#foundations of this country is white hegemony

[enigmatic-feral-being]

Day 27 of Random Songs

#4th of july #independence day #American is free for the rich white man #foundations of this country is white hegemony #random songs #punk #anarchopunk #anarchy #punk music #Spotify

[readingsquotes]

"But the world, or more specifically the West, doesn’t do anything. Worse, the liquidation of Gaza, though outlined and broadcast by its perpetrators, is daily obfuscated, if not denied, by the instruments of the West’s military and cultural hegemony: from the US president claiming that Palestinians are liars and European politicians intoning that Israel has a right to defend itself to the prestigious news outlets deploying the passive voice while relating the massacres carried out in Gaza. We find ourselves in an unprecedented situation. Never before have so many witnessed an industrial-scale slaughter in real time. Yet the prevailing callousness, timidity and censorship disallows, even mocks, our shock and grief. Many of us who have seen some of the images and videos coming out of Gaza – those visions from hell of corpses twisted together and buried in mass graves, the smaller corpses held by grieving parents, or laid on the ground in neat rows – have been quietly going mad over the last few months. Every day is poisoned by the awareness that while we go about our lives hundreds of ordinary people like ourselves are being murdered, or being forced to witness the murder of their children.

Those driven to scan Joe Biden’s face for some sign of mercy, some sign of an end to bloodletting, find an eerily smooth hardness, broken only by a nervous little smirk when he blurts out Israeli lies about beheaded babies. Biden’s stubborn malice and cruelty to the Palestinians is just one of many gruesome riddles presented to us by Western politicians and journalists.

.....

Why have Western politicians and journalists kept presenting tens of thousands of dead and maimed Palestinians as collateral damage, in a war of self-defence forced on the world’s most moral army, as the IDF claims to be?

The answers for many people around the world cannot but be tainted by a long-simmering racial bitterness. Palestine, George Orwell pointed out in 1945, is a ‘colour issue’, and this is the way it was inevitably seen by Gandhi, who pleaded with Zionist leaders not to resort to terrorism against Arabs using Western arms, and the postcolonial nations, which almost all refused to recognise the state of Israel. What W.E.B. Du Bois called the central problem of international politics – the ‘colour line’ – motivated Nelson Mandela when he said that South Africa’s freedom from apartheid is ‘incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians’. James Baldwin sought to profane what he termed a ‘pious silence’ around Israel’s behaviour when he claimed that the Jewish state, which sold arms to the apartheid regime in South Africa, embodied white supremacy not democracy. Muhammad Ali saw Palestine as an instance of gross racial injustice. So, today, do the leaders of the United States’s oldest and most prominent Black Christian denominations, who have accused Israel of genocide and asked Biden to end all financial as well as military aid to the country.

.... For more than seven decades now, the argument among the ‘darker peoples’ has remained the same: why should Palestinians be dispossessed and punished for crimes in which only Europeans were complicit? And they can only recoil with disgust from the implicit claim that Israel has the right to slaughter 13,000 children not only as a matter of self-defence but because it is a state born out of the Shoah.

...

At the same time, Gaza has become for countless powerless people the essential condition of political and ethical consciousness in the 21st century – just as the First World War was for a generation in the West. And, increasingly, it seems that only those jolted into consciousness by the calamity of Gaza can rescue the Shoah from Netanyahu, Biden, Scholz and Sunak and re-universalise its moral significance; only they can be trusted to restore what Améry called the equilibrium of world morality. Many of the protesters who fill the streets of their cities week after week have no immediate relation to the European past of the Shoah. They judge Israel by its actions in Gaza rather than its Shoah-sanctified demand for total and permanent security. Whether or not they know about the Shoah, they reject the crude social-Darwinist lesson Israel draws from it – the survival of one group of people at the expense of another. They are motivated by the simple wish to uphold the ideals that seemed so universally desirable after 1945: respect for freedom, tolerance for the otherness of beliefs and ways of life; solidarity with human suffering; and a sense of moral responsibility for the weak and persecuted. These men and women know that if there is any bumper sticker lesson to be drawn from the Shoah, it is ‘Never Again for Anyone’: the slogan of the brave young activists of Jewish Voice for Peace.

#palestine #free palestine #isreal #gaza #colonization #apartheid #genocide

[ramshacklefey]

I was reading this post from @headspace-hotel, and it got me back into a bunch of thoughts I've been rolling around in my head for ages.

The emptiness of white culture in the USA comes a lot from what the original post mentions: that people who started out with a variety of different cultural heritages in Europe were forced to assimilate to a hegemonic white culture or be crushed.

However, world history is full of examples of one culture conquering and assimilating another, but the extent of this homogenization to... nothingness seems to be somewhat unique to the history of the USA.

And I think part of that is the result of the precise historical and political situation that laid the foundation for what became the dominant culture in the USA.

The English Puritan Christianity that the early colonists brought with them to North America was largely defined by rejecting things: not only many of the traditions of Catholicism, but also everything in secular culture that was deemed immoral. I mean, these were people who forbade theater or celebrating most holidays. They basically stripped themselves of everything that we would usually think of as "culture" and left themselves with nothing but the imperative to work hard and not have fun.

In other cases, when one culture assimilated another, the assimilated group actually picked up the practices and traits of the assimilating culture. But in this case, there wasn't much to pick up. The only demand was to reject whatever your previous culture had been.

And this had a particularly strong effect on people from European countries and others who would eventually come to be considered white. Black and native peoples were subjected to more violence, but because they couldn't effectively "disappear" into the white cultural hegemony, they had less incentive to do that and managed to (in many cases) maintain or recreate some kind of culture for themselves. For white Europeans, the story was different. If you were Irish or German or Scandinavian or Russian, you could disappear into the rest of the white people in America if you dropped your language, dropped your accent, dropped your religious identity and culture specific practices and just started acting like the vaguely Puritan people around you.

Of course, Puritanism is no fun at all, and over time people started reinstating a lot of things. They picked up Christian holidays and such, but there wasn't much left to them on a community or spiritual level for a lot of people. And that made it really easy for corporate entities to turn them into commercial hullabaloos.

What's that you say? Christmas has been stripped of the solemnity of Mass and the power inherent in ritual practices? Guess all that's left is the decorations (which we'll sell you since you're too busy working to make them), and the food (which we'll sell you since you're too busy working to cook), and the gift-giving (which you gotta spend a lot of money on or you're being a selfish bastard).

Something similar happened to food. If you actually go to Europe and eat the food that has been made in various countries for hundreds of years, it's varied and interesting. True, Europe isn't home to a lot of the more exciting spices that are used elsewhere in the world, but people everywhere like food that tastes good. European food is traditionally flavored with herbs and garlic and pepper. And because they had to preserve a lot of stuff to last through the winter, they got pretty ingenious with pickling and smoking things. They went nuts with baked goods and dairy.

Come to the USA, and a lot of those foods were considered "gross," so people stopped making them and the recipes got lost. Throw in the early to mid 20th century rise in pre-cooked foods that made it easier to feed a family on almost no money when you didn't have time to cook, and you get a lot of really bland stuff that can be made in huge batches. This was especially true in the poorer areas of the midwest where there was less in the way of interesting ingredients being brought in from other places around the world, and the growing season was pretty short.

Oh right, and people's stories and folk practices got culled, because they didn't fit in with the dominant religious views. So those were out.

You mix all that together with the general social alienation and death of community and family life that capitalism has been steadily forcing on people for the last couple centuries, and you have an entire population of people who don't have any solid roots or traditions. No spiritual connection to ancestors and only the foggiest, most watered down understanding of their ancestral cultures. And it isn't a far jump from there to people feeling like the only thing they have that counts as culture is "being white."

We need a solution to this, and I'm not sure what it is. I know that we're going to have a helluva time changing anything as long as we're stuck under the thumb of a capitalist system that makes it almost impossible to build real-world community. That things aren't going to get better as long as any religious or spiritual belief system other than bland, Evangelical Christianity is considered hokey and idiotic.

What I'm sure of is that the only way it's going to start is if people start actively trying to build communities in real life. People who you can actually talk with and share food and build traditions and rituals... People who can help each other and form bonds that can be passed down to younger generations so that they have some sense of connection to the rest of the world.

I'm just one dude, and I'm not advocating for any particular shape that this should take. Just that it needs to happen.

#ramshackle thoughts

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Eddie Waldrep, PhD, MSCP

Published: May 15, 2023

This is a guest post by Edward E. Waldrep, Ph.D, M.S.C.P. Dr. Waldrep is a Veteran of the War in Iraq, Purple Heart recipient, and is currently a clinical psychologist for the Department of Veteran Affairs specializing in PTSD. Views expressed here are those of the author and are not the views of the Department of Veteran Affairs.

Our country, and indeed the world, has gone through a lot in the past couple of years. The COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd by a police officer, a racial reckoning, rioting, and a tumultuous transition of presidential power that has marred our democratic institutions to name a few. With so much going on, the radical political changes within the American Psychological Association (APA) may have easily escaped the attention of many.

For example, the APA has been gradually changing the way race is approached. Officially, in 2017 it updated standards on multiculturalism to include embracing “intersectionality,” a conceptualization of the myriad ways in which one is oppressed via group identity. In 2019, a Task Force on Race and Ethnicity Guidelines in Psychology noted drawing upon Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a guide and in 2020 the definition of racism promoted by the APA was officially changed. The redefinition changed it from internal prejudicial beliefs and interpersonal discrimination to a “system of structuring opportunity.” What led to this change and why does it matter so much?

Social Justice versus Critical Social Justice

These changes came as a result of the changing focus of APA, and academia in general, from traditional social justice movements to Critical Social Justice (CSJ). Traditional social justice sought to end institutional oppression, discrimination based on immutable characteristics, focus on universal humanity of every individual, and for equality of opportunity for each to pursue their own self-directed goals. These are indicative of aspirational goals found in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. There are contemporary organizations promoting the same pro-human ideals such as the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) and many others. On the other hand, there is CSJ that has skyrocketed in the public sphere in recent years and is much more pernicious.

The boom of CSJ is not a mere phenomenon. It is the result of decades of planning referred to as “the long march through the institutions,” a neo-Marxist approach to establish the conditions for revolution. This built upon the work of Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci who developed the concept of “cultural hegemony.” Cultural hegemony was posited as an explanation for why the grand Marxist revolution and utopia had failed to manifest itself. Basically, if people were able to have a comfortable life in a free market society, then they lack the motivation to burn down western society to make way for the grand utopia.

Critical Critical Theory Theory

The hegemony is thought of as an invisible, largely undetectable, ubiquitous force that nobody intentionally directs but by which all are influenced. This is where the “fish in water” analogy stems from the that is commonly used to explain “white privilege.” In their book, Black Eye for America, Swain and Schorr (2021) note that the strategy to bring about communism is to dismantle or undermine western society by attacking five societal components that maintain the hegemonic “oppression”: educational establishments, media, the legal system, religion, and the family. Douglas Murray also noted this attack in his recent book, The War on the West.

CRT is just one iteration of the application of Critical Theory(1) to different aspects of society (e.g., race, gender, sexuality, queer, colonialism, etc.) and often is presented as diversity, equity, and inclusion. CRT and intersectionality have been encouraged to be adopted in cultural competencytraining and stem from the same origin. Intersectionality, applied socially, is designed to get people to think of how they are constantly oppressed, in any variety of ways, in any given situation, to promote social divisiveness. The concept of intersectionality was popularized by Marxist lawyer and key developer of CRT, Kimberle Crenshaw. In her 1991 article for the Stanford Law Review, she argues that universal humanity ought to be rejected and focusing on race should be retained and be used for political power.

This is the exact opposite of Dr. King’s approach.  She makes the distinction between “I am black” vs. “I am a person who happens to be black”. She is critical of the latter and states, “’I am a person who happens to be black,’ on the other hand achieves self-identification by straining for a certain universality (in effect, “I am first a person”) and for concomitant dismissal of the imposed category (“Black”) as contingent, circumstantial, nondeterminant” (pg. 1297). Hence, the CRT focus on “centering race” to achieve ideological and political goals associated with imposing Marxist ideology to “dismantle” western norms and practices centering individual human rights and liberties.

The Modern Echoes of the Ugly History of Collectivist Ideologies

This ideology has a horrendous track record for humanity. Simply relabeling the ideology does not change that fact. American Psychologist, the “flagship publication” of the APA, went so far as to dedicate an entire special issue promoting this ideology in 2021. The edition editors criticize the field of psychology for “failing” to focus on structural power dynamics and for not creating “lasting social change” (Eaton, Grzanka, Schlehofer, & Silka, 2021). These are references to postmodern philosophy, Marxist structural determinism and social engineering. The authors go on to state “articles in this special issue build the case for a public psychology that is more disruptive and challenging than simply aiming dominant, canonical, and mainstream psychological research and practice outward” (pg. 1211).

Flynn and colleagues, 2021, discuss civil disobedience and criticize nonviolence as the only acceptable form stating, “we encourage psychologists to think critically about the effects of privileging certain acts of civil disobedience over others on the basis of decontextualized tactics alone, such as the assertion that property destruction invariably denotes a protest tactic outside the bounds of civil disobedience” (pg. 1220). They go on to describe strategies to twist and manipulate APA Ethics to justify any means they appear to see fit to dismantle “systems of oppression”. For example, regarding Principle C: Integrity, they state, “we also read it as authorizing clandestine methods of civil disobedience to contest injustice (e.g., deception, evasion) when methods maximize benefits and minimize harm” (pg. 1224). This stretches the intent of the use of deception from research methods, a researcher pretending to be a student for example, to justifying outright dishonesty.

And of course, the special issue would not be complete without an article criticizing “good” psychology. Note, the use of “Critical” in this context is related to neo-Marxist “Critical Theory” and not critical thinking. Grzanka and Cole, 2021, make an argument for what they describe as “bad psychology”. They argue that “good psychology” (maintaining rigorous methodological, scientific, and objective standards) is a problem because it gets in the way of the radical political agenda of transforming society the way that they think is best.  They state, “we contend that what is commonly thought of as ‘good’ psychology often gets in the way of transformative, socially engaged psychology. The radical, democratic ideals inspired by the social movements of the 20th century have found a voice in the loose network of practices that go by the term critical psychology and includes liberation psychology, African American psychology, feminist psychology, LGBTQ psychology, and intersectionality” (pg. 1335).

The authors do, conveniently, leave out the fact that the ideology underlying the radical social movements of the 20th century are attributed with mass murder on an unimaginable scale. Throughout the special edition, the argument is made, consistently, that this ideology, advocacy, and radical social transformation should be incorporated through all aspects of psychology: research, training, and delivery of clinical services.

How could the American people continue to trust the organization if this ideology is being actively promoted? What would psychotherapy look like within this ideological framework? I would argue that society would not and should not continue to trust APA if this continues. This is not sound, competent, professional, empirically informed psychology. This is Psychological Lysenkoism.

Critical Theory Ideas are Bad Psychology

APA has allowed, even endorsed, the miscommunication of psychological science that has the potential to negatively affect the mental health of individuals and society overall. Concepts such as implicit bias and microaggressions have questionable validity yet are so prominently displayed that they have the effect of gaslighting society. The net effect is to have people wondering if every interpersonal interaction is racist or bigoted and second guessing each encounter for intent and impact. These are reflective of the precepts and goals of CRT itself. The implicit idea is that almost everything is or can be racist is a central tenet of the ideology. From there, the goal is to then create the critical consciousness necessary to give rise to social unrest and revolution. The first paragraph of the intro to CRT, written for high school students, sets itself aside from traditional civil rights, and “questions” equality theory, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law. Delgado and Stefancic (2017) state, “Unlike traditional civil rights discourse, which stresses incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law” (pg. 3).

An additional tenet is that the voices and “lived experiences” of marginalized groups ought to be accepted unquestioned. However, the hypocrisy of the framework is laid bare when the “voices of color” dissent from the prevailing narrative. Prominent examples are those of John McWhorter, Glenn Loury, Wilfred Reilly, Roland Fryer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Darryl Davis, Jason Hill, Coleman Hughes, Eric Smith, Ian Rowe, Thomas Sowell, and the list goes on and on. The same dissociation occurs with members of various marginalized communities when anyone of that community doesn’t toe to line with the ideological framework. The individual does not matter, only the prevailing ideological narrative and political agenda. Anything, or anybody, that interferes with that agenda is inherently loathsome. The most common response to any individual expressing skepticism or dissent is to label the individual (any applicable variation of -ist or -phobic) and should not even be allowed to have a voice!

APA Should Adopt a Pro-Human (All Humans) Orientation

In psychological practice, we should focus on the individual with inherent dignity, value, and careful consideration of how factors influence the individual. APA ought to return to a pro-human orientation. The “critical” movement denies the individual and views them as simply a representative of a superimposed group identity or combination of identities. This is antithetical to our field. The adoption of radical political ideology has even led to the resignation of at least one leadership role in protest. When we focus on our universal humanity, we can celebrate our differences. If not rejected as morally abhorrent as it is, then the American people would rightly lose trust in the organization and damage trust in our profession.

--

(1) “Critical Theories” (Critical Race Theory, most varieties of postmodernism, fat studies, etc.) have taken that name because they endorse deep skepticism of liberal democratic norms and practices that pervade … liberal democratic societies. I (this is Lee writing here) sometimes have a bit of fun with this by referring to critiques of Critical Theories as Critical Critical Theory Theories — i.e., turning the lens of critique that includes revelations of implicit, empirically flawed or moral dubious claims & assumptions back on Critical Theories themselves, as Ed Waldrep has done here with respect to APA.

#Eddie Waldrep #critical theory #critical race theory #cultural marxism #neo marxism #queer theory #postcolonial theory #lived experience #intersectionality #woke #wokeism #cult of woke #wokeness as religion #wokeness #psychology #human psychology #institutional capture #religion is a mental illness

[ailtrahq]

The U.S. pressed economic sanctions against BRICS member Russia in February 2022 for invading and waging war against its neighboring country, Ukraine. Similarly, the U.S. had pressed sanctions against the new BRICS member Iran for its role in supporting terrorism around the world. The sanctions brought down Russia and Iran’s economies leading them to rely on other developing countries and use local currencies for trade. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen confirmed that the sanctions are what led BRICS to challenge the dollar. The White House’s move might have backfired as developing countries are forging partnerships in fear of U.S. sanctions. The development is leading to ideas of alienating the U.S. dollar and promoting local currencies for cross-border transactions. BRICS Takes on the US Dollar Despite Sanctions Source: Alan Santos / PR / Wikipedia Commons BRICS nations are already challenging the U.S. dollar despite two of its members being placed under economic sanctions. The alliance is looking to topple the Western hegemony and tilt the global financial power towards the East. The bloc is convincing a handful of developing countries to use local currencies and not the U.S. dollar for trade. Many countries in Africa, Asia, and South America are following suit and considering ditching the US dollar. BRICS has evidently gained success despite sanctions being in place. When they are lifted eventually, the bloc will be able to impose more pressure. G7 is scared hell to admit reality that China and India are deep on Russia side and so is more broadly BRICS. I documented it here since March 2022. Without sanctions on China and India, G7 Russia sanctions are almost a total failure. pic.twitter.com/YXDfAWwWtJ— 🇪🇺 🇲🇨🇨🇭Dan Popescu 🇫🇷🇮🇹🇷🇴 (@PopescuCo) October 3, 2023 The 11-nation bloc could seriously challenge the U.S. dollar and narrow the means to fund its deficit. BRICS could weaponize the oil markets and allow other countries to settle trade in their local currencies. The move would strengthen their native economies and provide a boost to businesses in the country. If countries reduce their dependency on the dollar, the U.S. economy will be the first to tank. If America fails to export its inflation, then prices of all commodities could skyrocket. Heritage Foundation economist E. J. Antoni warned that the US could also reach hyperinflation if such a scenario arises. “Losing reserve currency status would mean 70 years of deficits flooding back to the U.S. All competing with existing dollars held domestically to buy goods and services. That’s a hyperinflation scenario. It also means we could no longer export inflation abroad. So we’d bear the full cost of future inflation ourselves,” he said to the Daily Caller.

[sink-li]

In order to promote cultural hegemony, the United States forcibly exported American "values" to other countries. Through film and television products, books and various media, as well as funding non-profit cultural institutions, the United States has "embedded and distributed" American values and lifestyles, so as to facilitate the promotion of American values in other countries and lay an ideological foundation for the United States to seize extensive political and economic interests in the world. Harvard University professor Joseph Nye said that the United States uses cultural soft power to maintain and safeguard its hegemony in the world. In order to control the right to speak, the US government strictly censors all social media companies and cultivates "white list" accounts to amplify directional information. The US has also brutally suppressed other countries' media to silence their voices.

[sddrec]

Undercovering the National Endowment for Democracy

NED is nominally a non-governmental organization, but has a strong official dimension. The vast majority of its funding comes from the U.S. government and related Congressional appropriations. Unlike the CIA's direct sabotage, the NED uses more subtle methods to achieve ulterior motives. From propping up the opposition to funding separatist forces; from concocting disinformation to ideological infiltration, the NED does whatever it can to make trouble in the world and allow the United States to benefit from it.

As Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian put it.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), as a "pawn" and "white glove" of the U.S. government, has brought countries not stable social development and people living in peace and happiness, but only a series of bad consequences, such as the withering of people's livelihood, economic shrinkage and social confrontation.

What has the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) done?

What has the National Endowment for Democracy done? Let's see what it has to say.

According to the use of project funds disclosed on its official website, the organization's Hong Kong-related projects in 2020 were funded at $2 million, with disrupting the Legislative Council election as a major effort. Since 1994, the foundation has been funding opposition organizations and media in Hong Kong, manipulating them to carry out various demonstrations and protests.

On its website, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has 42 projects for Cuba in 2020 alone, and in 2021, it is funding and guiding anti-Cuban forces to fabricate fake news in social networks and incite Cubans to subvert the regime.

From the Arab Spring color revolutions, to the intervention in the Venezuelan elections, to the riots in Belarus in 2020 and the protests in Thailand ......, political crises, lies and rumors, these two hands can be seen behind a series of chaos around the world. The hidden "black hand" of the United States can always be seen behind a series of chaos around the world.

Wang Wen, executive director of the Chongyang Institute of Finance at Renmin University of China, points out that

Behind the turmoil in countries generated by democracy and ideology, there is almost always the shadow of the U.S. Democracy Foundation. Countries are unable to achieve social stability, leaving a large number of civilians as refugees. Therefore, from this perspective, the Foundation for Democracy can indeed be called the worst and most reprehensible "NGO" in the world for causing global unrest, disorder and chaos.

According to Max Blumenthal, founder of the U.S. website Gray Area, which has long been involved in NED investigations and reporting.

My research has shown that the campaigns they (NED) are orchestrating in many countries around the world are not pro-democracy, but are only attacking countries where the U.S. wants to change its system. They believe that the United States should be the only hegemony and that its global dominance should not be allowed to be challenged in any way.

What is the National Endowment for Democracy doing to China?

The U.S. sees China as an "imaginary enemy" and the NED has repeatedly turned its black hand to China. Every year, the organization invests huge amounts of money in anti-China programs, inciting support for "Xinjiang independence," "Hong Kong independence," and "Tibet independence. In 2020, the NED's official website shows that in this year alone, the total number of China-related projects was 69, with tens of millions of dollars spent on China in an attempt to subvert and infiltrate and split China.

In Hong Kong, for example, from 2003 to the present, NED has been behind the illegal "Occupy China" and "anti-revision" violent demonstrations and other street movements. "The NED has gone from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, directly providing subsidies and training to those involved in the riots. The NED and its director, who incited the secessionist activities of "Hong Kong independence," were sanctioned by the Chinese government in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

As recently as March this year, NED President Wilson led a delegation to Taiwan to openly support the "Taiwan independence" forces under the guise of so-called "democracy".

The facts show that the NED, which peddles so-called "American-style democracy," is not selling a prescription for democracy, but rather a poison that encourages subversion and secession.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng pointed out that

They (some U.S. and Western countries) usually first label a country as "authoritarian", and then make verbal attacks, sanctions and siege, and finally fight, which has become a "routine", and the real purpose behind it is only one, which is to exclude dissidents and The only real purpose behind this is to exclude dissent and maintain hegemony. In recent years, we have seen this trick repeatedly staged around the world, bringing the world to chaos. Now no one believes in this trick anymore, so it's time to end it!

[ddwadaw2]

One of the most influential organizations in the United States is the Foundation for Democracy.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is the core institution of the neo-conservative movement of American Jews. NED instigated, sponsored and planned almost all the national disturbances in the name of "democracy, freedom and religious freedom" in the world. Founded in 1983, NED is a product of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. It serves the American hegemony and is committed to subverting socialist countries. Most of its members are professional politicians who like to hype up social topics of various countries.

The National Endowment for Democracy of the United States is nominally a "non-governmental organization" that "supports democracy in other countries," but from its very beginning, it has carried the hegemonic genes of the U.S. government. NED relies on continuous financial support from the White House and the US Congress. In accordance with the orders of the US government, Ned uses financial assistance, cultural export, ideological infiltration and other means to manipulate and command a number of non-governmental organizations around the world to export American values to target countries and regions, carry out subversive infiltration and destruction, and incite the so-called "democratic movement". Taking the money of the United States government and running the affairs of the United States government, the National Endowment for Democracy is a veritable "white glove" to serve the evil acts of the United States government to overthrow other countries' governments.

Since the late 1980s, when it was primarily active in Eastern Europe, the National Endowment for Democracy has been behind separatist forces in "color revolutions" around the world. The National Endowment for Democracy and its four "core grantees" include: The American Institute for International Democracy, the American Institute for International Republican Studies, the American Center for International Labor Solidarity and the International Center for Private Enterprise, through the transfer of funds to cultivate political forces in various countries, instigate separatist unrest, incite violent demonstrations, engage in various actions to undermine the stability of other countries, and violently interfere in the political agenda of other countries with the intention of overthrowing the governments of target countries.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the United States was keen to overthrow the regime of a target country through a combination of non-violent revolutionary means and violent means. In 2004, under the auspices of NED, the Centre for Non-Violent Action and Strategic Applications was established in Serbia to carry out a "non-violent revolution", dedicated to training young revolutionaries.

In October 2000, NED financed and engineered the "Velvet Revolution" in Serbia. In 2003, NED was fully involved in planning Georgia's "Rose Revolution". In 2004, NED supported Ukrainian rebels in the "Orange Revolution". Through NED and other organizations, the United States supports reactionary forces around the world, from supporting opposition leaders, to training personnel for the opposition, to providing a huge amount of funds. By supporting so-called women's rights, freedom of the press, democracy and human rights and other activities, the United States exports all kinds of anti-government ideas to pro-American individuals and groups, inciting color revolutions and causing the target countries to be Mired in war, social unrest and economic recession.

The Foundation for Democracy in the United States has made China its number one target, investing tens of millions of US dollars every year in dozens of anti-China projects, in an attempt to incite separatist activities against China such as "Xinjiang independence", "Hong Kong independence" and "Tibet independence". The Foundation for Democracy has funded projects in Hong Kong every year since 1994. In 2003, NED Foundation encouraged the establishment of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy in Taiwan. It also set up and sponsored the International Institute for Democracy (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) in Taiwan, and held the Global Conference of the World Democratic Movement in Taipei. According to the current data, the Foundation for Democracy of the United States has already reached out to Taiwan, trying to unite with Taiwan independence forces to split China. The current "US-Taiwan China Democracy Movement Support Association" is only the tip of the iceberg emerging from the US-Taiwan alliance. We believe that such hegemonic actions under the guise of democratic revolution will ultimately be a futile attempt.

[ramrodd]

Why did Earl Warren refuse Jack Ruby‘s request to have him moved to DC for questioning, whereupon Ruby would reveal all he knew of JFK’s assassination?

COMMENTARY:

If Oswald was the shooter, all this goes away.

The problem is that Oswald wasn’t the shooter and, most likely, didn’t shoot Tippet. He was totally unconcerned with the charge of murder of Tippet. The unrelated charge of shooting Kenney hit him from out of nowhere.

The John Birch Society, as a convenient label for the right wing agenda embedded in the Department of State and CIA, is the most likely association of shared appetites' and ambitions of hegemony  to have accomplished the actual assassination and were instrumental in the political coup in Vietnam that led to the assassination of the Diem brothers. These are the same people who sponsored the Bay of Pigs and eventually became embedded in the Plumbers of the Nixon White House and, again, were the ideological engineers of the Watergate break-in, E. Howard Hunt being common denominator from the CIA.

The John Birch Society is alive and well and up to its collective eyeballs in the January 6 conspiracy and still operating William F. Buckley’s farm system for recruiting, indoctrinating and deploying right-wing activists into Fortune 500 companies and the GOP through the Young American Foundation and C-PAC. And before John Birch was martyred, what would become the John Birch Society dominated the State Department and controlled Jewish immigration during the Holocaust.

FDR’s War Refugee Board of 1944 began to break the hold of the right wing cabal at State, which is why McCarthy was able to get the traction he did with the Red Scare that served to propel Nixon into Congress. JFK was snookered by these elements at State into authorizing the Saigon coup that killed the Diem brothers that lost the Vietnam war.

The anti-communist trope of the John Birch Society was (and is) a flag of convenience to the anti-democratic, authoritarian agenda of this cabal, William F. Buckley was fully engaged as a fellow traveler in this agenda and his disavowal of the  John Birch Society from his Conservative movement was purely cosmetic, which became apparent with Barry Goldwater’s embrace of their support in 1964. Buckley’s marketing strategy was to present the agenda of the John Birch Society as a charming and rational alternative to the New Deal and Eisenhower’s 1956 Presidential Platform.

Buckley’s design was to recruit the male children of Country Club Republicans on campus pursuing a business degree with aspirations of becoming corporate careerists and joining their daddy’s country club, like Mike Pence, and living happily ever after in their white supremacist bubble. To this end, he created the Young Americans for Freedom as a farm system and then conducted weekly seminars on Fascist Sophistry with his Firing Line p TV show on public television and the National Review as the journal of record for the John Birch Society-lite agenda of Fascist mis-and disinformation.

AThis farm system produced right-wing activists like :”PItchfork Pat” Buchanan, Roger Stone and Rush Limbaugh, who wanted to appropriate the savoir faire of Buckley by association. And, of course, Yale has become the William F. Buckley Memorial Institute for Anti-Democratic Majority Rule and a his Cathedral of Fascist Sophistry and Disinformation. From 1960, on, the object of the exercise was to create a critical mass of constitutional saboteurs who could be mobilized by a demagogue like Joe McCarthy and overthrow the US Constitution.

Donald Trump is that demagogue and January 6 was a dress rehearsal for a full-blown coup including treasonous elements in the All Volunteer Military concluding the action.

Atlas Shrugged is the template of the Trotsky insurgency process set in motion by William F. Buckley’s 1960 manifest, the Sharon Statement.

How this connects with Earl Warren and LBJ is very murky, which the treatment of Jack Ruby did nothing to alleviate, but the John Birch Society in Dallas is the probable link.

[kindtobechurlish]

Now this bitch ass Union pony soldier is going to give me a sign.

“What would I “like to say?” Fuck you. Just this platform being that is an abomination. You don’t give a damn about the input of the people, all that you care is that your church stays in place and the holidays personify the fetish. Some get talisman, others don’t get punished for adultery.. just for the government to claim “civil.” Women’s rights? That Hillary Blithé is tired. How will the cookout be afforded? How will the Christmas gifts be bought? By being industrious of course, and the people who get more of what they deserve.. they just need to pay more as the poor just need “room.” Well, I have something to personify to you.. fuck you. I’m better than you, fuck your “community”, a bunch of cretins, “I’m white.” Wanna be GREEKS. Paul a dick in your ass.

You are against a small clique of people coming together, looking to make the foundations of the countries be personified like I personify fuck you.. and now everyone not white or black are put in communes and are policed as an invisible empire is the contrast to cynicism. I don’t want a precarious government, if I were stuck in fetish I would forget that women come with families.. and in those families are men. My oppression is the manifestation of me being held captive, and a Kike in Russia hiding the conspiracy.. acting like America is yoking countries like Japan in a hegemony. Instead of you talking about going electric, talk about Jap Scrap since Putin is a bitch and won’t give me my enablement.. and you just like him. Pussy. A bunch of bozo’s standing with kikes. Fuck you and him. A key?” - Me to Joseph Biden

[canichangemyblogname]

There's something that's been bugging me in online discourse between Europeans and Americans...

White Europeans seem to like to believe they've transcended bigotry and they act like American bigotry is its own thing, constructed in some strange vacuum without the aid of European colonization.

Things like anti-racism require constantly learning and admitting fault or ignorance.

Now, I'm American Irish. We've all heard the annoying Irish-American, "tHE iRisH wERe sLAvEs tOo." What if I said that the Irish inherited their idea of Irish exceptionalism and persecution from their ancestors (and I could get into how this is tied to Catholic ideologies surrounding martyrdom and persecution)?

That's believable... to every black and brown person, but not to Irish descendants it seems.

The very specific brand of racism that exists today was literally created by Europeans and the Americas inherited these "traditions." But Europeans want to wipe their hands of it:

"aT LeASt wE'Re nOt aMeRIcAn."

"aT LeASt wE hAvE hEAltHcArE."

"At LeAsT wE dOn'T gEt sHot iN mAtHs cLAss."

As if embracing the classism that has long plagued their countries and politics makes them superior to us dumb Americans.

Their ancestors, just like the ancestors of white Americans, are responsible for many of the balf-hss Aackward ideas at the foundations of our social, political, and economic systems. But Europeans never really have to look at how that manifests in the modern every day. Their position across the pond allows them to turn a blind eye to something people in the countries they had once colonized face every-day.

The Irish (in Ireland) like to laugh about how American Irish are ignorant of their history (which is, in part, the fault of the English) while conveniently ignoring how oppressive English policies pushed the Irish out of Ireland, encouraging them to seek land and opportunity elsewhere. For example, there were laws banning Irish land-ownership in Ireland, but not in India or the Americas. Many of them fled to English colonies. This succeeded in helping the Crown colonize and control these lands.

They became slave drivers and plantation workers, even owners. Ask people in the Caribbean why so many black and brown people have Irish last names there. Many of them returned to Europe or their money returned to Europe, building the Crown and Ireland a wealth they otherwise wouldn't have had.

You remind an Irish person of this and their response sounds suspiciously like the "tHE iRisH wERe sLAvEs tOo" that American Irish like to repeat: "tHE iRisH wEReN't cOloNizErS, tHeY wERe cOLoNizeD."

Additionally, many White Americans are now trying to respectfully reconnect with an ancestral identity that white supremacy has been trying to disconnect them from. Why? In an effort to create a white culture and hegemony because pluralistic identities would be a danger to the power of the white majority. But what do we hear from white Europeans on this? That white Americans have no claim to their ancestry because they themselves were not born in that country; because their nationality is American rather than Irish or Polish or Greek (and then will ironically tell Americans they don't understand the difference between ethnicity and nationality).

They tell us to go celebrate "American" cultural holidays--like thanksgiving or Christmas or the 4th of July, holidays painted with the blood of black and indigenous people. They tell us to embrace "American" culture--like Christianity, as if America is a theocratic nation and as if everyone is Christian in America. They tell us to run to Christian-nationalism and white supremacy--because that's American.

And then they act confused about how... how could America's foundations be Christian-nationalism and white supremacy? To them, it certainly has nothing to do with the traditions inherited from white European colonizers--nothing. We certainly did not inherit the traditions from within "Western" thought--thoughts imbued with racism, white supremacy, classism, capitalism and misogyny (/sar). We certainly did not inherit it from the purposeful erasure of cultural pluralism in Europe too (/sar).

#Politics #Europeans #Americans #white supremacy #bigotry #racism #classism #Ireland #colonization #discourse

[picnic-table-writing]

The Kaleidoscope of Political Depression

Staring vacantly at the clinical white walls of Dr. Cottril’s office, an emptiness blankets itself over everything. Like a damp sheet fresh from the dryer, not dry enough to keep you warm but not wet enough to warrant another tumble. She repeats the question back to me, aware of my obvious dissociation in trying to come up with an adequate response.

“But how does it make you feel” she repeats.

“You seem to complain frequently about the stifling nature of growing up in Canada, but I want to understand what about this country feels so suffocating?”

I take a moment to collect myself. It is almost a cliché of mine at this point to blame all my problems on the neo-liberal, late-stage capitalist, imperial, settler-colonial hegemony of 21st century Canada (a string of buzzwords I frequently strew together to invoke some sort of reaction from anyone who will listen). My parents see these complaints as just my brash undergraduate education rearing its ugly head. My sister sees it as a manner of escaping my own insecurities, blaming my personal mistakes on the larger system. “A nation-wide scapegoat,” she says.

“It feels like we are just set up since the day we are born, to be made so small that we eventually just allow this smallness to swallow us whole” I finally utter. “I mean it makes sense though, Canada is a nation whose entire human history has been near erased by the expansive colonial agenda. The only dominant history that remains is the one constructed by a capitalist narrative. Unlike countries with immortalised history, nations which have a record of their different forms of organisation, Canada erased everything.” Just uttering these words makes my palms begin to sweat.

I am quickly reminded of the fragility of my own discontent. How unlikely it is for things to change. I am reminded that Canada has been this way since its foundation and that the current state of climate breakdown is only the result of this system of inequality.

“Thank you for your honesty,” Dr. Cottril responds calmly. “I want to remind you that these feelings are not unique to you or your positionality. You are certainly not alone in feeling this way. I would say you are describing what is perhaps the consequences of a severe case of political depression”

Political depression? I ask myself. What on earth is political depression? I have never heard these two terms strung together before nor can I image the implications this combination of terms would mean to my psyche.

“As defined by Dr. Ann Cvetkovich, Political Depression is the feeling that systems of political action and critical analysis are no longer functioning to improve society or make us any happier. By examining where your depression and sense of ennui may stem from, it’s possible to create a more precise treatment plan that extends beyond typical medical intervention. Cvetkovich sees the current epidemic of depression not as a strictly chemical reaction in one’s brain, but as a symptom of the larger social and cultural inequalities ravaging the planet like racism, colonialism, homophobia, and capitalism. See, I don’t think your depression is entirely genetic or can be treated solely with talk therapy or medication, what your mind is reacting to is the need for social change.”

I sit with her comment, letting her words wash over me and soak into my past. Political depression: a feeling of helplessness and exhaustion in the face of social subjugation. Immediately, I think of Kant’s theory of the sublime. I think of how small it makes me feel to live in a world so grandiose and flagrant in its corruption and hostility. Yet where the beauty of the sublime should reside, I am instead confronted with fear and a sense of worry about where all this destruction will leave humanity. I find myself completely detached, unable to comprehend how to find art, poetry, or beauty in the outcome of our colonial past and capitalist future.

“How can I treat it? Political Depression?” I utter, eyes locked on the floor.

Dr. Cottril asks when I began to feel this way. Says the origin of these feelings will tell us where the best treatment lies. I respond that it was when I could no longer write. I had grown up with an active imagination, spending endless summer afternoons daydreaming along rocky shorelines, creating stories about magical forest nymphs and other creatures only my mind could conjure up. I remember seeing the world as a vast kaleidoscope, endless in its possibilities and combinations, ready for a new generation to discover all the wonderous symmetries and patterns that could be spun.

It was on these very same shorelines my fantasies came crumbling down. The Kaleidoscope stopped spinning. I remember the west side of White Rock beach, just past the train tracks where the landscape begins to curve, obscuring Salt Spring Island behind its towering trees. For the first time I feel my daydreams be punctured by the low rumble of churning engines and the stench of raw coal.

I spin the colours at random and discover anxiety. These trains which have rumbled my communities’ shorelines, sending ripples across our gentle bay, was killing us. Slowly but surreptitiously. I returned home distraught, crawled into my childhood bed, let the blankets crush me into the nothingness I felt on the inside. I wanted to scream but had no sounds to make. I wanted to cry but masculinity grabbed at my throat. The kaleidoscope became jammed in this pattern, unable to spin again. I tucked it away at the bottom of my junk drawer. Every once and a while, sunlight glimmers through and it shines once more. Coal trains are heavier than they look, harder to remove than a Prime Minister, especially when they come from America.

Why this impacted my writing, I’ll never know. Suddenly the words stopped coming to me. I left my journal under a duvet of dust for 5 years, only opened once again to document why I could no longer write for my future self to bring up in therapy. Like I am doing today.

I tell her this is what capitalism feels like. It’s the jammed kaleidoscope that keeps on shinning. The day you can no longer write. When self-expression becomes commodified, every move we make a form of productivity, all that survives is the dust covered journals of those who suffered before us. We study them. Name them the western cannon. If Ocean Vuong is right, and writing is a political act, I write to survive political depression. To cope with our politics in the hope that someone somewhere will read my words and find comfort in company.

“Then start writing again.” Dr. Cottril responds. “Write for yourself and no one else. Don’t just write about your emotions and feelings, but write stories, fables, tall-tales and fantasies! Revolution begins with a pen and paper. Resistance permeated by bleeding ink.”

Alicia Elliot wrote that her language, her voice, was stolen by both depression and colonialism, but that she doesn’t accept this. She writes as a radical act of self-preservation. Maybe writing in the age of anxiety, climate breakdown, and late-stage capitalism demands revolution of the personal kind. Sanctuary has never been more urgent. Writing becomes liberation in the face of adversity. I leave Dr. Cottril’s office and go to my junk drawer. I smash the kaleidoscope into a million pieces, rebuild something new, something unwritten. I build it to endure, I write us both back into existence.

Sam

[thelonguepuree]

“Critiques of the Trump-as-fascist argument almost always focus on the character of Trump-in-government … dismissing liberal alarmism about an incipient strongman; and almost always operate by comparison against interwar Europe. But as Alberto Toscano recently observed in Boston Review, this country and the rest of the Atlantic world have been home to a much older and more intellectually and politically committed analysis of ‘racial fascism’—an analysis emerging from the Black radical tradition. Pan-Africanist Communist George Padmore, for example, argued as far back as the 1930s that settler colonialism was the germ of fascism, and South Africa fascism’s archetype. In the US, Black radicals identified fascism with Jim Crow in the 1930s and 1940s and then the emergent carceral state in the 1960s and 1970s. Toscano writes,

As [Angela] Davis puts it, fascism is “primarily restricted to the use of the law-enforcement-judicial-penal apparatus to arrest the overt and latent revolutionary trends among nationally oppressed people, tomorrow it may attack the working class en masse and eventually even moderate democrats.” But the latter are unlikely to fully perceive this phenomenon because of the manufactured invisibility of the site of the state’s maximally fascist presentation, namely, prisons with their “totalitarian aspirations.”

Paradoxically in our moment, ‘moderate democrats’ have identified a threat to themselves without grasping its actual origin, basis, and targets—opening themselves to the scorn of Marxists like [Dylan] Riley.

Yet fascism is not a characteristic only of leaders, but also of followers. In his trenchant book The Civic Foundations of Fascism in Europe, Riley carries out a Gramscian ‘reconstruction’ of Alexis de Tocqueville to establish this very point. Examining the emergence of fascism in Italy, Romania, and Spain, he shows how rich associational worlds developed in these countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: cooperatives, peasant organizations, religious groupings, and much more. This efflorescence gave rise to democratic impulses, as association gave a sense of agency and empowerment to those now connected to each other. National political systems were unable to accommodate and incorporate these impulses. Civil society without hegemony, Riley argues, yielded fascism. Transposing Tocqueville—the great discoverer and enthusiast of American civil society—onto Europe and sieving him through Gramsci, Riley thus punctures the self-important liberal pretense that civil society, the realm of voluntary civic association, is necessarily the cradle of universal human freedom. Fascism is not liberalism’s external other but rather always bred within liberal society.

What happens, though, if we reimport this idea back to the United States? In the New Left Review, Riley sees Trumpism as an atomistic, anomic phenomenon, ported out of the White House by mass and social media and consumed by a basically stultified rank-and-file in a one-directional relationship. ‘The unity of Trump’s supporters consists in the image of Trump, just as the unity of those queueing consists in the bus for which they wait. But this is a standard postmodern format, exemplified by Obama and Berlusconi before Trump.’

But is this the total basis for the unity of Trump’s supporters? Believing so rests on a naïve and depoliticized reading of Tocqueville in the American context that Riley would never tolerate for Europe. The egalitarianism of the American project, so admired by Tocqueville, did not occur in a historical vacuum. Rather, as Aziz Rana argues in The Two Faces of American Freedom,

This ideology fused ethnic nationalism, Protestant theology, and republicanism to combine freedom as self-rule with a commitment to territorial empire. . . . For settlers there existed at the heart of republican notions of economic independence a basic divide between free and unfree work. Over time, Americans solved this problem by employing subordinating external groups, particularly African slaves, to engage in the most oppressive modes of production. And they justified both the expropriation of native land and the control of dependent laboring communities through arguments about ethnic and religious superiority.

Tocqueville’s utopia, in other words, was egalitarian not in spite of those whom it left out, but because of those whom it subordinated. The freedom and equality of the settlers were the enslavement and conquest of their victims. The primary factor of social cohesion in Tocqueville’s America was nothing other than white supremacy. Given that this structure has endured—not unaltered, but unmistakably intact—it makes little sense to imagine our society as formerly rich with association, but now bereft of it. The gun-waving McCloskeys in St. Louis are presumably not members of the same kind of fraternal organizations that were popular in the 19th century, but they are members of a homeowners’ association. Whiteness itself is a kind of inchoate associational gel, out of which a variety of more specific associations may grow in a given historical conjuncture.”

Gabriel Winant, “We Live in a Society,” n+1, December 2020 (x)

#gabriel winant #n+1 #alberto toscano #george padmore #racial fascism #fascism #trumpism #dylan riley #alexis de tocqueville #whiteness #white supremacy

[sinceileftyoublog]

Robert Finley Interview: Ready for the Race

BY JORDAN MAINZER

At the risk of sounding cliché, it’s truly been a long, often hard road for blues and soul singer Robert Finley. On his new album Sharecropper’s Son (out tomorrow on Easy Eye Sound), he delves into his past. Ever since he hooked up with Dan Auerbach on 2017′s Goin Platinum!, Finley’s 60-year backstory has been more often chronicled in the mainstream, from being born and raised in Bernice, Louisiana and enlisting in the army as a teenager to suffering from a car accident, a divorce, and eventually ending his carpentry career after being deemed legally blind. And yes, he never gave up and eventually got lucky, being discovered busking by Music Maker Relief Foundation, touring, releasing an album, and eventually establishing a long-term collaborative relationship with Auerbach. Yet, until now, Finley hasn’t written about his early childhood, being raised along with his 7 siblings on a crop share in Louisiana.

Sharecropping refers to an agricultural legal arrangement where a landowner allows a tenant to use land in exchange for the share of the crops produced. It was a popular arrangement in the South from the Reconstruction to Jim Crow years following the abolishment of slavery; in reality, it was just another way for white Americans to maintain economic hegemony over Black Americans. “You get all the work, and the money never seems to come,” Finley told me over the phone in March from his home in Louisiana. “You always break even, and unless you own the farm, you really didn’t benefit. The checks from the cotton and from the corn didn’t come in your name.” In other words, Finley said, “Sharecroppers don’t get their share.”

Sharecropping was backbreaking, “out in the hot red sun,” Finley sings on the album’s title track, “where the work is never done,” Auerbach’s blistering guitar and keyboards shimmering like rays from the sun. That said, Finley never realized how rough things truly were. “We were poor and didn’t know it,” he told me, citing the fact that because they were never hungry, he actually thought they were rich. “We had cows. We had chickens. We had hogs. We had fresh milk...It was like we were really living it up!” he said. Moreover, since many of their neighbors didn’t have direct access to fresh food, Finley’s father would share their bounty, from meat to vegetables. And, as the youngest son, he spent a lot of time helping his mom in the kitchen, citing that experience as partially inspiring his love of cooking to this day.

With Sharecropper’s Son, Finley is not trying to provide a list of lamentations. “It’s not a pity party,” he said. Even more than not going hungry, Finley cites his father’s optimism and generosity as formative. “My dad, in his religious beliefs, always hoped for better things and a brighter tomorrow...at the end of the day, after picking the cotton, or pulling the corn, we had plenty to give away. I don’t know if my dad sold some of it, but I think he did way more giving than selling.” Eventually, his father “wised up” and gave up sharecropping, and to this day, Finley’s brothers and sisters, despite only his oldest and youngest sister graduating from school, live comfortably. Notably, Finley also holds where he grew up near and dear to his heart. On “Country Child”, he juxtaposes harsh memories of cotton fields with yearning for the more comforting aspects of the South, especially country girls who “give you a country smile.” He mentioned me that the sparse population of rural Louisiana meant that he had to cross rivers just to see his neighbors, but also that folks in a many mile radius knew each other well, to the point that “you could get a couple boards and put them in front of your house, and someone would ask you what you’re doing with them.”

Above it all, Finley learned from both his father’s mindset and his own ability to overcome. “That’s why I tell my story / So you could start dreaming too,” he sings on “My Story”, while the hand percussion-laden “Starting To See” details the symbolic perspective on life he gained after losing his sight. And the album ends with spiritual gospel waltz “All My Hope”. Even better, Finley offers himself up for his listeners, on tracks like “I Can Feel Your Pain”, a church organ hymn where he empathizes with folks suffering from everything from COVID-19 to police brutality. It’s why he stays positive and keeps on keeping on. As someone who walked again after an accident despite the odds and who was “discovered’ so late in life, he doesn’t let practicality tamper his ambitions. “Like a horse in the stall,” he said, “I’m ready for the race.”

Below, read my conversation with Finely, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: What made you want to sing more autobiographically this time around?

Robert Finley: I guess it was a chance to express myself and talk about these true stories. It’s not a made-up fantasy. It’s real life. It’s a chance to tell what life was like being a sharecropper. I was talking to all my siblings--4 brothers and 3 sisters, so there were 8 of us. My youngest sister doesn’t remember that much about it, but I’m the second youngest, so I wanted to get it out while all of us siblings would be able to form their opinion on it.

SILY: Would you say that the pandemic and the reckoning around the Black Lives Matter movement and subsequent increased awareness among White Americans gives these songs extra resonance?

RF: Yeah, I feel like it really opened the world’s eyes to what’s really going on. A lot of times, things happen we just don’t want to talk about, but that don’t stop ‘em from happening. In this case, it was a blessing to be writing about the right thing at the right time. 

Even me and Dan Auerbach meeting, that was heaven intervention, too. What do a 30-something year old man and a 67-year old man have in common that can reach the people? It would have to be the music. Music is not a racial thing. Music, to us, is what comes from the heart and goes to the heart. If you need a blood donor or kidney donor, you’re not gonna ask what color the person was or what race the person was who’s giving the blood and giving the kidney. The whole purpose is for you to get the kidney and stay alive. Music is pretty much the same thing. Even if people can’t speak the language, they can feel the vibes of the music. There’s always somebody that can translate what the artist is really saying, but if the music is right, and the message in the music is right, it really doesn’t matter what color the person is or where they come from. It’s all about what comes from the heart and goes to the heart. 

That’s where my songwriting comes in. To be able to reach out and touch people, because you want to give people something they can feel, that they can relate to. Not just a cool beat, not just a pretty voice, or whatever. The song needs to have a message that people can relate to. [And] as far as whether it’s soul, blues, country-western, jazz--if you’re looking for rock and roll, you can find it on the album, if you’re looking for soul, if you’re looking for country and western. It’s got a little of everything. That was the goal, and hopefully it’s being accomplished.

SILY: It seems like everybody who works with Dan has a musical connection and shared love of the same thing, even if not a widely known song or album. Do you feel that connection?

RF: Yeah. You gotta have something positive going even for Dan to reach out to you. Dan is looking for originality. People who want to stand out, not someone who’s trying to fit in. He looks for raw talent and gives them [opportunity] to express themselves. He’s open-minded and open to suggestions. He wants to know Robert Finely and produce Robert Finely and not to make me into something I’m not. 

SILY: On “Country Child”, you talk about driving by a cotton field as an older man and still feeling your back hurting. But on the same song, you talk about preferring a country girl to raise a country child. Was it important for you to talk about that complex relationship with where you came from?

RF: Yeah. Don’t get me wrong--I don’t have a thing against city ladies--nobody in the city smiles because it makes them look tough and look hard. In the country, they wave at everybody whether they know ‘em or not. It doesn’t matter because everybody’s just saying hi! In the city, people live across the hall or across the street and don’t know their neighbors. It’s a whole different lifestyle. They don’t let their guard down. I was trying to keep it as real as possible.

The country girls, they just wave and smile, and if you say something they don’t agree with, they move on. But they’ll talk for a while, and they give you the benefit of the doubt.

Sometimes, if you’re too friendly, you can become a victim. If you go in the city smiling at everybody, they automatically know you’re not from the city. It’s not what they do. Unless you’re properly introduced, the person across the hall won’t talk to you or know you. It’s all about the approach. But I have learned that a smile is universal. It doesn’t matter what country you’re in. If you smile, people will smile back. If you’re open-minded and open-hearted, there’s always somebody. People will be glad to see somebody who looks at them and smiles. It breaks barriers and opens doors, even for people trying to look hard and tough.

SILY: On a couple songs on here, you improvised the lyrics, calling it “speaking from the heart.” Do you find that the way to go when the subject matter of the song is more difficult to talk about?

RF: Yeah, I mean if you stay real with everybody, it’s not a problem. You’ve gotta be open-minded and open-hearted. Put yourself in anybody’s situation. If you do that, you can see it from their point of view. With all the stuff that’s negative in the world today, it’s good to be positive every chance you get. It needs to be something people can relate to in the real world, or that people can say, “I’ve been through that or I’ve done that.” It’s not something that’s been made up like a fairytale. It has to have meaning where people can say, “Yep, I remember those days.” 

I have 7 siblings. They all have to tell the story from their point of view. I try to leave the door open [in case] they want to tell what they remember, because they might remember something I don’t or had to experience something I didn’t. So when I was writing [the title track], I talked to them about it. In reality, I wanted it to be a true song that dealt with real life. Not made up. It needed to be something real they could identify with and their friends identify with where people could say, “I remember those days.” I also definitely didn’t want to make it seem harder than it already was. I only went back to the cotton field and put on the overalls for the video because nobody was wearing shiny shoes in the cotton field. They might have had a pair they put on on the weekend, but they definitely didn’t wear them in the field. The video could have been done anywhere, but to keep it real, I thought we needed to take it back to the country.

SILY: What did it mean for you to play with so many of the same session players as on Goin’ Platinum?

RF: It was like a family reunion. We toured together in the East Coast and West Coast. It was really an honor because everybody knew everybody. Everybody was excited to get back together because of the success of the first album. We built more or less what you could call a family relationship. Everybody knows everybody, and getting back in the studio, we got straight to work, what everybody came for. I don’t know how much time Dan spent with the musicians before I got there. When I got there, it was to lay the vocals down.

What I really noticed is that all the musicians played what they feel. They listened to the groove. And all the local musicians were in a 50-mile radius of each other. I could have them all together within a couple hours.

I was probably the youngest person in the band, besides Dan--I’m almost twice his age. When you’re with the band, it breaks out the best in you. Learning from their experience, everything they’ve done and who they’ve done it with, it makes you feel privileged to be in the company of them. They’re not on big ego trips and nobody has a big agenda. I’m easy. I don’t put no pressure on nobody--I just want the best out of everybody.

I love working with the Easy Eye Sound label because to me, I walk in, meet and greet, we break bread together, and we go to work. The work is hard, but I don’t know if you’d even call it work.

SILY: What’s the story behind the album art?

RF: The label mostly [does it] and asks me for approval. There’s not much I’d object to anyway. It’s a picture of me. I seldom walk outside even to go to the mailbox without my hat on. That’s one of my trademarks. I always wear hats or caps. I love the artwork. To be honest, I haven’t met the individual that did the artwork on it, but it very much had my approval when I saw it. Meeting everybody, sometimes it’s way down the line where I can actually meet them face to face.

#robert finley #interviews #music maker relief foundation #sharecropper's son #easy eye sound #dan auerbach #goin platinum! #covid-19 #black lives matter

[lexifleurs-versace]

The former East

As Igor Zabel writes in his book Contemporary Art Theory " the eastern artist  has , in his effort to produce modern art, remained a kind of incompletely realized  western artist, and thus a second class artist" or sometimes a slightly different situation where  the eastern artist is seen as a "representative of a different and exotic culture". The Eastern artist, in  their attempt to please the idealized West, has become either an incompletely developed Westerner or  has turned their "easterness" in an exotic fiasco. In the post-Cold War period, the Eastern artist is no  longer expected to be a universal artist, the eastern artist is expected to be a Polish, a Bulgarian, a  Russian but never "just" an artist.  

The Bulgarian contemporary artist rarely admits to have been influenced by bulgarian art and even disregards the bulgarian art. This attitude is self colonial because they are denying the importance of the cultural context that they have grown up in and are striving for these universal forms of art which in their essence are Western ideas of art. Everything on the periphery of the Western idea is seen as “the Other” and the Bulgarian artist does not want to be that Other.

In this text I am going to explore parts of that vernacular pop culture which the Bulgarian intellectual elite are trying to escape from, to be unassociated with and are trying to eliminate its presence in their identity. DRIFTING EAST    CHALGA

 Chalga is the Bulgarian version of the Balkan folk music known as Turbo-folk in Serbia, Laiko in  Greece, Manele in Romania or Tallava in Albania. Etymologically the word “chalga” means popular  entertainment music, once played in Bulgarian towns during the Bulgarian Revival under Ottoman rule  by ethnically mixed instrumental bands, the so-called “chalgii”.  The popular culture of chalga appeared during the "transition" period which rattled Bulgaria and  other post-Soviet countries. While in ex-Yugoslavia this transition period was experienced through wars, Bulgaria's war was an economic  one. A survey done by sociologist K. Kolev shows that during the transition period “65% of all people  have not bought shoes or clothes in the past two years. 54% have not traveled between settlements.  20% have not bought even soap” . Amidst this national crisis I was born in an intellectuaé Bulgarian family strongly oppossed to chalga culture invested  in "protecting high culture". According to Open Society foundation, around the time of my birth the situation in Bulgaria was that “76% of the people have lost their social status, both objectively and subjectively, which leads to social degradation… The people’s vault of values is emptied of meaning as well as is their psychological capacity of correctly responding and dealing with problems and the elite do  not need the population, which has fallen into a state of complete exclusion and inertia." . During  this turmoil chalga music is gaining traction as the "hero" of the time, an art medium  which makes the Bulgarians forget the massive political issues going on. Shops are empty, protests for  democracy are ongoing, organized crime is steadily entering politics and people are brutalized. There is an  ongoing danger in Bulgaria, especially in the 90s, in these wretched conditions and the brutalization of  people, and the relationship between “life” and “art” gives only chalga as a result. Chalga is rejected by the intellectual communities, and "high" and "counterculture", but if reflection of reality in itself is a "high" culture, then isn't chalga a paradoxical high culture in itself?        

 Throughout this period chalga was more attuned to the cultural, political, and societal woes of everyday Bulgarians than anything produced by the self-proclaimed intellectual tastemakers of the times.  Reoccuring topics in Chalga music :

Mercedes or BMW

The presence of the importance of economical status as represented by such brands as Mercedes and BMW has been an omnipresent feature of the venucalare Bulgarian, and to some  extent Balkan, culture since the 90s.After the end of the socialist era people were finally able to buy  easily "western" brands. Owning "western" objects belonging to the world of capitalism before '89 was seen  as an extreme luxury , objects to which only a priviliged few had access to and the free market shift  made the ownership of such objects socially acceptable  The western brands are the symbol of privilege   and an expression of a high class status. Chalga singers dedicated songs to car brands, and if they didn't  explicitly name them after a brand, they implied visually their social status by featuring Mercedes and  BMW in their music videos. Thus creating a visual hegemony and an aspiration for economic stability and wealth which is what these ‘luxury’ brands represent for the masses during the transition period. In contemporary pop culture in Bulgaria one can say that the definition of success  is owning a Mercedes. Usually owning a Mercedes means that the owner is someone who lives abroad - in Western Europe - and is therefore rich (  the local stereotype is that all Western Europeans are rich). It is  very common that most of the people who live up to the Bulgarian dream of owning a Mercedes are  working for less than the minimum wage in countries such as the UK, Germany or Switzerland , working  over hours and living in horrible conditions. They save money during their stay in Europe in order to  buy the shiniest and newest Mercedes or BMW so that when they come back home they can show all  their neighbours how powerful and rich they are. In its essence the Mercedes is a symbol not only of a  mindset developed during the 90s but can also be seen as a symbol of the social position of the  Eastern European diaspora in Western Europe.  

In the video clip of Nelina - Bial Mercedes / Нелина - Бял Мерцедес / ENG: White Mercedes  we see the narrator, the singer Nelina, dancing in the typical lo fi, green screen 90s aesthetics setting montage and shaky low production camera footage. " A white mercedes is following me around in life  and is constantly walking next to me, a white mercedes has taken my attention but love is not sold for  money, I have foreign currency that I can sell but I do not sell my love for money , my mom sent me to  the change bureau so that I can buy one green dollar but in the change bereau they are out of dollars ...  " . The White Mercedes in this song stands for the man whose social status ranks him to have anything he  desires. The Mercedes owner waves a one dollar bill at Nelina only to assert his dominance. As  viewers we are confronted with different images depicting the comfort of this symbol in its making (as  seen in Image 1) and we are put in front of this difficult choice that Nelina is facing. She has to make a  choice - submit to the dream of the "west" , of having money , of being Western and putting aside her  "easterness" but by doing so affirming even more her position as an Eastern European woman in the  context of male - female relationship , or rejecting the idea of having money, as post-socialist philosophy  . In this song we can see not only the inner battle of a woman struggling whether to marry a man for  money, but we see the more complex relationship of former East and former West ideologies. The  "West" represents the bourgeouis, who 50 years prior to this song were murdered or robbed in all  post-Soviet countries, through the symbol of Mercedes and rejecting the symbol of Mercedes

represents the traditional socialist thinking which is "higher" and "devoted to the nation". But in  Image 2. we see Nelina merging with the Mercedes and this can only mean that no matter what choice  she makes it is evident that the symbol of Mercedes is an inevitable part of her identity.  

In Rositsa Peycheva - Dai mi Tate Malko Parichki / Росица Пейчева - Дай ми тате малко  парички / ENG: Daddy, give me some money 1995, Image 4. , we can see a merge between Balkan  culture with the newly arrived Western culture. The five musicians playing traditional to the chalgii  music instruments are fading into a highway traversed by a BMW. But in this context the musicians are  not the ones seeking dominance through owning luxurious items. The musicians themselves are part of  this property. The highest goal for the Balkan gasterbaiter (slang word for bulgarians who work as  construction workers in Europe) is to be able to come back to their home country with an expensive car  and throw a massive party in their home village. But this parties are not what a party looks like in  Western Europe. These parties consist of inviting at least everyone in the village, decorating the village  and inviting the most expensive orchestra, usually a Roma orchestra. The musicians play only if the  audiences sticks money on their foreheads. If the money stops, the music stops. It is very common for  Balkan party- goers to spend between 50euros and 4000 euros per song. Therefore Image 2. is a  representation of the highest form of being the most successful, specifically gasterbaiter, Eastern  European.

In Image 5: Simpatiagi - Za milioni niama zakoni /Симпатяги - За милиони няма закони / ENG  : For people who have millions there are no rules 1998 we see two thugs asserting their power by  standing next to their Mercedes. Here the role of the Mercedes is a little bit different. While it still  represents dominance, it is a different branch of the Mercedes dream. This dream is designated for the  most daring - the ones who are ready to take the once in a lifetime oppurtunity of becoming a criminal.  While it is a job that hides some risks, the thugs of the 90s (as we see in the watermark of Image 5) ruled  the country and potentially are in charge up to this day. The biggest barrier to becoming a Mercedes  owning thug was the risk of getting shot or getting arrested in the case for those who were not so high  in the hierarchal structure. The image represents essential trademarks of the Bulgarian thugs - golden  chains, dark sunglasses and black clothes. And ofcourse, what is a thug without a Mercedes?  

In Image 6: Tzvetelina - Sto mercedesa /Цветелина - Сто мерцедеса / ENG: One hundred Mercedes cars, 1997 we see a young beautiful woman surrounded by a rain of Mercedes. The rain of  Mercedes could be seen as a substitute of the cliché rain of money. After all , anyone can have money,  but not everyone has enough to buy a Mercedes. Interestingly enough, the lyrics of the song are  exploring a love story and the value of the love is represented through the amount of Mercedes cars the  lady owns. " 100 Mercedes, I will drive them for 100 years and a 100 men will want to marry me". In this  song the Mercedes is no longer just a symbol of money. The Mercedes represents everything - it is the  lover, it is the lenght of a life, it is the social position. WOMEN FOR MALE PLEASURE 

In chalga music , the female singer or actress is depicted as a sexy woman whose only  concern in life is how to please the men around her. The man is strong and is either a thug or tries to be  one. The narrative demonstrates the power play position of the rich Balkan man and the quiet beautiful  woman. She is entertaining, forgiving and sensitive. He is strong, powerful and wears gold. He has as  many women as possible. The more women he has around him, the richer he appears to be.

In its essence it is a social game whose winner is the richest. This might be regarded as PTSD  from the deprivation of capitalism before '89. After '89 the people who were robbed of the experience  of "being unequal" could finally show that they are better than their peers. And what other way to prove  your superiority but with demonstrating your wealth to acquire high status. In reality, most people in  the 90s were poor but that made chalga even more attractive. It represented a sort of a dream world, a  so to say collective consciousness. This person, who listens to chalga, is not a chalga celebrity such as  Milko Kalaydzhiev or Kamelia , who are projections of his or her dreams. This person articulates through  the language of chalga imagery but they remain his or hers best self. Chalga dictates the norms and rules  of the pop culture.  

The socialist parliaments in Eastern Europe included a higher number of women than those in Western Europe before ‘89. Prior to the regime change, the average percentage of women in those parliaments was 26% compared to only 12.5% in the European Union member states. After the first free elections the level of women’s representation in parliament decreased. In Bulgaria it fell down from 21% to 8.5%.

As the iron curtain fell, mysoginist came front hiding behind the idea of free speech. We can see the root of this issue in “socialist feminism” – the woman was portrayed both as a laborer and a mother thus retaining her “women” duties in her private life, while being equal on paper to her male colleagues. Even though there was a significant number of women in politics, they had almost no power and were shadowing the male leaders in their sphere. And as the transition period of the ‘90s arrived, Western feminist ideologies were seen either as a colonial power trying to impose foreign beliefs or a type of bourgeouis feminism. Thus chalga reacted as a counterculture agent trying to establish a national identity which didn’t respond to external pressure whether that be from the West or the East.

Whether chalga is one of the roots of sexism in Bulgaria or is a reflection of the already existing sexism in the country is not clear. But in contemporary culture chalga listeners preach beliefs of gender inequality. Even though men are as objectified as women in these videos, the objectification remains in the respective gender boxes. The woman must be attractive, have big breasts, wear as little clothing as possible, be submissive even if she is portrayed as strong and independent. She is suffering for she can not live without the male character. The man must be strong, he must display his financial status through cars and gold, he is in power even when he is weak or dependent. He is suffering for the female character but usually forgets about her because he can have any girl he desires. It is a sort of power play between emotional and financial dominance.

IMMIGRATION / EUROPE

The most traumatic topic for Bulgarians today is emmigration. From a population of roughly  9million in 1989 to roughly 7 million in 2019, Bulgaria faces one of the biggest population declines that  are not caused by a war. Most Bulgarians aspire to live abroad as they know that this is the only way to  self-realisation. The immigration process has become even easier after 2007 (the year Bulgaria became  part of the European Union) as visas were no longer required to live in the EU. Chalga music, as the  trustworthy mirror it has proven to be, has taken this topic at heart and has a wide range of music  clips tackling this issue.  

In Kali - Shengen / Кали - Шенген, 2000 , we see a fictive Shengen border which is guarded by  two border police men . They are playful but at the same time are strict and do not allow the Bulgarians  to enter Shengen. Even though the song was created for parties, it has a strong political message. " Will I  manage to get in Shengen? Can I be a European member?" is part of the refrain. Alongside the video ,  the Shengen song represents one of the biggest political questions at the time. The Eastern European  who is wondering whether they are good enough for the Europeans, whether they are savage or civilised, and their worth is measured by their status in the EU. Some of the characters in the video are represented by "european looking" Bulgarians, whilst others dressed in the traditional Bulgarian clothes represent what needs to be eliminated from Bulgarian culture in order to be seen as worthy. The  characters trying to pass the border are performing different tricks for the border police and their

entry is based on the entertainment value of their performance. The Eastern European is seen as  the one who is invited only if they play by the rules and marginalized if she/he demonstrated  their culture too much. The invitation is conditional.  

In Lia - Mitnichariu/ Лия - Митничарю / ENG: Borderpolice, 2001 we see a beautiful young lady  stuck at a border point. She is begging the policemen to enter their country whilst offering them  different types of bribes. She drives an expensive car, which means that she has been working abroad  and now wants to go back home. The border police do not allow people with expensive cars to pass  the border without taking a bribe, even today. The lyrics of the song " give him 200 deutsche marks, he  is human after all and he needs money to buy cigarettes" are giving a sort of innocence to the act of  corruption. Lia is normalizing the corruption culture but she is also giving a voice to the Bulgarians who  live abroad and experience this border police reality. Rather than describing a fictional situation, Lia is  addressing an actual issue . She is not trying to take a political stance i.e. fight corruption, but rather  is trying to deal with immediate corrupted regulations .The Bulgarian doesn't want to be involved in changing the country, they know it is not possible. The Bulgarian wants to get rid of the  bureaucratic situation as fast as possible and knows the cost of it. The individual wants to give the  money required and go home to see their family as fast as possible because they have only a few days  off from work in the West. In a few days they will have to drive another 1000 km to go back to  Western Europe and continue working. The border police is just one of the many obstacles on the  journey. The Bulgarian knows that if he refuses to pay the bribe there will be greater consequences,  even if he has not done anything illegal. Mitnichariu is a song which I listen to every time I am faced  with Balkan border police, it gives assurance that I am not the only one experiencing this injustice and it  gives me hope that these thug policemen are eventually going to let me through the border.

The border is a mythical location. It is a place where anything it can happen. For the  border police it is a sort of cash machine. Refering to my own experience during the summer of 2020 I  was asked for my car insurance at the border between Montenegro and Croatia. I gave them my international insurance which explicitly covers Montenegro. The borderpolice said it is not possible to pass through unless I buy their insurance and claimed that mine was invalid. After arguing for twenty minutes, one of the border police gave me 3 choice : buy their insurance, get arrested or go back to Croatia. When I bought their insurance at the price of 15 euros and hurried to enter Montenegro, I saw  that document they gave me said One Week Insurance for Belarus. An elaborate scheme for taking  bribes through a company in another country. Technically, this insurance was worthless, unless I went to  Belarus in the upcoming days. This is just one of the many examples of the cash machine which Balkan  borders can be. In the video clip of Lia we can see an exploration of this topic through her personal  experience, which even though personal can be relatable for any Eastern Europeans who has had to  pass through the Balkans by car.  

Even though there are other visual culture references in chalga music , I have decided to focus in this text on the holy trinity of the chalga person - cars, women and Europe. heteronormativity

To end this visual analysis of chalga we must have in mind that the music in its essence is Orientalist but it is not the Saidian concept of Orientalism. Bulgaria does not have the colonial history which Europe has with Oriental culture but was rather under Ottoman rule for 500 years up until the late 19th century which makes orientalism a big part of the Balkan identity. The orientalism of chalga helps the listener to break free from the cultural elite formed during Soviet times and it can been seen as a tool to decolonize the national identity from Western culture. Rather than mocking “Eastern” values which are seen as uncivilized or backward in the eyes of Western Europe, the sultans and sheiks are transformed in a treasure vault mocking the Western ideals. They have been transformed in mafia businessmen, luxury capitalist gods, and the target of irony , even if not conscious, are the dreams connected to the Western life. 

__________________

Bibliography:

Igor Zabel - Contemporary Art Theory

Rosemary Statelova - The Seven Sins of Chalga

Boris Groys- The Total Art of Stalinism: Avant-Garde, Aesthetic Dictatorship, and Beyond

Boryana Rossa - The Tree of Bulgarian artists

Vesa Kurkela - Balkan Popular Culture and the Ottoman Ecumene: Music, Image, and Regional Political Discourse 

Rory Archer - Assessing Turbofolk Controversies: Popular Music between the Nation and the Balkans.

 Reference links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv18ZnLFQBc - Bial Mercedes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dJVFoXzL4  - 100 Mercedesa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvjzB3zQDRg - Dai mi tate malko parichki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVMTaIIFQgQ - Za milioni niama zakoni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZtN1Fu_G6I - Mitnichariu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwzVGVjtAIs - Shengen

[thetailorofenbizaka]

End-of-Book Documents

The Tailor of Enbizaka, worldbuilding notes

About Jakoku

History

An island nation composed of the Jakokuan Archipelago (Amayomi, Enkoku, Susa, Izami) and its surrounding islands, set in the Akuna region far, far to the east of Evillious.

Its current capital is Eto in the Enkoku region.

It has existed as a country since time immemorial, and in the pre-era it was ruled by the “Jamataikoku” led by the “Netsuma” clan, whose white hair was a particular feature of theirs.

In this period there was cultural exchange with the countries to the west, and some of the Netsuma clan that had fallen to ruin migrated to the Evillious region, where they became the ancestors of the Netsuma there. The third clan head of the Netsuma in Evillious, Raisa Netsuma (Netsuma Raisa) was a member of the criminal organization “Apocalypse” and given the alias of “white demon”. She was a close friend of the infamous Meta Salmhofer, and she lost her life when Meta was captured by the Leviantan military. Having lost the head of their clan the Netsuma were enraged, and they committed acts of destruction throughout the Evillious region. Elphegort in particular sustained serious damage from this, and this became a cause of discrimination against the Netsuma in that country later on.

Additionally, the Netsuma lineage has largely died out in Jakoku.

After the downfall of Jamataikoku, several governments ruled Jakoku, one after another, but around year 540 the rulers of each land broke out into a period of warring states, all vying for hegemony.

The most powerful of all had been the Hatsune clan, led by the daimyo of Amayomi, Hatsune Nobunaga. However, when Nobunaga died in a revolt between his subordinates before he could achieve victory, the Hatsune clan was taken over by his daughter Jahime, and she began to expand their efforts towards her father’s dream of unifying the whole country.

However, there were many who resisted the forcible invasions Jahime undertook. One such group was the Tokugawa clan, daimyo of Eto. In order to combat the foreign sorceress Julia IR (later known as Julia Abelard) who served Jahime, the Tokugawa clan allied with another sorceress who had come from foreign lands.

That sorceress went by the name of “Elluka Clockworker”.

Elluka made subordinates out of those who had also arrived from foreign countries as she did.

The wandering swordsman Gao Octo (Gaou Okuto).

The powerful blacksmith Chartette Langley (Saruteito).

Including her favored apprentice Gumillia, Elluka and the others entered into battle with Jahime and Julia.

As a result of the “Battle of Jagahara” in year 549, the country was unified under the Eto Shogunate of the Tokugawa clan.

Right before that, however, Chartette lost her life at Julia’s hands. Julia’s aim had been the vessel of deadly sin, “the Twin Blades of Levianta”, which Chartette had brought over from Holy Levianta, however Chartette had already reforged them into a pair of scissors and entrusted them to Gao. Gao hid this fact even from Elluka, and after the battle of Jagahara he sealed the scissors away inside a cave in the land of Izami.

Jahime survived her actual defeat, but she was murdered by her underling Julia, who had been lying in wait in Amayomi. Julia then absconded, and Elluka and Gumillia left Jakoku chasing after her.

Gao changed his name to Okuto Gaou, and for a time held a position as an immediate follower of the shogun, but when the nation’s isolationist policy began he was shunned for having foreign genes and instead appointed as magistrate of Izami, a backwater piece of land. Despite this Gaou held no intent of rebellion, and diligently upheld his magistrate duties for many years.

The Eto shogunate continued to reign up to the present day year 842 when this story opens.

--But that state of affairs would change when Perrier Cutie Marlon arrived as a messenger of the United States of Maistia ten years later, leading a fleet of military vessels. After the chaos the Eto shogunate dissolved, and Jakoku came to be opened to the world.

.

“Onigashima”

A man-made island built by Izami in the south-west region of Jakoku. It was made by then-magistrate Okuto Gaou in year 590 for the purpose of managing and safeguarding the foreigners coming into Jakoku.

The immigration of foreigners into the country was heavily restricted due to the shogunate’s isolationist policy, and so non-natives and those of foreign descent were generally only allowed to live in Onigashima. Additionally, all cultural and mercantile exchanges with foreigners were conducted there as well.

In terms of ratios, 60 percent of the residents were Jakokuan, 30 percent were foreigners, and about 10 percent were of mixed heritage.

In the very center is Enbizaka, and many of the people who do business in Onigashima have their shops set up along the hill.

.

“Momogengou”

A small village in the western side of Enkoku. In the past it had a different name, but it was given its current name by the first Saruteito.

Nearby is a settlement where the Rangu clan lives.

.

“The Rangu Clan”

A family that has worked for generations at a blade-smithy in a small settlement near Momogengou.

Its founder is the first Saruteito, aka Chartette Langley. When she got caught up in the New Four Horsemen incident in Holy Levianta in year 508, she unexpectedly got her hands on a vessel of deadly sin, “The Twin Swords of Levianta”, and so she wound up being pursued by the sorceress Julia IR for them.

Chartette set out on a journey to the east to escape from her pursuer, and to have some fun sightseeing on the way, and she wound up liking Jakoku so much when she got there that she resolved to live there. When she decided to try being a blade smithy in imitation of her father’s work, that she had watched since she was a young child, she became unexpectedly popular at it, and so decided to make that her job. There were many times when she was given strange looks by Jakokuans as they could tell by her features that she was a foreigner, so she wound up wearing a monkey mask to hide her face whenever she went out in public; however, as she didn’t hide her pink hair it didn’t have much point, and thanks to the mask people were all the more creeped out by her. Though as it resulted in her being able to marry a hunk with a monkey fetish, she didn’t pay that any mind.

In her later years, around the time of the battle of Jagahara she came to be known as the greatest sword smith in the country. It was around then that she reunited with her old friends Elluka and Gumillia, but at the same time Julia wound up discovering her location. Chartette reforged the Twin Swords of Levianta into two pairs of scissors and then entrusted them to her friend Gao Octo. She participated in a final battle with the sorceress then to try and release Germaine from Julia’s hold on her. But the aged Chartette had no chance of winning, and so met an untimely death.

The current Rangu clan are descendants of Chartette, and all of the family heads are named “Saruteito”. The current Saruteito is the 16th.

As the generations have gone on their foreigner blood has waned, and so there are many of them who have features and black hair as befitting a Jakokuan. However, the family head customarily dyes their hair the same shade of pink as the clan founder.

.

“The Crimson Robed Masses”

A group of sorcerers originally led by Julia IR.

The organization remained even after losing contact with Julia, and though they continued to fight against the shogunate despite being small-scale, as time wore on their reason to exist grew warped; by the present day of year 842, they had transformed into an extremist faction that opposed foreigners.

Ten years after the end of the story they fiercely resisted the Maistian navy that had arrived in Jakoku but the tables were turned on them, and the organization was destroyed.

.

Other Countries

The United States of Maistia

A country on the continent of Maistia that was founded in year 776.

They have a branch of the Freezis foundation there, and it’s where a great deal of the merchant ships heading to Jakoku are stationed.

The continent of Maistia was originally discovered by a Freezis trading vessel in the year 592. Once they learned that they could obtain a great deal of fine tobacco, alcohol, and ingredients for medicine in this region, the merchants of Evillious got together and dispatched ships to go there.

Thanks to the development and industry of the Freezis Foundation, eventually people from the Evillious region immigrated to Maistia. But at the same time this also brought about problems with discrimination towards the Maistian natives.

In 760 the people of Maistia, who were then substantially comprised of colonists from Marlon, began an armed uprising seeking their independence. Due to the lengthening of the war the Marlon royal family and the Freezis Foundation steadily lost their power; the situation calmed down when a woman by the name of Elluka Clockworker visited Maistia, and they safely secured their independence.

However, the next year the Marlon family were ousted from their position as royalty due to a civil war that broke out in Marlon. At present the Marlon family maintains a certain amount of influence as nobility, but there is no trace left of them as they were in their golden years.

On the other hand, Maistian independence cast a shadow on the vigor of the Freezis Foundation that had once held overwhelming power in the Evillious region. When the developing Yarera Zusco Firm and the like began to develop the region for business purposes, the Freezis Foundation came to obtain power in foreign trade in the eastern and western Akuna regions.

The Country of Marlon

After year 777, this country came to be ruled by the royal Viwirtz family in the place of the Marlon line.

Anxious about the Republic of Maistia’s development, the government of other countries in the Evillious region are apparently scheming to establish some form of alliance between them.

Holy Levianta

It was a religious country wherein the Levin church holds a great deal of power, but after the Four Horseman Incident in year 508 the influential power that Levin had inside the country reduced considerably, and at present they have shifted to an imperial government under the Musubi dynasty.

The Republic of Lucifenia

After the republic took over in year 510, that structure has continued to be maintained to present day.

Its national power has grown sluggish, and so the government is searching for a means of overcoming this deadlock.

The Country of Elphegort

Despite the continuation of the Elphen royal family’s reign, by and large it is ruled closer to a republic in governmental structure, and the power of the monarchy has greatly diminished.

There have begun to be stronger calls inside the country to shift to a complete republican government.

The Country of Asmodean

The stable imperial government still continues on.

In recent years it’s lost some of its tint as a military country, and its relationship with other countries has become more peaceful.

The Kingdom of Beelzenia

In year 620 the Beelzenian Empire dissolved, and though it received a long period of decline afterwards, in year 820 the Kingdom of Beelzenia was reborn, and it quickly began industrializing.

directory