The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, a Brazilian Pentecostal church that claims 8 million followers in 180 countries, received planning permission in late July 2010 to construct a 10,000-seat replica of the holiest site in Judaism. “We are preparing ourselves to build the temple, in the same mold as Solomon’s,” Bishop Edir Macedo, the church’s founder and leader, said in a televised service posted on his blog. The church has signed an $8 million contract to import Jerusalem stone, which was used in the construction of the First Temple, from Israel. The building, which will be designed by Brazilian architect Rogério Silva de Araújo, will stand at 180 feet tall, nearly twice the height of the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue that towers over Rio de Janeiro. The Temple will house a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, and the complex will include classrooms for 1,300 students, and spaces for television and radio studios, according to the Guardian. - Devra Ferst, July 28, 2010
A replica of Solomon's Temple in Brazil opened on July 31, 2014 in Sao Paolo, Brazil (construction began in 2010). It is just
down the road from the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2015 Tomorrowland festival.
The first temple was destroyed in 586 BC.
The second temple was completed 70 years later, in 516 BC.
The second temple was destroyed in 70 AD.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 (KJV)
Now we beseech you, brethren, By the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, And by our gathering together in Him.
That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled,
Neither, by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us,
As that day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means; Forthat dayshall not come, except there come a falling away first; And that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; So that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Matthew 24:14-24 (KJV)
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; And then shall the end come.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, Spoken of by Daniel the prophet, Stand in the holy place,(Whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, Such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, 'Lo, here is Christ, or there;' believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, And shall shew great signs and wonders; Insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands,
neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything,
seeing he gives to all, life, and breath, and all things, and has made
of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on the face of the earth.
That they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him,
and find him, though he is not far from every one of us; for in him we
live, and move, and have our being. - Acts 17:24-28 (KJV)
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to
say, not of this building. - Hebrews 9:11 (KJV)
Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of
this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered
to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence." - John 18:36 (KJV)
Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary... The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. - Hebrews, Chapter 9:1,8-12 (KJV)
Here is what’s going on:
The Templo de Salomão
(Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈtẽplu dʒi saloˈmɐ̃w̃]) is a replica of the
Temple of Solomon built by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in
São Paulo.
According to Brazilian press reports, the new Templo is an “exact
replica” (“uma réplica exata”) of the ancient Temple of Solomon in
Jerusalem,[1] According to the church’s leader, “The outside will be
exactly the same as that which was built in Jerusalem,”[2] but with
increased dimensions. – from the Temple’s Wikipedia page
The Universal Church is not your typical church:
The Universal Life Church Monastery strongly believes in the
rights of all people from all faiths to practice their religious
beliefs, regardless of what those beliefs are, be they Christian, Jew,
Gentile, Agnostic, Atheist, Buddhist, Shinto, Pagan, Wiccan, Druid or
even Dignity Catholics; so long as they do not infringe upon the rights
of others and are within the law of the land and one’s conscience.
We ordain ministers, priests, rabbis and clergy worldwide who are
totally non-religious or even anti-religious. This may seem
contradictory, but we are looking to change the negative perceptions of
religion, faith and spirituality, by encouraging people to take control,
stand up and speak truth to power by fearlessly stating their personal
religious beliefs. – the Church’s intro page, and its About Us page
Curiously, this is exactly how the Roman Catholic Church started out
way back in the 4th Century CE, in trying to encompass all religions
into one. Hello, One World Religion! The New Zealand chapter fasted for 40 days, ending in July 19 to coincide with the Inauguration.
The Jewish people (some or many of which were originally Khazars from Russia and
NOT TRUE HEBREW JEWS, THEREFORE NOT BOUND BY THE COVENANT GOD MADE WITH
ISRAEL), who enjoy causing mayhem, murder, and of course who love
getting attention, hate the idea of this temple being built:
GIANT BRAZILIAN TEMPLE REPLICA PANNED AS ‘MOCKERY’
Temple Institute in Jerusalem says plan by a controversial
Brazilian Pentecostal church to build a mammoth $200 million Holy Temple
replica is “self-aggrandizement.”
…This planned church is a mockery which stands in diametric
opposition to everything that the Holy Temple of Jerusalem represents.” – from the article by the Temple Institute of Jerusalem, August 8, 2010
Let’s see who’s in charge of this massive project:
Take “Bishop” Edir Macedo, for example. The founder and leader of
the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, which also has temples in
the United States, Macedo is by far the richest pastor in Brazil, with a
net worth estimated by several Brazilian business magazines* at $950
million (one government arm in Brazil estimates an even higher sum) – Article by Forbes
The leader of one of Brazil’s largest evangelical churches
declared his church was “at war” this week, following allegations that
his organisation had siphoned off billions of dollars of donations
intended for charity.
The charges of fraud and money laundering are contained in a
report by Sao Paulo’s public prosecutor that was formally submitted to a
Brazilian judge on Monday. The report claims 10 leading members of the
church – including its founder and leader, Bishop Edir Macedo – used
donations from followers to buy jewellery, property and cars. – Article from The Guardian
It occupies an entire block in this teeming megacity: a 10,000-seat rendition of Solomon’s Temple.
Towering in sharp relief against the graffiti-splattered tenements
nearby, it beckons with monumental walls of stone imported from Israel
and the flags of the dozens of countries where its owner, the Universal
Church of the Kingdom of God, is nourishing an evangelical Christian
empire.
A helicopter landing pad will allow Edir Macedo, the 69-year-old media magnate
who founded the Universal Church in a Rio de Janeiro funeral home in
1977, to drop in for sermons. The sprawling 11-story complex features
other flourishes, too, like an oasis of olive trees similar to the
garden of Gethsemane near Jerusalem, and more than 30 columns soaring
toward the heavens.
“The
Universal Church spared no expense,” said Rogério Araújo, the architect
for the project, which is scheduled to be inaugurated on July 31. On a
tour of the site, he added, “We sought to build a colossus, something
that would make people stop and gaze, and that’s what we delivered.”
The
replica of Solomon’s Temple, which took four years to build at a cost
of about $300 million, captures the surging growth of evangelical faiths
in Brazil. Although this country of 200 million people still has more
Roman Catholics than any other nation, the number of evangelicals in
Brazil climbed to 22 percent of the population in 2010 from 15 percent
in 2000, according to census figures.
Large
evangelical churches, particularly Pentecostal institutions like the
Universal Church, are also wielding greater political clout across
Brazil, reflecting a sizable evangelical voting bloc in Congress and the
efforts of candidates across the political spectrum to appeal to
evangelical voters in the presidential elections this year.
Brazil’s
leftist president, Dilma Rousseff, is expected to be here for the
inauguration of the temple, underscoring how she draws support for her
governing coalition from a bloc of conservative evangelical leaders,
including Mr. Macedo’s nephew, Marcelo Crivella, a Universal Church
pastor and gospel singer who until recently was the minister of fishing.
No
one has reshaped Brazil’s religious landscape quite like Mr. Macedo. A
religious broadcaster and founder of the church, Mr. Macedo now travels
by private jet on a special diplomatic passport
(a privilege also allowed in Brazil for high-ranking Vatican
officials), espousing prosperity theology and Pentecostal tenets like
exorcism and faith healing.
With
a personal fortune sometimes estimated at $1.2 billion, Mr. Macedo rose
from obscurity through his control of Rede Record, one of Brazil’s
largest television networks, and his aggressive expansion of the
Universal Church, during which he has fought accusations of corruption,
including tax evasion and money laundering.
Mr. Macedo was jailed for 11 days in 1992 on accusations of charlatanism and fraud. He has successfully fended off other criminal investigations,
including allegations by prosecutors that he and other church leaders
siphoned off donations from followers to enrich themselves. In the past
year, he has cultivated a somewhat wizardly appearance, growing a flowing gray beard while occasionally donning what appears to be a skullcap like those worn by many observant Jews.
The
replica of Solomon’s Temple includes several menorahs inside the
structure, where sermons will be given, in addition to a large menorah
near the entrance that resembles the one in front of the Knesset,
Israel’s legislature. The flag of Israel also flies nearby, alongside
those of the Universal Church, Brazil and the United States, among
dozens of other countries.
“There
is just one biblical faith; it is impossible to disassociate
Christianity from its Jewish roots,” said Cássia Duarte, a spokeswoman
for the Universal Church. She emphasized that Mr. Macedo had been
absolved in an array of judicial investigations into corruption
allegations, strengthening the church’s “preaching of the gospel.”
Scholars
say that the Universal Church’s promotion of Jewish symbolism in its
replica of Solomon’s Temple stems from a quest for historical legitimacy
in a church that is just 37 years old. The original Solomon’s Temple is
thought to have been constructed in ancient Jerusalem by King Solomon around 1000 B.C. and destroyed about four centuries later in a siege led by a Babylonian king.
“Macedo
was a pioneer in seeing symbols and rituals connected to the Old
Testament and Judaism as linchpins in the creation of a church capable
of capturing hearts and minds,” said Rodrigo Franklin de Sousa, a
specialist in biblical history at Mackenzie University in São Paulo.
So
far, leaders in Brazil’s Jewish community have generally taken a
relaxed approach to the new Solomon’s Temple. “On the one hand, there’s
the favorable way in which Jewish culture and history are treated in the
structure,” said Nilton Bonder, a Brazilian rabbi whose writings on
spiritual themes are widely published. “On the other, there’s the
bizarre aspect of the project’s dimensions and aggressive marketing.”
The
temple will be one of Brazil’s largest religious structures, making the
iconic Christ the Redeemer overlooking Rio de Janeiro, which is only
about half as tall, look like a trinket in comparison.
“The
monumental temple will be a powerful symbol both of Brazil as the
epicenter of global Pentecostalism and of the Universal Church as the
leading congregation challenging the Catholic Church in Brazil,” said R.
Andrew Chesnut, an expert on Latin American religions at Virginia
Commonwealth University.
The
project is already rallying support among some Universal Church
worshipers. “I get thrilled just by seeing the temple in a photograph,”
said Mauricea dos Santos Ribeiro, 72, a retired bank employee who
frequents a branch of the church in Rio de Janeiro. She said that a
group from her congregation was planning a trip here to see the temple.
“I’m counting the days until we go.”
As
if emphasizing Brazil’s competitive religious landscape, the temple
dwarfs two other churches located just across the street, one Catholic
and the other operated by another Pentecostal group.
While
the Universal Church projects its influence through Mr. Macedo’s
television network and its web of operations in more than 100 countries,
including about 60,000 worshipers in the United States, the institution faces important rivals in Brazil that have adopted similar expansion strategies.
Ricardo
Mariano, a sociologist at the University of São Paulo, said that the
Universal Church recently lost some ground in Brazil, with members
declining to about 1.8 million in 2010 from about 2.1 million in 2000,
even as Brazil’s evangelical Christians grew in proportion to the rest
of the population during that time.
If the new Solomon’s Temple is meant to lure new attention to the Universal Church, that strategy is working.
Passers-by
stop in front of it day and night. Some take pictures with their
cellphones. Many stare at it in amazement, expressing their reactions on
a crowded sidewalk where watchmen, described as “Guardians of the
Temple” on their uniforms, patrol the entrance.
“The
temple is so enormous, so beautiful, but also so ostentatious,” Solange
Barbosa de Nascimento, 58, a seamstress who worships at another
Brazilian evangelical church called Peace and Love, said one recent
morning. “I wonder if they could have spent all that money another way,
just caring for the poor.”
On May 22, the Temple of Solomon received a special visitor. Israel’s
Ambassador to Brazil, Rafael Eldad, was welcomed by Bishop Domingos
Siqueira and his wife Nubia, Pastor Miguel Lacerda and his wife Ana
Beatriz, along with leaders of the Universal Engineering company to view
the building site.
A few days earlier on Tuesday, May 20, Bishop Siqueira had been
received in Brasilia by Ambassador Eldad to talk about the inauguration
of the Temple. The spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Lior Ben Dor
was also present, and both men were receptive and attentive to the
importance of this extraordinary construction.
They were noticeably touched by the Universal Church’s tribute to the
Almighty God, and to the people of Israel. It was explained to them
that the Temple would be open to all Jews and to all the nations of the
world, and that anyone who enters that holy place will feel as if they
were being transported to the Holy Land, as if they were in Jerusalem.
Our belief in One God and all that we understand about faith is our
inheritance from Abraham. The ambassador felt so honored and grateful
for the invitation, that on the following day he visited the site for a
closer look.
The first area which he visited was the Upper Room of the Holy
Spirit, where the Temple’s Memorial will be. The building, which
utilizes cutting edge interactive technology, will show visitors a
historical perspective from the first Temple of Solomon, until the
construction of today’s impressive replica. As soon as he saw the stones
of the Temple, the ambassador reached out to touch them and reminisced,
“This reminds me of my house in Jerusalem, it’s built with these
stones.”
Fascinated by the sight, Eldad wondered why a replica of the Temple
of Solomon was built, and not a replica of the Second Temple. “Because
the first was grander. The second Temple was smaller, and Herod changed
many things. It did not have the same magnitude of the Temple Solomon,”
Bishop Domingos explained. “Yes, that’s true, Solomon’s Temple was the
original one,” the ambassador agreed.
They also walked through the Garden of Olives, where he saw the
twelve hundred-year-old trees. It’s the fruit of the olive tree that
makes olive oil, mentioned in the Bible as a symbol of the presence of
the Holy Spirit. “And you shall make from these a holy anointing
oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It
shall be a holy anointing oil” (Exodus 30:25). He passed by the
Menorah, a candelabrum that symbolizes God’s perfection and the presence
of the Most High, and walked towards the terrace, where he could see
the majestic entrance of the Temple.
“It’s a wonderful work. Four years is such a short amount of time to
build something so huge, with so much detail. It is big, big like
Brazil. I am speechless,” said Rafael Eldad. Bishop Domingos explained
that the constructions team has not stopped, even for a day. “We’ve
worked all holidays and weekends. We don’t depend on the government for
help. Just as Solomon’s Temple was built with donations, we have built
all of this through donations as well,” he stressed.
Once he took a look inside the building, the ambassador was not short
on compliments.
“It’s impossible not to be impressed with the magnitude
of this project, the details, the beauty and the size of this entire
space with a capacity for ten thousand people. I’ve never seen anything
like it—the height, the stones from Jerusalem, and the allusion to
ancient times. I would like to thank the Universal Church for this
immense work and wish them success.”
Bishop Domingos spoke about the importance of the visit of Ambassador
Eldad and reinforced the importance of the project, which is drawing
vast attention, especially from among the people of Israel.
“The visit
of the ambassador reveals the great interest of the authorities
representing the Jewish people to rebuild the Temple, the goal of which
is to awaken faith in the One True God.”
After the visit, Eldad assured the Bishop that he would share his
good impression.
“I would like to have pictures of this, because if I
just tell people what I saw here, they wouldn’t believe me. It’s
extremely beautiful. I will carry the spirit of this house with me—a
spirit of peace and friendship with Israel and the Jews, to preserve the
biblical story of the Jewish people, who have such a special friendship
with Brazil.”
The ambassador also promised to send the invitation to
visit the Temple of Solomon directly to Israeli authorities.
On May 22, the Temple of Solomon received a special visitor. Israel’s
Ambassador to Brazil, Rafael Eldad, was welcomed by Bishop Domingos
Siqueira and his wife Nubia, Pastor Miguel Lacerda and his wife Ana
Beatriz, along with leaders of the Universal Engineering company to view
the building site.
A few days earlier on Tuesday, May 20, Bishop Siqueira had been
received in Brasilia by Ambassador Eldad to talk about the inauguration
of the Temple. The spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Lior Ben Dor
was also present, and both men were receptive and attentive to the
importance of this extraordinary construction.
They were noticeably touched by the Universal Church’s tribute to the
Almighty God, and to the people of Israel. It was explained to them
that the Temple would be open to all Jews and to all the nations of the
world, and that anyone who enters that holy place will feel as if they
were being transported to the Holy Land, as if they were in Jerusalem.
Our belief in One God and all that we understand about faith is our
inheritance from Abraham. The ambassador felt so honored and grateful
for the invitation, that on the following day he visited the site for a
closer look.
The first area which he visited was the Upper Room of the Holy
Spirit, where the Temple’s Memorial will be. The building, which
utilizes cutting edge interactive technology, will show visitors a
historical perspective from the first Temple of Solomon, until the
construction of today’s impressive replica. As soon as he saw the stones
of the Temple, the ambassador reached out to touch them and reminisced,
“This reminds me of my house in Jerusalem, it’s built with these
stones.”
Fascinated by the sight, Eldad wondered why a replica of the Temple
of Solomon was built, and not a replica of the Second Temple. “Because
the first was grander. The second Temple was smaller, and Herod changed
many things. It did not have the same magnitude of the Temple Solomon,”
Bishop Domingos explained. “Yes, that’s true, Solomon’s Temple was the
original one,” the ambassador agreed.
They also walked through the Garden of Olives, where he saw the
twelve hundred-year-old trees. It’s the fruit of the olive tree that
makes olive oil, mentioned in the Bible as a symbol of the presence of
the Holy Spirit. “And you shall make from these a holy anointing
oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It
shall be a holy anointing oil” (Exodus 30:25). He passed by the
Menorah, a candelabrum that symbolizes God’s perfection and the presence
of the Most High, and walked towards the terrace, where he could see
the majestic entrance of the Temple.
“It’s a wonderful work. Four years is such a short amount of time to
build something so huge, with so much detail. It is big, big like
Brazil. I am speechless,” said Rafael Eldad. Bishop Domingos explained
that the constructions team has not stopped, even for a day. “We’ve
worked all holidays and weekends. We don’t depend on the government for
help. Just as Solomon’s Temple was built with donations, we have built
all of this through donations as well,” he stressed.
Once he took a look inside the building, the ambassador was not short
on compliments.
“It’s impossible not to be impressed with the magnitude
of this project, the details, the beauty and the size of this entire
space with a capacity for ten thousand people. I’ve never seen anything
like it—the height, the stones from Jerusalem, and the allusion to
ancient times. I would like to thank the Universal Church for this
immense work and wish them success.”
Bishop Domingos spoke about the importance of the visit of Ambassador
Eldad and reinforced the importance of the project, which is drawing
vast attention, especially from among the people of Israel.
“The visit
of the ambassador reveals the great interest of the authorities
representing the Jewish people to rebuild the Temple, the goal of which
is to awaken faith in the One True God.”
After the visit, Eldad assured the Bishop that he would share his
good impression.
“I would like to have pictures of this, because if I
just tell people what I saw here, they wouldn’t believe me. It’s
extremely beautiful. I will carry the spirit of this house with me—a
spirit of peace and friendship with Israel and the Jews, to preserve the
biblical story of the Jewish people, who have such a special friendship
with Brazil.”
The ambassador also promised to send the invitation to
visit the Temple of Solomon directly to Israeli authorities.
Temple
Institute in Jerusalem says controversial Brazilian Pentecostal
church's mammoth $200 million Holy Temple replica is
“self-aggrandizement.”
Hillel Fendel
August 8, 2010
Temple Institute in Jerusalem says plan by a controversial Brazilian
Pentecostal church to build a mammoth $200 million Holy Temple replica
is “self-aggrandizement.”
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of
God, headed by controversial Bishop Edir Macedo, has announced plans to
build a giant replica of the First Temple in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is
expected to cost $200 million, stand 55 meters (18 stories) high, and
seat 10,000 people. Its plans also call for a parking lot for 1,000
cars, TV and radio studios, and classroom space for 1,300 pupils.
“It
is going to be a knockout,” Macedo has been quoted as saying. “It is
going to be beautiful, beautiful, beautiful – the most beautiful of all.
The outside will be exactly the same as that which was built in
Jerusalem.”
The Temple Institute in Jerusalem takes a different
approach, calling it a “hubris-inspired act of self-aggrandizement… the
equivalent of [yet another] destruction of the [Holy] Temple, even
before it is [re-]built. This planned church is a mockery which stands
in diametric opposition to everything that the Holy Temple of Jerusalem
represents.”
The Universal Church has already paid $8 million to import stones from Israel. The Guardian reports
that the church will be modeled on King Solomon’s Temple and will
feature a replica Ark of the Covenant in the center of the sanctuary.
Rabbi
Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute writes,
“We are witness today to
the phenomenon of nations that seek to de-legitimize Israel's connection
to Jerusalem. This planned mega-church represents the next logical
step, the de-legitimization of the significance of Jerusalem
altogether.”
“The
Bible teaches that the essence of Jerusalem is the presence of G-d,”
Rabbi Richman continues, quoting Isaiah’s prophecy: “It will happen in
the end of days, that the mountain of the Temple of the L-rd will be
firmly established at the head of the mountains…and all the nations will
stream to it. Many peoples will go up and say, ‘Come, let us go up to
the mountain of the L-rd, to the Temple of the G-d of Jacob…for from
Zion will the Torah come forth, and the word of the L-rd from
Jerusalem.'
Editor's Note: The word "Torah" is not found in the King James Version of the Bible, so the Rabbi is not quoting scripture accurately.
“Bishop Macedo’s planned mega-church," Rabbi Richman
continued, "is a usurpation and abuse of the sacred space that is
embodied by the Biblical concept and vision of the Holy Temple, and a
gross expropriation of Judaism’s most sacred values. The Divine Presence
of G-d cannot be copycatted and cannot simply be usurped and
transplanted elsewhere. This is nothing more than the Universal Church
of the Kingdom of God’s cynical and manipulative attempt to morph the
Bible’s universal message into its own self-serving agenda.”
The Temple Institute,
a non-profit educational and religious organization, is dedicated to
every aspect of the Biblical commandment to build the Holy Temple of G-d
on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. Its major focus is its efforts towards
the beginning of the actual rebuilding of the Holy Temple.
In
1992, Bishop Macedo spent eleven days in jail on accusations of
charlatanism. Last year, the Sao Paulo prosecution alleged that Macedo
and other senior church clerics embezzled billions of donation dollars
and used the money to buy property and cars. Macedo, a proponent of
prosperity theology and owner of a $45 million private jet, has denied
the charges.
I'm sure that over the past 31 years I have written enough about the Mideast to fill a small encyclopedia.
I'd rewrite very little. Except for precise timing, it's all been unfolding almost exactly as I have been afraid it would.
To me, the two most important facts
to keep in mind are:
(1) Since the year 1500, there has hardly been any
five-year period in which European troops have not been under arms on
Muslim soil.
(2) In this never-ending war to reshape the Islamic world according to European designs, the US government sided
with European regimes two centuries ago, in the Barbary Wars.
In my opinion,if you memorize those two facts, you've memorized 90% of what's important to us about Mideast politics and wars.
Historians commonly regard…
…the European colonial period as roughly 1500 to
mid-20th century. That is, they consider the beginning
of European colonialism to be the invasion of the
Americas by Columbus.
I regard the colonial period as about 1000 to today.
In 622, Mohammed began the era of Muslim conquests
of the Mediterranean area. This lasted till 750,
at which time the Muslim world dialed back the warfare
and threw themselves into more peaceful pursuits,
especially commerce. There were a few wars between
Christians and Muslims, but in the context of the times,
these didn't amount to much.
Peace enabled the rise of the Islamic Golden Age,
which lasted at least two centuries. This was a period
of political atrophy accompanied by great economic
and scientific advancement. (No surprise there, political
power is the enemy of everything except itself.)
As
governments in the Muslim world deteriorated, life
improved; the quality and amount of food, education,
medical care and other necessities grew wonderfully.
This while Europe, in the Dark Ages, had
an abundance of politics and not much else.
Then around 1000, the
unwashed European barbarians came out of the north to invade Muslim
cities.
These small wars evolved into the Crusades, which
began in 1095.
I consider these precursors to the Crusades as the
real beginning of the European colonial period.
They kept going
Whenever someone
asks me about the people
who started today's
great war between
Washington and Muslims,
my answer is the
governments of
Europe a thousand
years ago.
European regimes
attacked Muslims, then kept going until their empires
circled the globe. No one knows their body count, but
it was certainly tens of millions.
A key point: by mid-20th century, European regimes
had conquered the entire earth except for five
countries: Iran, Afghanistan, Thailand, Japan and parts
of China.
Think of it. Except for those five lands, all the rest
of the world had been overrun by European armies.
The Barbary mistake
In his 1776 pamphlet The Crisis, American founder
Tom Paine wrote, "Not a place on earth might be so
happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the
wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade
with them."
In his first inaugural address, Jefferson repeated
Paine's plea: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship
with all nations — entangling alliances with none."
The desire to be neutral and uninvolved in wars was
a popular American sentiment in those days. But as I
have said many times, political power corrupts the
morals and the judgment.
At the time of the First Barbary War (1801-1805)
along the north coast of Africa, European regimes had
been at war with Muslims for eight centuries.
Muslims were levying a transit tax on Christian ships traveling through their waters.
American shipping companies did not want to pay
the tax, and persuaded US officials to pay it for them.
Muslims finally raised the tax to the point that the
US government wouldn't pay.
Shipping companies kept sending their vessels
through Muslim waters anyhow.
The Muslims captured and imprisoned the American
tax evaders.
US officials abandoned neutrality, called the Muslims
pirates, and sided with the Europeans.
Thus the US had joined what is today a ten-century
war between Europeans and Muslims.Commemorating
this, the Marine Corps Hymn famously contains
the words "to the shores of Tripoli," in Libya, a reference
to the Barbary Wars.
The American people believed the charge of piracy,
and most still do.
Muslims simply regarded the Barbary Wars as another
chapter in Europe's Crusades.
One of the things…
…US politicians never seem to learn is…
…that no one wants to see his enemies being
helped. When Washington gets into a fight on someone's
side, America automatically becomes the enemy
of all that regime's enemies. It's unavoidable.
Europeans in 1801 were in the process of
conquering almost the whole world, so by joining
them, the US became an ally of the European juggernaut.
This is why so many Muslims use the term
The West when referring to either the US or Europe.
To them, we are all part of the same horde of cutthroats,
and have been for two centuries.
What makes it all the worse is that Washington is
the most powerful government ever seen on earth, so
millions of Muslims today regard Washington as the
leader of Europe's ten-century crusade. When a US
politician wins the presidency, little does he know that
he has become the latest in a line of chain-mail
Neanderthals that originated during the Middle Ages
and included such noteworthies as Peter the Hermit
and eventually Adolph Hitler.
Yes, Hitler. He invaded Tunisia, Libya and Egypt
— all Muslim lands — probably without even realizing
the connection with the Crusades. Western leaders do
this all the time. They go into foreign lands apparently
without knowing they are tracing the footsteps and
awakening memories of European conquerors long
ago.
In short, much of the world remains paranoid about
Europe, and because Washington is allied with European
regimes (mostly through NATO), they are also
paranoid about the US.And, not one American in a
thousand understands. They've all been taught to see
this war through the eyes of the federal Goliath.
After conquering a territory…
…Europeans drew the borders to serve their own
purposes.
Often they drew the lines cutting right through
someone's homeland, splitting the tribe so that some
members lived in one country and some in another.
You can see this in America's northern border. It is
a straight line that slices right through the tribal homelands
of the Blackfoot, Sioux, Ojibwa, Assiniboine,
Kutenai and other native Americans, placing some
members of a given tribe in the US, and their relatives
in Canada.
Europeans did this in thousands of places all over
the world, and today each case is a potential war. People
on both sides of a line want to be re-united with
their relatives, and many are willing to fight to relocate
or erase the line.
In short — please remember this — practically
every border in the world outside Europe is artificial,
created by European invaders for European purposes,
not by the people who live there.
Summarizing what we have covered so far…
…one of the federal government's dirty little secrets
is that practically all the world's major geopolitical
problems are left-overs from the European colonial
period when European regimes conquered and rearranged
nearly the whole globe.
Washington is allied with the Europeans, which
means we Americans are painted with the same brush
as the Europeans.
In Saudi Arabia and Iran during the 1940s, the baton
of leadership was passed from the governments of
Europe to that of the US, and US officials accepted it.
In effect, during the Barbary wars and then the
1940s, European rulers suckered US officials into a
trap. America and Islam were set up, locked into a war
with each other.
As we continue watching events unfold, remember
the old Mideast saying: in the Mideast, whatever appears
to be happening is not what is happening, and
whoever appears to be responsible is not who is responsible.
For the next century: revolutions and wars
This article is not a criticism of Europeans. Most
I've met have been fine folks. It's a criticism of their
governments, which tried to recreate the world in their
own image and likeness.
The internal Muslim revolutions and wars today are
the Muslim tribes fighting each other to throw off these
foreign structures and impose or reimpose their own.
As in Egypt and Syria right now, Muslims disagree
violently about the character of these new structures
and the borders between them.
Afghanistan
and Pakistan are artificial countries created
not by the people who live there
but by the governments of Europe. The
border between the two, the Durand
Line, was one of the many drawn by
the Brits.
This is typical all over the world.
Very few countries are natural.Most
were conquered, designed and delineated
by Europeans.
In other words, it's not much of an
exaggeration to say the whole world
political structure today is artificial,
created by Europeans for the benefit of
Europeans. Most borders are potential
wars, and will remain so until the natives
redraw them in agreement with
their neighbors.
As I see it, there is nothing the US or European
governments can do to make this mess better, they can
only make it worse.They should get out of the Islamic
world and stay out. Let Muslims sort out their differences
without interference.
I expect this to take at least a century. During this
period, western governments might occasionally send
the Muslims a post card to say hi, but otherwise, leave
them alone, no politics. Again, Jefferson: "Peace,
commerce, and honest friendship with all nations —
entangling alliances with none."
If only he had followed his own advice. He led the
Barbary Wars, probably without understanding what
he was getting us into. This brings us to…
…nuclear terrorism
So, here we are today, with America stuck in a ten-century
war created by the governments of Europe.
This while Washington's economic coercion and saber
rattling induces its Muslim enemies to look for bigger
and better ways to hit back.
Continuing from my Dec 2012 article…
The Little Boy atomic bomb
dropped on Hiroshima was one
of the simplest inventions in
history. It wasn't much more
than a 6.5" caliber cannon barrel
stuffed with uranium and
explosives. Any bright high
school student who has the
necessary uranium could make
this kind of A-bomb.
For instance, the student
could go to a hardware store
and buy a cutting torch. At
3:00 a.m. some dark and foggy
morning, he could cut the end
off one of the cannons at the
local VFW building. If he had
the uranium, and an explosive
he could steal from a construction
shed, he'd be ready to go nuclear. (He'd also need
a long fuse and a fast car.)
As explained in the Dec. 2012 EWR, the government of Iran
and a lot of other angry people probably have the uranium.
In this age of miniaturization, if you are a professional
nuclear weapons designer, you can size a plutonium
bomb to fit in a small suitcase or cardboard box,
and deliver it to the target via FedEx.
Another key point: we'd probably never know who
did it.
Why hasn't it already happened?
Maybe it has.
Look in room 9
Suppose I secretly owned, say, a hundred suitcase
nukes purchased from Russian smugglers, and each
nuke had the power of the Hiroshima bomb. If I
wanted Washington or someone else to leave me alone,
what might I do?
Perhaps I'd plant one of my bombs in a US hotel
room. For the psychological effect, the exact center of
the US, which is Lebanon, Kansas, would be a good
spot. Message: we can hit your country anyplace and
any time we want.
Then I'd send a note to Washington saying, at a
given time and date, have one of your spy satellites
look at the coordinates 47S/40E, which is directly
south of Madagascar between the Prince Edward Islands
and the Crozet Islands. This is a vacant area of
the Indian Ocean near Antarctica.
At that time, date and location,
I'd detonate one of my
bombs.
Then I'd send a second note
saying, "Look in room nine at
the Slow Wheeze Motel in
Lebanon, KS. Leave me alone
and you won't lose any cities."
Of course, I could be more
aggressive, demanding money
or something else. But this
would give Washington more
incentive to come looking for
me.As long as I'm only demanding
to be left alone, then
I'm just one more member of
the "nuclear club" that is already
known to contain the rulers
of Israel, North Korea, Pakistan,
India, US, Russia, Britain,
France and China.
Under nuclear
weapons "sharing" agreements,
Washington has also provided nukes to the rulers
of Turkey, Italy, Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.
Fourteen members, so what's one more?
Has it already happened?
In what is today called the Vela Incident in 1979,
a US Vela satellite over the Indian Ocean spot I
mentioned earlier, reportedly saw a double flash
similar to those made by A-bombs being tested in
the atmosphere (as opposed to underground).
Granted, this could all be nonsense, we don't
know what the White House, CIA or anyone else is
hiding or lying about.
We also don't know how many flashes have occurred
that did not have satellites over them at the
time. Allegedly, Vela satellites did observe a total
of at least 42 nuclear explosions.
The flashes detected by Vela satellites did not
necessarily have to be governments squaring off
against each other. As explained in the Dec. 2012 EWR, there is
simply no way to know who has nukes and who
doesn't. Perhaps one incident was the Russian Mafia
sending a message to the Italian Mafia, or the
Pasadena Bingo Club rattling its nuclear saber at the
Beverly Hills Bingo Club.
The only thing we can be sure about is this: it
seems highly likely that the real nuclear club has a
lot more members than fourteen.
Washington's habit of treating everyone except
the fourteen as if it knows for
a fact that they can't retaliate
is a very high risk behavior.
Staying in Europe's thousand-year war with Muslims
isn't very bright either.
A small prediction: as Washington continues meddling in the Mideast revolutions, we will find nuclear terrorism appearing on the radar screens of the investment industry.
1 Mideast specialist Godfrey Jansen quoted in Sacred Rage by Robin Wright, Simon & Schuster, 1986, p.252.
2 "The Vela Incident," National Security Archive website, posted 5
May 06.
Harry Browne's 2004 or 2005 interview of Richard Maybury, author and publisher of the Early Warning Report. They discuss mostly foreign policy and middle east history. At the 23:40 mark, a caller proposes a valid solution
to the perpetual war for perpetual peace.
Richard Maybury publishes U.S. World Early Warning Reportand was formerly Global Affairs editor of MONEYWORLD. One of the most respected business and economics analysts in America, his articles have appeared in numerous major publications. HisUncle Eric series of books are extremely popular among both the general public and home schoolers, and include: The Thousand Year War, Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?, Whatever Happened to Justice?, Evaluating Books: What Would Thomas Jefferson Think of This? and eight other titles. Maybury's writings have been endorsed by top business leaders, and he is a consultant to numerous investment firms in the US and Europe.
"I agree with Richard Maybury's basic premise of the American Empire
coming apart and falling down. And I agree that the so-called 'leaders'
are really men who are addicted to power. They believe that they must
run the world or the world will run them. (There might even be some
truth to that.) Very rich and powerful men own and run the corporations
that make the decisions to dominate impoverished foreign countries and
extract their raw materials and pay little for them. Much of the
American wealth was actually taken that way. I find Richard Maybury's
descriptions of men addicted to power to be accurate. They totally crave
power, and they are in denial about it. They will do crazy things, even
suicidal things, to continue to feed their addiction, which they call
"the American way of life". They rationalize their behavior and even
consider it virtuous. They minimize and deny the problem, and insist
that they don't need to change their ways. They even insist that they
are doing the right thing, as their lives fall apart and as they harm
others." - OrangePapers.org, September 29, 2013
The Daily Crux Interview of Richard Maybury, 2011
The Daily Crux: Richard, you've long said the collapse of the American
Empire would be the central issue for Americans, with regard to money,
investing, and life in general.
In your recent issue of Early Warning Report, you said there's now a very
high probability this collapse has already started. Can you talk about why
you think that is?
Richard Maybury: Let's start with a little history: All empires
eventually fall. No one in Washington will admit it, but the U.S. has been
an empire for decades now, and there has never been any reason to believe
our empire would be immortal.
People who are power-seekers want more power, and they'll sacrifice other
things in order to get that power.One of the things power-seekers in a
large government almost always sacrifice is the financial integrity of the
country. They will bleed the whole economy dry just to increase their
power. That's a main reason empires fall.
We see it all through history. You can look back to any of the ancient
empires... They're forever wrecking their economies in order to increase
their political power. So it's no brilliant prediction to say the U.S.
Empire is going to fall. Anyone who has studied much history should have
been able to predict this mess was going to arise... and here it is.
It's fascinating to me. I talk to all sorts of so-called ordinary people,
such as dentists, barbers, and taxi drivers. Most have no understanding of
what's actually happening to America, but they all know deep in their
hearts something has gone terribly wrong... and it's not going to end anytime
soon. This is an interesting condition that has arisen recently.
Americans, up until the last year or two, have always been optimistic. They
would say things like, "Yes, hard times come along, but this, too, shall
pass." They aren't saying this anymore. They're beginning to figure out
that America's troubles aren't going away this time.
You can see these problems in the financial markets and elsewhere...
unemployment, bankruptcies, mortgage defaults, poverty... These are all just
symptoms of the fall of the empire. Let me quickly point out, however, that
the fall of the empire is actually a wonderful thing. Empires are cancers,
and it's a good thing to excise them as fast as possible. But the surgery
necessary to do it is awfully painful.
If you look at any previous empires I write about — the French Empire, the
British Empire, the Russian Empire — these countries are all much better
places today than they were when they had empires. America will be too. But
we've got to get from here to there... and the process is very, very painful.
We're going to experience an awful lot of trouble because of it.
Crux: For many years, you've also been writing about the problems in the
Middle East. In the past few months, it seems many of those problems are
coming to a head. Can you explain how the troubles there — part of the area
you refer to as "Chaostan" — are related to the troubles we're facing here
at home?
Maybury: Sure. For those who aren't familiar, "Chaostan" is a term I
coined for the area from the Arctic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, and Poland
to the Pacific, along with North Africa. This area includes the Middle East.
In Central Asia, the suffix "stan" means "the land of." For example,
Afghanistan is the land of the Afghans. So in 1992, I coined the term
Chaostan to mean "the land of great chaos."
The reason this area is so often in chaos is a conversation of its own, but
here's a quick summary.
All religions teach that there is a higher law than any government's law,
and they all teach two fundamental laws: Do all you have agreed to do,
which is the basis of contract law, and do not encroach on other persons or
their property, which is the basis of tort law and some criminal law.Each
religion expresses these laws in different ways, but they all teach them.
These principles are the basis of the old British common law. It was called
common law because it grew out of principles common to all.
In a book called The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution,
historian Bernard Bailyn pointed out that the American Revolution, the
Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence all sprang
from the common law.
In the decades following the revolution, other people saw America's new
liberty and prosperity. They wanted the same thing, and the American
philosophy began to spread around the world. The areas where it took root
became known as the "Free World." Then in the mid-1800s, socialism began to spread, and it nearly killed off
the American philosophy — a philosophy that I believe is now being
rediscovered.
Chaostan is the most important area where the principles of liberty never
got a chance to take root.From the beginning of history, most parts of
Chaostan have been a sea of blood and destruction because they never had
rational legal systems... and still don't.
The turmoil is greatly aggravated by the interference of European regimes
during past centuries.
When you look at this area on a map of the world, you see all these
countries are delineated by borders drawn by Europeans. Very few Americans
understand this. Practically every border in the world was drawn by the
European governments as they swept over the globe conquering one country
after another.
European rulers would draw the borders in locations that were convenient to
them. And so there are very few borders in the world that were drawn by the
people who are native to those areas.
This means what we regard as a country when we look at a map usually isn't
really a country at all. It's a collection of tribes cobbled together by
the Europeans for the convenience of the Europeans.
In each of these so-called "countries," there are some tribes that are
either dominant or want to be dominant. And the way they achieve dominance
is by acquiring money, weapons, and other resources from outside powers,
which were originally the Europeans.
A good example is Saudi Arabia. The Saudi tribe was one of many that lived
on the Arabian Peninsula. The British government essentially created Saudi
Arabia by giving money and weapons to the Saudi tribe and helping them take
control of the other tribes.
This would be akin to China or some other foreign country coming to the
United States and choosing single families or neighborhoods to rule over
entire states. These families would have all the wealth, all the power, and
would make all the rules. And just in case anyone got any ideas, the
Chinese government would keep a few battleships and aircraft carriers
parked near our shores.
Crux: We're huge fans of your Uncle Eric books here at The Crux, and
I remember being blown away the first time I read that example. We're not
taught these things in our schools... But when you look at it from that
perspective, it's not surprising there's so much anger toward Western
governments.
Maybury: Exactly... and this is the case all over Chaostan. None of those
nations are what you and I would regard as natural countries. They were
artificially created, and the rulers of those countries were propped up, in
nearly every case, by the Europeans.
Keep in mind that except for five countries — Iran, Thailand, Afghanistan,
most of China, and Japan — every country in the world at one time or
another was conquered by the Europeans. So the political structures we see
in these countries — nearly all countries — are either creations of the
Europeans or outgrowths of those creations.
During and after World War II, some of these tribal leaders wanted help
maintaining their power after the Europeans departed. The U.S. was the top
dog at that time, so they said to Washington, "We will do your bidding — we
will be your surrogate here — if you do what's necessary to keep us in
power."
That's the deal that was made with dozens of regimes around the world.That's the U.S. Empire, and that's what is falling apart now. The people
who have been dominated by tribes backed by Washington are sick of it, and
they're starting to overturn the existing political matrix.
So the troubles in the Middle East are to a large extent part of the
collapse of the empire.For instance, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt was one of
Washington's closest surrogates... and he was a nasty guy. He's out of power
now, and Egypt is in great turmoil. Nobody knows who's going to take over
the place.
That's just one example out of many. The whole thing is beginning to
crumble. Egypt was one of the early cases, and I think there are going to
be a lot more.
Even nations that were not part of the U.S. Empire are being thrown into
chaos, as the spirit of rebellion spreads.
As of a couple weeks ago, I think there are now 11 countries over there
experiencing uprisings of one kind or another. I expect this is going to
continue to spread.
It's very possible Egypt will wind up being the model for what happens in
many of those countries... where you have a U.S.-backed dictator who is
overthrown and then so-called Islamic fundamentalists come in and take
over.That's very likely what's going to happen in Egypt.
Obviously, I don't know for sure... no one should be certain about these
things. But I'm inclined to believe the Egyptian government is going to be
replaced by something that will not be friendly to Washington.
Again, however, we're really on thin ice when it comes to making
predictions about these sorts of things. Egypt contains many millions of
people, each with his own agenda. Predicting how all that's going to go is
very, very problematic.
What I can say with confidence is the political matrix Washington put in
place during and after World War II is now crumbling. I think that's pretty
clear. And again, I return to the point: This is ultimately a good thing.
The U.S. Empire should never have existed in the first place.
Crux: Why did the U.S. get involved in Chaostan to begin with?
Maybury: I believe it really just goes back to the lust for power. That's
one thing the mainstream news media is absolutely derelict about... They say
practically nothing about political power.
Crux: Could you define political power for us?
Maybury: Perhaps the simplest definition is "the legalized privilege of
using brute force on persons who have not harmed anyone."This privilege is
what sets governments apart from all other institutions. No church,
charity, fraternal organization, or any other institution can legally send
people with guns to your home to force you to buy their services or obey
their rules. Only the government can do that.And whether they realize it
or not, it's this privilege — of using force on persons who don't deserve
it — that a power-seeker wants.
Crux: Is that related to the old saying that power corrupts?
Maybury: Very astute of you to make that connection. If the American
founders were here today, they'd tell us political power is poison... Stay as
far from it as you can... It's evil stuff.
But the media have bought into this assumption that political power is
good, it's the solution to our problems, and a world full of political
power is a good place. They almost never look into the psychology of it...
What causes a human being to want to force his will on other people?
Because that's what political power essentially is — the ability to bend
other people to your will. And the media just don't look at that at all.
There's this assumption that the people in the federal government are a
whole lot of nice individuals who have good intentions, and it would never
occur to any of them to get a thrill out of forcing their plans onto
somebody else.
But that's what it's all about, and that's what it's been about for
thousands of years. Government is brute force. Coercion. Chains. Prisons.
Follow our plans or else. The political mind is the mind of a bully.
Crux: We often hear the U.S. is involved in the Middle East because of
oil... How big a role does oil actually play?
Maybury: I think oil is an excuse. I don't think it's a reason for the
empire. Whoever owns the oil has to sell it or it's worthless.
They may not want to sell it directly to us, but they're going to sell it
to somebody. This will increase the total world supply of oil, and the
price of oil from other suppliers will go down.
So the idea that this is all about oil... that's just a smokescreen. It's
about power. It's about the thrill that these people in Washington get out
of meddling in other countries.
Crux: You mentioned before that it's very difficult to make predictions.
But what do you see happening next in the region?
Maybury: As far as that's concerned, I refer to Egypt again.The friends
of Washington are widely hated by their own people, and they will be coming
under pressure to hit the road.
Look what happened to the Shah of Iran back in the late '70s. I think it's
going to happen to pretty much all of Washington's surrogates. Like I said,
it's a fool's game to try to predict these things, but that's the direction
events are going now, and that's the direction I've been predicting since
the early 1990s.
Before the Soviet Empire fell apart, the Soviet Union sat on Chaostan like
a lid on a pressure cooker. One of the forces at work there was the
individual tribes that ruled these countries did not want to be conquered
by the Soviets, so they formed alliances with Washington as a protection
against the Soviets.When the Soviet Union fell in the early '90s, this
essentially removed the lid on the pressure cooker. The explosion began,
and now it's escalating.
In the 1990s, the rest of the world was cheering a new era of peace and
brotherly love... and I was saying, "That's ridiculous. The whole place is
going to blow up." Everybody said I was crazy, and I kind of wondered if
maybe I was.
But it turned out that by the year 2000 — a mere 10-year stretch of the new
era of peace and brotherly love — more than 100 wars broke out and more
than 5 million people were killed.
I think what's happening today is just the beginning of what will turn out
to be even more violent than the '90s.There are literally hundreds of
millions of really angry people over there, and a rebellious momentum is
growing.
Again, I'm really reluctant to make specific forecasts on this kind of
thing. All you can say is governments have been creating empires since the
beginning of history, and empires have been falling apart since the
beginning of history...We're in one of those "falling apart" periods now.
Crux: Do you think the individuals in power in Washington realize the
empire is crumbling? Do they even realize it's an empire?
Maybury: Well, it's official U.S. policy that Washington does not have an
empire. Everybody is taught that.
But just a couple months ago, President Obama phoned up Mubarak in Egypt
and fired him. If that's not an empire, what is it?
Now, Obama has decided the Libyan government should change, too. These
people in Washington seem to think they're ordained by God to somehow make
the world better.
I think it's amazing they believe they're intelligent enough to be able to
do that. It's actually pretty hilarious.
Crux: So as the empire begins to crumble, how do you think Washington
will respond?
Maybury: I think we'll see more examples of Washington trying to steer
events in directions favorable to Washington.Notice I'm not saying
favorable to America. I'm saying favorable to the U.S. government. They are
two entirely different things.
Of course, the people in Washington are all individuals. They all have
their own agendas. They can't even agree on what's favorable to the
government. So they're all grasping at straws. They have no idea what they should
really do in a situation like this. There are no guidelines. And since they
don't even want to acknowledge they have an empire, they don't understand
what it is they're trying to save.
I mean, talk about a bunch of lost souls. They seem to think being elected
means they have some sort of special ethical position in the world. They
have no idea what it is they're trying to defend. All they know is they're
trying to defend it.
Typically, in every empire, it all continues until one day somebody looks
at the books and says, "Gee, we're broke. We can't do this anymore." That's
when it all starts to come apart.
One of my favorite stories is about William Gladstone — the prime minister
of England in the mid-1800s — and that's essentially what he did. He just
said, "Look, we're going broke trying to prop up this empire. This is
ridiculous."
He started dismantling the British government's power. He probably made
more progress in abolishing political power than any other lone individual
in history. It's an amazing story.
Gladstone is one of the few peaceful examples of how all empires go down.
They eventually realize they can't play the game anymore. They realize
they've exhausted their resources... They've bled the population dry.
Humans can only produce so much wealth, and the government is consuming
this wealth in order to prop up the empire. Eventually, it all just goes
under.
Incidentally, we're talking here today about the federal government's
empire abroad... But America itself, internally, is part of the federal
empire, too.There are no less than a quarter-million federal bureaucrats
making and enforcing regulations on us.And each of these regulations is
backed by guns, chains, and prisons. It's not much of an exaggeration to
say the whole world — including America itself — has been conquered by the
federal government.
Crux: How close do you think we are to the point where the empire
collapses the economy?
Maybury:My best guess is we're in the process of going under now. That's
the economic trouble the average American is noticing... the unemployment,
the business failures, the financial crash, the real estate collapse... plus
the mental and emotional strain — the psychological depression, marital
problems, divorces. It's the process of the empire going under. The
economic problems are symptoms of the manipulation of the currency, and all
sorts of other economic tomfoolery, to try to keep the federal bureaucracy
well fed at the expense of the rest of us.
The absolute best thing Washington could do for the American people — if
the folks in Washington were honest — is just announce that the empire is
over."It's finished, we quit." We're going to withdraw our troops from all
those countries around the world. We're going to bring them home to defend
America. We're not going to meddle in other countries anymore.
After all, this attempt to keep the Empire alive is just squandering blood
and treasure for nothing. We're bankrupt. We can't do this anymore. The
attempt to preserve the empire — which means, largely, the attempt to keep
Washington's surrogates in power — is just dragging out the whole painful
process and making it all the more expensive and hopeless.
If they'd just give it up, that would be the first big step in triggering
the economic recovery.But they're not going to do it. They're power
junkies. They'll drag this thing out until — in the words of political
philosopher Howard Kershner — the last bone of the last taxpayer has been
picked bare.
Crux: So what are the personal and investment implications of the fall of
the American Empire? How do you recommend people prepare for what you see
coming?
Maybury: First and foremost, you should have a good stash of emergency
equipment and supplies. Everybody should have these things anyway, because
you never know what's going to happen, be it earthquakes, riots,
hurricanes, riots, epidemics, riots, blizzards — did I mention riots?
The Daily Bell interview of Richard Maybury, April 7, 2013
Daily Bell: Good to speak with you again. Let's jump right in by reminding readers you see the world in part through what is sometimes called the prism of empire. This refers to the belief that the behavior of governments is best understood as the attempt by unfettered politicians and bureaucrats to dominate others. You believe the decline of the federal government's global empire is the lens through which investors must look at the world – at least partially. How do you define an empire?
Richard Maybury:A collection of governments or countries under the control of a single authority. In 1939, President Roosevelt said of President Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua, "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." That does a good job of expressing the spirit of the whole US Empire. The US Empire could be the most powerful force affecting investment markets and practically everything else. Before we go further, I'd like to make a special point. I think the United States of America is a wonderful country and I would not want to live anywhere else. But the country and the government are not the same thing. That's extremely important. Nothing I say should be taken as a criticism of America or of the principles on which America was founded. But the government, I believe, is the most dangerous enemy. The federal government has gone renegade, and if it is not returned to the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights, the country will be destroyed.
Richard Maybury: It's very important for those individuals who did (and are) attending government-controlled schools to not believe everything you were taught in school. The schools are (and have been for some time) owned or controlled by government agencies, and they provide a history that is the background for practically every decision you make in your life, whether you are aware of it or not. This official history is flattering to the government because the government controls its own story. To make wise decisions, each individual must understand what actually happened in the past rather than what we were taught. This generally requires re-education for many of us, which is one of the reasons that I wrote the Uncle Eric books.
One thing I try to do in both the Uncle Eric books and Early Warning Report newsletter is explain the need to look back to at least World War II, and preferably a lot farther. Daily Bell: Why WWII?
Richard Maybury: In my opinion, that war is still the greatest influence on us — on our careers, businesses and investments. Let's begin by doing a quick summary of the war. Three-quarters of the Second World War was the Eastern Front battle between Hitler's German Nazis and Stalin's Soviet Socialists. Americans are taught about Iwo Jima, the invasion of Normandy, the Battle of the Atlantic, and the other parts of the war that Americans were in. But actually, most of the war was fought on the Eastern Front, where Americans weren't even present.
Let me point out that the largest ally President Roosevelt had during the war was Stalin's Soviet Socialists. Except for Obama, Franklin Roosevelt was America's most socialist president. Instead of staying out of the war and letting the German and Soviet barbarians pound each other to dust on the plains of central Europe, Franklin Roosevelt abandoned neutrality and in June 1941 — five months before Pearl Harbor — announced he would back the socialist Stalin.Stalin was the worst known evil in history. In his book about the true nature of old world governments, called Death by Government, historian R.J. Rummel reports the most accurate estimate of Hitler's murders is 20.9 million, and Stalin's death toll was 42.7 million. Franklin Roosevelt backed Stalin, so the worst evil in history won the war, Stalin.
Daily Bell: And we've been trying to live with the results ever since.
Richard Maybury: Correct. By 1945 it was clear Stalin intended to conquer the world.There was near panic in London and Washington as these governments realized what they'd done by aiding Stalin.Only seven months after the War ended, Churchill announced that an Iron Curtain had descended across Europe, and a year later Harry Truman proclaimed the Truman Doctrine in which Washington pledged to help anyone who resisted the Soviet Union.That's the key point – he pledged to help anyone who resisted the Soviet Union.
Daily Bell: So what were the implications of that?
Richard Maybury:Almost every president since Truman has embraced the Truman Doctrine.For a half-century they sent money, troops and weapons to far corners of the globe to help the armed forces of any regime that claimed to be anti-Soviet. Many of these supposedly anti-Soviet governments were crooks and tyrants. They included the Shah of Iran, Marcos in the Philippines, Manuel Noriega in Panama, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Mobutu in the Congo, Chaing Kai-shek in Taiwan, General Park in Korea, President Diem in Vietnam, Suharto and Habibie in Indonesia. The importance is that nearly every thug who promised to be part of Washington's so-called sphere of influence received military assistance that was in most cases used to brutalize his own people.
Daily Bell: That's quite a rogue's gallery. We assume it included crooks and tyrants in the Islamic world, too.
Richard Maybury: I can see where you are headed with that question, and it's very astute of you. For instance, Washington helped the Shah of Iran for 25 years for no known reason other than the Shah claimed to be anti-Soviet. And for 25 years the Shah of Iran and his secret police terrorized Iranians.
Daily Bell:So you are saying this vast collection of crooks and tyrants in the Mideast and elsewhere became the US Empire.
Richard Maybury:Yes. And I was part of that process. I saw it with my own eyes, which I will get to shortly.It's a crucial part of history that Americans are not taught in government-controlled schools. The US Empire is a mighty dark and nasty beast. It's made up of people you don't want to meet in a dark alley.
Daily Bell: And this empire still exists, and these people make a lot of enemies for America.
Richard Maybury: They certainly do. After the USSR went down, Washington kept the empire going. Look at the thugs that federal officials put in place in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt and on and on. Those people have enemies, so now their enemies are our enemies.
Daily Bell: We seem to remember you writing elsewhere that the federal government's foreign policy boils down to poking sharp sticks at rattlesnakes.
Richard Maybury: I've been saying that for years, and I see no reason to change it. It's part of a strategy that power junkies have been using with great success since the days of the Roman Emperors. These people shout, "Rattlesnakes from everywhere are trying to bite us! We can't be safe unless we conquer the world!"
Daily Bell:Are you saying these rattlesnakes would behave if Washington would stop poking them?
Richard Maybury: No, no, no. There are lots of bad people. You can see bullies in any schoolyard. But don't provoke them. Leave them alone and arm yourself to the teeth. Be like a porcupine, gentle, quiet, calm, but always ready to put a big hurt on anyone who tries to get rough with you.
Daily Bell: You've said, instead of an imperial military − meaning a giant expeditionary force − have a whole nation of minutemen who can protect themselves, their families or their country if there is trouble.
Richard Maybury: Very good. Like the National Guard once was, or the Swiss still are to a large extent.A defensive military instead of an offensive military.What's wrong with America's foreign policy is not that we have a military, it's that we have...
Daily Bell: ... the wrong type!
Richard Maybury: Again, I see you've caught on to this way of thinking about the government's behavior. Yes, the US Empire, which grew to maturity in World War II, is a giant machine that makes enemies for America — for you and me.And the economy, the financial markets, the whole country will continue lurching from one disaster to the next because of this. For one thing, it's monstrously expensive. Unless I'm missing something, and I don't think I am,the only people who will prosper consistently in this political climate are those whose investments are set up to do well during wartime and currency debasement.
Daily Bell: And that's a great deal of what you write about in your Early Warning Report newsletter, correct? — ways to cope with and profit from the insanity produced by the US Empire?
Richard Maybury: Yes. My investment model is very simple. Buy things that do well during wartime and currency debasement.As you can imagine, it's been working wonderfully as a long-term strategy.
Daily Bell: So we've heard.
Richard Maybury: Let me go off on a tangent for a moment. I once heard a terrorism expert say that the people the government calls terrorists see every bullet fired at them as made in America. I would add that the so-called terrorists see it that way because the foreign aid sent by Washington to its pet tyrants for more than a half-century does buy those bullets.You can trace this all the way back to the alliance between the socialist Franklin Roosevelt and the socialist Joseph Stalin. Read the book Blowback by Chalmers Johnson.
Daily Bell: For most people this is eye-opening stuff but there is a lot more to cover in other fields. Give us a quick overview of your activities for the past several years.
Richard Maybury: Mostly I've been researching and writing our newsletter, Early Warning Report (www.earlywarningreport.com). That's my primary job. It's a newsletter for investors, based on geopolitics and economics. Everyone knows that geopolitics and economics steer the broad movements in the investment markets, but very few writers cover these areas, especially the geopolitics, so we do.
Daily Bell: Your readers have found there is much to be gained by knowing what others don't.
Richard Maybury: Yes. For readers, it's a source of prestige as well as profits. I'm sure you at The Daily Bell have found there is no faster way to draw a crowd at a party than to begin explaining the geopolitical facts of life and their ramifications.
Daily Bell: To what do you attribute this difference between you and the other analysts? Lots of them get deeply into economics but why do so few address geopolitics?
Richard Maybury: I don't know but I expect it has something to do with the Vietnam War, which I managed to miss, mostly, only to end up in other wars.
Daily Bell: Other wars?
Richard Maybury: Washington is always in lots of wars. I'm sure some of your readers do not realize the Vietnam War got the media's attention because it was just the biggest war that was going on at that time. In the 1960s I received my draft notice and wound up in Central America, in the Air Force's 605th Special Operations Squadron. Our job was to help prop up some of Washington's crooks and tyrants that I mentioned earlier. For instance, in training the troops of these thugs,I worked directly with the CIA's notorious School of the Americas, and even helped train Manuel Noriega, who later became Washington's pet dictator in Panama.
Daily Bell: Wow. So you saw real politics, up close and personal, while other Americans were back in the States thinking that politics is about speeches and ballots.
Richard Maybury: (Laughing.) I love this. Very well said. I can see The Daily Bell has an excellent grasp of what's really happening in the world. Politics isn't so much about ballots as it is about bullets. The typical American doesn't have the foggiest idea what the US government is really doing in other countries.
Daily Bell: And you are saying that very few other investment analysts have the geopolitical experience you do so perhaps they are not as comfortable writing about how real politics — the genuine muzzle of a gun reality — affects the economy and investment markets.
Richard Maybury: I have no way of knowing what the geopolitical experiences of other investment analysts may or may not be. As far as I can tell, I am the only one who has connected these dots and presented the completed picture to my readers.
Daily Bell: Can you give us an example of covert operations you were involved in?
Richard Maybury:I wish I could paint a complete picture but most of the missions were secret not only to keep Americans from finding out but so the troops were unaware as well.We were told only what we needed to know to do our jobs, and in some cases I didn't find out till 20 or 30 years later what I had really been doing. At the time of the events, I just saw bits and pieces, and like the young fool I was, I simply trusted that the politicians were risking my life for good causes. I believed what I was taught in school, that the government is good, kind, wise and just, and would never send me to die for purposes that were dishonorable.
Daily Bell: We bet you weren't the first to feel this way.
Richard Maybury: Right. Everyone should read a book called War is a Racket, by two-star general Smedley Butler. One of the Marine Corps' top heroes, Butler fought in 121 battles and was awarded two Medals of Honor, as well as a lot of other medals. After he retired, Butler began researching what he had actually been doing. He was appalled, and tried to speak out, but he was mostly ignored. It's outrageous. Most Americans simply do not want to believe their government has an empire.
Daily Bell: Let's look at the secrecy issue. Why keep things secret from Americans when the enemy knows what is happening? For instance, in the bombings of Cambodia, the enemy knew the bombs were falling on him, obviously, but Americans didn't know. What was the purpose of keeping Americans from finding out what the enemy already knew?
Richard Maybury: All over the world, Washington's enemies know they are being shot at but Americans don't know. I remember in Central America and South America we were sent on some strange missions that decades later I found were probably in pursuit of Che Guevara. Guevara was a smart guy; he probably noticed the bullets buzzing around him but those missions were secret from the American people.
Daily Bell: So the secrecy was intended to keep Americans from finding out what their government was doing in other countries?
Richard Maybury: That's my guess, though I have no way to prove it. I'm not a mind-reader. A politician gives a particular order and stamps it top secret, but who knows why he's really doing it. All I can say with great confidence is that Washington does a lot all over the world that increases its power, but the American people know little about it, or about its effects on the economy or the investment markets — or Americans' safety at home or abroad.
Daily Bell: Let's move on to another of your projects of recent years, the Uncle Eric books.
Richard Maybury: Good idea. As you can imagine, after my experiences in the Air Force I've had a deep and abiding wish for young people to be taught the things that are omitted or whitewashed in the government-controlled schools. It really bothers me when I see a young person marching off to war without the foggiest understanding of what he or she is getting into.
Daily Bell: And this is not just in regard to military matters. There are all sorts of vitally important materials that have been erased from school curricula. It's in finance, economics, law, history. And your Uncle Eric books are your effort to provide the side of the story that has been omitted from conventional classroom instruction.
Richard Maybury: Yes, I think children are purposely made very naïve, very vulnerable.
Daily Bell: That is certainly a bold accusation. What's your authority for it?
Richard Maybury:I was a public school teacher for four years, and I was also hired by a major textbook publisher to write an economics textbook for high schools.I know how much government-approved books are censored.By no stretch of the imagination are children getting the knowledge they need to make them savvy about the real world.
Daily Bell: It seems like that's what your real job is, teaching people about the real world.
Richard Maybury: Good point. Perhaps you are right. I must have some sort of phobia about seeing good people walk into booby traps, and that is what I see government-controlled schools to be, booby traps. They set children up to graduate into life's realities unprepared.
Daily Bell: And you are trying to prepare them.
Richard Maybury: Yes, I'm very passionate about that. My 11 Uncle Eric books are what I would say to a young person if I were that individual's uncle. Each book is loaded with questions young people and adults might ask if they discovered their mainstream schools and colleges were slanted to make them vulnerable − to make them believe the way the government wants them to. My Uncle Eric books provide the other side of the story, a model that I believe will better equip them for life – which is why the 11 Uncle Eric books, collectively, are also known as Uncle Eric's Model of How The World Works.
Daily Bell: So the point of your Uncle Eric books is to help children and adults, including investors, see what the government does not want them to see. But what is the alternative to government-controlled schools?
Richard Maybury: From what I have observed, private schools are better, and home schooling, even better. This isn't to say all private schooling and home schooling are perfect. In any field, there are always people who will do a bad job. But there is no private school or home school that could possibly do as much damage as government-controlled schools have done.
Daily Bell: Why is that?
Richard Maybury: Just sheer size, for one thing. If a private school or home school wants to try an experiment, and the experiment fails, the failure is confined to that one group of children. And it is short-lived. For example, if the curriculum doesn't work for a home school student, the parent can change the curriculum within days. If the state or federal government wants to try an experiment — which they do all the time — all the public schools in the state or country have it forced onto them. When I was a child, most of my generation was taught sight-reading instead of phonics, and so millions of children across the country, including future teachers, grew up with poor reading skills. Those children were guinea pigs. And it can take years to adopt new books or change regulations.
Daily Bell: And this applies across the school subjects, including history, economics, finance, you name it.
Richard Maybury: Yes. I think young adults today graduate from high school and college as gullible as I was. They're brainwashed. For example, if they are taught economics at all, they are usually taught Keynesian economics. Don't worry, Students, the Federal Reserve and FDIC will keep your money safe. Taxes are collected for your own good. It's safe to believe government statistics. The purpose of wars is to protect those you love. You got an A on your history test because you were able to name the four greatest presidents and the wonderful things they did for you. The majority voted for this so it must be right. Don't worry about being unfairly accused; you will always get a fair trial. The politicians and bureaucrats have your best interests at heart. And most importantly, school textbooks tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Daily Bell: Scary. Can you give us another reason you believe private schools and home schools are better?
Richard Maybury: Yes. In eleven words, they don't have the hidden political agenda that public schools do. Let me point out that if you can't home school your children full time, you can do it part time. On the Internet you will find lots of home school organizations that can help you. My main point is, do something to counteract what the government is doing to your children.
Daily Bell: Is there some kind of giant conspiracy to brainwash the population?
Richard Maybury: I don't think so, not at all. It's just government employees teaching today's children a view of life that most government employees were taught when they were students. The solution to every problem is more government. What else would we expect a government employee to teach? The whole thing works in a very automatic fashion with no need for anyone to guide it.
Daily Bell: A child who learns it gets good grades and one who doesn't gets bad grades.
Richard Maybury: Yes. All my adult life I've been watching good people suffer and very often miss wonderful opportunities because in the schools and colleges they were taught a picture of the world that just isn't so. My whole life has been like standing on a big-city street corner and watching what happens to people who were taught that a red light means go.
Daily Bell: Standing on that street corner would tend to make anyone uncomfortable.
Richard Maybury: I've come to realize that there's a pressure inside me that keeps growing all the time because my job requires me to have an ever-deepening understanding of the things the government sent me into 45 years ago. I was unknowingly a part of the building of the empire, and now the empire is collapsing, and I must stay on top of that, to help my subscribers. Writing the Uncle Eric books has been my effort to provide the side of the story that isn't usually told. The more a person learns what he wasn't taught in school, the better prepared he is to prosper during these temporary hard times as the empire collapses.
Daily Bell: That's one reason your Uncle Eric books are on the Daily Bell's Must Read list. Let's get more deeply into specifics about the books. Can you give us a bit of an overview of them?
Richard Maybury: As I said, there are 11 books in the series and they've been doing very well. Total sales now are almost a half-million, and the secondary readership must be at least another half million, so people like them, and they tell others. Last year alone, over 32,000 Uncle Eric books sold. Just the first three alone (Uncle Eric Talks About Personal, Career, and Financial Security, Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? and Whatever Happened to Justice?) are tremendous eye-openers to most. I often receive comments such as, now I know why I took a bath in the stock market, and, thanks for helping me get rich.
Daily Bell: We've heard you won an important award.
Richard Maybury: Yes. We received a feather in our cap. We won first place in the Mary Pride Practical Homeschooling Reader Award (www.home-school.com) in the Government Category. I think that's a measure of how helpful people find my alter ego, Uncle Eric. From what I've seen, the books have become central in the home school movement and other alternative educational venues. The people who homeschool their children are aware children are being misled by what they're being taught in conventional schools, and both full time and part time homeschoolers use the books to fill in what's been omitted.
Daily Bell: Can you expand a little about areas of information that are being omitted from government schooling, and give us a few examples of specifics?
Richard Maybury: You'll find I often refer to events in history because I'm a historical person. I'm aware the world we live in today is the result of what happened in the past. With the schools, it's so important that people understand that back in the early part of the 20th century the hot new philosophy was socialism. There were people such as John Dewey, who was an educator, who believed that socialism was a wonderful system and it was workable. These socialist leaders wanted everybody in the world to be taught to be socialists, and began changing the schools. So school materials today are very heavily socialist and they deliver subtle socialist messages in much of what the children study.
I'm not saying people such as Dewey were evil or were in league with the devil. I think they were honest teachers who really, truly believed that socialism was a good idea, and they got hold of the schools and used them to essentially turn the whole US population socialist.
Daily Bell: Can you give us one of these subtle socialist messages?
Richard Maybury: Sure. In a lot of schools and colleges, in the teaching of writing, students are forbidden to use the word "I". Rarely is the student allowed to say, "I believe this," or "I saw that." Try to find in any big newspaper or magazine an article written from the viewpoint of "I". Nearly everything sounds like it was written by a committee. That's what the writers were taught in school, because it's what socialists want. To them, the individual is unimportant, even expendable. There is no me, there is just us, we. Private property is evil, because everything is or should be owned by everyone as a group. It's okay to raise taxes to the sky, because the government is just confiscating what rightfully belongs to us all. That's the socialist view. English teachers teach it without recognizing what it really is. This is one of the reasons I wrote the Uncle Eric book, Evaluating Books: What Would Thomas Jefferson Think About This? It provides guidelines and indicators to help the reader identify bias in books, media presentations, etc.
Daily Bell: Another example?
Richard Maybury: I'm sure you have noticed that men often have worse handwriting than women. It's natural to conclude this is because schoolboys are less careful or precise than schoolgirls. But that's not so. The truth is that the small muscle development of boys lags that of girls by perhaps six months. Socialists teach that everyone should be equal, so all children are taught handwriting at the same time. This all-the-same idea carries through to every subject. Each child has a different mind and body, and is ready to learn a given subject at his or her own time. I might be ready to learn math at age 10, and you might be ready at age 4, but the school wants us to be equal and it teaches us all at the same time. The individual does not count; only the group does. The children absorb that belief even without it being directly taught.
Daily Bell: And that's why we see so much support for gigantic government programs these days. The population grows up in this socialist environment and has been taught that the answer to every problem is more government. There's nobody giving the children the other side of the story.
Richard Maybury: Few teachers are aware they are teaching a viewpoint they subtly absorbed as students. I am sure everyone at the Daily Bell and everyone reading this right now can remember as children being assigned to write letters to their congressmen asking the congressmen to fix this problem or that, or punish so-and-so.
Daily Bell: And those children grow up to be investors.
Richard Maybury: Yes, which means even well informed investors are operating without the other side of the story. They think what they were taught in school is true, and they don't question it. What the Uncle Eric books are designed to do is to give everyone, young and old alike, what is missing, what was actually removed forcibly from the schools a century ago. Based on sales and letters from readers of the Uncle Eric books, I believe my books succeed in presenting the other side of the story. And I have found when teachers learn about the bias in their curriculums, many realize it's their responsibility, at the very least, to present opposing viewpoints to their students.
Daily Bell: Can you explain how Dewey and his friends were able to have that much influence?
Richard Maybury: As I said, socialism was the hot new philosophy. If you were an intellectual 100 years ago, you would be thrown out of the intellectual club if you still believed in liberty and free markets. Such beliefs meant you were not a modern person. The colleges and high schools were just loaded up with people who believed that socialism was the wave of the future. These people became teachers, and they taught their students, and those students grew up and became teachers, and their students became teachers, and so on until there are probably hundreds of thousands of teachers out there today who have no idea they are socialists.
Daily Bell: Isn't that covered in your Uncle Eric book called Are You Liberal, Conservative or Confused?
Richard Maybury: Yes, and directly or indirectly in several other of the Uncle Eric books.
Daily Bell: In the minutes leading up to this interview you were mentioning that it's important for people to ask: Why is a free press a good thing?
Richard Maybury: Yes. What's so important about it? Well, we don't want our minds to be in the hands of the government. We want lots of other people giving us information to help us have open minds and to be able to think for ourselves. That's why a free press is sacred in a free country. So, what's the point of handing the minds of our children over to the government? If a free press is a good thing, then why not let the children's minds be free, too? Why let the helpless little ones be programmed by followers of Dewey?
Daily Bell: So that's one of the things the Uncle Eric books are trying to do − to give the children more open minds and let them think for themselves rather than just swallow the spoon-fed school literature that is censored.
Richard Maybury: Yes! Uncle Eric Talks About Personal, Career and Financial Security specifically discusses this topic in the chapters on Models, Sorting Data, Evidence, Tautology and others.And I'd like to emphasize the fact that the material children get in school is censored.And don't take my word for it. Talk with your child's teachers. Ask if the books are examined line by line, and approved or disapproved, by government committees. Ask if the writers of the history and economics books are given politically influenced guidelines they must follow in order for each sentence to be accepted. And bear in mind these are often the same books, updated, that the teachers were taught from.
Daily Bell: Government committees?
Richard Maybury: Yes, government committees look over all of the textbooks to make sure they are not embarrassing to the government. The committees don't consciously add lies; they just delete facts that are awkward, so that the child has a very positive, uncritical view of political power.
Daily Bell: Uncritical?
Richard Maybury: Yes, talk with your friends. Most everyone comes out of school with this attitude that political power is wonderful stuff and everyone should have some. Political power is the solution to all our problems.
Daily Bell: Thank you for saying that. We think very few parents are aware of it. At bottom, you're saying we've all been brainwashed.
Richard Maybury: Not all. Some fall through the cracks. But I didn't fall through till I was in my 20's. A friend was in his 60's.
Daily Bell: The Uncle Eric books hasten the process of falling through the cracks.
Richard Maybury: Yes, that's a good way of looking at them. Before we move on, could I issue a challenge to all history teachers?
Daily Bell: Certainly.
Richard Maybury: If you do not teach your students what the US government has been doing in foreign countries for more than a hundred years, then you are helping set them up to volunteer for missions that they will someday not be proud of. I am the voice of experience. I was one of those soldiers who trusted the government, because my history teachers taught me to, and I hope you will not make the mistake my teachers did. Give the children points of view that are different than the official ones. You can give the official ones, but please also tell them what political power really is and that it's not a miracle cure-all, it's poison.
Daily Bell:What do you think about a war with Iran?
Richard Maybury: I think it's a definite possibility because both governments would benefit from it greatly. It would be another wonderful opportunity for them to acquire more power over their populations. There's nothing like an international emergency to cause people to just throw up their hands and say, "Do whatever it takes to protect me even if it means putting chains on me!" I think in the United States a war would be another chance for the federal government to burn more of the Constitution. And the Iranian government, too, wants to acquire more power just as much as the US government does.A war would constitute a wonderful partnership between the two.
Daily Bell:Is China a growing military adversary of the US?
Richard Maybury: Absolutely, but I shouldn't say China. I don't want to paint all Chinese with the same brush. The Chinese government is a different thing than China. The Chinese government, yes, I think definitely wants to increase its military power, like most other governments, and from the reports I've seen they are apparently building up their military forces. The Far East once belonged to the Chinese government and they want it back, and I think they plan to take it.
Daily Bell: You believe they are very likely trying to develop strategies, tactics, and weapons that will make it possible to chase the US Navy out of the Far East?
Richard Maybury: I do, and my guess is they're going to eventually be able to do it. We don't know how much resistance Washington will put up. US officials obviously think the federal government has some right to dominate the Far East, and I think US officials will try to hang onto that area for a while. If that leads to a war, I'm sure the Chinese government wouldn't mind it at all, as long as it doesn't go nuclear. They would find nuclear radiation inconvenient. But they really do need something to divert their population's attention away from the growing economic problems. If I were Washington, I'd get my armed forces out of the Far East right now, instantly.
Daily Bell: Instantly? Really?
Richard Maybury: Yes. Think about it. If I'm right that China's rulers would see a war with the US as a solution, not a problem, then where is the most likely direction events are headed?
Daily Bell: Your paradigm regarding the US as an empire seems to be a valid one. In fact, sometimes it seems like the whole world is exploding. As a specialist in military affairs from an investment standpoint, what's the trigger for all this fighting?
Richard Maybury:One thing to understand is that people fight wars for numerous reasons and the most prevalent reason is they fight because they always have. There are all sorts of cultures, tribes, clans, and ethnic groups around the world who have hated their neighbors and fought with them for centuries. A good example is the Russians and the Chechens. No matter what the United States does, the Russian government and the Chechens are still going to hate each other, they are still going to want to fight, and there is nothing we can do about it.
When the US goes around the world getting into these fights, all we do is make it worse. The idea that Americans have some special talent for going into a foreign country and cleaning the place up is crazy! No matter what we do the Chechens and the Russians are still going to hate each other.
Daily Bell: These problems won't get solved unless someone gets steamed enough to shout them from the rooftops. You are one of the few who ever have. So what is the real reason for the generally increasing battle zones in the Middle East and Northern Africa – Mali, Syria, Libya, and Egypt, for instance?
Richard Maybury: A general answer to all those sorts of questions is that if a person is in the federal government, either as a politician or a high level bureaucrat, then that person is clearly a power seeker, and there is no more satisfying use of power than military force.There's this automatic tendency among people who want to get into the government to want to fight. Power seekers want to use their power.And I think with that observation alone you can explain at least half of any war Washington is in. My three war books, World War I, World War II, and The Thousand Year War in the Mideast, discuss these issues thoroughly.
Daily Bell: Where do we go from here? To generalized war? Is it to some degree an economic war?
Richard Maybury: As for generalized war, I think that's likely. The government can get away with so many secret activities in other countries now that top officials can steer the population into anything they want. As for the economics, all wars are economic in the sense that the military needs bullets and beans in order to fight, and they've got to be able to buy those bullets and beans. Now, a lot of people conclude, economics is causing war. I have never seen a case where that was so. War is the most expensive thing humans do, so economics always argues against war. Any alternative is cheaper.
So in a sense, no war is ever economic because the economics always argues against it. But economics is used as an excuse.Leaders are constantly pointing to various economic factors and calling those "vital interests" and then arguing that the US should go to war over these "vital interests". What they're really saying is that your son or daughter's life is not as valuable as a barrel of oil so they're willing to expend that life in order to steal the oil.It's propaganda and completely insane. Again, I'm speaking as someone who was there on the inside.
Daily Bell: Expand on the worst problem the US is suffering from. You believe it is ethics because empires tend to lose their ethics. How can America recover?
Richard Maybury: In my book, Whatever Happened to Justice?, in a few of the other Uncle Eric books and in my newsletter, I often point out that the two fundamental laws that make civilization possible are 1) Do all you have agreed to do and 2) Do not encroach on other persons or their property. The first is the basis of contract law, and the second is the basis of tort law and some criminal law. If you have a population that's dedicated to these laws, and the laws are widely obeyed, then you can have a very ethical civilization, one that moves forward very quickly.
If, however, you have somebody or some large group of people who are violating those laws, then that civilization can't operate very well and it begins to decline.We see this all over the world.When legal systems are mutated to be tools of government policy rather than tools for producing a peaceful society, then it all goes to wrack and ruin.And this is repeated over and over again, throughout history.
I come back to that all the time. America has drifted entirely away from those two laws. Most Americans have never heard of them. Those laws were extracted from the British common law, which goes back to the Middle Ages. It used to be that in the schools the children were taught common law. In fact, at the time of the American Revolution, the common law was American history. If two Americans were talking about history they would be talking about common law. Most Americans today don't have the foggiest idea what common law was, and civilization is in a downhill slide because it can't go any other direction without those two laws.
Again, I refer to these in the Uncle Eric books and in Early Warning Report quite often. You've got to have those two laws or you're sunk, and the federal government has done a very, very thorough job of erasing our memories of those laws.
Daily Bell: Any other points you wish to make, books or articles you want to mention?
Richard Maybury: I would like your readers to have a look at my newsletter, Early Warning Report. When they phone 1-800-509-5400 or 1-602-870-9329 and mention The Daily Bell, they will get a year subscription (10 issues) and our informative Welcome Package for 44% off the normal subscription price of $300. They'll receive the important special reports, "Getting Started – Your Strategic Plan" and "Chaostan The Full Story," information they can't get anywhere else, all for just $169.00. I encourage them to call today, as the offer won't last long.
Daily Bell: Richard, this has been most enlightening. Thanks for your time!
Richard Maybury: My pleasure. I always enjoy working with the people at The Daily Bell. You are some of the best informed I have ever met.
ARI Watch interview with Richard Maybury, September 2007
MAYBURY: ... can I offer a note of clarification before we get further into the subject of war?
... The
country and the government are not the same thing. I love this country
and would not want to live anywhere else, but I consider the government
to be the country’s most dangerous enemy. Washington is taxing us to
death, it’s throwing the best medical system in the world into boundless
confusion, it’s interfering in absolutely every aspect of our lives,
its foreign policy for more than a century has been to wander the globe
poking sharp sticks at rattlesnakes, and it’s packed with crooks and
liars.
QUESTION: ... wasn’t it during
the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis that Iranians rose up against
Washington’s pet tyrant, the Shah of Iran ...?
MAYBURY: Yes. Washington had put the dictator in power and backed him for 25 years, because he claimed to be pro-American.
QUESTION:
... Then in 1980 [actually 1981], shortly after the killing of Egypt’s
Anwar Sadat – also backed by Washington – you wrote a 22-page special
report called “The Thousand Year War.” ... You said that if Washington
did not stop meddling in Islamic homelands, and backing Mideast tyrants,
America would end up in a world war with Muslims.
... Then in 1985, you did a huge article for The Washington Times.
You compared today’s shoulder-launched guided missiles to the invention
of the American rifle in the 1700s. ... could you explain?
MAYBURY:
My 1985 article was called, “Patrick Henry Updated, with Missiles.” ...
I pointed out that a key factor that enabled the Minutemen and other
rebels to win the American Revolution of 1776 was the Pennsylvania
flintlock rifle. The gun was far superior to the government’s Brown Bess
musket.It enabled Americans to use what were regarded as despicable,
cowardly tactics, such as hiding behind rocks and trees to fire from
long distances. The Americans won. These rag-tag bands of Yankee rebels
beat their government’s army, which was the mightiest, most experienced
army of its day.
QUESTION: ... When
the government’s army surrendered to the American rebels at Yorktown in
1781, the redcoat band played “The World Turned Upside Down.”And
today’s guided missiles?
MAYBURY: In
that 1985 article, I said the shoulder-launched guided missile would
enable Muslims to do the same thing, to successfully rebel against the
Soviet and U.S. governments, who were backing the tyrants who were
terrorizing Muslims.
QUESTION: ... These tyrants today would be?
MAYBURY:
Musharraf in Pakistan, Mubarak in Egypt and the Saudi royal family are
probably the top three most feared and hated, and there are dozens of
lesser thugs all over the Islamic world receiving U.S. foreign aid.
QUESTION:
... I’ve noticed Congressman Ron Paul, who leans very conservative, in
his presidential campaign is trying to draw attention to this. So you
agree, foreign aid is the main culprit, the primary cause of the war?
MAYBURY:Absolutely. Every conservative I’ve ever met has hated foreign aid,
they’ve always said it would lead to catastrophe. Rarely in history has
anyone been so spectacularly right as those conservatives have. Most of
the foreign aid goes not to the people of these countries, but to the
corrupt governments that brutalize them, so the people hate Washington.
... QUESTION: ... Some Americans seem to believe their foreign aid tax dollars go for humanitarian purposes.
MAYBURY: Some money does, enough to camouflage the military aid to dictators.
And, of course, U.S. officials know that much of the humanitarian aid is
siphoned off into the dictators’ own secret bank accounts. In other
words, much of the so-called humanitarian aid is really disguised
bribes.
QUESTION: ... I’ve read
that, in terms of today’s dollars, since World War II, the federal
government has given away more than a trillion dollars of our tax money.
...
In the November 2003 issue of your newsletter, Early Warning Report,
you ran a map showing the governments that receive U.S. tax dollars.
It’s as if, every tyrant on the planet is dipping into the U.S.
taxpayer’s wallet.
MAYBURY: Not
every one, but certainly most. What’s really fascinating is that the
State Department is required by law to report what it knows about the
brutality of the regimes to which Congress sends money and weapons. You
can find these reports at www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006 , and a list of governments that receive your foreign aid tax dollars at www.census.gov/compendia/statab/foreign_commerce_aid/foreign_aid
. The top ten recipients of foreign aid are the governments of Israel,
Egypt, India, Vietnam, Pakistan, South Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil
and Russia. ...
QUESTION: ... ... I remember in an Early Warning Report
article you said, foreign aid is why millions of innocent people around
the world see every bullet fired at them as made in the USA.Millions
still like America, and Americans, but the only foreigners left who like
the federal government are the rulers who get money from it.
MAYBURY:
Yes. Much of the aid to tyrants is secret, but in 2002, a Navy officer
in the Pentagon spilled the beans, saying that virtually every
government except those of Cuba and the ones on the terrorist list
receive weapons or some other kind of military aid from Washington. It
was in the New York Times, August 10, 2002.
QUESTION: ... So, Richard Maybury is part of the blame America crowd?
MAYBURY: No! I’m part of the blame the federal government crowd.
... QUESTION:
... Continuing with your track record, in February 1989, just as you
predicted, shoulder launched guided missiles enabled the Afghans to
throw the Soviet army out of Afghanistan. The second mightiest army ever
seen on earth was beaten. And nine months later, after the Soviet
Union’s oppressed masses realized that the Kremlin had become a paper
tiger, the Berlin Wall came down, and the Kremlin’s empire was
shattered. Your 1985 article was exactly right. ...
... With the
Kremlin’s empire collapsing, the world began to cheer a new era of peace
and brotherly love. But you said, don’t believe it, investors should
prepare for a new era of war ... .
... MAYBURY: ... By the year 2000, more than 100 new wars had broken out, killing more than five million.
QUESTION: ... What happened to the new era of peace and brotherly love?
MAYBURY:As I explained in the early ’90s, the nations of East Europe, Asia and
North Africa are not real countries. They are collections of tribes,
clans and ethnic groups, thousands of them, that have hated and fought
each other for centuries. The Kremlin sat on that huge powder keg – I
call it Chaostan, the land of chaos – like a lid on a pressure cooker,
and when the lid blew off in 1989, the explosion began.
QUESTION: ... By 2000, you were saying in almost every issue of Early Warning Report,
look out. The Muslim rebels have beaten the world’s number two military
power, and now they are going to come after number one, if Washington
does not get out of the Mideast and stop backing Mideast tyrants.
...
Chaostan, that’s pronounced Chaos-tan, you coined the term in 1992?
MAYBURY:
Yes. All over Chaostan – not everywhere, certainly, but commonly – if
you ask people, do you want freedom?, they will say, Yes!, we want the
freedom to kill the people in the neighboring village before they can
kill us. That third of the world has been this way for centuries.
QUESTION: ... And it’s why people such as Saddam Hussein are loved and respected at the same time they are hated.
MAYBURY:
These cutthroats maintain a kind of peace and security, by saying to
their people, if you make trouble you die. For Washington to eliminate a
Saddam Hussein without causing the kind of bloody chaos we see in Iraq,
it must itself become the replacement for the dictator it removes.
QUESTION: ... It must become a Saddam Hussein clone.
MAYBURY:Yes. And that’s what it’s doing. The Patriot Act, the secret torture
prisons, the indefinite imprisonments without trials ... – these are
Washington becoming the evil it’s fighting.
...
... America is
going through a very rough patch. This is typical during the dissolution
of an empire. The politicians and their henchmen fight like tigers to
preserve their power, so the war drags on and on. It won’t end soon, but
there’s a very bright side.
QUESTION: ... What do you regard as soon?
MAYBURY: I’m 99% confident the war has at least two decades left to run ... .
...
After
World War II, the French Empire took about 17 years of bloodshed to
wane, and the British Empire about 25 years. Today’s U.S. Empire is far
larger than either of them, and the war is only six years old.
QUESTION: ... You mentioned a bright side?
MAYBURY:
... Look at Russia. It’s no Eden, but it’s vastly better than during
the days of the Soviet Empire. That’s typical throughout modern history.
An empire – the domination of other countries – is full of power and
glory for the politicians, they love visiting these foreign countries
and being treated like royalty by the thugs they’re subsidizing. Nothing
puffs up a congressman’s ego like having his boots licked. But for
America as a whole, the empire is a parasite, it’s consuming our blood
and treasure, and when it ends —
QUESTION: ... Wait a minute, ... many would say America does not have an empire.
MAYBURY: They’re right, America doesn’t, but the federal government does; the government is not the country.
QUESTION: ... Okay, the bright side. What happens when Washington’s empire is gone?
MAYBURY: Politicians will be depressed, but the country will be much better off.
Look at Britain, France, Italy, Spain, all of them. They are, without
exception, vastly better places than when they had empires. America,
too, will be an unimaginably better place, once its empire – its
parasite – is dead. I think we have a very good chance of seeing what
historians will someday call The Golden Age of America, a time of peace,
liberty and abundance.
QUESTION: ... But not right away. The problem is?
MAYBURY:
The transition period, it’s tough. People who have the courage to face
the reality, to study it and learn the ways of profiting from it, can
become wonderfully prosperous, as many did when the European empires
fell. Those who try to ignore it, will be blindsided by one nasty
surprise after another. ...
...
QUESTION: ... Tell us more about foreign aid.
MAYBURY:Since 9-11, Pakistan’s dictator Musharraf, for instance, has received
$10 billion worth of U.S. cash, high-tech equipment, planes and
helicopters. You can imagine what his millions of victims think about
us.If you were Pakistani and one of his troops killed a member of your
family, what would you do?
QUESTION: ... I probably wouldn’t like Americans very much.
MAYBURY:
Exactly, and it goes further. Pakistan is mostly Muslim, and a
traditional enemy of India, which is mostly Hindu. Imagine what Hindus
think of us for giving aid to Pakistan. And India has 900 million
Hindus.If just one in 10,000 decides to kill Americans, that’s 90,000
new terrorists. A lot of them speak perfect English and could travel
around the U.S. quite comfortably.
QUESTION: ... Up to now, the terrorists have been Muslims, but you’re saying that it could soon spread to Hindus, too?
MAYBURY:Sure. If I were a Hindu watching all this U.S. tax money and weapons going to Musharraf, I’d be livid.
QUESTION: ... This kind of ... effect from meddling in foreign countries has been going on how long?
MAYBURY:Constantly since World War II.
... QUESTION: ... Thanks again for taking the time to meet with us.
MAYBURY:
Thank you, Pat, and you are right, everyone should learn all they can
about this war. It will continue being the strongest influence on the
economy and the investment markets, probably for the rest of our lives.
...
The New World Order Plan is spiritually based: it is a conflict between God and His forces, on the one hand, and Satan and his demonic forces on the other side. Anyone who does not know Biblical doctrine about God and Satan, and who does not know Scriptural prophecy, cannot comprehend the nature of the struggle facing the world today. - David Bay, Cutting Edge Ministries
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. - Ephesians 6:12
For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence... Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. - President John F. Kennedy, April 27, 1961
The book in which they are embodied was first published in the year 1897 by Philip Stepanov for private circulation among his intimate friends. The first time Nilus published them was in 1901 in a book called The Great Within the Small and reprinted in 1905. A copy of this is in the British Museum bearing the date of its reception, August 10, 1906. All copies that were known to exist in Russia were destroyed in the Kerensky regime, and under his successors the possession of a copy by anyone in Soviet land was a crime sufficient to ensure the owner's of being shot on sight. The fact is in itself sufficient proof of the genuineness of the Protocols. The Jewish journals, of course, say that they are a forgery, leaving it to be understood that Professor Nilus, who embodied them in a work of his own, had concocted them for his own purposes.
Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more detailed information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
fighting each other to throw off these
foreign structures and impose or reimpose their own.
