ANON
Remember I have no name...
BLIEDEN
Right.
ANON
And there is no me as a real person.
BLIEDEN
Hello there. That's the voice of the anonymous man I interview on this
show. My name is Michael Blieden and this is The Cold Bath. You're
listening to Episode 9 "Failure Moves West." I have to say I think this is
the most linear conversation I think we've had of the whole run. Anyone
looking for an overview of political power throughout all of recorded
history might be interested in this episode. You want to start?
ANON
Sure. You were saying that there's construction around us and they make
noise.
BLIEDEN
Yeah every couple minutes you hear like a... it sounds like someone is
putting a slab of concrete through a lathe.
ANON
Mhmm.
BLIEDEN
That's what it sounds like to me.
ANON
Now I can guarantee you this is not being done by the masked media. This
is just because the have to build these houses and we're in a house and
they had to build this too. And you said...
BLIEDEN
I wish they weren't doing it right now. Or ever.
ANON
Okay, now. They have to build more houses because they built your house.
You're living in a house, in other words you're like the second generation
Americans who object to there being a third generation of Americans.
You want to pull up the drawbridge. But life doesn't work that way. Other
people have to be given the same rights we've given ourselves and there
has to be more construction because there are more people. I don't know
exactly how many people there are in America. No one does, but there are
around 300 million. Now probably we could grow to around a billion.
BLIEDEN
In the United States.
ANON
In the United States. We are unbelievably bigger than India and India's
population I think is a 1,100,000,00 and growing.
BLIEDEN
Well, okay...I want to ask you to...I don't know if you'll be willing to do this
or not but I want you to lay out the geometry of the powers that be.
ANON
Right.
BLIEDEN
In the world right now.
ANON
Right.
BLIEDEN
And their subsets. Like um...you know...us Russia, China, India, Iran,
Pakistan. Who's in who's club.
ANON
Right. Okay. This will not be easy, and I am hardly an expert, but here
goes. Spengler in 1928, and by the way he's very good on the subject of
the press. He says this wonderful thing. He says the press exchange
truths, interchange truths. Three weeks of press work and the truth is
acknowledged by everybody. He explained in "The Decline Of The West,"
that failure moves west, meaning at one time Persia, the old name for
Iran, was one of the great powers. Then it moved west, the Babylonian,
Syrian, Hittite, that neck of the woods. And then jumped the
Mediterranean and not just the Athenians but the Greeks together, and let
me give you an idea of how many of them there are. Aristotle personally
wrote 128 constitutions for different states. Try that. He was
Alexander's political and philosophical advisor. His teacher.
BLIEDEN
Is this leading to modern power geometry.
ANON
Yeah. Yeah. It's about how failure moves west. Because Greece was the
great imperial power and then it moved...remember Greece didn't
evaporate, but the power shifted west to Rome. Then it went both west
and south. That's why Carthage had to be destroyed. Carthage is Tunisia.
Incidently the smartest Arabs who get along the best in Europe are
Tunisians. Because they have that Carthaginian background. And it's a
background from 2,500 years ago but apparently these things to do not
change that much. Then failure moved further west when Rome failed.
You know, it took a few hundred years but Rome failed and it....you know
Rome's still there. In fact I visited someone who was living in the same
house his family had lived in for 2,000 years. Anyway failure moves west,
according to Spengler. And then every European country had its century.
And...
BLIEDEN
I find it comforting to think that guy's living in the same house that his
family's been living in for 2,000 years because there's so much talk about
the United States being in a state of decline and...
ANON
Everyone is always in a state of decline. But when the Titanic, and
remember I was on it, when it hit the iceberg it did not sink in ten
seconds. It took hours and hours. I'd like to talk about the movie Titanic
sometime because it's the most shameless film and it's meant to appeal to
12 year old girls' sexuality. But that's another question.
BLIEDEN
So...
ANON
So failure moves west and every one of the European countries; France,
Spain, you know Austria Hungary was the power of their century. And
then the ones that, if you went to the post-60's university you've at least
heard of. Like England. England was the great power from Elizabeth on.
Again this disproves the feminist nonsense. Elizabeth was, as far as
anyone could determine, a woman. And her father was Henry VIII and
she liked sex as much as he did but she became a virgin after having had a
very active sex life. She wanted to be the unifying force of her country
which was on the balls of it's ass when she came in at 19. And by the time
she left it was the greatest power in the world. Then failure moved west
and the British among the imperial powers: Spain, France, Holland,
established the United States. This is the creation of the Enlightenment.
This is the Enlightenment made into a country. This is the idea become
flesh and there was an Englishman who I said on a previous show that
gave the greatest quotation in American history and that is "no." In
answer to the question "you want to be the King, don't you?" Because
that's what they knew.
BLIEDEN
You're talking about George Washington.
ANON
George Washington.
BLIEDEN
You know I took that chunk out of that episode so that hasn't been said on
the show yet.
ANON
Oh. Oh oh alright. That's the greatest American quotation. It's not in any
history book. They must have asked him, because they knew nothing but
kings, "you want to be the king now." And only some...a few hotheads like
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson would have opposed this.
BLIEDEN
They asked George Washington....
ANON
Yeah, "Do you want to be the king?" And he said, "No." Not, "Oh Gee. No."
"No!" Definite no. And as a result we don't have a king. When Franklin
was leaving that hall where they had nailed the windows shut so nobody
could hear what they were saying...
BLIEDEN
This is the hall where they actually wrote the constitution.
ANON
That's right. Where they made the country. Benjamin Franklin left the
hall where they nailed the windows shut and a man, I don't know if
history records his name of not, again I finished my education at the
ninth grade, he said, "What kind of country have you given us." And he
said,"A Republic, if you can keep it." A Republic only meant a country
without a king. And um...
BLIEDEN
The "if you can keep it" part meant...
ANON
If you can keep it.
BLIEDEN
...meant if you can fucking keep it.
ANON
Yes. If you can keep it. Let met tell you what one sentence made the
country. The various colonies saw themselves as very independent and
separate entities.
And we still use the phrase "the several states." And there was someone in
Massachusetts, not John Kerry, the smartest lawyer in Massachusetts,
John Adams. And he stood up among the Massachusans and said "I know
a Virginian." And if George the Third had not been insane he would have
said "That's it." There's a sports announcer called Warner Wolf and he
says "you could have turned your sets off there." Well, when John Adams
said, "I know a Virginian..."
BLIEDEN
He was talking about...
ANON
He was talking about George Washington. He wasn't the smartest
American by any means. He wasn't the smartest revolutionary by any
means. But he had this ability that people have to have in a democratic
country. He could knock the heads of the five thousand prima donnas who
had invented the revolution...you never heard the name of the inventor of
the revolution. His name is James Otis. He thought up the American
Revolution, but a British tax collector beat him so badly that although he
didn't die for two years he was just gone. He was in the physical state that
I am in now. But these ideas have to be put out there and have to be
laundered and dry cleaned before they can be worn. And because of the
person who had been in charge of the Army, and I just wanna, when you
hear about Bush and the generals and Bush and the Congress I want you
to hear this story from my youth, which is in 1775. Washinton writes a
letter to the assholes in the Congress and he says "Dear Assholes." But he
doesn't because he'a gentleman. I am not. And he said, "Dear Assholess, I
have heard of men..." That's a form of English called Asshole Understood.
"I have heard of men being opposed to the maintenance of a standing
army. What I have never heard of is men being opposed to the
maintenance of a standing army during the middle of a war." That's what
I mean by asshole understood.
BLIEDEN
When John Adams said, "I know a Virginian," they were...
ANON
Planning the revolution.
BLIEDEN
Okay.
ANON
They were planning the revolution. And he said "I know a Virginian." It
was like saying "I know a Martian. I know a hated man from Texas. I
know a hated man from New York. I know someone from..."
BLIEDEN
Oh everyone knew him at this point and didn't like him?
ANON
No. No no no. It was just that he was from another colony. And the
Massachusans' attitude hasn't changed in 240 years.
BLIEDEN
I see. It was the fact that he was from Virginia.
ANON
Nor have the Virginians. It was the fact that he was from Virginia. But
Adams was the smartest lawyer in Massachusettes. He was not a ruling
class man like some of the others. He was a very middle class man. And
he knew, he knew someone who had the balls...one of Franklin Roosevelt's
Supreme Court justices whom he appointed defined not just FDR, but
defined the successful American president forever. He said, "Second rate
mind, first rate temperament.
BLIEDEN
I think this is in the Episode 4.
ANON
I think it could be said twice.
BLIEDEN
Okay.
ANON
I think it's a very important thing because people who have gone to the
Narrowversity have the idea that the president need be some kind of
intellectual like James Madison. Madison was a disaster as the President.
BLIEDEN
So let's go back to...
ANON
One of the smartest Americans...
BLIEDEN
Let's go back to failure moves west.
ANON
Okay, so naturally every human has a birth, a time when they're
absolutely helpless, you know, when other powers can come in and
destroy them and just dumb luck saves them. And then they have a period
of building.
A period of learning, a toddlerhood, a period where they're very amusing
to others wobbling as they walk down the street. And because all
countries are just humans writ large. But there's a ditsinction because
people have friends. Peoples do not. Countries do not have friends nor
enemies. They only have interests. Then they reach the teenage stage.
We're above the teenage stage now. America has found itself, and lost
itself because we are entering into our anecdotage. I can already see
China in its ascendency. And although China is in its ascendencey the
United States in not the Titanic and we have not struck the iceberg. Not
by any means. We have struck many icebergs and they've patched it up.
BLIEDEN
I tell you something I think it'll be actually...I think it will be a huge load
off everyone's mind if we are the number two power. I think everyone
will...I think it will be great.
ANON
No it won't.
BLIEDEN
I think it will be great because...
ANON
No it won't.
BLIEDEN
...we'll get over the...it won't be our responsibility to take care of
everything.
ANON
If you think that...if you think that, give away 90 percent of your money.
Give away 90 percent of your youth. In fact if you're going to do that, give
it to me. But it doesn't matter because you're in your late 30's?
BLIEDEN
I'm 35.
ANON
That's late enough. And you'll see that China will not be the main power
in the world in your lifetime. You'll be so old you just won't care. China is
not our enemy. It's our competitor. Some Chinese are our enemies, but
many Chinese are our friends, and more Chinese want to be us, which is
different from hatred. Competition is good if both competitors are sane
and sensible. Of the biggest cities in the world, most of them are in China
now. But China is not going to be the most populous country in the world
in 5 years. India will have a greater population and remember India's
population is going up and China's is either flat or slightly declining.
BLIEDEN
What defines a country in its ascendency. Is it the fact that they're
beating the replacement rate? Is it their economic status?
ANON
Well first of all they have gone from fantastic unimaginable poverty ...
BLIEDEN
This is India?
ANON
China. Both. Both. They have gone from fantastic and unimaginable
poverty to...there are more middle class people in China than in America.
They're not as middle middle class, but there are more roughly. Now
remember ours is a population of 300 million and there's is a population
of a billion one hundred million plus, but there were very few middle class
Chinese. There was a super ruling class. The kind of people who dined on
the hundred year old egg. Means nothing to you. Means a lot to the
Chinese. And there were people who had many cars, concubines,
whatever...I just want to say one thing about Washington and the
Chinese.
BLIEDEN
Mhmm.
ANON
I'm sure there was an intellectual in Western Central China who when he
heard, and it must have taken six months, a year, that Washington has
said "No I don't want to be the king," there was an explosion of freedom in
the mind of that Chinese intellectual in 1776 because he said, "why not
us."
BLIEDEN
You think that Washington's decision not to be king had worldwide
implications?
ANON
It was a revolution throughout the world. It didn't just resound in
London or Paris. Paris, it overwhelmed their government. It
overwhelmed their government. It transformed their society. When
1776 happened the French began their revolution which culminated in
1789. And there was a not quite so extraordinary revolution in England
too. It's not like flipping on a lightswitch. It takes place over decades and
centuries.