The importance of understanding history

This is just a point of interest that struck me this morning as I read Polish Wolf’s analysis of the Syrian chemical weapons gambit. It is not a personal attack, as he is young and struggling to understand the world, as we old folks are too. His take is far more sophisticated than others I’ve seen from Democrats, and even hints at forward movement. Progress is slow for all of us.

What struck me was this: In American intellectual culture, all events must be explained without reference to the significance of the JFK assassination and the false-flag nature of 9/11. Given that shortcoming, by necessity such explanations will be laborious and far-fetched. To assume that the American executive has as much power after 11/22/63 as before requires imbuing subsequent occupants of that office with high intellect and character. There have been no men with those qualities since JFK’s death. So it is essential in understanding world and domestic events to elminate democratic governance as a driving force. PW’s closing lines are appeals to current congressional office holders. While essential from his viewpoint, it’s only a faint echo of a time when such people had real power. His whole argument is pointless. He does not understand where the center of power lies. This necessarily follows from his apparent failure to understand or study 11/22/63.

9/11 is similar in that one cannot understand events subsequent without understanding the event itself. And yet the whole of our intellectual culture centers on avoidance of that kind of study. With that deficit apparent, all events are misunderstood. So while it is easily apparent to anyone who understands the meaning of 9/11 that Syria is but another domino that must fall to the bankers and industrialists of the West, those who avoid the subject are forced to construct Rube Goldberg-like explanations. PW claims that the whole of the current intensity of the “crisis” centers on a “blunder” by “Obama.” Understanding 9/11, it’s easier to see Syria as one of many countries lined up for attack that day. The inability (to date) of the American military to bring down that regime, after its successes in Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan and Libya, is encouraging.

Of course we are pressured by propaganda and suggestion to avoid investigating the most important events of our times. Those who brought us those events, our deep state, want us to be asleep, or if awake, ignorant.

20 thoughts on “The importance of understanding history”

  1. No matter which party pretends to be in power we seem condemned to carry out the neocon fantasies of men like Wolfowitz, Pearl, Cheney and the Bushes. What this indicates to me is that we are living in a failed state and have really never established a clear identity beyond fighting enemies, real, imagined and concocted. When it began is not clear to me. For years, Morris Berman has been onto this in some depth without much support. Worth a look. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/how-americas-culture-of-hustling-is-dark-and-empty/278601/

    I also like his writing because he often cites Marshall McLuhan.

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    1. I’ll read it – got some time to kill and aching feet.

      The inability to even question the official versions of JFK and 9/11 is an aspect of totalitarian society, control of thoughts and behaviors.

      [Nice article. We live on a quiet mountainside here, you have your own little private Idaho up there. Perhaps we create our own Mexico’s. I don’t feel stress, I don’t hurry or worry. Every day is a new adventure, can’t wait to hit the ground running. I tell people that we are very fortunate, and we are, but it also helps that at a certain point, we stopped believing in America.]

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  2. Haven’t read Morris’s latest, “Why America Failed,” but sounds interesting. Not to belabor a point, but just how viable is the nation-state structure anyway? Technology is waaaaay ahead of governance in most regions. It’s never too soon to try to imagine what should succeed the obsolete. Bioregional alliances make sense on many levels.

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    1. Nation-states seem to form no more basis than a centralized armed force to engage in various conflicts. But there are no “nation-state” interests in the conflicts, only bankers/industrialists/monopolists versus regional claims to regional wealth or geopolitics to protect those claims. keeping this system going requires sophisticated propaganda for the aggressor states to keep the population behind the aggression.

      Bioregional alliances… imperial strategy wants smaller and smaller countries so that each can be exploited without resistance. “Alliance” of any kind is an anathema.

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  4. Regardless of what you think of the man or his tactics, Che was the only person that I know of who saw clearly what was coming clear back in 1954, and he acted upon it. He saw that there was no negotiating with the sociopaths in the CIA and ruling elite. Guess that being in Guatemala during the CIA coup will do that to a person. And you’re absolutely right on with this post. The murder of JFK was simply a continuation of the process started in Iran, Latin America, and Indonesia, etc. In other words, any place that a democratically elected government was not to the liking of the power elite. Besides, Prescott Bush had already selected and groomed a little puissant named Nixon to be his surrogate in power. And after that was achieved, daddy Bush in the CIA. And like they say, the rest is history.

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    1. According to Russ Baker of WhoWhatWhy, Nixon was to have selected George HW Bush as his VP running mate in 2008 1968. Probably, since he knew that Daddy Bush was deeply involved in the JFK assassination, he did not feel, uh, comfortable with that choice, and selected Spiro T Agnew as life insurance, since no one took Agnew seriously. So Watergate was nothing more than a coup, and of course, before Nixon went down Agnew had to go and be replaced by an insider. Gerald Ford, of Warren Commission fame, was selected, and later chose Nelson Rockefeller as his VP.

      [Then there were two attempts on Ford’s life, one by a Manson family member, but they don’t seem to have been serious attacks of the kind that are meant to succeed – just random pistol shots from too far away to succeed. History is loaded with the weird which is why I love it so.]

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          1. Historical perspective, dude. Do you accept Mark’s correct premise that we had our coup with JFK? You see, that truly is the game changer. It ain’t conspiracy. Conspiracy nuts are part of their counter strategy to de-legitimize any dissent.

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  5. LK, I have 9/11. I was just 22. in some ways we can think of that event as the culmination of 50 years of escalation, refinement, normalization, and control. the gloves are off.

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    1. They are acting with purpose, and we can only speculate. Are they testing Syrian/Iranian/Russian response systems? Testing resolve? In these games of chicken, one can never in any way display weakness. That was Saddam’s mistake – in disarming prior to 2003, he virtually assured (invited) invasion. Everyone in the region learned the lesson.

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