The most famous and influential socialist analysis was contained in Lenin's 1916 pamphlet: "Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism". Lenin attempted to show, as briefly as possible, the principal economic characteristics of imperialism. The most important was that in the imperialistic phase of capitalistic development the capitalistic economies were thoroughly dominated by monopolies, something that Karl Marx correctly foresaw. By monopolies, Lenin did not mean industries consisting of only one firm, which is the modern definition. Instead, he referred to industries controlled by trusts, cartels, combines, or a few large firms. Sound familiar?
Drawing heavily upon the German experience, Lenin argued that the growth of monopolies was closely related to important changes in the banking system. Banks had assumed a position of central importance in the drive toward cartelization and had come to exercise considerable control over many of the most important industrial cartels. This control was so extensive that Lenin spoke of the imperialistic phase of capitalization as the age of 'finance capital'.
Banks were able to mobilize huge sums of money for investment, but persistent downward pressures on domestic profit rates dictated that investment outlets be sought outside the home country. Lenin did not believe the necessity to export commodities was the most important economic cause of imperialism. Rather, it was the necessity to export capital. Backward areas offered a large and inexpensive labour force and lucrative investment prospects.
In the imperialistic phase of capitalism, the various governments fought to gain access to privileged and protected markets for the combines and cartels within their political boundaries. At the same time, these national combines and cartels sought to partition the world markets through international cartels. Deep-seated rivalry and competition, however, were more important than opportunistic short-run collaborations. Persistent national conflicts and wars were the inevitable result. In Lenin's words:
"The epoch of the newest capitalism shows us that certain relations are being established between capitalistic combines, based upon the economic division of the world; while parallel with and in connection with it, certain relations are being established between political alliances, between states, on the basis of the territorial division of the world, of the struggle for colonies, of the 'struggle for economic territory'."
Lenin believed such a situation to be inherently unstable. Imperialism would lead to wars among the advanced capitalist countries and to rebellions and revolutions in the exploited areas. As long as capitalism could support its imperialistic thrust, however, it would prolong its existence by providing outlets for excess investment funds. The extra profits that imperialism secured for the home country meant that the wages paid to its workers could be raised. Thus, because it shared in the spoils, labour would be at least temporarily sapped of its revolutionary potential and controlled by right wing labour leaders, justly called 'social imperialists'.
If imperialism expanded the domain of capitalism and in so doing prolonged the system's existence, the tensions and conflicts it engendered were more severe than those of the competitive capitalism about which Marx wrote. Capitalism was still doomed, and socialism was still the wave of the future. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed the imperialistic carving up of the world's economically underdeveloped areas. The inhabitants of these areas were harshly and cruelly exploited for the profits of large corporations in the advanced capitalist countries. What these advanced capitalist countries in the West did not see coming at all, however, was the cultural imperialism of Leninist and Marxist ideology. Today, much to our horror, we are witnessing the long march of neo-Marxism and demoralization of the West. We are being ideologically imperialized from within by a systematically imperceptible psy-op.
Yuri Aleksandrovich Bezmenov was the son of a senior Stalin era Soviet military officer. He defected to the U.S. in 1969 while acting as an operative in India for Soviet propaganda outlet Novosti Press Agency and working for the KGB. He abandoned a Russian wife and infant daughter in New Delhi. In 1970, under the Communist sympathetic leadership of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Canada took Bezmenov in as a defector as a favour to U.S. intelligence. He was hired by Radio-Canada International (RCI), CBC's multilingual international service, for its Russian language division in 1972. According to a heavily redacted 1985 report by CSIS, this was done "on recommendations from the RCMP's Security Service".
From the moment he arrived in Canada, Bezmenov was obsessed with a mission to warn the West that its institutions and populace were being eroded from within by a sophisticated Soviet disinformation strategy. He even diagramed the process:
In 1954, early on in the Cold War, the Soviet Union created the Committee for State Security, more commonly known in the West as the KGB. It came to oversee Soviet internal security, secret police, and domestic and foreign intelligence operations.
Across the world, the KGB did whatever it could to thwart pro-Western and anti-Soviet political movements and figures. The group would assassinate political leaders with cyanide and other weapons. It would fund and arm leftist groups, especially those in the developing nations talked about by Lenin. The KGB also successfully established moles in Western intelligence agencies, though the exact number is not now and may never be fully known. Just as unclear were the group's long term plans involving the West, especially the U.S. One glimpse does however come from Bezmenov. He claimed to be a prophet sent to the West to reveal the details of a Soviet plan to undermine the West; not on the battlefield, but rather in the hearts and minds of the citizenry.
In 1984, Bezmenov granted a unique interview to G. Edward Griffin from which much can be learned today. His most chilling point was that there is a long-term plan in play by Russia to defeat the West through ideological warfare and 'demoralization'. It is a long march that takes decades to achieve but it is already bearing fruit. Bezmenov made the point that the work of the KGB mainly does not involve espionage, despite what our popular culture has portrayed. According to Bezmenov, about 85% of it was "a slow process which we call either ideological subversion, active measures or psychological warfare."
So what does all of this mean?
Bezmenov explained that the most striking thing about ideological subversion is that it happens in the open, as an apparently legitimate process. "You can see it with your own eyes" he said. The Western media would be able to see it unfold, if it would just focus its attention there. Here is how Bezmenov further defined ideological subversion:
"What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality to such an extent that despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country."
Bezmenov went on to describe this process as "a great brainwashing" that has four basic stages, which are set out in the above diagram. The first is called "demoralization", which takes from 15-20 years to achieve. According to the former KGB operative, that is the minimum number of years required to re-educate one generation of students normally exposed to the ideology of their home country-in other words, the time it takes to change what young people are thinking about.
Bezmenov cited examples of the 1960s hippies coming to positions of power in the 1980s in the government and businesses of the West. He claimed that this generation was already "contaminated" by Marxist-Leninist values. The claim that many baby boomers are espousing KGB-tainted ideas has grown increasingly plausible in the wake of Covid-19 lockdowns and resulting social disorder. But Bezmenov's larger point addressed why people who have been gradually 'demoralized' are unable to understand that this has already happened to them:
"They are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern [alluding to Pavlov's dog]. You cannot change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information. Even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you can still not change the basic perception and the logic of behaviour."
Demoralization is thus an irreversible process. Bezmenov actually thought 40 years ago that the process of demoralizing the West was already completed. He predicted that it would take yet another generation and a couple of decades to get the people to think differently and return to their patriotic national values. In what is perhaps the most striking passage in the interview, here is how Bezmenov described the psychological status of a 'demoralized' person:
"As I mentioned before exposure to true information does not matter anymore...A person who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him. Even if I shower him with information, the authentic proof, with documents, with pictures; even if I take him by force to the Soviet Union and show him a concentration camp, he will refuse to believe it, until he receives a kick in his fan-bottom. When a military boot crashes his balls- then he will understand. That is the tragedy of the situation of demoralization."
It is difficult to ignore the sorry state of mind of many modern Westerners. We have become a societies of polarized tribes, with some simply rejecting facts in favour of ideological narratives and unfounded opinions. Once demoralization is completed, the second stage of brainwashing begins. Destabilization is a 2-5 year period during which the essential structural elements of a nation are targeted: economy, foreign relations, and defense systems. Basically, the subverter (China or Russia) would look to destabilize every one of those areas, considerably weakening nations like the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain.
The third stage is 'crisis', taking only up to 6 weeks to send the targeted nation into a critical state. This crisis would bring a "violent change of power, structure, and economy" and is followed by the final stage-normalization. That is when the target country is basically captured by a new ideology and reality.
Bezmenov forebodingly forecast that this will happen to Canada and the U.S. unless we rid ourselves of people who seek to bring about the stage three crisis. What is more, "if people will fail to grasp the impending danger of that development, nothing ever can help the United States", adding, "you may kiss goodbye to your freedom." It is worth noting that when he made that statement in 1984, he was warning us about the baby boomer liberals of that era in Western politics.
In another equally terrifying excerpt, here is what Bezmenov had to say about what is really happening in the West: we may think that we are living in peace, but we have been actively at war with Russia, and for some time:
"Most of the American politicians, media and educational system trains another generation of people who think they are living at the peacetime. False! United States is in a state of war: undeclared, total war against the basic principles and foundations of this system."
This may shed a whole new light upon the hot proxy war being prosecuted by the U.S., Canada, and other Western nations against Russia today in the Ukraine. But in the meanwhile, we must ask how this ideological war against demoralization can be waged?
At least one contemporary intellectual has attempted to provide us with antidote to demoralization. Douglas Murray is a British neoconservative writer and commentator. He was the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion from 2007-2011 and is currently associate director of the Henry Jackson Society. In his bestselling book, "The War On The West", Murray asks: if the history of humankind is a history of slavery, conquest, prejudice, genocide, and exploitation, then why are only Western nations taking the blame for it?
It has become perfectly acceptable to celebrate the contributions of non-Western cultures, but discussing their flaws and crimes is hate speech. Celebrating the contributions of Western culture is also considered hate speech. According to Murray, some of this is a much-needed reckoning, a necessary step toward moving forward together. However, some of it is part of a larger international attack upon reason, democracy, science, progress, and citizens of the West by dishonest scholars, hatemongers, hostile nations, and human rights abusers hoping to distract us from their ongoing villainy. China and Russia both fit this description.
Murray explains how many well-meaning people have been lured into protests and polarization by lies and hypocrisy. If we discard the ideas of Kant, Hume, and Mill for their opinions on race, for example, should we not also discard Marx for his far more egregious views? If we are going to call the British slave trade genocide, then should we not also focus upon the Arab example, which did more to end African races over a much longer historical period? If we are going to work hard to stamp out the embers of racism in America, then should we not douse the roaring flames of it across the Middle-East and Asia? If we are ever going to achieve Truth and Reconciliation over Indian Residential Schools in Canada, then should the government be criminalizing our ability to talk to about it?
Murray carefully and methodically shows us how far political discourse has strayed in Europe and North America from its stated goals: justice and equality. Dictators who slaughter their own people are happy to jump on the "West is racist" bandwagon and mimic the language of anti-racism and 'pro-justice' movements as public relations while making authoritarian conquests.
Murray's thesis is that if the West is to survive, it must be defended-from within. Many good people say that neo-Marxists have already won and that there is no point in even fighting anymore. I disagree for several reasons, but shall list three main ones:
(1) History is rife with pivotal moments that radically altered what otherwise appeared to be the inexorable path of destiny. In fact, I would say that history is really written only when good people find their backs to the wall and realize that the only way to preserve their free will is to fight like hell against everything that stands against them. Suffering has a way of focusing the mind and strengthening resolve. Character truly reveals itself only when it is tested. As Nietzche famously put it, "that which does not destroy us only makes us strong." I will take a spirited and courageous insurgency that knows why it is fighting any day over an army of automatons enfeebled by groupthink.
(2) Whenever fighting evil, there can be no half-measures. We must fight evil even if we find ourselves hanging by the fingertips from a cliff's edge while Satan smirks and crushes our hands. No matter how compromised we feel, we must resist. Refusal to comply is our most potent weapon because it frustrates the enemy while inspiring others to stand along side us. As Sir Winston Churchill famously said during WWII, when the British Isles stood alone against the threat of Nazi tyranny:
(3) Even if we think that things are irreparably bad, apathy can only them worse. There will be a future time when we are being forcibly herded onto a train car headed for God knows where. When that happens, we will think to ourselves, 'if only I had resisted earlier'. Now ask yourself what you would be willing to do today to avoid that train car tomorrow? If resistance is never going to become any easier, then that makes today the best day to begin kicking and screaming against what is already steaming down the track at us. Your future self will thank you to post these immortal words from Churchill on your bathroom mirror:
As you have no doubt already gathered, I happen to disagree that this ideologcial war is hopeless. There is a reason why the permanent Deep State has resorted to sham trials, censorship, and political persecution. It no longer has the time to pretend to respect free speech or the rule of law. The century-long slow but steady march toward Leninist demoralization and a Marxist technocratic super-state has given way to overt public harassment, coercion, and transparent propaganda. The left's deceptive veil has been lifted, and tyranny now has an ugly face in all of those politicians who openly support punishing dissent and constructing a modern-day Ministry of (dis) Information.
Contrary to what Bezmenov predicted, the petty totalitarians have moved from a marathon's pace to a sprint-not because the finish line is just ahead-but because too many of us ordinary people have begun to figure out what is going on around us. The left has been slowly herding Westerners like so many sheep into a pen down the road, but now the sheepdogs hidden amongst them have started to nudge the herd in a contrary direction. In the process, it appears that there are more sheepdogs than the left anticipated. That is a problem for the wolves who assumed that they could lock everyone into a new cage and begin the feeding frenzy without much resistance. The wolves have become openly authoritarian because this unexpected push back has made them desperately foolish.
Here are a but a few examples. In Ontario, a 35 year old man named Garnet Harper recently died after he was denied a kidney transplant for refusing to take the experimental Covid-19 cocktails. While his young wife Meghan comforted him on his deathbed, one of Canada's organ-harvesting outfits called her to ask for Garnet's organs. The callousness of their request floored Garnet's soon to be widow. He was not worthy of receiving life saving organs from them, but they had no qualms about taking his body parts before he had even died. Meghan Harper told them that she would not participate in the organ harvesting program so long as people like Garnet were considered ineligible to receive organs themselves.
Government health authorities saw Garnet Harper as sub-human; someone whose life was unworthy of saving, but whose body was valuable as a source of spare parts for other, more obedient Canadians. "Our governments are and have been engaged in social murder", wrote former Ontario Provincial Parliament member Randy Hillier. Why would Canadian authorities choose to sacrifice a man in the prime of his life? Because neo-Marxist globalists value citizen compliance Uber Alles. The Canadian Deep State, just as in the U.S., has rejected liberty in favour of State coercion. It propagates evil, and more people than ever before are bearing witness to this truth.
Elsewhere in Canada, a transgender person recently applied to be euthanized under the Liberal government's MAID program. The patient stated that death offers the only escape from the constant pain they experience after complications from a Frankensteinian procedure known as vaginoplasty. In 2009, Lois Cardinal underwent the kind of sex change surgery that is now euphemistically called "gender affirming care". Its supporters claim that it saves lives of transgender people who would otherwise kill themselves. However, after undergoing these life altering surgeries, Cardinal is in self described 'constant discomfort and pain', and therefore applied for lethal injection. Incredibly, despite meeting all of the legal pre-conditions for eligibility, Cardinal was deemed "unsuitable" by an "independent specialist":
"It's taking this psychological burden on me. If I'm not able to access proper medical care, I don't want to continue to do this [life]."
MAID offers legal assisted suicide to adults with a serious and incurable illness, disease, or disability, and who are in an advanced state of irreversible decline, based upon the subjective assessment of the patient. Could it be that Cardinal's request was denied due to (1) indigenous heritage and (2) because the request utterly debunks the left's claims about the health benefits of human mutilation, otherwise known as "gender affirming care"?
In Oregon, another such health related incident is unfolding. A Portland-area hospital has refused to continue a woman's cancer treatments due to her unacceptable 'wrongthink'. Her thought crime was to criticize the clinic's proudly displayed 'trans' flag hanging over the entrance. The patient happens to subscribe to biological reality and has been repeatedly threatened by trans activists for her views, which are of course grounded in actual hard science. From her standpoint, confronting an "enormous transgenderism banner hanging like a Nazi flag" whenever she comes in for life-saving cancer treatments is deeply discomforting. Ignoring her health concerns, the hospital staff instead terminated her care due to her "ongoing disrespectful and hurtful remarks" about trans ideology.
No doubt the hospital never would have considered hanging a Christian flag over the entrance to his treatment facilities. Somehow, we suspect that the same people who see themselves as heroically tolerant of trans would reject Christ's offer of hope and redemption for all. Hospital staff charged with a duty to tend to the sick instead chose to inflict demoralizing harm upon any patients judged 'undeserving' of care. Adding insult to injury, the hospital offered the patient a path back to treatment if she only consented to Maoist "re-education." Your mind or your life-that is the neo-Marxist left's perpetual threat. To her great credit, the patient here refused. If a woman's character is her fate, as Heraclitus observed, then we can only expect this courageous free thinker to have a meaningful life. She has certainly inspired others through her bravery-including me.
Good people cannot compromise with this kind of treachery. The neo-Marxist left now openly sponsors wickedness. People of character find our backs against the wall, in what appears to be the third stage of Bezmenov's diabolical process-the crisis. That dreaded train is barreling down the track at us. This evil must be confronted. Resistance is everything. Even if it takes decades and generations to restore our Western culture and values.
So, dear reader, I urge you to grab hold of the one weapon that can make all of the difference in this cultural war, and never loosen your grip: The Truth.
