Whilst I think professor Ferguson has drawn a valid conclusion, I feel he is restricted by his political stance. The issue is not simply the Democrats, it is US politics as a whole which has failed the average American.
Successive Democrat Presidents and their captured institutions and weaponized media have overseen the commandeering of freedom of speech. republican have never owned the media to even begin to try using propaganda as a tool for hearts and minds
It is not a failure of US politics. This has happened across the western world. Which of course makes it a much bigger and broader problem i.e. the entire western system is failing, and will probably end catastrophically .
"The issue is not simply the Democrats" Agreed. As I mentioned elsewhere, Ferguson neglected to mention that the Republican Party is happy with this state of affairs, as they continue to receive huge amounts of treasure from AIPAC, the MIlitary Industrial Complex, Wall Street, etc. So long as the Republican politicians can receive their share of the pie, they'll remain complicit participants in the degradation of US political and societal institutions.
In 1971, as part of a school boy water polo team, I travelled behind the Iron Curtain to Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania. My one overriding memory was that there were “rich communists and poor communists”, and that the rich were members of the Party.
The rich Soviet Party equivalent in the West are now the rich political donors . In the US other Countries hold more influence and whose interests are being prioritized over it's own citizens.
Feels that way to me, as a 33 year old Australian, in reference to Australia. Everyone with property is 'in the party - by proxy' while the party steals from everyone, impoverishing the youngest generation the most, even before they are born. All I hear when I talk about these problems is bored middle classers who just don't care because they can afford their car and house repayments and their coffee on the way to their slave wage job. Everyone is so caught up in their own, empty, vapid world, so much so that they cannot care about our communual shared space, Australia.
@@Rexhunterj All of Western culture. Aussies are the last in my opinion as a Kiwi you guys are our rich cousins and it's even starting to bite you guys badly now.
Which are all UN/WEF/BIS centric. They are now moving rapidly into South East Asian nations too. Thailand has never been colonised .. until now! Soon there will be nowhere to run.
True that. This guy just totally missed the point. He entirely left out corporate moneyed interests and the implications of global heating / biodiversity loss and instead pointed a finger at the dems. Don't get me wrong, they suck, but this is such a narrow take on the issues of the present. Institutions have lost legitimacy because people realize this culture is structured for only one thing - to push money upwards. That's it. And it's f***ing obvious
this is the *real problem* that dear Niall doesn't ever want to acknowledge or address... because guess where his income and speaker's fees come from... It is the economic system that has created this "huge problem" and Niall is _in love with_ that economic system and ideology. As they say: Love is blind...
This IS the problem.... and it is these corporations that corrupt. I am a Trade Unionist, ex Organiser, and convenor, and I am black banned by multi national corporations, not by Australian government. the same billionaires that own ALL of the media and infect us with propaganda... on both social and traditional media. They own all of it.
And now show me the US politician who will fix alle the mess. Kamala would not have done it. Maybe Trump really causes the next civil war after which the US will hopefully get a modern constitution which makes an end to "electoral college" , "rigged election myths" and all the other crap like "gerrymandering" ,"military industrial complex" , ... . End lobbying would be a dream , but I guess that would mean we need to let ourselves rule by an AI. Which is programmed by .... Elon. Okay we are fuuked.
Leonid Il`ich Brezhnev was not all that old: he died not quite 76 years old. His successors Andropov - 69 years old, Chernenko - 73. Gorbachev was young, and he was the one who let the things fall apart. The most important similarity between late 1980 USSR and today's USA is the Orwellian amount of political lies necessary to sustain the status quo; the rest is merely a consequence.
May I remind you that the life span in USSR was in mid 65-75s, depending on your genes and health, women lived longer then men. Only Georgians for some reason lived much longer, may be because Georgia had better and cleaner air, because of mountans and nature. USSR "free" heathcare was horrible, the only thing is there were some good doctors who would work in hospitals and medical centers, but not in city boroughs (for outpatient care) facilites located in neighbourhoods. Doctors in these facilitiess were not knowledgeable and paid very low wages, and most of ppl who attended these facilites were the most poor. The "middle class" could get better treatment in hospitals and health centers due affordability of bribes or just good connections. But of course the best heath care always was provided to gov officials. They had their own clinics with best doctors, etc.. and so they lived longer as well.
99% of my human interactions are peaceful and without coercion. I exchange my money with people for their products. I wait my turn in line and at traffic signals. I help people when I can. I accept help when I need it. Why is it that the majority of the time I feel coercion or threat of force is when I encounter the government - that ostensibly works for me - or people claiming a moral right to the shame they demand of me? People *know* how to get along with one another. We do it all the time. The pressure to drink/drug oneself into oblivion does not come from the live-and-let-live folks. It comes from the pseudo-virtuous and the State.
Psychopaths have no conscience and thus do not experience guilt. They weaponize guilt to take control of organizations, institutions and businesses. When governments are controlled by these psychopaths all manner of evil becomes possible.
I was there in the USSR in 1989 and these observations are spot on. The vibes today are eerily similar. Almost depressing. At times I wish I would never have seen it.
Hey thanks for confirming Ferguson's observations are spot on with your own experience in USSR. Nation-wide CA's people live in drug-induced stupers. Never thot I'd ever see so very many dependent on pharmaceutical and street drugs.
@@penelopehill9710 I was only there for two months in an exchange program for students, a few weeks in Leningrad and the rest in Moscow. Everything was so surreal. The totalitarian atmosphere. The utterly ugly concrete blocks they called housing and these pompous communist monuments everywhere. 1/3 of the population was wearing uniform. You couldn't buy food anywhere, except for bread every other day after queuing for hours, but vodka and champagne (even beluga caviar) was in abundance and cheap. So we all lost 15kg, but where constantly drunk. I fully understand why the citizens made those choices, just like I understand why people in the West go for drugs today. But the big difference is what Niall points out, is that the Russians were so cynical. They all new that they were being lied to. In our current society, many people believe the lies. That is a fundamental difference. So, are we the new Soviets? In many ways, no. In other ways even more so. I could write a whole book on it, and some day I may do so, but others probably have even better stories to tell. It is a window in history that is not to well documented, though.
I found this a very concerning video, so i did a little research, and my conclusion is that these high level graphs with little detail are quite misleading. Niall has drawn some pretty dramatic conclusions based on his graph of "deaths of despair" and this seems to be the central data point he uses. I think that there are 2 very large problems with this. - Suicide rates in the US increased between 2000-2018 (~37%), however have been steady since then (6 years) and are not appreciably increased over the long term and can the 2000-2018 increase can also be broadly correlated with increased gun ownership over this period. - Opioid deaths have contributed almost totally to the increased deaths and this can be almost completely explained by the overprescription of opioids and subsequent rise of fentanyl which increased the lethality of the opioids by a significant amount. This story is much more complex than alcohol related deaths in USSR, and is arguably more of a medical emergency than a measure of societal collapse. Whether the conclusions are valid or not I have no idea, but i do find it concerning when a historian and political scientist of Niall's stature (I have read and enjoyed his books for many years) draws such conclusions based on, at best, glossed over facts, and at worst, wilfully misleading graphs. What this reminds me of is that we are always more sceptical of statistics that dont support our narrative.
In my experience, negative outlook on life comes before gun-related suicides + opioid addiction. I have never seen or heard about, neither can I fathom the possibility of, somebody becoming addicting or mistakenly shooting themselves when they have a positive outlook on life/society, when they have a stable/trusting community, or when they are actively pursuing passionate jobs/hobbies. It just doesn't happen. Nobody wants to escape a good life (unless they have internalized trauma from their childhood, which just describes another society-level problem) Regardless, the fact this story rings true for so many (other) people says more of its underlying truth than statistics will ever need to back up
Wow, Peter, you are a funny guy. Because the blame game is not played politically correct - there is no problem. You should enjoy yourself, it is later than you think.
@@PeterAllen09 Looks like it is originally Chinese based on the sentence structure. Reminds me a lot of the NYT comment section during the hong kong protests
@@krazoe6258 Could be. I'm still not sure of the point of the comment. Is it critical? Is it suggesting it's too late to worry about any of this, so just have fun? Seems darkly optimistic
Very interesting. I know a few Canadians and Aussies who seem to think we need to rely on the US to save everyone in the West, and it really grinds my gears. We can look at them for information just like with anyone else (such as in this case here), but we need to be taking responsibility for our own stuff to improve our countries. Just cos the US is the most influential and powerful Western nation doesn't mean we need to be like them, or that we're absolved of responsibility for our own people.
Ahh yes, but don't you know that the US effectively owns your country? We've signed treaties, compacts, and accords. We couldn't go our own way, even if we tried. I think Whitlam found out the hard way, didn't he?
The US was founded with a purpose of maximum freedom without government/authority interference. Now we all know it was not perfect as not everyone was free to start, but they got there at a heavy cost. It should also be said the WW2 and the nuclear era radically changed the US. Its limitations on government were thrown out the window and the creation of various security and intelligence agencies has definitely had a negative effect on the country. Despite the patriotism of its people and an ever readiness to defend it. I often say that the US kind of copied Nazi Germany with its various agencies that were created in the madness of the 1920’s-30’s with the creation of the CIA etc in the post war era.
@@danielpye7738that is exactly how it happened! you just start following the threads of todays America and its government back through time and you find 90% fall right into what you just said!!
Well it's a good sentiment but the professor left out some rather important things that you may or may not have known about. USD is global reserve currency. For now. This has profound implications across areas you wouldn't even think about. If you were to try and rely on yourself and go your own way, kind of forge your own path so to speak, Washington would quickly put you back inline. They are actively intent on being a global hegemonic power that controls everything and everyone. Gaddafi wanted to trade outside of the USD and even proposed a singular African only currency. Look what happened to that. They would do the same to you if you tried this. And the practical limitations of you walking your own way are things like having to hold USD in reserve so you can buy oil or other commodities. I don't know how this ends but Washington has become a cancer on the rest of the world unfortunately and one that might kill us all ultimately. Or we might survive but we have basically enabled them to be the hegemonic power they are. There is a lesson in that I think.
Not just politically but economically, socially and legally as well. The US led West is indeed less liberal in all aspects than the USSR ever were. This is most prominent is how they treat and deal with the rest of the global community, where the democratic values which it claimed to abide by were thrown out the window at its whims and fancies.
I think he is overestimating some particular evidence - like question of age. Does he want us to believe that younger presidents and PM like mr Trudeau and mr Macron shall realy make good change? Many nations now afford for experiments with younger gavernors because they feel secured by USA The same with mlitary expenses - opposite to bliefs these expenses fall down due to differnt approach - high tech electronic and software spared expenses for building advantage over enemy with hugh number of military - one rocket, dron can do what for one jet does , one jet stands for 10 in IIWW , one aircarrier for many ships, one soldier for few Every piece of arms requieres constant maintenance the same as paying to keep big army readiness - these costs could be reduced now.and funds could support loans.
@stephenlock7236 as a veteran of the Cold War, I am often struck by this. I put on a uniform in 1972 to defend a Christian republic from an atheistic super power. Today I live in the atheistic globalist superpower.
Niall is absolutely correct. I was in the USSR at that time and can confirm every word of this speech. Living in Australia now and watching the daily news brings a strong sense of déjà vu. It’s not yet at the scale it was in the USSR, but the patterns are clearly emerging. We’re seeing an untrusted government relying on 'experts' seemingly chosen without a basis, a treasurer lacking formal economic education, government projects riddled with budget 'black holes,' and little hope for recovery anytime soon. It’s disheartening… We need change before it’s too late.
Both countries suffer from the same problem. Neither "American dream" nor communism are achievable but people fell for that promise and hence the disparity. If they were so easily duped who is to blame??
Yes, in many ways. Corporatization is a principal reason. For example, in 1983, I visited the Soviet Union. I noticed, when I went to a gift shop, how the clerk didn’t care a bit about customer service; she was going to get paid regardless of how she treated me; unlike with small businesses, she was not going to lose her job if she treated me poorly. As big box retailers replaced small businesses in the United States, employees didn’t have accountability and incentive like they used to with mom and pop shops. In general, employees just don’t seem to care. Just one way we’ve become like the USSR. The mass surveillance in abrogation of the 4th amendment would make the Stasi envious. The attacks on the 1st, 2nd and 5th amendments and the culture of censorship are other symptoms. There’s much more.
In USSR we did not have small businesses, neither we had any training for sales ppl what so ever. I am from USSR and talking from experience. The words customer service was not even known to Soviet Union population, you are one American naïveté LOL. Although we had fair markets that were popular in USSR, because these ppl had their very very small personal farms and could sell some food products that we would not be able to buy in stores, but I don't remember there was "customer service". Ppl who sold their products just were more amiable then in gov controled stores, because they depended on their sale, and you would be able to get something cheaper from or another, because they would sell you for "competitive" prices, but that was the only thing about "competition". But I am sure these "farmers" had to pay to gov high % may be 97 or higher of their earnings never the less.
You are perfectly right. I was thinking about a parallel between large neo-communist corporations and the old comunist enterprises. This similarity is shocking. I can tell from perso al experience living under brutal dictatorship of Ceausescu in Romania.
@@jjhporI conscientiously raise a family, practice law, participate in community organizations like Bar associations, try to keep informed… Other than apparently being triggered by my mention of the 2nd Amendment, you?
@@krasavam1625it’s not naïveté. I kind of think you missed the point. By the way, both my parents and many, many members of my family and community were from the Soviet Union, including from pre-WWII days. I have a little bit of insight.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury.'' Alexander Tytler.....another bleeping Scot!
In our case, it is the educational establishment that has betrayed us the most. But of course the biggest fools are the professors. They long ago lost control of their institutions.
Maybe, but most of the democratic institutions have been compromised by corporations. Most people don't want to vote for wars, and presidents say they will not go to war then go back on their promises.
Exceptional! As a psychiatrist in the US, I've observed the decline and increasing despair for the last 20-plus years. Urgent social reorganization and pro-social measures can reverse these trends.
Easy! Stop the enormous money transfers from poor to rich, stop the WEF policies. An egalitarian society with little difference in earnings between professions and all basic services like water, energy, public transportation, health care, pharmaceuticals, etc in hands of the state with a severe public control on people in power and their purse.
"Urgent social reorganization and pro-social measures can reverse these trends." Not going to happen so long as the current political establishment retains its grip on power and its grip on the narrative. One thing Ferguson neglected to mention is that while the Democratic Party may hold a monopoly over the US' academic and media establishment, the Republican Party is happy to play along so long as they get their fair share of the plunder.
Niall plays both sides of the Fence - 20 years ago he was championing DEI in US Universities while feathering his nest there. The winds must be changing!
@@frankyyaggabot6222 Thanks for that. I didn't know, but his interesting facts followed by weird Trump-is-different conclusion made me suspect his motives.
I have 2 words for Mr Ferguson: "Fox News" I am not American. But I like to follow their news. It doesn't look to me that the Dems control 95% of the media. This whole thesis started off intriguing, but then it went weird and unconvincing. In t😢he end I think that it says more about the speaker's opinions than about the world.
Yea...it's full of crap. Literally. Just read some comments, it's half filled with russian talking points and conservative doom and gloom victimization glorifying the past and making ludicrous analogies about how it feels like late stage soviet union in the west.... this is a political monologue.
@@sebsebski2829 Fox News is the biggest news network by ratings. It’s huge. Twitter is completely in the bag for the right wing. Huge audiences follow the biggest online personalities (which lean right). The idea that DEMs control the media landscape is laughable. If anything, the right wing is now the mainstream media.
UA-cam removes "right wing" comments constantly using AI. We have no insight into what is widely said. Not to mention YT videos and self censorship. A crime documentary about a serial r-word-ist, muted every time the offence is mentioned. And so on. The Iron curtain is there, waiting.
Humans have 15 years of childhood 15 years of of youth 15 years of adulthood 15 years of getting old 15 years of being old if you go past this it’s slow dying for 15 years and that’s that.
For the 15 years of childhood understanding your duties and how Love alone is the binding of it all together. 15 years of laying the foundation of your adult life with the knowledge of your duties and love. 15 years of passing on to the next generation. 15 years of harvest of your work. 15 years of allowing others to share your harvest instead of hoarding it .15 years of allowing death to come instead of fighting to hold onto a life that is already passed by accepting all sorts of treatments to extend the suffering that living passed a certain age will inevitably be.
@@Siegetower Nonsense. Government is just one of life's necessities. It can be good or bad. To live together with other people in a house, we need to make agreements that meet our needs, negotiate, make rules, acquire and distribute income, do the accounts - that's "government". The problem is that most governments are now corrupted by insanely rich corporations and their shareholders. Politicians line up "jobs" and pensions through collusion with big business, so their politics is just a show and democracy as a whole becomes a sham.
Starts interestingly, but goes off the rails a bit when the democratic party in the US is apparently to blame. In my lifetime they've held the minority of administrations.
Democratic party has allowed an open border and helps let in fentanyl in record numbers across the border. Democrats controlled the executive branch for 12 of the last 16 years. Even when Trump was president, the democrats did everything to sabotage him.
Sobering and refreshing. Thank you for sharing! This type of analysis is deliberately not seen in any, ANY, MSM channels in Australia, especially the ABC so it's wonderful to see, yet again, alternative media spaces leading the way to bring about a more enlightened perspective on world events.
The US, Australian, etc governments working very hard to shut down the "alternative media spaces". (And perhaps you should consider what punctuated evolution has done for life on Earth...)
He always speaks with a Scottish accent. His natural speaking accent is Kelvinside Glasgow accent. When he’s speaking about Scotland he can easily switch it to broader Glaswegian
Ferguson is slightly wrong with his bit about the declining life expectancy in the later years of the Soviet Union. He says that it was at its worst during the 1970/80ies, but the chart clearly shows that it was much, much worse in the mid 1990ies when the USSR didn't exist anymore. That's when Russia went though an enormous economic crisis after becoming capitalist, the average Russian was piss poor and turned to alcohol with disastrous results.
Since he used that graph of alcohol consumption is he implicitly suggesting that the solution is to entice Russian President Putin to be the American President? Since there is a clear correlation between the term of Putin with significant and steady declines to an acceptable level of alcohol consumption.
His "deaths of despair" graphs were also misleading - the "cumulative deaths" was designed to look like it was getting worse when it was staying stable, and the historical graphs showed that it was drug deaths that skyrocketed, not suicides or alcohol-related deaths, which stayed pretty stable.
@@ML6103 Phobia alert - The OP made a statement and posted a question he did not state the reference was in the speech, your diversion is disappointing and a shallow response.
Important arguments for perspective taking. However, the Democratic party is not the only part of the elite that has lost contact with reality and with the experience of vast portions of the population. Large corporations pursued their radical outsourcing that rapidly destroyed manufacturing under a political framework supported by both parties. Right-wing media like the Sinclair Corporation destroyed the local media that had connected to people's experience. Both parties were and are heavily influenced by massive corporate interest whose influence was bolstered by legislative and juridical maneuvers of the Republican party. The Republican party fell first under the onslaught of Trump populism, but it hs continued to pursue this agenda even as it pretends to serve a new cause (just look at the tax cuts that accelerated the deficits). This is not just important for political judgement, but also when looking at how things can be changed. Electing the other party definitely fixes nothing.
Democrat party and its ideological brethren all over the west own and control 95% of world's media (newspapers,radio,tv,magazines,websites) ,98% of education,majority of investment funds and Big Business but you're still trying to equate the guilt? You've lost the plot completely.
You obviously didn't absorb the presentation what part of gerontocracy, elite and largess did you not get? The corporations are their for their handouts just like the rest of the people who think the government owes them something ( preferably for free). Your bias is showing. The Internet and soft budget inflation destroyed local media.
The problem of old people in the leadership is one thing. The maybe more striking similarity with soviet times, is that old people had all the money, being a pensioner was the best position in the soviet society. Meanwhile the regular worker was getting very little for his efforts, working hard was not rewarded. Just like in the west today, working hard on the lower ladders of society, hardly gives you any more reward than being on welfare. Not a sustainable system in the long run as the money must come from somewhere, and it surely is not coming from all these people doing nothing.
TL:DR "Scottish man invents a clickbait title and overlooks massive differences between the USSR and the USA to provide a shaky framework for a bunch of statistical data and comparing the Democratic party to the Soviet elites" Seriously, I have no idea who this guy is, but that was weak
I comes from rich people borrowing money from the banks. Most of them do nothing except tell others to do something for them and work hard. It's sustainable as long as people are fine with it and accept that money for their work.
Ha-ha-ha! 20 years ago or so, I was arguing that USA is the same as USSR with some minor variations. I knew USSR very well at the time, as I was born and raised in it, and also experienced its collapse from inside. I didn't know USA that well, but as I was learning about it, I was discovering that it is more and more look like a mirror picture of USSR. You know when you flip the video you watch it normally until some writing appears and only then you see it was flipped. That is how similar USSR to USA were then to me. Now I hear this lecturer... well... what can I say - it took some time for you to realize. I wonder if you will be able to realize what is next for USA, or do you need me to tell you?
They will never be like USSR, never. They think, they heard about it on TV but they still have no idea. The Soviet Union built 168 million free apartments for its population in 1962( rememberin was just 7 years after the WW2), and built 2 million free housing every year. Kindergartens, schools, universities, holiday trips for children were free, everything was paid for by the state. Low crime, everyone had a job, there were no homeless people or poor people lying on the street. Any citizen of the country could choose between living in the city or outside the city, buy a house with land and grow vegetables, fruits and keep pets. Ow, the transport. It's still the best in the world. It was with USSR, now with Russia. You don't need a car, it's cheaper to move around by bus, train, or metro. Medical care was free as well, any hospitalization, surgery, dental care... What did they get for free in their capitalists countries ??? Capitalists without capital? I got my masters degree for free, and during USSR the government paid me to study.
@@monaliza3334 You are eitherdreaming, or you are lying. I was born and raised in Soviet Siberia. I have first hand experience of all these wonders you describe. It was all a lie, unfortunately. The rapid economic growth of the USSR has been achieved at unaffordable cost to the people and the nature. We lost pretty much the entire population of peasants and villagers during the initial phase of industrialization, then again during the war, then again during post-war "recovery". The dream for a few was a nightmare for many. I was one of those many, and so were my poor parents, and their parents. So please, tell the story of "great achievements of the USSR" to somebody else. I have seen what it really was myself. I still remember the number of my Komsomol Member ID. That is how good the memory of it still is in me. No need for a secondary witness, sorry.
@@AlexthunderGnumthis is a word for word comment she made on another channel, 'Solgenizin was selling his books for $$$. MOST OF IT IS BS AND pure lies. Traitor for money...This guy was too young to know anything about USSR. haha...but he's ok for gullible western ppl'. Yeh, she's lying.
@@monaliza3334 So what you're saying is that you were part of the rich upper class that got everything handed to them at the expense of the poor, at the expense of the lives of your slaves. How virtuous of you.
ooop sorry bud just need to help you clarify one thing here. the democrats of the west. dont lump us libertarians and republicans in with the crazies please. :)
@@alanunruh7310 Democrats and Republicans are two cheeks of the same butt. They have exactly the same economic and foreign policy and are funded by the exact same people and institutions. Look at Trump and Harris. One is funded by Blackrock the other is funded by Blackstone. One is funded By Multi Billionaire Elon Musk, the other is funded by Multi Billionaire Bill Gates. Both are funded by AIPAC, the MIC (Military Industrial Complex), Wall street, Silicon valley. None are there to represent the working class and the interests of the American average Joe and Joanne. They are both there to maintain and protect the social economic status quo where the richer keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. So to distract Americans and to pretend they are different they both found two particular socially divisive issues. One if illegal immigration, the other one is abortion. None of which will affect the living standards and well being of Americans or tackle to real issue tackling Americans. Unequal wealth inequality, unaffordability of homes, education, health care and lowering living standards for Americans and the growing gap between rich and poor and American flawed foreign policy.
I was there just after the end of the Soviets in 1995, and it was depressed. It has been completely revived by Putin in 24 years. A miracle of good management and strong leadership. And this has angered the US, who were convinced they had destroyed it, and keep trying.
the problem is us, kanada, britain never had bolshevic revolucion. its time for people to rise against opresors but i doubt it will happen. so the hegemon wil colapse because it lost its connection with the mases. the propanda is not enough to keep the power and the unjustice. it will colapse under ist waight as real democrscy and real priosperity is spread around the world lead by its oponents.
you can return to Russia (or in countries like to Kazakhstan if you prefer it more). You know there are australians (and not just australians) who did that.
So.. what about Australia feels anything like the USSR?. The USSR in the 1980's was running a defense budget roughly 1/3 the size of the economy, or more. This is the opposite of what Niall just described, so he's kind of being self serving here.
@@PolarExpress_11-10 Capitalist exploitation makes it impossible for the working class to reproduce itself in the advanced capitalist countries which now rely on immigration to be the next generation of workers.
@@serpentines6356 Perth did not go "crazy" We co operated with health authorities, and we hardly had any cases. Your take on thinkgs is not connected to reality, and the people that said "we won't be dictated to by our government"... and spread COVID because they could.... had the highest death rates. Most of the resistance came from jelly brains, eating propaganda from our enemies.
I wonder how many ordinary citizens can see this. I feel many intuitively know something isnt right, but are too crushed by debt and distractions to give it the necessary thought
That's always been very much my thoughts. People know something is wrong but can't figure it out. When you're a slave to the system, all you want to do is come home from work and turn on the TV, and therein lies the problem. It's another advantageous by-product to those who rule over us.
The high levels of debt in the United States leading to high servicing costs have been incurred mainly through obscenely high tax cuts to corporations and the extremely wealthy. This is why the country is unlikely to solve the problem as these rich oligarchs have too much influence over the government.
Great speech. Very revealing and thought provoking. Let’s hope people left the hall with a serious concern of what happens if they don’t actively contribute to making things better and the will to do so, rather than the easier thing to do - smile and reassure each other in the car on the way home that “it wont happen here…”
The problem is that economic growth has concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, leaving people demoralized. Average people do not benefit from outsourcing, selling off public services, fake currency and mass unskilled immigration.
And Niall did not address a single one of these *_real_* issues! He is deflecting people from the real issues in order to push an Establishment narrative (yet again).
The reason that we as American non elites are feeling dispare is because we believed in the greatness of America and the American dream and now we see that something has went horribly wrong in our country. America no longer is based on the fundamental values that we were taught to believe. What do you do, as a USSR or USA citizen, when you have to accept that you were sold the lie of exceptionallism to keep you working hard. The difference in attitude between the USA and most other western countries is that the USA was the dominant power after WW2 so we believed that we were the greatest society. Now we are losing that belief. People in other countries are more accepting of the wrongness of the modern paradigm. When I look at GB, Canada, and Australia, I see a people that have little control over the insanity that is government policy and those people accept their fate or are brutally punised for any true resistance. Examining our government efforts to do good, I see that government seems to try. But, the costs of government implementation of the good, are more than the benefits received. The man in the middle takes the profits of our services and works. Comparing NASA to SpaceX shows the ineffectiveness of our bureaucracy in spending our money wisely and accomplishing goals in a timely and efficient way. (Not to say SpaceX is a model of perfection on caring for their people. But, they do get results.)
@jasonburder3963 True statement. From what I hear SpaceX is a grueling task master. I wish there was a happy medium between the ultimate in productivity and providing a sustainable work load. My wife works at a hotel. It was owned by an American company and had good benefits. They weren't making money so they sold the hotel to an Indian who cut the staff by 50% and provides 0% benefits. Both situations suck for someone 🤔
I like to listen to Ferguson and have read most of his books but I always take a deep breath when a man educated at Cambridge with a Phd from Oxford who is a Fellow at Stanford sneers at "Ivy League elites"
To me, the sharing of a valid perception, that the long march of Neo-marxism through the American institutions has been completed is not sneering at all but akin to saying, all our streams are polluted or all the air in our large cities is contaminated. He and I were both educated in wonderful institutions which were elite and enriching and ennobling human life and culture before this rot set in.
It's also why he talks about climate change policy but not tax policy. The wealthiest contribute nothing- or as little as possible which is almost nothing- to society. That is the single reason for all our problems and why we have a declining standard of living and far more alienation in a country as fantastically wealthy as Australia: wealth that only has to be dug up and sold.
Just looking at the chart showing the political leaning of academia, I would say that we are doomed, because if you can't have diversity of thought in the sciences then differing opinions are not allowed, and it doesn't matter which side of politics holds sway. The same is happening right across the western world including my much beloved homeland of Australia.
@@malcolmmyself9653 yes. They also consume more propaganda & can be much more gullible, especially when the propaganda comes from a source with authority.
@@malcolmmyself9653 Just because you know more does not mean you are smarter, or more deserving of deciding for other people. An academic degree used to mean that you made the academic way of critical thinking your own. What you studied didn't matter so much, most never ended up in their field of study anyway. But an employer knew that he could hire an university graduate on a mid level position and with only minimal tutelage they would be able to do their job. Not any more. Because critical thinking is now frowned upon, you must become part of the cult and think the same way. Academia has become an indoctrination facility. And I work there, I see it happen.
Social trust is dropping across the board. Including middle class, which is a backbone of society. Cannabis legalized, and now other drugs on the table, to dumbed down the population
Hello from Russia. I can confirm the professor's words. I was born during the collapse of the USSR. As a child, I heard what happened to the country and I was told that corrupt politicians had ruined it while sitting in a bathhouse. However, it was only at the institute, studying the history of economics and top management, that I realized that this was a systemic problem and most of the problem was precisely the human factor: not competent people in their places, matchmaking, terrible management from there, corruption, etc. and all this could have been avoided if all the rules and laws (and they were strict and regulated) were executed and adjusted appropriately. At the moment, having already visited many countries in Europe and Asia, including Australia, I see systematic problems of the same nature both in private business and in the public sector. Best wishes from Russia, where this problem is being solved radically.
I really hope and pray Donny boy gets to listen to all of this. I am Australian and I realise that US politics affects the whole world. Our government are pretty much the same ( Albo is no where near understanding what’s going on)
All democracies that I am aware of seem to have fallen into the trap of demanding from their representatives quick fixes to long term problems without the voters having to experience any short term inconvenience. This attitude is fodder for demagogues and the world seems to be awash in them.
One small correction - price of vodka was not subsidized in USSR, the opposite is true. Government regulated (or better to say assigned) its price to a pretty high level in comparison to the median wage. Vodka usage in soviet economy is very interesting. It was an unofficial payment method for various services. It was a way of getting foreign cash in abroad trips (for those who went abroad). And even the Soviet Central bank used tailored supply of Vodka to control the amount of cash in a given region.
Not even those economically unviable. I was expecting (considering the large amount of tent cities and the homeless crisis which is touching most western nations) that those caught in homelessness (who generally have poor health and underlying conditions) would have been dying by the truck full.... but nope! Without Bill Gates, Fauci and the WHO, there would have been no damn pandemic. Shame small/medium business can't sue government for destroying them due to the totalitarian lockdowns.
@@krasavam1625 the software generated genomic sequences was "covid." No pathogen ever seperated...Symptoms of existing diseases were reclassified. Virology and their sponsors in Big Pharma have been doing this for decades.
Sorry Niall, but you completely ignored the most obvious issue - economic growth which exacerbates inequality inevitably leads to a collapse of social cohesion. You never mentioned inequality or the obscene accumulation of wealth by US oligarchs.
He didn't because your statement is fallacious. It's not implicitly true that economic growth makes people poorer. Economic growth makes people richer. What he mentions instead is economic mismanagement. Which is what makes people poorer: ' There is a problem and it's a problem that is masked by rapid economic growth a problem that's masked by an economy that is essentially running on fiscal and monetary steroids'. Ergo, fiscal steroids are inflationary. Infinite migration is inflationary. Inflationary pressures increase assets, suppress wages. Which are what results in the outcomes you state. Rich asset owners and poorer wage earners. What you need to have is economic growth with sound economic management. Economic contraction is not going to make inequality disappear. It will also exacerbate inequality. Because there will be less to go around and the people with power and influence will take what little is left (e.g. Zimbabwe and other failed states)
@@Rabbitthateats You misunderstand my comment. I agree with you that "it is not implicitly true that economic growth makes people poorer". My point was simply that if, the nature of the economic growth leads to greater and greater inequality, then this will inevitably lead to diminished social cohesion. I was disappointed that Niall never even considered inequality an issue worth mentioning.
Inequality is not a problem. I don't care if someone has $1 trillion if *my* life is okay too: good healthcare, good food, a good place to live, ..., and I am allowed to try to make even more money if I want to. It's a problem only if you DON'T want to work harder to make more money, yet you just can't stand that someone has a three-masted yacht... and you don't. North Korea is a place where people are very close to be economically equal (by being equally dirt poor). Want to live there?
Massive and growing inequality is a problem if you wish to live in a society with a modicum of social cohesion. However, I agree that equality on its own is no recipe for a healthy society, if most people are poor. Surely, we should be able to have a society which has economic growth, places some limits on obscene (unearned ) individual wealth and inequality, and lifts the living standards for the majority, including the poorest. You clearly do not value such an objective, which is your right. I clearly have different values. Each to their own
Mr Hearn: US oligarchs, you say. Like the Silicon Valley Democrats? Who give overwhelmingly to Democrats, who return the favors with the only trade goods they carry: laws crafted to appear to tax the rich. Did you not hear and not learn before Ferguson pointed it out that Democratic precincts are mostly the wealthier ones? Of course you did. But you didn't want to. You're in a bubble that's bigger, classier, and more escape-proof than the red bubble.
It’s far worse, we are material for the deepest parts of hell for what we’ve allowed to happen to children. So let’s not flatter ourselves. Time to stop talking interestingly, and time to be the men that God needs us to be.
I'm currently reading a biography of Ernst Junger (author of Storm of Steel) by Gebard Loose and came across this quote, not Junger's, Gebard Loose's. I find it very significant in the light of where we are now in the West. "He who swears only by man and human wisdom, must not, as a judge, pass sentence; must not as a teacher, guide; must not as a physician, cure."
This why we must study history. So that we can predict the future with some kind of clarity. People who don't study history are like the punter who turns up to a racetrack without a form guide.
Who were the Bolsheviks? How many Christian Russians did they kill? Who now controls most western governments through bribery, extortion and honey-trapping?
So you think history will help? Maybe, but recall a saying in Latin that translates roughly into "But who will guard those very same guardians?" Juvenal, Roman satirist born ~55 AD, died probably not later than 127 AD. His career overlapped that of Tacitus, for example. The "but" is lost in most translations, despite its being the first word in a dialog line written in dactylic hexameter, a meter in which the first syllable is accented, a meter frequently used in Latin poetry of his time. "Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes." The speaker is replying to a married man's question regarding how he can keep his wife at home during the lush Roman nights. That man's other friends have proposed watchmen, or guards, and Juvenal offers his advice as a question. Likewise, I that the history which citizens learn from today's tenured anarchists won't be one you recognize, but another, more like Lewis Carroll's.
Emmanuel Todd who predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union based it on the infant mortality rates - according to him, the US is on the same path, hence another similarity.
Good point, especially on the matter of connexion between academia and US Democrats. For one is at times reminded of comments by former ministers of social democratic type governments in Continental Europe, to this effect: ‘All the (sic)worker's parties of Europe now care more about Palestine than the proletariat, more about migrants than manufacturing, and more about homosexuals than housing’. There would likely be a similar story on the matter of Labour in UK and Australia, et al.
Obvious for decades but beware the Messenger who only lately has started singing this song for his supper: Niall played Academic games for decades. He massaged his way through Universities by bowing and scraping, by advancing the careers of Academics that were of the right 'type' and allowing History to be distorted and falsified. The man has a personal history of his own that is far from distinguished. That he elected to butter his bread at the expense of his own field of endeavour tells you everything you need to know about his principles. I would wager this is a paid performance and he adjusts his cadence and message for his Paymasters. Trust him at your peril.
Не сравнивайте советы и Америку, в СССР у нас было бесплатное образование, медицина, садики и школы. Все были равны, одна оплата труда , давали бесплатные квартиры… были и минусы, конечно! Но мы были счастливы))) ели в были богатыми, да! Но где по другому???? У нас алигархи, у вас бизнесмены и корпорации Советский Союз не был злом, мы не нападали и санкциями никого не гнобили. Всем добра🙏❤️
So the historical problem stems from debt slavery. Having private bankers issue and control the currency supply of a country. And to who the nation pays interest.
There is a spiritual malaise in Western style democracies, but Ferguson fails to identify the cause and has no particular solutions. Neoliberal economic political ideology heralded the era of thoughtless greed by corporate boards who only have a duty to rapacious shareholders. The USA and UK have been one party states since Thatcher and Reagan. The political pendulum has shifted inexorably to the right. All the capital, technology, expertise and skilled jobs were sent to the cheapest sources of production in authoritarian states which are inimical to democracy, rule of law, individual freedoms. China, Russia and other similar regimes are actively trying to supplant the USA and a rules based order. People have lost faith not because of the Democrats, the Republicans, like the British Conservatives ARE the wealth. The public have lost faith because their leaders have become the bought creatures of billionaire oligarchs and there is little honour, integrity or honesty in the governing system. Leadership is missing.
Someone has been reading to many progressive blogs. The democracy of the united states became a patronage system doling out grants, welfare, government jobs, and subsidies as a method of controlling the voter base. As Ferguson shows in this video the richest counties in the USA vote blue. Our growth has been through "stimulus" given to those loyal to the regime to keep them loyal. Now the left is in favor of unending wars, giving tax dollars to multinational drug companies, and against striking railroad workers. A total inversion happened and you don't see it.
Love this guy, and his incredibly courageous wife too. These incredibly smart people are just a few of the strongly emerging voices of reason that with increasing confidence I feel are wrestling back the ship’s wheel and taking us to calmer waters.
Niall has the courage to tell the brutal truth. Facts are bitter. A civil society should encourage and value the family unit where there’s a male father, a female mother and children.
In Poland most people believe and live in insecurity, superstition and myths from 70s/80s/90s about America and the west. They still think America is that land where everything is made of gold. Most people’s thinking simply hasn’t evolved since then and the media is making sure it never will. But the truth is Poland is now a much nicer place in so many aspects than the west but unfortunately stupid people can’t see and appreciate it. It will be a perfect place to live in once the purchasing power of the money goes a little bit higher and people chill out more, start appreciating what they’ve got and stop complaining about every little thing.
During the Cold War, America was seen as a symbol of hope, justice, and freedom, supporting liberation worldwide. Today, however, many feel it has lost its way, with actions viewed as bullying and destructive. Now, Russia and China represent a multipolar world, bringing stability that the world increasingly welcomes.
Whilst I think professor Ferguson has drawn a valid conclusion, I feel he is restricted by his political stance. The issue is not simply the Democrats, it is US politics as a whole which has failed the average American.
Successive Democrat Presidents and their captured institutions and weaponized media have overseen the commandeering of freedom of speech. republican have never owned the media to even begin to try using propaganda as a tool for hearts and minds
It is not a failure of US politics. This has happened across the western world. Which of course makes it a much bigger and broader problem i.e. the entire western system is failing, and will probably end catastrophically .
@nonfictionone Oh, I agree, but the fact that the rest of the world has followed suit doesn't absolve America.
It all started with Reagan
"The issue is not simply the Democrats"
Agreed. As I mentioned elsewhere, Ferguson neglected to mention that the Republican Party is happy with this state of affairs, as they continue to receive huge amounts of treasure from AIPAC, the MIlitary Industrial Complex, Wall Street, etc. So long as the Republican politicians can receive their share of the pie, they'll remain complicit participants in the degradation of US political and societal institutions.
In 1971, as part of a school boy water polo team, I travelled behind the Iron Curtain to Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania. My one overriding memory was that there were “rich communists and poor communists”, and that the rich were members of the Party.
The rich Soviet Party equivalent in the West are now the rich political donors . In the US other Countries hold more influence and whose interests are being prioritized over it's own citizens.
That seems fair.
Feels that way to me, as a 33 year old Australian, in reference to Australia.
Everyone with property is 'in the party - by proxy' while the party steals from everyone, impoverishing the youngest generation the most, even before they are born.
All I hear when I talk about these problems is bored middle classers who just don't care because they can afford their car and house repayments and their coffee on the way to their slave wage job.
Everyone is so caught up in their own, empty, vapid world, so much so that they cannot care about our communual shared space, Australia.
@@Rexhunterj All of Western culture. Aussies are the last in my opinion as a Kiwi you guys are our rich cousins and it's even starting to bite you guys badly now.
@@Rexhunterj Welcome to capitalism 2024. And it only going to get worse. There is nothing communal about Australia. That finished in 1788.
This information is great to be heard because it’s crosses all borders. America, UK, EU, Canada Australia etc…
Which are all UN/WEF/BIS centric. They are now moving rapidly into South East Asian nations too. Thailand has never been colonised .. until now! Soon there will be nowhere to run.
@@GazGuitarzWhat is the BIS?
You mean white people of the world ?
@@dianastevenson131Bank of international settlements.
No, only the Anglosphere.
Global corporate monopolisation of everything we need to survive is a huge problem
True that. This guy just totally missed the point. He entirely left out corporate moneyed interests and the implications of global heating / biodiversity loss and instead pointed a finger at the dems. Don't get me wrong, they suck, but this is such a narrow take on the issues of the present.
Institutions have lost legitimacy because people realize this culture is structured for only one thing - to push money upwards. That's it. And it's f***ing obvious
this is the *real problem* that dear Niall doesn't ever want to acknowledge or address... because guess where his income and speaker's fees come from...
It is the economic system that has created this "huge problem" and Niall is _in love with_ that economic system and ideology. As they say: Love is blind...
It might be THE common problem across the examples cited by Ferguson of other societies that collapsed under similar circumstances.
This IS the problem.... and it is these corporations that corrupt.
I am a Trade Unionist, ex Organiser, and convenor, and I am black banned by multi national corporations, not by Australian government.
the same billionaires that own ALL of the media and infect us with propaganda... on both social and traditional media.
They own all of it.
And now show me the US politician who will fix alle the mess.
Kamala would not have done it.
Maybe Trump really causes the next civil war after which the
US will hopefully get a modern constitution which makes an
end to "electoral college" , "rigged election myths" and all the other
crap like "gerrymandering" ,"military industrial complex" , ... .
End lobbying would be a dream , but I guess that would mean we need to let
ourselves rule by an AI. Which is programmed by .... Elon.
Okay we are fuuked.
Leonid Il`ich Brezhnev was not all that old: he died not quite 76 years old. His successors Andropov - 69 years old, Chernenko - 73. Gorbachev was young, and he was the one who let the things fall apart.
The most important similarity between late 1980 USSR and today's USA is the Orwellian amount of political lies necessary to sustain the status quo; the rest is merely a consequence.
No Bigger lie than Que Mala is a top notch candidate worthy of the office
May I remind you that the life span in USSR was in mid 65-75s, depending on your genes and health, women lived longer then men. Only Georgians for some reason lived much longer, may be because Georgia had better and cleaner air, because of mountans and nature. USSR "free" heathcare was horrible, the only thing is there were some good doctors who would work in hospitals and medical centers, but not in city boroughs (for outpatient care) facilites located in neighbourhoods. Doctors in these facilitiess were not knowledgeable and paid very low wages, and most of ppl who attended these facilites were the most poor. The "middle class" could get better treatment in hospitals and health centers due affordability of bribes or just good connections. But of course the best heath care always was provided to gov officials. They had their own clinics with best doctors, etc.. and so they lived longer as well.
The lies are worse today, they are amplified everywhere and they attempt to fool you, we live in the 'free' world.
@@krasavam1625
@@mrfarenheit9159Kamala Harris is far more qualified: forming coherent sentences puts her LIGHT YEARS ahead of dump
99% of my human interactions are peaceful and without coercion. I exchange my money with people for their products. I wait my turn in line and at traffic signals. I help people when I can. I accept help when I need it.
Why is it that the majority of the time I feel coercion or threat of force is when I encounter the government - that ostensibly works for me - or people claiming a moral right to the shame they demand of me?
People *know* how to get along with one another. We do it all the time. The pressure to drink/drug oneself into oblivion does not come from the live-and-let-live folks. It comes from the pseudo-virtuous and the State.
Well said
Spot on.
Pseudo virtuous, great term.
Psychopaths have no conscience and thus do not experience guilt. They weaponize guilt to take control of organizations, institutions and businesses. When governments are controlled by these psychopaths all manner of evil becomes possible.
YEP.
Well said, getting the great unwashed deplorables to understand this is one heck of a challenge.
Very sobering talk. Thank you.
I was there in the USSR in 1989 and these observations are spot on. The vibes today are eerily similar. Almost depressing. At times I wish I would never have seen it.
Hey thanks for confirming Ferguson's observations are spot on with your own experience in USSR.
Nation-wide CA's people live in drug-induced stupers.
Never thot I'd ever see so very many dependent on pharmaceutical and street drugs.
I grew up in the USSR in 1980s and I can attest to the striking parallels between late USSR and modern US that Niall speaks about.
@@penelopehill9710 I was only there for two months in an exchange program for students, a few weeks in Leningrad and the rest in Moscow. Everything was so surreal. The totalitarian atmosphere. The utterly ugly concrete blocks they called housing and these pompous communist monuments everywhere. 1/3 of the population was wearing uniform. You couldn't buy food anywhere, except for bread every other day after queuing for hours, but vodka and champagne (even beluga caviar) was in abundance and cheap. So we all lost 15kg, but where constantly drunk. I fully understand why the citizens made those choices, just like I understand why people in the West go for drugs today.
But the big difference is what Niall points out, is that the Russians were so cynical. They all new that they were being lied to. In our current society, many people believe the lies. That is a fundamental difference.
So, are we the new Soviets? In many ways, no. In other ways even more so.
I could write a whole book on it, and some day I may do so, but others probably have even better stories to tell. It is a window in history that is not to well documented, though.
@henrikg1388 WOW! Reading about your experience is like another flavour of what's happening here now.
Write the story!
@@penelopehill9710 Thanks. Perhaps I will.
I found this a very concerning video, so i did a little research, and my conclusion is that these high level graphs with little detail are quite misleading. Niall has drawn some pretty dramatic conclusions based on his graph of "deaths of despair" and this seems to be the central data point he uses. I think that there are 2 very large problems with this.
- Suicide rates in the US increased between 2000-2018 (~37%), however have been steady since then (6 years) and are not appreciably increased over the long term and can the 2000-2018 increase can also be broadly correlated with increased gun ownership over this period.
- Opioid deaths have contributed almost totally to the increased deaths and this can be almost completely explained by the overprescription of opioids and subsequent rise of fentanyl which increased the lethality of the opioids by a significant amount. This story is much more complex than alcohol related deaths in USSR, and is arguably more of a medical emergency than a measure of societal collapse.
Whether the conclusions are valid or not I have no idea, but i do find it concerning when a historian and political scientist of Niall's stature (I have read and enjoyed his books for many years) draws such conclusions based on, at best, glossed over facts, and at worst, wilfully misleading graphs.
What this reminds me of is that we are always more sceptical of statistics that dont support our narrative.
My concerns are the same.
In my experience, negative outlook on life comes before gun-related suicides + opioid addiction. I have never seen or heard about, neither can I fathom the possibility of, somebody becoming addicting or mistakenly shooting themselves when they have a positive outlook on life/society, when they have a stable/trusting community, or when they are actively pursuing passionate jobs/hobbies. It just doesn't happen. Nobody wants to escape a good life (unless they have internalized trauma from their childhood, which just describes another society-level problem)
Regardless, the fact this story rings true for so many (other) people says more of its underlying truth than statistics will ever need to back up
Not taking into account the role the Republican party has also played in all this, makes an otherwise interesting talk difficult to take seriously.
Amen
Wow, Peter, you are a funny guy. Because the blame game is not played politically correct - there is no problem. You should enjoy yourself, it is later than you think.
@@paulvanzyl1862 I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Was this translated from another language?
@@PeterAllen09 Looks like it is originally Chinese based on the sentence structure. Reminds me a lot of the NYT comment section during the hong kong protests
@@krazoe6258 Could be. I'm still not sure of the point of the comment. Is it critical? Is it suggesting it's too late to worry about any of this, so just have fun? Seems darkly optimistic
Wow! What an excellent presentation of a dire situation. One that we must face head-on and not back down.
Yes. More Green policies!
@@trackdusty 🤣😂😆
Very interesting. I know a few Canadians and Aussies who seem to think we need to rely on the US to save everyone in the West, and it really grinds my gears. We can look at them for information just like with anyone else (such as in this case here), but we need to be taking responsibility for our own stuff to improve our countries. Just cos the US is the most influential and powerful Western nation doesn't mean we need to be like them, or that we're absolved of responsibility for our own people.
Ahh yes, but don't you know that the US effectively owns your country? We've signed treaties, compacts, and accords. We couldn't go our own way, even if we tried. I think Whitlam found out the hard way, didn't he?
The US was founded with a purpose of maximum freedom without government/authority interference.
Now we all know it was not perfect as not everyone was free to start, but they got there at a heavy cost.
It should also be said the WW2 and the nuclear era radically changed the US. Its limitations on government were thrown out the window and the creation of various security and intelligence agencies has definitely had a negative effect on the country. Despite the patriotism of its people and an ever readiness to defend it.
I often say that the US kind of copied Nazi Germany with its various agencies that were created in the madness of the 1920’s-30’s with the creation of the CIA etc in the post war era.
@@danielpye7738that is exactly how it happened! you just start following the threads of todays America and its government back through time and you find 90% fall right into what you just said!!
Well it's a good sentiment but the professor left out some rather important things that you may or may not have known about. USD is global reserve currency. For now. This has profound implications across areas you wouldn't even think about. If you were to try and rely on yourself and go your own way, kind of forge your own path so to speak, Washington would quickly put you back inline. They are actively intent on being a global hegemonic power that controls everything and everyone. Gaddafi wanted to trade outside of the USD and even proposed a singular African only currency. Look what happened to that. They would do the same to you if you tried this. And the practical limitations of you walking your own way are things like having to hold USD in reserve so you can buy oil or other commodities. I don't know how this ends but Washington has become a cancer on the rest of the world unfortunately and one that might kill us all ultimately. Or we might survive but we have basically enabled them to be the hegemonic power they are. There is a lesson in that I think.
Canadá Carries water for usa .. they know darn well usa does not view any ally as a peer
That 20-minute talk explains just about everything going on in the US today politically. Excellent, professor Ferguson.
Not just politically but economically, socially and legally as well. The US led West is indeed less liberal in all aspects than the USSR ever were. This is most prominent is how they treat and deal with the rest of the global community, where the democratic values which it claimed to abide by were thrown out the window at its whims and fancies.
I think he is overestimating some particular evidence - like question of age. Does he want us to believe that younger presidents and PM like mr Trudeau and mr Macron shall realy make good change? Many nations now afford for experiments with younger gavernors because they feel secured by USA
The same with mlitary expenses - opposite to bliefs these expenses fall down due to differnt approach - high tech electronic and software spared expenses for building advantage over enemy with hugh number of military - one rocket, dron can do what for one jet does , one jet stands for 10 in IIWW , one aircarrier for many ships, one soldier for few Every piece of arms requieres constant maintenance the same as paying to keep big army readiness - these costs could be reduced now.and funds could support loans.
But its happening not only in the USA !!!!
@@somozasitrue....in many ways, Canada is leading the way, sadly.
@stephenlock7236 as a veteran of the Cold War, I am often struck by this. I put on a uniform in 1972 to defend a Christian republic from an atheistic super power. Today I live in the atheistic globalist superpower.
Niall is absolutely correct. I was in the USSR at that time and can confirm every word of this speech. Living in Australia now and watching the daily news brings a strong sense of déjà vu. It’s not yet at the scale it was in the USSR, but the patterns are clearly emerging.
We’re seeing an untrusted government relying on 'experts' seemingly chosen without a basis, a treasurer lacking formal economic education, government projects riddled with budget 'black holes,' and little hope for recovery anytime soon. It’s disheartening… We need change before it’s too late.
Nonsense
Both countries suffer from the same problem. Neither "American dream" nor communism are achievable but people fell for that promise and hence the disparity. If they were so easily duped who is to blame??
Oh and impatience is also a problem. Everybody needs a new iwatch and a big screen TV even though 100 years nobody had a running hot water.
Yes, in many ways. Corporatization is a principal reason. For example, in 1983, I visited the Soviet Union. I noticed, when I went to a gift shop, how the clerk didn’t care a bit about customer service; she was going to get paid regardless of how she treated me; unlike with small businesses, she was not going to lose her job if she treated me poorly. As big box retailers replaced small businesses in the United States, employees didn’t have accountability and incentive like they used to with mom and pop shops. In general, employees just don’t seem to care. Just one way we’ve become like the USSR. The mass surveillance in abrogation of the 4th amendment would make the Stasi envious. The attacks on the 1st, 2nd and 5th amendments and the culture of censorship are other symptoms. There’s much more.
Good ole' 2nd amendment: It keeps those kindergarten teachers on their toes.
Do tell us what you have done to make the world a better place.
In USSR we did not have small businesses, neither we had any training for sales ppl what so ever. I am from USSR and talking from experience. The words customer service was not even known to Soviet Union population, you are one American naïveté LOL. Although we had fair markets that were popular in USSR, because these ppl had their very very small personal farms and could sell some food products that we would not be able to buy in stores, but I don't remember there was "customer service". Ppl who sold their products just were more amiable then in gov controled stores, because they depended on their sale, and you would be able to get something cheaper from or another, because they would sell you for "competitive" prices, but that was the only thing about "competition". But I am sure these "farmers" had to pay to gov high % may be 97 or higher of their earnings never the less.
You are perfectly right. I was thinking about a parallel between large neo-communist corporations and the old comunist enterprises. This similarity is shocking. I can tell from perso al experience living under brutal dictatorship of Ceausescu in Romania.
@@jjhporI conscientiously raise a family, practice law, participate in community organizations like Bar associations, try to keep informed… Other than apparently being triggered by my mention of the 2nd Amendment, you?
@@krasavam1625it’s not naïveté. I kind of think you missed the point. By the way, both my parents and many, many members of my family and community were from the Soviet Union, including from pre-WWII days. I have a little bit of insight.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury.'' Alexander Tytler.....another bleeping Scot!
Elites know that too. that's why they push all this "identity" agenda. "faction to liberty is like air to fire" James Madison, Federalist 10
In our case, it is the educational establishment that has betrayed us the most. But of course the biggest fools are the professors. They long ago lost control of their institutions.
If only
Maybe, but most of the democratic institutions have been compromised by corporations. Most people don't want to vote for wars, and presidents say they will not go to war then go back on their promises.
“Democracy is the road to socialism “
~ Karl Marx
Exceptional! As a psychiatrist in the US, I've observed the decline and increasing despair for the last 20-plus years. Urgent social reorganization and pro-social measures can reverse these trends.
And the first item on your list of evidence-based measures is...?
@@alan2102X ...to ask you which item on YOUR list of evidence-based measures actually works 😉
@@alan2102X giving people hope.
Easy! Stop the enormous money transfers from poor to rich, stop the WEF policies. An egalitarian society with little difference in earnings between professions and all basic services like water, energy, public transportation, health care, pharmaceuticals, etc in hands of the state with a severe public control on people in power and their purse.
"Urgent social reorganization and pro-social measures can reverse these trends."
Not going to happen so long as the current political establishment retains its grip on power and its grip on the narrative. One thing Ferguson neglected to mention is that while the Democratic Party may hold a monopoly over the US' academic and media establishment, the Republican Party is happy to play along so long as they get their fair share of the plunder.
Thank you Niall. Well thought out and spoken!
Niall plays both sides of the Fence - 20 years ago he was championing DEI in US Universities while feathering his nest there. The winds must be changing!
@@frankyyaggabot6222 Thanks for that. I didn't know, but his interesting facts followed by weird Trump-is-different conclusion made me suspect his motives.
I have 2 words for Mr Ferguson:
"Fox News"
I am not American. But I like to follow their news. It doesn't look to me that the Dems control 95% of the media.
This whole thesis started off intriguing, but then it went weird and unconvincing. In t😢he end I think that it says more about the speaker's opinions than about the world.
100%
Yea...it's full of crap. Literally. Just read some comments, it's half filled with russian talking points and conservative doom and gloom victimization glorifying the past and making ludicrous analogies about how it feels like late stage soviet union in the west.... this is a political monologue.
So, every single media is democratic except Twitter and Fox News, and you're saying he's lying?
@@sebsebski2829 Fox News is the biggest news network by ratings. It’s huge. Twitter is completely in the bag for the right wing. Huge audiences follow the biggest online personalities (which lean right). The idea that DEMs control the media landscape is laughable. If anything, the right wing is now the mainstream media.
A compelling and vital speech. Everything I expected from Niall Ferguson and better.
I’m watching Ferguson on UA-cam…
Not all social media is lost…
UA-cam removes "right wing" comments constantly using AI. We have no insight into what is widely said.
Not to mention YT videos and self censorship. A crime documentary about a serial r-word-ist, muted every time the offence is mentioned. And so on.
The Iron curtain is there, waiting.
Until they realize it, then shadow ban it ...
Humans have 15 years of childhood 15 years of of youth 15 years of adulthood 15 years of getting old 15 years of being old if you go past this it’s slow dying for 15 years and that’s that.
Geez, when phrased like that, go out and live life each day!!
For the 15 years of childhood understanding your duties and how Love alone is the binding of it all together. 15 years of laying the foundation of your adult life with the knowledge of your duties and love. 15 years of passing on to the next generation. 15 years of harvest of your work. 15 years of allowing others to share your harvest instead of hoarding it .15 years of allowing death to come instead of fighting to hold onto a life that is already passed by accepting all sorts of treatments to extend the suffering that living passed a certain age will inevitably be.
Capitalism has almost consumed itself. We now have Oligarchy, the politics is almost irrelevant😢
It's government that is the problem. Government is nothing to do with capitalism.
@@Siegetower Nonsense. Government is just one of life's necessities. It can be good or bad. To live together with other people in a house, we need to make agreements that meet our needs, negotiate, make rules, acquire and distribute income, do the accounts - that's "government". The problem is that most governments are now corrupted by insanely rich corporations and their shareholders. Politicians line up "jobs" and pensions through collusion with big business, so their politics is just a show and democracy as a whole becomes a sham.
@@Siegetower Governments are paid or puppeteered by capitalists to make politics which is best suited for interests of big businesses.
@@Siegetower Government has plenty to do with capitalism just like the monarchy's role in the British Empire.
@@SiegetowerReagan. Don't be the guy that can't understand that capitalist interest manipulates government.
Starts interestingly, but goes off the rails a bit when the democratic party in the US is apparently to blame. In my lifetime they've held the minority of administrations.
What??
Democratic party has allowed an open border and helps let in fentanyl in record numbers across the border. Democrats controlled the executive branch for 12 of the last 16 years. Even when Trump was president, the democrats did everything to sabotage him.
Well done 👍🏾! Informative & Timely. And, yes, he correctly predicted the next US President.
Sobering and refreshing. Thank you for sharing! This type of analysis is deliberately not seen in any, ANY, MSM channels in Australia, especially the ABC so it's wonderful to see, yet again, alternative media spaces leading the way to bring about a more enlightened perspective on world events.
The US, Australian, etc governments working very hard to shut down the "alternative media spaces".
(And perhaps you should consider what punctuated evolution has done for life on Earth...)
Thank you. An important speech
Love it when he starts talking about Scotland... he starts reverting back to his Scottish accent :)
He always speaks with a Scottish accent. His natural speaking accent is Kelvinside Glasgow accent. When he’s speaking about Scotland he can easily switch it to broader Glaswegian
Yes, I noticed that.
Barrie Gadgie
Maybe that's where Kamala got her inspiration?!!
Ferguson more Glaswegian than "Scottish" tbh.
He’s tremendous. Totally gets it!
Ferguson is slightly wrong with his bit about the declining life expectancy in the later years of the Soviet Union. He says that it was at its worst during the 1970/80ies, but the chart clearly shows that it was much, much worse in the mid 1990ies when the USSR didn't exist anymore. That's when Russia went though an enormous economic crisis after becoming capitalist, the average Russian was piss poor and turned to alcohol with disastrous results.
Since he used that graph of alcohol consumption is he implicitly suggesting that the solution is to entice Russian President Putin to be the American President? Since there is a clear correlation between the term of Putin with significant and steady declines to an acceptable level of alcohol consumption.
😂😂
He’s not a good historian; very biased to the right
His "deaths of despair" graphs were also misleading - the "cumulative deaths" was designed to look like it was getting worse when it was staying stable, and the historical graphs showed that it was drug deaths that skyrocketed, not suicides or alcohol-related deaths, which stayed pretty stable.
But he was not wrong because he was talking about the Soviet Union which ended in 1991. Russia came later.
This is true.
I trust ARC.
It is common sense.
Who trusts the WEF?
Is there somewhere in the speech he talks about the WEF? Minutes and seconds if you have it
@@ML6103 Phobia alert - The OP made a statement and posted a question he did not state the reference was in the speech, your diversion is disappointing and a shallow response.
Justin trudeau.
Brilliant. Thank you for a wonderful talk.
Important arguments for perspective taking. However, the Democratic party is not the only part of the elite that has lost contact with reality and with the experience of vast portions of the population. Large corporations pursued their radical outsourcing that rapidly destroyed manufacturing under a political framework supported by both parties. Right-wing media like the Sinclair Corporation destroyed the local media that had connected to people's experience. Both parties were and are heavily influenced by massive corporate interest whose influence was bolstered by legislative and juridical maneuvers of the Republican party. The Republican party fell first under the onslaught of Trump populism, but it hs continued to pursue this agenda even as it pretends to serve a new cause (just look at the tax cuts that accelerated the deficits). This is not just important for political judgement, but also when looking at how things can be changed. Electing the other party definitely fixes nothing.
Democrat party and its ideological brethren all over the west own and control 95% of world's media (newspapers,radio,tv,magazines,websites) ,98% of education,majority of investment funds and Big Business but you're still trying to equate the guilt?
You've lost the plot completely.
Thank god someone here has some perspective.
You obviously didn't absorb the presentation what part of gerontocracy, elite and largess did you not get? The corporations are their for their handouts just like the rest of the people who think the government owes them something ( preferably for free). Your bias is showing. The Internet and soft budget inflation destroyed local media.
Hollywood and the lamestream media have also lost touch with reality.
@gregorschoner9682 both parties are not alike. Some Republicans shift to the left as a way to get some of their constituents' needs met.
really good analysis I feel there.
The problem of old people in the leadership is one thing. The maybe more striking similarity with soviet times, is that old people had all the money, being a pensioner was the best position in the soviet society. Meanwhile the regular worker was getting very little for his efforts, working hard was not rewarded. Just like in the west today, working hard on the lower ladders of society, hardly gives you any more reward than being on welfare. Not a sustainable system in the long run as the money must come from somewhere, and it surely is not coming from all these people doing nothing.
TL:DR "Scottish man invents a clickbait title and overlooks massive differences between the USSR and the USA to provide a shaky framework for a bunch of statistical data and comparing the Democratic party to the Soviet elites"
Seriously, I have no idea who this guy is, but that was weak
I comes from rich people borrowing money from the banks. Most of them do nothing except tell others to do something for them and work hard. It's sustainable as long as people are fine with it and accept that money for their work.
@@q1q2q23 The idea is not even his. Adam Curtis was already drawing the parallel on the cynicism and colapse of belief in the system back in 2021.
Ha-ha-ha! 20 years ago or so, I was arguing that USA is the same as USSR with some minor variations. I knew USSR very well at the time, as I was born and raised in it, and also experienced its collapse from inside. I didn't know USA that well, but as I was learning about it, I was discovering that it is more and more look like a mirror picture of USSR. You know when you flip the video you watch it normally until some writing appears and only then you see it was flipped. That is how similar USSR to USA were then to me. Now I hear this lecturer... well... what can I say - it took some time for you to realize. I wonder if you will be able to realize what is next for USA, or do you need me to tell you?
Luke, I am your father.
They will never be like USSR, never. They think, they heard about it on TV but they still have no idea.
The Soviet Union built 168 million free apartments for its population in 1962( rememberin was just 7 years after the WW2), and built 2 million free housing every year.
Kindergartens, schools, universities, holiday trips for children were free, everything was paid for by the state. Low crime, everyone had a job, there were no homeless people or poor people lying on the street. Any citizen of the country could choose between living in the city or outside the city, buy a house with land and grow vegetables, fruits and keep pets.
Ow, the transport. It's still the best in the world. It was with USSR, now with Russia. You don't need a car, it's cheaper to move around by bus, train, or metro. Medical care was free as well, any hospitalization, surgery, dental care...
What did they get for free in their capitalists countries ???
Capitalists without capital?
I got my masters degree for free, and during USSR the government paid me to study.
@@monaliza3334 You are eitherdreaming, or you are lying. I was born and raised in Soviet Siberia. I have first hand experience of all these wonders you describe. It was all a lie, unfortunately. The rapid economic growth of the USSR has been achieved at unaffordable cost to the people and the nature. We lost pretty much the entire population of peasants and villagers during the initial phase of industrialization, then again during the war, then again during post-war "recovery". The dream for a few was a nightmare for many. I was one of those many, and so were my poor parents, and their parents. So please, tell the story of "great achievements of the USSR" to somebody else. I have seen what it really was myself. I still remember the number of my Komsomol Member ID. That is how good the memory of it still is in me. No need for a secondary witness, sorry.
@@AlexthunderGnumthis is a word for word comment she made on another channel,
'Solgenizin was selling his books for $$$. MOST OF IT IS BS AND pure lies. Traitor for money...This guy was too young to know anything about USSR. haha...but he's ok for gullible western ppl'.
Yeh, she's lying.
@@monaliza3334 So what you're saying is that you were part of the rich upper class that got everything handed to them at the expense of the poor, at the expense of the lives of your slaves. How virtuous of you.
Yes the west are the Soviets now have been seeing this since 2016. I have been to Russia and over the years witnessed the changes.
and China is the US now
ooop sorry bud just need to help you clarify one thing here. the democrats of the west. dont lump us libertarians and republicans in with the crazies please. :)
@@alanunruh7310 Democrats and Republicans are two cheeks of the same butt. They have exactly the same economic and foreign policy and are funded by the exact same people and institutions.
Look at Trump and Harris. One is funded by Blackrock the other is funded by Blackstone. One is funded By Multi Billionaire Elon Musk, the other is funded by Multi Billionaire Bill Gates. Both are funded by AIPAC, the MIC (Military Industrial Complex), Wall street, Silicon valley.
None are there to represent the working class and the interests of the American average Joe and Joanne. They are both there to maintain and protect the social economic status quo where the richer keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.
So to distract Americans and to pretend they are different they both found two particular socially divisive issues. One if illegal immigration, the other one is abortion. None of which will affect the living standards and well being of Americans or tackle to real issue tackling Americans. Unequal wealth inequality, unaffordability of homes, education, health care and lowering living standards for Americans and the growing gap between rich and poor and American flawed foreign policy.
I was there just after the end of the Soviets in 1995, and it was depressed. It has been completely revived by Putin in 24 years. A miracle of good management and strong leadership. And this has angered the US, who were convinced they had destroyed it, and keep trying.
@@bernielamy5135😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
A brilliant talk! From a brilliant mind.
He almost had it. It's not democrat or Republican.
They are the same thing
the problem is us, kanada, britain never had bolshevic revolucion. its time for people to rise against opresors but i doubt it will happen. so the hegemon wil colapse because it lost its connection with the mases. the propanda is not enough to keep the power and the unjustice. it will colapse under ist waight as real democrscy and real priosperity is spread around the world lead by its oponents.
So true! Amazing presentation and interesting views.
I have a Ford Falcon, a leather jacket, a cattle dog and I am ready for the Western Apocalypse.
Do you have a Mullet?
@@Johnconno Mad Max reference so i doubt it
What about the feral kid? ;)@@subaruadventures
No one is ready for an apocalypse.
@@davianoinglesias5030 You're absolutely right. Not even a small one.
I am going to save you some time "Are we the Soviets now?" - Yes we are. BTW, I was born in USSR and live in Australia now.
you can return to Russia (or in countries like to Kazakhstan if you prefer it more). You know there are australians (and not just australians) who did that.
@@sergeypavlov9488 Really? Dang, it's so cold there.
Australia did get crazy- nutty during Covid.
It sounded awful.
So.. what about Australia feels anything like the USSR?. The USSR in the 1980's was running a defense budget roughly 1/3 the size of the economy, or more. This is the opposite of what Niall just described, so he's kind of being self serving here.
@@PolarExpress_11-10 Capitalist exploitation makes it impossible for the working class to reproduce itself in the advanced capitalist countries which now rely on immigration to be the next generation of workers.
@@serpentines6356 Perth did not go "crazy"
We co operated with health authorities, and we hardly had any cases.
Your take on thinkgs is not connected to reality, and the people that said "we won't be dictated to by our government"... and spread COVID because they could.... had the highest death rates.
Most of the resistance came from jelly brains, eating propaganda from our enemies.
. Great presentation....Nothing like a cold hard dose of reality.
A truly excellent expose of the awful situation, the proff is going to get CANCELED , he tell the truth , they wont have that.
Another Great Scotsman ❤
I wonder how many ordinary citizens can see this. I feel many intuitively know something isnt right, but are too crushed by debt and distractions to give it the necessary thought
That's always been very much my thoughts. People know something is wrong but can't figure it out. When you're a slave to the system, all you want to do is come home from work and turn on the TV, and therein lies the problem. It's another advantageous by-product to those who rule over us.
@paul756uk2 well said
In that case you'll end up voting for the right candidate
Niall has clearly read the book "Late Soviet Britain: Why Materialist Utopias Fail", by Abby Innes of the LSE. We are in that place and condition.
Brilliant and Brutally honest ✌️💪🙏
MSM in USA is bought and owned, as is congress, by AIPAC. No one in the USA has the foggiest idea about what is going in Gaza. l wonder why?
The high levels of debt in the United States leading to high servicing costs have been incurred mainly through obscenely high tax cuts to corporations and the extremely wealthy. This is why the country is unlikely to solve the problem as these rich oligarchs have too much influence over the government.
It would have happened anyway…
Very deep and thoughtful analysis.
Please speak about the WEF the Un and WHO
All products of the USA.
No need. They are just other wings/organisations of The Party.
@@greggregson9687 There is no party just asset managers.That is how capitalism works.
'please confirm my conspiracy theories for me please please please I need it'
Niall steps out and back in w the Davos crowd..
Great speech. Very revealing and thought provoking. Let’s hope people left the hall with a serious concern of what happens if they don’t actively contribute to making things better and the will to do so, rather than the easier thing to do - smile and reassure each other in the car on the way home that “it wont happen here…”
Outstanding presentation, thankyou
Thank you Niall outstanding presentation, well spoken ( like G. Gibbon )
The problem is that economic growth has concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, leaving people demoralized. Average people do not benefit from outsourcing, selling off public services, fake currency and mass unskilled immigration.
And Niall did not address a single one of these *_real_* issues! He is deflecting people from the real issues in order to push an Establishment narrative (yet again).
Ferguson has bigger fish to fry, like people with blue hairs in academia.
The reason that we as American non elites are feeling dispare is because we believed in the greatness of America and the American dream and now we see that something has went horribly wrong in our country.
America no longer is based on the fundamental values that we were taught to believe.
What do you do, as a USSR or USA citizen, when you have to accept that you were sold the lie of exceptionallism to keep you working hard.
The difference in attitude between the USA and most other western countries is that the USA was the dominant power after WW2 so we believed that we were the greatest society. Now we are losing that belief. People in other countries are more accepting of the wrongness of the modern paradigm.
When I look at GB, Canada, and Australia, I see a people that have little control over the insanity that is government policy and those people accept their fate or are brutally punised for any true resistance.
Examining our government efforts to do good, I see that government seems to try. But, the costs of government implementation of the good, are more than the benefits received. The man in the middle takes the profits of our services and works.
Comparing NASA to SpaceX shows the ineffectiveness of our bureaucracy in spending our money wisely and accomplishing goals in a timely and efficient way.
(Not to say SpaceX is a model of perfection on caring for their people. But, they do get results.)
Just gloss over space x treatment of its people. I would put this ahead of efficiency
@jasonburder3963 True statement.
From what I hear SpaceX is a grueling task master.
I wish there was a happy medium between the ultimate in productivity and providing a sustainable work load.
My wife works at a hotel. It was owned by an American company and had good benefits. They weren't making money so they sold the hotel to an Indian who cut the staff by 50% and provides 0% benefits. Both situations suck for someone 🤔
I like to listen to Ferguson and have read most of his books but I always take a deep breath when a man educated at Cambridge with a Phd from Oxford who is a Fellow at Stanford sneers at "Ivy League elites"
Niall has fingers in many pots. Not bad for a Davos man..
Is that the covid lunatic?
To me, the sharing of a valid perception, that the long march of Neo-marxism through the American institutions has been completed is not sneering at all but akin to saying, all our streams are polluted or all the air in our large cities is contaminated. He and I were both educated in wonderful institutions which were elite and enriching and ennobling human life and culture before this rot set in.
This man was brought up in the hell that was Glasgow Scotland at the time. I’m Scottish so I know how hideous that was.
It's also why he talks about climate change policy but not tax policy. The wealthiest contribute nothing- or as little as possible which is almost nothing- to society. That is the single reason for all our problems and why we have a declining standard of living and far more alienation in a country as fantastically wealthy as Australia: wealth that only has to be dug up and sold.
Just looking at the chart showing the political leaning of academia, I would say that we are doomed, because if you can't have diversity of thought in the sciences then differing opinions are not allowed, and it doesn't matter which side of politics holds sway. The same is happening right across the western world including my much beloved homeland of Australia.
Perhaps educated people know more.
@@malcolmmyself9653 yes. They also consume more propaganda & can be much more gullible, especially when the propaganda comes from a source with authority.
@@malcolmmyself9653 Just because you know more does not mean you are smarter, or more deserving of deciding for other people. An academic degree used to mean that you made the academic way of critical thinking your own. What you studied didn't matter so much, most never ended up in their field of study anyway. But an employer knew that he could hire an university graduate on a mid level position and with only minimal tutelage they would be able to do their job. Not any more. Because critical thinking is now frowned upon, you must become part of the cult and think the same way. Academia has become an indoctrination facility. And I work there, I see it happen.
@@robknight9406 More gullible???? So I should uneducate myself so that I am not gullible? Dumb down enough to agree with you?
Political values are not diversity. That concept describes ascribed traits like race, gender, and sexuality.
Good to hear that someone is waking up
Brilliant video. Thanks 👍🏼
Social trust is dropping across the board. Including middle class, which is a backbone of society. Cannabis legalized, and now other drugs on the table, to dumbed down the population
Drugs are not to dumb them down, that has already been done as evidenced by your comment.
They are there to distract, bread and circuses.
Absolutely outstanding.
Excellent listen, thankyou.
As a former Soviet citizen, I 100% agree that the US became the USSR 2.0
Not 2.0 but cosplay 😂
We still have freedom and the option to make what we want of our lives.
@@yidiandianpang trump says. Hold my beer.
Elements of truth to it hypernationalism
@@ulfosterberg9116Biden and Obama said hold my keg!! They definitely are the Soviets.
Hello from Russia. I can confirm the professor's words. I was born during the collapse of the USSR. As a child, I heard what happened to the country and I was told that corrupt politicians had ruined it while sitting in a bathhouse. However, it was only at the institute, studying the history of economics and top management, that I realized that this was a systemic problem and most of the problem was precisely the human factor: not competent people in their places, matchmaking, terrible management from there, corruption, etc. and all this could have been avoided if all the rules and laws (and they were strict and regulated) were executed and adjusted appropriately. At the moment, having already visited many countries in Europe and Asia, including Australia, I see systematic problems of the same nature both in private business and in the public sector. Best wishes from Russia, where this problem is being solved radically.
I really hope and pray Donny boy gets to listen to all of this. I am Australian and I realise that US politics affects the whole world. Our government are pretty much the same ( Albo is no where near understanding what’s going on)
All democracies that I am aware of seem to have fallen into the trap of demanding from their representatives quick fixes to long term problems without the voters having to experience any short term inconvenience. This attitude is fodder for demagogues and the world seems to be awash in them.
Agree but I would Kamala in the same category
@@glenjones182 She's WAY WAY worse than Trump.
I don’t think Donny will be getting elected after he gave the microphone stand a BJ!! LOL!
Excellent talk. Thank you
Full-on Trumper 😂
Fascinating delivery.
EVERYONE needs to see this. Please share it.
Very well said.
A bit of a beat up . I won’t be waiting from Donald and Elon to “save “ us .
Good speech Niall
One small correction - price of vodka was not subsidized in USSR, the opposite is true. Government regulated (or better to say assigned) its price to a pretty high level in comparison to the median wage.
Vodka usage in soviet economy is very interesting. It was an unofficial payment method for various services. It was a way of getting foreign cash in abroad trips (for those who went abroad). And even the Soviet Central bank used tailored supply of Vodka to control the amount of cash in a given region.
I took it as Tobacco
Brilliant!
An address to be remembered.
The virus did not kill almost anyone who was economically viable, btw
Not even those economically unviable. I was expecting (considering the large amount of tent cities and the homeless crisis which is touching most western nations) that those caught in homelessness (who generally have poor health and underlying conditions) would have been dying by the truck full.... but nope! Without Bill Gates, Fauci and the WHO, there would have been no damn pandemic. Shame small/medium business can't sue government for destroying them due to the totalitarian lockdowns.
what virus, covid ?
@@krasavam1625 the software generated genomic sequences was "covid." No pathogen ever seperated...Symptoms of existing diseases were reclassified. Virology and their sponsors in Big Pharma have been doing this for decades.
I adored Niall’s book ‘The Square and the Tower’ - this is fascinating and I appreciate it being online. Thank you!
For me his masterpiece is The Ascent of Money
Sorry Niall, but you completely ignored the most obvious issue - economic growth which exacerbates inequality inevitably leads to a collapse of social cohesion. You never mentioned inequality or the obscene accumulation of wealth by US oligarchs.
He didn't because your statement is fallacious. It's not implicitly true that economic growth makes people poorer. Economic growth makes people richer. What he mentions instead is economic mismanagement. Which is what makes people poorer: ' There is a problem and it's a problem that is masked by rapid economic growth a problem that's masked by an economy that is essentially running on fiscal and monetary steroids'. Ergo, fiscal steroids are inflationary. Infinite migration is inflationary. Inflationary pressures increase assets, suppress wages. Which are what results in the outcomes you state. Rich asset owners and poorer wage earners. What you need to have is economic growth with sound economic management. Economic contraction is not going to make inequality disappear. It will also exacerbate inequality. Because there will be less to go around and the people with power and influence will take what little is left (e.g. Zimbabwe and other failed states)
@@Rabbitthateats You misunderstand my comment. I agree with you that "it is not implicitly true that economic growth makes people poorer". My point was simply that if, the nature of the economic growth leads to greater and greater inequality, then this will inevitably lead to diminished social cohesion. I was disappointed that Niall never even considered inequality an issue worth mentioning.
Inequality is not a problem.
I don't care if someone has $1 trillion if *my* life is okay too: good healthcare, good food, a good place to live, ..., and I am allowed to try to make even more money if I want to.
It's a problem only if you DON'T want to work harder to make more money, yet you just can't stand that someone has a three-masted yacht... and you don't.
North Korea is a place where people are very close to be economically equal (by being equally dirt poor). Want to live there?
Massive and growing inequality is a problem if you wish to live in a society with a modicum of social cohesion.
However, I agree that equality on its own is no recipe for a healthy society, if most people are poor. Surely, we should be able to have a society which has economic growth, places some limits on obscene (unearned ) individual wealth and inequality, and lifts the living standards for the majority, including the poorest. You clearly do not value such an objective, which is your right. I clearly have different values. Each to their own
Mr Hearn: US oligarchs, you say.
Like the Silicon Valley Democrats? Who give overwhelmingly to Democrats, who return the favors with the only trade goods they carry: laws crafted to appear to tax the rich.
Did you not hear and not learn before Ferguson pointed it out that Democratic precincts are mostly the wealthier ones?
Of course you did. But you didn't want to. You're in a bubble that's bigger, classier, and more escape-proof than the red bubble.
Excellent presentation and very convincing.
Naill is right that the US have many similarities with the late USSR but it is not only the democrat fault in the in two party state of US.
It’s far worse, we are material for the deepest parts of hell for what we’ve allowed to happen to children. So let’s not flatter ourselves. Time to stop talking interestingly, and time to be the men that God needs us to be.
What kind of men does God need us to be? I have my views. What does that mean to you?
The men that love our enemies unto death and embody Christlike, non-grasping humility?
@@wattlebough How can you hate your views when they are probably the easiest thing about yourself to change?
I'm currently reading a biography of Ernst Junger (author of Storm of Steel) by Gebard Loose and came across this quote, not Junger's, Gebard Loose's. I find it very significant in the light of where we are now in the West.
"He who swears only by man and human wisdom, must not, as a judge, pass sentence; must not as a teacher, guide; must not as a physician, cure."
@@Raymond-d2l7n Doesn’t the Christ himself say not to swear at all, but to “…let your yes be yes, and your no be no…”?
This why we must study history. So that we can predict the future with some kind of clarity. People who don't study history are like the punter who turns up to a racetrack without a form guide.
Who were the Bolsheviks?
How many Christian Russians did they kill?
Who now controls most western governments through bribery, extortion and honey-trapping?
So you think history will help? Maybe, but recall a saying in Latin that translates roughly into "But who will guard those very same guardians?" Juvenal, Roman satirist born ~55 AD, died probably not later than 127 AD. His career overlapped that of Tacitus, for example.
The "but" is lost in most translations, despite its being the first word in a dialog line written in dactylic hexameter, a meter in which the first syllable is accented, a meter frequently used in Latin poetry of his time. "Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes."
The speaker is replying to a married man's question regarding how he can keep his wife at home during the lush Roman nights. That man's other friends have proposed watchmen, or guards, and Juvenal offers his advice as a question. Likewise, I that the history which citizens learn from today's tenured anarchists won't be one you recognize, but another, more like Lewis Carroll's.
And why the Academics of late seem to not want to teach history.
Emmanuel Todd who predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union based it on the infant mortality rates - according to him, the US is on the same path, hence another similarity.
Brilliant analysis and insight. Take note we have been warned. Time to take back our future.
Excellent ❤
Good point, especially on the matter of connexion between academia and US Democrats.
For one is at times reminded of comments by former ministers of social democratic type governments in Continental Europe, to this effect:
‘All the (sic)worker's parties of Europe now care more about Palestine than the proletariat, more about migrants than manufacturing, and more about homosexuals than housing’.
There would likely be a similar story on the matter of Labour in UK and Australia, et al.
Obvious for decades but beware the Messenger who only lately has started singing this song for his supper: Niall played Academic games for decades. He massaged his way through Universities by bowing and scraping, by advancing the careers of Academics that were of the right 'type' and allowing History to be distorted and falsified. The man has a personal history of his own that is far from distinguished. That he elected to butter his bread at the expense of his own field of endeavour tells you everything you need to know about his principles. I would wager this is a paid performance and he adjusts his cadence and message for his Paymasters. Trust him at your peril.
@@frankyyaggabot6222 Good point there.
One does certainly need to keep the powder dry.
Been asking that myself lately, love UA-cam
Не сравнивайте советы и Америку, в СССР у нас было бесплатное образование, медицина, садики и школы. Все были равны, одна оплата труда , давали бесплатные квартиры… были и минусы, конечно! Но мы были счастливы))) ели в были богатыми, да! Но где по другому???? У нас алигархи, у вас бизнесмены и корпорации
Советский Союз не был злом, мы не нападали и санкциями никого не гнобили.
Всем добра🙏❤️
Where was Niall Ferguson when we needed him most, namely during 2020!
What a brilliant and fascinating presentation from a brilliant and fascinating man.
So the historical problem stems from debt slavery. Having private bankers issue and control the currency supply of a country. And to who the nation pays interest.
There is a spiritual malaise in Western style democracies, but Ferguson fails to identify the cause and has no particular solutions. Neoliberal economic political ideology heralded the era of thoughtless greed by corporate boards who only have a duty to rapacious shareholders. The USA and UK have been one party states since Thatcher and Reagan. The political pendulum has shifted inexorably to the right. All the capital, technology, expertise and skilled jobs were sent to the cheapest sources of production in authoritarian states which are inimical to democracy, rule of law, individual freedoms. China, Russia and other similar regimes are actively trying to supplant the USA and a rules based order. People have lost faith not because of the Democrats, the Republicans, like the British Conservatives ARE the wealth. The public have lost faith because their leaders have become the bought creatures of billionaire oligarchs and there is little honour, integrity or honesty in the governing system. Leadership is missing.
Someone has been reading to many progressive blogs. The democracy of the united states became a patronage system doling out grants, welfare, government jobs, and subsidies as a method of controlling the voter base. As Ferguson shows in this video the richest counties in the USA vote blue. Our growth has been through "stimulus" given to those loyal to the regime to keep them loyal. Now the left is in favor of unending wars, giving tax dollars to multinational drug companies, and against striking railroad workers. A total inversion happened and you don't see it.
Love this guy, and his incredibly courageous wife too. These incredibly smart people are just a few of the strongly emerging voices of reason that with increasing confidence I feel are wrestling back the ship’s wheel and taking us to calmer waters.
and what was the "different direction" or "corrective change in course" that you heard Niall and his ARC fellows advocate?
Niall has the courage to tell the brutal truth. Facts are bitter. A civil society should encourage and value the family unit where there’s a male father, a female mother and children.
My favourite historian - Niall Ferguson
Looking at the numpties that we have in UK politics with zero life experience, I would far rather have people that are old than inexperienced.
In Britain you'll get old and inexperienced by your reasoning.
When I tell my friends in Poland what is happening in America they look at me like I'm crazy, totally crazy
In Poland most people believe and live in insecurity, superstition and myths from 70s/80s/90s about America and the west. They still think America is that land where everything is made of gold. Most people’s thinking simply hasn’t evolved since then and the media is making sure it never will. But the truth is Poland is now a much nicer place in so many aspects than the west but unfortunately stupid people can’t see and appreciate it. It will be a perfect place to live in once the purchasing power of the money goes a little bit higher and people chill out more, start appreciating what they’ve got and stop complaining about every little thing.
So heartening to hear such coherent and intelligent assessment of the unravelling of social and other systems that do not work.....
During the Cold War, America was seen as a symbol of hope, justice, and freedom, supporting liberation worldwide. Today, however, many feel it has lost its way, with actions viewed as bullying and destructive. Now, Russia and China represent a multipolar world, bringing stability that the world increasingly welcomes.
It was all downhill after they killed Kennedy. And he they are again with "lone gunmen"...
Great speech!