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The Defeat of The West And Its Dislocation
In 1976 the French anthropologist Emmanuel Todd predicted the down fall of the Soviet Union. In After The Empire, first published in French in 2001, he predicted the (relative) decline of the United States.
In his latest (and last) book, La Défaite de l’Occident (The Defeat of the West), he laments the West's inability to distinguish facts from wishes, as seen in its behavior during the war in Ukraine. Nihilism, a lack of values and of acceptance of reality, has infested western thinking:
Trans ideology is therefore, in my opinion, one of the flags of this nihilism that now defines the West, this drive to destroy not just things and people but reality.
Todd recently opened a substack where he is posting speeches and talks he has given.
Two of those, a recent talk given in Russia (in French) and one given in Hungary (in English) make (mostly) similar points.
The downfall of the Soviet Union led to deep psychological and societal dislocations in Russia. The defeat of the West, or 'liberal democracy', is leading to similar consequences in Western societies.
While Todd had predicted the fall of the Soviet Union, he had not anticipated the consequences it would have for Russia:
But the collapse of Russia in the 1990s is something I would never have anticipated. The fundamental reason why I was unable to understand or anticipate the dislocation of Russia itself is that I had not understood that communism was not simply a means of organising economic activity in Russia, but also a kind of religion. It was belief that allowed the system to exist and the dissolution of that belief represented, of course, something at least as damaging as the dislocation of the economic system.
It took three decades for Russia to overcome the psychological dislocation that was the result of the destruction of its political and economical system.
Todd is suspecting that a similar process is currently happening in the West:
All of this has a bearing upon what is happening today. I will talk about two things in my lecture. I will talk about the defeat of the West, by which I mean something quite technical and specific, which is not very complex and has not surprised me. I had anticipated it, and to a certain extent it’s already under way in Ukraine. But we are now in the next phase, which is the dislocation of the West, and I have to say that, just as in the dislocation of communism, of the Soviet system, I am unable to understand exactly what is going on. The fundamental attitude that we need to have now is, I would say, an attitude of humility. Everything that’s happening, especially since the election of Donald Trump, surprises me.
I have been surprised by the violence with which Trump has turned against his Ukrainian and Europeans allies – or rather his vassals. The will of the Europeans to continue or restart the war – even though Europe is certainly the region of the world which would be most advantaged by a peace agreement – has also been a great surprise to me. We have to start from these surprises if we want to think properly about what’s going on.
I will discuss those surprises, some of which concern me a lot, in a later piece.
The defeat of the Soviet Union (and Russia) came after it had lost the economic war with the West. It had also lost a war in Afghanistan. The Soviet system had turned out to be a failure.
The West, or as Mearsheimer is arguing (vid), 'liberal hegemony', has been routed in Afghanistan. The attempts to 'liberate' Libya and Syria have failed to the point where the Western 'war on terror' launched against al-Qaeda has led to the installation of an al-Qaeda bigwig as the new president of Syria. The economic decline of the West is demonstrated by the rise of China. The West's moral self-defeat of its 'values' can be daily witnessed in Gaza.
'Liberal democracy', the system of ideas that has for decades been the leading light of the West, has failed.
Like communism in Russia, 'liberal democracy' has not only an economic side but is also a kind of religion. The failure of this belief system is upon us.
The accumulation of defeat after defeat by the 'liberal democracy' system has led to a psychological breakdown, an internal dislocation of the West. This is now leading to irrational acts and to seeking refuge in wishful thinking.
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Or, as Alastair Crooke is summarizing the phenomenon and warns:
The psychological dislocation caused by ‘defeat’ may explain (but not justify) the West’s ‘curious’ inability to understand world events: The almost pathological dissociation from the real world that it displays in its words and actions: It’s blindness – for example, to the Russian experience of history and to the long history behind Shi’a defiance in Iran. Yet, even as the political situation deteriorates … there is no sign of the West becoming more reality-based in its understanding – and it is very likely that it will continue to live in its alternative construction of reality – until it is forcibly expelled.
b and other barflies, I wonder if you all have taken a listen or read to Ron Unz’ outstanding “True History of World War II,” which is Mr. Unz at the peak of his powers on the subject and also, I would say, completely irrefutable.
It would be a good reading partner to Mr. Todd’s essay on the fall of the west. I have thought of little else regarding the west since being exposed to the thinking and writing of Victor Suvorov, David Irving, A.J.P. Taylor, Pat Buchanan, Sean McMeekin’s “Stalin’s War,” Charles Lindbergh, and various other “revisionist history” contributors to the western mind.
When reading over and considering Mr. Todd’s work, I implore you to also look into the incredible work of Mr. Unz and his summation on this topic.
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Regarding two of your bolded points,
Trans ideology is therefore, in my opinion, one of the flags of this nihilism that now defines the West, this drive to destroy not just things and people but reality.
and
The downfall of the Soviet Union led to deep psychological and societal dislocations in Russia. The defeat of the West, or ‘liberal democracy’, is leading to similar consequences in Western societies.
I want to push back on these and offer my thoughts.
Regarding trans ideology, we must understand how the empire works with regards to its domestic population and the funneling and channeling of populist anger and resentment that rightfully should be aimed at the elite. If you are a materialist, whether in the Marxist tradition or more generally in the Hegelian one, you understand that rampaging empire has intrinsic fault lines built into it whereby its own destruction seems unavoidable given the ever centralizing forces that position wealth and power into fewer and fewer hands. The multinational elite have had hundreds of years, perhaps millenia, to grapple with this problem and have come up with solutions to this. The first being bread and circuses, the latest being the propping up of cultural scapegoats that may be utilized under the right conditions, resurrected again after the act, and then rallied against again.
In my mind, trans ideology or whatever you want to call it, is this generation’s iteration of that scapegoat. Support for such policy in government as permitting and even legislating rights for the dismemberment of children or at the least, providing hormone blockers or expressing solidarity with the ability to discover one’s own gender, often is expressed by around 50% of government, obviously from the other side of the aisle. But in four years, as is being shown now, the other side takes the reins and says, “We are righting the ship!” Trump is putting the kibosh on much of these state policies, even though one must take everything Trump says with a heaping spoon of salt.
In four years when a democrat comes back into the highest Federal office as figure-head, we can certainly expect a redoubling of earlier efforts to support trans-rights at the state level.
Now, we can not say if the opportunity to do this again will be afforded the empire in four years. The very ability to steer policy of the states via the established quid pro quo of money printing and arm twisting between the Federal and State governments, may truly be in question this time. But the overall pattern of empire remains clear for all to see: the elite set up scapegoat pins over the course of decades only for an elite-Messiah, President Orange-Man-Bad, to come onto the scene and knock them down. The other 50% of government and the private sector cheer because “our man is winning.”
But does anyone seriously believe that the cream of the crop, the elite of the elite, the 1% of the 1% truly give two shits about children suffering bodily dysmorphia or adults engaging in creepy role play? Certainly there are the middle-manager true believers, but they are few and far between. More than this, does anyone truly think that public policy regarding trans ideology is worthy of air time, let alone brain time? With everything else occurring in your life, on your street, and in your nation, who cares about it?
In summary, I can only say that whereas Mr. Todd and perhaps you, b, think trans ideology is some phenomenon that has sprung up without the guiding hand of elites within their media and cultural arm, I think this is a bad proposition. The trans issue exists as a distraction and scapegoat. But the only thing is, these methods employed by the elite can only be used once or twice before the demos get wise to the act.
I predict as the liberal west recedes further and the ability of the elite media and cultural arm to influence popular perception via the flow of funny money to states increasingly becomes a liability, the issue of trans ideology will take care of itself and fade back into obscurity.
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Regarding your second bolded point above, I think we must acknowledge that far before the sudden collapse of the USSR, cracks in the facade were showing in the decades leading up to 90s.
I have posited in prior posts that there seems to exist something like a “despair index” where a country’s overall heath can be measured by a few important statistics. Namely: suicide.
From 1965-1984, the suicide rate in the Soviet Union rose from 17.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1965 to 29.6 per 100,000 in 1984. Obesity levels in the USSR were actually coming to be greater than even the U.S.! Certainly, this shows that the collapse of the Soviet Union was not the shocking event that many think it was, but rather the quiet acknowledgement that something was wrong.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jun 3 2025 17:35 utc | 28
In 2004 a Bush official (said to be Karl Rove) said:
“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out.”
20 years later, I am convinced that a large percentage of those in power actually believe the bullshit they spread, unlike Rove, who clearly thought that the rulers would remain sane.
One narrative that I consider to be a lie is that the USSR “collapsed” because their planned economy was inferior to the chaotic economy of the west, which is the propaganda I grew up with. We were told that we hated the Soviet Union because they had a planned economy and we had a free market, and that was SO superior that it justified possible nuclear war.
The USSR didn’t collapse, it was dissolved by 3 men in a lodge in a forest. Yes, it had been sabotaged before that, in the 80s, using the kind of plan that Norquist voiced here about the USA- destroying it until it could be drowned in the bathtub.
Gorbachev’s “reforms” made a mockery of the planned economy by allowing managers to profit while requiring the state to continue to supply cheap materials.
This made things worse. I don’t blame Russians who grew angry. But did life improve for them after the entire wealth of the country the Soviets had built was turned over to profiteers?
34 years later, I think that clear-eyed, reality-based people can draw the conclusion that it didn’t.
And life got worse in the west also, as the example of the USSR, with its guaranteed employment, housing, schooling, medical care, vacations, etc. was destroyed. Take a walk down any main street in America and you can see the results here. Be sure to watch where you step.
As for the trans agenda, it is clearly a top down agenda, pushed by the Establishment into all parts of society. The government, the media, the schools and universities, the libraries, the medical-industrial complex, especially Big Pharma, the military, the police, courts and prisons, the corporations, social media and NGOs, have all colluded to confuse children about the fact that there are only two sexes in our species, (as in every other sexually reproducing species), and to force everyone in society to pretend that they see a woman when a man puts on a dress and lipstick.
Why? I agree with Norwegian, it’s about control.
In 1984, part of the torture and forced submission of Winston to Big Brother, was forcing him to look at four fingers and say that he saw five fingers.
It is blindingly obvious that forcing people to look at a man and say that they see a woman is the same thing, with the same conclusion desired.
I am still a member of the reality-based community, shrunken though it now is. People earnestly trying to get me to submit to their fantasies, because “it’s the kind thing to do”, can go drown themselves in the bathtub. I’m not buying their bullshit.
Posted by: wagelaborer | Jun 3 2025 20:05 utc | 98
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