NORTH KOREA AS AN EXPRESSION OF CHINESE INTELLIGENT DESIGN

If this did not exist it would have to be created.

by Colin Liddell

The level of analysis of the North Korean situation in America's corridors of power is laughable. Yes, literally.

Trump's recent comment about his button being bigger than Kim Jong-un’s "button" was ROFL tier and highlighted the general absurdity of the situation as it is perceived and projected in America. Then, following this Bond-villain slapstick, we saw the lumbering bulk of Trump and America deftly side-stepped by a mini-thaw in relations between the two Koreas, ironically brought on by the forthcoming Winter Olympics, with China and Russia looking on approvingly.

The real flaw with most of the analysis is simple. It views things purely from the American side of the windscreen, when the fact is the US Empire is no longer on the motorway—as it seems to think it is—but is in fact entering the metal scrapping yard, headed for the crusher. The real story here is that America is the object, not the subject, in the situation, and in ways that its ruling elites are clearly oblivious of.

So, who is really in the driving seat here?

CRACKS IN THE GREAT WALL

by Ave Maria

The essence of Greek comedies, like most good comedies, consisted of a straight man and a buffoon. The straight man, or ironist, understates his own abilities, eliciting a knowing chuckle from the audience in on the joke. The buffoon, or alazon, overstates his own talents to the point of absurdity. The alazon’s self-deceptive boastfulness, and his inability to see what is going on in front of his face, assures victory to the ironist. He does not even understand the ironist's sly jokes.

In the realm of geopolitics, the West of 2014 is the world's alazon. We have such a wide cast of characters in the role of the ironist that the odds seem rather unfairly stacked against us. Not only are the non-Western countries taking us for fools, but also the non-Westernized populations within our own countries, and sometimes, it seems, the chorus of the cosmic play itself.