A strange and terrible transformation has been underway in the US for the past several years, since the beginning of the Obama administration.  This reality was driven home to me today when I saw on Twitter a photo of a young girl holding up a sign that read something like: “Drone strikes kill children like me.”  It made me sick inside to face the truth of her message.  The caption below read: “#ILoveObama because only 95% of his drone strikes kill civilians.”  This statistic is easily verified and it has been available for years now.  The wanton killing of innocents has proceeded with total impunity and the response from the US anti-war movement has been almost total silence. 

The vehemence and passion that not long ago animated the cause of peace has been drained from the ranks of activists to a truly shocking degree.  No one dares to criticize or speak out against the murderous policies of the Obama administration.  Or, rather, very few.  One must give credit to the few who speak out.  But, when contrasted with the level of anti-war activism during the Bush administration, the present outrage barely registers in the realm of public discourse.  It is tacitly accepted among the brainwashed, Prozacked minions and reinforced by corporate media, that to object to murders being carried out by a “Democratic” president is somehow bad form and should be stifled, repressed.  The horrors of the drone murders are not discussed in mainstream left circles.  Bourgeois embarrassment and self-censorship are the “appropriate” response when the topic is raised.  To point out that the drone murders have increased since the end of the Bush administration will elicit a stony and uncomfortable silence.  If you are impolite enough to raise this fact, you are encouraged by nonverbal social cues to “drop it”.  And so, the previously vigilant Left has fled from collective responsibility.  And the person who dares raise the topic of Obama’s penchant for blood, is held in immediate suspicion of being a Republican, a Libertarian (frightening!) or something akin to a “conspiracy theorist”. 

This strange and sinister modulation in political discourse has been somewhat gradual but, to someone like myself who spends a good deal of time away from the States, it has been sudden enough to create a creepy Stepford-like experience when I return.  There is no doubt that this development is pure evil.  The ability to dissociate from the extreme suffering of others is at the very heart of evil.  And the compliant sheeple in the States are certainly complicit in a terrible evil of the highest and most appalling variety.  One realizes when facing this dark transmutation in the American psyche that it is actually not really new.  The nation once looked on and cheered the genocide of the Indigenous population, an event unprecedented in human history.  But what makes this evaporation of basic human conscience so incredible is the Leftist cover that continues to support the ongoing psychotic outsourcing of violence around the globe. 

Not long ago, we Americans smiled broadly and triumphantly and spoke of “Hope” and “Change”.  Gone was Bush and the evil Cheney, who once embodied warmongering so perfectly that it was indeed irresistible to imagine that their exit could not fail to usher in an era of peace.  How wrong we were!  Obama set about immediately attacking Pakistan.  Not long after, it was Libya that found itself in the cross-hairs of this new devotee of “Exceptionalism”.  Gone were the Neocons.  But in their place were the humanitarian bombers, the acolytes of Brzezinsky–a new cold-blooded breed of absolutely amoral policy-makers who cared nothing for the suffering of others.  In February of 2014, we watched the US State Department launch a coup in Ukraine and install a Nazi clique.  We, the world citizens, noticed that the US mainstream media chose, with the determined viciousness of a propaganda wing, to ignore the glaring presence of Nazis in Kiev.  At first, it was simply denied.  But when it became impossible to deny (social media and alternative media sources could not be stifled), it was simply downplayed.  “Downplayed” is perhaps an understatement.  It was dismissed as irrelevant.  It was swept under the already filthy, bloodstained carpet.  My “leftist” friends were uncomfortable when I would raise the issue.  It was bad form–didn’t I know?!–to bring up such an inconvenient fact.  Didn’t I understand that our leftists in the White House should not be questioned, held to account or be confronted?  Again, what was I?–a Republican?! 

The sanitized evil is the worst because it can exist in its own bubble of sanctioned perfidy, unexplosed to reason or rational examination.  Self-censorship and partisan idiocy has succeeded in inoculating the masses against any urgent need for moral accountability.  American Exceptionalism under Left Cover has become probably the most potent form of Fascism the world has ever seen.  Deplorable offenses that would have elicited the calls for Bush’s impeachment  have been refashioned in acceptable leftist garb.  There is, of course, absolutely no substance in any political rhetoric in this present scenario.  One is simply advised not to question, not to criticize.  The lies about Russian aggression in Ukraine continue to go unchallenged in the public debate.  The sheeple fall into line with uncanny obsequiousness behind the genocidal program being carried out by John Kerry, Victoria Nuland, Barack Obama, et al. 

The horrific flood of images depicting the crushing of civilians in Eastern Ukraine is utterly ignored–willfully, programmatically–not only by the corporate media but by the people themselves.  They seem not at all curious to know what is really going on.  They are content to bury their snouts in the trough prepared for them by their corporate and political masters.  Such a degree of conformity would not have been possible under Bush.  He was too divisive a figure.  But Obama was a brand that commanded a far greater degree of loyalty.  And it is this present loyalty to a fascist agenda that has so unnerved me of late.  It has kept me up at night.  Tormented me.  It has been so shocking to see my friends become helpless idiots in the thrall of the Fascist Corporate Left Brand, to see their stubborn and bewildered expressions when confronted with the truth.  It has been like a nightmare.  They do not want to see the truth.  Or read about it, or entertain the possibility of truth.  They are comfortable in their complicity and in the neutered, dumbed down, “safe” (not safe for Ukrainians, Libyans, Syrians, Russians, Arabs, Palestinians!), utterly false and shamefully corrupted content that has been substituted for real public discussion. 

My American friends have been stolen from me. Or perhaps they have been willing participants all along.  Probably it is a lot of both.  And so I alternately pity them and vilify them.  Neither does much good.  The Stepford effect has taken hold on such a deep level that I doubt it is possible to get through to them.  And so the great Fascist Evil that has possessed the nation continues to control the minds of the willing participants with its bland, heartless, petty and smug delusions.  Are the American people accountable for the deaths in Gaza, Donbass, etc.?  Of course.  And yet, the obvious brainwashing has been so thorough and insidious that is difficult to condemn them.  But perhaps only condemnation will begin to wake them up.

The Roerich Bira Foundation is currently planning its first international conference for this coming June.  The topic is “Tenggerism and a New Culture of Development.”  Tenggerism will be quite unfamiliar to non-Mongolians.    During the time of the Mongolian Empire, Tenggerism functioned as a comprehensive belief system that took into account all spheres of human necessity: spiritual, economic, environmental and political.  It was a system under which all faiths were reconciled and by which the State administered to the needs of the people, promoting goodwill, cohesion and development.  Its foundational schema is simple and profound: three elements–Earth, Sky and Human Being–coexist in harmonic balance. 

This balance guides every aspect of human life.  Under Tenggerism, our regard for Mother Earth, our reliance on wisdom and law, and our interactions with one another are guided by this principle of Triadic Balance.  In this way,  the dignity of life is maintained and promulgated; the sacredness is never decoupled from the necessities of survival; and the well-being of the individual is the intrinsic concern of the society and vice versa.  While this belief system draws from pre-historical nomadic sources rooted in Mongolian and Turkic traditions, it presents itself now as eminently modern.  Its globalist perspective and holistic philosophical framework lends itself particularly well to the issues our planet now faces with regard to our environment, our economic and political governance, and our interpersonal and intrapersonal modes.  In short: the way we regard ourselves and one another, the way our social world is administered, and the way we interact with our planet are taken as a whole under Tenggerism.  And in this regard, Tenggerism merges quite naturally with the current understanding of development, which recognizes that true development can only occur when all these concerns are taken into account. 

The  celebrated work of Dr. Shagdaryn Bira elaborates the Tenggerist vision and elucidates its historical context.  However, Dr. Bira, himself a capable visionary, is also keen to point out the urgent relevance of Tenggerism to the current global situation.  His philosophical brilliance, exhaustive historical research and his visionary aspect earned him the coveted Denis Sinor Medal in 2002.  But Dr. Bira has never been one to rest on his laurels.  He has always intended that the message of his life’s work should reverberate in the sphere of general human discourse and provide illumination to our evolutionary path.  And it is with faith in his vision and in the utmost confidence in his cultural contributions that we will present our June conference.  The fact that it will be an international conference signals our understanding that any serious approach to the subject of development cannot fail to be international in scope.  Interdependence, long regarded as the lynchpin of human society, has never resonated as a concept quite so powerfully.  And never before has it been clearer that a serious development program must take into account the value of every individual and the importance of every aspect of human concern.  Development is an evolutionary principle inherent in human culture.  It is a natural and vital process that expresses our need to find solutions and to expand our possibilities.  As a process, it is too all-encompassing to be institutionalized, although many aspects may be served in various institutional settings.  At the essential level, development is a mindset, which, when inculcated in as many individuals as possible, produces the greatest results for the social order.

It is of paramount importance to the Foundation that this conference lead to direct action on multiple fronts.  We do not seek merely to gratify esoteric cravings or engage in empty theory.  The essence of our conference is action.  The essence of Tenggerism is life and in the continual observation that the requirements of life are best kept sacred by meeting them in a timely and balanced fashion.  Tenggerism is a call to action and an unshakeable understanding that best practices are always to be preferred.  In a sense, Tenggerism and development are nearly synonymous.   Our list of speakers reflects our guiding commitment to producing clear results.  From Korea, we will bring Prof. Kim Moon-Hwan, former president of Kookmin University in Seoul.  In addition to being an influential academic, Prof. Kim has been a key exponent in South Korea’s development over the past several decades.  His expertise is directly applicable to Mongolia’s present situation and his insights into the realities of development have global resonance.  We will undoubtedly learn much of value from Prof. Kim.  From Santa Clara University School of Law in the US, we will bring my father Prof. Philip J. Jimenez who has run a successful study-abroad program for nearly forty years.  His global perspective makes him uniquely qualified to consider the future of the international legal order.  As we enter a new era of globalism, one that is clearly evolving from a kind of hierarchy of regions to become a truly universal system, Prof. Jimenez’ observations will prove extremely useful.  From Austria, we will bring Karl von Habsburg whose record of humanitarian service exemplifies action.  His passionate commitment to the cause of culture and to the cause of the downtrodden and the underrepresented will add the clarion notes to our development chorus.  To hear him speak is to be moved to serve the human cause.  From Moscow, we will bring Dr. Viktor Frolov, who heads the scientific research wing of the International Centre of the Roerichs.  Dr. Frolov will emphasize the promise of vigorous and unfettered scientific activity in the development of human society.  From Tokyo, we will bring Prof. Yasuhei Taniguchi, whose was a founding member of appellate body of the World Trade Organization.  Prof. Taniguchi’s deeply humanist perspective on the role of justice in the area of global trade makes him a person of great interest to Mongolian jurists.  In October of 2013, we brought him to speak at the Mongolian National Legal Institute where he was very well-received.  At that same seminar was his colleague Prof. Mitsubishi Matsushita, also of the WTO.  Prof. Matsushita is himself a brilliant lecturer and we hope that he will join us in June as well.

The list is, at present, incomplete.  I should like very much to bring development experts from China.  That is, in fact, my must immediate and pressing task as Secretary-General.  The new regional mood of friendship and cooperation should be reflected faithfully in our program.  I am also hoping that Karl von Habsburg might help me contact potential speakers from Africa to come and offer their advice and share their experience.  Through Daniel Entin, head of the Roerich Museum in New York, I am hoping to connect with potential lecturers in Latin America.  There is much to be done in preparation for our conference.  But so much has already come together that I am personally astounded.  We are expecting Mongolian President Elbegdorj to deliver the introductory remarks!  His interest and considerable knowledge of Tenggerism and his deep respect for Dr. Bira will inform what will be undoubtedly a memorable address.  We are also most grateful to the Mongolian government for the use of the Parliament Building. 

It is our intention to produce a conference that will be of great interest to Mongolians who are now very engaged in the topics we will cover.  But a central aspect of the Foundation is internationalism and so it is our intention to resonate regionally and globally in our activities.  Additionally, it has been my aim from the beginning to bring world attention to Mongolia, a country that has given me so much.  Mongolia has much more to offer than minerals.  It has deep philosophical, political, spiritual and intellectual reserves which will add much to human progress.  In making such a contribution, Mongolia will simultaneously  invigorate its own development and the development of the planet.  We are very excited for this upcoming conference and we welcome any and all voices of goodwill who seek likewise to advance the cause of development.  By definition, development is all-embracing and truly leaves no one behind.

I am writing from the Roerich Museum and Shambhala Center in Ulaanbaatar.  Before me is the image of Rigden Djapo, a king of Shambhala.  He is clearly a warrior, he is in action, riding across the sky.  But he is attentive!– attended by fiery doves and watched over by the Buddha. 

I never would have thought when first I saw the image of this humble, dignified Museum in black and white photographs in my book on Roerich that this would be my office.  The past two years have flown by with some prodigious results and some lingering challenges, heartaches.  What exactly is our mission?  We seek to emphasize the importance of culture in shaping develolment.  Without inculcating certain principles on a cultural level–that is, deeply and on a level that governs every aspect of life–the evolutionary process of development will inevitably serve the few at the expense of the many.  It will become sclerotic.  The few will seek to deter the many from joining the process and advancing themselves. The oligarchs will contrive to stunt the process because they believe that free, open and meritocratic development would disadvantage them. 

That is how it is that development agencies, programs, organizations seem very often to make matters worse for those struggling the hardest.  The individuals behind them do not actually wish development in the true sense.  They wish to control development, to keep “others” in their place.  And to make a tidy profit.  They didn’t attend Harvard Business a school for nothing–even though it functions more as a social club than a school.  The oligarchical conspiracy is this: We must stay in control and allow nothing to grow unless it is under our auspices.  How is this achieved? First of all, it is achieved by any and all means necessary.  The saboteur of human potential will either dress itself in the garb of legitimacy or use fear and brute force to cover its illegitimate modes.  The slightest whiff of altruism will intoxicate the saboteurs into believing that they are good people.  Like a drug, when it wears off, it leaves the user in a state of anxiety and paranoia.  What if people find out what they are actually up to?  What if the poor fools really do manage to succeed at development?  Will our kind lose out?  Will “they” overtake “us”? 

How is it that the World Bank, while in the process of fighting poverty, will usually end up making things worse?  It is always easy to blame the downtrodden and easier still to walk away when there is no persons or body of persons who can hold them to account.  The glossy veneer of technocratic respectibility hypnotizes the media, the vast majority of the privileged and a good number of the disadvantaged who need desperately to believe hope is rational.  Where such slick maneuvers do not succeed in managing the developing peoples, brute force is never far behind.  Libya, Iran, Iraq, China, Russia . . . the list of countries who have either been beaten down by or continue to be harassed by the Western technocratic elite is quite long.  So far, only the BRICS have forged a reasonable opposition and alternative to the eugenics-minded, Anglo-American dominated West.  And so, true development, and a true world order, has a chance of succeeding. 

But, certainly, the struggle is far from over. The term “development” needs to be taken back from the technocrats and given new meaning, or, restored to its original meaning.  This requires that each person rennovate the concept within themselves and encourage one another to do so.  We must recognize the ambition for development in ourselves and in others, and we must encourage, foster and engage in mutual aid and teamwork.  The disinformation campaign has been singularly focused on confusing us, causing us to doubt our senses and one another.  It has largely separated us from basic knowledge of right and wrong–or at least, it has separated from the sense that right and wrong have any serious meaning.  The fascist oligarchy has hoped to keep the world largely stupid and dependent on their expertise.  It has depended, indeed, upon abject stupidity.  For how else is it possible to get healthy young people to go and die in wars that are predicated on a cruel and blatant hoax like 9/11?  This has gone well beyond jingoism.  This has resulted in a pathological alteration and abuse of human psychology. 

The big problem is: the oligarchs have no vision, only insatiable desire.  Those who has sought to control and exploit have very little idea of what it takes, in the long run, to develop as a species, with other species within the given paradigm of Earth and Sky.  As the innocent are ground down into hopeless poverty or else shredded literally in the streets of Donetsk, as economic imbalances attain cartoonist proportions, as lies are pushed forth and no truth is repressed, we must face the reality that the present program must have a dead-end.  And it is only intelligent to assume that the forces that will bring us to this dead-end will have no idea of what to do in the face of extinction–or they would have been doing it all along.  The IMF has no clue, the World Bank has no clue, the CFR and Bilderberg have no clue.  The great vacuum of the UN clueless.  They are an Apartheid organization that routinely shuts out and shuts up our 300 million Indigenous and does not defend them in any appreciable way.  They are a political organization, created for political reasons. 

The concept of development has been weaponized.  So, we must rediscover the concept and passionately pursue its realization.  Development can no longer be allowed to function as a tool of manipulation by Anglo-American interests.  We must embrace it as and fundamental aspect of human culture.  We must promote it on a spiritual level, in the sciences, in the full realization of art that does not merely stand by and lament.  We must promote it in our families and among our friends.  And in those moments of reflection that development requires, we may find our own deeper nature.  We will uncover the meaning of life for ourselves.  This is the work of our Roerich Bira Foundation: to inspire a universal culture of development.  Harmony is not a static proposition.  It moves us forward in a river of melody and in the elaboration of themes.  What we must be clear about is that evil exists.  It exists as anything that might thwart this natural life impulse.  And only a CULTURE OF DEVELOPMENT can guide us as we attempt to steer away from tragedy and loss.  Joy is our destiny.  Confusion in this regard is unnecessary.  How wonderful it is to work until late in the afternoon in this lovely historic museum, to watch the sun’s beams penetrate these icy windows and illuminate this sacred space.  At these moments, I know Shambhala is near!