Pepe Escobar: The Angel of History as a Symbol of Resistance

Paul Klee: Angelus Novus (1920)

Pepe Escobar has written a somewhat haunting essay using a very curious frame given the history of the image and the recent use of the term, Angel of History, for something decidedly different. Klee’s title in Latin means New Angel and IMO appears very youthful. As Pepe details, apparently Walter Benjamin made that interpretation. But Pepe doesn’t display the image in his essay. Indeed, the header photo used by SCF is from the massive funeral celebration that took place in Tehran and is very similar to this photo

But the images Pepe wants readers to entertain are described in his prose and is also one of the reasons why I’ve chosen to share this with the Gym; the other is to provide my own commentary on Pepe’s interpretation of recent and possible future events. I should note that his hour-long chat with Larry Johnson was made public today and should also be viewed to get some further perspective, although this essay isn’t referred to by them. And now for Pepe’s essay:

It’s one of the most mesmerizing passages in the history of knowledge. In the 9^th of his Theses on the Philosophy of History, Walter Benjamin–-Jewish, tragic figure, solitary genius-–dissects Paul Klee’s haunting painting Angelus Novus and graphically explains to posterity the drama facing the Angel of History:

“His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events: he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in its wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm propels him into a future to which his back is turned – whilst the pile of debris before him goes even higher. This storm is what has been called progress.”

The time has come to go beyond what may be read as a very apocalyptic Christian parallel between divinity and violent retribution. As Alastair Crooke detailed in his astonishingly perceptive 2010 book, Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution, it was the need to restrain the furies of “divinely inspired” violence that led Hobbes to conceptualize Leviathan, where he called for a social contract between the individual and a necessarily strong, implacable government.

Moreover, it was the Hobbesian version of a social contract that laid the basis for John Locke to assert a dubious “natural goodness” of humanity, complete with a–-very private–-“pursuit of happiness” and the general welfare gleefully coalescing via the work of an invisible hand.

This fallacy/fairy tale shaped Western thought for over the next 300 years.

Now it’s a completely different ball game. We have been prisoners of Hobbes and Locke for too long: such a seductive pole dancing of legitimacy around which the Western-conceived nation-states grouped to protect and legitimize themselves and their plunder of the rest of the world.

Lately, the contemporary specter of “divine violence” was marketed to everyone from Africa to Asia as armed Islamist resistance. But now this mask has also fallen. The “new” Syria shows to everyone how al-Qaeda R Us–-and always was.

Shelter from the–-ultimate–-storm

The time has also come to re-evaluate the plight of the Angel of History. No, he is not transfixed by “divine” rage; that’s actually quite man-made. Meanwhile, what continues to propel him forward – even as he casts his eyes to the past (“the backward half-look, over the shoulder, toward the primitive terror”, in T. S. Eliot’s striking image) is the wind of secular, Darwinian, tech “progress”–-a single, unified catastrophe much more that a chain of historical events.

Yes, he continues to contemplate the tragedy; he badly wants to awaken humanity to the extent of the disaster; but the rush of now tech “progress”, AI-tinged, inevitably sweeps him away.

The Global South now seems to have a crystal-clear perspective of the new contours of the catastrophe laid at the feet of the Angel of History.

The top two contemporary agents of the catastrophe have been fully identified: a psycho-pathological, genocidal death cult composed by elements of a self-appointed chosen tribe; and the post-historical elites of a dwindling empire. A deadly embrace–-if there ever was one.

Yet now they have met an immovable symbol of Resistance. And they had to back off. To the astonishment of the Angel of History himself.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei laid it all out in a few sentences:

“The key point I wish to emphasize in my speech is that in one of his remarks, the President of the United States declared that Iran must surrender. Surrender! The issue isn’t about enrichment or the nuclear industry anymore. It’s about Iran surrendering.”

This is the voice of an ancient civilization-state–-in contrast to post-modern, out of control barbarism: “Our cultural and civilizational wealth is hundred times greater than that of the US and other similar countries (…) The Iranian nation is noble and will remain noble.”

An irrational, and certainly not “divine” storm now aims to totally paralyze the Angel of History–-imprinting on the narrative their revamped but equally tawdry notion of “end of History”, applied to the circumscribed space of West Asia.

And that brings us to how the Resistance will have to delve deep into the nitty-gritty, as in the practicalities of deterrence and defense, so the Angel of History may reinvent himself.

Cut to the Yemeni Armed Forces–-this bastion of rectitude, a military organization guided by spiritual power: “The US and Zionist entity’s ceasefire agreement with Iran highlights that military force is the only language they understand.”

Add to it the number one lesson from the 12-day war: whoever controls the skies eventually will control the lands.

Iran’s leadership, as the fulcrum of Resistance, has some serious decisions to make. The most important, on the “language” issue as framed by the Houthis, is to trust Russia to help it set up a comprehensive, multi-layered offense/defense system, complete with hardware, combat and control centers, long-range radar stations, electronic warfare equipment, and badass jet fighters.

As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made it quite clear ahead of the meeting one week ago between President Putin and Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi:” It all depends on what Iran needs right now.”

They need serious backup. The Majlis–-Iran’s Parliament–-delayed for over a month the ratification of the comprehensive strategic partnership signed with Russia after the Duma approved it in late May. That includes weapons sales, military inter-connection and deep intel exchange–-even if it does not imply a full military alliance.

Previous Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi clearly saw The Big Picture. He went full “Look East”–-as in Eurasia integration. The current, meek Pezeshkian presidency attempted a “Look West”–-naively trusting that the Empire of Chaos would actually practice diplomacy. They were in for a rude awakening.

The unforgiving war will be long and bloody. This is just the beginning-–current pause included. Yet the Angel of History seems to have caught a second wind. Looks like his warnings about the catastrophe were finally understood by the overwhelming majority of the Global South. As we sift through the accumulated debris, Resistance is at hand–-sheltering us from the ultimate storm. [My Emphasis]

Many have wondered why when Iran had its foot on the Zionist’s neck did they relent and agree to an unbrokered ceasefire that we know will be broken? An unknown guest writer’s essay was published by Larry Johnson that details why Islam demands such a stoppage and is worth reading in full by Gym readers. Here’s the meat:

Everything that the Iranians do, or don’t do, has a definite precedent in Islamic history, unbeknownst to the western world. I mentioned to you, that the Iranians are not allowed to continue fighting when their opponents have stopped, even if they are on the verge of victory. It is written in the Holy Qur’an:

“Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you, but do not exceed the limits; Surely Allah does not like those who exceed the limits” [Qur’an 2:190]

This verse also makes it clear that retaliations must be proportional, and blowing up a city block in order to kill one person is most certainly unacceptable and forbidden! Not to mention, it implicitly condemns preemptive strikes. And there is a clear and simple precedent for this. A person cannot be punished for something he/she hasn’t done yet!

“Fight them until there is no more oppression…but if they cease, then let there be no hostilities except on the oppressors.” [Qur’an 2:193]

This particular verse makes it clear that, when the enemy stops fighting, you must also stop fighting. Furthermore, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (S) explicitly commanded his followers to NEVER harm innocent men, women, and children, during warfare. This is why the Iranian military is diligent in their trying to limit casualties, focusing on military, and infrastructure targets. The Iranians, although hated by the west, are displaying honor on the battle field. The saying that, “all is fair in love and war”, is an incorrect statement with the Iranians (Muslims). There are rules of engagement, not just militarily, but also ethically and morally. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (S) said:

“The strong man isn’t the one who could conquer the people, the strong man is he who can conquer himself!” [My Emphasis]

One could say Russia is conducting its SMO in an Islamic manner. The Iranians were also smart and guileful by removing their enriched uranium to a secret, safer place. The Big Picture points to the same modus being used against both Russia and Iran, and ultimately at China—the core of BRICS since India remains on the fence.

IMO, Pepe’s correct that the Collective West is imploding into the morass that Bastiat saw it had constructed for itself. When the Classical Economic Reformers were unable to eliminate the House of Lords and end Feudal control in the UK and the forces of Reaction retaliated, the die was cast for the events of today. Even the USA had its chance but the Divide and Rule mechanisms the elites had emplaced predating Independence foiled that attempt from 1884-1900. Rentier Feudal Financial Capitalism now rules the Collective West and its few outlying satrapies. The commodification of everything including human life is a vast regression to the Feudal Era with the Zionists showing its most extreme methods. Lavrov recently used their extreme behavior to compare the Ukrainians with the Nazis, and he could easily have included the Zionists since they’ve done worse deeds than the Nazis.

Back to the Big Picture. The Outlaw US Empire will use all its tricks to keep its Primacy, its primary trick being the use of terrorism via its numerous proxies and its institutionalized Terrorist Foreign Legion. Just look at Syria as Pepe suggests. As Dr. Hudson in tones, all the Outlaw US Empire can do is promise not to harm anyone via its weaponized currency, financial system and terrorist institution—it has nothing positive to offer since it must exact tribute from the world to keep itself from imploding. Dr. Hudson’s been one of the busiest 85-year-olds on the planet when you visit his website and read all the recent interviews and papers he’s generated over the past two months. Indeed, “Why America is at War with Iran” is a must read as are the four other items he has posted over the last week, all of which explain the Empire’s motives, past actions, and present aims. Clearly as he wrote in Destiny of Civilization, we’re now engaged in a “war between Barbarism and Socialism.” We see which nations and politicos support the Zionist Genocide of Palestinians and the attempted Ukrainian genocide of Russian speakers within that nation. In Syria, the Turkic/Zionist/EU/NATO backed terrorists are on a genocidal rampage there as well.

How to halt the genocidal drive of the Zionists and their allies without causing a nuclear catastrophe? The key to the Empire keeping its Primacy is to break BRICS and its multilateral allies, and that means first defeating Iran which is correctly seen as the weak link, but it’s actually a very powerful weak link as the Zionists just discovered. The Empire pleaded for a ceasefire to save its proxy from complete economic destruction. All sorts of figures exist as to the overall monetary damage done. The genuine amount will be kept secret. Since the genocide in Gaza continues, so does Ansarallah’s missile attacks and interdiction of Red Sea maritime traffic, which are right and proper but lack the volume of devastation Iran can supply. The Zionists will break the ceasefire at some future point as is their habit. Iran’s strategy was to cripple the Zionist economy and its military capabilities and will resume those aims when the conflict resumes. There’s little EU/NATO can do as they’re running on empty, which leaves the Outlaw US Empire. Politically, Trump campaigned to end the Forever Wars and swiftly end the Ukraine conflict, and so far he’s been an abject failure, which has degraded his support base. It’s clear from his tariff and overall economic plan that Trump did have an economic strategy but that fell apart when China stood up and boldly rejected the Trade War with its own measures. The so called negotiations with Russia over Ukraine have failed to attain the goal of restoring normal diplomatic relations with Russia, which now appears to have been a ruse all along regardless if Trump knew of the Biden/Zionist plans to attack the airbase or of what seems to appear to have been a spur-of-the-moment attempt at Putin’s life when he visited the Kursk region by the UK and Ukraine. But what to make of Putin’s recent remarks at the post-EAEU Summit press conference about Trump and Russia’s relations with the Outlaw US Empire since those words don’t seem to be well understood by Russia’s allies.

Russia and China have begun rearming Iran. I respect Iran’s moral stance, but that will not protect Iran from the mad genocidal Zionists who IMO are crazed enough to use their nukes if they can’t change Iran’s regime any other way. And that makes the Zionist-Iran conflict existential, which is a formula for massive disaster. As Pepe calls the Zionists—a genocidal death cult. There doesn’t even seem to be any rational politicos within Occupied Palestine who see the folly of their behavior and have the ability to oust the Death Cult from power. We know that before the 12-day war that a super-majority of Zionists wanted the genocide to continue, which is to say they support the Death Cult. Does that attitude still hold after suffering destruction at a never before experienced level? In Gaza, the Zionists behave as if nothing happened. Trump’s lies about eliminating Iran’s nuclear program are already falling apart; so, the same Christo-Zionists and Death Cultists will again press him to finish the job, although without the IAEA spying, no one will know where to direct the bombs—that is if they can get there the next time.

What can BRICS and its Global Majority allies do to make the Outlaw US Empire cease and desist? The economic strategy is a long play. EU/NATO seems to be on a path to disintegration that Russia can help by continuing to gain ever more Ukraine territory and eventually defeat the UkroNazis. The NATO Summit bodes well in that direction since Zelensky failed to get any further donations beyond what’s already in the pipeline—and we shouldn’t forget that Trump has yet to curtail all US help. Perhaps Putin’s praise for Trump is because Trump is the best weapon being deployed against the Outlaw US Empire via his damaging policies. We do know Lindsy Grahm wants his extreme tariff, anti-Russian bill to be implemented very badly despite Trump saying it would be very bad for America. There’s a level of lunacy in the extremely greedy Congressional pukes that many don’t see because of BigLie Media obfuscation. It appears that more domestic economic damage will need to occur before a critical mass of citizens arise nationally, not just sectionally, and that’s going to take us beyond the Trump term into whoever follows. Little change will occur until the Empire’s drive for primacy finally damages the homeland, and the Angel of History begins to smile.

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