Russia has no future. The British Isles do. Long before the last serving of fish and chips has passed into gastronomy history, Blinis and Pelmeni will have been stricken from all the languages of Earth. At least, this is what Owen Matthews, the author of the book Stalin’s Children, believes. Sadly, he is not alone in his ludicrous and addictive hate of all things Russia.
Spectator’s View
Somebody, please stop me! Morning research has inextricably led me to another media analysis—this time on the weekly British newspaper The Spectator. The title of Matthews’s story will help you understand how a geopolitical analyst can’t seem to get off of Western news. “Putin may seem confident – but Russia’s future is bleak,” is problematic because it is entirely based on a dark fantasy. Matthews, after whining about Mr. Putin running things in Russia some more, launches into a spew about the Ukraine military operation. In his vent, the British son of Ukrainian S.S.R. parents belches a familiar Western strategy burp – the idea that Ukraine ever had any chance of winning a conflict against Russia.
It’s counterproductive to hover over this “made” British journalist for long. As many in the service of the liberal elites freaked over the new multipolar order, Matthews has made the rounds for his lords and masters. During the Bosnian war, he was a mouthpiece from Budapest, Sarajevo, and Belgrade. He also ran interference in the Second Chechen War, as well as in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan – the usual places propagandist altar boys get sent. The most significant difference between Matthews and a cadre of corporate-owned contemporaries is he’s one hell of a lot better at slicing and dicing the Ukraine situation. On Russia? Well, let’s just say he has to play his role according to direction most of the time.
Like all the other stories we’ve read about Putin, the Euromaidan, Ukraine, Russia, and the state of West-East affairs, all the familiar bell tones are there. Ideas like new Russian imperialism, Russia’s weak army, Putin’s destroyed economy, and even a Russian brain drain exodus are there to rivet the willing idiots tuned in. I assume the Russian mafioso, former Yukos oil boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and other Western-backed privateers are the “best and brightest” to whom the Statesman story refers. The magazine’s paywall prevented me from diving deeper into this latest Russophobic rant. The exciting thing here is the question that arises from observing so many talented writers being sucked into the dark wormhole of elitist illusion. Aha! You say? We are onto something much more profound than painting paid propagandists.
Long Live the King
You see, almost all of these Putin haters and China worriers are convinced of their correctness by a system that rewards outcomes. Or the outcomes those who control the system desire. In America and other Western alliance countries, every level of society is “led” toward one desirable outcome – profit. It is not simply ordinary profit but an economic system that makes tribute to a French, Spanish, or English king look like alms for the poor. It’s all very refined, you see. It’s cloaked in ideas like “democracy” and injected into our veins like a serum called “freedom.” Owen Matthews is not the only Brit who believes in his ideas. He’s just got the job of dope dealer for the susceptible masses. But he probably does not know it. Some CIA-groomed tech Titans or Pulitzer winners do understand from whence their fame and fortune is derived. These are clutching the half-filled glass of single malt before, during, and after lunch. At a point, even people like the notorious Victoria Nuland end up looking in the mirror and seeing a son or daughter of Satan himself. Stop and think.
Now, apply your vision of a face wrenched by hate, lies, power struggles, ruined relationships, and way too many chocolates and other sweets. The faces you may visualize are the “little” Victoria Nuland in our society. Or, perhaps, you’re conjuring mental pictures of your next-door neighbor. You know, the one with the big Putin hate, who could not find Ukraine on a map with countries named. I taught geography for a bit. That was until I realized that one child in 100 cared about Ma and Pa, a ballgame, or a trip to Walmart. Sadly, even Ma and Pa America think the United States is twice as big as Africa. You have the beginnings of a window here, right here in this paragraph. Yes, they want us stupid as hell.
Americans, Brits, and most people are brought up to “know” only what is necessary to keep the profit machine working. I speak with friends from America all the time. They are satisfied that Vladimir Putin is Genghis Khan, even though few know who the Mongolian conqueror was. They are wrapped up and content to realize their president is senile and in control of much of nothing. Some pray on their knees that another geriatric puppet named Trump will prevail over a man who waves at invisible people. They may have a son or daughter who’s been in prison, on the hardest drugs, or just shit out of luck for a multitude of reasons. Or, a few Americans seemingly have kids on Yellow Brick Road. For some, Emerald City and the Land of the Mighty Oz are just over the hill. And no, none of them know where Zanzibar or Indonesia is.
The people who own The Statesman and other key U.K. publications are irrevocably tied to the British treasury. There’s no space here to get into the Barclay brothers, Crown Agents, Boris Johnson, and a laundry list of other elitist rogues. Still, those brainwashed, groomed, or with simple greed stamped into their foreheads cling like refrigerator magnets to institutions like The Statesman, The New York Times, and the mainstream media. Ironically, we mice follow them like zombies, and arms outstretched, plodding along in our daily blood ritual called life. Impervious, most people are to the fascist horrors inflicted on Palestinians, starving Yemenis, or even the unstoppable desertification blanketing our planet. Climate change is a corporate hoax. COVID will or will not kill us. And our classification of humanity still boils down to white, black, brown, yellow, or red-skinned people. Russians, in fact, all Slavs, are inhuman barbarians.
Now, From Our Sponsors
And now you understand why I cannot get off the subject of Western media propaganda. It’s all advertising, you see. I know this from a professional perspective. I once owned the most influential PR news outlet in Europe. I have emails from almost all of the world’s most famous and successful public relations and marketing executives. What began with the TV soap opera has metastasized into nearly complete mind control. Factor in a few hundred million iPhones, a Facebook account, Super Bowl Sunday, and voilà! Once the dopamine hits the inner nine-year-old and that narcissistic chromosome – God could end up being the enemy. Hell, he already is for just about everyone in Hollywood.
So, would this report be about just another Soros, Walton family, or Rothschild minion? But the revelation is more powerful than the Soviet Union’s Tsar Bomba. The nuclear radiation spread out over our world is deadlier than gamma rays. You see, Owen Matthews is not the enemy. Full-asleep Joe Biden isn’t either. The frozen brain of Adolf Hitler was not responsible, and neither was Joseph Stalin. The Disney conglomerate is not the ultimate evil, either. We are.
Instead of stepping outside the bubble, rather than snatching a drop of courage and fortitude from our lazy and easily corruptible existences, we always do the easy thing. We follow. Human rats traverse the ship’s mooring lines, seething to get to that hidden cargo that will grow our bellies bigger. All those unarmed and defenseless Palestinians the lunatic Israelis are eradicating? We’re standing by just like we did when the Nazis gassed men, women, and children to death like pests. And there’s your hard truth, the tough love, straight from this SPECTATOR of it all.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
