Category Archives: Culture

Powers & Principalities: Episode 433 by Our Interesting Times

Powers & Principalities: Episode 433 by Our Interesting Times  (January 3, 2026)

Powers & Principalities: Episode 433 by Our Interesting Times

EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Trump Nabs Maduro, More Somali Fraud & Jewish Presidents

Trump Nabs Maduro, More Somali Fraud & Jewish Presidents

Powers and Principalities is a long-running podcast series co-hosted by Tim Kelly and Joseph Atwill. It forms part of Tim Kelly’s broader podcast, Our Interesting Times, and focuses on in-depth discussions of historical revisionism, deep state influences, psychological operations, media manipulation, and critiques of establishment narratives.

Tim Kelly (full name Timothy Kelly) is an independent podcaster best known as the host of Our Interesting Times, a long-running show focused on alternative perspectives on history, politics, power structures, and critiques of mainstream narratives. Background and Personal Life Tim Kelly keeps a relatively low public profile regarding his personal biography. From interviews and descriptions:

  • He is a traditional Catholic, married, and father to 7 children.
  • He describes himself primarily through his work as a researcher and commentator on “interesting” (often hidden or revisionist) aspects of current and historical events.

Podcasting Work

  • Our Interesting Times (launched around 2015): His flagship podcast, hosted on Podomatic (tkelly6785757.podomatic.com), with nearly 1,000 episodes as of early 2026. It features in-depth interviews with authors, researchers, and thinkers on topics like historical revisionism, deep politics, media manipulation, and cultural engineering.
    • Frequent guests include E. Michael Jones, James Perloff, Donald Jeffries, and many others discussing subjects such as World War II myths, technocracy, oligarchic influence, and psychological operations.
  • Powers & Principalities: A recurring series (hundreds of episodes) co-hosted with Joseph Atwill (author of Caesar’s Messiah). These are often guest-free discussions delving into conspiracy-related themes, CIA influence in media/politics, Frankfurt School critiques, and current events through a lens of elite control and psyops.

Joseph Atwill (often called Joe Atwill) is an American independent scholar and author best known for his highly controversial thesis on the origins of Christianity.

Background: Atwill spent part of his youth in Japan, attending St. Mary’s International School, a Jesuit-run military academy where he studied Greek, Latin, and the Bible. He later studied computer science in college and co-founded several software companies before shifting focus to biblical and historical research around 1995.

After college (where he studied computer science), he co-founded software companies in the 1980s, including Ferguson Tool Company (with early IBM programmer David Ferguson) and Amalgamated Software of North America (ASNA). Around 1995, he sold his shares and exited the industry, providing the financial independence to pursue full-time independent research on biblical studies and history.

Mentioned by Joe Atwill in this podcast:  Holocaust Encyclopedia

All roads lead to the City of London…  TRUMP KIDNAPS MADURO! TOM LUONGO EXPOSES THE REASONS WHY!

Why did Trump kidnap Maduro? Oil, minerals, drugs, voting machines, or was it something even darker that the MSM won’t even mention? Was this an assault on the City of London? Tom Luongo lays it all out.

Tom Luongo exposes what’s really going on with TRUMP & MADURO

The statement “You cannot have ethos without telos” captures a profound insight from ancient Greek philosophy, particularly Aristotle’s framework. Telos (τέλος) refers to the end, purpose, goal, or final cause of something—the inherent reason it exists or the ultimate aim it serves. Aristotle argued that everything in nature, human action, and society has a telos: an acorn’s telos is to become an oak tree; a knife’s is to cut effectively; a human life’s is eudaimonia (flourishing through virtuous activity).Ethos (ἦθος), in its original ethical sense (distinct from the modern rhetorical meaning of “credibility”), denotes character, moral habit, or the customary way of being that shapes virtuous behavior. It is the disposition formed by repeated actions aligned with excellence. Aristotle ties them inextricably in the Nicomachean Ethics: True ethos—good moral character—emerges only through actions directed toward the proper telos. Virtues (arete) are habits that enable us to fulfill our human purpose (rational, social flourishing). Without a guiding telos, actions lack direction, and character becomes aimless or malformed. You can’t cultivate genuine ethos (moral integrity) in a vacuum; it requires orientation toward an end worth pursuing. In modern terms:

  • Institutions (e.g., universities) falter when they lose a clear telos (truth-seeking vs. other agendas), eroding their ethical ethos.
  • Personal character similarly depends on purposeful living—drift without aim, and habits devolve into vice or emptiness.

The phrase isn’t a direct Aristotle quote but distills his teleological ethics: Character (ethos) is meaningless or impossible without purpose (telos). To build one is to pursue the other.

The Generations

Generations

  • Silent Generation (or Traditionalists): Born 1928–1945

Shaped by the Great Depression, World War II, and post-war economic growth.

  • Baby Boomers: Born 1946–1964

Named for the post-WWII “baby boom”; experienced civil rights movements, Vietnam War, and economic prosperity.

  • Generation X (Gen X): Born 1965–1980

Often called the “latchkey” or “MTV generation”; grew up during the end of the Cold War, rise of personal computers, and shifting family structures. 

  • Millennials (or Generation Y): Born 1981–1996

Came of age around the new millennium; influenced by the internet boom, 9/11, and the Great Recession.

  • Generation Z (Gen Z or Zoomers): Born 1997–2012

True digital natives; shaped by smartphones, social media, and events like the COVID-19 pandemic. (Note: see Jared Cooney Horvath’s comments below.)

Cognitive decline in Gen Z

  • Generation Alpha (Gen Alpha): Born 2013–2024

Children of Millennials; the first generation born entirely in the 21st century, growing up with advanced AI, tablets from infancy, and the pandemic.

  • Generation Beta (Gen Beta): Born 2025–2039 (starting now in 2025)

The newest cohort, primarily children of younger Millennials and Gen Z; expected to be deeply integrated with AI, automation, and global challenges like climate change.

USA: population distribution  

Silent Generation (born 1928–1945, ages 80–97): The smallest adult generation due to historical low births and aging. Approximate living population: ~18–20 million (about 5–6% of the population; many now in the 80+ category).

Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964, ages 61–79): Still a large group, though declining due to mortality. Approximate living population: ~68–70 million (about 20% of the population).

Generation X (born 1965–1980, ages 45–60): A relatively smaller “bridge” generation. Approximate living population: ~65 million (about 19% of the population).

Millennials (born 1981–1996, ages 29–44): The largest adult generation. Approximate living population: ~74 million (about 21–22% of the population).

Generation Z (born 1997–2012, ages 13–28): A sizable and diverse cohort entering adulthood. Approximate living population: ~69–70 million (about 20–21% of the population).

Generation Alpha (born 2013–2024, ages 1–12): Growing rapidly but still young; US birth rates are lower than global averages. Approximate living population: ~39–42 million (about 11–12% of the population).

Generation Beta (born 2025–2039, ages 0): Just beginning. Approximate living population: ~3–4 million (births from January to December 2025; annual US births are around 3.6–3.7 million).

GLOBAL: population distribution  

Silent Generation (born 1928–1945, ages 80–97): Combined with pre-Silent cohorts in the 80+ group. Approximate living population: ~165 million (about 2% of global population).

Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964, ages 61–79): Approximate living population: ~1.06 billion (about 12.8% of global population).

Generation X (born 1965–1980, ages 45–60): Approximate living population: ~1.2–1.4 billion (about 15–17% of global population; often grouped with working-age adults).

Millennials (born 1981–1996, ages 29–44): Approximate living population: ~1.7–1.8 billion (about 21–23% of global population).

Generation Z (born 1997–2012, ages 13–28): Approximate living population: ~1.9 billion (about 23% of global population; Gen Z + Millennials ~44%).

Generation Alpha (born 2013–2024, ages 1–12): Approximate living population: ~2.0 billion (about 24.4% of global population; the largest cohort, surpassing all others).

Generation Beta (born 2025–2039, starting in 2025, ages 0): Approximate living population: Very small (less than 1 million as of December 2025; only births from January to December 2025).

Gen Z

“Our kids are LESS cognitively capable than we were at their age.”

Every previous generation outperformed its parents since we began recording in the late 1800s.

So, what happened?

Screens.

Dr. Jared Horvath explained:

“Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to underperform us on basically every cognitive measure we have, from basic attention to memory, to literacy, to numeracy, to executive functioning, to EVEN GENERAL IQ, even though they go to more school than we did.”

“So why? … The answer appears to be the tools we are using within schools to drive that learning (screens).”

“If you look at the data, once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly, to the point where kids who use computers about five hours per day in school for learning purposes will score over two-thirds of a standard deviation LESS than kids who rarely or never touch tech at school. And that’s across 80 countries.”

But screens aren’t just decimating learning and making new generations less intelligent than the ones before them. (Source: https://x.com/thehealthb0t/status/2019717847992443239?s=20)

On the matter of Charlie Kirk

Getty Images Charlie Kirk, wearing a white t-shirt, speaking to cameras at the event where he was shot.

Charlie Kirk

Israel’s Pressure Campaign Against Charlie Kirk (w/ Max Blumenthal) (Video on YouTube)

Netanyahu speaks for 2 minutes about how Israel did not kill Charlie Kirk. (Video on X) Comment: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”

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Candace Owens shared a screenshot of a group chat where Charlie Kirk says:

John Mearsheimer EXPOSES Charlie Kirk’s Undeniable Turn Against Israel (Video on YouTube)

Max Blumenthal: Charlie Kirk’s Story FALLS APART by ‘Dialogue Works’ with Nima R. Alkhorshid (Video on YouTube)

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Three months later Charlie Kirk was dead.

Captured America …  AIPAC-Backed Candidates’ Win Rate

AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) tracks the success of candidates it supports through direct PAC donations, bundled contributions, and its affiliated super PAC (United Democracy Project). Success is measured primarily by general election victories, as AIPAC focuses on influencing primaries and general races with pro-Israel stances.

Key Data from Recent Cycles:

“50 States One Israel”

Benjamin Netanyahu “50 States One Israel”

A delegation of 250 US state legislators from all 50 states visited Israel from September 14 to 18, 2025, as part of the “50 States One Israel” conference hosted by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This was the largest such group of US elected officials to visit the country in a single trip, aimed at strengthening bipartisan ties amid global criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turning Points – The Grayzone live (9/24/25)

Analysis Solves Kirk Case—Evidence Points Away From Robinson’s Position (9/26/25)

Max Blumenthal on X |@MaxBlumenthal: TPUSA’s Andrew Kolvet has confirmed the authenticity of texts showing Charlie Kirk declaring he was left with “no choice but to leave the pro Israel cause,” and complaining that “Jewish donors” had “bullied him” Netanyahu cutouts like Josh Hammer were on this chat and lied.  Source:  https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1975647589392654759

Max Blumenthal: Charlie Kirk UPDATE | Israel-Iran War to ERUPT
Update (Jan 7, 2026):   Stew Peters on X: @realstewpeters | STEWPETERS.com

REVEALED: How Charlie Kirk was killed — the method and the weapon directly connected to Fort Huachuca!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The damning NECK WOUND REPLICATION completely shatters the 30-06 narrative.

Source: https://x.com/realstewpeters/status/2008754470214107220?s=20

Important perspective from former investigator Garland Nixon (Jan 16, 2026): 

THE CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION EVIDENCE MAKES A CLEAR CASE

 

Historical View by EM Burlingame

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Final Enclosure: Theft of Boomer Wealth and the Forced Collapse of the English Civilization by EM Burlingame …

Listen up, you half-asleep bastards. The last pile of wealth we English-speaking suckers have left—the Boomer stash, all those pensions and houses and scraps of dignity—is getting fenced off right now. Enclosed, they call it, like some fancy history lesson, but it’s just theft. Pure, gut-wrenching robbery by the Praetorians, those bloodless financiers who’ve gutted us for centuries. They’re packing up, abandoning our hollowed-out lands and what’s left of our so-called civilization, handing the keys to the oil kings from the desert who still have tens of millions of young men to sacrifice to the money god. Corrupt and fully owned governments here at home grease the wheels, tokenized finance locks it down. And you? You’re watching it happen, eyes wide shut, while they wipe us from our own dirt. Hell, all you cryptdiots are cheering it on.

It starts with the Financialist Kill Chain, that old, rusty blade they’ve been sharpening since forever. Infiltrate, influence, debt-trap, spot the assets, crash the economy, swap debts for land, suck it dry, then bail. That’s the drill. They’ve done it to empires, to tribes, to anyone with something worth grabbing. Now it’s our turn, the once-mighty English Civilization, hollowed like rotten teeth. The goal? Collapse us so they can steal the very ground under our feet. Look at Russia after the Soviets—debts piled high, assets stripped by oligarchs backed by foreign vultures. Wars, bubbles, welfare overloads, corruption rotting from the inside. It’s all engineered, a slow kill to prime the Boomer loot for the taking. Wake up—it’s your future they’re fencing!

Their shiny new toy? Tokenization and crypto, that digital snake oil turning real wealth into pixels on a screen. They call it progress, but it’s enclosure 3.0, trapping what wealth remains in algorithms while they sip champagne. Dot-com crash, 2008 meltdown, COVID cash floods—trillions poured in, now locked in a $2 trillion crypto casino that’s about become tens of trillions. Financialism’s their religion, math their god, and you’re the sacrifice. No more commons; just endless tribute to the code priests. It’s the great rip-off, humanity’s energy enslaved in bits and bytes, built on your taxes, out of your reach. Shock yourself awake—this ain’t freedom; it’s chains you can’t even see.

They pull it off through these fake liberal democracies, bought and paid for, puppets on strings. Started with the Dutch East India pricks in 1602, Venetian bankers pulling the wires. Democracy? Bullshit—it’s a tool to crush real kings and princes who wouldn’t bend to the money men. Elect some fools, stack the bureaucracy, drown nations in debt, brainwash the masses with ideology, kill all the native sons, whore the women. Sovereignty? Gone. Culture? Homogenized slop. In our lands, it’s laws that screw the people, policies that hand Boomer wealth to the shadows. Repression dressed as rights. Stab yourself in the gut— this is how they enclose us, end us, legal and clean.

Don’t bother with morals; these Financialists got their own bible, written in ledgers. Back in the 1600s, they kicked out the churches, built stock exchanges instead. Westphalia in 1648 neutered the popes, Glorious Revolution in 1688 crowned the merchants. Joint-stock scams like the VOC turned shares into salvation, central banks like England’s in 1694 made debt holy. Accountable aristocrats out, unaccountable investor scum in. Society flipped to worship stuff, growth, abstraction. Their ethics? Steal what you can, enslave everyone, justify with numbers. Boomer trillions? Just another offering on their altar. Ethics won’t touch ’em; they’re beyond your whining.

For us English types, this shit cycles every 400 years, bloody resets where people, princes, and parliaments claw at each other’s throats. Alfred the Great kicked it off in the 800s, Magna Carta in 1215 slapped down kings, Civil War in the 1640s gave parliament teeth, American Revolution tweaked the machine. Now we’re in round four, the English peoples cracking under fake divides, preyed upon by human refuse imported for the task, bribed with sanctioned raping of our women, all trust in tatters. It’s war every time, blood to balance power. But we gotta beat the Praetorians this go-round, unlike that 1688 fuck-up when they slipped through, giving us the illusion of power just to distract and blind us.

Those Praetorians—Roman ghosts turned finance goons, military spooks, intel rats—run the show now. Illicit cash flows, endless wars, hijacked religions. All run out of Qatar, yeah that one, the one backed the October 7th slaughter. They ditched Christianity for wealth worship, outsource killing to mercs, erode everything real. From Venice to Wall Street, they war on true leaders, embed their kill chain everywhere. Murdering where they must. To win, people and honest princes gotta link arms, smash the lies, reject their money cult. Kill the killers. History’s screaming at you—do it, or die quiet.

Face it, you fools: our wealth on paper? Already gone, tucked in UAE contracts, just like it hid in London’s City for 300 years. Dubai’s the new den, blending Sharia scams with global grease. Gotta spread Sharia law everywhere to lock in the new system, infuse the new regime, lock out what few natives survive. Post-9/11 wars remade the Middle East for this, zero taxes luring the loot, hidden banking structures to secure ill-gotten loot, theft of the Commons. It’ll run their machine for ages, exploiting Muslim hordes for labor and cannon fodder. Russia, China, Iran push back, but for us? Boomer assets tokenized, offshore, fueling the handover. Shock: it’s stolen, and you’re next. You don’t have the balls anymore to kill us in vast numbers to deny our claim, the only reply.

And who’s helping? Our own rent-sucking traitors—landlords, slumlords, tax-grabbing governments. They don’t give a damn who owns the title, long as the cash rolls in. Payrolls, Promotions and Pensions their only concern, millions of Stephens from Django happy to do their master’s bidding. Aristotle warned about tyrants loving foreigners; now it’s evictions, subsidies for invaders, communities gutted for profit. Our sons demoralized, our women raped. Stockholm, Munich, Paris, New York, London—natives out, migrants in, votes rigged, power diluted. They’re selling us out for scraps, speeding the collapse. Wake the fuck up—these disposable in their own country bastards are your neighbors.

But here’s their fuck-up, the crack in the wall: Molon Labe. Come and take it, motherfucker! That old Greek growl shamed ’em, the Greeks, into fighting for their dirt. From Westphalia’s cage to 1688’s sellout, Financialists commodified it all, flooded us with foreign fighters to crush resistance. Debt, screens, weakness—they’ve doused the fire in our young men’s guts. But those sons? We still got ’em, lot of ’em. And as has always been, they’re the only real wealth, ready to become battle-hardened in the wars for our lands, deeply wired to defend soil and blood. We got GWOTTERs and even some of the old ‘Nam boys still around. We’ll train ’em, stand ’em up, let ’em bleed the enemy, our young men. The pass is narrow; and we’re gonna have to hold it like the 300 at Thermopylae. Till our own Queen Gorgo, whoever she may turn out to be, rallies the women to empower their native sons to FIGHT.

This last enclosure—theft of Boomer trillions—is the endgame, more than 300 years of predation boiling down to now. It’s happening in your face, you blind drunks, you distracted fools. It’s happening, the wiping of our people from our lands. The only way to stop it? Deny the new “owners” physical possession. Who gives a fuck what your piece of paper, your digital ledger says. Come and enforce it you limp wristed fucks. Boys! Block the gates, fight like those Spartan ghosts two thousand years back. No abstractions, no pleas—just raw denial, blood in the dirt, this dirt. Reclaim or vanish. Your call, but time’s up.

Time to slap those patches on, boys! Time to stand and fight for our thousand year old civilization, here, in our own lands!

EM Burlingame – 蒲 奕 言  @EMBurlingame on ‘X’

Source: https://x.com/EMBurlingame/status/1959287865890000957

Also from EM Burlingame – 蒲 奕 言 | @EMBurlingame |
I believe this is one of the most clear and succinct expressions yet of where we are:
https://x.com/EMBurlingame/status/1958578036665983304

Disintegration | Indicators of the Coming American Collapse by Andrei Martyanov

Posted August 25, 2024 | For those who read

Disintegration | Indicators of the Coming American Collapse by Andrei Martyanov

Published: 2021 by Clarity Press, Inc. (236 pages).

Andrei Martyanov is a former laboratory director in a commercial aerospace group.  He is a frequent blogger on the US Naval Institute blog, and author of ‘Losing Military Supremacy: the Myopia of American Strategic Planning and The (Real) Revolution in Military Affairs.

Comments

Disintegration brings to the table many causative inputs missed during my second look at history using the corrective lenses provided by the likes of Antony C. Sutton, Quigley, Engdahl, and others.    This book was written after the US-orchestrated Ukrainian putsch in 2014 but before Russia’s SMO, so represents a snapshot of that time (2021) on the condition of America internally and externally.  The trajectory of destruction is well referenced and documented with many footnotes.  Since 2021, this self-inflicted death spin of corruption, incompetence and information manipulation has only gotten worse.   This is not just another depressing book designed to list the many failures of America, this book brings new insight and evidence of the primary causes that put this great country on the path of disintegration.  –ClearNFO

“Martyanov shows that America’s disintegration is irreversible because the ruling elites are an organic part of the calamitous sources of dysfunction that have destroyed the country.”  –PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

“Andrei Martyanov’s third book discussing the collapse of the U.S. Empire looks into the social and economic phenomena which all contribute to that collapse. Disintegration is a multi-level analysis of the crisis which is now so clearly plaguing the USA of 2021.  I consider Disintegration a “must read” for every U.S. patriot who wants his country to overcome its current difficulties and for every person on the planet who wants to avoid a full-scale war between Russia and/or China and the USA.  Indeed, if you want to get a superb summation of what is really going on in the United States—read all of Martyanov’s books.”  –THE VINEYARD SAKER

You can find Andrei’s informative podcasts and interviews on many popular platforms, including Rokfin, BitChute, Rumble, Odysee, YouTube and many more.

On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Disintegration-Indicators-Coming-American-Collapse/dp/1949762343/ref=sr_1_2?sr=8-2

On the matter of Orthodoxy

by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | July 19, 2023


The Cathedral of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia

What we have here is a failure to comply!

Many Christians must feel abandoned by their church leaders as these leaders seek to harmonize debased social absurdities with core church principles.  These social transformations include normalizing the killing of a baby in a mother’s womb and promoting  countless sexual aberrations including child sexual mutilation.   These changes are aimed squarely at recasting what was formally the traditional family into a mangled parody of its former self that is isolated, powerless, easily corruptible and controllable.  Unsurprisingly, these destructive ideologies align nicely with social engineering efforts promoted by a philosophy of secular materialism whose endpoint is a single, unifying system of global governance — a scientific dictatorship.  Despite many church leaders’ impulse to comply with these trends, the Christian Orthodox Church has remained remarkedly unchanged for over 2,000 years.  Can Orthodoxy’s consistent and unbroken tradition serve as an effective teacher and a bulwark protecting sacred Christian doctrine against these self-inflicted detours into spiritual bondage and corruption?

Questions and Answers

What is Christian Orthodoxy?

What are the roots of Orthodoxy and what do they believe?

Why have there been so few changes in Christian Orthodoxy for over 2,000 years?

Common questions:

  • How many people are baptized members of Orthodoxy?  ~225 million.
  • Do Orthodox Christians worship Mary? No, they honor Mary.
  • Do Orthodox Christians worship icons? No.
  • Do Orthodox Christians worship saints? No, they honor saints.
  • Do Orthodox Christians use the Old and New Testament? Yes. The Orthodox Study Bible is the English translation of the St. Athanasius Academy Septuagint edition for the Old Testament, and utilizes the New King James Version for the New Testament.
  • Are Orthodox Christians the same as Roman Catholics? No. Roman Catholics are considered by many as the 1st Protestants since they reformed / broke away from the ancient tradition still practiced by Orthodoxy today.
  • Are Orthodox Christians non-denominational? No, they are pre-denominational.
  • Are the Orthodox considered to be a Christian denomination?  No, Orthodox Christians are pre-denominational.
  • Does the Orthodox Church have a pope? No. (Orthodoxy rejects the Pope’s claim to universal jurisdiction.) Orthodox view on Papal Supremacy.
  • Does the Orthodox Church believe in The Nicene Creed? Yes.

A Consistent and Unbroken Tradition: Timeline Of Church History | The Roman Catholic Church added to Orthodoxy and the Protestants subtracted from Orthodoxy.

Roman Catholic Church: Highly centralized, with the Roman Curia managing global administration, appointments, and doctrine. Bishops are directly accountable to the Pope.

Christian Orthodox Church: Decentralized, with autocephalous churches (e.g., Russian, Serbian, Greek) independently managing their affairs. Synods of bishops within each church make key decisions, and the Ecumenical Patriarch’s role is largely symbolic.

The Roman Empire vs. The Roman Catholic Church:

The Roman Catholic Church and the Roman Empire, while distinct in purpose and historical context, share some structural similarities due to the Church’s emergence within the Empire’s framework. Below is a comparison and contrast of their structures, focusing on key aspects like hierarchy, governance, and societal role.

The Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church both utilized centralized, hierarchical structures to exert influence over vast populations, with Rome as a symbolic and administrative core. The Church, in many ways, inherited and adapted the Empire’s administrative framework to serve its religious mission, filling the power vacuum left by the Empire’s collapse in the West.

Similarities

  • Hierarchical Structure:
    • Roman Empire: The Empire was highly centralized, with the emperor at the apex as a semi-divine ruler wielding absolute authority. Below him were layers of governance, including senators, provincial governors, and local magistrates, who managed regions and enforced imperial law.
    • Roman Catholic Church: The Church also has a hierarchical structure, with the Pope as the supreme authority, considered the Vicar of Christ. Below him are cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and priests, each overseeing dioceses or parishes, mirroring the Empire’s administrative layers.
  • Centralized Authority:
    • Roman Empire: Power radiated from Rome, with the emperor’s decrees and laws unifying diverse provinces. The Empire used a network of roads and communication systems to maintain control.
    • Roman Catholic Church: The Vatican (or Rome historically) serves as the central hub, with the Pope issuing doctrinal and administrative directives. The Church’s canon law and papal encyclicals unify global Catholic communities.
  • Bureaucratic Administration:
    • Roman Empire: A complex bureaucracy, including tax collectors, military officials, and civil servants, managed the Empire’s vast territories, ensuring economic and political stability.
    • Roman Catholic Church: The Church developed a sophisticated bureaucracy, particularly through the Roman Curia, which handles administrative tasks like appointing bishops, managing finances, and overseeing global missions.
  • Cultural and Legal Influence:
    • Roman Empire: The Empire imposed Roman law and culture, standardizing legal codes and promoting Latin (or Greek in the East) as a unifying language.
    • Roman Catholic Church: The Church spread Christian doctrine and Latin as the liturgical language, shaping moral and legal frameworks across Europe, often filling the vacuum left by the Empire’s fall.

The Symbol of the Faith

Composed at the1st Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325,
And completed at the 2nd Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 381.

THE NICENE CREED:

I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, the only begotten, begotten  of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made; of one essence[1] with the Father; through Whom all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; And the third day He rose again, according to[2] the Scriptures. And ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father; And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit [3], the Lord, the Creator of life, Who proceeds from the Father[4], Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spoke through the prophets.

In one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come. Amen.

[1] or “consubstantial”
[2] or “in fulfillment of”
[3] At this point the original Creed of Nicaea 325 ended; the remainder was added at the 2nd Ecumenical Council in 381.
[4] Here the Roman Catholics add the Latin word Filioque, which means “and from the son.”

Definition of (lower case) catholic:

adjective
1. broad or wide-ranging in tastes, interests, or the like; having sympathies with all; broad-minded; liberal.

2. universal in extent; involving all; of interest to all. *

*’Know the Faith’ by Rev Michael Shanbour (pg. 37): Unfortunately, the word catholic is usually translated as “universal.” But the Greek word indicates fullness and completeness.  St. Ignatius of Antioch, the first known to use the word, applies it to the local church: “Wherever the bishop appears, the whole congregation is to be present, just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the whole [catholic] Church.”  (Ignatius, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans 7.2, in Apostolic Fathers, p. 113)

Thinking Orthodox | Understanding and Acquiring the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN MIND
by Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou. Ph.D.

More from ClearNFO:

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò Speaks at the Second Congress of the Intl Russophile Movement & the Multipolarity Forum in Moscow on February 26, 2024

Bertrand Russell – Selected Quotes

by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | June 15, 2023

BERTRAND RUSSELL Red Lion Square, London WC1. 1982 Sculptor Marcelle Quinton.

Bertrand Russell (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970)

Selected quotes from 1953:

“Gradually, by selective breeding, the congenital differences between rulers and ruled will increase until they become almost different species. A revolt of the plebs would become as unthinkable as an organized insurrection of sheep against the practice of eating mutton.”

Bertrand Russell – The Impact of Science on Society  (January 1, 1953)

“Anaxagoras maintained that snow is black but no one believed him. The social psychologists of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will fay different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. Various results will soon be arrived at: First, that the influence of the home is obstructive; second, not much can be done unless indoctrination begins before age ten; third, that verses set to music and repeatedly intoned are very effective; fourth, that the opinion that snow is white must be held to show a morbid taste for eccentricity. But I anticipate it is for future scientists to make these maxims precise and discover exactly how much it costs per head to make children believe that snow is black and how much less it would cost to make them believe it is dark grey.”

Bertrand Russell – The Impact of Science on Society  (January 1, 1953)

 

Clash of Cultures: The Collective West (Woke-ism) vs. Russia… by Alexander Dugin

Alexander Dugin

In his Valdai keynote speech on 27 October 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin argued that:

“The direct threat to the political, economic and ideological monopoly of the West is that alternative social models may emerge in the world.”

Or even more starkly and definitively:

“I am convinced that true democracy in a multipolar world presupposes first of all the possibility for any people – I want to emphasise this – any society, any civilisation to choose its own way, its own socio-political system.”

If the United States and the European Union have this right, surely the Asian countries, the Islamic states, the Persian Gulf monarchies and the states of other continents also have it. Of course, our country, Russia, also has this right, and no one can ever impose on our people what kind of society we should build and on what principles.

Today, in Russia, it is only a matter of proposing an alternative social model to liberal democracy and building our own socio-political system. This very constructive step should be the next step in our strategy in the deployment of the acute civilisation war.

The foundation of this social model is necessarily the traditional values, which the President signed into law on 9 November 2022 (Decree No. 809). This is what such a model should be based on.

Here is a list of traditional values that are essentially national in nature today. These are the foundations of a sovereign ideology that is, in a way, obligatory for all Russian citizens.

Let us analyse this crucial code of the new operating system of Russian society in a little more detail. To quote Decree No. 809:

Traditional values include:

  1. life,
  2. dignity,
  3. human rights and freedom,
  4. patriotism, citizenship, service to the homeland and responsibility for its destiny,
  5. high moral ideals
  6. a strong family,
  7. constructive work,
  8. spiritual over material
  9. humanism,
  10. charity,
  11. justice,
  12. collectivism, mutual assistance and respect,
  13. historical memory and intergenerational continuity,
  14. unity of the peoples of Russia.

Continue reading: DECREE NO. 809: THE FOUNDATIONS OF A SOVEREIGN IDEOLOGY ARE LAID

Alexander Dugin