On the competition of nations

On the competition of nations  

When civilian leadership lives high morals, it provides military leadership with paths to victory.

When civilian leadership lacks high morals, it tends to be selfish and tends to interfere with military leadership. This leads to weakness and, ultimately, to self-destruction regardless of its military strength.
Greed is the lowest of motives. Greed degrades leadership.

A society with high morals uses its inner strength to obtain economic and political power.
A society with low morals uses its military strength to obtain economic and political power.

No society can obtain strength on economics alone. Social cohesion must be achieved by non-economic means.

From a presentation by dr Charles van der Hoog, Philosopher of Culture, February 27, 2012.

The sources for human manipulation through propaganda and advertising

The sources for human manipulation through propaganda and advertising

(This is one of the texts American party strategists did not want you to read.)

The campaigning of Donald Trump of 2015 until this day is an excellent example of how and why manipulation of people works. What is said here could be said for the Brexit campaign and any campaign including the famous Mitterrand campaign of 1981, La Force Tranquille, but Trump is more visible.

How come Trump could win?
The personality of Donald Trump is explained in the eBook Predicting Donald Trump, Understanding a Stable Genius. It is mandatory reading for anyone that is affected by Trump or has to deal with him, which is almost everybody in the West, these days.
Persuasion know-how for mass communication campaigns (propaganda, public relations, advertising) is a different subject altogether that stands on its own but it is obvious that one needs a certain type of personal identity that is immediately recognisable for a persuasive propaganda campaign to work.
Look at the picture with the airplanes. (You can click it for more detail.) On top, we see an airplane in the background with the text "United States of America". Apparently, this is Airforce One, the private jet of the President of the USA. In the front, we see a crowd listening to, ostensibly, the President of the USA. Note the size of the president in the picture in relation to the airplane, his location and his posture.
Below that we see Donald Trump, posing as a presidential candidate. His airplane is half the size of Airforce One but because he is standing close to it, it looks bigger than Airforce One on the picture. And he is also clearly visible whereas the president was a bit difficult to find.
The next thing to note is the posture. The president, Obama, is using the posture of a lecturer, or a father who reprimands his children. This is good for his image with readers of The New Yorker and other intellectuals but is not going down well, on a subconscious level, with people who are in attendance. They look bored.
Now look at the posture of Donald Trump.  His arms are wide, all-inclusive. It is the well-known universal pose of a father who is inviting his children to come to him for a hug or protection. This

Clash of civilisations leaves politicians confused

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless you also read the two others. But of these, the only trustworthy one is the last (the book of their art).John Ruskin

A civilisation encompasses different cultures but all these cultures use the same basic ideas and technologies. With modern unifying technologies and hypercommunication all civilizatons on this planet tend to converge. In the end, only differences in cultures will be left.
But for the time being we can distinguish the following civilizations:
The Western Civilisation,
The Eastern Civilisation,
The Arabian or Islamitic Civilisation,
The Mid-African Civilisation which is actually a collection of different civilisations but these are too hard to distinguish for Western people so we leave it at that;
A few of prehistoric civilisations that are still alive and can be found in remote areas like the Amazon rainforest and the polar regions in the north.

From this simplified definition we can develop a better understanding of what is going on with immigration and why it bothers the populations of Western Europe so much even though they have had no problems with immigrations in the last five centuries.

The Oxford boys called "liars" by Macron, Theresa May thinks she is humiliated.

The Oxford boys called "liars" by Macron, Theresa May thinks she is humiliated.

Brexiting. A series on being English. # 09

What is happening in the negotiations between the British (actually, they are all English) and the European negotiators cannot be understood unless one knows two defining elements of the English culture.
The first peculiarity is that people who have gone through Eton and/or Oxford, like all the major players in Brexit, including Theresa May herself, cannot accept that they are not seen as God's gift to mankind.
The second defining element is

Brexit: "Straight as she goes, Mr. Baines"

 

Brexit: "Straight as she goes, Mr. Baines"

Brexiting. A series on being English. # 08

Today, 25 of June, 2018, Bloomberg  reports that European businesses have begun to anticipate a hard Brexit. The headline reads "EU Businesses Cut U.K. Ties on Brexit and Want Britain Punished". 

In my early posts on Brexit, nrs. 2, 4 and 7, I predicted the English would not give in to "them Contintentals". That was a year ago. As it stands, the prospects of a 'hard Brexit', i.e. without a negotiated exit deal, are higher than ever. It is not a negotiation tactic, it is English (not British) mentality. As predicted, a large part

What does a better future mean? #01 - A formula for understanding civilization

A formula for understanding Civilization

Series : What does a better future mean? #01

There are people working at creating a better future for all. What does that mean? A new series tries to explore the elements that make up such a future. And although everybody has a different idea about what the expression 'a better future' entails, it deserves a closer look from a philosophical point of view, i.e. something that makes it easier to envision.

In spite of all our differences, most people would agree on the following. 

A better future means an improved civilization. It means that the people are safer, healthier of body and mind, smarter, richer, and happier.

The Laws of Invention

The Laws of Invention

It is obvious to anyone who has seen the lack of realism in the policies that politicians put out to stimulate invention, that their policies are not based upon a proper understanding of the phenomenon of invention. Perhaps it is a wise move to start and try to formulate such laws.

For investors trying to find moneymaking inventions and for inventors trying to attract investors there are other laws and rules to consider. As soon as money and business is involved, things become mundane, sordid even, and practical, in other words, one has to cater to the current needs of Mankind and gear oneself to the craziness of Man. This may be the subject of a future blog. This issue is for long-term thinkers and politicians.

English love Brexiting, especially when it hurts

English love Brexiting, especially when it hurts

Brexiting. A series on being English. # 07

(See corroboration below.)
English favour heroes that suffer. In real life and on film.
Wasn't The Charge of the Light Brigade in the Krimean War in 1854 the pinnacle of heroism? Aren't the existential losers like Mr. Bean, Monthy Python, Basil, Tommy Cooper, The Absolutely Fabulous immortal heroes of the screen?
The most favoured heroes of the English culture have a plus and a minus. They are safe to love

Impeachment at the root of Brexit, and the Dutch are to blame

Impeachment is at the root of Brexit and the Dutch are to blame

Brexiting. A series on being English. #06

There are striking parallels between Trumpian events in the USA, Mayan events in Great Britain and what happened in the 17th century in England. Only, the English have remained consistent in their forward motion on the time stream, while the Americans seem to back up against the current. Freedom and justice for all are not a natural given but have to be fought for constantly. We see these fights now emerging in the USA as a kind of cold civil war and in Great Britain, especially England, as Brexit, which is in essence a fight for freedom from continental supervision. And all this flows from a series of events in 1588 and 1689 that firmly established what it meant to be English.

The deepest roots of what it means to be English may be found in

Find your station in life. A reality check on the toffs.

A funny reality check on life with toffs

Brexiting. A series on being English. #05

As we have seen from earlier blog messages of mine in this series, the essence of the English class system is two-fold. The people that are 'in' want to keep lower-graded people 'out' of their class. At the same time, the ones who are 'out', except the monarchs and landed gentry (dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, barons and their ladies), are trying to get higher up by means of emulation of some class above them or, traditionally, by buying (men) or marrying (women) themselves into it. For foreigners, this is an odd game, and for English, it is a frustrating one.

Of course, one can never really emulate the next level without actually being there. The little secrets that distinguish one class from another, are

Dictators like uniformity, dominators like loyalty

Dictators like uniformity, dominators like loyalty

Understanding Donald Trump Series #05

Dictators and Dominators Series #01

You can always assess whether a government leader is a suppressive controller or simply someone who wants to dominate a variety of people. The latter trait is clearly visible today in the 2017 President Of The United States (of America), the POTUS, Donald Trump.
The dictator, by contrast, likes uniformity for he has given up on loyalty. Obedience to a dictator is not gotten from merit but from fear. Often, it starts with obedience from trust that they all work toward a shared vision of the future. Generally, this includes more freedom ("Free China", "Cuba libre", "Lebensraum", "Liberté, Fraternité, Égalité"), but when that vision has been realized, it continues by enforcing

The law of bombing civilians

The law of bombing civilians

People hate the people who are bombing them, regardless who they are.
Late July 2006 Israel bombed a city in Libanon and it happened to kill a lot of children. There are not many people in Libanon left who do not hate the Israeli.
The Germans started to bomb London in 1940 and the British started to drop their firebombs on Dresden and Hamburg and in the Ruhrgebiet. Deep mutual hatred ensued. The Russians bombed Berlin, just for fun and without any need, actually, for the German army was very weak. The result was that people in Berlin who first were against the Nazi's and Hitler and pro Allies, all of a sudden started to resent and hate the Russians.
The United States bombed North Vietnam almost flat. Yet it lost the war. Every Vietnamese had started to hate the Americans.
Now, 2017, we have an American president who is a great fan of "bombing the shit out of" anybody who opposes him.

All of the governments of the above instances are, apparently, oblivious of a natural law of social psychology. And that law is