Notes on WAR AND PEACE Tolstoy and the Deep State

 

The Deep State

“A recent survey of 26,000 people in twenty-five countries asked respondents whether they believe there is ‘a single group of people who secretly control events and rule the world together.’ Thirty-seven percent of Americans replied that this is definitely or probably true. So did 45 percent of Italians, 55 percent of Spaniards, and 78 percent of Nigerians.”

Yuval Noah Harari in New York Times, November 20, 2020

 

“Global cabal theories suffer from the same basic flaw: they assume that history is simple. The key premise is that it is relatively easy to manipulate the world. A small group of people can understand, predict and control everything, from wars to technological revolutions to pandemics.”

Ibid

 

One of our distinguishing traits as Americans (or as people?) is that we don’t like to think—we’re too lazy and ignorant—and we distrust thinkers. That’s why we go for simplistic ideas. What’s this new 5G technology everybody’s talking about? I don’t know; I’m too dumb. No doubt, though, it has something to do with the nefarious plot of the Global Cabal, those Jews and Masons and such who run the world and all its institutions.

 

What about the Covid pandemic? Easy. More plotting on the part of the Global Cabal. They cooked up the virus, with the help of China; then they spread it all over the world.

 

Why is Bozo the Clown such a great President? Because—even though he’s an idiot and an unhinged narcissist—he has fought tooth and nail to save us from the Global Cabal. And I like him because he never reads books; he’s a dumbass, just like me. But we both, me and him, despite our ignorance, know a whole lot more about how the Deep State works—the REAL facts about world politics—than the la-tee-dah profs do. Them guys with bald heads and ponytails caint even park their bicycles straight.

 

How did Bozo lose the election? He didn’t really; he won. But the nefarious, scheming fat cats in the Global Cabal—or the Deep State; call it what you will—stole it away from him.

 

Tolstoy and the Deep State: War and Peace

Throughout his long novel Tolstoy repeats the same message about world history over and over; it is the message of Yuval Noah Harari in his recent article: history is vastly complex. No one great man (Napoleon), or no secret cabal of Jews and Masons, can control the inchoate forces of history. Why did Napoleon invade Russia in 1812? Nobody knows, least of all Napoleon or some Global Cabal. How did he get himself bogged down in Russia and end up losing most of the French army? Because the Russian generals were such great strategists? Ha. Because Tsar Aleksandr I had a wonderful plan? Ha. Because Napoleon’s own strategic gifts finally failed him? No. Because just because. The concatenation of circumstances and events is too complicated for anyone ever to grasp.