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My Political Biography Chapter 3 Founding Fathers by Eduard Liminov

Russian edition

https://drugoros.ru/biblioteka/moia-politicheskaia-biografiia/glava-3-ottsy-osnovateli

Two friends of my revolutionary youth, each of them in his turn said to be a renegade and each a traitor to the National Bolshevik Party *, are projected by themselves on the fresh, calf-shit-colored cell wall of the Lefortovo prison. Both friends faded from the Eternity of History into life in time. Life has its advantages. The mighty, bronze weight of History has its own advantages. It’s harder for me, every day of prison crushes, even going to the bathhouse is like washing in front of a gas chamber. But you will not refuse me consistency and integrity of character. In Lefortovo, eternity is played out. A party is being played out in Moscow.

So. The large, bearded face of the classic of Duginism is Alexander Gelevich. A thin, feline, sideways face with piercing black eyes – Taras Adamovich. Three of the four founding fathers of the National Bolshevik Party have exotic patronymics: Alexander Gelievich Dugin, Taras Adamovich Rabko, Eduard Veniaminovich Savenko (Limonov). These patronymic names must mean something, maybe the exoticism of National Bolshevism? (It is also true that Leninist Marxism was an even more exotic ideology in Russia in 1917.) The fourth founding father is Egor (Igor) Fedorovich Letov.

Despite such a completely Russian, coachman surname (arc, a bell under the arc), Dugin has the body of a Tatar Murza, like Baburin. A plump, cheeky, belly, busty, bearded young man with ample thighs. Full of exaggerated emotions – that’s how he seemed to me at the evening of the newspaper “The Day” in the cinema “Oktyabrsky”. Then I saw him for the first time. 1992 I was sitting in the presidium, and when he came out to perform, back to us, I remember being struck by the small ballet “pas” that made his legs, movements inappropriate for the massive figure of this young man. He had a habit of standing on one leg completely, suddenly pushing the other back, on the toe. In 1994, I remember watching his same “pas” in the Master disco, where the “Extremist Fashion” festival took place, then Dugin was dressed in riding breeches and shoes! In this outfit, his toe foot looked Oscar Wilde ambiguous. Dugin’s “disciple” – Karogodin – was dressed in a black Nazi suit, rented at the theater, and Taras Rabko sported an overcoat and a Red Army soldier’s Budyonovka. I gave an interview to Vesti, standing between two extremists: a nationalist and a Bolshevik.

That evening in Oktyabrsky, I also noted that Dugin had arbitrarily usurped the connection of the patriotic opposition with the Western right. He spoke with greetings from the parties of many European countries at once, from Italian, French, German, even, it seems, Swiss and Finnish right. He read out the greetings of obscure groups and little groups, and whenever he announced: “We are greeted by a party … from Belgium … a party from France … a party from Italy!” The hall burst into applause. During the last years of my life in France, I became close to the largest right-wing party Front National and met its leader Jean Marie Le Pen, with the owner of the newspaper “Minute” Gerard Penzelelli, with the staff of the magazine “Le Chok de mois” and “Minute”, with the editor of the magazine ” Krisis” by Alain de Benoist, therefore he knew well the situation in the right movement. The parties in whose name Dugin welcomed the hall were microscopic groups. After his speech and before the banquet at the House of Writers, I told him about this, asking if he knew that with the possible exception of “La Nouvelle Europe” – Thiriart’s organization – these are all sects, not parties. Dugin smiled hooliganly: “You know, Eduard, for people sitting in the hall, support from abroad is important, and not how many people are in one party or another.” He was right, of course.

“Our young philosopher,” as Prokhanov announced to the public, got drunk that evening at a banquet in the restaurant of the House of Writers. The whole beau-monde of the patriotic movement was present there: Kozhinov, Shafarevich, generals Titov and Makashov, Zyuganov was sitting to my left. And just at that moment, when I was talking with Zyuganov (there was something like an intermission, those present stood up, who wanted to, and talked as they had to), Dugin appeared from behind Zyuganov, his flushed face was already on one side. “And what are you, Edward, doing with these?” He nodded contemptuously towards Zyuganov. The latter, however, showed typical Russian tolerance towards a drunkard: “Pay no attention, Edik, it happens to our Sasha.” “Let’s drink hard

Dugin did not leave me that evening. I have detailed the following episode in “A Hero’s Anatomy”. Three of us left the banquet: Prokhanov, Dugin and myself. Prokhanov left us at the church where, they say, Pushkin got married. Then a scene from the program “Crime” played out. Drunken Dugin kicked a passing foreign car so that a dent formed. The car stopped, a man with a pistol jumped out of it and, clicking the shutter, pointed the pistol at Dugin. Dugin – the hat has gone astray, the scarf is hanging – suddenly declared: “You know, but I’m Limonov!” I told the man with the gun that Limonov was me and I apologize for my drunk friend. The man swore, lowered his gun, got into the car and drove away. There was some symbolism in the scene on the street, which was confirmed in the future – Dugin sometimes mistook himself for me, I think sometimes he really wanted to be Limonov. This episode, tragic in its essence, did not turn me away from Dugin. A small speck on a philosopher’s reputation, that’s all. Not even a speck, if you look at the image of Dugin in the Russian tradition. Even in the German tradition, the alcoholic, bohemian, drug addict was, as we know, Hitler’s teacher. In May 1993, fresh, fresh from the war in the Kninska Krajina, I arrived in Russia. And already on May 9 he led a column of the National Bolshevik Front. Events then took place at a feverishly spasmodic pace. Dugin walked beside him. We wrote Order No. 1 on the National Bolshevik Front, standing on the humpbacked bridge near the White House, only stepping aside from the crowd that was always seething there. It was a few days before May 9th. I wrote down the order. Its essence was reduced to the combination in one political body of the ideas of social and national justice. This is a very important policy document. He outlined the first strokes of the ideology of National Bolshevism. Taras Rabko was not with us, perhaps he took exams in Tver or went to his parents in the city of Kimry. Or maybe he didn’t exist at all, that is, I haven’t met him yet? But there was a girl photographer Laura Ilyina, she captured this historical moment on film and if she didn’t lose it in her turbulent life, then maybe one day the photos will be published. (Laura Ilyina was later present at many tragic episodes of my personal and political life. She was even present during the last hours of my life together with Natasha Medvedeva, on July 11, 1995. True, she then took several photographs at my request, which I now regret. A lot had to be done. History needs to be recorded. And false modesty deprives humanity of the exhibits of future museums.)

Taras Adamovich Rabko appeared before me for the first time on the stairs of the Literaturnaya Gazeta plant. As I was leaving The Day, Tatyana Solovyova (she still works with Prokhanov) called out to me: “Here, Eduard, I want to introduce you to a young man, he is your admirer.” The admirer, a tall, thin, round-shouldered young man, his eyes shone, he almost stuttered with excitement. We started walking down the stairs, talking. Since he read me carefully, there was something to talk about. It was May 1993 outside. Then Taras became extremely useful and absolutely indispensable. In fact, he provoked me to create a political organization. Little cat head, innocent eyes of a crook.

Perhaps the history of National Bolshevism would have developed faster for a whole year if it were not for the confrontation between the Supreme Soviet and Yeltsin. In essence, they were overwhelmingly people of the same camp, it is enough to recall that with the same Supreme Soviet, Yeltsin declared the sovereignty of Russia, with him he buried the USSR. The confrontation, in fact, began back in May and gradually slipped to the events of September 20 – October 4.

By June 1993, we agreed to work together with Dugin and Rabko. There was no such thing that everyone swore there on fire or cut their hands and mixed the blood. When the National Bolshevik Front collapsed, a conversation took place between me and Dugin that a National Bolshevik Party should be created, that the principles of struggle for the national state and for socialism should be combined within one party. Rabko undertook to register the first cell of this party, the main goal was to patent the name for himself. He made inquiries and was told that it would be easier to register the organization with the regional department of the Ministry of Justice. He got down to business.

I returned to Paris to try to get money for a newspaper. I visited Alain de Benoit, the intellectual leader of all European right-wingers and editor of the magazine Krizis, initiated him into the newspaper project and asked for his help. Alain de Benoit, sighing, explained that each issue of “Crisis” costs him 80 thousand francs, or 15 thousand dollars, he barely publishes 4 issues a year. Even after I explained to him that my newspaper could be published in 10,000 copies for $200, that I needed only about $5,200 a year, he did not help. May he be forever ashamed of it! I asked Gerard Penzelelli for money, and he said that he could not help. I even turned to a well-known fascist philanthropist, an old Italian countess, but it did not work out. And to Count Six de Bourbon-Parma, heir to the French throne,

Dugin? I guess he was waiting to see if we were successful or not, to join if he saw what was going on. This was his operational mode of existence. Later, when we met Heydar Jemal, we talked a lot about Dugin, our former colleague and friend. And they came to the conclusion that Dugin always needs a leader, that he himself is always led and does not function alone.

Rabko was the most successful that summer. He successfully submitted documents for registration of the party. Sly Taras looked, I think, with radiant violet pseudo-naive eyes at the aunt from the regional department of the Ministry of Justice and conquered her heart, beating under her blouse and bra in the depths of a vast full body. The hyper-energetic Rabko also undertook to publish the Program of the NBP. He published this lilac little book with his own money: he had worn out banknotes of pounds sterling for a long time. With great difficulty, Taras managed to find an exchange office that was not afraid of his lost pounds. As a basis for the text of the program, we took my article “The Manifesto of Soviet Nationalism”, published in the newspaper “Soviet Russia” a year before. I just added to the text and changed Soviet nationalism into Russian. We put Order No. 1 as the first material in the “Program”. I did the editorial work on the text at the rue de Turenne in Paris. The crafty Taras adapted the conductors of the international train “Moscow – Paris, Vostochny Station” to transmit correspondence. I, receiving and sending correspondence, gave the conductors a gray piece of paper in 50 francs. It was only slightly more expensive than the air package, but much faster and more reliable. Everyone was satisfied.

Once, with correspondence from Taras, clippings from newspapers and magazines arrived. All of them concerned a rock singer unknown to me by the name of Letov. “He is our Man,” Taras wrote in huge letters, so that there were six lines on the page in total, “he read The Disciplinary Sanatorium, we need him. If you come, you must definitely meet him!” Indeed, in one of the interviews, Letov quoted the Disciplinary Sanatorium. This is how I first heard about the fourth founding father. Subsequently, we received NBP membership cards in accordance with the order in which we appeared on the historical stage.

Limonov – ticket number 1,

Dugin – ticket number 2,

Rabko – ticket number 3,

Letov – ticket number 4.

From whom did you receive? From me.

I arrived in Moscow on September 16, because the date of September 8 was on the certificate of registration of the Moscow regional organization of the National Bolshevik Party. I didn’t hesitate. Before leaving, a series of supernatural events (I wrote about them at length in Anatomy of a Hero) let me know that the trip was going to be unusual. In the center of Paris I was stung on the head by three wild bees, I saw for the first time in 14 years of my life in Paris a drowned man in the Seine, something else happened. I arrived, however, without fulfilling my main task: I did not get money in France for the publication of a newspaper. I took all my money to Moscow, but it was catastrophically small. I got poor. Just at that moment, on June 12, a campaign against National Bolshevism began in the French press, and my name was intensively declined and conjugated everywhere on the front pages of newspapers. There was no need to rejoice. I was hastily made into an enemy of the French people. And naturally, the publishers shunned the enemy of the people. I managed to sell the manuscript of The Killing of the Sentry to L’Age d’Homme for only 5,000 francs. Only because it was headed by the Serb Vladimir Dmitrievich, once enemies, we united with him on the basis of love for our slandered, unfortunate homelands. I think that my Serbian military campaigns tipped the scales in favor of Dmitrievich’s decision. “La sentinelle assassinée” was released in France as a black book only in 1995. The Russian text, included in one volume with the “Disciplinary Sanatorium” under the general title “The Killing of the Sentry”, was published by the publishing house “Young Guard” and fatally arrived from the printing house on September 18, 1993, two days before the start of the state crisis. Frightened, the leaders of the “Young Guard” detained the book in warehouses until November and thought more than once about whether to put it under the knife.

So I came from France empty.

Immediately upon arrival, we rushed to look for a room for the party: Taras and I. Dugin played and walked with his daughter and worked on his articles. Limonov and Rabko visited several regional executive committees, I think that’s what these institutions were called. In the Avtozavodsk district executive committee, we were immediately given a table and a telephone in a common room filled with employees. And they gave me the key. “After six, the employees leave, and you can have your meetings. During the day, sit your boyfriend down so that he can answer the phone,” we were advised. We wanted a private room, so we kept looking. In the Dzerzhinsky District Executive Committee on Prospekt Mira, the chairman was not there, we were asked to call in a few days later. (I stopped by there on September 23 or 24, handing in my machine gun before leaving the White House.

Thus, the affairs of the party advanced. There was registration, there was a contact phone number, there was a printed program of the NBP in a lilac cover the color of jelly (or women’s panties of the Stalinist era, as we joked among ourselves), the issue with the newspaper remained open. I wanted to gather everyone who, to one degree or another, promised me cooperation. There was a newspaper name. It was invented by a poet, hooligan, journalist Yaroslav Mogutin, at that time a co-author of my publisher Alexander Shatalov. By the way, it was at this wild, always quarreling couple that I stopped when I arrived in Moscow on September 16th. I slept in their kitchen, by the radiator, at a wooden table. Every morning I drank the bouillon cubes I had brought with me, ate dark French chocolate and set off to build a party. So the name of the newspaper was given by Yaroslav Mogutin. However, it is also true that in the work “We are a national hero” written by me in 1974, “lemon T-shirts” and all sorts of other accessories invented by me appear. Therefore, Mogutin, who read the work “We are a national hero”, was inspired by me.

If we are talking about symbols and accessories, then you need to know that the flag of the National Bolshevik Party was created by an artist who worked for Shatalov: Dima Kedrin. Dima was the author of the covers of all my books published by the Glagol publishing house. Red background, white circle and black hammer and sickle – this is how Kedrin designed the back cover of the book of my articles “The Disappearance of the Barbarians”. It included the fantastic story “The Disappearance of the Barbarians” and some chapters of the “Disciplinary Sanatorium”. So those suspicious subjects who, smelling our flag, suspect us of Hitlerism, are forced to disappoint: the author of the flag is a peaceful, apolitical artist Dima Kedrin, in recent years he has been painting landscapes of Italy. “The Disappearance of the Barbarians” came out in 1992, when the party had not yet been thought of.

In the summer of 1994, Rabko and I simply copied and increased the proportions of the flag while sitting on Kalanchevka in a ruined apartment. This flag, later called “sail” in the party, four by two meters in size was the reason that in June 1994 the owner of the apartment, Lenochka Pestryakova, expelled us from her premises. We turned to her on our own with a request to sew a flag for us. On June 10, 1994, the Conference of the Revolutionary Opposition was to be held together with Barkashov and Anpilov. We urgently wanted to decorate the hall with our flag, but Lena was a designer and a seamstress – she sewed for Slava Zaitsev in the House of Models. But here I ran a year ahead. I’ll be back.

If I am not mistaken, it was during those four days that remained before the state turmoil that Shatalov arranged a meeting for me in his kitchen with Dima Kedrin. I informed Kedrin that I was going to publish the Limonka newspaper. “It would be nice if you, Dima, mocked up the newspaper’s logo for us.” Kedrin, apparently expecting all sorts of adventures from me, immediately agreed and accepted the order. Of course, I wasn’t going to pay, and Kedrin didn’t expect me to pay. It was a fascinating experiment.

On September 20, I was about to go to bed (I wanted to sleep in Shatalov’s kitchen). Suddenly, all television programs were interrupted on all channels and Yeltsin, white with anger, appeared on the poisonous screen of the small Shatalov kitchen TV “SONY” and read out Decree 1400. Without listening to the end, I began to dress, getting dressed I found Captain Shurygin on the phone (how I wanted to drag him into fathers -the founders of the NBP! But he refused and in the end became too much of a journalist and much less of a warrior, and I wanted him to join the party – a warrior). In the premises of the Den newspaper, Shurygin was celebrating something with his comrades. I told him what had happened in the country, said goodbye to Shatalov and Mogutin, took a taxi downstairs on Bashilovskaya Street and drove to Tsvetnoy Boulevard, where the newspaper Den was located in the building of the Literaturnaya Gazeta complex. (in a couple of weeks the paper will be smashed by the Democrats at this address). From there we drove in two cars to the White House. By nightfall, I had already taken up my post at entrance number one. Became a defender of the White House. Two weeks of confrontation followed. On October 3, four hours of victory and freedom came, the capture of the mayor’s office. The first wounded was Captain Shurygin. Taras and I saw how he was being dragged, a grenade sticking out of the torn, unnaturally white flesh of his leg. Eyes rolled wildly. By evening, Taras and I came under fire near Ostankino. Then there was the rout. All these events are reflected in the “Anatomy of a Hero”. I was going to write a big book about the bloody state crisis of 1993, I collected rare newspapers of September-October 1993, but my hands did not reach. Throughout October 1993, I was hiding on the outskirts of Tver, with the student Rabko and his grandmother Anya, who recorded the phone,

Then there were elections.

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The Essence of The Holidays

Easter is just around the corner and like many holidays, it is a day off of work, school, and a time to gather with family and friends. The true origins of Easter as well as Christmas, and St Patrick’s day is a Christian holiday. Easter to Christians is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. Christmas the birth of Christ and St Patrick’s day the celebration of the deeds of Sanit Patrick who had spread Christianity to Ireland, a country that he was once a slave in.  Of course, in secularized and capitalist America these origins and original meaning of the holidays are put in the back corner and what has replaced them is the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, consumer products, and corporate greed. The holidays have become completely commercialized and have lost their aura.

Some of the characters that are now used to represent the holidays for the mass advertisement and selling of consumer goods such as Santa Claus is in fact Christian in origin and is based on the Christian Bishop Saint Nicholas, who lived during the third century and was known to give to the poor, his care for children and for spreading the Christian faith throughout Rome. Centuries later by the time St. Nicholas’s image got to America it was first secularized then later commercialized by the Coca Cola company to sell coke with many other companies soon following. The other characters such as the easter bunny and leprechaun come from German and Irish folk lore and where more a side to these holidays instead of the main event like they are now. Now the meaning of the holidays in America is about consumerism and drunkenness with vague reference about being giving and kindness. Advertisement, capitalism, and consumerism is such a core part of American culture that it literally consumes everything. It is part of everyone’s everyday life, we are constantly bombarded by it through ads, and it turns everything inside out including the holidays.

When German philosopher and critical theorist Walter Benjamin used the term aura in his work titled “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” he was writing on how art through mechanical reproduction under capitalism had lost its aura or uniqueness along with the cultural traditions that produced the older forms of art. American Poet Donald Davidson who was writing around a similar time to Benjamin about a similar subject believed modern art had become more about quantity than quality. What does this have to do with the holidays? A lot more than at first glance. Like art, holidays have been stripped of their original meaning, aura, and values. This has been replaced with fictional characters and consumerism. The Christian holidays have become nothing more than a consumer day with low prices. Th holidays have become shallow celebrating short term pleasures and the quantity of goods rather than the quality of God and his promises. It is not much better for secular holidays like Thanksgiving which overlaps with Black Friday. The only exception to this effect seems to be Memorial Day.  If Memorial Day becomes commercialized, then there is no hope for Americans.

As Conservatives, Christians, and anti-capitalist it is our responsibility to fight against the consumerization of our religion and traditions. Even if you are of another faith, it is important for all religious people to show unity on this matter because it will not be long before other faiths’ holidays are in a similar situation. We need to educate the people on the origins of holidays and need to promote the original meaning such as through decorations that depict the Christian holidays with them preferably being made by Churches, small businesses, cooperatives, that share similar values and goals or if possible, make the decorations yourself. Writing poetry songs and creating culture in general about the Lord and the saints is another great way to spread the message. Along with sharing articles on the subject too and of course having family gatherings and living the best you can morally is a great way to share the message. Always remember earthly pleasures are temporary but heaven is forever.

Have a Happy Easter everyone!!

Sources

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin

A Mirror for Artist by Donald Davidson

Longenecker, D. (2022, December 5). Whatever Happened to Saint Nicholas? ~ The Imaginative Conservative. The Imaginative Conservative. https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2022/12/whatever-happened-saint-nicholas-dwight-longenecker.html

Guite, M. (2023, March 17). “St. Patrick”: A Sonnet ~ The Imaginative Conservative. The Imaginative Conservative. https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2023/03/saint-patrick-sonnet-malcolm-guite.html

Lessons on the Internet and Politics

I have been following the political scene for almost 6 years now and it’s been quite a ride. I have met many people, been a part of many chats, group projects, and have written many articles. I have also run a telegram channel that has over 400 subscribers.  I have learned a lot over the years and do believe I have grown as a person and have a better understanding of the world.  I thank everyone who helped me along the way even if it did not end well for us. I also hope that my articles have helped inform people and spread ideas.

That said my time in being involved in politics is coming to an end. Partially due to burn out, and being disillusioned on how the online community behaves. I plan on ending the blog sometime this year and if I do continue to write on here it will probably be more about history. Before that happens however I still have a few more ideas that I feel obligated to write about and want to complete my translation of Eduard Liminov political biography.  One of my ideas is of course some lessons I have learned over the years through my study of politics and interactions online.  

  1. Politics Is Complicated

Despite what the Republicans and Democrats would like to portray the political spectrum as being a black and white equation, as in for one to be right wing or conservative they must be pro free markets and small government. While for one to be on the left they have to be socially progressive, and support big government. This is a completely false dichotomy. You do not have to be pro free market to be a conservative. You do not have to be a progressive to be a socialist. In fact you do not have to be a part of the modern left or right either and no you do not have to be a fascist to do that either. The political world is large and complicated. There are many movements and ideologies both past and present that combine certain elements of both the right and left. In fact the left and right can be completely different from country to country. Nor is everyone on the left or right apart of the establishment or dissident sphere. There are a lot of different colors in the political sphere and spending time studying politics will show that. Along with showing that all sides can be right on some issues while being wrong on others.

2. Internet group chats are not political parties

I do not know why I still have to say this. Group chats can be a good place to meet like minded people and find resources like books, articles, and podcast. If the group chat is disciplined enough, they can start a community blog or podcast and every blue moon can form a small activist group. Political parties on the other hand require thousands to millions of people and many economic resources to be successful. This cannot be done by a group chat whose members are far apart from one another and whose members do not have resources to even compete with the mainstream. While the internet is a good place to spread ideas and messages.  You still need a strong real life presents and that’s simply something these group chats do not have on their own.

3. Read

Reading is such a neglected part of modern society that its pitiful. If you want to have an attempt at understanding the world, read as much as you possibly can. Not just political books but also history, philosophy, theology and other books. For one to be a wise thinker or leader he must be well rounded and must know history. As Philosopher George Santayana once said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”  The internet is a great place to find books, audio books and articles on many subjects. It may take a little bit of digging and searching but you will eventually find what you’re looking for. Also do not just read one subject of politics or history but everything you can so you can be well grounded. One also needs to be well grounded in his or her own country’s political thought and history. Not just purely relying on foreign thinkers’ ideas because those thinkers are talking about their country and time reality which is not always the same as one own country or present day. At the same time it is still good to read these thinkers for knowledge and maybe can lead to a possible answer for one’s own situation.

4. Stay away from shitposting and drama

These are some of the biggest reasons why the internet seems like cesspool of anti-intellectualism, and pettiness. A lot of people think they are a lot more important than they actually are. Most drama is extremely petite and unhelpful to grander goals.  Always be humble, serious, and respectful as possible when talking to others. If you do have a problem with someone you handle it privately. You do not go on live streams drunk cussing someone out and starting fights in public. If someone keeps going on about year old drama publicly and is attacking people for having any remote association with the person they have drama with, it’s best to slowly distance yourself. Sometimes the best way to handle drama is not to say anything at all.

Shitposting is also very unhelpful. It degrades the conversations in group chats, when there can be some serious discussion and debate going on. It’s especially unhelpful when people are actually trying to have an honest conversation. That said its okay to joke around every once in a while, but never joke or talk about doing violence or crimes because that can get you in serious trouble with the authorities and make your entire political scene look bad. You may think people do not get arrested for that, but they do or at least have authorities come knocking on their door.

5. Take a break from the internet

As stated in previous points, the internet can be a great place to learn and meet like-minded people, but it can be a very lonely place at time and can consume a lot more of your time than what is actually needed. Do not neglect family or friends or other real-life obligations. Being on the internet for too long can warp one’s reality to a point where one becomes extremely bitter or goes crazy. Take breaks, hang with friends, take up new hobbies like sports, hiking, or gardening. Do stuff like working out, cleaning your room, or reading a book to self-improve. If you are serious about your ideas, you have to improve yourself so you can be the best representative of your ideas.   And for the love of God stay away from TikTok and porn, that will fry your brain.

6. Compromise

We must always remember that there will always be factions within one’s server, political group, local community, and country.  It’s best to compromise with others and not cause sectarian conflict, especially within one’s group.  Compromise should always come first, and conflict should always be a last resort because a group is stronger when it’s united. A house divided cannot stand for long. In a world that is so divided its best to keep as many friends as possible in every place imaginable.

An Introductory Reading List for Conservative Socialist and Other Conservative Critics of Capitalism

At the end of my last article on conservative socialism titled “A Brief Overview and Principles of Conservative Socialism” I stated I would  create a reading list. I have decided to do an introductory reading list because I do not want to overwhelm people with books but rather have a selected number of articles and a few books for those who are just discovering Conservative Socialism or Conservative critiques of capitalism. I will provide a link to where you can read these writings for yourselves. These works will range from conservative criticisms of capitalism to a history book to a interview and books on government and economics. I will also include one non-socialist writer Russell Kirk and one non-conservative writer Karl Marx to check out because they do provide some ideas for conservative socialists and some critiques. In total there is 7 articles and 6 books. Of course, you do not have to read all of these writings, but I do encourage you to check out all the articles and at least two of the books. If your new to blog I would also encourage you check out the article I mentioned and my series on a “Conservative Case For Class Struggle.”

Articles

Conservatism Against Itself by Christopher Lasch

https://www.firstthings.com/article/1990/04/conservatism-against-itself

What’s Wrong with the Right by Christopher Lasch

https://web.archive.org/web/20040317084407/http://thor.clark.edu/sengland/previous%20features/a_dialogue_with_christopher_lasc.htm

Why the Left has no Future by Christopher Lasch

https://web.archive.org/web/20040317084407/http://thor.clark.edu/sengland/previous%20features/a_dialogue_with_christopher_lasc.htm#Why%20the%20Left%20Has%20No%20Future

Libertarians a Chirping Sectaries by Russell Kirk

Click to access Libertarians_chirping_sectaries_Russell_Kirk.pdf

Class Struggle by Ernst Niekisch

https://niekischtranslationproject.wordpress.com/tag/class-struggle/

Technology The Devourer of Man by Ernst Niekisch by Ernst Niekisch

https://niekischtranslationproject.wordpress.com/tag/technology-the-devourer-of-men/

The Modernity Critique of the 1980s by Gan Yang

https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Modernity+Critique+of+the+1980s%22&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS921US921&oq=The+Modernity+Critique+of+the+1980s%22&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.343j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Books

The Revolt of the Elites: And the Betrayal of Democracy by Christopher Lasch

Guild Socialism: A Plan for Economic Democracy G. D. H. Cole

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.li419e&view=1up&seq=1

The Conservative Revolution in Germany 1918- 1932 by Armin Mohler

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

Prussian Socialism by Oswald Spengler https://archive.org/details/prussian-socialism/mode/2up

The Theory of Multipolar World by Alexander Dugin

https://www.perlego.com/book/2699425/the-theory-of-a-multipolar-world-pdf

Why Blaming China Is Not Helpful

China has been in the news a lot lately, ranging from the weather/ spy balloon crisis to China spying on America through TikTok to Chinese companies’ role in fentanyl crisis to other Chinese company Hai Lian selling abortion pills to the US. Even the Covid lab leak theory that was once demonized by the mainstream media as a conspiracy theory is now a mainstream position. American Conservatives and the Republican establishment are all too happy to finally be validated by the rest of the mainstream for supposedly being right about China. It is not new for mainstream conservatives to blame the problems that the US has on foreign powers like China or the Soviet Union or ideologies like Marxism. While this may have some truth to it this does not get at the heart of what is wrong with America. America has not been subverted to the will of China or Marxism but rather has taken its own ideology of liberalism and economic principles to their own logical conclusion. These conclusions have created many problems that American conservatives have often blamed on China. At most China or at least Chinese companies have taken advantages of this.

If one looks at TikTok for example there is many problems the app causes for its users other than just spying. In fact, there has been studies that state that TikTok use can destroy attention spans and effect the user mental health in many negative ways. This is all entirely true, but this is not just true for TikTok but also true for American social media apps such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram with all of them being made to be extremely addictive.  Not to mention these apps also spy on their users collect their data to advertise more stuff to their user base and give information to the American government.

 The Fentanyl crisis origins is not with China but with the Opioid Epidemic that was caused by American big pharma companies such as Purdue Pharma who hid and downplayed on how addictive the opioids were. Then went on to advertise these opioid pills to the poorest parts of the country who got addicted to these pills then later to illegal substances such as heroin and of course fentanyl.  Even Mexican Cartel who produce and traffic Fentanyl are not a Chinese invention or something organic to Mexico. In fact, some of these cartels like Sinaloa cartel, or Los Zetas founding and leading members were former members of the Mexican Federal Security Directorate or DFS and Mexican Commandos who were trained and supported by the United States government.  The cartels were able to gain a foothold in Mexico because the DFS allowed them to as long as they got some payment.  It’s not just corrupted former US allies in Mexico that have helped Mexican cartels rise to power but also former US allies throughout Latin America such as the Contras in Nicaragua, Noriega Panama, and the AUC in Colombia that was funded by US corporations like Chiquita. All of them were more than willing to produce and smuggle drugs into the United States and made millions on drugs.

When it comes to the abortion pill RU-486 that was produced in China. We must remember that the American ruling class was already supporting legalization of abortion and birth control way before China became a communist country.  Members of the ruling class such as John D. Rockefeller and Elanor Roosevelt were early supporters of abortion and birth control. Rockefeller even funded Planned Parent Federation of America one of the earliest groups to advocate abortion and had birth control founder Margert Sanger in it. Elanor Roosevelt was an advocate for universal human rights that would expand upon “freedoms” which goes a long perfectly with the pro-abortion message of freedom of choice.

When it comes to the Covid lab leak theory, we must remind conservatives of their position during the pandemic. Which was that Covid19 was not as bad as the governments reaction of shutting down the economy, public places and forced vaccination in some public and private sector jobs. This caused the economy to crash, inflation to rise and rise in unemployment. And that Big Pharma took advantage of the situation to roll out vaccines that were not effective against Covid and did more damage to the user’s health then good. In other words, it should not matter if it came from a Chinese lab or not because the real damage was caused by the American government and corporations. China has nothing to do with America’s policies during Covid. While China did handle the situation as poorly as America did. But China still has nothing to do with America policy towards covid or China own allies’ position on the Covid pandemic. In fact, America ended its lock downs a lot earlier then China did and some Chinese allies such as Belarus and Nicaragua had little to no restrictions during Covid.

When it comes to so called spy balloons, what does that say about all the money that the American government spends on military and defense? That the government did not realize that a bunch of low-tech balloons were able to bypass American defenses. Not to mention the American government does a lot of spying on other countries and its own people with technologies that are a lot more advanced such as satellites.

What the American ruling class from both political parties is trying to do is to blame China for problems that they created or immensely attributed to. Even if China was the origins of these problems, it does not change the fact that the American government and corporations supported free trade with China, with US corporations moving their factories over there helping to industrialize China and connect the American economy to China.  This gets to the heart of the problem and that is the American ideology of constantly expanding markets, and liberal ideals globally, and the pursuit of profit above people have led to many of the problems we face today. China would not be a superpower if it was not for Americas free trade policy. Mexican drug cartels would not be as powerful today if the American government did not back corrupt governments and paramilitaries in name of anti-communism and global liberalism. America would not have a low birth rate if society actually encourage duty and responsibility to have a family and children instead of radical individualism. We would not have a drug and mental illness problem if we had no corporations who constantly expanded their influence into the private world and do anything in the name of profit and a government that spent more time building infrastructure at home instead of foreign conflicts. The ideas of liberal internationalism had taken hold of the American ruling class at least since Woodrow Wilson presidency and became official doctrine since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Years before China ever rose to power or even became communist. What China is guilty of is simply taking advantage of the American liberal ruling classes greed and liberals being high on their own victories against its own enemies believing that they would rule forever. China used America and other western countries free trade policies to build up its own economy, while maintaining an illiberal form of government and control over its own society.  Liberals in the west foolishly believed that China would democratize and liberalize over time due to trade with the west. This of course has turned out to be entirely wrong as China under Xi Jinping has become more hostile to America and has crack down on more liberal and private sector elements at home.  Perhaps China would not be so hostile to America if we did not meddle in their internal affairs such as in Taiwan or Hong Kong. Maybe then we could have more positive trade and relations. But if that still impossible we still need to look inwards to get to the heart of Americas problems.

Looking to The East to Escape Liberalism

Liberal domination over the world is coming to an end, both globally and at home. The world has changed a lot in the last three years and it’s time for us as Americans to look in another direction. If the last three years has shown us and the world anything it is that neo liberalism is deeply flawed and will not last forever unlike like what liberal theorist Francis Fukuyama predicted. New superpowers are rising such as Russia, India, and of course China who do not share the Neo Liberals dream of global liberalism. China is probably the farthest from liberalism then Russia then India.

There is a lot we can take or look into from China in terms of policy and philosophy.  For example, if we look at the Chinese version of TikTok they have a kid friendly version of the app that encourages patriotic and educational videos. Along with limiting time of its underage users. Another policy the Chinese government has been pursing is pro natalism such as rewarding families to have more children such as tax reductions and money. While also looking for ways to limit abortions.

On the philosophical side the Chinese government and Chinese intellectuals such as Gan Yang and Jiang Shigong have promoted the combining of China traditional culture of Confucianism with revolutionary Maoist and reformist Dengist aspects. Finding a middle ground between all three of these eras in China history and culture. Shingong and China president Xi Jinping has also been some of the main advocates multipolarity in China in which China does not want to export its ideology across the world but instead except that countries and civilization have their own customs and ideals of doing thing with China wanting to simply do business with these countries.

Despite how American Neo conservatives and the GOP would like to hide this fact, China does have a conservative intellectual tradition that does influence the Communist Party of China. Chinese conservative intellectuals like Yang and Shingong are not just looking at Confucius or Marxist thinkers like Lenin to find a way out of liberalism and modernity but there also looking at many American and Western conservative thinkers such as Leo Strauss, Samuel Huntington, Carl Schmitt, T.S Elliot and Martin Heidegger to find these answers. Maybe it’s time us Americans to do the same but with China and Chinese intellectuals since they are one of the main leaders leading the world out of liberalism. Not to copy and pasta China government and economic model by any means but rather the basic principle of combining our traditional culture or traditional thinkers with the more revolutionary and reformist aspects as well. Along with a more pragmatic foreign policy and worldview.

Sources

https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/24/23467181/difference-between-tik-tok-in-china-and-the-us#:~:text=Although%20they’re%20owned%20by,t%20offered%20in%20the%20U.S.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/13/meet-the-sacklers-the-family-feuding-over-blame-for-the-opioid-crisis

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2010/11/3/us-trained-cartel-terrorises-mexico

Click to access MEDINA%20Mexican%20Intelligence%202015%20Sep%2001%20FINAL.pdf

https://www.rbf.org/about/our-history/timeline/planned-parenthood

https://franjohns.net/2013/06/17/eleanor-roosevelt-on-reproductive-rights/

https://www.readingthechinadream.com/gan-yang-ldquothe-modernity-critique-of-the-1980s.html

https://www.readingthechinadream.com/gan-yang-tongsantong-chapter-1.html

Rival Theories of Multipolarity: Alexander Dugin and Jiang Shigong

https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/01/why-china-loves-conservatives

https://www.readingthechinadream.com/jiang-shigong-philosophy-and-history.html

https://www.persuasion.community/p/why-china-didnt-liberalize

South Texas Political Machines

In the late 19th to early 20th century, South Texas was still the wild west.  The region was still largely an agricultural economy with many small farmers to Mexican bandits conducting cross border raids into Texas and largely Anglo vigilantly groups who tried to stop them and killed anyone suspected of being a bandit.  The race relations between Anglos and Hispanics only got worse when the Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910 with many Mexican revolutionaries such as Pancho Villa conducting cross border raids into the southern United States. Many of these Mexican insurgents and their Mexican American collaborators were also racially motivated, wanting to take back the states of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California for Mexico and ethnically cleanse the European American population.  These ideas would later become known as Plan San Diego.

The cross-border raids into the United States and killing of American civilians by Mexican Insurgents cause the American military to get involved beginning the Mexican Border War.  In South Texas in particular the Texas Rangers were called in. The Texas Rangers along with vigilantly groups would kill any Mexican or Tejano American who they suspected of being bandits or a raider even if they weren’t. Hundreds of Anglos and Mexicans died during the conflict in South Texas with many being noncombatants.  

While all of this was going on, the large land-owning class was consolidating power in the region. Pushing out the small farming class who were largely Anglo and consolidating their support base amongst the poor Mexicans. This group would also use intimidation, voting fraud and allegedly murder to get what they wanted. These individuals would be known as the South Texas political machine politicians which included mostly Anglo businessmen such as James B. Well Jr, Archie Parr, and George Parr.  These individuals would not only hold decades long control over South Texas counties such as Duval, Cameron, and Jim Wells but also were able to influence state and even national politics due to their wealth, connections with the ruling class and of course electoral fraud. Which they used to their favor in expanding their economic and political power.

South Texas Political Machine Origins

Political Machines have a history in the United States well before the rise of South Texas political machines that dates as far back as the 18th century. Political machines are local to statewide party organization controlled by one boss or a small group, who are often times businessman who pull their resources together for candidates that will serve their personal economic interest. These organizations were very hierarchical, and many times deployed illegal methods such as voter fraud, intimidation, and stealing government money to achieve their goals. When they gain political power, they have laws passed in their favor to establish both political and economic monopolies.

Political Machines existed in many US cities such as New York City, Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, and many more. The political machines especially in New York City under Democrat boss William M. Tweed relied heavily on newly arrived Irish migrants as his political support base. Former president and New York city politician Theodor Roosevelt has this to say about the New York city political machine organization.

“The organization of a party in our city is really much like that of an army. There is one great central boss, assisted by some trusted and able lieutenants; these communicate with the different district bosses, whom they alternately bully and assist. The district boss in turn has a number of half-subordinates, half-allies, under him; these latter choose the captains of the election districts, etc., and come into contact with the common heelers.”

The machine bosses in South Texas such as James Wells Jr, Archie and George Parr were not much different in these regards. Unlike the machine bosses from up north who were largely industrial capitalist and Bankers, In South Texas the political machines started out as ranchers. The South Texas democrat political machines were also pioneers for heavily relying on nonwhite, largely Hispanic immigrants, a strategy that the Democrat party would adopt decades later with possible influence from George Parr in particular. They would also support illegal immigration and use these migrants for cheap labor and even votes.

James B. Wells Jr and Archie Parr would get there start in the late 19th century right after the American Civil War. After graduating from University of Virginia School of Law in 1874 Wells Jr returned to his home state of Texas and started a law firm in the city of Corpus Christi, were he met the local Democrat machine boss Stephen Powers, who was also a lawyer, a judge and member of the Texas house of representative for Brownsville. Powers had been a machine boss in the Corpus Christi and Brownsville area before the civil war. Powers local faction of the Democrat party was called the Blue Club. Powers supported the Confederacy and was connected to many wealthy ranchers and businessmen in the area such as Richard King, Charles Stillman, and Muffin Kennedy becoming their legal advisor. 

Wells Jr would be taken under Powers wing in 1878 and would inherit the Party boss position after Powers death. The two would soon move their law firm and political machine to the nearby city of Brownsville in Cameron County. There Wells Jr would get back into ranching and with Powers began land speculating. Wells Jr also invested in oil exploration, railroads, and life insurances. He would also continue his law practice and was really successful at it, winning 20 out 21 cases during one secession of the Cameron County district court. James Well would also have allies on the opposite side of border with Mexican ranchers in the area. Who Wells would help with food and money during the drought of the 1880s.

In 1882 Stephen Powers would die leaving James Wells in charge of the Blue Club Political Machine. The same year Archie Parr would move to the nearby Duval country becoming a large ranch owner in the area and became a powerful ally to James Well political machine.  Parr like Wells was able to win over the local Hispanic population to his side by being very fluent in Spanish taking their side during conflicts with Anglos and paid their taxes and provide for their basic needs in exchange for votes. Parr would eventually get the nickname Duke of Duval and El Patron when he finally took over the political machine in Duval in 1914.  Like Wells as well Parr also took part in election fraud to maintain democrat control over the region.  Some ways that both Parr and Wells did this was through bribing voters, deploying armed guards for intimidation, stuffing ballot boxes with fake or dead people, and even getting illegal immigrants to vote for them or the candidates they backed.

One would assume that the James Wells and Archie Parr would be hated by the more Conservative Democrats in Texas, who wanted to keep a white majority and relied heavily on the European vote. However, the opposite is true both Wells and Parr had strong connections to the Democrat establishment in Texas. Especially the pro-business side of the Democrat party who they supported against the more reformist and progressive faction who potentially could of crack down on monopolies such as theirs. Wells consider himself a part of the Jeffersonian democrat tradition and detested expansion of national government and supported states’ rights.  Even on some social issues such as women suffrage and prohibition Wells was against both, and his wife Pauline Wells went on a statewide anti-suffrage campaign trip throughout 1915 to 1919.  Wells also was a devoted Catholic, supported the gold standard and led an investigation into the poor condition and the mistreatment of women prisoners in the Brownsville prison.  The only time Wells and Parr broke with the Democrat establishment was over the poll tax to vote that was passed in 1901. While the law would deal a crushing blow to Wells and Parr rivals like the Republican and Populist parties and their support base of poor Europeans. It would also hinder Wells and Parrs support base of poor Hispanics however they ended up finding ways around this such as voter fraud or paying the poll for their supporters.

While Wells and Parr were not heads of the Texas Democrat party by any means they did hold a lot of sway and funded many politicians throughout Texas including Governor Charles Culberson, Governor Joseph D Sayers and congressmen and future vice president of Franklin Roosevelt, John Nance Garner during the 1890s to early 1900s.  Wells and Parr also helped to keep the Republican and Populist parties out of power in Texas, through funding rival candidates, and voting fraud for candidates of their choice. The Populist and Republicans tried to fight back on this cheating but would lose. Through the power of the South Texas Political Machines Wells and Parr were able to completely disenfranchise the small farmers and who were mostly Anglos who supported the Populist or the Republican party causing many to leave the area over time especially in Duval. Small business also had a hard time especially in Duval due to Parr and his allies controlling local political power that favored their business interest first over everyone else. Native labor also stood no chance either because of the use of illegal and legal immigrants who could be paid far less by large ranchers. Even many Mexican Americans still lived in poverty and had little to no education in the region.

 Another way the South Texas political machine remain in power was through allegedly assassination. A couple of Wells and Parr’s political opponents met violent deaths such as the Duval County tax assessor John D Clearly and Cameron County Sheriff Santiago A. Brito. While Wells was suspected of the murder of Brito in 1892 and Parr accused of the murder of Clearly in 1907 both men were not arrested, and no one was charge with the murders. By the 1900s Democrats had consolidated power in Texas with Wells being at his peak as the South Texas regional political boss and Parr had officially become boss of Duval County.

While James Wells and his allies used Mexican and Mexican Americans as strong voting block to keep him and his allies in power. Along with using illegal immigrants as cheap labor. This did mean that Wells underestimated the problem of Mexican bandits and insurgents in the region, who had in the past conducted raids and killed American civilians and destroyed their property. In fact, in 1892 during the Garza revolution, when Mexican insurgents hiding out in the Texas countryside with both the Mexican and American military unable to find them. Wells had secretly met with the Governor of the time Jim Hogg to create a secret division of the Texas Rangers who were specialized in guerrilla warfare to deal with the insurgents. Governor Hogg approved and created the division, which showed to be more effective than the regular military, helping to squash the insurgents in South Texas. Wells also supported the Fort Brown military base remaining in Brownsville due to bandit and insurgent actives. Wells would deploy the Texas Rangers during the Mexican Revolution during the 1910s however, it would partially lead to his downfall as the Rangers would harass and kill many Mexican Americans, who were part of Wells support base and many of them were not involved with bandit or insurgent activities.

The Downfall of Wells and the Rise of Archie and Son

James Wells despite being a political boss had always disliked being involved with politics and sought to spend more time on his law and business career.  Which meant at times Wells neglected is political obligations and his political machine would begin to split with rival factions trying to gain control. It also did not help that Democrat politicians began turning on one another due them having complete control of Texas with many of them accusing each other of corruption which Wells, and his allies were no exception too. The infighting was so bad that independent candidates were able to win the Brownville city elections in 1910. All be it Wells was able crush the independents resurgence by having a law passed that pollical clubs could not be on the official ballot if they did not have a state executive committee and in 1912 Wells got a restraining order on the county clerk to not put the names of independents on the ballot.    

Wells situation became worse when the Texas Ranger during the Mexican Revolution came to Texas, who Wells called on to deal with insurgents and bandits began to harass and even kill the local Mexican population who largely supported Wells up to that point but afterwards became to intimated to vote in many areas. Wells also received more push back from a growing working class of Anglos and other Europeans who felt their interest weren’t being represent by Wells political machine. Wells illegal voting actives also got the attention of President Woodrow Willison who accused Wells of tampering with elections, but charges were never brought against Wells. Wells would also suffer many financial blows after some of his land speculating schemes failed causing Wells to lose most of his wealth. By 1920 Wells had lost control of the Cameron County political machine and died in 1923. Leaving the Duke of Duval Archie Parr as the most powerful political machine in South Texas.

The Reason why Archie Parr avoided the same fate as James Wells was that unlike Wells, Parr was still largely focusing on local politics and was able to keep his loyal Hispanic population the majority in his county of Duval and Jim Wells County. Along with still having an economic monopoly in his county. Parr was able to avoid jail time throughout the 1910s for corruption charges on the miss use of funds, thanks to Wells influence. Along with the Duval County courthouse that housed the evidence against Parr mysteriously burnt down. While Parr would not control all of South Texas like his predecessor did but like Wells would still have sizeable influence in Texas state politics.

Archie Parr was not the only machine boss of Duval and other nearby counties, he was also a state senator from 1915 to 1934.  During this time, he would spend a lot of time in the Texas Capitol of Austin and would take his son George Parr with him, so that he could understand the political system and eventually to take his place.  Despite George Parr dropping out of law school, Parr in 1926 managed to pass the bar exam and became a judge of Duval County with his father making sure no one would run against his son.

Of course, Archie Parr would not just engage in electoral fraud just in Duval. Parr in 1928 would tamper with elections in the 14th congressional district of Guadalupe County to make sure the only Texas Republican in the House Harry Wuzbach would not be elected with Parr being at first successful. Parr was known to be very good at stuffing ballots however the election committee found that the election was tampered with and Wuzbach was eventually seated in 1930. This is one of the few times that anyone had beaten Parr, but no one was ever charge for the voting fraud.

In 1932 Archie Parr was charged by the IRS for tax evasion. This made it much easier for Parrs political opponents to call Parr a tax cheat. To make matter worse George Parr in the same year would be indicted by a grand jury for tax evasion and bribery. Parr would have to serve 9 months in prison and would not be allowed to enter politics.  Archie Parr would also meet more opposition from his ally of the King Ranch Robert Kleberg Jr who opposed Parr plan of building a highway that would connect Duval County and Corpus Christi that would go through the King Ranch. This growing opposition caused Parr to lose his state senate seat in 1934 and cause George Parr to hold a deep resentment for Kleberg. 

Despite these setbacks the Parr Machine was still very strong and with the discovery of oil in Duval made the Parrs even more rich.  Archie Parr would retire from active politics in 1934 leaving George Parr in charge of the political machine. Despite not being allowed to be involved in active politics, Parr still ran things from behind the scenes, deploying many of the same electoral fraud tactics and corruption schemes that his father did. Also like his father George Parr was fluent in Spanish and was very respected by the local Mexican American population for his generosity to them like paying their taxes. Some Mexican Americans in the Duval County even went as far as to consider Parr to be a fellow Mexican. That said though many Mexican Americans in the county were still largely poor with Parr doing little to improve their conditions and in fact Parr even stole millions of dollars from the local education system, and other government institutions that could of improve his subordinates’ lives. Parr also ran a construction company that was able to get every contract for government project due to Parr influence, making local competition almost impossible. Parr also had a monopoly on oil and the beer industry in the area.

In October of 1942 Archie Parr would die of natural causes making George Parr officially boss of everything in Duval and other local counties. In 1946 Parr was granted a pardon by then President Harry Truman due to Texas politicians lobbied by Parr to ask Truman to do it.  Only 2 year later Parr would conduct his most infamous electoral fraud scheme. In 1948 future president Lyndon B Johnson or LBJ was running for the senate election in Texas against former governor Coke Stevenson. LBJ knew this was going to be a close race and needed some insurances that he would win. He would fly down to Duval County to ask George Parr for his support which Parr agreed, with both men shaking hands on it. On election day one of Parr’s judges stuffed their ballot box with 200 fraudulent votes narrowly giving LBJ a victory. Stevenson accused the election of being rigid but Parr and LBJ got away with it. Parr seemed unstoppable but unknown to Parr the beginning of the end had just started.

The Downfall of The Duke 0f Duval

Despite the victories that George Parr got in politics in the late 1940s, Parr own power was already starting wane. Despite still having a strong support base in Duval, Parr would start to have a stronger opposition to him, when many war veterans started returning home with more money and a better education, which made them realize how much Parr had been ripping them off and keeping them in poverty. The Texas state government was also getting tired of Parr corruption and election fraud. There was also a louder local opposition then there was previously like radio commentator Bill Mason and political candidate Jake Floyd who won his election in Alice against a Parr loyalist.

George Parr or at least someone within his political machine decided that assassination was best course to deal with these political opponents. A deputy sheriff who was loyal and a friend of Parr murder Bill Mason in July of 1949 with the deputy hanging himself in prison after the murder.  In 1952 George Parr or someone in his inner political machine hired 2 gunmen to murder Jake Floyd but killed his son instead, mistaking him for his father.  Finally the Texas government and then Governor Allan Shivers had enough of Parr and began to fill out corruption charges against Parr political machines including, bribery, fraud, tax evasion and murder. Many of Parr allies in government would also be arrested with many similar charges.

 Parr would be able to beat charges for a time and was able gain protection from LBJ when he became vice president and later president of the United States with Parr allegedly helping him again. After LBJ left office in 1968. Parr lost the last of his political protection and in 1974 was found guilty of income tax evasion. Not wanting to go to jail for the rest of his life, in April of 1975 George Parr committed suicide on his ranch. Evading the law one last time. The Parr machine would soon collapse afterwards with George Parr’s son Archie Parr the 3rd stepping down from his county judge position the same year. Despite this the Parr family still does have some influence in Duval and other local counties but not nearly as the same extent as Archie or George Parr.

Present Day and Conclusion

Not much has change in South Texas since the fall of the Parr Political Machine. South Texas is largely still Democrat and is one of the few areas where blue dog democrats still have influence. Mexico is still in state of chaos and illegal immigration is still prevalent in the South Texas region. In fact, voting fraud is still a problem in South Texas with several people being arrested over it in the last few years.

What has change not only in the South Texas but the rest of the United States is the decline of power of the local and regional political machines. Local political machines still do exist and does play a role in local or regional elections; however they are not the big players anymore. The big players now are national and international corporations who can provide far more funding and media support than the regional political machines could ever have. The corporation can reach farther distances and people. Not to mention a larger lobbying power than the regional political machines. Size is not the only difference, the corporate elite unlike the political machines use a lot more soft power like news media and commercials that have a positive bias for their candidates while having a negative bias for their opponents. Instead of killing their political opponents like political machines did at times, the corporations especially big tech will censor or ban their opponents on their platforms or any stories that could harm them like they did with the Hunter Biden laptop story. That’s not to say that corporation don’t or couldn’t use hard power like murder or jailing of political opponents like Julian Assange. Rather this is not their main method but when they do these things corporations use their funding and media apparatus to cover up the story or spin it in their favor.

The media power and the money  that corporations give to activist groups and NGOs allows corporations to manipulate and control public opinion to large degrees to the point where some of the methods that the south Texas political machines used to manipulate elections in there favor like allowing illegal immigrants or non-citizens to vote, is now public discussion and even have some law makers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that wants to pass laws to have non-citizens vote in elections.  In many ways James Wells and the Parrs were pioneers for many of the modern Democrat strategies and positions. Such as relying heavily on a nonwhite voter base, ballot harvesting or supporting mass immigration.

This is not to say that the Republican party is any better in fact they have their own media apparatus and money power that represent their corporate interest. This also not saying that the media or money power that corporations have is perfect. In fact, there is a large portion of the population that does not trust mainstream media. The internet despite the censorship allows nonmainstream voices to receive a larger audience than previously due to the internets reach. The main problem is that there is still no major power center that can rival corporations and their media. Meaning that corporate media still has control of the narrative and can still swing public opinion to one of the two major parties. Even many alterative media sources still pivot to one of the two parties. Foreign media could provide that alternative but at the same time this media represents their countries of origins interest and even gets banned in some cases like Russia Today or Press TV.

The historic political machines problems was that they were to openly violent and corrupt that ended up having their local population and the larger ruling class turn against them. In fact one political machine in Athens Tennessee in 1946 was even overthrown by local veterans due to how corrupt and brutal the machine was.  The corporations on the other hand while not perfect have master the art of manipulation. Political machine or corporation, liberal democracy is still a sham.

Sources

https://www.caller.com/story/news/2018/11/12/george-parr-followed-his-fathers-corrupt-footsteps/1948009002/

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/parr-george-berham-1901-1975

https://thoughtsfromafar.blog/2018/11/19/duval-county-crime-and-politics/

https://www.univision.com/univision-news/politics/looking-for-evidence-of-rigged-elections-heres-how-el-patron-used-mexicans-to-win-in-texas-for-decades

https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/a-legacy-of-evil/

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/wells-james-babbage-jr

JAMES B. WELLS: SOUTH TEXAS ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL LEADER by JOE ROBERT BAULCH

TSHA | Powers, Stephen (tshaonline.org)

My Political Biography Chapter 2 by Eduard Limonov

The original Russian version can be found here;

https://drugoros.ru/biblioteka/moia-politicheskaia-biografiia/glava-2-pervye-shagi-na-rodine

Date of my return to Russia: March 26, 1994. Prior to that, for five years – from December 1989, when the writer Yulian Semyonov made my first visit to the Motherland, and before arriving for permanent residence, I appeared in the Motherland periodically. With increasing frequency. In 1990, Artyom Borovik invited me to the program “Tuning Fork”, I flew in for only four days, the reason for the invitation was my aggressively anti-Gorbachev articles in “Sobesednik” and “Izvestiya”. In 1991, I was not in Russia at all, Serbia captured me. On February 6, 1992, a new era of my relations with the Motherland opened, they became more solid. I flew in to attend the Congress of the People’s Patriotic Forces. Then I got acquainted with the leading politicians of Russia, I came to Rybnikov Lane to Zhirinovsky. I met Anpilov. In early March, I met with Zyuganov. On February 23, he participated in the first fight between the opposition and the democratic riot police on Tverskaya Street, which he later described well in one of the chapters of “The Killing of the Sentry”. Further, after the spring of 1992, my appearances in Russia were so frequent that it is now impossible to trace them. I did not move then for permanent residence in Russia only because hot spots distracted me from my homeland. Three Serbian wars, Transnistria, Abkhazia – I was completely absorbed, fascinated by local conflicts, was in love with the war, idolized, I think, then the people of the war. True, I felt a familiar taste – a premonition of war – on February 23, 1992, and on the Moscow central street, on Tverskaya, but the mechanism did not work then. Before going any further, let’s go back to 1989, to the results of my trip to Russia. I didn’t like Russia at all. Alien, frosty, poor country, similar at the same time to Germany (only roughly enlarged hundreds of times) and to Turkey. People with the eyes of hungry jackals in Sheremetyevo. Self-governing persons on the streets. Total ignorance of the outside world, an impudent demand to “live like everyone else”, like a civilized world, and fulfill your desire instantly. Heavy souls. Inconspicuous criminal mores of trains, stations and streets. There was barely a crust of culture on the surface, otherwise they would have devoured each other. (I was not far from the truth, newspapers wrote about numerous cases of cannibalism at that time.) I wrote a documentary book about my journey in troubled times, only slightly powdering the main character under the name “Indiana”, but later removed the powder from him and exposed myself. The book was called “A Foreigner in Troubled Times”. (In French it was called “Foreigner in the native city”.) However, frosty and poor, the Motherland turned out to have powerful magnetism and charm. Back in Paris, I immersed myself in my writing work, and even more so in journalism. A member of the editorial board of L’Idiot International, I began to actively supply my newspaper with materials about Russia, although I had previously avoided doing so. “L’Idiot” was then at the height of its popularity, with individual issues reaching 250,000 copies, because I brainwashed a large number of readers with my vision of Russia. At the same time, I began to look for a printed organ in Russia. I started with Moscow News, and when it didn’t work out, I dealt with Sobesednik. This former appendix to Moskovskaya Pravda There was then a circulation of almost two million. Since July 1989, four of my articles against perestroika appeared one after another in Sobesednik. One of them, “Masochism as the state policy of the USSR under Gorbachev”, caused a special uproar in Russia, and a wave of the first disgust towards me ran through society. In September and October, two articles, “Reflections at the Cannon” and “All Europe Was Sick,” were published by Izvestia. In November, Borovik invited me to television, and Mark Zakharov was chosen as my opponent on the other side of the tuning fork. When in December 1990 Izvestiya was taken over by Golembiovsky, and my patron, editor Efimov, was voted out by the newspaper staff, I sent my next article (if I’m not mistaken, “The Life of Ivan Ivanov in Perestroika” or something like that, in any case, “Ivan Ivanov” was present) to the newspaper “Soviet Russia”. I was willingly printed. And the liberal intelligentsia gasped in disgust. Since then, my articles have regularly appeared on the pages of “Soviet Russia”. Thus, my first impulse to participate in the fate of the Motherland was a journalistic one. I wanted to explain to my compatriots that they are insane, that the madness should be stopped. That European prosperity was acquired gradually, over hundreds of years, through the ruthless robbery of the colonies. That projects like “500 days” are totally unrealistic. That even one military plant in Alsace costs crazy money and ten years of hard work to transfer to the production of peaceful products. That prosperous Germany has not yet made East Germany prosperous. That other countries have no less “crimes” than Russia. It reminded me of the Malagasy uprising of 1947, when French troops, who had just “liberated” their homeland from Hitler, killed 70,000 people. He talked about the crimes of the Yankees in the Philippines at the beginning of the century, when the Americans, called to help the Filipinos free themselves from the power of the Spanish crown, massacred 600 thousand natives! That is, he explained to his compatriots that other countries have the same bloody history, and sometimes even bloodier. For the first time I explained the truth, generally available in the West, about the Puritan ethics and the origin of capitalism in the first place in Puritan countries. He explained that in Russia the ethics of hoarding will not take root (the article was called “Our Brother, Rich Calvin”), therefore, one cannot see capitalism in Russia as one’s own ears. Some of the articles of that time were published in the book “The Disappearance of the Barbarians”,

Thus, from December 1989 to February 1992, I was engaged exclusively in political journalism and tried to convince the population and politicians that the path chosen by sleepwalkers and village idiots was wrong for Russia.

By February 1992, I realized that the population, despite the huge circulation of newspapers in which my articles were published, still does not lose faith in stupid tales of imminent well-being. And politicians still don’t behave like understanding, responsible leaders, they don’t follow reasonable advice – neither mine nor anyone else’s. And I realized that no one will carry out my advice better than myself. That one should intervene personally in history, in the history being made in Russia. In addition, in December 1991, in Belgrade, I met the chairman of the Serbian Radical Spilka party, Vojislav Seselj, and I saw that it was possible to become a politician myself. Based on approximately the same tasks and goals as those of Seselj. It is true that I noticed some folklore in Šešelj’s part, but I hoped to avoid it in a part that I could call my own. Initially, in February 1992,

It was in 1992 that I gave an interview, now forgotten by me, but to a large-circulation organ, entitled “Looking for a gang to join.” They just put in the headline my answer to their question: “What is the purpose of your visit?” To which I, with my usual directness, replied: “I am looking for my gang to join.” I researched various “gangs” during those months and settled on the Zhirinovsky gang and the Anpilov gang. Both were equally close to me both in temperament and ideology. But Vladimir Volfovich was more accessible, tangible. (Perhaps because I became close friends with Andrei Arkhipov, who was then close to Zhirinovsky.) Anpilov was elusive or hard to catch. On my first visit to Anpilov in Kuibyshev Lane, behind the shell of the Dzerzhinsky Square metro station, he immediately threw me. I waited two hours for him and left without waiting. True, later, in March, I unexpectedly met him at the Moskva Hotel, in the room of Sazha Umalatova, then we went down to the room of deputy Kogan, they were preparing for the congress of the USSR Armed Forces and the nationwide veche that took place the next day. If Anpilov had been more accessible, I would not have been sitting on the stage on June 22 in the House of Journalists as one of the ministers of Zhirinovsky’s shadow government. Maybe I would lean towards Anpilov. However, that wouldn’t change anything. I was destined to live out my illusions, and in what order is not so important. I would not have sat on stage on June 22 in the House of Journalists as one of the ministers of Zhirinovsky’s shadow government. Maybe I would lean towards Anpilov. However, that wouldn’t change anything. I was destined to live out my illusions, and in what order is not so important. I would not have sat on stage on June 22 in the House of Journalists as one of the ministers of Zhirinovsky’s shadow government. Maybe I would lean towards Anpilov. However, that wouldn’t change anything. I was destined to live out my illusions, and in what order is not so important.

On June 22, I was at the House of Journalists on stage. Head of the All-Russian Bureau of Investigation. The die was cast. This was my first step into practical politics. Perhaps my second step was too fast. Already on November 22 of the same year, just four months later, at the dacha of Alexei Mitrofanov, in his billiard room, the founding congress of the National Radical Party was held, at which I was elected chairman. The party, alas, was born with a birth defect due to the haste of the parents who made it, in fact, a miscarriage occurred. It became clear already by January 1993, and I flew off to twist grief with a rope through Paris, through Budapest and Belgrade, to Kninska Krajina, in the vicinity of the town of Beykovac, to fight along with the Serbs for their freedom. In May I returned to Moscow, impatient to continue the fight. Together with Dugin, we immediately “mutated” The National Bolshevik Front, bringing together for a short time several small left and right radical organizations. The front lasted TWO DEMONSTRATIONS: on May 9 and June 22, Dugin and I managed to lead numerous columns of youth through the center of Moscow. In this regard, I was even invited on June 24, 1993 to the building on Lubyanka with the most friendly purposes. Prior to this, the same generals Karnaukhov and Ivanov held a meeting with Zhirinovsky at the Lubyanka. The generals decided that the column was a powerful long-term organization, while de facto they were one-time gatherings. On the same day, June 24, we (the National Bolshevik Front and the National Radical Party) lost our semi-basement on Alexei Tolstoy Street. I rented a workshop from a friend, the artist of the Den newspaper Gennady Zhivotov. The head of the local police department ran into Zhivotov and threatened that he would take away his workshop and punish him for misuse. As for the National Bolshevik Front itself, having lost its premises, it began to burst at the seams. The first Fuhrer Lazarenko, who in this capacity was part of the National Revolutionary Action Front (and only then his front was part of our front), left the NBF, and we still had the second Fuhrer Shiropaev. At the same time, my eyes were opened to the remaining part of the national radicals with me. These were criminal guys from the outskirts, they obeyed their leader Zhenya Barsukov and looked at me as a means of achieving some of their goals, which they themselves had difficulty formulating. Once, I remember, they wanted to introduce me to the chairman of the Central Bank, Gerashchenko. Cooperation with the Russian Communist Union of Youth, headed by Malyarov (yes, yes, they were members of the NBF for several months), ended with the fact that at the evening of the Den organization, my national radicals, led by Barsukov, beat Malyarov’s Komsomol members. I myself was not present at this battle, I left earlier. At the end of June 1993, it became clear that a new party had to be created from scratch. With zero. With people new and not at all political. I had two such people. Philosopher Alexander Dugin and law student of Tver University Taras Rabko.

A Brief Overview and Principles of Conservative Socialism

I was recently doing some long overdue editing to some of my older articles from late 2021 and one of those articles was “What is Conservative Socialism?”  In that article I gave my own personal definition of what I mean by Conservative Socialism. While I still agree largely with those basic ideas, I laid out in the post but then I realize that I needed to acknowledge that the conservative socialist tradition is far bigger than me and this blog.

 In fact, there a whole range of thinkers and groups that could be consider a part of the conservative socialist tradition. Ranging from thinkers like American intellectual Christopher Lasch, to French historian Georges Sorel to Chinese intellectuals like Gan Yang to movements like the American Populist Party to the German Conservative Revolution to the Eurasianist of Russia to the Sandinista in Nicaragua.  Not to mention the sibling and cousin ideologies like Paternalistic Conservatism, Distributism, American Southern Agrarianism, and National Bolshevism.

If it’s not clear already Conservative Socialism is a very big tent ideology, and I haven’t even gone other every group or thinker that could fit into this category. You can even find such thinkers in almost every major ideology and many of them do not even consider themselves to be conservative socialists. Despite this and the dogmatism of American politics there is a clear tradition of social conservatism and socialism colliding to form a conservative socialist ideal and movement. Any basic research of the people and groups listed above shows this. While there are some differences between them there is some underlining principles that all of them have. Which this article will go over.

What Caused This Merger?

The merger between the two groups came when the conservatives realized the corrosive nature of capitalism when it comes to traditions and traditional institutions. The socialists realize this corrosive nature of capitalism was not getting them closer to socialism but much farer away. This can be best summed up by German Conservative Revolutionary Ernst Niekisch in his article “Technology the Devourer of Man” and American historian Christopher Lasch article “Conservatism Against Itself.”

“The basically individualist attitude, which is at the base of the processes of technical development, is naturally expressed by the fact that direction of all the organisms, rationally structured, tangled, and fused, finds itself in the hands of a small group of people. This minority, which only knows its own interest, ignores all metaphysical responsibility and only thinks in terms of profitability. The men who compose it are the technical functionaries of the economic system, even the men of the masses are technical functions of their machines. In Des Tieres Fall (Georg Müller), this genial fantastic vision of the future by Reck-Malleczewen, Grant is a formidable symbol of these “lords of the world” that technology brings into power. Submitting to the tempo and the force of the machine that he invented, obsessed with technology and rejected by life – he is a great constructor and miserable shipwreck of a human. Hecatombs of human bodies perish. Quantities of human life found themselves wasted. Organic communities fall into dust. The fraternization of men is realized under the form of an immense herd of proletarians who have, at their head, the chief proletarians with withered hearts.”

  • Ernst Niekisch

“In the long run, of course, this attempt to build up the family as a counterweight to the acquisitive spirit was a lost cause. The more closely capitalism came to be identified with immediate gratification and planned obsolescence, the more relentlessly it wore away the moral foundations of family life. The rising divorce rate, already a source of anxious concern in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, seemed to reflect a growing impatience with the constraints imposed by long-term responsibilities and commitments. The passion to get ahead had begun to imply the right to make a fresh start whenever earlier commitments became unduly burdensome.

“Economic development weakened the economic as well as the moral foundations of the “well ordered family state” so highly prized by nineteenth-century liberals. The family business gave way to the corporation, the family farm—more slowly and painfully—to a collectivized agriculture ultimately controlled by the same banking houses that had engineered the consolidation of industry. The agrarian uprising of the 1870s, ’80s, and ’90s proved to be the first round in a long, losing struggle to save the family farm, enshrined in American mythology, even today, as the sine qua non of a good society but subjected in practice to a ruinous cycle of mechanization, indebtedness, and overproduction.

Capitalism’s relentless erosion of proprietary institutions furnishes the clearest evidence of its incompatibility with anything that deserves the name of cultural conservatism. There is obviously a good deal to be said, from a conservative point of view, for the institution of private property, which teaches the virtues of responsibility, workmanship, and self-subordinating devotion to humble but indispensable tasks. Twentieth-century capitalism, however, has replaced private property with a corporate form of property that confers none of these moral and cultural advantages. The transformation of artisans, farmers, and other small proprietors into wage-earners undermines the “traditional values” conservatives seek to preserve.”

  • Christopher Lasch

This is a universal understanding and critique of capitalism and its consequences on society.  The conservative socialist seeks to find an alternative to capitalism that puts the family, community, national or local or civilization interest above profit. An alternative where the working class whether it be through the state, guild, union, coops, or church owns the means of production. In other words, socialism. 

7 Principles of Conservative Socialism

These principles are the basic foundations of conservative socialism, Most Conservative Socialist would agree with most or all principles laid out here. These are not policies but rather basic ideas of how the world works and how conservative socialist should live or plan for the future.

  1. First, the conservative socialist believes that there exists an enduring moral order. That order is made for man, and man is made for it: human nature is a constant, and moral truths are permanent.

This one comes straight out of American Traditionalist Russell Kirks “Ten Conservative Principles” which I quote here.

“This word order signifies harmony. There are two aspects or types of order: the inner order of the soul, and the outer order of the commonwealth. Twenty-five centuries ago, Plato taught this doctrine, but even the educated nowadays find it difficult to understand. The problem of order has been a principal concern of conservatives ever since conservative became a term of politics.

Our twentieth-century world has experienced the hideous consequences of the collapse of belief in a moral order. Like the atrocities and disasters of Greece in the fifth century before Christ, the ruin of great nations in our century shows us the pit into which fall societies that mistake clever self-interest, or ingenious social controls, for pleasing alternatives to an oldfangled moral order.

It has been said by liberal intellectuals that the conservative believes all social questions, at heart, to be questions of private morality. Properly understood, this statement is quite true. A society in which men and women are governed by belief in an enduring moral order, by a strong sense of right and wrong, by personal convictions about justice and honor, will be a good society—whatever political machinery it may utilize; while a society in which men and women are morally adrift, ignorant of norms, and intent chiefly upon gratification of appetites, will be a bad society—no matter how many people vote and no matter how liberal its formal constitution may be.”

  • History is an important teacher.

History teaches us many valuable lessons about the past that we cannot forget. History teaches us that civilizations rise and fall. People live and die. Therefore, we cannot believe that anyone is an exception to history. Those who believe there an exception ignore the lessons of past experiences and ends up falling to their death. Conservative Socialists do not believe in the myth of progress, or the end of history will be some utopia. Humans are imperfect beings therefore we can never believe that we have out wised history or that all struggles will be over.

 History also shows that family, community, religion, and grand myths are needed to construct a community to civilization and keeps a civilization together. And history can provide the solutions when it comes to problems that are happening in the present.

  • Family and a community of shared ideals are the building blocks of a civilization.

 Family is the social structure that raises and nurtures the young of society and is one of the structures that forms local communities then local communities then form civilizations. It is therefore important to keep the traditional family and community as good of shape as humanly possible. Along with it being the duty of the conservative socialist to reproduce this structure to best of his or her possibility.

  • The economy is to serve and to be based around the family, community, nation, and civilizational interest.

The economy to the Conservative Socialist is not for the advancements of a few individuals profit above everything else. Rather it’s for the advancement of the people, family, community, nation, and civilization. Economic policies and industries that hinder these institutions are to be done away with for policies that will improve these structures both on a spiritual and economic level.

The economy will not be based on or directed by corporate interest but rather by the community, church, family, guild, union, nation, and civilizational based system.  All working together to maintain and support the other.

  • All civilizations are unique and will develop in their own way.

 All civilizations have their own unique cultures, religions, traditions ethnicities and material conditions.  Therefore, all civilizations will develop differently from one another. Any form of universalism like Neo Liberalism, that is imposed on all civilizations will be destructive to them. Conservative Socialist reject liberal universalism and unipolarity. In favor of all civilizations having their own forms of organizing that will be based on their cultures, religions, and economic conditions.

  • Duty and responsibility.

Duty and responsibility are needed to keep any system or personal relationship running. If we do not have duty or responsibility for our actions. Then we begin to wither and slowly decay because we cannot take care of ourselves. This is true for any community or civilization. Duty and responsibilities are put above freedom because if we do not have duty or responsibility then we eventually lose are freedom to those who take advantage of our decadence or laziness and become their slaves. Duty is one of the highest virtues for this very reason and most be encouraged.

  • Solidarity and Social Justice

The Conservative Socialist wants to unite the people in a common cause of work, family, and nation. Social justice is needed to fix the injustices that have been inflicted upon the working class by Neo Liberalism and only through solidarity can this social justice be achieve. Even when social justice has been achieved solidarity with family, community, and nation is still needed especially when they go through a crisis. United we stand divided we fall.

Questions and Answers on Conservative Socialism

Question 1. What is the exact economic model that Conservative Socialists purpose for their society?

As stated earlier, Conservative Socialism is a big tent movement. Meaning that there is many different socialist economic models that people adhere to ranging from syndicalism, guild socialism, market socialism, state socialism, state capitalism, and communitarianism. Some models believe private property on a local scale is okay. Others do not. Some prefer a decentralize approach to economics, other prefer a more centralized approach. While others want something in between a centralized and decentralized approach to economics.  What is true for all of them though is that these are economic models were the collective in some form owns the means of production and it is believed by conservative socialists that they are a superior model for social conservative ideas and institutions, rather than capitalism.

Question 2.  Is there an ideological founder to Conservative Socialism like Adam Smith is to Capitalism or Karl Marx is to Communism?

The short answer is no. The long answer is that conservative socialist movements and ideas sprang up organically and sporadically throughout many parts of the world. All having their own leaders and intellectual figure heads. What is true for all of them though is that many took inspiration from there nations national heroes or religions or traditional social institutions. For example, the Chinese Neo Conservatives Gan Yang and Jiang Shigong takes influences from the teaching of Confucius.  Another example is the Guild Socialist of Britain who took influence from the guild system of their country past. There is also the American 4th Estate blog that takes influences from Alexander Hamilton.

There are also some thinkers that do cross borders and are influential to conservative socialist outside their country of origin such as Ernst Niekisch, Georges Sorel, and Christopher Lasch. Along with movements that do the same such as the French New Right, Conservative Revolution, and the 4th political theory.

Question 3. Do Conservative Socialist favor class struggle or Class Collaboration?

This is another question you will get a lot of different answers too. Some like German Conservative Oswald Spengler and his idea of Prussian Socialism favored a form of class collaboration to unite the nation. While others like Ernst Niekisch favor class struggle as way to revive and liberate the nation from international capitalism. Most Conservative Socialist today would be for some form of class struggle as the international capitalist are inherently against the ideas of borders, traditions, and the working man.

Question 4. Can you be a libertarian and a conservative socialist?

Depends on what you mean. If you mean a more decentralized approach to economics and government then sure. There are some conservative socialists that do fit this description like Georges Sorel, Christopher Lasch, and the American Populist Party. In fact, some anarchist thinkers such as Pierre Joseph Proudhon were very big on the role the traditional family plays on community.  If you mean the more culturally libertine aspects of libertarianism, then no. As the name implies Conservative Socialist are social conservatives who are socialist.

Question 5.  Can you be an Authoritarian Conservative Socialist?

Yes, there are many examples of this too like Ernst Niekisch and many conservative socialists like Gennady Zyuganov of the Communist Party of the Russian Federations looks to Joseph Stalin for inspiration.

Question 6. What are Conservative Socialism relations to Karl Marx and Marxism.

Karl Marx obviously does have some influence on Conservative Socialism. Marx analysis on capitalism and history has many merits to it. However, what separates Conservative Socialist from Marx and many Marxists is that Marxism is largely a progressive ideology that critiques capitalism from the point of view that it did not go far enough and failed to live to its standards.  Marx supported the destructive nature of capitalism when it came to traditional institutions.

To quote Marx from the Communist Manifesto

“The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary part. The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom — Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers. The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.”

To quote Marx again on his Speech on Free Trade.

           “the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade.”

The conservative socialist obviously for the reasons that Karl Marx liked capitalism do not like capitalism for those reasons and believe this destructive is leading the world to its doom. That said though many Marxist countries did have to adopt some social conservative’s ideas like pro-natalism, pro-family, patriotism, and even religion in some cases like the USSR under Stalin, National Communist Romania and modern day China, Nicaragua, and North Korea. There are also some conservative socialists who are Marxist such as Ernst Niekisch, Gennady Zyuganov, and Jiang Shigong. These individuals do a conservative reading of Marx where they take some of Marx analysis and reform these ideas in a way to serve conservative end goals.

Question 7. Conservative Socialism relations to Fascism and the Third Position.

Conservative Socialism shares the synthesis politics of fascism and Third Position where left and right ideas are combined. However Conservative Socialism unlike Fascism is not based around the state even when its authoritarian but around family and religion. The Conservative Socialist is also against imperialism unlike the Italian Fascists with Conservative Socialist believing that civilization should carve out their own path without occupation.

Conservative Socialist also do not share the race obsession or jew obsession of National Socialism. Even when race is a part of conservative socialists worldview like in the example of Karl Otto Paetel, conservative socialist still believe in solidarity with other races in their anti-colonial and anti-capitalist struggles. Conservative Socialist also criticize Fascism for its purging of more anti-capitalist members and class collaborationist approach that eventually led Fascism to its downfall. Other forms of Fascism like Futurist Fascism is inherently at odds with conservative socialism as futurists see all traditions as outdated. Like Marxism however there are some Third Positionist that would be consider a part of the Conservative Socialist camp such as Otto Strasser, Jose Antonio Primo De Rivera, Juan Peron, and Diego Fusaro for their more anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and social conservative nature. That said it does not mean all conservative socialist like these individuals. Same goes with question 6.

Conclusion

In conclusion Conservative Socialism is a form of conservatism and socialism that combines the social and philosophical aspects of conservatism with the economic and philosophical aspects of socialism. To Learn more about Conservative Socialism, I encourage people to read this blog series on a “Conservative Case For Class Struggle” and many of the other articles written on this blog. I also encourage people to check out these websites down below.

4th Estate Blog

https://fourthestatepolicy.com/

ARPLAN

https://arplan.org/

Conservative Socialist Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/ConservativeSocialist/hot/?f=flair_name%3A%22Class%20War%22

Niekisch Translation Project

https://niekischtranslationproject.wordpress.com/tag/ernst-niekisch-und-der-revolutionarer-nationalismus/

Junger Translation Project

https://juengertranslationproject.substack.com/

On Conservative Socialism

https://quillette.com/2022/12/27/on-conservative-socialism/

I will provide a reading list of books and articles for conservative socialists sometime in the future.

  The History Of The Texas Brio Superfund Site

             

A Note to the Reader

I wrote this article back in November of last year and was going to publish this with my article on South Texas political machines. Due to recent events in East Palestine Ohio however, I have decided to publish this sooner to show that this is not the first time that the US government and corporations have mismanage a chemical disaster. In fact there are many more examples of corporations permanently damaging areas of land were whole communities have to move due to the danger of the chemicals effects on people. These places are often called Superfund sites. A Superfund is a place that has been contaminated by toxic materials and identified by Environmental Protection Agency or EPA for clean up.

It is very possible that East Palestine will become a superfund site and its residence will have to move with many of them or their future having serve health damage and disabilities like what happened in Brio area over 40 years ago. Or also like Brio have the government and corporation downplay the issue until it become obvious that too many people in area are getting unnatural or rare diseases caused by toxic chemicals. Both cases also have government and corporate corruption going on to. I will leave a video down blow for those who are interest in learning more about the recent tragedy in Ohio. It is time for leaders to start thinking about the long terms effect of taking short cuts and not improving infrastructure. It is time to start thinking about the long term future of the communities that make up this country.

The History of Brio

The Brio Superfund Site is a superfund located Harris County outside of the city of Houston Texas. This is a story of corporate corruption, government incompetency, and a community trying to figure out what is going on with their kids. Before the start of the Brio incident all that was out in the area that would be soon known as Brio were rice farms. No houses or communities, in other words a perfect place to get away with shady activity. The story begins in 1956 when two chemical companies named Dixie Oil Processing and the most infamous Brio Refinery Incorporated, which is where the site got its name from became operational in the area. The owners of the Brio and Dixie have remained largely unknown but what is known is that Monsanto CO had owned the site at one point. Both companies had unproperly been disposing of chemicals, with chemicals seeking into the ground effecting the ground water of the nearby area. Dumping of chemicals in the surrounding area that further contaminated the area. At the time only Brio and Dixie were in the area so they did not have worry about a complete public relations disaster. However, by the late 1970s to early 1980s a neighborhood called Southbend, Little League Baseball Field, and an elementary school named Weber Elementary School were all built nearby the Brio Refinery and the Dixie Oil sites. In 1982 both companies had filed for bankruptcy. Both sites began to be sealed off and investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency also known as EPA. Along with the site being proposed to be on the National Priorities list in 1984.

At first the EPA said there was no harmful effects to nearby area from the Brio and Dixie sites. However, as early as the 1970s when Southbend was first being built many of the construction workers started to complain about being sick however no action was taken. Many of the people who moved into the Southbend neighborhood had no idea that a chemical refinery site was just behind their new neighborhood. It was not long until some people in the neighborhood such as Nancy Webber a mother of two children who were extremely sick started to realize it was not just her kids that where sick but also many of the other kids in neighborhood. Some of the kids like Webbers kids had extreme respiratory problems, others were born without reproductive organs, some were crossed eyed, some had kidney problems, and others later developed leukemia, and cancer. Many of the mothers also had many miscarriages as well. What many of the children had in common was not only did they live in the Southbend neighborhood but later it was found that the children had toxic chemicals in their blood. The parents soon realized that the reason their kids were sick or had life altering defects was because of the nearby Brio Refinery.

In 1986 It was not long before Nancy Weber and one of her neighbors brought the story of the children’s problems to a local newspaper called the South Belt-Ellington Leader with the story publisher being Marie Flickinger who played a crucial role in exposing the incompetence of the EPA and corruption that went on at the Brio and Dixie sites. It was not long until the EPA and Monsanto Co one of the corporate owners of the Brio Site started to hit back. EPA manager of the Brio site Lou Barinka and Monsanto Co started to run ads and reports trying to discredit the story with many in the community buying it for a time. However, two major events of this story would come out.  The EPA said that the Brio and Dixie sites had no effect on the surrounding area however in 1989 former employees of Brio Refinery Inc, P.T White, and P.C Vasquez came forward and said that Brio Refinery Incorporated had been dumping chemicals where Southbend Neighborhood was built, a fact that the EPA and Brio Inc had denied. After the story of off-site dumping came out the little league baseball decided to close due to the field being so close to Dixie Oil Processing and the potential of chemical waste on the baseball field. These suspicions would turn out to be correct. While the little league was not using the field many kids where still going on the field to play. Marie Flickinger would go on the baseball field being videotaped with a friend with a pole and putting the pole in the ground, then when he pulled the pole back up a toxic black chemical known as tar was all over the pole and coming up from the ground. Flickinger also taped an EPA warning sign on the ground showing more incompetence in the EPA. The video that Marie Flickinger had recorded would be known as the DOP Tarwars or Tarwars for short. Flickinger also discovered that the dirt mounds that kids were riding bikes on, was where the Brio Site had buried many of the toxic chemicals.  The view of the EPA being incompetent was further accelerated when the EPA spokesman told Flickinger when discussing the baseball field that “We can’t function as guardians of the neighborhood children.”  Soon the neighborhood voted to officially shut down the baseball field with a lawsuit being filed soon afterwards, it was discovered that a lot of the research and studies that independent researchers that were hired by the companies that ran the Brio refinery to give to the EPA had been tampered with in favor of the companies. The EPA took the research at face value which was later revealed in court.

Marie Flickinger would soon start to advocate for the closure of the nearby Weber Elementary School which was met with some local backlash at the time. Flickinger would also have companies pulling out of advertising in the newspaper causing more headaches for her. However Clear Creek ISD soon voted to shut down the school and in 1992 the people of Southbend neighborhood along with others affected by the Brio Site won a 207.5-million-dollar lawsuit against the EPA, Monsanto Co., and other companies who were responsible for the incident. A huge portion of the money in the lawsuit would go to the children affected by Brio and Dixie mismanagement of chemicals. The Brio Superfund Site was also considered the 13th worse superfund site in the United States at the time.  A little before the community lawsuit victory, in 1991 the EPA approved a plan to incinerate the chemicals on the site, however, in 1994 the EPA asked the companies to test for dioxin in chemicals which would become airborne if the EPA incinerated the chemicals. The companies declined to, and the plan was scrapped in 1994.

By the mid-1990s many of the residents of Southbend had either left or had been bought out so the EPA could clean up the entire areas. For several years the neighborhood would sit abandoned with some alleged former residents claiming that criminal activity in the area. In particularly one alleged residence named Jason Burke alleged that he and his brother found a stolen car in his former garage in the Southbend neighborhood. Even if the claims of criminal activities are true, it did not last long, as the entire neighborhood was bulldozed in 1998 along with the area being completely fenced off.  The only remnants of the community are some parts of the road and baseball field.

In 2006 after an immense cleaning the EPA took the Brio Superfund site off its national priorities list, but the area is still not safe for humans to live in and to this day it is still sealed off to the public. This has not stop neighborhoods from being built nearby the site. A minor leak from the site was reported in 2010 however, the EPA has said that the cleanup in the area is on schedule and its last report in 2018 had said that everything is on schedule. Many people on the other hand are still concerned about the safety of the surrounding area and the possible dangers that Brio may still hold. Some of the former residences of Southbend have died from the diseases that were created from the exposure to the chemicals, which has further created concern for the surrounding area. Other concerns have also been raised. In particular the area is prone to flooding has led to some wondering if toxic chemicals could have been spread all over the area via flood waters.

Conclusion

Despite the Brio Superfund Site being one of the worst superfund sites in both Texas and the United States history especially in the 1990s. Along with even President Bill Clinton at the time meeting Marie Flickinger to discuss the mater at one point. I have not been able to find who  the individual founders or owners or who ran the day-to-day operations at Brio Refinery Inc or at the Dixie Oil Processing company. It is almost like these people do not even exist but nevertheless leads to more questions. The questions are who are these individuals, why did they do it, and how deep does their corruption actually go? One could argue that due to how much ownership had change over the years that it became hard to track them. However due to all the corruption that went on in this case it would not be surprising that these individuals had scrubbed as much information on themselves as humanly possible on the internet. In fact, it was hard to even find sources outside of local media and the EPA on the Brio Superfund. Not to mention many sources said different dates on when the sites where even founded with some saying as early as 1956 to as late as 1958. It makes me wonder how many other superfund disasters were caused by very similar conditions to the Brio Superfund.

  Despite all the questions, there are three things we can learn from the Brio Superfund Site. The first thing we should learn is that when we are dealing with chemicals or anything else for that matter, we need to think about the long-term impact of our actions. We need to think how this will affect the environment, the community, and future generations that maybe living in the area. Along with how to properly use and disposes of resources without causing massive damage. Improving infrastructure is essential for this task, not just thinking about short term profit, but what are the long-term results for everyone. The second thing we can learn is that we cannot always trust the experts as some can be corrupt and not have the interest of community at heart as shown in this event. Sometimes it is better for individuals to do there own independent research on the matter and try to spread the truth. The third and final lesson is to always do research on the area you’re moving into. Making sure you’re not moving close to a superfund site or something else that could be life threating. Do this for the sake of you and your family.  

Sources

Upper Echelon. (2023, February 16). The Chemical Disaster in Ohio EXPLAINED. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofH_BJeJVJc

Associated Press. (2019, June 28). $207.5 MILLION WILL SETTLE TEXAS TOXIC-WASTE SUITS. Deseret News. https://www.deseret.com/1992/6/22/18990637/207-5-million-will-settle-texas-toxic-waste-suits

.. (n.d.). Brio Superfund South Belt-Ellington News Coverage 1990-1993. http://southbelthouston.blogspot.com/2015/01/brio-superfund-south-belt-ellington.html

Davis, K. (2015, March 13). A Tale of Two Sites. Texas Monthly. https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/a-tale-of-two-sites/

https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.Cleanup&id=0602601#bkground

Morrison, H. (2019, May 16). Brio site leaves residents with lingering questions. Impact. https://communityimpact.com/pearland-friendswood/enviroment/2019/05/16/brio-site-leaves-residents-with-lingering-questions/

BRIO REFINING, INC. | Superfund Site Profile | Superfund Site Information | US EPA. (n.d.). https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0602601

https://www.khou.com/article/news/investigations/as-life-rebuilds-around-brio-superfund-site-former-residents-still-reeling-from-toxic-past/285-d4a0dc8d-4ec3-4840-8ed2-8222845eca42

https://g.co/kgs/a91enh

My Political Biography – Chapter 1 by Eduard Limonov

This was published on The Other Russia of E.V Limonov website in December of 2019, which can be found here in Russian https://drugoros.ru/biblioteka/moia-politicheskaia-biografiia/glava-1-vmesto-predisloviia

Chapter 1

Due to the lack of operational communication between the publishing house and the author, who is in custody in the pre-trial detention center of the FSB of Russia, the book is published in the author’s edition, without checking names and dates.

I confess that I do not even remember in detail the coming of Gorbachev. Shown on French TV channels. They said “young”. Before that, they died one after another: Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko. I was ashamed in front of my French friends. I have always boasted of the power of Russia, and here the only thing known about Russia is that coffins are carried to the cemetery. Well, I thought: “Young is good,” and nothing more. An additional factor of inattention to Gorbachev: Natalya and I parted ways. It was the spring of 1985. By June, Medvedeva and I parted ways, only to get back together in January 1986.

And later, throughout the second half of 1985 and throughout 1986, it was completely quiet for me on the other side of the planet where Russia was located. Once there were rumors that the vineyards were completely cut down, even in Georgia and Moldova, they said that in this way the new Secretary General was fighting alcoholism. In France – “cut down the vineyards” – sounded barbaric. Even Attila did not allow himself that. I interpreted what happened as wild tyranny. And calmed down. Everything was as always.

The fact is that for the other side of the planet where the Motherland is located, I have been calm all these ten years. I mean the first ten years lived in the West. I was sure that conservatism reigned stably and harshly there, that Russia was securely frozen. The fact that Russia was frozen was a certain inconvenience for the Russian intelligentsia and people of art, so I thought. But the same circumstance has a positive effect on the fate of the workers and peasants. They are privileged, though they don’t realize it.

I confess that I did not expect any changes in Russia from within, I completely ignored the influence of the dissidence movement on the authorities. He believed that the authorities had successfully crushed the dissident movement, forcing the most violent abroad. Of course, I could not have known that there were dissidents in government structures, including the KGB. Of course, I could not know that a certain A. Yakovlev was sitting in the USSR Embassy in Canada and that when Gorbachev, already a member of the Politburo, appeared in Canada, this Yakovlev managed to inspire Gorbachev with some of his ideas, which in a few years would first destroy the Eastern Bloc – the socialist camp, and then the USSR. There is no doubt that Yakovlev drew some of his ideas, if not directly from dissidents, then starting from the very Soviet atmosphere of the 70s in Russia – an atmosphere of cynicism, disbelief in the ideals of communism. (In essence, disbelief in any ideals. The ideology of philistine cynicism dominated and still dominates in the country.) In contrast to the clearly decrepit communist ideology, Yakovlev, who served as ambassador to Canada for 11 years and had seen enough of the country, following the ideas of the then Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, offered Gorbachev a liberal-federalist ideology for the USSR . At one time I described in detail the Yakovlev-Gorbachev couple and their Canadian relations in my book “The Killing of the Sentry”. Even in twenty-million (not our Siberia) Anglo-French Canada, Trudeau’s ideas did not take root, they turned out to be too smilingly unrealistic, and soon Trudeau left power.

First of all, Gorbachev decided to “liberate” Eastern Europe. Note that the first dissident demonstration on Red Square took place in August 1968, during the days of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. A little over twenty years later, the “velvet revolutions” in the Eastern Bloc were organized from Moscow. As if Gorbanevskaya, Delaunay and Dremlyuga did not serve their terms and went abroad, but quickly ran up the steps of the party ladder, and now the countries of Eastern Europe are being “liberated” from the highest chair in the country.

Later I heard that Gorbachev allegedly sold out, that he was an “agent”… It is absurd to suspect that he was bribed. How can you bribe the emperor with what? The emperor, the master of the half world, has everything. Therefore, he is a village idiot, one of those who graze goats, blows his nose in his hand and speaks indistinctly, difficultly … In fact, it turned out that way. He was persuaded to give up Eastern Europe. What they promised him in return – a wonderful shiny mirror or a hat with red feathers – we will never know.

Did he think about the consequences of the velvet revolutions? Did you think that he opens volcanoes, so many volcanoes at once, that he opens bottles where genies languish, that he releases bacteria into these countries that will make them sick, writhe, die? A person with bureaucratic-command thinking, I think, did not care about such trifles. He also did not think about breaking the balance of power, Yakovlev convinced him that the West is our good brother.

In the fall of 1996, Mavromati and Salnikov took me to the Cinema House to meet Gorbachev with the voters. I squeezed my way into the second row and immediately asked him a question from my seat. Aloud. Got up and asked. It was impossible for everyone else, but he allowed me. “Let him talk. I know him, I saw him in the cinema…” (He meant television.) I said: “My question will be correct in form and unpleasant in essence: Mikhail Sergeevich, when you sleep, don’t you dream of bloody boys? stand in your eyes? Even if you leave Russia, take Serbia, where I have visited many times … Do you know that you are hated by many people there for letting Germany unite? In the Balkans, at first she secretly began to support the Croats in their separatist aspirations, supplied them with weapons. Croatian fighters began to train on the territory of the former Soviet military camps in Hungary. Russian planes, from which the identification marks were scraped off, began to drop Soviet weapons to the Croats at night. Don’t you dream of bloody boys?”

The hall was seething and indignant. After all, his supporters gathered – the Moscow intelligentsia. He cleared his throat, stood up… “Well, that’s how it is… Yes, they would have united anyway… a historical pattern…” In his voice, one could hear resentment that he followed a historical pattern, and he is accused of it. A maniac accused of murders could have said the same with resentment. After all, he obediently followed the “voice”, how could one disobey the “voice”? So it is with Gobachev’s historical regularity.

When he gave away Eastern Europe, my healthy mind was indignant. The blood of generations of peasant ancestors from the Voronezh and Nizhny Novgorod villages boiled with hatred for the man who gave away the land we conquered. Didn’t we pay a hundred thousand soldiers’ lives for the capture of Berlin, so that every big-ass bastard with hammers climbed our wall?! It was on the graves of our dead that you encroached – this is how I perceived the Sabbath at the Berlin Wall. Yes, it was a turning point. I began to hate Gorbachev in the late 80s, when the KGB and GRU officers organized the surrender of the Eastern Bloc countries. All this shame was abundantly broadcast on French television.

Why didn’t he turn to anyone for advice? Russia jumped into waters that it did not know, and grunted against the stones – Yakovlev knew the West little and poorly. He studied it from the window of the embassy limousine.

Even then I realized that Russia was heading for ruin. That it simply does not have personnel who understand the modern world. Therefore, tragically, they made a mistake, orienting themselves in it. Democrats idolized the West, orthodox communists hated it as a “stronghold of capitalism.” And it was only necessary to understand the West. And among the political class that came to power, as well as among the political opposition, there was not a single person like that. And the stubborn country of petty tyrants did not want to turn to those of its compatriots who had vast experience in dealing with the West – to emigrants. Unlike the Eastern Europeans, they looked into the mouth of their emigrants: Poland – Pope Voytila, Nobel laureate Milos or Brzezinski, and the Serbs of Bosnia began to be led by the American professor Karadzic, the president of Yugoslavia for some time was the emigrant writer Chosic, Vika Freiberge is the President of Latvia, an immigrant from Canada. You can name dozens more names of ministers from Eastern European countries and the Baltic countries – former emigrants or dissidents, like Havel in the Czech Republic. But not Russia, no, Russia itself with a mustache, and without the help of experienced people with idiotic enthusiasm, has done such troubles that you can’t clear up even in centuries. (And above all, it left 27 million Russians outside the Russian state!) No, it was not Russia that rejected the people of experience. This is the class from which Yeltsin, Gorbachev and Zyuganov came out, hostilely rejected any stranger. Knowing? This is just what we needed! Bukovsky? What are you, he will do this to us! Zinoviev? No, no, we’re on our own! So not a single emigrant, not Bukovsky, not Solzhenitsyn, not Limonov, was useful to the country. They were rejected by the nomenklatura. This corporate will of the nomenklatura put me in jail. The same bureaucratic caste strayed in 1992 into the Party Council of the National Salvation Front. And there was no place for emigrants in opposition! The traditions of the nomenklatura administration do not allow strangers.

And Gaidar? They will object to me. And he is not a stranger. Economic columnist for the Kommunist magazine, adviser to the Central Committee on economics. And Sobchak, a professor at Leningrad State University, a specialist in housing law, before being a democrat, was a prominent figure in the St. Petersburg nomenklatura.

I still hate both Gorbachev and Yeltsin with all my being. At the same time, I have to admit that both of them are very common archetypes of the Russian peasant. One sort of eternal technologist Misha is a small person. Maybe not dangerous, if you do not put him in a position higher than a technologist, dull-witted, conceited. I correctly noted in “The Killing of the Sentry” how symbolic his licked hat made of rare fur of some sea animal. The hat symbolizes tasteless claims, vanity, the desire to stand out in such a petty way. Among other things, he put on the eccentric liberalism of Yakovlev, resolutely put it on in front of everyone, not embarrassed to show off in it solely due to provincial vanity.

Yeltsin is a cruel and brainless party tyrant. Absolutely devoid of a sense of historicism, otherwise he would never have decided to disperse the USSR just to take power in Russia. The hardware move – to destroy the office of Gorbachev by disbanding the Union – was conceived only as a reshuffle, a maneuver. Say, we will disband the USSR, then we will collect the CIS. Yeltsin, I think, never entered his head that the CIS would not meet. I think he is simply not sufficiently developed and educated to understand that there are ideologies (communism was just a way of power for him), that nationalism is the same reality as a loaf of bread. Yeltsin did not take seriously accomplices in the crime, Kravchuk and Shushkevich, both of them were not from the party nobility, they were not members of the Politburo, they were simply summoned to Pushcha, and it was assumed that they would never disobey. The other eleven leaders of the republics were not summoned at all. For what? Let’s bring it to your attention. The main thing is that Gorbachev should remain without a post. When the CIS did not get together, I think Yeltsin was not very upset. Well, they lost 15 rooms in the house, but there are still 89 left. Were some of the lost rooms large and warm? Well, we have 89 more. But where will they go for a long time? 15 large rooms will definitely come crawling! They will return.

By the way, Zhirinovsky expressed the same feelings in those years. They will crawl, economic need will force them. And only I wrote with knowledge of the matter, expressing common sense:

“Power is sweet and beautiful, even if you took it in the bare mountains, where there is nothing but sheep. And you only have a hundred horsemen in shaggy hats. And surrender your power to a neighbor in exchange for economic benefits (from Russia, my God, which herself in the ass, what goodness!) no one will run”

All this Russian disgrace – the moment of the skirmish between Gorbachev and Yeltsin (the Foros captivity and the following days of August 1991) – I watched with disgust. At the time of the betrayal of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, I was in Serbia. In the ruins of Vukovar, in the town of Shid, where the headquarters of the command of Slavonia and Western Srem was located. I was filled with indignation. I suppose that the Russian layman did not understand the historical moment, did not understand that the irreversible happened, that in December 1991 the Russian Empire and Russian civilization collapsed. But our historical enemies understood this very well: Germany understood, Turkey understood, those who will have to profit at our expense in the future understood, China understood. Why isn’t the United States of America on this list? The United States is the enemy of all. The United States acts as a distant instigator and intriguer, they sit there in the distance, choose, Where would they intervene: Afghanistan, Iraq, Serbia, and they intervene tactlessly and stupidly, as a rule, destabilizing the situation even more. The results of their intervention are negative: Korea has been divided for fifty years, eternal, already entered the 21st century, the war of all against all is raging in Afghanistan, 11 years of unfavorable disgrace in Iraq have lasted, conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo, somehow glued together, have spread to neighboring countries, where the United States did not plan to distribute them. It is impossible to say that all these bleeding pieces on the planet bleed in the interests of the United States. The United States is a provincial and clumsy country and wins like a vulture as countries bleed each other out in battle. So it was in the 1st and 2nd world wars … In the case of the USSR – a huge colossus, with Stavropol – the size of a walnut – the brain of Gorbachev committed an act of suicide. I think that the Americans exaggerate their role in the world, they are not winners at all. They only come on their gunboats to look at those who have already killed each other or committed suicide. George W. Bush attributed America’s victory over Russia in the cold psychological war. No, it was the village fool Misha Gorbachev who defeated Russia. And this hardware scoundrel, the Sverdlovsk regional committee secretary, cut the USSR into 15 parts with a clumsy hardware maneuver, although he just wanted to take away the position from Gorbachev. However, Gorbachev left Yeltsin already at war, a country of conflicts seething with blood. Already in 1988, the first illegal armed groups were created in Karabakh. At first, “the ruler is weak and crafty” – Gorbachev ordered the arrest of the “Karabakh Committee”, which General Albert Makashov did. But the next day, Gorbachev was afraid of his decision and ordered the release of the members of the Committee. It became clear to the whole world that the ruler was weak.

Once again I will explain my mentality of those years. For me, Russia was most important. I found its political system imperfect, it was clear that the system was outdated. But I exaggerated for myself the degree of stability of a huge state that stretched from the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to the Bering Strait, from where Alaska is visible. I didn’t fear for Russia. This is generally a strange and hardly explainable instinctive feeling – anxiety for the Motherland. So, until 1988 I had no anxiety for the Motherland.

I remember I was at an international writers’ conference in Hungary, organized by the American Wheatland foundation. It was held at the Hilton Hotel in Budapest. On the second day, we were taken in a large tourist bus on an excursion to a medieval castle. Next to me in the seat next to me sat the grey-bearded Alain Robbe-Grillet, a little further on his wife Jeanne de Berg and the young Jean Echenoz, all of them from the French delegation. Next to the bus, a military van suddenly pulled up on the road and kept up. Looking out the window, I saw the lieutenant’s epaulettes. The lieutenant in Soviet uniform was talking animatedly about something with the driver. The lieutenant’s hand with a cigarette was exposed to the window. “L’Armée Soviétique, l’Armée Soviétique…” — the French recognized the van with fright. And I calmly smiled. I tell you, I was calm for my country in those years. I thought, she is frozen solid. It turned out that there was liquid mud under the crust.

And then there was the suicide. And since then I’ve lost my temper. None of those involved in this knew what they were doing. This is not an apology. I just want to say that narrow, specific, local, petty momentary interests forced them to act suicidal. In February 1992, I met Colonel Alksnis (he recently visited me in prison), and he told me that almost all 2,200 deputies of the USSR Supreme Council voted for the self-dissolution of the USSR, and only eight were against! Among them are Alksnis, Umalatova, Kogan, Avaliani, Shashiashvili, Nosov, I don’t remember the names of two more. Just think, the ratio is 2.200 to 8! And of these eight – a Latvian, a Chechen, a Jew from Latvia, two Georgians and one Siberian Vavil Nosov! And the Supreme Soviet of Russia, 1,100 deputies, unanimously voted for the dissolution of the USSR. The composition of the two Councils with a total number of 3,300 people ruined the Great Motherland, leaving the permafrost, the worst lands! How could this happen? The fact is that they were not brought up properly in admiration for the conquests of Russia, for the military glory of soldiers, commanders and tsars and Bolshevik Caesars. The fact is that narrow-minded cynicism has taken the place of ideology. The fact is that the morals of the regional party committees, all these bastard pigs, have prevailed. Family and self-interest ruined the state. Manipulations and hardware moves in the struggle for power won over ideology, statehood, and common sense. of all these stray pigs – prevailed. Family and self-interest ruined the state. Manipulations and hardware moves in the struggle for power won over ideology, statehood, and common sense. of all these stray pigs – prevailed. Family and self-interest ruined the state. Manipulations and hardware moves in the struggle for power won over ideology, statehood, and common sense.

In The Killing of the Sentry, I quoted the great philosopher Chioran:

“Great Empires are never defeated. They commit suicide” –

understood the great swindler, our contemporary. So the Russian Empire committed suicide, the Russians themselves fired a bullet into her forehead.

I realized that this is a personnel problem. All the upheavals of 1988-1993 did not bring forward a single truly new idol. All the Soviets didn’t understand a damn thing. They again needed Lenin and a sealed carriage with advanced emigrants. Russia was ruined by the stupidity of professional apparatchiks. Fresh ones: Sazhi Umalatova, an employee of the Red Hammer factory in Grozny, aviation colonel Alksnis, people’s deputy Nosov, journalist Anpilov, lieutenant colonel Terekhov – promised to become bright leaders, but the System, turning with a creak, was already crushing all living things. Officials rose to fight with strangers. The system mercilessly crushed the democratic camp as well. Father Gleb Yakunin, Ponomarev, Orlov, Kovalev, they were all thrown out of power, Sakharov died, his wife Bonner went into exile, new officials were not encouraged.

So not only that the sealed wagon was not accepted, but those few who were were expelled.

Eduard Limonov