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23A014 Power Madmen by Jim Davies, 3/4/2023
"The object of power," wrote George Orwell in 1984, "is power." The lunatics who now run the world have an insatiable appetite for more of it, and the particular ways they get it are incidental; but often interesting, even so. It will continue until nobody will work for them, which is why you see links on the right of this page. A current example: one possible reason why the FedGov has for 30 years been prodding Russia to join its hegemon, and so provoking the present War of Russian Independence, is: to contain China. The premise is that with its 1.4 billion people and its recent dramatic rise in somewhat-free enterprise and hence living standards, China would challenge US domination of the world; and that would be something up with which the power-mad folk in DC are not prepared to put. 
Now check a world map. Start at Korea and move the eye Eastwards; Japan, Canada, Britain and all of Europe are within the FedGov's control. Then comes a big gap for Russia, South of which lies China. If Russia were to join the hegemon, China would be trapped, unable to expand without a costly, major war. So much for the plan; but it's gang awry. Russia has said No thanks, we'll stand on our own feet and will defend our right to do so. Oops. Last month it got worse: Chairman Xi made a friendly visit to Moscow and it's clear that trade, and perhaps more formal alliances, are likely to increase fast between the two Asian countries. Far from becoming a buffer against Chinese expansion, Russia could help it right along... bringing Beijing to the gates of Kiev - and even further West. The FedGov could, in the coming decades, not only fail to grow its hegemon but actually lose Europe. Double oops. That's one way the next few decades could develop. But for three reasons, it may not. One: Russians, with Team Putin at the helm, are really serious about staying independent and are just as unlikely to put themselves under Chinese control as under American control. Therefore, we may expect to see the two cooperate only so far, but no further. Once the Ukraine brouhaha is finished, trade may still flourish between the two (China needs oil for example, and Russia has plenty to sell) but closer ties? - Nyet. Two: As a major example of the dangers in #1, too close a relationship would tempt a future Chinese government to grab a big slab of Russian land. Consider: China has... - 10 times the population of Russia The third item there suggests that Russia might leap from the frying pan into the fire. Three: Chinese economic growth has been spectacular since Deng Xiaoping set business free to make profits in 1982, but he didn't do much for personal freedoms alongside economic ones; and in the last decade particularly those have become worse than ever, with tight controls over behavior and speech. This ever-present desire of government people to control is likely to spread; bit by bit the liberation Deng brought will be taken away. And if that happens, economic growth will stop; and grandiose plans for world domination depend on wealth generated by the people. When that stops growing, so must the plans. Notice: above, I've referred to countries by name, as is often done; but it's really the governments of those societies. This deadly jockeying for position and supremacy is all the work of the ruling cliques involved, not of the mass of the people they supposedly represent, who are interested only in getting on with the enjoyment of life. The contrast is stark; yet the conventional media always presume the two are in sync. They are most certainly not. Also, this all presumes that the movement to eradicate government does not reach any of these countries; but if you and I do our part now, there is no reason why that should be true. If education causes an irresistable walk-out of government employees in the US, it can do the same in Russia and China. All it takes is a couple of translations, and Google is ready to give that work a big start.
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