Russia vs. globalization

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FOREWORD
This article appeals exclusively to the reason and common sense of the Reader capable of unbiased perception of the facts and ideas, a perception as free from any emotional and national context as possible. Besides, the author hereby states that the aim of this article is to provide impartial analysis and reasoned interpretation of largely ascertained facts and obvious processes rather than in condemnation or denunciation of any kind. The author insists that everything that has and is now happening at the global, regional, local and all other levels, including an individual, is not merely incidental, but wholly dependant on and determined by, above all, INTRINSIC properties and attributes of any system, whether it be an individual or a country, a corporation or the entire civilization. Therefore, while aggression of the modern Western/Occidental Civilization (further referred to as "OC") is described in distinctly negative terms, the author, however, does not blame the OC or the USA (as its "physical" leader) for distress, disasters and miseries experienced by both Russia and many other countries as a consequence of aggressive, deceitful and duplicitous US policy (economic, military, "subversive", etc.). If it is happening, then the causes, prerequisites and preconditions of those miseries are to be found in the peoples of the affected countries.

But what are those miseries? They are but "learning and teaching situations", wherein some receive and take advantage of the given opportunities for individual improvement while others, who cannot stand the strain, surrender and degrade. This also applies to Russia and its people, who may either use the critical situation to advantage and make a qualitative breakthrough, primarily with regard to the world outlook, widening of perception and consciousness, preservation and development of the Russian civilization, or take no action and eventually disappear from the map of the world. There is another relevant aspect worth mentioning in this context: the OC in its modern form or state is fundamentally incapable of entering the world of Divine harmony, as the very origin and further development of this civilization has been based on and governed by complete ignorance/ unawareness of the Divine dispensation (world order), Divine laws and principles of the universal existence. Other modern civilizations do not essentially differ from OC in their ignorance; however, their life is controlled by certain spiritual constraints/limitations, first of all by belief in God. It means that the lack of knowledge of Divine dispensation is compensated with the primacy of the Divine, spiritually, which have not yet been eroded and devastated like it has already occurred in the more "advanced"/ forward countries of the Occidental Civilization. As a consequence, other civilizations have been incapable of producing a global environmental threat. On the whole, though, one can't help noticing the presence of some force or power that steadily promotes vulgarization and materialization of the mind and consciousness. Moreover, one can hardly deny the fact, that strange as it might seem, the clerical institutes, chiefly Christian and Judaist churches (not to be confused with the religions proper) play a most active part in this process by interfering with the permanent "spiritual activity" of an individual ("on-line' communication with God) in an attempt to confine it to "a specially designated place", wherein a visiting individual can regularly "put in order and clear his dealings with God" to return into the outside world with a clear mind free from any excruciating thoughts about God, to say nothing of such ingenious and clever tricks like indulgencies or "indults" invented by the church…


 

The quest for the Russian National Idea, along with the national identity issues, has recently come into the focus of public attention and has been continuously and actively discussed in some of the Russian mass media sources. The underlying cause of the growing public anxiety is general disillusionment and bitter disappointment with the socio-economic and cultural consequences of the "reforms" and with the way Russia is being integrated into the world community, with the so-called "universal human values" of western ethics such as "democracy", "liberty", "market", etc. While the majority of the rank-and-file population (who were the first to feel the impact of the changes "on their own back") realized what was going on still in the early days of the reformation process. The dramatic character of the situation has drawn the attention of most mass media only in recent years, owing essentially to new leaders and administration of the country. There is an emerging understanding and recognition by society of the gruesome reality: failure to formulate, adopt (and further implement) an adequate National Idea will inevitably result in the economic and physical extinction of Russia, which will be ultimately wiped as such, from the world map. The speed of this process entirely depends on the rates of depletion of oil and gas resources or the time required for hydrocarbons to be substituted for alternative energy sources.

The author of the article could not stay away from the discussion and herein offers his own formulation of the National Idea: Russia should take the lead in showing mankind the way out of the dead end of civilization[1]. Without adherence to and implementation of this or any similarly formulated concept of the National Idea, Russia will be unable to survive globalization. Moreover, mankind in general will stand very little chance of coping with the challenges of globalization in its present form, to escape destruction.

The Reader may be willing to ask numerous questions and in the first place:

Can it be that the mankind has reached any kind of a deadlock? How does the crisis manifest itself? How can you prove it?

Is it at all possible that there exists some National or Planetary idea or concept capable of ensuring stable and purposeful development of a society, to say nothing of mankind?

Why should today's backward Russia that has long ceased to be a world power with influence pretend to lead the entire world?
This article is intended to provide answers to the above questions and to offer an adequate substantiation of the National (and Planetary) Idea. I would like to conclude this introductory passage with an indicative answer to the last of the three questions formulated above and namely about Russia and its destiny. First of all, in the last century Russia already demonstrated its willingness and potential to go its own way. Please note that the starting conditions at the time were no better than those of today; it means we do have a precedent. Secondly, as noted above there is no future for Russia in the world, which follows the western pattern of globalization. In the third place, the ideological basis for the new alternative will be provided not by "communism" associated with 'godlessness' and 'indiscriminate equality', but by a fundamentally different, superior perception of the world organization and structure, of man and the meaning of life and of the evolution of mankind, a perception that is free from class bias or any other limiting assumptions. One more observation: one should not unconditionally trust mass media condemning Russian leaders for their actions and policies that do not fit the conventional beliefs and convictions of the leaders of the USA, NATO, IBRD, IMF and other actors actively involved in the globalization process. These (actions and policies) are very likely to be primarily aimed at the conservation of Russian civilization, which may well coincide with the interests of people living in the western countries.



FOOTNOTE
1. In making this statement the author neither claims that the National Idea in this or close wording will be formulated and declared, nor does he deny any other country the right to add such an idea to its arsenal or to adopt it as national philosophy.



It is a fact that mass media has recently been using observers, political analysts and economists to remind us of the ongoing process of globalization. Television reports and programs often feature actions of antiglobalists. This biased coverage of the events voluntarily or not contributes to the creation of a negative image of globalization opponents in the public opinion. What is globalization after all and how should we treat this phenomenon? Is it an unavoidable "evil" or has the world an option? These are the issues I am going to address in this article along with offering my own answer to both explicitly formulated and implied questions. I assume that many people would be willing to find out what globalization is and where it is going to ultimately lead mankind. The new outlook I am going to suggest is largely based on historic review of the development of the Russian civilization that naturally includes recent developments. Therefore the article particularly focuses on analysis of the events of the recent past and present processes in contemporary Russia, in an attempt to provide a reasonable explanation of the meaning and implications thereof. This is especially important since universally accepted and widely quoted interpretations of Russian history of the 20th century are primitive and oversimplified (i.e. lacking a dialectic approach). However, any discourse and rumination over the past and present would be of little value without reference to the prospects and future of Russia.

Review of the visible history of mankind leads us to understanding that globalization is in fact the final and logical phase of a long-lasting (for a thousand year period) process of consolidation of the basic structural (or building) blocks of human society (BBB or BSU)[2]. Since prehistoric times those basic building blocks have been consecutively (but not excluding overlapping or parallelism, likely to have been caused by regionally asynchronous changes with a possible "delay" of several thousand years) represented by family, tribe, community, theocratic states and subsequent later forms of statehood, which have been progressively growing in size. The mechanism of BSU agglomeration consists in incorporation by a stronger (economically, militarily or both) BSU of other BSUs of the same order. The process developed further to the point when individual states began to form alliances, long-term blocks or even unions, wherein many attributes of individual members were and are obliterated. Such is the contemporary situation in Western and Central Europe.

Apparently the world is nearing the point when a BSU will be represented by a CIVILIZATION to be further replaced with civilization blocks made up of a number of civilizations. This process is being driven by Western Civilization, to be more precise - by some driving forces that manifest themselves and operate through institutional structures (in a very broad sense) of Western Civilization. The speed and orientation of changes call forth association ofa car rushing downhill without brakes.

The entire process is primarily driven by financial interests, by commitment of global financial "players", both international financial organizations (IFO) and transnational corporations (TNC), to unlimited and unrestrained growth of their assets. Thus, on the natural process of BSU consolidation there is superimposed a more radical globalization tendency: progressive development of transnational financial and industrial capital, which is guided solely by the principle of self-expansion, and for which interstate frontiers exist merely in terms of time and effort required for elimination of their influence and influence of political forces that are associated with particular states on financial and commodity flows.



FOOTNOTE
2. This process must have been evidently preceded by initial colonization and expansion of humans over the planet and (at a certain phase) eventual formation of ethnoses (ethnic groups); other civilizations are most likely to have existed long before this consolidation process started, for example, the dolmen civilization, which extended from the western end of Europe to the Korea peninsular or, more likely, was spread all over the planet.



It is this statement that puts Western Civilization in confrontation with other civilizations, as IFO and TNC belong to Western Civilizations and thereby actually 'play' against the rest of the world and, as it were, on the side of the West. The most significant difference between historical past and the present practice is that conventional capture of the territory of other BSUs, declarations of "hot" or cold wars on them are no longer necessary. Nowadays they favour smarter and much more effective methods of subjugation and exploitation perfected by IFO, when the subjects are continuously reminded, in a fatherly manner, of what they should do and how they should behave to avoid displeasure of the real "powers that be". Transition of a medium-scale confrontation to the inter-civilization level, is accompanied by a considerable expansion of warfare arsenals through employment of such weapons as financial, information and cultural instruments that include corrupt practice of bribing "national elites" of the adversary and establishing of the so-called financial and economic "pumping stations". This is supported by the development of WMD and conventional weapons, which could serve as a weighty argument in disputes with some "ignorant" opponents who refuse to conform with the requirements.

Thus, it may be concluded that the modern globalization process is dominated by and allegedly implemented in the interests of Western Civilization[3]. The latter is undoubtedly led by the United States, the most aggressive, powerful and "forward" representative of the Western Civilization (further referred to as (OC - Occidental Civilization). Western Europe is striving to maintain its own interests in globalization. Aggression, expansion and all kinds of pressure through information wars, financial enslavement, puppet regimes or open hostilities have become objective and indisputable reality. Therefore ascription to the West (the term naturally does not imply ordinary citizens or peoples) of such motivation and mental impetus as "Russia is our friend" or "let us help Russia" (to become a "democratic" and "prosperous" nation like ours, etc.) is a dangerous error or malevolent and ill-intentioned lie devised by internal or external OC agents who are using mass-media to inspire the public with "mythology of delusions"[4]. Confrontation between the USA and the Islamic world is much more open and expressed but it is a matter of tactics only (at least as viewed by the USA, as the Islamic civilization regards this confrontation as of a more distinct and fundamental character than that of the struggle of the Russian civilization against the pressure of the USA and OC in general).

These myths are supported with seemingly obvious argumentation: the "West" lives in a civilized, well-to-do world, enjoys all kinds of "freedoms" and if we borrow from them the fundamental principles of social order, we will be as well off as they are. It is not malicious intent but evolutionary rules and imperatives of development of Western and Russian civilizations that govern aggressive policy of expansion pursued by the "West" in its relations with Russia: one civilization is trying to suppress, crush and ultimately destroy an alien, natural resource-abundant civilization. If the western utopian projects of upgrading Russia to the OC standard and hosting it among the few so-called developed countries could, in some miraculous way, be realized, it would signify extinction of the Russian Civilization (RC), i.e. its peaceful defeat, whereby carriers of civilization are not destroyed physically but undergo cultural and spiritual degeneration. The scenario that has been implemented in Russia since early '90-s proves to be aimed not only at cultural but also the physical elimination of the RC along with the overwhelming majority of its carriers; at the same time there appears a possibility for a small group of individuals who have risen to the very top and who have generally lost any affiliation to the RC, if any (in fact, they have never truly belonged there), to painlessly join OC. It should be noted however, that enslavement of the RC through spiritual emigration, alienation and retreat of the ruling elite from RC towards OC, dates as far back as a thousand years or more. The previous peak of the process of the ruling elite alienation was observed in 18-19 centuries. Apropos, Peter I broke the window open from Europe into Russia rather than from Russia into Europe. Wild outbursts of corruption related, among other spheres, to lobbying of interests of third parties (read: foreign or European states) reach a tremendous scale that has been surpassed only in the last 15 years of contemporary Russian history. It seems superfluous to remark that the vanguard ranks of the aggressors (acting "on behalf "of the West, i.e. OC) were, and still are, "reformers", oligarchs and their henchmen, as well as corruptors (corrupt officials) who betray the interests of their people and motherland in whatever field they bear responsibility for: it is done through mass-media, indiscriminate privatization (including defense sector and strategically important industries), promotion of foreign goods to the prejudice of domestic manufacturers, etc.



FOOTNOTE
3. Russian patriotic literature commonly uses the term "Biblical Civilization" to describe genesis and essential features of the modern Western Civilization; these notions are very close, but are not quite synonymous; this article uses the term "Western Civilization" for reasons of universally accepted terminology, but also because the accent herein is made on the contemporary geopolitical alignment of forces rather than on the genesis related issues.
4. Russia cannot converge with the Western Civilization for objective reasons provided that we choose to rule out possible integration into the Western Civilization of several millions of "more advanced individuals/ citizens" (who, in fact, are already promoting western interests in Russia) at the expense of extinction of the overwhelming majority of the Russian population - carriers of the Russian civilization.

 

Social Darwinism manifests itself in the indiscriminate competition for "one's place in the sun" with a focus progressively shifting from relations between individuals, social groups or classes to the sphere of suprastate and supragovernment relations between large or even global financial-economic and other subjects (IFO, TNC, NATO, unions, alliances, blocks, etc.). While one TNC at first opportunity voraciously devours and digests another that belongs to the same OC and therefore is devoid of any ideological and civilization antagonism, the alien Russian civilization may stand no chances in the fight against the vanguard ranks of the west-driven globalization, which will absorb, suppress and eliminate it with still greater greed and pleasure. It should be noted though that in the past 15/20 years or so the absorption of Russian Civilization has been so effectively implemented through purely informational methods of influence that the younger generation in Russia (at least its considerable part) already belongs to the Western rather than Russian Civilization.

A discourse on the modern globalization process developing under the pressure and auspices of OC would naturally require some analysis of the essential characteristics of this very civilization. The latter like any other has its pros and cons, i.e. negative and positive aspects. The scope of this article does not allow detailed analysis of all the advantages of Western Civilization (moreover, those are well known and primarily come down to highly organized material culture), therefore I apologize for having to concentrate on the negative aspects of the Occidental Civilization. Please note, that least of all do I intend to sound accusatory, incriminating; denunciatory, revealing or abusive. This is but a statement of ascertained facts. So the negative charge of OC[5] consists in its technocratic, atheistic and vulgarly materialistic, acquisitive, selfish, earthly, hypocritical orientation (essence) resulting in progressing earthliness and loss of spirituality, abnormal preoccupation with "economic growth", i.e. increased consumption. THE CRUCIAL POINT IS THE PRECEDENCE OF THE MATERIAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL, SELF- IDENTIFICATION OF THE PERSONALITY WITH THE EGO-MIND THAT SERVICES THE INTERESTS OF THE BODY AND EGO-SELF, AND, AS A CONSEQUENCE, TOTAL ALIENATION AND LOSS OF LIAISON BETWEEN THE PERSONALITY (EGO) AND THE DIVINE (COSMIC) UNIFORMITY. As a consequence the modern civilization of a western type is characterized by intentional stimulation[6] of consumerism and human vice, unscrupulousness ("a thief passes for a gentleman when stealing has made him rich - money has no smell", "after us the deluge") and aggressiveness toward any external or alien environment. It looks like the OC is affected by some malignant process gradually degenerating into a global malignant neoplasm or tumour. Health status of other civilizations is far from perfect either, however they do not pose a primary threat to the mankind because they have not degenerated as far as the OC have. Their conflict with the OC is not caused by the backwardness of the "uncultivated medieval East" from the forward Western Civilization, but by a dangerous evolution of the OC resulting in alarming disbalance of the spiritual and the material, and the latter has broken free and ran away from the wise parents like a naughty gosling. Due to FUNDAMENTAL, PRINCIPAL and SYSTEMATIC CHARACTER of deviations of OC from the harmonious (Divine) destination, practically all aspects of life and organization of this society have an intrinsic malignant core element, be it medicine or television, law or sport, economics or politics, including the actively promoted and propagated institutes of "democracy" and "human rights". Naturally, I am all for democracy and human rights if they are not enclosed in inverted commas, i.e. when they are used in their, original (unfeigned) sense not distorted by overemphasized ego.

For comparison with OC the modern Russian Civilization can be described as techno?ratic, atheistic and vulgarly materialistic, but in contrast to OC the Russian Civilization has not yet sacrificed spirituality and hearfulness (German term "Innerlichkeit" most closely conveys the idea) to consumerism and egotism.

The Islamic Civilization is highly spiritual but vulgarly theistic because of obvious disbalance between Love and Spirit in favor of the latter. This turns faith of many into fanaticism, i.e. believers become fanatics who involuntarily and unconsciously act as opponents to God (Allah), for it alienates an individual from the "Ocean of Divine Love" wherein the "supreme ego of every human being resides".

To summarize the essential differences, an ordinary individual in OC has gone farthest along the road to spiritual degradation and heartlessness and is still proceeding in the same direction. RC is characterized by greater spirituality and Innerlichkeit, however the balance between the spiritual and the material in RC is, unfortunately, significantly shifted towards the material values and thinking (materiality). Perestroika triggered off the mechanisms of precipitant degradation of personality and degeneration of RC in a peripheral appendix to OC. And it is us, representatives of RC, who decide, both figuratively and literally, whether we can stand up to the pressure or surrender. The Islamic Civilization is characterized by high spirituality but it suffers from and is endangered by disbalance between Spirituality and Love (in their highest meaning and manifestations).

Of course the differences between the Islamic Civilization and OC, at least those clearly visible, are much more essential than those between RC and OC. That is why it became possible to create and foment hostility between Moslems and Russians and to direct and incite Moslem terrorists against Russia, which, in the eyes of Moslem fanatics, has become but a stronghold and another bastion of the USA and OC in general, and, consequently, the source and carrier of all sins and vices of OC. But the Islamic Civilization itself may be exposed to erosion, which is intentionally stimulated and facilitated by OC everywhere.



FOOTNOTE
6. As an essential and integral mechanism of its "development"




Malignancy of OC (of environmental, economic and spiritual nature) and its inevitable collapse (individual or involving the rest of the world) can be convincingly illustrated by numerous examples or facts, of which just few are listed below.

Losses of tropical forests are estimated to be 15-17 million hectares per year. While a thousand years back they occupied an area of 3.5 billion ha and retained 3.3 billion ha still in 1955, in 2000 this figure came down to as low as 2.1 billion ha; this means that the losses of tropical forests for the past 45 years amounted to 86 percent of the total loss for the entire known historic period (according to official data of UNO). At least 50 thousand species of plants and animals disappear from the planet every year. Needless to say that the end-users or consumers of the lion's share of all natural resources are the OC countries. No modeling is required to allow conclusion on a speedy progress towards global environmental disaster we are making.

Fertility of soils has substantially deteriorated because of use of artificial fertilizers and impact of waste and other environmental pollutants. Application of pesticides and other artificial substances results in increasing risk of cancerous diseases.

Particular case: threat of destruction of the last world's genofond "depository" of natural salmon in Kamchatka under pressure and onrush of interests of oil-gas-gold and other producers of sub-surface resources (no matter whether mineral resources will be extracted and produced by foreign or Russian companies, its is the OC that is boosting consumption of hydrocarbon and other resources an a global scale);

Degradation of human spirit and soul that is manifest, but not limited to progressive growth of the "economy of vice": markets of drugs, pornography, yellow press, cinema and TV narcotics, etc.
Why does modern OC cultivate vice or, in a broader sense - degradation of spirit, soul, and personality in general? In terms of economy 'vice' is just a public need in something that is commonly prohibited, considered immoral or wicked. The need generates demand, i.e. an individual is willing to pay for satisfaction of his perverse desires and fulfillment of voyeuristic needs, and where there is demand there is supply. Thus, when viewed from this angle any civilization vice is but another segment of the market. No wonder: money has no smell and this delayed-action mine had been in place ever since EGO broke free from under CONTROL OF SPIRITUAL PRINCIPALITY and FAITH degenerated from OMNIPRESENT, ALL-PERVADING "MATTER", fundamental base of personality, into something fragmentary, accessory, and auxiliary. The apotheosis of the process was manifested still in ancient times with introduction of a most stunning, even appalling but very characteristic of OC institute of INDULT (the essence and mechanics of this institute are beautifully parodied in a short story by V. Sevrinovskiy, "The White Knight": "… The world debut of indults when they were put out for public tender made quite a sensation. Needless to say Van Burman managed to fetch much more for it than he had originally paid! His success opened the eyes for other money-men who shrewdly and absolutely fairly assessed high potential profit in trade in indults by then circulating worldwide in thousands. The Church at first attempted to hinder the progress but, having realized the futility of such attempts and having made its own assessment of the new prospects, it promptly monopolized the right for institutional and technical organization of the trade.



FOOTNOTE
7. Argumentation of the need for sub-surface development is simple: prospective investors will increase budget revenues. But any investors, in particular those interested in oil and gold resources are primarily attracted and driven by an opportunity to increase their already high profits through rental income (added return on capital created by the cost (intrinsic value) of extracted sub-surface resource), which is comprised of the part of national wealth that is incorporated in the deposit. Needless to say those investors are ready to resort to any available means to maximize their share of the rental income to increase profits. It is only natural, that on completion of any deposit development the national wealth is, as a rule, substantially reduced, even without consideration of associated environmental losses.




It was then that the famous Vatican Depositary was built next to St. Peters Cathedral. The fully automated depository held tremendous quantities of indults put out for sale. Of course not everything went so smoothly and the system occasionally malfunctioned. Take that much-talked-of featured scandal with investors protesting against the issue of indults with serial numbers containing three sixes…" http://www.shandi.narod.ru/liter/Indulg.htm). Apart from the fact, that vicious market segments must objectively grow along with the natural growth of the global market ("liberal economy") in general, merely like filling or occupation of vacant market niches, accelerated development of the "vicious economy" is further aggravated by the following two factors:


DEGRADATION OF PERSONALITY IS A MUCH MORE EASILY ATTAINABLE AND ALTOGETHER EVEN ENJOYABLE ("KEIF", "HIGH" AND "JOY RIDE") PROCESS (AND RESULT) THAN DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY, which does not exclusively depend on external conditions and possibilities, but above all requires spirituality, tenacity of purpose, strong will, inner strength and dedication, continuous effort and self improvement;

THE FIELD FOR CULTIVATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF ALL SORTS AND FORMS OF VICE IS APPALLINGLY VAST IN COMPARISON TO THE NARROW SECTOR OF BALANCED DEVELOPMENT AND HARMONY; by analogy: the field of variants for good performance of Mozart is very small, whereas the expanse for bad or bletcherous performance has practically no limits.
That is to say that the closer we are to the ultimate (and inevitable) satisfaction of the natural human needs the greater is the role of stimulating artificial and unnatural needs of humans. Those are not limited to drugs, alcohol, pornography, but also include an industry of blacksploitation, sexploitation and seamy-side movies, as well as such seemingly harmless market segments as sport and other shows, pharmacy, legal (particularly advocation) and medical services, stock markets. In fact, all the above is a demonstration of the LAW OF ACCELERATED OBJECTIVE GROWTH OF THE "VICIOUS ECONOMY" INTRINSICALLY TIED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOCRATIC, VULGARLY MATERIALISTIC CIVILIZATION towards achievement of the highest possible level of satisfaction of the natural needs of the majority.

In our opinion particular attention should be paid to the economic mechanism of interrelations between modern OC and the rest of the world. I refer to the article of Khozh-Ackmed Nukhaev entitled "Genesis of Terrorism. Economy", which was published in the "Russian Journal / Policy" on December 26th 2002 (www.russ.ru/politics/20021226-nuh.html). The article affords a brilliant explanation of this mechanism; therefore I think it would be appropriate to quote it here:

"An Everyman is repeatedly told that terrorism will be quickly and ultimately done away with "if the WTO is granted an exclusive prerogative in establishing 'rules of the game' and 'panhuman values'". 'The Banker' will note, that in (a) situation when 'Country A' (for example, Iraq or post-reform Russia - P.K.), supplier of raw materials and of low added value goods, is exporting them to 'Country B' (an OC member -P.K.) in exchange for finished (end) consumer products, the structure of such 'free trade' relations is contemporaneously and inevitably condemning 'Country A' to systematic, i.e. overwhelming backwardness, and thereby to civilizational subordinacy to 'Country B' It may be seen with an unaided eye that under this economic model … the poor will get poorer and the wealthy - wealthier.

I consider it necessary to stress one very important though pretty rarely observed point, the significance of which is not only altogether ignored by the mass-media, but escapes analysis in specialist literature as well: in spite of the obvious unfairness and inequity of those relations, it will never be reflected in balance reports or records of profits and losses of those two hypothetical countries. On the contrary, both will "see" mathematically precise and accurate proofs of the economic growth of both countries, which will be reflected in increased Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures, while GDP indicator in fact remains a universally acknowledged criterion for assessing progress (prosperity) and backwardness (poverty) worldwide, i.e. applied to all countries of the world.

However, with all the optimism inspired by the growing GDP indicators in both countries, in real terms of "material wealth" 'Country A' will find itself on the way to bankruptcy to be inevitably caused by its insolvency in relations with the creditor. Ironically, though paradoxically as it may seem, 'Country B' will be following the same road to imminent bankruptcy as a consequence of default of the debtor…

Meanwhile the very process of such trade relations resembles circulus vitiosus (vicious circle). As the added value of consumer goods that are sold to 'Country A' by 'Country B' will be converted in free monetary funds accumulating in the banking system of 'Country B', this continuous growth of liquidity will force it to offer all kinds of loans to 'Country A' for the development of the export potential of the latter. For 'Country A", increased long-term borrowing and subsequent growth of raw material exports will result in increased imports of finished consumer goods manufactured by 'Country B'. Increased public consumption in 'Country A' will be interpreted by the society as improvement of the living standards, regardless of the fact that this "growth" will occur in direct proportion to the growth of indebtedness of this society to the society of 'Country B'… In reality, such manipulation with the "arithmetic" of macro-economic reports (that absolutely ignore all qualitative factors incapable of monetary quantification) is but another bold and shameless attempt to conceal global injustice." Perhaps it can only be further added that the above mechanism of crediting also serves as an instrument for raising and maintaining artificially high dollar demand…. and, thereby, supporting both the dollar rate and the US economy as a whole.

Nevertheless the IFO and other governing institutions are persistently imposing on the so-called developing countries financial and economic policy described in the above paragraphs. There is no doubt that the real meaning and implications of the reforms having been proposed for Russia were at the time perfectly clear to their "architects" (let us say to the leaders of IMF, IBRD, and WTO). Those practices had been "successfully" used more than once. Argentina, with its stunning market of rat meat, is one of the latest examples. Even the Chili case, which is generally described as an economically successful experience, has in fact been characterized by deterioration of the socio-economic situation in the country: per capita income had fallen from $3600 in 1973 to $3170 in 1993. Argentina has become fully dependant on IMF and USA; appearance of a rat meat market in some provinces of the country with the world's best natural conditions for cattle-breeding should have shocked the world. Persistent attacks on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for his "excessive" independence, wars on Iraq and Yugoslavia, and many other similar developments - all these are but variations of the USA aggression as a mode of existence.

I would identify the following essential imminent negative properties of the modern OC (by the example of USA as the most "forward" representative of OC).

Aggressive outward activities (nature and environmental, other civilizations, countries), beginning with the level of an individual and driven by unquenchable desire to maximize incomes and volumes of appropriated material values and benefits, pleasures, regardless (i.e. without interest and understanding) of what is happening to the "world" (when understood in a broader sense, from personality to society) apart from the fact of appropriation (egotism, "tunnel vision"/ narrow-mindedness, earthliness/ lack of spirituality).

Inherent Antagonism to the Divine Nature of the Universe and planet Earth, and the man as such, because the highest value by default recognized by OC consists in wealth creation, acquisitiveness and money-making, maximization of consumption as opposed to Cognition (Knowledge), harmonious development of personality, manifestation of the Divine.

Deliberate and purposeful informational expansion, continual "brain-washing". "democracy" as one of the key myths. The public opinion has been convinced that the political systems of the USA and other Western countries are democracies in contrast to "anti-democracy" having been characteristic of, for example, the former USSR (By no means is the author trying to advocate the USSR (whose main problem consisted in the primitiveness of the vulgarly materialistic world outlook that used to form the ideological basis of the system); the reference was made with the sole purpose of revealing the truth, in particular by demonstrating effectiveness of the informational war waged by the USA) I admit that there are formal grounds for such conclusions or definitions. However, let us see into the quick of the matter.
'Democracy' literally means 'government by the people' or 'rule of the people'. This form of government existed in ancient Russia in the form of Veche (popular assembly at local levels in ancient and medieval Russia) in Novgorod the Great ('application' of veche in Novgorod was not an innovation but rather an echo or backwash (repercussion) of the common practice of government in pre-Christian Russia). In the modern society democracy is sooner understood as a set of formal characteristics or indicators: electivity, separation of powers, equality before the law. Compliance with these formal requirements automatically means presence of democracy. However, in the USA the real power holders are not elected at all and never advertise their authority. The fact that the people come to elections, vote and elect a president for four years cannot be considered as sufficient, moreover even as a necessary condition that would allow conclusion on the democratic character of government. Presidential elections in the USA are a costly show, circus: people are offered two advertised candidates and finally "buy" one (even then through 'middlemen'). Besides, the choice between essentially differing alternatives (options) was made very long ago; therefore today's elections basically boil down to a simple choice between two boats to be hired for traveling along the same river. The president himself remains a fictitious temporary (transient) "face" (rather than official) of real or/and actual authority. It would seem that even the slow-witted should have guessed how the matters really stood after the Kennedy assassination .It is very likely that in relatively small OC countries (e.g. Scandinavia )the situation with democracy is much more favorable in comparison with the USA and other big OC states. However, it is not them who strike the keynote in the making of the OC policy and development.

I can foresee the possible puzzlement of some potential readers asking: "Does the author really believe in the atrocities he ascribes to OC while all other civilizations are so "good' and have nothing to be blamed for? He who says so must be mentally ill; all know that the 'West" is indisputably heading the progressive development on Planet Earth". Let me answer here and now. The core of the issue is "ego". As soon as the ego is overemphasized with the personality alienated and further opposed to the rest of the world without any restraints or constraints put up either by (i) the deepest realization of the nature of human personality (wherein ego is but transient and auxiliary phenomenon) or (ii) by the dogmas of faith, or (iii) strong moral principles, the personality begins to use everybody and everything in the surroundings with mercenary (in a broad sense) sordid motives. The first (deep realization, profound understanding) is not available today (except the very few luminaries) both to the OC and RC representatives with a sole difference, i.e. most carriers of RC have not altogether lost disquieting intuitive sensation that the meaning of life cannot be brought down to consumption alone. The second (true and unrestricted faith) is not applicable to or appropriate of either OC or the modern Russian Civilization. The third (morals and virtue) are subject to intensive and progressive corrosion in both civilizations. However, since in OC the corrupt influence of consumerism as a way of life has a much longer history and since consumerism itself and associated formalized economic and legal relations between individuals have risen to much more impressive "heights", the moral and ethical degradation is progressing at a much faster pace as well (to be more precise this was the case before the early '90s when Russia made a giant leap towards the values of consumerism). There arises a natural conclusion that the difference between OC and RC is mainly determined by a much more continuous and much more intensive exposure of OC to destructive influence and impacts.

Thus, the ultimate, global-scale victory of OC or the USA (which are synonyms in the present context) will inevitably ruin mankind as a result of the conflict with the (Divine) Nature at a "crude material" level (sphere), unless it (OC) has enough time for qualitative transformation; evidently, this conflict has already reached or even exceeded critical level at other ("fine material') levels (spheres). The chances to prevent accomplishment of the longed-for (by USA) scenario of complete global domination to be followed by the total destruction of the mankind (an appalling prospect to any human being) depend on all of us, on the adequacy, sobriety and profoundness of our understanding of the ongoing processes in the world and in particular countries. And this, in turn, is predetermined by - along with factors beyond our recognition and control - our will, healthy animalism and hedonism, aspiration to cognize the world and our own self; whether we will succeed in adopting an outlook and behavior that would be oriented towards achieving harmony in relations with Nature, world, and society. This transformation of the outlook can be provided only by "reconstruction" of science, mass-media performance, which (reconstruction) should be based on the new scientific paradigm ready to replace outdated Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm that has served as a basis for the now thriving, philosophically primitive and naturally incoherent, antagonistic OC.

But is not too late to try to break and overcome destructive tendencies, whether it be threat of global disaster or obliteration of Russia? Has Russia already been turned into a raw materials-producing appendage, backward and dying-out periphery of the Western Civilization? Perhaps, a perfunctory overview of the situation would result in exactly such a conclusion. But will a more profound analysis of the issue allow a different conclusion or offer an altogether different understanding of the events?




FOOTNOTE
8. Against this (American) background the scope and effect of the actions taken by President Putin (though most patriots are still dissatisfied) against oligarchs are staggering, while at the moment it is only an attempt to slow down a leak in the bottom of a ship that desperately needs sealing


Russian civilization, without any doubt, is characterized by a number of distinguishing attributes (that have been only briefly outlined in the previous paragraphs):

World outlook and world perception essentially different from those of the "West", greater spirituality, heartiness ("Innerlichkeit"), long-sufferance and forbearance, lesser concentration on or preoccupation with the material, on "benefit" because of different content of the spiritual sphere (not entirely rejected and forgotten "pre-Christian" world perception, rooted, evidently in Vedic religion or Vedism; Christian Orthodoxy, which had absorbed important attributes of the Vedic Orthodoxy; co-existence of a number of native religions; communist ideology with its orientation towards creation/ construction of equitable society), general cultural background, level of education and erudition, thirst for knowledge and creativity;

Geographical background and challenging natural-climatic and spatial conditions (prohibitive for the west-driven globalization process) on the one hand, and abundance in natural resources on the other (these are the hard and ineradicable factors, which will prevent incorporation of the people of Russia into OC family, although the territory of Russia, if duly (i.e. in due time) freed from the population, may well pretend for being incorporated into OC);

The history of land exploration dominated by the struggle with adverse natural conditions in contrast to Europe, where of yore people had been competing with each other for possession of fertile and plentiful but spatially limited lands;

Language: the role of the Russian language in formation and life of the Russian civilization is far by far more significant than that of the English language with regard to OC.
The past 20 years have been characterized by active and continuous inculcation of the idea that the "soviet period" of Russian history was a "national disgrace and humiliation", a terrible error, and hence it is our task and objective to learn from the forward "West" and exert every effort in order to catch up with it (this time with regard to liberalism, "democracy" and "freedoms"). It is remarkable that both our liberals and "democrats" on the one part and ultra-patriots or "jingoists" on the other part have been unanimous in the open criticism of the USSR trying to outdo each other in ostentatious demonstration of their hatred of the soviet regime. Apart from being absolutely groundless from the economic viewpoint, such treatment of historical events suffers from complete lack of dialectal approach and crippling spiritual primitivism. Groaning and lamentation about best sons and daughters of Russia having been exiled from their motherland (represented chiefly by aristocracy and bourgeoisie who left Russia immediately or shortly after 1917) would be not so loud, if there existed understanding of the obvious fact, that the so-called Russian elite, though varying greatly in its qualitative composition at different time phases (and evidently having ultimately degraded by the turn of the 21st century), has been always characterized by one common and most essential property, i.e. dissociation from the Russian civilization and voluntary joining/ affiliation with OC while physically remaining in Russia and, owing to its VIP-status and corresponding authority, significantly influencing (and determining) socio-economic conditions in Russia. Thus, physical transference of this elite beyond the Russian borders denotes nothing but logical finale of the long-lasting (for centuries) process of break-up with the Russian civilization.

The Russian civilization under USSR proceeded laboriously along its own challenging and unique road of progress and, despite heavy odds regarding economic resources and conditions, imperfection and flaws of the leaders and rank and file builders of this civilization, it managed not only to survive but was actively and successfully developing for a considerable period of time. Preservation and development of Russian civilization in the 20th century was made possible exclusively through its revolutionary and further evolutionary transformation. There was no other alternative ofor survival in the 20th century. The matter is that at the turn of the 20th century the West was actively conducting an economic expansion in Russia, which can be compared, though with certain reservations, with indiscriminate buying-up of industries and other assets in the former socialist countries in Eastern Europe. But even if Russian assets had not been bought by foreign men of property, the capitalist road would have led Russia to diffusion in OC without the slightest hint or chance of playing the leading role there. Apropos: the term "transition period" that came in use during the last two decades (e.g. "countries/economy in transition") when applied to Russia manifests extinction of RC and transition of Russia to the status of a backward and dying-out periphery of OC.

I believe in eventual acceptance of the view on the Soviet epoch[9] as a heroic exploit of the Russian peoples to defend the Russian Civilization against another attack and onslaught on the part of the West, i.e. OC. Although at the cost of immense losses and sacrifice, Russian civilization was saved. It was saved not only for its own good; the salvation enables Russia to take an active part in prevention of a global catastrophe.




FOOTNOTE
9. It primarily applies to global and historical aspects of the role played by the USSR in the RC history.





One cannot leave aside or otherwise ignore such a serious point as accusation of "communism" and "the soviet regime" of mass repressions that swept Russia reaching the peak in the '30s of the last century. It has never occurred to anybody (at least I, personally, have never read or heard of it) that all the atrocities of the Civil War and repressions were committed by the people who had been brought up and who had matured in the depths of an absolutely different state with a quite different institutional structure and ideology, one where religion and the church had not only never been oppressed but had played a very important role. Is it not the atmosphere of that society with its religious institutes (primarily the Russian Orthodox Church and the Judaic institutions) that should be made responsible for the appalling deficit of the people (then and now) who, with great reserve or at a stretch, could be referred to as Christians or true believers in God? Nevertheless, as already mentioned in the foreword, one cannot blame exclusively "external causes" for any mishap that might occur but, on the contrary, the decisive factor consists in the combination of internal properties and causes that create for a person (country) particular external situations and circumstances wherein he (it) becomes a subject to repressions…
The soviet epoch[10] provides an invaluable, though thoughtlessly rejected experience of universal importance, which demonstrated to the world the following:


It is theoretically and practically possible to successfully control and manage a large and complex socio-economic system;

Economy and other spheres of social life may develop and progress in a purposeful manner (in spite of counteraction, resistance and opposition, to the extent of military aggressions, "cold wars" and "arms races");

One can achieve great success in a short period of time and on a carefully scheduled date (timed exactly to the needed moment) owing to "directional vector" of development, when all energy and resources are entirely focused on achieving clearly formulated objectives and goals (this, incidentally, is extremely important in the face of the looming global catastrophe);

Creative work unconstrained by acquisitiveness (e.g. of producers) allows genuinely talented artists to create truly spiritual works (for example, feature films, cartoons, theatrical performances, scientific research projects, etc.), which bore a mark of the Divine allowing/ offering wide opportunities of self-development, improvement and self-perfection both for the author and the "target audience" ("the consumer");
It was shown that there exists possibility of purposeful creation of conditions for the qualitative growth of education standards, professional and social self-actualization of citizens, for intellectual and spiritual development, conflict-free co-existence and cooperation of people representing different national, cultural and religious communities sharing the same territory and living and working in the same collectives (this also may serve as a model for the future integration of peoples to be based on the principles that are fundamentally different from exploitation, total lies and aggression proposed to peoples of the world by OC that is primarily represented by the United States and Great Britain).

The main "minus" (deficiency) of the soviet period, in my opinion, is its performance in the last 25 years preceding perestroika, when there were created preconditions and the basis for successful introduction of the values of consumerism and of the "consumption society":


Old religious values had long been basically forgotten and gotten rid of;

New communist spiritual values had become devalued (however, they were initially based on vulgar materialism, though it was claimed that they had nothing to do with it; therefore in absence of a new scientific paradigm the communist ideology was built on by then outdated theoretical, philosophical and world-outlook knowledge stock).
All the above resulted in a "spiritual vacuum" or spiritual disorientation, which was aggravated by serious problems in satisfying daily wants and elementary material needs of people, whom it became possible to turn towards "western values".




FOOTNOTE
10. I can foresee and thereby unconditionally reject any accusations of seemingly attempted restoration of the socialist system, as I am trying to promote an essentially different ideological foundation or, in other words, National Idea
11. We are not talking about substantial side or content of this development, since, at the time, there were no conditions whatsoever for building a world outlook that would be based on an essentially new paradigm




On the other hand, such a situation may offer quite favorable conditions for the acceptance and adoption by the society of the New scientific and civilization paradigm, since there obviously exists an urgent need in food for reflection, food for thought, spiritual repast and spiritual development and self-perfection, while people show no signs of strengthening religious fanaticism, which could be an option under the circumstances.

Why did the USSR cease to exist? Russia lost the battle with the USA and their associates represented by an alliance of the economically developed western countries. In this connection I would like to draw the reader's attention to a number of "myths", which, when used individually or, even more so, when applied as a whole, distort the understanding and interpretation of the situation by many critics and observers (including ordinary people). "Russia lost because the socialist economy is less efficient in comparison with the capitalist economy". This statement alone contains a whole number of erroneous assumptions, and each of them, when analyzed individually, will undermine the truth and correctness of the above quoted statement.

In the first place, the economic structure of the former USSR can be defined, as/to a first approximation, as state capitalism, some elements of state feudalism and state slave-owning system. It means that there are no grounds for comparison of "capitalism" with "socialism", the more so with "communism" as it is commonly termed in the West whenever they discuss anything related to the soviet period. My second argument is even more serious, or rather fundamental. It is a well-known fact that the starting conditions for this competition of the two different economic systems were far from being equal, or, plainly speaking the West initially had a tremendous handicap. There exists, however, still another, no less important and also well known factor. To maintain parity of weapons between the USSR and the Western Block the USSR had to build a much more militarized economy, which, apart from production of weapons proper, actually meant that the economy was characterized by a much greater share of various heavy industry sectors: iron and steel production, machine building, production of mineral/ natural resources and raw materials, power generation. However, all in all it added to a huge share of withdrawn or "dead" resources and goods/ commodities, i.e. resources and goods that were not consumed either by people (articles of consumption) or by production (investment goods, means of production); their cost was not added or transferred to any other goods, they just kept falling out of the circulation or, in fact, were not included in the reproduction cycle. A higher share of deadened resources is naturally disrupting and undermining potential possibilities of economic development. It is very likely that the USA military-industrial establishment had been working towards achieving a double objective: to build up American military power and ensure military superiority as such, and, at the same time, to contribute to inevitable strain and potential collapse of the global competitor and political opponent.

Another important, if not the most critical, though more-often-than-not ignored factor, consists in fundamentally and essentially different style of relations with allies among the third world or developing countries. While the former USSR always provided assistance to those countries and spent considerable material and monetary resources, the USA always robbed their vassals. And these are positions of principle of the two "Empires of Evil". Needless to say, the US methods are as simple as everything that is based on the vice: the United States brings to power chosen people who are ready to sacrifice their country by putting it at the mercy of TNC to be ransacked and plundered in order to take part in this process and get a handsome share of the loot for themselves. When activated the mechanism further works by itself: there appears a totally corrupted state system of administration and authority characterized by greed, treachery, deceit and other as "commendable' attributes and properties. If the people for some reason express dissatisfaction and organize themselves in a kind of active opposition, then the rulers and their masters have a choice of options: well-structured and tested PR-campaign, bribery and corruption of the opposition leaders, or last but not least (and even a more effective instrument) deliberate formation of artificial opposition ("pocket" and fictitious oppositionists). In the past 20 years of the USSR existence the latter had spent about 80 billion US dollars on assistance to developing countries, while the USA had pumped out 800 billion US dollars from the Latin America alone.

Finally, we come down to the most significant and important consideration (factor). The western type of economy had no chance of successful development in Russia even in the 20th century, leave alone the 21st century, when capitals have a freedom of worldwide movement. The western model could have possibly worked on the territory of Kaliningrad, Greater Rostov, Krasnodar and Stavropol regions (the exact borders of the area are subject to calculation). The economy of other regions (it means the rest of the Russian territory) could have existed exclusively in the form of development of fields/deposits of crude hydrocarbons, certain metals, precious stones, while at the outskirts it would have been confined to wood harvesting and fisheries in the surrounding seas. Comparison of the Russian climate with other northern countries, particularly European, based on the latitude similarity is absolutely incorrect. One can choose Canada as analogue for such comparison although with great reserves (considerable reserves and allowances are necessary because North America is much smaller compared to Eurasia and are characterized by a much lesser climatic continentality, i.e. severity and aridity). The populated areas are situated along the US border, and even then not continuously but with gaps, practically never extending beyond 51st degree NL in the central and western regions and 46th degree in the east. Exception is Edmonton that has "climbed up" to 53.3o NL. However this "anomaly" can be easily explained by the "hydrocarbon" orientation/ specialization of the economy in the Province of Alberta. The very presence of such "demarcation line of settlement" proves the obvious, though stubbornly disputed and rejected by certain economists, fact, which consists in (i) indisputable impact of climate on the effectiveness and efficiency of production, and (ii) existence of maximum permissible levels of climatic severity for the development of certain sectors of the economy.

And here comes the very last observation regarding competition of the economies and nations. Even assuming that the capitalist system is more efficient and effective, there still remains a critical and worrying question: What is an ultimate objective of the competing economies? Is it just a kind of race where only speed of development and GDP multiplication matter? With the present character of development this would mean the speed of approaching the end, acceleration towards disaster. Even the imperfect economic system of the former USSR under unfavorable climatic conditions was quite capable of satisfying natural needs of the people, the more so in absence of the necessity to arm (i.e. taking part in the arms race). Is this not a sound argument for transfer to the economy that would be managed and driven by reason, with a clear vision of strategic objectives?

Development prospects of the Russian Civilization
The Russian Civilization has two basic options of future development.
Preservation or destruction, which, in its turn, can be accomplished either gradually, by peaceful means (development and completion of the "reforms" of the nineties), or through a military intervention ("blitzkrieg") at a convenient moment. The latter will be done under a false pretext in order to make it seem "legitimate" ("violation of democracy" or "human rights").

On the one hand, availability of hydrocarbons and other natural resources capable of producing considerable or just decent rental incomes is definitely a potential "plus" for Russia. On the other hand, however, severe global competition for one's "place in the sun", superior forces of the enemy (competitors), existing political and economic subordination and dependence on the key players of OC, inflicted delusion about the binding necessity of openness, of total liberalization of the economy, and "vacuuming" (see the next paragraph) exchange rate - all that makes natural resources both the ultimate objective and the means of enslaving Russia and other third-world countries.

Both natural capital (resources) and human resources of Russia become subjects of exploitation, or rather expropriation by certain OC forces and domestic champions of globalization in the form that is destructive for Russia. They are not only pumping out resources along with the natural resource rent but erect "intensifiers" in the form of the exchange rate several times higher than the parity value/rate (based on purchasing power) in order to improve effectiveness of the process. As a result the natural resource rent is supplemented with the "currency" or exchange rate, which sometimes is in place despite the absence or even negative value of the natural resource rent proper. In this case undermining of the natural resource potential is accompanied by intensive exploitation of the human resource and labor potential, as the latter is priced several times (on the average, not less than three times) lower than exported products that overwhelmingly consist of various raw materials. The exporters not only enjoy unfair receipts and profits several times higher than the normal earnings should be, not only are they exporting the lion's share of the profits abroad, but they dictate domestic prices (in rubles devalued three-times) on the basis of the world prices in hard currency, i.e. overcharge Russian consumers by three times against the real market value. Needless to say all products not intended for export, e.g. labor, foodstuffs, machines or airplanes, turn out to be practically non-remunerative and unprofitable because of inevitable use of hydrocarbons sold at the world or higher prices. This mechanism has been tested and perfected in the third world countries. The currency (exchange) rent is far less affected by price fluctuations than the natural resource rent proper. The natural resource and currency rents add to from 50 to 90 billion dollars per year. Fluctuations are caused by the world market prices of oil and other material resources.

Even if the issue of natural resource and currency rent distribution is resolved in a reasonable and fair manner, there will remain a negative natural-climatic rent that would primarily consist of the following:


Negative ground rent found in the agricultural sector (except the greater part of the lands in the Chernozems Zone, Kransnodarskiy Krai, and a handful of other regions)

Negative temperature-climatic rent (found in practically every sector of the economy and in every region of the country)

Negative distance-transport rent (generally reciprocally proportional to the density of population and industries).
In other words, there exist such prohibitive climatic conditions, which, in economic terms, determine maximum acceptable (and, accordingly, excessive/unacceptable) production costs other things being equal. There is a striking difference in the limits of this range for the economy of the former USSR and the economy of modern Russia that is open for the world market. (This is primarily due to the fact that the USSR used huge positive rent derived from oil and other natural resources to compensate the negative (in terms of the world market) climatic and distance-transport rent).
THE SO-CALLED REFORMS RESULTED IN THE SEPARATION OF THE STREAMS OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE RENTS: POSITIVE RENT IS DIVIDED BETWEEN THE FEW INDIVIDUALS AND LARGELY EXPORTED OUT OF THE COUNTRY WHEREAS THE NEGATIVE RENT IS LEFT FOR RUSSIA AND ITS PEOPLE. Other actively promoted reforms of the Russian Energy Systems (RAO EES) and of the housing and utility services, WTO membership serve the same objectives as well. It would seem only natural for the adherent of liberalization to support nationalization of resource producing industries: otherwise competition is substituted for capture and redistribution of resource-bearing assets instead of improvement of effectiveness and efficiency of production and management.

Preservation and development of RC can be provided through two modes of behavior: simple survival in the course of a considerably long period (a decade), and winning the leading positions in perspective. Simple survival and creation of prerequisites for future development require that certain practical steps and actions in various directions be made and taken, based on profound comparative analysis of historical, natural/environmental, economic, political and other essential aspects of the Western and Russian as well as other civilizations. These steps include the following:


Exclusion of private appropriation of the rental income from production of oil, gas and use of other resources[12] ; minimization of destructive currency rent (generated through the difference between the exchange rate and the parity rate based on purchasing power), concentration of the rental revenues from natural resource and currency rents in the hands of the state (as a matter of urgency) to be used for strategic purposes and in the interests of the people; termination of the economic reforms of the '90s (in particular, termination of subsidizing natural resource exporters through maintaining at least triple difference between the established exchange rate and the parity rate based on the purchasing power), suspension and ultimate termination of the reforms of RAO EES and of the housing and utility services, procedures aimed at the WTO membership;

Detailed assessment of the rental factors (both positive, i.e. produced by natural resources, and negative, i.e. climatic and transport-distance components) in order to understand in what regions, and what production, is economically acceptable and to ensure availability, if necessary, of clearly and soundly substantiated instruments for improving efficiency of particular types of economic activity (by way of redistribution of the rental revenues).

Fundamental and radical revision of the taxation system, abolition of destructive taxes.

Radical revision of the views (both at the level of government and the critical mass of the citizens) on causes of the global threat, prospects of the development of mankind, history, state/conditions and the role of Russian and other civilizations.

Elaboration of a strategy of development for Russia (home and foreign policy, socio-economic development, science, culture, education, mass media, defense, etc.).

Overcoming an inferiority complex in relations with the West.
Priorities in the spiritual and informational sphere are as follows[13]:

ESCAPE FROM THE IDEOLOGICAL CAPTIVITY OF DESTRUCTIVE SPIRITUAL VALUES OF THE SO-CALLED "CIVILIZED WORLD", FROM THE MYTHS ("ON WESTERN DEMOCRACY", "ON FREEDOM"[14] , "ON EMPIRE OF EVIL", "ON HUMAN RIGHTS"[15] , "ON CIVILIZED WORLD", ETC)

REBUILDING OF SCIENCE ON THE BASIS OF THE NEW SCIENTIFIC PARADIGM (THAT HAS COME TO REPLACE THE HITHERTO DOMINANT NEWTONIAN-CARTESIAN PARADIGM[16] ), TRANSITION TO INTEGRAL, CONSISTENT COGNITION AND KNOWLEDGE, MERGING OF SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY

RECOVERY BY SCIENCE OF THE KEY POSITIONS AND FURTHER STRENGTHENING THEREOF TOWARDS TRANSITION TO THE "RULE OF REASON"/; NOOSPHERIC (ANTHROPOSPHERIC) SOCIETY

DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL INFORMATIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL STRATEGIES. REFORM OF EDUCATION PRIMARILY AND ABOVE ALL AIMED AT FORMATION OF HARMONIOUS PERSONALITY, REALIZING ITS DIVINE CREATIVE MAKING AND MANIFESTATION OF DIVINE LOVE, AWARE OF ITS HIGHEST RESPONSIBILITY FOR THOUGHTS, FEELINGS AND DEEDS.



FOOTNOTE
12. If it is not done then competition and enterprise will be primarily aimed at gaining access to natural resource rent, i.e. competition will be shifted beyond the sphere of economy as such. Private access to particularly large sources of natural resource rent will produce oligarchs who will be buying public authorities of all branches and at every level as required. The corrupt vertex of the pyramid of authority will inevitably (and not through malicious intent at all) and automatically build as corrupt body and base of the pyramid. The privately appropriated rental income will be inevitably exported out of the country. (Those whose greed is not appeased will indulge in borrowing and embezzling of loans and will thus contribute to further enslavement of the country). All the above is but a perfect mechanism of self-destruction of the country, a mechanism that was elaborated at the time of Yeltsin presidency.
13. That is of a higher priority in itself in comparison to the economic sphere.
14. For example, about "freedom of speech: in the western system where "everything is allowed" an "the progress" is, to considerable extent, built on cultivation of the vice, while the information required by "the system" easily "muffles" any alternative voices, "the freedom of speech" has never been a threat to the system, whereas in the USSR, where all forces were aimed at spiritual growth and elimination/ uprooting of the vice, the freedom of speech in the western interpretation was but an "unaffordable luxury"; however this fact cannot justify many a folly or idiocies that were committed in relation to this.
15. My rights are above all violated by unrestricted advertising that takes away the precious moments of life daily. They suffer even more from total hypocrisy, falsity and vulgarity of mass media, violence on the screen and seamy side movies, sensationalism.
16. It does not seem possible to describe the new scientific paradigm within the framework of this article. However, in the first approximation one can get an idea of this paradigm ex adverso (ex contrario), i.e. through contraposition of its basics to the following basics statements of the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm: 1) The Universe is one (all that exists), its objects are discrete and consist of solid material particles, passive and with constant gravity and shape; 2) space is linear, three-dimensional, homogeneous and rests in quiescence; it is not affected by or does depend on the bodies moving in therein as it serves as a framework for them all; 3) the time is absolute, autonomous and independent from the material world, flowing in homogeneous eternal stream in one direction from the Past to the Future; 4) the object of observation (investigation) does not depend on the state of the subject (observer)… (quoted from "Introduction in the Uniform Theory of the World", A.F. Bugaev, Moscow 1998, pp. 28-29)




Spiritual and informational sphere takes precedence over all other aspects with the following priorities: priority of spirituality in education, science, mass media, government, with a new scientific paradigm serving as a conceptual basis for the development of spirituality, humanism or, in plain words, of kindness and love of fellow-men as taught by Jesus Christ and other Gurus of mankind.


The priority of the spiritual and informational components in prevention of the global catastrophe is illustrated in the indicative block chart of development and solution of the global environmental problem (see Figure 1 below). (The diagram is rather simplified, e.g. it does not indicate feedback relations between manufacturers of commodities and services and consumers, or in other words - undisguised influence of producers on consumers to create required needs and demand for their goods and services; besides it should be noted that the author interprets and applies the term "market" in a broader sense that includes in the given case the budgetary sphere as well, e.g. satisfaction of the needs of the military-industrial complex through growing demand for its products by the government, when weapons are purchased at the expense of the budget).

If the "National Idea" for Russia is formulated as "transition to the new level of the civilization development", then it may eventually be used as the core element and the meaning of the "Planetary Idea" as well. The strategy of its implementation may be developed on the basis of or in line with, the ten priorities (theses) outlined above. I don't see any other option that would allow Russia not just a chance of physical survival in the process of globalization, but also an opportunity to change the very nature of this process from destructive to harmonious.