Taki Magazine

The Gospel According to Biden

by Mark Hackard on July 31, 2009

Having finally gotten around to reading last week’s WSJ article regarding Joseph Biden’s comments on Russia, his statement that Moscow has no choice but to prostrate itself before Washington isn’t much of a shock. An expansion of US influence in countries bordering Russia is supposedly inevitable because of the harsh impact of the economic crisis there as well as presently dismal demographic projections.

Biden may have been “blunt”, in the words of the media, but he was also obtuse. He doesn’t merit excessive reproach, since he was simply reflecting US foreign policy consensus, which is informed by the view that economics is the determining factor in national power and even life itself. Whatever rhetorical flourishes one might employ, for such men there is no higher sacrament than the financial transaction. Like the Marxists, the champions of democratic capitalism see culture, religion, and centuries of tradition as the superstructure- merely contingent effects- of market forces. It’s all about individuals maximizing profit and pleasure, and everything else is just a sideshow.

Such an impoverished view of existence is indeed the ruling ethic in contemporary society throughout much of the world. While economics is undoubtedly a crucial element of a country’s capacity for action, it is unwise to grant it predominance to the exclusion of other factors. The Russian economy in particular has not historically run parallel with national power. As Napoleon, a man who knew a thing or two about trying to bend Russia to his will, said, “The moral to the physical is as three is to one”. Biden leaves no room for cultural considerations or Moscow’s vital interests in his analysis of Russia, and Washington will likely be unpleasantly surprised when the Kremlin makes further moves to lock down its sphere of influence in the former Soviet space.

The Russians will pursue their national interests and rebuild their power as a regional counterweight to the United States, and much of this action will be in response to US overreach deep into Eurasia. Espionage and machinations over financing for pipelines will be the rule of the day in this struggle, but there is a higher plane of conflict. After the horrors of the Soviet period, a new assault by secularism, multiculturalism and sundry other perversions against Russia has been underway. Groups such as the National Endowment for Democracy, the Open Society Institute and the New Eurasia Foundation are well-funded and equipped for information operations, both by the US government and the financial class.

Liberal ideology has long been triumphant in the West, but if Russian culture can successfully repulse these phenomena and reassert the centrality of religious truth and tradition, it could give the Occident hope for the future.

• Print Article
• Email Article
• Email the Editor