean Your mind white racsist !
despite many jews robbed indian knowledge .
The West has always operated in an “Other World” model (which has never changed since the days of Plato’s cave metaphor), obsessed with ideology and theory, to a point where there was no room for actual humans and human relationships left.
The rest of the world lives in “This World” where relationships, harmony, and loyalty – and among the common people, even kindness and generosity – are a big part of what drives trade and prosperity. Theoretical frameworks and ideologies are of zero value here; people don’t understand them and don’t want them; they have no use for them whatsoever.
20 years ago I lived in Malaysia. Compared with the West, it was veritable heaven on earth. Vibrant, colourful, pleasant, friendly, accommodating, anxious not to offend, and also prosperous yet affordable. The customer was well and truly King. Trips to Europe felt like a leap into ice water – grey buildings, grey clothes, grey trees, frumpy / repressed / unsmiling / frugal people stuck in their heads and overthinking every breath.
Of course, the combo of neoliberalism and globalist-sponsored “leaders” has done a number on Malaysia as well. Today the place is a congested, overbuilt, overpriced rat race. The locals took to Covid like ducks to water and all got jabbed up to their eyeballs. Financially, fiscally, economically, intellectually, and morally, the country is bankrupt beyond repair.
The absence of FACT is sickening, fake-jews/ashkenazi/khazars are at the cause of almost all conflicts/treason in all of the western World, in resent history, yet NO ONE accounts for that. How the hell can people be thinking that a solution can be applied where they absolutely refuse to identify the cause of the problem? -this is not just idiotic, it is full blown INSANITY.
Dayne–Malaysia cannot have been that good if it fell so easily; we have to look beneath the surface to know the strength of a place
@DAYNE
I found more relationship, humanty, friendlyness,
joy of living with latinos + indians than with my
unsensitive nordic germans . right that frenchmen
see them as boches . climate shapes the character
of people . blessed are the Palestinians,Houthies,
Hindus, Iranians ! west gets what he earned !
Randolph
There are no ‘fake Jews’, since anyone can convert to Judaism & become a Jew.