The Mark Weber Report

Is it really true, as American political leaders and educators claim, that “diversity is our strength”? And why are some countries more prosperous, stable, orderly and happier than others? Detailed research by Harvard University scholar Robert Putnam, and others, shows that ethnic-racial “diversity” actually weakens a society. In more diverse societies, levels of trust are not only lower between groups, but even among members of the same group. Ethnically cohesive societies are more prosperous, trusting, orderly, safe and healthy than those that are diverse. Extensive, path-breaking research by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen shows that a nation’s level of prosperity, economic progress and social well-being is based above all on the average intelligence level of its people. Hard data and historical experience show that the ideology and social-racial policies of the US today are not based on reality, which means that the nation’s most serious problems will inevitably worsen.

American education standards and quality declined sharply during the 1960s and 1970s along with a new, “politically correct” emphasis on social-racial equality. SAT scores fell sharply, and have remained low ever since. Younger Americans perform much less well than northern Europeans and east Asians on international achievement tests. The 2002 “No Child Left Behind” law, enacted with broad bi-partisan political support, is (predictably) proving to be an ever more obvious failure, in spite of enormous outlays of money. Such wasteful and irresponsible programs are based on America’s prevailing egalitarian-individualistic ideology. Because this guiding outlook is based on false premises about life, society and history, programs and policies based on it are doomed to failure.

China’s economy is now the world’s second largest, and China is set to soon replace the US as the foremost economic and industrial nation. Over the past 30 years, real per capita income in China has grown by more than 1,300 percent. Over the last decade alone, China quadrupled its industrial output. It now produces more automobiles than the US and Japan combined. Each year many more people graduate with science and engineering degrees in China than in the USA. China — along with Hong Kong, Singapore, and, to a lesser extent, Taiwan and South Korea – has achieved dramatic economic growth with a social-political system that combines free enterprise and “state socialism.” What those countries have accomplished over the past half century proves that economic growth, technological progress and prosperity are possible without US-style democracy and capitalism. In the years ahead China will play an ever more important role in world affairs, and will increasingly challenge America’s “leadership” position.

Picture: Mark Weber at the Great Wall of China, Oct. 2009.

George F. Kennan, an outstanding twentieth-century American diplomat and scholar, played an important role in implementing and shaping US foreign policy, and earned well-deserved praise as a historian. He was a consistent advocate of a “realist” US foreign policy — laid down by Washington, Jefferson, and other founders — based on a prudent regard for US interests, and especially the long-term interests of the American people. By contrast, the “idealist” US foreign policy of recent decades is justified with seemingly principled slogans, but in fact is driven by narrow partisan interests. Kennan regarded America’s role in the postwar inter-Allied Nuremberg Trials of Germany’s defeated leaders as a “horror” and a “mockery.” In 1947-48, he joined with State Department chief George C. Marshall and other high-ranking US officials in opposing US support for the Zionist takeover of Palestine. With the passage of time, Kennan became increasingly pessimistic about America’s future, and ever more critical of US-style democracy.

Iranian distrust of the United States is rooted in a legacy of arrogant, belligerent US policy. During World War II, British and Soviet military forces invaded neutral Iran. The country’s leader, Reza Shah Pahlavi, trustingly appealed to President Franklin Roosevelt, who had solemnly proclaimed devotion to the principles of freedom and respect for national sovereignty. But Roosevelt rejected the plea and sought to justify the aggression, which he backed to help the Soviet Union against Germany and to support British imperial interests. The Allied invasion and occupation brought destruction, mass death and humiliation to Iran. And twelve years later, US and British officials, acting through the CIA, organized the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected government in a violent coup that cost hundreds of lives.

Fascism is one of the most often misused and widely misunderstood political terms. Publicists of both the left and right use the term “fascist” not to describe but to discredit and smear adversaries. “Fascism” is often inaccurately used as a synonym for tyranny, militarism, Nazism, racism, or capitalism. During the first 13 years of Fascist rule in Italy, the regime and its leader (“Duce”), Benito Mussolini, were widely admired in the US and other countries. They earned praise, for example, for resolutely uprooting mafia criminality. Attitudes in the US changed after the Italian subjugation of Ethiopia in 1935-36, and as Mussolini aligned Italy ever more closely with Hitler’s Germany. The image of Mussolini and Fascism that prevails today is largely the product of World War II propaganda.

Many Americans regard Ronald Reagan as one of the greatest presidents of the twentieth century. For many conservatives, he’s an exemplary, iconic figure. While the eight years of his presidency was a period of modest economic growth, his legacy is largely one of broken promises and empty rhetoric. In spite of his often repeated criticisms of “big government,” he actually increased the size and scope of Washington’s power. His economic, fiscal and tax policies, which even his own vice president had called “voodoo economics,” brought a drastic increase in US long-term debt. Destructive trends in American cultural life, and the drastic demographic transformation of large sections of the country, continued with undiminished velocity. Reagan’s understanding of history was meager and childish. In keeping with his mythologized, semi-mystical view of America, he approved a large-scale amnesty for illegal aliens. Reagan’s career and legacy should help make clear to everyone why conservatives can’t and don’t win.

Lurid falsehood and outright lies are routinely promoted, even by supposedly reputable media, as part of the seemingly endless campaign of “Holocaust Remembrance.” A recent item in Canada’s most prestigious daily newspaper about the wartime German concentration camp of Buchenwald is a good example. Specific falsehoods are cited, and discredited. Such historical deceit is a routine part of the relentless “Holocaust” campaign, which plays such an important role in our society because it’s an expression of Jewish-Zionist power, and is meant to further Jewish-Zionist interests.