Lavrov’s meeting with representatives of the relevant BRICS parliamentary committees on international affairs. The above meeting occurred on the April 11, while Crooke’s paper was submitted to the XXII International Likhachev Scientific Readings, St Petersburg University of Humanities and Social Sciences, 12-13 April 2024 and is entitled “Is a peaceful accommodation between BRICS and the West possible?” Lavrov’s remarks provide an overview of what BRICS+ is now working on as it incorporates its five new members and can be described as BRICS+ current working reality. Crooke’s title while pessimistic is also based on reality and explores some very important historic European vantages to make its points yet little is said of the Americans despite their hegemonic position or the Zionists aside from their eschatological extremism. Hat-tip to reader Lubica for alerting me to Crooke’s essay being published today instead of Monday. Lavrov’s opening remarks are a short 17-minutes and begin now:
"IMO, Crooke’s point about Russia being the only genuine Christian power left is very important as all others including the Vatican long ago vacated Christian values, a fact the West is desperately trying to hide..."
"... the appearance of normalcy, it seems, says nothing about whether a society is about to founder." from Mr Crooke's article, a man I respect - unlike bevin, which saddens me because despite all of our differences we are all currrently in the same trench - resonated with me because it occurred to me the other day that the present time seems very familiar to that five year period that preceded the first world war. The images of imperial normalcy of the British and European chattering classes, in photos and film, are there to see and easily compared to the distractions available today.
Hopefully we - humanity - will have finally ditched the imperial project/model as a modus operandi completely by the end of this age of pisces. Assuming the Imperial project was functionally necessary to get us to here over the preceding 4,000+ years. It's evident dangers to individual and national/communal liberty are revealed by what Richard Wolff has called the last 'settler colony', Israel, and the viciousness of it's sense of 'exceptionalism'. Perhaps Israel's status as the last settler colony and its extreme brutality encapsulates a representation of what every imperial project was. A final lesson to encourage us to move on to a better model. Hopefully BRICS+ shows us the way.
Yes, the USA as "settler colony" was also extremely vicious and remains so structurally. Truman and others commented at the time (1948) on how much nascent Israel resembled the USA, which given the facts were highly damning revelations.
Both 'settler colonies' appear to have been part of the imperial project of GB or more accurately England/London as it could be argued that empires begin at home. Come to that I'm sure I have heard the USA referred to as 'the inland empire' at some time or another.
Its bedtime for me but let me leave two observations. Firstly Frantz Fanon was from Martinique, he was one of a peculiarly rich crop of Caribbean Marxists, which included a whole slew from Trinidad in cluding Eric William, Oliver Cox and CLR James, Aime Cesaire was another Martinican.
The second point that I would make about Crooke's piece is that it exhibits the desperate hunt of anti-imperialists for a philosophy that doesn't upset the anti-communist ideology that has blanketed the international Academy and culture for a century.
The reality is that BRICs is built on anti-imperialist values. It is the institutionalisation of the penultimate stage in the long anti-colonial revolution that began in 1917 and had its origins not just in the Russian Revolution but in the flash of blinding light that illuminated Imperialism, for the colonised, in the First World War. It was then that Africa and Asia awoke to the long suspected fact that Europe was not superior it was just better organised for plundering the world. For millions of colonial troops enrolled and rushed into the battlefields the war broke the spell cast by imperialist governance. And from that moment on the countdown to the end of Empire began.
We are now down to the single digits (as in eight, seven, six,...) and when we awake nothing will seem less important than the ideological twitches of the dying Empire which so horrify Alistair and his sort. Most of the world has long seen through homophobia it won't have any difficulty in seeing through transmania and similar masturbatory outbreaks.
And it certainly won't be returning to the bad old days (largely responsible for sexual hang-ups and every form of bullying and authoritarian hierarchy) of mass religious observance of the christian kind.
Imperialism is dying and its twin, capitalism, is going to die soon afterwards- humanity has bigger fish to fry than rat races and usury. What must come will have much in common with the age old search for a foundation for love and the eternal but it will have no room for rank or any form of inequality except those freely conceded in love and respect.
"IMO, Crooke’s point about Russia being the only genuine Christian power left is very important as all others including the Vatican long ago vacated Christian values, a fact the West is desperately trying to hide..."
Beautiful and so true my brother.
"... the appearance of normalcy, it seems, says nothing about whether a society is about to founder." from Mr Crooke's article, a man I respect - unlike bevin, which saddens me because despite all of our differences we are all currrently in the same trench - resonated with me because it occurred to me the other day that the present time seems very familiar to that five year period that preceded the first world war. The images of imperial normalcy of the British and European chattering classes, in photos and film, are there to see and easily compared to the distractions available today.
Hopefully we - humanity - will have finally ditched the imperial project/model as a modus operandi completely by the end of this age of pisces. Assuming the Imperial project was functionally necessary to get us to here over the preceding 4,000+ years. It's evident dangers to individual and national/communal liberty are revealed by what Richard Wolff has called the last 'settler colony', Israel, and the viciousness of it's sense of 'exceptionalism'. Perhaps Israel's status as the last settler colony and its extreme brutality encapsulates a representation of what every imperial project was. A final lesson to encourage us to move on to a better model. Hopefully BRICS+ shows us the way.
Yes, the USA as "settler colony" was also extremely vicious and remains so structurally. Truman and others commented at the time (1948) on how much nascent Israel resembled the USA, which given the facts were highly damning revelations.
Interesting, thanks for that.
Both 'settler colonies' appear to have been part of the imperial project of GB or more accurately England/London as it could be argued that empires begin at home. Come to that I'm sure I have heard the USA referred to as 'the inland empire' at some time or another.
There's what's known as the Inland Empire East of LA in San Bernadino County, California.
You are just a mine of information. Thanks again. That makes sense as I think it was Frank Zappa that used the phrase. Cheers.
Its bedtime for me but let me leave two observations. Firstly Frantz Fanon was from Martinique, he was one of a peculiarly rich crop of Caribbean Marxists, which included a whole slew from Trinidad in cluding Eric William, Oliver Cox and CLR James, Aime Cesaire was another Martinican.
The second point that I would make about Crooke's piece is that it exhibits the desperate hunt of anti-imperialists for a philosophy that doesn't upset the anti-communist ideology that has blanketed the international Academy and culture for a century.
The reality is that BRICs is built on anti-imperialist values. It is the institutionalisation of the penultimate stage in the long anti-colonial revolution that began in 1917 and had its origins not just in the Russian Revolution but in the flash of blinding light that illuminated Imperialism, for the colonised, in the First World War. It was then that Africa and Asia awoke to the long suspected fact that Europe was not superior it was just better organised for plundering the world. For millions of colonial troops enrolled and rushed into the battlefields the war broke the spell cast by imperialist governance. And from that moment on the countdown to the end of Empire began.
We are now down to the single digits (as in eight, seven, six,...) and when we awake nothing will seem less important than the ideological twitches of the dying Empire which so horrify Alistair and his sort. Most of the world has long seen through homophobia it won't have any difficulty in seeing through transmania and similar masturbatory outbreaks.
And it certainly won't be returning to the bad old days (largely responsible for sexual hang-ups and every form of bullying and authoritarian hierarchy) of mass religious observance of the christian kind.
Imperialism is dying and its twin, capitalism, is going to die soon afterwards- humanity has bigger fish to fry than rat races and usury. What must come will have much in common with the age old search for a foundation for love and the eternal but it will have no room for rank or any form of inequality except those freely conceded in love and respect.
It sure is bed time!!
It will be interesting to see what Crooke says in his chat with Napolitano tomorrow.