actions, not words.. so what are the actions here?? your article outlines the importance of family and community as an essential basis for society which includes the well being and preservation of it all.. . so yes - that is ideology speaking right their! putin is fully supportive of this, so in essence it is an important part of his ideology. to back up further, the importance of religion is also a part of this- however conservative this may come across.. in fact it is clear putin embraces this as well, so it forms an important basis of his ideology, even if he doesn't say so directly..
what is at the root of all of this?? equality, justice, self determination and many other human values that seem to have been eroded or run roughshod over in the west with the focus on survival in an atmosphere of exploitation being central to it all... i don't want to blame capitalism, but the way it has been expressed is in direct conflict with the well being of everyone on the planet..
indeed an examination of social issues reveal the ideology behind them.. great example here! thanks..
At root as I wrote is Putin’s Humanism. Where that arose from IMO is from his family and upbringing experience. Also IMO, Capitalism doesn’t need to be brutal provided it’s put to work promoting a humanistic ideology.
The other side of Capitalism is Consumerism and this is where it all goes cockeyed. Both sides depend on desire—the capitalist desire for more, the consumers desire for more. But while desire can work as catalyst, it easily turns to unbridled greed, which destroys everything. My sense is that the function of religion is to teach humanity how to control their greed, that self-control is the fundamental source of morality and progress.
well, it definitely isn't serving the general population! there seems to be a mismash with capitalism and democracy.. the 2 don't go together very well, if at all and as we see here in 2025, the political process is controlled by those with the most money! that ain't democracy.. everything remains as a class war and the little people are still losing here in the west..
Agree. And these same people have tried to supress or tried to destroy other systems like communism. And then spreading the propaganda that communism doesn’t work. I believe the majority can have a good life in a communist regime as well
Humanity evolved in communal societies where cooperation was essential. Even the early agricultural civilizations were communal. IMO, Hudson and Graeber were the ones who exposed where the roots of Western societies went off the rails and the class of people who benefitted. The East had a different experience and thus mostly retained its communalistic societies, although it suffered its own trials.
i read graebers work before he died - big book, i forget the title, but i haven't read anything else by him and maybe the book i read wasn't the best starting point to read graeber... the dawn of everything is the title of the book i read a few years ago..
Echos of Frederic Bastiat in your comment, at least how it feels to me:
It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder. What are the consequences of such a perversion? ... In the first place, it erases from everyone's conscience the distinction between justice and injustice...When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.
He was a keen observer and also a product of his time ~ insomuch as he's widely embraced by the far right due to his phobias on socialism. Nevertheless his clarity on The Law remains in a class of its own.
It was his use of the term 'plunder' that first tuned me into feudal lords and aristocratic class that followed them as being effectively "land pirates"
Not "for the rich" but by the rich. The most compelling story of the origin of capitalism is the English enclosures of the Commons in the 17th century. The landowners kicked their peasants off the land, fenced it, and ran sheep for the wool market. The displaced peasants in turn went to the cities to work in the newly mechanized textile industry.
I would argue that it’s ONLY by a nation’s deeds, (and here I speak of acts of commission as well as acts of omission) that reveal that nation’s true ideology. Everything else is political noise.
I do my best, and of course wonderful sources like your own help enormously. But I realized a long time ago that much of what Westerners should be up in arms about is freely circulated to them, even by their own governments.* Though there's much that is hidden, it's not that we Westerners are starved of what's going on. It's often right there before our eyes, and we simply accept it rather than think less of ourselves, our governments and our countries.
*One example out of thousands: our governments provide statistics that show that over the last 40 years, real wages have declined precipitously. Yet no Western government has been held to account for that loss.
Agreed. Gini Coefficient is another as is the concept of poverty. I used to comment on FDR’s One-Third of the Nation Speech and the radicalism present in T Roosevelt’s Potawatomie speech that launched his Bull Moose campaign. When more people stopped voting than voted should have awakened the body politic, but it slumbered instead.
In my humble opinion, there are two dominant moral philosophies in the world, that of the Ant and that of the Grasshopper. (See the fable by Aesop.)
The Grasshopper lives in the Now. For him there is no future, only the Eternal Now. The Grasshopper is always on center stage in his own head. The play of life is all about him. His personal happiness is all that is important. Other people are important only in so far as they increase his happiness. His future is slave to his today. He is like Whimpey: “I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” When he dies? The lights go off, the curtain comes down and Porky Pig says: “that’s all folks!” It goes without saying that he is an atheistic materialistic libertine. This is the dominant morality of the West in the early 21st century.
It was not always so.
In the 19th century in America, the dominant moral philosophy was that of the Ant. The Protestant Ethics, Poor Richard’s maxims: “a penny saved is a penny earned, a stitch in time saves nine”, Horatio Alger striving for success. The Ant is focused on the future. His today is slave to the future he is striving to realize. When you focus on the future, you focus on the children. They are the future. Hello!?! The roles in a family are distinct. The primary purpose of men is to provide for and protect women and children. The primary purpose of women is to bear and raise children. The primary purpose of children is to learn to become morally good productive adults so the cycle can continue forever. And when he dies? He passes the baton to the next generation. He ran the good race. He knows he is but a part of an infinite tree of life that stretches from the distant past into the distant future but he is content in that role. This is the dominant moral philosophy promoted in Russia today. Isn’t this the moral philosophy promoted by the CCP too?
It’s all about the children. A culture that sees children as nothing but playthings for pleasure is doomed. A culture that denigrates unprotected vaginal sex between a biologically mature male and a biologically mature female and instead promotes all other forms of sexual gratification is doomed. The West is doomed as long as it continues to follow the moral philosophy of the Grasshopper. Winter is coming. Winter always comes.
I agree with your contention that socialism is alive and well in the Russian Federation; a people don't throw off feudalism, live for three generations under communism, experience the ravages of neoliberal finance capitalism, and forget their socialist roots, including President Putin. He has been accused of being a 'neoliberal', which I find laughable. As you say, Karl, "It most certainly isn’t Neoliberal; I would say it’s the exact opposite given what we see occurring in Neoliberal dominated nations."
Another thought I had was about "Pro-Life". In America, that is code for enhanced patriarchy thinly justified by some strange ideology. If the proponents actually cared about mothers and children, they would not make life harder and harder for mothers and children to thrive, but would create a social environment to enhance 'life'. And that, precisely, is what Russia is apparently doing.
Providing the contents of these meetings is the primary evidence showing the components and goals of Russia’s Political-Economy. When read and examined over the course of many years, it becomes rather clear what Russia’s aims are, and then you read what its Constitution says, which is the capper as it puts legal force to the desired direction. But given the decades of Anti-Russian/USSR propaganda and the Soviet’s own goals, it’s rather hard to alter the perception that’s been inculcated. Anti-Russianness outweighs any desire to examine and understand Russia in the Collective West, with a few exceptions. I try, but this example has only attained 2400 views, and that’s no way near enough to overcome the propaganda.
The contrast with neo-liberalism is simply mind-blowing ....
# The Russian Federation is huge - yet its population is small relative to its geographical size - hence the 'strategic' focus on demography, the national project "Family", the central role of the state in providing family support, health-care, and education, with linkages to the labour market "project Personnel', the taxation and welfare systems, the industrial economy, and future sustainability of The State in terms of having the requisite productive forces of Human Capital available to achieve its ends, including, if not explicitly stated here - national security.
# Is there an 'Ideology' evident here? Most certainly - and the power of the State is harnessed to its end - I won't get too much into semantics but broadly this is 'Patriotic Humanistic Socialism with decidedly Putinistic Characteristics in present time, context and stage of development with an eye to a secure future in a volatile world'. Somewhat wordy I know - but incredibly impressive. I wish it success.
Let's see, we can say Socialism with Russian characteristics. The west's mask of neoliberalism has been revealed to be totalitarianism and has taken action to reverse the role of the state in service of its people, to the people as helots, property of the state.
Encouraging bigger families, longer, more active lifespans for the population - quite the contrast from the assisted suicide, abortion, cuts to social welfare provision and general Malthusianism that passes for 'social policy' here in the West.
These health innovations must have been planned years ago. A generation of oncologists, cardiologist, surgeons, and other specialists must have been in training for years before they are needed to deliver all these new medical services.
"... we often see that businesses are living in the present, with a maximum of one or two years ahead"
Necessity for municipal and state forecasting and planning. Economies are dynamic and mutable, so society has to consistently keep ahead of itself. Capitalist paradigm enterprises and stock markets in a free market can't do this, they can only gamble individually for unpredictable rewards.
"... starting from the first year, students will be matched with their future employers and mentors in the workplace." This is a comprehensive apprenticeship scheme. In my country such an arrangement has been demolished by atrophy over the past few decades in favour of a jobs free market approach, which is purblind to present and future socioeconomic need.
"... a separate plan to increase the employment of participants in the special military operation." A bespoke veterans subsidised employment plan. After the Napoleonic wars in the late seventeenth century, used up veterans had to become 'tramps' to seek employment to live by. Only in a socialist polity are these matters taken care of. And avoided by reluctance to go to war. In Britain after the war the Labour government instituted a successful welfare state (as outlined in the Russian Constitution - section 41 is a National Health Service) which has been deliberately destroyed by successive neoliberal governments.
And this was but one of many meetings dealing with their issues along similar lines. As the Kremlin put it today: “Vladimir Putin met with the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Krasnikov. Expert, scientific and scientific-methodological activities of the Russian Academy of Sciences were discussed.” His report will be one of the items I’ll post today, but I want to add this one bit: “Most importantly, we held a meeting of the BRICS academies as part of this event. In fact, all the heads of the academies from India, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, and South Africa were present. It was a warm gathering, and we agreed on how to proceed.” I know you understand the power such collaboration can produce—China of course was certainly present. One of Comrade Xi’s points of emphasis is to keep development continually evolving through modernization and innovation, and of course that includes thought from which most all springs.
I’ve written this before here: Lynn Margulis the great Microbiologist and verifier that symbiosis was the means of initial evolution said Nature shows cooperation is more beneficial than competition, which was something I was already convinced about prior to my reading her words. IMO, history teaches that key lesson too when you examine it in its totality. European conquest and plunder is an anomaly and most of today’s global problems were caused by that behavior.
It's encouraging to see Putin's embrace of family assistance, my cynicism is it's not wholly altruistic.
We've long been a death focused culture, from paving over arable land to prioritizing profit over environmentalism. Thee mass use of micro plastics - The hideous numbers of endocrine disruptors , sulphides, heavy metals, pharma over medication & mass side effects ...all take second place to profits whilst ignoring the soaring costs of living. One can only conclude replacement levels of population are not wanted in the west, rather death & die off is to be celebrated. Thank goodness some nations take a different view and discuss things like "the sanctity of the family" as a value to nurture
thanks karl..
actions, not words.. so what are the actions here?? your article outlines the importance of family and community as an essential basis for society which includes the well being and preservation of it all.. . so yes - that is ideology speaking right their! putin is fully supportive of this, so in essence it is an important part of his ideology. to back up further, the importance of religion is also a part of this- however conservative this may come across.. in fact it is clear putin embraces this as well, so it forms an important basis of his ideology, even if he doesn't say so directly..
what is at the root of all of this?? equality, justice, self determination and many other human values that seem to have been eroded or run roughshod over in the west with the focus on survival in an atmosphere of exploitation being central to it all... i don't want to blame capitalism, but the way it has been expressed is in direct conflict with the well being of everyone on the planet..
indeed an examination of social issues reveal the ideology behind them.. great example here! thanks..
At root as I wrote is Putin’s Humanism. Where that arose from IMO is from his family and upbringing experience. Also IMO, Capitalism doesn’t need to be brutal provided it’s put to work promoting a humanistic ideology.
The other side of Capitalism is Consumerism and this is where it all goes cockeyed. Both sides depend on desire—the capitalist desire for more, the consumers desire for more. But while desire can work as catalyst, it easily turns to unbridled greed, which destroys everything. My sense is that the function of religion is to teach humanity how to control their greed, that self-control is the fundamental source of morality and progress.
Capitalism has been created for the rich, like courts have been created for the poor.
well, it definitely isn't serving the general population! there seems to be a mismash with capitalism and democracy.. the 2 don't go together very well, if at all and as we see here in 2025, the political process is controlled by those with the most money! that ain't democracy.. everything remains as a class war and the little people are still losing here in the west..
Politics controlled by money is plutocracy.
Agree. And these same people have tried to supress or tried to destroy other systems like communism. And then spreading the propaganda that communism doesn’t work. I believe the majority can have a good life in a communist regime as well
Humanity evolved in communal societies where cooperation was essential. Even the early agricultural civilizations were communal. IMO, Hudson and Graeber were the ones who exposed where the roots of Western societies went off the rails and the class of people who benefitted. The East had a different experience and thus mostly retained its communalistic societies, although it suffered its own trials.
i read graebers work before he died - big book, i forget the title, but i haven't read anything else by him and maybe the book i read wasn't the best starting point to read graeber... the dawn of everything is the title of the book i read a few years ago..
looking for perfection in any system is a fools game.. not sure the answer to that!
Echos of Frederic Bastiat in your comment, at least how it feels to me:
It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder. What are the consequences of such a perversion? ... In the first place, it erases from everyone's conscience the distinction between justice and injustice...When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.
Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
Yes, I’ve found Bastiat to be quite useful. Unfortunately, he’s unknown to too many. My series of essays about Plunder were loosely based on his work.
He was a keen observer and also a product of his time ~ insomuch as he's widely embraced by the far right due to his phobias on socialism. Nevertheless his clarity on The Law remains in a class of its own.
It was his use of the term 'plunder' that first tuned me into feudal lords and aristocratic class that followed them as being effectively "land pirates"
http://bastiat.org/
Not "for the rich" but by the rich. The most compelling story of the origin of capitalism is the English enclosures of the Commons in the 17th century. The landowners kicked their peasants off the land, fenced it, and ran sheep for the wool market. The displaced peasants in turn went to the cities to work in the newly mechanized textile industry.
Enclosure began even earlier, but it gets little exposure in Western/US history texts.
I would argue that it’s ONLY by a nation’s deeds, (and here I speak of acts of commission as well as acts of omission) that reveal that nation’s true ideology. Everything else is political noise.
Well, you read a lot about deeds being done and more to follow.
I do my best, and of course wonderful sources like your own help enormously. But I realized a long time ago that much of what Westerners should be up in arms about is freely circulated to them, even by their own governments.* Though there's much that is hidden, it's not that we Westerners are starved of what's going on. It's often right there before our eyes, and we simply accept it rather than think less of ourselves, our governments and our countries.
*One example out of thousands: our governments provide statistics that show that over the last 40 years, real wages have declined precipitously. Yet no Western government has been held to account for that loss.
Agreed. Gini Coefficient is another as is the concept of poverty. I used to comment on FDR’s One-Third of the Nation Speech and the radicalism present in T Roosevelt’s Potawatomie speech that launched his Bull Moose campaign. When more people stopped voting than voted should have awakened the body politic, but it slumbered instead.
In my humble opinion, there are two dominant moral philosophies in the world, that of the Ant and that of the Grasshopper. (See the fable by Aesop.)
The Grasshopper lives in the Now. For him there is no future, only the Eternal Now. The Grasshopper is always on center stage in his own head. The play of life is all about him. His personal happiness is all that is important. Other people are important only in so far as they increase his happiness. His future is slave to his today. He is like Whimpey: “I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” When he dies? The lights go off, the curtain comes down and Porky Pig says: “that’s all folks!” It goes without saying that he is an atheistic materialistic libertine. This is the dominant morality of the West in the early 21st century.
It was not always so.
In the 19th century in America, the dominant moral philosophy was that of the Ant. The Protestant Ethics, Poor Richard’s maxims: “a penny saved is a penny earned, a stitch in time saves nine”, Horatio Alger striving for success. The Ant is focused on the future. His today is slave to the future he is striving to realize. When you focus on the future, you focus on the children. They are the future. Hello!?! The roles in a family are distinct. The primary purpose of men is to provide for and protect women and children. The primary purpose of women is to bear and raise children. The primary purpose of children is to learn to become morally good productive adults so the cycle can continue forever. And when he dies? He passes the baton to the next generation. He ran the good race. He knows he is but a part of an infinite tree of life that stretches from the distant past into the distant future but he is content in that role. This is the dominant moral philosophy promoted in Russia today. Isn’t this the moral philosophy promoted by the CCP too?
It’s all about the children. A culture that sees children as nothing but playthings for pleasure is doomed. A culture that denigrates unprotected vaginal sex between a biologically mature male and a biologically mature female and instead promotes all other forms of sexual gratification is doomed. The West is doomed as long as it continues to follow the moral philosophy of the Grasshopper. Winter is coming. Winter always comes.
Thanks for that. I hope it gets read by many.
I agree with your contention that socialism is alive and well in the Russian Federation; a people don't throw off feudalism, live for three generations under communism, experience the ravages of neoliberal finance capitalism, and forget their socialist roots, including President Putin. He has been accused of being a 'neoliberal', which I find laughable. As you say, Karl, "It most certainly isn’t Neoliberal; I would say it’s the exact opposite given what we see occurring in Neoliberal dominated nations."
Another thought I had was about "Pro-Life". In America, that is code for enhanced patriarchy thinly justified by some strange ideology. If the proponents actually cared about mothers and children, they would not make life harder and harder for mothers and children to thrive, but would create a social environment to enhance 'life'. And that, precisely, is what Russia is apparently doing.
Providing the contents of these meetings is the primary evidence showing the components and goals of Russia’s Political-Economy. When read and examined over the course of many years, it becomes rather clear what Russia’s aims are, and then you read what its Constitution says, which is the capper as it puts legal force to the desired direction. But given the decades of Anti-Russian/USSR propaganda and the Soviet’s own goals, it’s rather hard to alter the perception that’s been inculcated. Anti-Russianness outweighs any desire to examine and understand Russia in the Collective West, with a few exceptions. I try, but this example has only attained 2400 views, and that’s no way near enough to overcome the propaganda.
The contrast with neo-liberalism is simply mind-blowing ....
# The Russian Federation is huge - yet its population is small relative to its geographical size - hence the 'strategic' focus on demography, the national project "Family", the central role of the state in providing family support, health-care, and education, with linkages to the labour market "project Personnel', the taxation and welfare systems, the industrial economy, and future sustainability of The State in terms of having the requisite productive forces of Human Capital available to achieve its ends, including, if not explicitly stated here - national security.
# Is there an 'Ideology' evident here? Most certainly - and the power of the State is harnessed to its end - I won't get too much into semantics but broadly this is 'Patriotic Humanistic Socialism with decidedly Putinistic Characteristics in present time, context and stage of development with an eye to a secure future in a volatile world'. Somewhat wordy I know - but incredibly impressive. I wish it success.
# Thanks Karl.
Thanks Don. Getting barflies to come and read something sensible and educational is a tall task.
Let's see, we can say Socialism with Russian characteristics. The west's mask of neoliberalism has been revealed to be totalitarianism and has taken action to reverse the role of the state in service of its people, to the people as helots, property of the state.
Serfs paying tribute to Lords and Clerics. Instead, the State is everyone and Everyone is the State.
Encouraging bigger families, longer, more active lifespans for the population - quite the contrast from the assisted suicide, abortion, cuts to social welfare provision and general Malthusianism that passes for 'social policy' here in the West.
Essentially to the point, Karl.
These health innovations must have been planned years ago. A generation of oncologists, cardiologist, surgeons, and other specialists must have been in training for years before they are needed to deliver all these new medical services.
"... we often see that businesses are living in the present, with a maximum of one or two years ahead"
Necessity for municipal and state forecasting and planning. Economies are dynamic and mutable, so society has to consistently keep ahead of itself. Capitalist paradigm enterprises and stock markets in a free market can't do this, they can only gamble individually for unpredictable rewards.
"... starting from the first year, students will be matched with their future employers and mentors in the workplace." This is a comprehensive apprenticeship scheme. In my country such an arrangement has been demolished by atrophy over the past few decades in favour of a jobs free market approach, which is purblind to present and future socioeconomic need.
"... a separate plan to increase the employment of participants in the special military operation." A bespoke veterans subsidised employment plan. After the Napoleonic wars in the late seventeenth century, used up veterans had to become 'tramps' to seek employment to live by. Only in a socialist polity are these matters taken care of. And avoided by reluctance to go to war. In Britain after the war the Labour government instituted a successful welfare state (as outlined in the Russian Constitution - section 41 is a National Health Service) which has been deliberately destroyed by successive neoliberal governments.
And this was but one of many meetings dealing with their issues along similar lines. As the Kremlin put it today: “Vladimir Putin met with the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Krasnikov. Expert, scientific and scientific-methodological activities of the Russian Academy of Sciences were discussed.” His report will be one of the items I’ll post today, but I want to add this one bit: “Most importantly, we held a meeting of the BRICS academies as part of this event. In fact, all the heads of the academies from India, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, and South Africa were present. It was a warm gathering, and we agreed on how to proceed.” I know you understand the power such collaboration can produce—China of course was certainly present. One of Comrade Xi’s points of emphasis is to keep development continually evolving through modernization and innovation, and of course that includes thought from which most all springs.
Whoops! Late eighteenth Century.
Life has been very social from its beginnings with cells merging and finding an advantage.
It’s apolitical
We are exceptionally social and most likely why we evolved to be who we are today.
How you want to use it I’d say is ideology.
Use it to go to War or nourish it for its creative aspect?
It’s your freedom to decide.
I’ve written this before here: Lynn Margulis the great Microbiologist and verifier that symbiosis was the means of initial evolution said Nature shows cooperation is more beneficial than competition, which was something I was already convinced about prior to my reading her words. IMO, history teaches that key lesson too when you examine it in its totality. European conquest and plunder is an anomaly and most of today’s global problems were caused by that behavior.
It's encouraging to see Putin's embrace of family assistance, my cynicism is it's not wholly altruistic.
We've long been a death focused culture, from paving over arable land to prioritizing profit over environmentalism. Thee mass use of micro plastics - The hideous numbers of endocrine disruptors , sulphides, heavy metals, pharma over medication & mass side effects ...all take second place to profits whilst ignoring the soaring costs of living. One can only conclude replacement levels of population are not wanted in the west, rather death & die off is to be celebrated. Thank goodness some nations take a different view and discuss things like "the sanctity of the family" as a value to nurture