Connecting the dots: Crisis

Subversion, Mass Formation, and Devolution Demoralization, Destabilization, Crisis: The Climax of Subversion—Part 7

Review of the principles of Subversion

In Part 1 of this series, I introduced Yuri Bezmenov, a defector to America from the Soviet Union, who spoke about the process of subversion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviets, and how it relates to America.

His interview is here:  https://rumble.com/vrjghs-  devolved-vol-1-a-fortified-election.html beginning around 8:20. The entire video is well worth a view.

Devolved Vol 1, is part of a multipart video series, based on Patel Patriot’s series of articles on Devolution, which is found here:

Another great series that takes a historical view of subversion at the scale of worldwide events, is the Prussia Gate series by Will Zoll.

In 1984 Bezmenov describes the purpose of a variety of subversive tactics designed to change the perception of reality on the societal scale. These tactics include false flag events, disinformation, distraction, suppression, omission, projection, bribery, intimidation, and subversion. I have been focused on the last, subversion, specifically ideological subversion.  Asked by the interviewer what that means, Bezmenov explained it this way:

“What it basically means is to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.”

According to Bezmenov, it follows a slow but accelerating process that begins with “demoralization”, “destabilization” and finally “crisis,” followed by “normalization” whereby the “great reset” is complete.  Demoralization is carried out primarily through the educational system over a period long enough to brainwash at least three generations of youth,

“…who are exposed to the ideology of the enemy…being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of Americans, without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism.”

Demoralization

Think of what ideological changes have occurred since the “cultural revolution” of the 1960s: “feminism” to “gender neutrality,” “civil rights” to “Critical Race Theory,” “post-war prosperity” to “anti-capitalism,” “environmental protection” to “climate change,” anti-war protests against “US intervention” in Vietnam” to the “continuous wars” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now the war-drums beating for Ukraine.  “Anti-communist” purges gave way to open campaigns for “Socialism/Progressivism,” from “question authority” to “don’t question the scientists” and the betrayal of trust by most critical institutions of government and the press. We moved from “my body my choice” to mask and vaccine “mandates.” Freedom of movement has taken a back seat to restrictions on travel and business, and the traditional abundance of goods on American shelves has emptied due to disruptions of entire supply chains.  The stability of the US dollar is now the victim of rampant inflation, and energy “too cheap to meter” has suddenly turned into $6 gasoline and dependency on foreign oil. All of this has been promoted as the new reality, the “woke” ideology of “Build Back Better” and the “Great Reset.”

These changes occurred over the course of about 60 years or 3 generations.  No rational person would look at our public schools and universities and claim they are beacons of Americanism.  Instead, they are focused on promoting ideologies that would be unimaginable during the cold war of the 1950s.  The values of Americanism have been lost to institutions based on “equity, diversity, and inclusion.” This is the nature of demoralization. 

Recall that morals are the shared reality we perceive as “right and wrong.”  “De-moralization” means changing the perceptions of right and wrong, or creating so much confusion that the distinctions become confusing and unresolvable.  Few would deny the existence or reality of these changes in American society.

Destabilization

The next stage is destabilization, in which the economy, foreign relations, and defense systems are disrupted and destabilized over 2-5 years.  It has been only one year since Joe Biden was inaugurated as President.  The 4 years prior were marked by unprecedented institutional warfare among the branches of government, followed by a controversial election, oppressive pandemic policies, mandates, and the assumption of emergency powers that have persisted for over two years. We have seen in just the past few weeks skyrocketing energy prices and a return to dependence on foreign supplies, along with ongoing disruptions to supply chains across all major economic sectors. Inflation has topped a 40-year high, and most recently we see a threat of WWIII.  Combined, these factors and events have had the net effect of destabilizing the fundamental structure and fabric of civil society.

Crisis

 The third stage is crisis, which is an event of short duration. “Bringing a country to the brink of crisis” can occur in as little as 6 weeks but can last for years. Crisis precipitates a rapid and “violent change in power, structure, and economy.”  The purported “false flag” operation referred to as the “orange” color revolution in Ukraine which toppled the pro-Russian leader and installed a pro-western government would be an example of a crisis in a foreign country, no matter who was behind it. January 6 is looking more and more like a false-flag operation. No matter what the combination of events may be, the ultimate result is such widespread destabilization that ultimately culminates in an undeniable crisis.

I have often referred to the book “The Fourth Turning”, by William Strauss and Neil Howe. From the book jacket:

“In The Fourth Turning, they apply their generational theories to the cycles of history and locate America in the middle of an unraveling period, on the brink of a crisis.”

The book was written in 1997, 25 years ago.  It looks at the repeating stages of historical events over a “saeculum,” the time of one long human lifetime (~80 years) or the time when the human population is completely renewed on earth. There are four stages, one for each generation born after the crisis, symbolically coinciding with the natural cycle of the four seasons, each with their own “weather pattern” and always in the same order. It is an interesting read and a useful way to look at history. According to this theory, we are long overdue for a crisis. Here are the various Anglo-American saeculums as described in the book:

·         Late Medieval (1435-1487)

·         Reformation    (1487-1594)

·         New World     (1594-1707)

·         Revolutionary (1704-1794)

·         Civil War        (1794-1865)

·         Great Power    (1865-1946)

·         Millennial        (1946-2026?)

Of these, I will talk about only the last two since the historical events will be more familiar. Think of the 4 turnings as a societal mood change. The four stages are the post-crisis “high”, followed by a period of “awakening”, or spiritual upheaval. Then the “unraveling” period follows with its strengthening individualism and weakening of institutions, and the decay of civic order.  Finally comes the “crisis” when the old civic order is replaced with the new, for better or worse.

Great Power

This commenced with the end of the civil war, the “high” of reconstruction, and the gilded age.  Next came the “awakening” with riots, student movements, agrarian protests, and labor violence. Passions cooled somewhat after the rise of the Progressive movement under Teddy Roosevelt with the election of William Howard Taft.

During the third turning, World War I and prohibition appeared, and “unraveling” began, with crumbling trust, widening class divisions, and moral crusades over drugs, sex, money, cynicism, violence, immigration, and family. National borders for countries all over the planet were redrawn.

Finally, the Great Depression and WWII provided the crisis, and the world was never the same as it was before 1946.  New national boundaries were created, and much of Eastern Europe was ceded to Stalin.  Europe was devastated, the Soviet Union became a global power second only to the U.S. The world acclimated to the new world order, the preeminence of the US economy, and the inevitability of the Cold War.

Millennial

The following saeculum began with the American High, with America’s ascendancy as a global superpower.  The middle class grew and prospered.  “Declaring an end to ideology,” respected authorities presided over a bland, modernist, and spirit-dead culture. This is the period I was born into.

Beginning in about 1964, the US entered into a consciousness revolution that began with urban riots, campus fury, Vietnam war protests, and rebellious counterculture. This was the age of Hippies and Flower Power, and gave rise to feminism, environmentalism, black power, Civil Rights, and a rise in crime and divorce, and the exposure of corruption at the top with Watergate.  The “New Age” lifestyle “spiritual rebirth” was the mood.  Hippies became yuppies during Reagan’s upbeat reelection campaign.  I was going to school in Chico during this time, beginning in 1972.

At the time this book came out, they said this about the Millennial Crisis: “[It] has yet to arrive.”

Has it arrived?

Crisis in 2022?

The thing about a crisis is no one has to ask “is it here?”  No one could completely ignore either the Great Depression or WWII, and no one could miss them being over. That is the nature of a crisis.  Nothing remains unchanged, and there is no going back to the way things were before the crisis.

To mix the Subversion and Turning narratives, you can tell when the crisis is over when the “Normalization” stage appears. That is when the new order asserts itself. By then, it is already too late to change the outcome.  WWII was a visible war, and the end was announced by an event that was obvious, the appearance of the nuclear age with two blinding flashes in Japan.

The world changed after that, and 76 years later, here we are.

Anyone who bothers to read this far into this article probably already knows most of the major events, especially the key global events like 9/11, the wars that followed, the political intrigue since 2016, and the pandemic, to name a few highlights.

I just completed reading two books by Erik Larson, who writes non-fiction. Both were about WWII, which has always fascinated me.  The first is called “The Splendid and the Vile,” a look into the wartime leadership of Winston Churchill, his closest advisors, family, and the attitude and mood of the British people during the bombing of London before the U.S. entered the war. For much of the book, the people were expecting an imminent invasion by the Germans onto the English shore. 

The second book is called “The Garden of the Beasts” a story about the rise of the Nazi regime told through the eyes of William E. Dodd, Ambassador to Berlin under Roosevelt beginning in 1933.

Read back-to-back, as I did, the books have striking relevance to today and what I’ve written so far.  Both are accounts of the years before the crisis that was WWII to America.  For Churchill, the war began much earlier than for the US, and much of his effort, besides suffering the effects of the bombings, involved trying to gear up to defend against invasion, while keeping the English people from collapsing under the pressures of nightly bombings and imminent threat of invasion.

The thing that is interesting about this is that years before the details became obvious to the general population, the writing was on the wall for those closest to the action.  Dodd watched the entire ascendency of Hitler and the Nazis through direct and personal experience with some of the most famous Nazi leaders, including Hitler, Goering, and Himmler.  Had the US or England acted sooner, the whole mess could have been nipped in the bud, but of course, it wasn’t.

The other thing that didn’t happen was adequate preparation for what was coming if the worst did happen, which it did.  At the start of hostilities by Germany against England, the British were completely unprepared for war and had to try to build up their defenses while already under attack. The US maintained its neutrality until 1941.

But the leaders and people of the 1940s had one huge advantage over our current situation.  The evidence of war, and who was going to fight who, was obvious by the time Japan attacked Pearl Harbor just before the start of 1942.

The Invisible Enemy

The entire thrust of Will Zoll’s Prussia Gate series is based on the premise that after WWI, the Prussian Empire went underground, and the war-based ideology was embodied in some of the largest corporations and universities and became integrated into various countries in succession since then.  For example, there is a strong connection between Prussian leaders and Lenin, and then Hitler later on. There are strong implications for this same political and ideological force doing to the U.S. what has been done previously in earlier historical moments, stretching back to the prior Great Power era.

The organizing principle of Prussia was war.  When viewing the history of war, one inescapable fact is that tremendous wealth is transferred to those who manufacture and supply arms and other materials.  Many German and US corporations made enormous profits selling arms to Germany as the Nazis prepared for world domination. Many of the same enterprises also sold and manufactured arms for the US and its allies. 

Along with the transfer of wealth to the military-industrial complex comes enormous debt, financed through the global central banking network.  This same network of banking for transactions on the national scale involving billions and now trillions of dollars is also the system used to impose economic sanctions on our enemies. Not only was it used as a weapon against the Japanese leading up to Pearl Harbor and all-out world war, but it is also the instrument of sanctions against hostile states, like Iran and Iraq, and now Russia.  Oddly, China seems to retain its favored nation status no matter what their conduct in other areas. We will have to come back to that in more detail later.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously warned us about the Military-Industrial Complex in his farewell address in 1961, perhaps one of the greatest Presidential speeches. If you haven’t watched this, do yourself a favor, keeping in mind the era he was living in and had just come through as General and Supreme Allied Commander throughout WWII, and President during the transition from Joseph Stalin to Nikita Khrushchev in the USSR. It starts at 8:41, but the whole speech is amazingly prescient.

Every major crisis of the magnitude that changes the world permanently, shifts the global power structures, is accompanied by war, and every war is accompanied by enormous profits by some, tremendous debt slavery by nations, and untold suffering by those commoners that are under the bombs and the weight of debt-driven taxation.

I say all of this not to teach you history, but to suggest you look for the similarities between these historical events, and our current times.  Wars are not something that just happens. They are conflicts between powerful interests with competing designs for control. When conflict is not or cannot be resolved in any other way, it is resolved by war.

The terrible question, the scariest of all that can be pondered, is the prospect of war.  While we can see the forces of demoralization and disruption all around us, the critical question is whether this is happening on its own accord, or whether the growing chaos we perceive around us is the result of more sinister, subversive interests?

Remember that one of the characteristics of subversion is secrecy and invisibility.  Defeat by an enemy whose presence is never detected is the very definition of a perfect victory.  Victory by subversion is generally bloodless, non-kinetic, and more permanent than a destroyed and vanquished society.  Subversion is transformative more than materially destructive. It is also part of the “softening up” effort combatants use as a tool of all wars.

I believe we are more likely to agree we are headed for a crisis than we are to agree upon why.  When it is too early to tell, remember those conspiracy theories may turn out to be true. Yet we also know from reading Talking to Strangers, we will default to trust and doubt before we will admit we have been fooled.

When Trump first took office and the Russia Gate events were just beginning to unfold, he was far ahead of the truth that now is undeniable, yet at the time he was said to be wrong. A similar observation can be made regarding all of the things we were told about Covid, many or most of which are now emerging as wrong.  In both cases, the people who were considered “crazy” or “conspiracy nuts” or worse, “QAnons,” are now being vindicated.  That is the way it goes.

When Hitler was still a minor political figure, some people saw the handwriting on the wall, but because the danger was not yet obvious or certain, his assent seemed unlikely and therefore not seen as the threat it was.  We don’t easily admit when we are fooled.  Not only were the “conspiracy nuts” right at the time, but history has proven them to be the canaries in the coal mine.  I am not offering a revelation here.  Many before me have seen the handwriting before me.  This is a culmination and synthesis of the outstanding work of many others, those who have seen the patterns long before me, but I see signs of a crisis in our future.

They say the military always prepares for the last war and is always unprepared for the next one. In today’s world, cyberspace is the battleground for an information war in the 21st century.  The technology of war is always changing, and that is why it is so difficult to prepare for the next one. Enter Devolution.

Patel Patriot, a pseudonym attached to a recognizable face, has written an excellent series on devolution.  Ironically, the concept of devolution comes out of the birth of the nuclear age and the era of nuclear weapons. The military question arose during Eisenhower’s post-war presidency when nuclear weapons capable of wiping out entire cities and the critical infrastructure of a county were proliferating among superpowers and then lesser nations.  How does a country plan for continuity of government when the seat of government, the essential infrastructure, and institutions, like elections, are no longer functioning? 

Since the 1950s, the military has been developing and refining its plans and practices for just such an occurrence. It is quite possible that the strategies of subversion, including the tactics of false flag events, disinformation, distraction, suppression, omission, projection, bribery, intimidation, have already accomplished a nearly complete victory.  Throughout history, the people who make up the warp and fabric of society are always the last to know.  They realize the truth after the fact when it is too late to change the course of events.

If you can permit yourself to imagine such a scenario, where the war was won before we accepted it was happening or identified the combatants before we could tell the “good guys” from the “bad guys,” what systems of defense would you turn to? Who would you look for to ride in from the sun to save us? In every war in history, it has been the military who stands as the last guardian of freedom. When your military is defeated, the war is over.

Reading Patel Patriot’s series is a source of rational optimism.  It supports the proposition that the military, through Constitutional means, has prepared for this war, and is preparing the arsenal to turn the attack on the enemy, much like the frantic effort by Churchill to build a formidable air force as the bombs were falling on London.  Neither you nor I can be helpful in that endeavor.  It is, as they say, above our pay grade.

But we cannot escape from captivity we cannot see, and when the white hats come riding over the horizon to save us, God help us if we cannot tell friend from foe.

General Flynn, who has been a target and victim of this mostly invisible conflict has a mantra he repeats just about every chance he gets.  “Local action has a national impact.”  This helps me justify the time I’ve spent working on local issues, and meeting so many people I consider to be within my circle of trust.  Work at the local level aggregates into a national mood change. We need to change our mood.

In wrapping this series up, I think there are a couple of things we can do to get ready. First, expand and vet your circle of trust. Surround yourself with people who want the best for you. We have no one to depend upon besides each other.

Second, read, learn, write, and speak. I think this is the only way you will recognize the white hats when they come.  That is what works for me.

Lastly, acknowledge that evil exists in the world, and the devil rarely gives his name. Learn who is trustworthy and reliable and be so yourself.  When things get really tough, it’s better to already know who you can count on. Be the kind of person others want in their life-raft.

I love this town and the people in it.