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Vladimir Putin’s approval rating is 82%. Joe Biden’s is 42%. Xi
Jinping’s is anyone’s guess, but the Chinese near-unanimously trust
their government. More than half of Russians trust their government.
Less than a third of Americans trust theirs. These statistics are not
random but speak to America’s imminent loss in this, the Second Cold
War.
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for
Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine, and Russians are as proud as
ever to be Russian. Meanwhile, American pride is sinking. It has given
Ukraine $76.9 billion to fight the second iteration of Russia’s “Evil
Empire” in a war increasingly seen as the opening proxy war in Cold War
II.
Why aren’t Americans rallying around the flag? Pride, approval, and
support for their respective flags in China and Russia, but not the
same in America, is not an accident. All governments influence the
memories they want their people and foreigners to have of them. It’s
called political memory.
A look at how the governments of Russia, China, and the United States
are leveraging political memory sheds light on why Russians and Chinese
love their governments and rulers, and Americans are souring on America
and Biden. This simultaneous occurrence is not an accident. Russia and
China are preparing to win the second round of the Cold War, and
America is handing them the opportunity to do this.
The goal of Russia’s political memory is “to give students and ordinary
citizens a simple and consistent narrative of a powerful nation they
can take pride in.” School begins by singing the national anthem and
raising the Russian flag. Taking a knee or disparaging the Russian flag
is unthinkable. Putin, to be certain of unified support for the actions
taken, restore Ukraine to its rightful place, and prepare for Cold War
II, launched a new patriotic history in 2022. Putin described the
purpose: “A deep understanding of our history...to draw correct
conclusions from the past.”
Russia’s political memory constantly conditions Russians to fear
existential threats, particularly from the West. It’s why they revere
their militaries and have always been prepared to endure heavy
casualties in war. The military prevents the Russian state from being
subjugated.
Political memory also instills an unshakable pride in Russia and being
Russian, something cemented through glorifying military victories, or
at least victory in WWII. The most important holiday in Russia is
Victory Day, which honors the end of WWII. Glossed over or censored
because they do not instill pride are Russia’s losses in the Crimean
War (1853-1856), the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Vladimir Lenin
bailing on WWI while hoping to seal victory for the Germans, Stalin’s
crimes against humanity, and the 1939 Hitler-Stalin non-aggression
pact.
Russia’s political memory, which is more concerned with future security
than past moral failings, also has no room for millions starving in
government-made famines in the 20th century, including the Ukrainian
Holodomor, the enslavement of a third of the people in the Russian
Empire until 1861, the 19th- and 20th-century Jewish pogroms and Muslim
cleansings, or the 21st century’s inhumanity against Muslim Russian
Chechens. These parts of history do not contribute to the goals of
Russia’s political memory.
Russia’s approach to political memory is consistent with China’s
approach and motivated by the same theme: China lives with a perceived
existential threat to its independence, particularly from the west.
Cold War II will test its resilience.
China began preparing for round two at the end of Cold War I. This is
when it began its “Patriotic Re-education Campaign.” Cementing
patriotism in China, as in Russia, is key to preparing for and
achieving victory in Cold War II.
China’s and Russia’s approaches to political memory are contrary to the
U.S. government’s. Instead, America appears to be preparing to wave a
white flag, or maybe a rainbow-colored one. Pride in America has been
sinking, and this ties to the government’s design for America’s
political memory.
This political memory could emphasize things such as America being the
first colony to defeat a European empire or its WWII victory over
fascism. Or it could tell how, in just over 150 years, America became
an economic powerhouse on the back of capitalism and then sustained
this with an education system designed to unify Americans and later
foster innovation.
Instead, the center of history in 4,500 schools is to depict American
slavery via exaggerated interpretations of personal memories,
untempered by facts. Instead of a history of patriotism and
achievement, the American government is supporting a history of trauma,
including systemic racism and inequality. President Trump sanctioned
patriotic education to counter American history centered on slavery, an
initiative that Biden promptly revoked because it was inconsistent with
his strategy for political memory.
In 2022, it was reported that the average IQ of Americans dropped for
the first time in 100 years. The researchers speculated that it was due
to changes in the educational system. Teachers must trade time that
could be spent on “critical thinking, intellectual curiosity, and
independent thought”—all essential to innovation, economic growth, and
understanding global issues—because of mandates about the time allotted
to subjects that support Biden’s strategy for political memory. These
include topics such as restorative justice, non-white ethnic studies,
the history of slavery, reparations, and ending “negative” aspects of
white culture, such as objectivity and ambition.
Besides hindering innovation and economic growth and encouraging racial
and ethnic divisions, the government’s strategy for political memory
affects our ability to protect America. Search for pride in the
military, and the results point to gay pride. While the second and
third largest military powers have painted a bullseye on America’s
back, America can’t meet its military recruiting goals because the
political memory of the military is not American victories but,
instead, a history of racism.
Russia and China’s deepening partnership portends a potentially ominous
chapter of world history. Anyone familiar with Cold War I knows that
more than 20 million died in Cold-War-related proxy wars, so it wasn’t
that cold.
The Biden government’s trauma-centered political memory strategy to
divide America politically, and racially has motivated this Russo-
Chinese partnership and escalated the likelihood of Cold War II. China
and Russia have been planning round two since 1991, and a divided
America is a tempting target to strike at.
Has anyone ever wondered why China and Russia spend so much propaganda
capital on politically and racially dividing America? The answer is
that America’s enemies are supporting the American government’s
strategy for political memory because doing so, in conjunction with
their own hand-crafted political memories designed to unify their
countries through patriotic education/propaganda and prepare for Cold
War II, is a formula for victory. When is the American government going
to admit that its strategy for political memory is a national and
global security threat?
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Let's go Brandon!