Biden is Preparing Americans To Lose the Second Cold War
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
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.”
In the meantime, our schools focus on systemic racism, gender identity, and preach that we were founded by white, imperialist, racists.
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.
In America, most students have never heard of VE Day or VJ Day and can’t tell the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans day.
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.
…….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 signifies 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?
Russian History Today
Early in his first presidency, Vladimir Putin resolved that patriotic education would be a priority under his leadership. In 2001, his regime published its first five-year plan for this purpose. As a testament to his consistency on the subject, Putin remarked in 2016 that “love of country” was the essential element in Russian unification.(Maybe we should look at that initiative)
In contrast to past eras, contemporary historians in Russia have little to fear from censors. Longtime Russia scholar Stephen Cohen bluntly asserts in a recent work, “There is almost no historical censorship in Russia today.” This does not mean that Putin’s government does not take an interest.
However, rather than punish dissenting or unflattering interpretations, the Russian government offers gentle encouragement to take a patriotic line. To the extent that there is enforcement of a certain orthodoxy, it is often based on democratic impulses.
That is to say that most of the public, to some degree in response to official promotion of certain patriotic or nationalistic themes, can actively assist the authorities in curbing dissent.
The tremendous costs to Russia as a result of World War II (referred to in Russia as the “Great Patriotic War”) and the heroism displayed by the Russian military in turning back the Nazi invasion continue to be dominant themes in the writing and artistic expression of Russian public figures and cultural leaders. Surviving members of the war are revered and constantly held up to the public as exemplars of Russian patriotism that should be emulated.
Military history has long been central to Russia’s national narrative. Particularly in light of the long political and social struggles they have experienced, Russia’s exploits on the battlefield have been a huge source of affirmation.
Writing about Soviet society in his 1976 edition of The Russians, journalist Hedrick Smith devoted an entire chapter to the phenomenon of Russian patriotism. As he put it, “In an age grown skeptical of undiluted patriotism, Russians are perhaps the world’s most passionate patriots.”Victory in the Great Patriotic War, as it is remembered to this day, still provides a kind of validation that overrides misgivings about the misery of Stalinism, economic failures, rampant alcoholism, population decline, and depressing statistics about life expectancy.
….Overall, importance of history in Russia today lies in its role in not only shaping the identity of the population but also in the way that identity shapes behavior. The emphasis on loyalty to Russia’s heritage and traditions influences everything from support for the existing regime to willingness to serve in the armed forces of the Russian Federation. History is a wonderful vehicle for this purpose, especially if those in charge have the power to shape the narrative. (The narrative is definitely being shaped in US schools, but is it the narrative we want being taught to our kids?)
Author’s note: Whenever practical, the author adheres to the Library of Congress system of transliteration from Cyrillic to Latin letters; exceptions include spellings of names, terms of reference, or places that are commonly accepted in English and therefore more familiar to American readers.
https://academic.oup.com/isq/article/52/4/783/1797043
Oxford Academic website
National Humiliation, History Education, and the Politics of Historical Memory: Patriotic Education Campaign in China
International Studies Quarterly, Volume 52, Issue 4, December 2008, Pages 783–806, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2478.2008.00526.x
Published:
…..Schools are the primary social institutions that transmit national narratives about the past. All nation-states, whether Western democracies or nondemocratic societies, have placed great emphasis on teaching their national history with the aim of consolidating the bond between the individual citizen and the homeland.
…..In China, the “Patriotic Education Campaign,” which began in 1991, is another massive attempt by the government at ideological reeducation.
….This campaign is a nationwide mobilization effort targeted mainly at Chinese youth. As a central part of the campaign, Beijing called upon the entire nation to study China’s humiliating modern history and how much the country has been changed by the Communist revolution.
The CCP has set the entire propaganda machine in motion for this initiative, the content of which has become institutionalized in China—embedded in political institutions and inaugurated as the CCP’s new ideological tool.
For example, the Party has conducted major revisions of its schools’ history textbooks since 1991. (Sound familiar?) In the new textbooks, a patriotic narrative replaced the old class-struggle narrative. (In America we have done exactly the opposite. We have replaced the patriotic narrative with racism and class struggle)
The official Maoist “victor narrative” (China won national independence) was also superseded by a new “victimization narrative,” which blames the “West” for China’s suffering.
Through the nationwide education campaign, Beijing has creatively used history education as an instrument for the glorification of the party, for the consolidation of the PRC’s national identity, and for the justification of the political system of the CCP’s one party rule. (Is that what we are seeing here?)
So, there you have it folks. In a nutshell, Russia and China are teaching patriotism and love of country to their kids, while we teach systemic racism, gender identity, class struggle, and victimhood.
In a world wide conflict with Russia and China against the United States, who do you think stands the best chance of rallying the support of their youth?