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Over-Determination


La ilaha illa allahu. - (There is no God but God) (- ash hadu Allah illa allahu wa ash hadu anna Muhammad (SAW) abdoolu wa-rassoolu (I bear witness))


the question Caden asked is how did I

0:38 come to think that way and I'm going to

0:41 answer that but I want to start by

0:43 making sure

0:45 we are kind of all on the same page

0:47 about what this is

0:50 and and here's how it is explained at

0:53 least the best I can do on a basic level

0:58 one way to think about how and why

1:00 things happen in the world

1:03 is to use the notion of cause and effect

1:08 anything that happens why you chose a

1:11 red sweater to wear today or why

1:14 interest rates are going up or why there

1:16 was a Civil War in the United States

1:19 back in the 19th century whatever the

1:21 question the object of your question the

1:24 topic

1:25 you can ask and most people feel

1:28 comfortable what was the cause

1:31 of that event

1:33 and by that you both mostly mean what

1:37 were the main things that brought it

1:40 about what was happening in your head

1:43 that made you choose a red sweater you

1:46 know maybe you saw a film the other day

1:48 that really moved you and the characters

1:50 were wearing red and you were kind of

1:53 wanting to identify with them or with

1:56 the Civil War you might say the struggle

1:59 over slavery here in the United States

2:01 was the cause that then erupted in a war

2:06 in other words you look for one or two

2:10 or three major factors major causes in

2:15 philosophy we we say the determinants

2:19 what determined that you would wear a

2:22 red sweater what determined that a civil

2:25 war would happen

2:27 that way of reasoning is so common that

2:31 for an awful lot of people it seems

2:35 simply natural normal the way everybody

2:39 always thought the way you should think

2:43 but it isn't any of those things it's

2:46 not normal it's not natural and it

2:49 surely hasn't been the only way

2:52 for thousands of years people who are

2:55 interested in how things work in the

2:59 world

3:01 people who are sometimes called

3:04 ontologists how does the world work

3:08 how do we know how the world Works

3:10 people like that usually philosophers of

3:13 one kind or another

3:15 they have asked their questions and they

3:18 have figured out among many important

3:20 things

3:21 that there are other ways to look at the

3:25 world that cause an effect

3:27 and one of the most important in my mind

3:31 has been the one that got the name over

3:34 determination and the idea there was

3:37 that things that happen are never the

3:41 result of one or two or three causes

3:45 they're always the result

3:48 of all the other things going on in the

3:52 world

3:53 and that things to be explained if

3:57 you're really going to explain why

4:00 something happened whether it's your

4:02 choice of the red sweater

4:04 or of the Civil War you're going to have

4:08 to look at all of the causes and there

4:13 are get ready millions of them in fact

4:16 in philosophy we say the causes of

4:19 everything that happens are infinite in

4:22 number


This has been(?) always the Muslim understanding of things - at least from what I've learned and know...nothing happens per chance but Allah is in control

--------------------------



Russia Kherson Offensive; Putin Rejects Globalism, Fair World System, Warns of Great Dangers Ahead Alexander Mercouris 124K views 23 hours ago (10/28/22)



but anyway let's get on with Putin's speech and this is

14:37 delivered to the valdoi group this is a meeting that takes place every year

14:44 bringing together various um

14:49 intellectuals heavyweights foreign policy experts that sort of thing it's

14:55 it's a place where the Russian leadership meets and discusses the broad

15:00 range of foreign economic and such policies and some

15:07 people have compared it with Davos and the meeting of the wef at

15:14 Davos they say that it's a kind of Russian equivalent to Davos well perhaps

15:21 it is certainly the Russian greater the good do tend to meet at valdi but

15:26 regardless of that there is usually in fact There is almost always a big speech

15:32 from Putin at this conference and

15:37 we got such a speech this time and it should be understood in my opinion

15:46 as the last

15:52 in the sequence of speeches which Putin has been making which extend

15:59 all the way back to that speech he made in 2007 at the Munich security

16:05 conference in which he first criticized the unipolar system the

16:12 um Global dominance of the United States and said that this was something that

16:19 was dangerous and wrong and of course since making that speech in 2007 Putin's

16:26 language has steadily strengthened he's now become an outright critic of

16:32 globalization of the American hegemonic system as he describes it of the

16:40 collective West and all the rest and he sometimes used extremely harsh language

16:46 I mean he's referred to the United States and the Western powers on

16:52 occasions as the Empire of Lies for example and he's made some very very

16:59 strong comments of that nature well in this speech and in his subsequent q a

17:06 which by the way was interminably long as many Putin's q and A's are

17:13 Putin was much more measured in fact of this series of speeches going all the

17:19 way back to that speech Putin gave way back in 2007 in Munich this was for me

17:26 Far and Away the most philosophical and perhaps because of that it was also the

17:34 most temperate and Putin um actually quoted a string a Russian

17:41 intellectuals both people on the right like Alexander solgenitsin and people on

17:49 the well you could call them the left like the philosopher Alexander zenoviev

17:54 first time I think he's ever referenced zenoviev in a speech which is

18:00 interesting Zenovia um who passed away some years ago is

18:05 becoming an increasingly influential figure in Russian uh in Russian

18:10 commentary and thinking as I've noticed but anyways the first time to my

18:15 knowledge that he referenced zenoviev and of course he did reference Genovia

18:21 and interestingly enough Putin also acknowledged that these quotes from some of these

18:28 philosophers were not quotes that he himself knew or found that they were

18:34 actually found for him by his staffers this is the first time I've seen Putin

18:40 make that kind of admission in a speech and again it perhaps conveys the rather

18:48 relaxed tone of its contents very different by the

18:53 way as I'll discuss in a moment with the way in which this speech was has been

19:00 talked about in the west but anyway very philosophical speech very

19:08 moderately worded speech now its essence

19:14 comes back to something that Putin has been talking about for many many many

19:20 years now in the Q a Putin did discuss at some length the current

19:27 conflict in Ukraine itself but in the speech he said very little

19:34 about him most of the speech was devoted to

19:41 the global problems created by the

19:46 West's attempts and I I would stress Putin talks about the West he justifies

19:53 that he's used to that expression early on in the speech he accepts that the

19:59 West is not a monolithic block he says it's to a great extent an artificial

20:04 concept but he does say that there's some justification in using that expression and he does go on and use

20:12 that expression even though he makes it very clear as he progresses that of

20:17 course at the core of the West is the United States and the people who lead

20:22 the United States anyway what Putin says is that the United States the collective

20:30 West since the collapse of the Soviet Union has become as the Russians would

20:35 say dizzy with success it imagine that it would be in a position to direct and

20:42 shape the progress of human civilization it became convinced that it had all the

20:50 secrets about how human civilization ought to develop and

20:57 that it has been trying to impose the neoliberal model on the world the

21:04 neoliberal model of democracy all countries must share the same kind

21:10 of democratic structures or what Putin called quasi-democratic structures as those

21:17 which the West have there must be no deviations from this that they must accept a certain homogeneity in culture

21:26 and in cultural and lifestyle choices I have to choose again very careful words

21:33 here though I should say for once Putin did the same in the speech itself

21:40 and he also spoke about how at the same time as the West the collective West as

21:49 I said as he puts it has been trying to impose these structures on everyone else

21:55 in the world on every other culture and society and State

22:01 it has been acting to obstruct and prevent their independent development he

22:09 actually makes a really rather um powerful point which is that the West

22:15 not only tries to block other forms of

22:22 independent development by other countries by other nations out of

22:29 a belief in the in the superiority of its own model and out of pure commercial

22:36 reasons but because if a certain

22:42 brittleness a lack of confidence a fear that if other countries

22:49 are allowed to develop by themselves developing their own models by

22:56 themselves they might actually prove to be more successful than the West

23:03 thereby calling into question the West's belief that it represents the only

23:11 conceivable future I mean these were his words I take these

23:17 from this is the translation the official translation from the Kremlin website a direct threat to the political

23:24 economic and ideological Monopoly of the West lies in the fact that the world can

23:30 come up with alternative social models that are more fair effective

23:37 I want to emphasize this more effective today brighter more appealing than the

23:45 ones that currently exist these models will definitely come about this is

23:51 inevitable by the way U.S political scientists and analyte analysts also

23:58 write about this truthfully their government is not listening to what they

24:03 say although it cannot avoid seeing these Concepts in political science magazines and mentioned in discussions

24:13 so the West has an ideological need

24:19 to block the development the free development of other societies using

24:26 models different from those of the West itself because it cannot tolerate a

24:33 successful alternative to itself because such a successful alternative might

24:41 undermine the authority of the West's own neoliberal model now has been said

24:49 as Putin has pointed out before but to my knowledge it's the first time

24:56 that a world leader has actually come out and spoken about it in quite such a

25:02 straightforward way and Putin

25:08 also talked about again culture

25:13 and life start your choices and he said that the important thing

25:20 is not to try to impose a culture or lifestyle choice

25:27 but to respect choices and very intriguingly he said that that

25:35 can include respecting the choices that the West

25:41 itself makes so he says this

25:48 Traditional Values are not a rigid set of postulates that everyone must adhere

25:53 to the difference of the so-called Leo liberal values is that they are unique in each particular instance because they

26:01 stem from the traditions of a particular society its culture and historical

26:07 background this is why Traditional Values cannot be imposed on anyone in

26:13 other words everyone has their own Traditional Values which can evolve and

26:20 change as the society that produces them changes but it's not for all Outsiders

26:26 to come on come in disrespect those Traditional Values that are there and

26:33 seek to impose idea its own ideas and then Putin goes on to say they must be

26:38 they must simply be respected and everything that every nation has been

26:43 choosing for itself over centuries must be handled with care

26:52 this is how we understand Traditional Values and the majority of humanity

26:58 share and accept our approach this is understandable because the traditional

27:03 societies of the East Latin America Africa and Eurasia form the basis of

27:10 World Civilization and then he goes on to say respect for

27:16 the ways and customs of peoples and civilizations is in everyone's interests

27:21 in fact this is also in the interest of the West which is quickly becoming a

27:27 minority in the international Arena as it loses its dominance of course the

27:35 Western minorities right to its own cultural identity must be insured and respected but

27:44 importantly on an equal footing with the rights of Every Other Nation

27:50 if Western Elites believe they can have their people and their societies Embrace

27:58 what I believe are strange and trendy ideas like dozens of genders or gay

28:04 pride parades so be it let them do as they please but they

28:11 certainly have no right to tell others to follow in their steps

28:17 and then Putin goes on to say that as far as Russia is concerned it

28:24 does not seek to impose its ideas its own social norms its own economic models

28:31 on other societies and other nations

28:37 um Russia does not interfere in such matters and has no intention of doing so

28:43 unlike the West we mind our own business we are hoping that pragmatism will

28:49 Triumph and Russia's dialogue with a genuine traditional West as well as with

28:55 other co-equal Development Centers will become a major contribution to the

29:01 construction of a multi-polar world order and then he goes on to say again

29:08 at a very considerable length in various places that in fact the Russians still

29:15 hope one day that when the West finally comes to its senses when it understands that the

29:23 forces of multi-polarity are irresistible that the unipolar moment

29:29 that it is clinging onto has indeed passed and cannot be revived that at

29:36 some point all the various elements that make up the global system or the various

29:42 cultures societies Nations Sovereign Nations he's very clear about the need

29:48 for Nations to remain sovereignty Sovereign that they will all finally be able to do that which they have been

29:55 unable to do up to now which is negotiate and come to sustainable

30:02 peaceful understandings with each other um through equal dialogue it might be at

30:11 the moment a rather naive you but it's what Putin is talking about at the

30:17 present time and then he goes on to say that Russia utterly Rejects

30:26 what attitudes which he says are very prevalent in the

30:32 west at the present time and which he doesn't hesitate at times to refer to as

30:37 neocolonial imperialist and even racist and he says that I will be direct about

30:47 certain things as an independent and distinctive civilization Russia has

30:54 never considered and does not consider itself an enemy of the West American

31:00 phobia anglophobia francophobia and germanophobia are the same forms of

31:07 racism as russophobia or anti-Semitism and incidentally xenophobia in all its

31:16 guises um and he then talks

31:22 a little bit in contradiction to some of the other things he says about the two acts 2s at least two and maybe more but

31:31 two at least the west of traditional primarily Christian values Freedom

31:36 patriotism great culture and now Islamic values as well a substantial part of the

31:43 population in many Western countries follows Islam and interesting

31:49 uh uh an interesting idea to reach out to the predominantly immigrant

31:57 populations Islamic immigrant populations that are now so now so prevalent in Western countries and to

32:04 conflate them with those of the traditional old west if you like I wonder I suspect

32:12 many people in the west might raise their eyebrows at that but anyway that's what Putin said and then he goes on to

32:19 say that this traditional West is close to us we share its common even ancient

32:26 roots but there is also a different West aggressive Cosmopolitan and neocolonial

32:33 it is acting as a tool of neoliberal Elites naturally Russia will never

32:40 reconcile itself to the dictates of the West

32:45 and he then talks about how the Russians have at various times reached out to the

32:52 West how they did for example after the Jihadi wars in the Caucasus which were

32:59 taking place when he became president in which the West was covertly backing so

33:05 he says how despite all of that the Russians still wanted to develop good

33:11 friendly relations with the west and how in fact they found that every attempt

33:17 that they made to try to establish a modus vivendi with the West Was Then

33:23 thrown back into their faces and um he says that this is unacceptable and

33:30 that Russia is simply upholding its right to exist and to develop free freely we will not become a new Hagerman

33:38 ourselves Russia is not suggesting replacing a unipolar world with a

33:44 bipolar tripolar or other dominating order or replacing Western domination

33:50 with domination from the east north or south this would inevitably lead to

33:56 another impasse in other words what the Russians want is a stable International

34:02 system in which everybody's views are respected where nobody seeks to dominate

34:08 or dictate to anybody else certainly not on matters of culture or economics or

34:16 lifestyle issues or such things and such a world as he believes would be a great

34:23 deal more hormone harmonious and stable than the present one and he quotes a

34:32 Russian philosopher Nikolai danilevski who said and says that danilevski

34:38 believed that progress did not consist of everyone going in the same direction

34:44 this would only result in progress coming to a halt progress lies in

34:49 Walking the field that represents Humanity's historical activity walking

34:55 in all directions no civilization can take pride in being the height of human

35:03 development well that's the essence it seems to me of

35:10 what Putin said the philosophical core of it uh respect every country must

35:16 respect each other there must be no single Center he's scathing by the way

35:21 about the rules-based order he says what rules

35:27 nobody even knows what those rules are and they change from one day to the next and the West always reinterprets those

35:34 rules in order to um in order to in order to serve its own interests and

35:43 that is in the nature of rules that are imposed from one Center upon everybody

35:48 else and he talks about how that is not a mechanism for stability that it is a

35:56 mechanism for chaos he also then goes into a lot of other details he talks

36:02 about for example the dollar the excessive

36:08 use by the west of its control of the financial system the world financial

36:13 system he enlarged on this considerably by the way in his q a but the essence of

36:20 what he says said was this that the world needs to understand the West needs

36:26 to understand that there is a multiplicity of

36:32 different civilizational and cultural models all of which find themselves uh

36:39 structured around sovereign states that the only way to build a sustainable

36:46 balance is for each to respect the other not to seek to engage in Crusades or

36:55 moral Crusades or other Crusades trying to change society's direct or shape the

37:01 whole structure of the world impose one single economic social or legalistic or

37:09 quasi-legalistic model which is identical for everyone and Putin also

37:17 said and he's quite interestingly spoke about the need that for the need for democracy

37:23 to be strongest in the sphere of international relations

37:29 in other words each state each Nation should be treated equally and there

37:37 should be a genuine partnership and democracy in

37:43 international relations with the rights of countries even Gulf monarchies for

37:49 example being respected alongside those of the democracies or quasi

37:58 democracies or pretended democracies liberal democracies if you like of the West

38:05 itself quite an interesting speech as I said very

38:11 philosophically structured very temperate in town

38:18 once more offering once the um

38:24 present crisis passes away forward towards a

38:34 New Balance even a new dialogue between Russia and the West as I said the most

38:41 temperate of the speeches that he has written speaking for myself I found one

38:47 of the most interesting passages um was one in which he

38:54 implicitly criticized a book which I

38:59 personally detest and that is Carl poppers famous book The Open society and

39:08 its enemies now in doing so I think Putin well by the way he didn't actually

39:14 mention Papa and he didn't in fact mention the book so if you read his words it's quite clear that that is what

39:21 he's referencing and I think he went a bit too far in stating its importance he

39:28 said that this was this this was a turning point because it meant that

39:34 Classical liberalism the liberalism of well Voltaire and people like that the

39:40 liberalism that accepts and respects alternative points of view

39:46 is replaced by new model where there is something called the open society

39:53 which is threatened by all sorts of enemies who must be canceled

40:00 and again it's perhaps as I said taking that book

40:05 further than is Justified the influence of that book further than it's than it's

40:12 Justified but of course it's clearly a jab at those who cite that particular

40:18 book Popper's work um as a sort of text Bro cool

40:24 philosophical Bible or plan of action whatever you like to call it and also

40:30 it's another dig a really clever dig at the council culture which Putin says is

40:38 now so widely expressed in the west anyway now it's quite interesting now

40:46 at the end he did say that the situation is in fact

40:53 becoming quite dangerous at the same time and the speech ended with these

40:59 words the collapse of the Soviet Union upset the equilibrium of the geopolitical

41:06 forces the well West felt as a winner and declared a unipolar world

41:11 arrangement in which only his will culture and interests have the right to

41:16 exist now this historical period of boundless Western dominance in world

41:23 affairs is coming to an end the unipolar world is being relegated into the past

41:29 we are at a historical Crossroads we are

41:34 full we are in full probably the most dangerous

41:40 unpredictable and at the same time most important decade since the end of World

41:47 War II the West is unable to rule humanity single-handedly and the

41:53 majority of Nations no longer want to put up with this this is the main

41:59 contradiction to the of the new era to cite a classic

42:07 this is a revolutionary situation to some extent the Elites at cannot and

42:15 people do not want to live like that any longer

42:21 and the state this state of affairs is fraught with global conflicts or a whole

42:28 chain of conflicts which poses a threat to humanity including to the West itself

42:34 today's main historical task is to resolve this contradiction in a way that

42:41 is constructive and positive that's a very powerful

42:48 section with which basically he ends his speech and the classic that he's quoting

42:55 the references to a revolutionary situation I'm not going to be

43:01 I'm not absolutely categorical about this but I think that he's essentially

43:07 actually quietly referencing a work of Lenin's that this is a period of

43:15 enormous turbulence the new world is appearing the old globalist

43:24 neoliberal U.S dominated Western world is however unwilling to give up it's

43:33 hegemonic position and as a result there is

43:40 potential for things going wrong for a great deal of violence for

43:47 in effect revolutionary change I said that it was a quote from

43:54 I think he's referencing Lenin but of course another Marxist thinker Antonio

44:00 Graham she once said that the old is dying and the new cannot be born in this

44:06 ignorant interregnum there arises a great diversity of morbid symptoms

44:13 others by the way have quoted Graham's grams she is saying that in the period

44:18 between the new and the old there will be an age of monsters I'm not sure whether it's gramshi that

44:26 Putin has in mind I think is more likely Lenin actually the expression revolutionary situation to my mind

44:33 points to learning but anyway in a sense that's less important than the than the

44:40 underlying message that this is a period of tremendous and

44:46 dangerous change that given the determination of the western powers to

44:54 hold on to their Global Leadership there is a very real risk that they will do

45:01 something dangerous and irresponsible and Reckless and that

45:08 means that the next decade will be an extremely dangerous one

45:13 I don't think looking at the current International situation most people

45:20 would seriously dispute that whether the vision for the future

45:26 the Putin outlines have a great community of Nations each going its own

45:33 way domestically developing its economy and its culture

45:41 but acting in harmony with all other nations whether that is a practical one

45:48 whether that is a realistic vision of the future well that's another question

45:53 again and it's not one that I propose to explore in this program what I will say

45:59 again is that it's a vision

46:06 which many especially in the global South will be strongly attracted to and

46:13 in fact are strongly attracted to it is why

46:19 Putin and Russia are winning friends in places like India China Africa the

46:27 Middle East even amongst the gulf monarchies Latin America and such places

46:33 where American leaders and Western leaders preach where um

46:39 where people like Joseph Burrell contrast the beautiful garden that is

46:47 the European that is Europe either European Union with the terrifying jungle that is supposed to

46:54 exist um elsewhere in the world that is what Burrell said in a recent speech to

47:02 European diplomats to considerable outrage around the world where people

47:07 like Burrell talk like that where um American leaders always talk about

47:13 you know America's support for freedom and democracy about America's

47:19 determination to uphold its values which in effect means imposing its values on

47:28 others Putin says let everybody mind their own business

47:34 let everybody develop as they choose in the way they choose developing their own

47:41 societies their own cultures their own lifestyle choices as suits them but let

47:49 us all cooperate together peacefully for the good of the world and in order to

47:56 maintain peace and let's do so with respect with respect for each other

48:03 and in a truly equal Democratic way it's

48:08 not surprising that this is a vision as I said that is much more attractive to

48:14 people in the global South than the Western one which many people in the

48:21 global South and not just the global South East Asia must find overbearing arrogant

48:29 and in some respects as Putin says neocolonial and oppressive so one can

48:37 see as I said the power of this message and I get to say something else I don't have any doubt myself that put it

48:45 believes it that he's sincere he's personally sincere in what he says I

48:52 don't think he always thought this way I think he has gradually found his way

48:58 there but that's the position he's taking now and notice that he says it's in the

49:05 interests of the West to actually accept this model they can't

49:11 hold on to their hegemony but if they drop these dangerous ideas