okay so um today we will discuss Putin's plan to destroy the American Empire so last class we discussed that uh Putin loves his country Russia and he believes that Western consumerism has corrupted his nation and he recognizes that U the source of Western consumerism is the American Empire so in order to completely free its people um he needs to destroy the Empire okay and historically Empires die when three things happen concurrently okay together the first is um over extension and this is the main reason why Empires die when they fight too many wars at once and the reason why they're overextended is H hubis and what hubris is in military strategy is the idea of blindness so you are blind to the fact of your own limitations you are blind to the strategy of your opponents you are blind to the overall geopolitical picture okay you're just blind uh and the example is American strategy nowadays where America is fighting Russia and Ukraine where it is fighting Hamas in Israel and there's a threat of Iran on the horizon but for whatever reason most American policy makers believe that the real threat is China we must prepare for China in a Taiwan straight okay eventually China will invade Taiwan and we must be ready right now this week America also announc massive tariffs on Chinese electrical vehicles um and so America is engaged in all these wars at once it's antagonizing Russia Iran China at the same time and so that's just overextension because of hubris okay um second second way to kill an Empire is debt so the source of American power is the US dollar remember that in 1945 um Breton Woods there was an agreement that the US dollar would become the reserve currency of the world okay and the word the phrase for that is exorbitant privilege exorbitant privilege just means that americ America has the right to manufacture gold from nothing and the world has to buy it because that's what underpins global trade okay but when you can do that what happens eventually is that your nation becomes fat lazy and corrupt when money just falls off the sky you're just used to boring money okay so all America does right now is print money and not make money the problem with this is that eventually the world is not going to want to us want to use US Dollars anymore because each time you use it you're being taxed right by the Americans and that's what bricks plus is you may have heard of brics plus it is an organization established initially by uh Brazil Russia India China and sou South Africa in order to create its own Financial system to counter uh the US Financial system but now there are more countries that have joined bricks um most prominently are Saudi Arabia um and UAE and ban these countries okay they're important because they are the basis for the petrol dollar remember that all US dollars US Dollars can be used used to purchase oil and that's why US dollar is worth a lot of money okay so if these countries go to breaks and opt out of the US Financial system then basically this American mountain of debt okay $ 35 trillion doll of debt comes crashing down okay that's the second way to kill an Empire and the Third Way is Cil civil descent or uh Eternal Discord Civil War basically and so what we're seeing in America right now is growing political polarization okay between the left and the right why this happens is that people no longer Believe The Binding myths and stories that build a nation okay nowadays young people no longer believe that America um is the source of good in this world World an example why this is happening is of course because Israel right now is committing genocide in Gaza right now Israel is attacking RFA um and they're killing a lot of children most people who are dying in this war are children and America's not doing anything to stop this in fact America is the one who's providing Israel with all the weapons so young people are turning against the idea of America as the good Empire and um there's this amazing statistic that one quarter of Young Americans now believe that OS bin ladin was a good guy okay and you know when I grew up OS bin ladin was considered Satan because he was the one who was responsible for terrorism around the world and for the 911 attacks okay but this just shows you that the ideas and the myths that B the country together are falling apart and that's what's causing the nation to fall apart okay so the more overcommitted America is the more Deb uh um it creates and the more civil Discord it creates okay right so this is how you kill an Empire when all three things reach a Tipping Point when it becomes too much the Empire dies okay and the most likely outcome for America is it goes into Civil War okay it descends into Civil War and that's something that I will discuss next class all right so let's discuss how Putin is doing this okay so the first thing that Putin did was the Ukraine war right so in February 2022 Putin invaded Ukraine and at that time uh America was confident that three things would happen Okay the first thing that would happen is that Ukraine would destroy the Russian army and and perhaps even march to Moscow and overthrow Putin okay we that at that time that's what the news media was reporting the Ukraine media was so much stronger and more confident than the Russian forces second thing was that the Russian economy would be destroyed why because America was imposing sanctions on uh Russia so America it controls the Global Financial system uh the ability to trade America just basically sanctioned Russia and said you are no longer allowed to sell your oil on the black on on the global market okay and the belief was that this would cause Russia to collapse overnight a lot of Western multinationals left Russia and the United States froze 300 billion dollars in Russian Assets in US Banks okay so they thought that these us the UN United States thought that these sanctions would destroy the Russian economy okay that's the second thing that they thought would happen and the third thing that that they would happen was that it would make NATO much stronger and more united and it would make Russia into a porah state meaning that no one would want to ever associate with Russia again okay so that was the argument back then and today what what we have seen is that the complete opposite has happened okay so first of all um Russia has basically won the war and it's won the war because of attrition right Ukraine has lost maybe 500,000 men in this war so they had no more manpower if you don't have Manpower you're not going to be able to fight this war so this war has basically been lost and Russia is dominant Russia has basically achieved its main strategic objectives which is basically the dones region in uh eastern Ukraine secondly not only has the Russian economy not been destroyed but it's been doing extremely well okay and the reason why is that ultimately all economies China India Europe um Africa Middle East they all need resources in order for their economies to work you need oil you need food and Russia has a lot of oil and food and that's why countries have been going to Russia and making side deals okay also Russia has been transitioning to a war economy so its manufacturing base has been increasing so overall the economy has been doing a lot better okay us sections have not been working the third of all NATO has become more divided less and less United why because Germany um which is the most powerful country in Europe right now it's complet it's completely dependent on Russian resources to F its economy that's how the German economy works it's a manufacturing economy it Tak cheap Russian gas manufactures it into cars and sells it to China okay but the United States blew up the northstream pipeline okay blew up the northstream pipeline which connected uh gas which basically delivered gas from Russia to Germany and it's imposing a trade war on China so basically the German economy is about to collapse and Germans are very angry uh about this so the Ukraine war has been a tremendous success for Putin and it's really shown that America is a paper tiger and it's also creating a lot of civil dis descent in America because the majority of Americans are asking the question why are we giving Ukraine hundreds of billions of dollars when our people don't even have health insurance our people are suffering and we're giving Ukraine hundreds of billions of dollars okay the other thing that um this Ukraine war has exposed is that the American Empire is overextended and what I mean by that is that in order to give Ukraine weapons what America is doing is basically taking weapon systems from in Japan in South Korea and other places and giving it to Ukraine okay so America is not manufacturing more weapons it's just taking other weapon systems it has elsewhere and moving to Ukraine so America is badly ere extended okay and of course by uh giving all this money to Ukraine it's causing American debt to go up and after Ukraine loses War this debt will be gone okay because Ukraine cannot pay it back okay so but after the Ukraine war what happened next was on October 7th of last last year remember that Hamas launched an attack on Israel that killed about about a thousand people and Israel responded by attacking Gaza and by doing this this has helped Putin and has hurt the United States okay uh mainly by first of all uh diminishing American Prestige right because America right now is helping Israel commit genocide so the entire world is basically turning against America even the young people in America are turning against America you know these college protests in America they will only expand in the fall okay and the other problem is that America it's America has shown it cannot control Israel in fact people say that Israel Now controls America and the third thing is that that this war threatens to explode throughout the Middle East okay um at any point Iran can enter the battle hesah can enter the the battle from the north okay so it's it's a it's a powder keg uh it's it's it's a like a lake of gasoline about to be lit on fire so America is um badly um Extended okay so and you can make the argument that either Putin knew about the Hamas attack or even encouraged the attack okay because the main winner of this Hamas attack is obviously Vladimir Putin and the loser is America okay so does this make sense so far all right so um let's talk about the future or what of predictions moving forward so if it is true that Putin's intention is to destroy the American Empire by focusing on these three fundamental weaknesses in the Empire and if it is true that he start the Ukraine war um to further the det deterioration of the Empire if he is the one who is abetting Hamas then we can predict that Putin will continue to do certain things okay the first thing that he will do as he will drag on the Ukraine war so he will not end it he will not seek peace he will not negotiate peace terms he will continue to drag it on okay why would he do that why not just declare Victory or why why not just negotiate peace why would he want to drag it on okay yeah the Russian people will be at War but then the question then is why would he drag it on and not expand it right he wants to drag it on but he doesn't want to expand it expand it means he attacks Poland okay he doesn't want to do that he just wants to drag it on why yeah okay so the real the reason is that Ukraine is turning out to be a black hole for NATO NATO and the United States is pouring in all this money weapons and Manpower and it's just losing it all okay so in other words Ukraine is a battlefield to increase American debt and create civil Discord among NATO and America okay Germany does not want to fight this war Germany wants out you understand so as long as this war keeps on going uh it's going to create more friction between NATO and United States and that's what Putin wants but if Putin attacks Poland then all of NATO is forced to fight him okay does that make sense so he does not want to expend the war he he just wants the war to maintain the status quo and for it to drag on okay so that's the first prediction second is that um to control the situ Ukraine he needs America to fight another War okay he needs to distract America and the distraction will be Iran remember how for the past few classes we've been discussing how America wants to attack Iran and Iran wants revenge against America okay but for this to happen What Putin needs to do is talk to Iran and guarantee that Iran will be protected by the Russian nuclear umbrella which means that America will not be allowed to use nuclear weapons when it invades Iran because Putin will respond with nuclear weapons of his own okay does that make sense so as long as Putin comes to an agreement with Iran and say that I will use my nuclear weapons to protect you from US nuclear weapons then Iran will take the initiative and start to provoke America into a wider war and again there are many ways IR can do that okay it can use hollah to attack Israel um it can expand its nuclear program it can disrupt Red Sea shipping okay there are there are lots of ways that Iran can use to provoke America into a for scale Invasion which is what Putin wants all right um North Korea so as United States becomes distracted in Ukraine and Iran North Korea can now take the initiative right because um what North Korea can do is threaten to invade South Korea and there about 30,000 US troops in South Korea so North Korea doesn't actually have to do anything but the threat of North Korea will force America to to divert resources to South Korea does that make sense okay and this will probably even have to force North uh South Korea United States to start to bribe North Korea okay and we can expect that North Korea does this because put has given North Korea his assurance that he will protect North Korea in in in the event of a war okay does that make sense all right bricks we will see bricks continue expand okay we'll also see bricks maybe formally announce a new currency or a new trading system to counteract the American Le system now what people have said is that bricks is not capable of replacing the US dollar and that is true okay but remember that bricks doesn't doesn't have to actually replace the US dollar it can only it it just has to threaten because a lot of finance a lot of money it's just confidence okay you have the US dollar because you're confident that it's valuable but once you lose the confidence in US dollar you will no longer want to use it okay does that make sense and um the last thing is to maintain close relationships to to main maintain a very close relationship with China so Putin will come to China more often and he and cing ping will hug each other more okay they might even kiss one day who knows okay but and again listen the reality is if you look at Game Theory there are lots of geopolitical differences between Russia and China much more so than between China and United States but again and Putin doesn't actually need China to do anything all Putin needs is for China not to work United States okay because in this situation one way that the United States can survive or protect its Empire is by working with China right to triangulate against Russia does that make sense so as long as China remains neutral then Russia and Putin can continue to exert pressure on the American Empire okay so over the next three to four years we should see all these things happen Okay so first thing is the Ukrainian War does not end Putin will find a way for it to drag on but actually expanding okay that's the first thing second thing is Iran um takes the initiative against United States third thing is North Korea starts being becoming much more belligerent against South Korea and Japan forcing America to focus more attention in East Asia breaks will continue continue to expand uh and then the putting relationship with CP will continue to Blossom okay does that make sense all right any questions so far before I continue excuse me okay that's a good question so why would America want China's help okay the first thing is you have an overe extension problem okay you don't want to be fighting too many wars at once so you come to a peace with China you don't have to worry about East Asia anymore because the real threat from Americans perspective is that China invades Taiwan okay that's the first thing second thing is that China is a major buyer of US dollars because because of its trade with America and because China buys a lot of oil right you want China to keep on buying US dollars so you can sustain the debt okay does that make sense and Third of all there are a lot of geopolitical conflicts between Russia and China if you think about it Russia is more more of a threat to China uh than the United States is okay does that make sense historically Russia and trying to fought Wars uh many wars over the Border Okay so if you um become friends with China then Putin needs to take take the defensive and focus more on protecting the Russia China border does that make sense because right now Putin can just focus on the offensive but if China is on the side of the United States then putting is force on the defensive okay does that make sense okay any more any more questions yeah Peter Rec that's right that's right that's right so basically what's been happening is China is now no longer buying uh US Dollars and it's TR it's transferring its US Dollars into gold okay so China is encouraging everyone to buy gold don't buy any more US Dollars guys buy gold right and the reason why is because America's debt is a huge problem for America and the only way for America to sustain its debt is if China continues to buy US debt okay does that make sense okay but but but that's but that's a great Point Peter any more questions before I continue Rel okay so um Jack asked a great question all right um it makes sense for you for China and United States to be friends right because China exports a lot of Commodities to the United States the United States is a huge Market United States also provides China with a lot of Technology right um and Jack asked a question why would China want to be friends with Russia and the answer is because China right now feels threatened by the United States okay the United States uh is launching an economic war against China and um if you look at a map okay um China is surrounded by US military bases and the problem is that that China needs Imports of oil and food to sustain its economy does that make sense so if America ever launches a embargo against China China collapses okay so in other words China needs to open up new trade routs and the only way and the best partner right now is Russia because it has a lot of access to energy and and oil okay so um right now the situation in China is that Chinese policy makers know that the situation in China is terrible the economy has collapsed demographics has collapsed um China is completely dependent on the world for oil and food okay China is extremely vulnerable right now if America says says to the world China is our enemy then China has no choice but to find a new friend and unfortunately the only friend that China has right now is Russia okay does that make sense okay so um but but look I mean the geopolitical situation for China it's really really bad okay right any more questions before I continue okay so Selen asked a great question why does uh the United States think that China will attack Taiwan and the answer is that America is always looking to start new Wars okay it has something called the military-industrial complex and America is always fighting Wars so to justify all this defense spending um it needs to find new enemies and um it believes that the greatest threat to the American Empire right now is China even though by the way there's no evidence this is the case okay right now the relationship between United States and China is China sends America a lot of cheap goods and the US gives China a lot of US Dollars okay so basically what's happening is that the Communist party is storing the wealth of the Chinese people in American Banks this is a great deal for both America Wall Street and the Chinese Communist party okay so there's no reason for these countries to be conf with each other but unfortunately the American policy makers always need an enemy to justify the incredible amount of money they spend on defense okay does that make sense okay any more questions before I continue excuse me I I didn't understand the question can can you repeat that oh that's a great question so what happens if China takes over Taiwan what does America lose and the answer is like not that much okay you make the argument that Taiwan has a semiconductor industry but guess what you can move that semiconductor industry elsewhere okay for America it's just want to face you understand America doesn't really lose anything if China takes over Taiwan but for America it's the Empire it has hubris and therefore it must say face right does that make sense all right all right so this is Putin's plan to destroy the um American Empire and so the question then is well this makes Putin in this makes Putin a genius so how he's able to do this and the argument I want I want I want to make to you today is that for many reasons Russian leaders have a strategic imagination they just think differently and more strategically than anyone else okay and so the example I want to use is Joseph Stalin because we know actually know a lot about Joseph Stalin all right so let's look at the world in 1939 9 and in 1939 there are about six Global Powers okay there's Russ there's Soviet Union okay there's Japan there's United States there's UK Britain the British Empire Germany and France okay so this is the map of the world in 1939 now let's talk about each country United States is far away and it's neutral it does not like to get involved in the Affairs of Europe but it's suffering from the Great Depression it's economy has collapsed okay Japan the Japanese empire is a war machine but the problem for Japan is that it is completely reliant on Imports okay it needs oil for its Empire its War Machine and there only two sources of of oil close by there's the Soviet Union Far East and then there's southeast Asia okay now Japan is getting most of its oil from the United States but the United States is angry at Japan why is United States angry at Japan do you guys know exactly okay because Japan invaded China and the United States doesn't want that okay so it's very likely that the United States will eventually cut off all exports to Japan and so Japan has a choice you can either invade here or you can invade here but that's those are your two choices okay that's that's Japan you can either invo the Soviet Union or southeast Asia okay um the Soviet Union is a communist country and for the past 20 30 years it's been trying extremely hard to industrialize but it's hard to industrialize because first of all no one wants to trade with the Soviet Union okay so it's so they can't get any resources um the Soviet Union is still very much an agricultural uh nation and the Soviet Union doesn't really have that much technology and expertise okay it doesn't really have that much human capital so Soviet Union is a huge country it's a world's largest country it's an Empire but in terms of manufacturing and Technology it's behind the West okay now in Europe there are three nations you have France Germany and the UK the UK is an Empire higher okay it has colonies all around the world uh Germany Lost World War I and so it has to pay all these reparations to UK and France okay and now Hitler is in power and Hitler is determined to reunite Germany okay because Germany lost a lot of land because of World War I okay so he wants to reunite greater Germany okay that's his ambition it's not to conquer the world it's to reunite Germany all right and then you have France um which is the weakest of all these Powers but it still has an Empire okay so looking at a map in 1939 and we use Game Theory what should be happening or what should happen maybe five years from now 1945 okay let's let's let's use Game Theory to map out what what what should be happening or what will happen given this map and given the individual players the interests of these different nations what do you expect to happen who does everyone hate who does everyone hate who does everyone want to like go invade why why does everyone want to invade this Union okay yes first of all it has a lot of resources and it's not that strong okay that's the first reason but there's actually a better reason why everyone wants to attack the Soviet Union why what's happening internally in the United States right now the the Great Depression what ideology is a threat to the American government communism okay do you understand so there's a global communist movement in 1930s that's very very powerful in fact in 1930s and you guys don't know this but America was on the break of Revolution okay the Communist could have any time took over America if America failed to stop the economic bleeding that was happening all right so everyone was afraid of Communism Japan would have loved to invade Soviet Union because Japan hates communism and Soviet Union has all of oil right so Here Comes Japan Germany would love to destroy the Soviet Union because Nazis hated who the most who did Nazis hate the mo hate who the most why did they hate Jews what what did Hitler believe about Jews uh okay they control the word ofcy but there there's actually a better reason why he hated Jews what what's the problem with Jews okay you guys don't know this but they all Communists okay Hitler thought that all Jews were Communists so Hitler hated first and foremost communism okay Nazism hated communism the most so Hitler wanted to invade the Soviet Union how about French in the UK how about French in the UK what did they want to do what did they who who do they hate Russia right Soviet Union United States sure why not okay do you understand so 1945 if we use Game Theory okay we should have expected that soet Union would have been partition into different countries okay these Powers would have invaded the country together and colonized the Soviet Union and destroyed the threat of global communism once and for all okay doesn't make sense but that's not going to happen happen right that's not what happen what happened was that in 1939 Hitler invaded Poland okay and when the moment that Hitler invaded Poland France and Britain declared war on Germany and then Germany defeated France and Britain okay Britain was forced to return to its to um its Island but Churchill refused to seek peace with Hitler in fact Hitler tried to seek peace with Churchill seven times and each time Churchill was like go to hell we're going to fight this war till the end why was chch so angry at Hitler what happened because Germany destroyed the British army right it's a complete loss of fa for the British Empire so church was very very angry at Hitler and Churchill refused to ever negotiate with Hitler in fact Hitler sent this Emissary called Rudolph H to Britain to Scotland to negotiate a truce and church just put him in prison okay um but what's the irony of all this Germany invades Poland what does Germany invade Poland do do you guys know have you guys study this history okay it's it's because of something called the molotov rippen trop uh P so this was an agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany to partition Poland into two do you understand so Germany and Soviet Union invaded Poland together Soviet Union the Soviet Union attacked from the East and the Germans attack from the west but what happened was Britain and France declared war in Germany but not the Soviet Union okay that's pretty clever of Silent don't you think in fact you can make the argument that if this thing was not signed Hitler would not have attacked Poland okay and the reason why is the other thing about this pact is that Soviet Union agreed to give Germany resources for its war machine oil and food and other uh inputs okay does that make sense because remember the Soviet Union has to Ukraine which produce a lot of food and oil okay does that make sense all right next thing that happened was that in June 1941 operation Barbarosa so Hitler invades the Soviet Union okay and if you read history anyone will tell you that this operation bar Barosa was a tremendous success for Germany and a strategic failure for for Soviet Union it was a grave mistake strategic blunder for Stalin okay what did Stalin do wrong well first of all he refused to defend the Border okay there were 45 million Soviet troops at the border defending Soviet Union but they were given direct orders to not to not to not sorry given direct orders not to provoke the Germans you understand the Germans fire you don't fire back and because of this order a the German army which which about three to four million was able to overrun the border and almost reach Moscow okay that was a grave mistake on the part of Stalin second is that Stalin ignored intelligence okay there was a lot of intelligence that said that Germany was going to invade the Soviet Union how could you hide the fact that you have 4 million troops assembled to attack the Soviet Union okay so there's a lot of intelligence going to Stalin and tell silin hey the Germans are coming and S said nope I refuse to believe this intelligence in fact you had German soldiers desert the German Army swim across the river to the Soviet side and tell the Soviets Hey My My My comrades the entire Army is about to attack you and the Soviets shot these German soldiers because they F these German soldiers were spies okay so Stalin ignored intelligence the third thing that son did was before the outbreak of War he purged the Red Army the Soviet Army of its leadership of generals okay so the top generals of the Soviet Army the Red Army were all dead or in prison because Stalin got rid of them for not being politically loyal enough okay and but the fourth thing is why is why did s do this and the answer is what historians will tell you is that Stalin trusted Hitler okay this was the ultimate mistake that Stalin made Stalin believed Hitler was his friend he believed that Hitler would never invade him okay and so this is what you're taught in history class when you go to the United States um you'll be taught this when you go on the internet you'll be taught this okay this is completely wrong this analysis is completely wrong all right so we're going to use Game Theory to understand why this is wrong all right so using Game Theory let's let's look at four possible scenarios okay scenario a is Soviets attack first and they encircle Berlin second SC is soviet's attack okay and they're stopped at the border scenario C is Soviets attack sorry Germans attack and the Soviets stopped them okay and S Ste is Germans attack and they reach Moscow okay which is actually what happened all right so these are four possible different scenarios that could have happened in June 1941 all right remember that there were four to five million Soviet troops at the border okay what were they doing there they were about to attack Germany the Soviets had a plan to attack Germany but the Germans struck first okay so let's look at these four possible scenarios and see what happens first scenario is the Soviets attacked Germany first and they reach Berlin what happens now what happens now what do all what do all the other countries do yes do you understand Stalin reaches Berlin boom Japan comes from the East Russia Britain comes to the aid of of Germany United States comes to the aid of Britain all the world unites against the Soviet Union okay so what would happen in this war the Soviet Union loses this war do you understand okay now let's look at B the Soviets invade but the Germans sto them at the border okay now what happens no one happens yeah so Japan still invades okay um and Britain starts to negotiate with Germany and seek a peace because Britain cannot afford for the Soviet Union to overrun Germany because all because then communism takes over Europe does that make sense okay so in B we can't say that Chan would lose but they would not win the war okay you understand so B is not that good either now let's look at C the Germans attack and the Soviets hold at the border now what happens now what happens they just destroy each other right United States Britain Japan they're all laughing they're like oh they're just killing each other who cares not not our problem okay but now let's look at situation D where the Germans attack and they are about to destroy the Soviet Union what happens now the other countries have to come and help the Soviet Union why why why why is it the United States and Britain must come to help the Soviet Union why what what would happen if Germany takes over the Soviet Union that's right okay they take over the resources therefore they take over the world you understand because Germany has technology it has military power but it lacks resources ources you combine the resources with the German military they're Invincible now the United States will be forever shut out of the world Germany will not invade the United States but the United States could never ever attack Germany again does that make sense so what happens is the after the Soviets invade uh sorry after the Germans invade and the Soviet Army is destroyed America immediately gives the Soviet Union a of Aid okay it's what we call land Le from 1941 to 1945 America gave $200 billion to S Union for free okay it gave weapons resources technology and food basically what America did was industrialize the Soviet Union does that make sense that's what America did Soviet Union could not industrialize by itself but America helped Soviet Union to industrialize let's look at Lenley okay weapons America gave the S Union onethird of all ammunition used in the war onethird of all explosives one half of all aircraft 14,000 airplanes one half all tanks 13,000 tanks okay resources America gave oil and food 80% of all copper 55% of of aluminum of aluminum and steel okay technology America gave the Soviet Union radio technology radio communications railroad Transportation heavy industry and lots and lots of food okay in other words America basically built the Soviet Union in heavy industry for it okay does that make sense and also at the end of the day what Soviet can do is reverse engineer all this technology and build its own initiatory does that make sense okay so then really turn the Soviet Union into a superpower and sing could get all this for free because America could not afford for the Soviet Union to lose the war okay what's the other benefit of having the Germans attack first and almost destroy Moscow what's the other benefit and S really needed this this actually more important than l which is what national Unity right now all the Soviets were United in the fight against Nazi Germany before Comm communism was tearing the country apart there was a Civil War the rich people all fled the country right but now because the Germans were in were invading the entire country was United against German Germany this is what they call the Great Patriotic War they were fighting this war for the love of their country the love of Mother Russia okay so and what turned the war was the will to fight the the Russian the Russians lost 26 million people in the war that's a lot of people but by losing this many people it made the entire nation refused to surrender they had the will to fight okay much more so than the Germans does that make sense okay so in history you're taught that operation Barbarosa proved that stellin was not a strategic genius that he was played by Hitler but if you just do game through analysis this was the best possible outcome for the s un okay in 1939 the world should have United against Soviet Union but what happened was the world United against Nazi Germany and gave Soviet Union the technology the money and the resources to become a global superpower right doesn't make sense and because Soviet Union became a global superpower it was able to turn China into a communist country does that make sense if so the Soviet Union did not become a global superpower with all this heavy industry then China would not become a communist power M would not have won the war okay so in other words all this is telling us is that Stalin is a genius he turned a losing War into a winning War okay so last thing I want to do is okay fine how was Salin able to do this what makes the Russian imagination different from the Western imagination okay so I would I would say three things the first thing is just intuition and intuition means that Putin and Stalin they're able to read the political winds okay they able to sense the mood of the world the German word for this is Ze guys okay Spirit of the times but they're able to sense the mood of the world okay put in NOS that the American Empire is about to die and so he feels embolden to act okay so it's intuition second is Imagination so Putin and Son both have a strategic imagination which means like okay they sense these winds but they can also Imagine hey if I did this how would these winds change okay that's an imagination to able to predict or imagine the future and the last thing which is the strangest of all is multiple personalities meaning that Putin and S are such brilliant men that they embody multiple personalities in them and that's why they're so unpredictable all right so the example is this everyone says that Stalin trusted Hitler so Hitler played Stalin but if you just look at if you just analyze the game okay the then the conclusion is silent played Hitler you understand Hitler did everything that s wanted him to do Hitler invaded Poland which caused German which caused France and Britain declare war on him okay then Hitler attacked Soviet Russia which brought America into the war and help the Soviet Union become an Empire you understand so Hitler was completely played by stad and the answer is so the question then is how right because in 1941 June 1941 Hitler did not have to invade Soviet Union okay he could have waited for St to invade him then the opposite would have happened right then America would have joined the war on Hitler's behalf and they would have defeated the Soviet Union okay so what convinced Hitler to do the most insane thing and invade Russia first and the answer is Hitler trusted Stalin does that make sense all right so imagine this Hitler and Salin they're having drinks okay they're both drunk and they're on the porch and they're staring at the mountains and the moon okay and salon and Hitler are talking and all Sal has to do is say three words and then Hitler is like I'm I'm I'm GNA come invade you what are these three words how can sing get Hitler to invade Russia what are the three words that Salin can say to Hitler I trust you okay I Joseph Stalin trust you out of Hitler I don't trust anyone I don't trust my own mother but I choice you Hitler okay then why would Hitler invade exactly okay because Hitler thinks now that Salin is EAS Target as Shaq says Sal Salin is a sheep I Hitler am a lion I am a wolf you're are a sheep therefore I eat you you understand okay and but Stalin could only need to do this if he had multiple personalities okay St had to be a sheep in front of Hitler he couldn't pretend he had to be does that make sense okay so this is these three things are the Russian strategic imagination the ability to feel the political Winds of the moment the ability to prophesize and predict the ability to be multiple individuals at once and that's how Stalin was able to win World War II and this is why Putin will be able to destroy the American Empire okay any questions okay so s asked the most important question okay why the Russians different okay all right so the problem isn't Russia the problem is us the West okay so when we talk about the west Western thinking it comes from British thinking and there are three distinct characteristics of British thinking that's different from Russian thinking okay right let's look at British philosophy versus Russian philosophy all right okay the first major difference is that British philosophy tends to be narrow whereas Russia tends to be broad Okay the reason why is Britain is an island therefore it FS very narrowly about the world whereas Russia it's a huge country it's the world's largest country therefore it thinks very broadly about the world and to understand the difference what you do is you read British literature and compare it with Russian literature okay Russian literature you have Leo Toy Story WR War and Peace and a Korean okay these are very huge epics and then um British literature you have J Austin Thomas Hardy they're great okay but they're very narrow in their focus so that's a big first big difference second big big difference is British philosophy believes in the idea of empiricism okay empirism is a philosophy de developed by British philosopher like David Hume and the idea is we can only know what we experience we can only know what we see okay so in another word for empirism is the idea of skepticism be skeptical of abstract philosophy okay because we can never know it for example you can never never really understand mathematics because mathematics is beyond your experience okay you can only know what you experience okay and it's true but it's very but it limits your imagination okay the Russians believe in mysticism okay so they're they're very spiritual religious people so there are forces we don't understand there are individuals who are prophets who are sent to us by God we can never know who who they are we can never know how they think but we just have to believe that's the case Okay so the Russians are going to be much more mystical in their thinking than the British are okay and the last thing is the British believe in logic okay like it's like mathematics you can go from one to two 2 to 3 to four to five okay everything has to be logical everything has to be connected together whereas the Russians they believe in intuition okay you can jump you can imagine things you don't have to be logical whereas the British say you have to be logical and these three ideas neuro empirism and logic they created the Western mind of today okay so this is what dominates in Academia so when you go off to University they expect you to think in this way narrow empirical and logical okay and if you think about it this is perfect if you want to build a bureaucracy right this is bureaucratic thinking this is the bureaucratization of the imagination okay you're not allowed to say things without evidence and logic and experience okay and the Russians don't have this so they can do this all right now there's obviously more good things about the system than about this system but the problem with the British system is like no great man could ever arise from W Society does that make sense because all this creates a process orientated systemized bureaucratic style of thinking okay so for example I give this talk right I could never give this talk in America or Britain because they all think I'm crazy okay does that make sense they're like What's your evidence for this wait are you refuting Decades of scholarship about World War II are you telling me that Stalin was a genius when no one thought he was a genius how dare you refute these thousands of Scholars who have put all this work into World War II scholarship okay do you understand all right so in the British system no one like Putin can arise but in the Russian system someone like Stalin and Putin can arise the problem though is that what happens if you don't have pu Putin or Stalin well then you're you're you're then this system this system becomes very weak okay does that make sense okay so the British system doesn't really need great leaders but the Russian system you do need great leaders and if you are a great leader then you're allowed to completely follow your intuition and Imagination to do great things like Joseph Stalin in World War II and what Putin is doing today okay does that make sense okay any more questions oh that's a great question okay so last semester we said the Greeks and um the the Greeks are more like the Russians than they are like the British okay so um the Russian system the Greek system it's a much more natural human system okay and the British system basically it's trying to remove intuition and Imagination from the decision-making process from the intellectual process because intuition and Imagination are too mysterious okay so in other words okay let's just say that I'm Joseph Stalin in World War II okay 1939 for me to execute my plan I need to write a me Memo detailing my thinking okay now obviously I can't do that because if I did that um first of all I couldn't execute my plan but second it would confuse everyone like like like what are you trying to do again okay do you do you understand okay and so so the Greeks believed in imagination intuition as well okay but not the British and we live in the British system okay all right any more questions okay so Jack asked a good question okay um how like how much did the Greeks influence the British and the answer is not very not that much because remember like after the Greeks came the Romans the Romans were like this and there was a Romans who influenced the British who then influenced Americans okay so we're living basically in a Roman world as opposed to a Greek world right does that make sense okay any more questions um so um um this is a really hard question okay what influences Russia well I mean what the Russians will say is that they're Christian Nation that they come from a Christian n Christian tradition and the Christian tradition comes from a Greek tradition okay okay does that make sense so Christianity um Christianity they would say that Christianity uh is the main influence okay and there there are some Greek elements to Christianity what the Russians say is that their Christianity is a more Pure or more ancient form form of Christianity okay we remember like when we study the when stud Christianity Christianity changed over the centuries right so basically this is a pre Augustine Christianity okay before Augustine any more questions okay great so um uh next class we do the American Civil War okay