by LJ Frank
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Proverbs 27:6
A twisted thing that cannot be made straight – Tanakh, Ecclesiastes 1:15
In order to be prepared to hope in what does not deceive, we must first lose hope in everything that deceives – Louis Émile Clément Georges Bernanos, French Novelist & Soldier
The rumination of psychological-political intrigue began while contemplating the architecture of Canterbury Cathedral in England and the life of Thomas Becket and the assertion of power and purse strings.
What I don’t know at times troubles me. Though to paraphrasing Mark Twain, it’s what I do understand that bothers me. Though he was referring to Holy Scripture or that Scripture made Holy by man, not by an invisible God.
As someone that’s appreciative of situationism, a theory in part that views human personality as a function of response to situations; any given event or act is linked to the situation, the subject matter and people involved. When I was working on my first Master’s degree (History of US Foreign Relations) in 1977, I wrote an essay for my degree on globalism and included how the act of a single individual(s) regardless of their station or position, whether in the public or private sector, could potentially effectuate a change in the course of a country(s) political and economic direction through the dynamics of an event and situation. That such an event could affect both the national and international dialog and actions for years and alter political perspectives. At the time I was referring to the oil crisis of the 1970’s including the perceptions thereof, and the real and potential downstream effects that would have a global effect beyond the Middle East.
A given situation and the perception of that situation may predict if not serve in affecting economic, psychological, social, and political behavior. As oft as it has been said, it’s worth repeating the words of Benjamin Disraeli (British Stateman and Conservative) who noted that finality is not the language of politics. Nothing is final except death. Taxes are excluded for the wealthiest. Words and the perception of what occurred and was said tend to have a life of their own.
Artificially created instability is human – from slavery to the War for Independence, through the many battles, wars, both internal and abroad, heated and the Cold War in the 20th century, issues surrounding the legitimacy of the oil crisis in the 70’s, making the world safe for corporate investment, the deliberate turmoil for power and wealth are part of the maintenance of power. And from a certain vantage point foreign policy is like medicine, they are both an imperfect science at best. And the artistic quality of diplomacy is malleable and adaptable.
Problems in understanding globalism in many respects became more pronounced when government was seen as the problem and the forthcoming solution was viewed as deregulation. The Me decade of the 1980’s arrived in full force. The goodness of greed possessed a sacramental and satirical quality on the wicked nature of capitalism. Wall Street loved it, as did the Federalist Society, the wealthiest and as has been observed in dark money and the takeover of the Supreme Court, by the Far Right. Greed, power, and vanity which are also elements in the Steele Dossier were elements in the oil crisis among other historical events.
What also happened amid so many events was the planting of seeds that went from the Me Decade through a false exceptionalism attitude that was reinforced by 911 and the obligation to strike back. That obligation also had other international economic and political manifestations. Things were complicated and became more so.
Admittedly, I’m “surfing the waves” metaphorically over the thick mess that was/is like a river current streaming below in the depths of the economic and political ocean of intrigue. It’s about the lust for dominance and human greediness.
To the point. The Christopher Steele Dossier was flotsam on the surface of an ocean filled with the current of ethical gamesmanship playing with money and power for reasons of ego and vanity. Let the “unrich” (I loathe the word folks that’s so often used as a manipulative) fight over pieces in a shrinking pie.
From my vantage point such things as the Christopher Steele Dossier was for me like “what’s new under our sun?” I wasn’t surprised. I’m jaded. Little of what men and women do and their behavior astonishes me. I lament the lack of personal ethics applied to such things as the influence of dark money. It’s appalling but not amazing or shocking. Our souls were deregulated in the 1980’s. The problem to be considered was the economic, political, and social instability it creates. People who have little find themselves filled with mixed emotions. Envy feeds fear and in turn that fear feeds paranoia and insecurity, which feeds into hate and the tableau of violence is set.
Towards the Steele Dossier: I recall the Mother Jones article on the Steele Dossier and subsequent press discussions leading up to the George Stephanopoulos Interview of Christopher Steele who stated, “I stand by the work we did, the sources that we had, and the professionalism which we applied to it.”
People work within a situation and with the information they have access to at the time.
The Rise and Fall of the Steele Dossier by Aaron Mate was published in The Nation magazine and offered a thought-provoking overview of the entire Dossier affair. Mate called for a deeper reflection amid all the absurdities related to the remarkable convolutions of occurrences surrounding the Steele Dossier.
Since that article, added bits and pieces of information have been observed including oversight of the investigation by the FBI of the Christopher Steele Dossier announced in early 2023.
In other words, finality doesn’t appear to be the language of politics or international relations, nor the effects of wealth and possible espionage, and election influence by a foreign government. Election shenanigans for the sake of control occurred in the past, are occurring now and will continue in the future – it’s known in part as gerrymandering and is a bedfellow of dark money,
The Christopher Steele Dossier may have been a political intelligence operation but the downstream has impacted lives and there unnamed participants hinted at and people still pulling strings. There always is…truly there is nothing new under our sun. What one doesn’t know may bother us, as revisionist histories have shown and as reinterpretation of situations and actions are looked at from different vantage points. This is about people filled, not with conspiracy, but with vanity, vying for control and greater wealth.
As in previous observations I also refer back to the alleged jotting of Thomas Aquinas upon finishing his Summa Theologica – we think we know but have yet to discover.
