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    Analyzing the Roots of Leftism: Karl Popper

    Book Reviews Legacy AWOL Blog Marxism Science
    In my posts of 12/27/24 and 1/17/25, I examined the work of Friedrich Hayek, who with consummate skill helps us understand the ideological roots of the Left. Continuing in the same vein, below is my discussion of Karl Popper, whose work in this domain provides an excellent companion to Hayek. The post was first published in 2007, on the original AWOL Civilization blog.

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    Every period has a handful of commentators that grasp the essence of their era. In our time, one of them must surely be Karl Popper (1902-1994). Well-known as a philosopher of science, his writings in the sociopolitical realm are some of the most extraordinary of the twentieth century. Probably the most widely read of these is The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945). Impressive as the book is, I believe that Popper’s greatest achievement in this area is The Poverty of Historicism (1957).

    In this work, he deconstructs one of the founding myths of modern totalitarianism, a conceptual idol that underlies the thought of Hegel, Marx, and Lenin: historicism. This is the belief that there is a predictable regularity to history, that its course is based on immutable laws. As Popper puts it: “The belief…that it is the task of the social sciences to lay bare the law of evolution of society in order to foretell its future might be perhaps described as the central historicist doctrine.”

    This myth enabled Hegel to concoct his “world-historical spirit," in which history is a  “court of judgment" and “the exposition and the actualization of the universal spirit." This vague spirit has come to rule human affairs, as “the spirit in and for itself prepares and works its way towards the transition to its next and higher stage.” Popper shows that this sort of phony analysis is derived from a key error, that of mistaking trends for laws:

    “This, we may say, is the central mistake of historicism. Its ‘laws of development’ turn out to be absolute trends; trends which, like laws, do not depend on initial conditions, and which carry us irresistibly in a certain direction into the future. They are the basis of unconditional prophecies, as opposed to conditional scientific predictions.”

    Popper debunks the scientific pretenses of Comte, Hegel, Marx, and their disciples, who misapply the methods and lexicon of the natural sciences to social phenomena. It is one of the great essays on this subject, alongside Hayek’s Counter-Revolution of Science. To understand the ideological roots of the contemporary Left, Popper's masterpiece is a must-read.

    ​[Quotes from Popper taken from The Poverty of Historicism (1957), Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1960 edition, pp 105-6 and 128. Emphasis in original. Quotes from Hegel: Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1821), Cambridge University Press, 1991 edition, pp 372-3]
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    About That Economy Thing

    Collapse Economics
    These days I read and listen to an enormous volume of commentary on the deepening economic and financial collapse. Much of this verbiage is repetitive, tendentious, and confused. Once in a while, however, I come across an article or a podcast that sums up, in succinct fashion, the situation as it stands at that moment. Such was the case with YouTuber “Jeremiah Babe,” who yesterday did just that. Worth a look.
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    All Quiet on the Scamdemic Front

    Covid
    The Trump Administration has skillfully wielded the chainsaw against the outrageous excesses of the Left, throughout the vast machinery of the Deep State. These moves have been decisive, vigorous, and rapid.

    One task that remains to be addressed, however, is the undoing of the Scamdemic. The only action of significance, as far as I know, is that the military has reinstated and compensated those who refused the mRNA death shots. But beyond this, I can’t recall any newsworthy measures. Did I miss something? Perhaps RFK Jr. and associates are hatching a big event, but one would expect at least a preliminary announcement, or one of those cozy signing/press conference sessions at the White House.

    So far, no investigations, no indictments, no fines, no prison. All those involved in a crime against humanity are walking around free, and in many cases, working diligently on their next assault. This was apparent, for example, in the ridiculous “Stargate” press conference of January 21, in which Larry Ellison boasted of a new round of mRNA “vaccines,” this time to cure cancer, no less.

    Perhaps it would be too much to ask, if a commission of inquiry could be convened to investigate the multiple levels of fraud and malfeasance involved in the original fabrication and dissemination of the SARS-CoV-2 mythology. But at a minimum, punish the instigators of the lockdowns and the murderous hospital protocols, and above all, the criminals responsible for the injections of poison that killed and maimed millions.

    In my post of 12/9/24, I cited Edward Dowd, who asserted that if all mRNA “vaccines” are not recalled from the market within six months of the inauguration, then we may conclude that Big Pharma is too big to touch, and/or that the country cannot handle the truth, and life will go on as if nothing happened. Well, we are admittedly still far from the six-month mark, but the lack of activity is not encouraging.

    Even less encouraging is an     op-ed at Fox News penned by RFK Jr., in which he suddenly becomes a vaccine advocate, to fight the measles "outbreak" in Texas. In a stunning about-face reminiscent of the Scamdemic playbook, he tells us that     "vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons." Huh? Was this article ghost-written by Dr. Fauci?

    We must not allow the Scamdemic to be forgotten. No consequences = no accountability = no deterrent against similar crimes in the future.
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    Memorable Quotes (no. 10)

    Marxism Memorable Quotes
    "Socialism is the visionary younger brother of an almost decrepit despotism, whose heir it wants to be....It desires a wealth of executive power, as only despotism had it; indeed, it outdoes everything in the past by striving for the downright destruction of the individual, which it sees as an unjustified luxury of nature, and which it intends to improve into an expedient organ of the community....[Socialism] needs the most submissive subjugation of all citizens of the absolute state....It secretly prepares for reigns of terror, and drives the word 'justice' like a nail into the heads of the semieducated masses, to rob them completely of their reason (after this reason has already suffered a great deal from its semieducation) and to give them a good conscience for the evil game they are supposed to play."

    — Friedrich Nietzsche
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    Europa, Europa

    Globalists Marxism Russia
    For the last two and a half centuries, Europe has been plagued by the machinations of socialist and other collectivist movements. These destructive ideologies flare up periodically, causing dislocation, death, and widespread mayhem. To list some of the more notable examples: French Revolution; upheavals of 1848; Paris Commune; Russian Revolution; Nazi regime; and the Woke totalitarian monsters of the current era.

    During most of this period, the United States managed to keep its head above water, and not succumb to the great temptation. Over the course of the twentieth century, however, and particularly in the twenty-first, a pernicious collectivist darkness spread itself over the North American land mass.

    One result of this phenomenon was an ideological convergence between the regimes in Washington, London, Brussels, Paris, and Berlin. In shockingly coordinated fashion, the “elites” imposed on their countries the mainstreaming of sexual deviancy; demoralization of the native population via importation of violent savages; erosion of the currency, causing rampant inflation; trampling of free expression; and finally, an attack on the biological integrity of the people via injections of poison directly into their bloodstream. A new dark age had truly descended on the West, in its entirety.

    This convergence enabled lockstep cooperation in yet another nightmarish project of destruction: the war in Ukraine. It was a NATO campaign, getting the band back together after the fiasco in Afghanistan. The war focused the wrath of the Left on the greatest sinner in Europe, the one major heterodox power standing in the way of the Woke state: Russia.

    The Muscovites had never been forgiven for their original sin, which was abandoning the socialist utopia of the USSR. Now they had the gall to beat up the Pussy Riot harridans, eject the NGOs, ban trans this-and-that, and proudly celebrate their national and religious heritage. All of these moves were unpardonable, and stood in need of severe punishment.

    But things didn’t go as planned. Russia, though suffering, emerged stronger than ever from the conflict. And now, America has abandoned the coalition of the Woke. Keir Starmer’s comrades in Washington, that miserable assortment of lunatics who ran the country into the ground prior to the inauguration, no longer control the money and munitions spigot.

    Now the deranged European leadership is engaging in one last attempt to escalate the Ukraine war into the final cataclysm, which this time will incinerate the continent. They would gladly drop all pretense to benevolence as they obliterate everyone and everything, including themselves, in an orgy of devastation that would make all previous wars look like a schoolyard brawl. This would accomplish their one overriding goal: end Western civilization, once and for all.

    Luckily, the material and financial means for success are absent. But don’t ever underestimate the Left. What they lack in practical tactical thinking, they make up in ruthlessness.

    The solution is for a segment of Europe’s ruling class to defect to the Trumpian revolution, and take the helm of their governments. If this cannot be achieved, we might see a different band getting back together: The USA and Russia joining forces, as they did in World War II, to expunge a malignant cancer from the heart of Europe. A possible scenario: roll the tanks into Brussels, and rip the Eurocrats from their desks like the Israelis clearing Hamas out of their tunnels.

    ​Perhaps we will be fortunate, and the madness can be stymied by cutting off the money; economic and diplomatic pressure; U.S. withdrawal from NATO; etc. But we can never be sure what will happen as long as the inmates are running the asylum. Drastic measures might one day be necessary to eliminate one of the greatest threats to peace the world has ever seen.
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    Stop With the Bitcoin, Already

    Crypto Currency Economics
    On Sunday, President Trump reiterated his intention to create a “crypto strategic reserve” for the United States. Besides the usual references to Bitcoin and Ethereum, this time he also mentioned three relatively obscure cryptocurrency thingamajigs: XRP, Solana, and Cardano. In attempting to find out what these entities really are, I stumbled across this definition of Cardano: “A decentralized, open-source blockchain network that can execute peer-to-peer transactions and serve as a platform for deploying smart contracts.” On its website, Cardano boasts that it is “a blockchain platform for changemakers, innovators, and visionaries, with the tools and technologies required to create possibility for the many, as well as the few, and bring about positive global change.”

    Translation: Very powerful people are creating make-believe digital toys and marketing them in a sophisticated pump-and-dump scheme that has already yielded untold billions of dollars. In the 24 hours following Mr. Trump’s announcement, the price of Cardano rocketed upward by nearly 50 percent. Now that’s some “positive global change,” right there.

    This whole crypto game is getting completely out of hand. There is an element within the Trump Administration, along with some of the President’s big-money backers, that is capitalizing on the financial woes of the country by sucking the last blood out of the nation’s fiscal corpse before the cadaver is sent from the morgue to the graveyard.

    Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Congress responds to the challenge of $36 trillion in national debt by formulating a budget proposal that will actually increase spending. Nero fiddles while Rome burns.

    Government complicity in the crypto swindle is of a piece with the proposed “sovereign wealth fund” that will, in the words of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, “monetize the asset side of the US balance sheet for the American people. We are going to put the assets to work, and I think it's going to be very exciting….There'll be a combination of liquid assets, assets that we have in this country, as we work to bring them out for the American people.”

    Translation: We’re bankrupt, so we’re going to have a national foreclosure sale and sell everything that isn’t nailed down. Wait, on second thought, even what is nailed down can be “monetized” or “tokenized” or put on the “blockchain,” or whatever. Yes, Mr. Bessent, it is very exciting indeed, especially for the vultures who will be feasting on the carrion.

    The Trump Administration has done great work in exposing and dismantling some of the nation’s worst scams, such as green energy, diversity, and the Ukraine money laundromat. But please, please, do not replace these scams with new grifts that threaten to derail your excellent accomplishments.