-Caveat Lector-
Das Goat wrote:
>>BTW, when in history has a ruling oligarchy ever "let events unfold
naturally"? LOL
>2. the situation is now the individual vs the State and is being carried
by
events
>We are essentially observers.to the tide of future history.
The best we can hope for, IMHO, is that an influential segment of the
general
public will be able to RECOGNIZE what's going on and at least not be
"hoodwinked" by the State.<<
Since I'm not nearly as articulate or poetic as Goat, I'd just like to post
the following excerpt from an article one of LaRouche's associates wrote
about his research into how the oligarchy of Venice controlled the destiny
of the age in which it lived, and has actually perpetuated itself into the
present day. The evil that we see everywhere we looked is the same evil
that existed in the 15th Century, the 14th and back as far as you want to
go.
The problem in dealing with this evil is that "normal" people conceive of
evil in terms of minor vice and cannot conceive of the massive proportions
to which an oligarchy will go to preserve its mode of existence.
Below is a small excerpt only from the article, but I recommend reading it
in its entirety. The site will also take you to other articles in the
series written by Don Phau, who, by the way, was one of the LaRouche
associates imprisoned for several years by LaRouche enemies.
Linda Minor
"The Venetian method is the method of not taking sides, but playing sides
against one another, to one's advantage. You go into a country, you go among
a people, you go to an individual person, and you corrupt them by knowing
the principle of corruption which is imbedded in every person. That
principle of corruption is the person's self-ego as an autonomous ego, as a
microcosm, in counterposition, in struggle, against the macrocosm. Not the
individual as a part of a macrocosm, as a reflection of the macrocosm; not
the individual as imago Dei--in the image of God the Creator--but the
individual as a sensual creature in war against not all but the all, to
correct the ordinary reading of Hobbes.
Once you understand that method, you can see the examples of how that method
is consciously applied by the Venetians, in philosophy and elsewhere. That
is what empiricism is, what materialism is, in the form in which people like
Pompanazzi, Gasparo Contarini, and so forth, introduced it [into western
philosophical thinking]. " ---Lyndon LaRouche
http://members.tripod.com/~american_almanac/venphau1.htm
Venice: The Methodology of Evil -- Part I
by Donald Phau
Printed in The American Almanac, May 16, 1994.
<snip>
Venice's navy was the power which was the basis for its domination of world
trade from the thirteenth century to the beginning of the sixteenth century.
With its geographical location, Venice controlled all commerce between the
East and the West. All trade with India, China, and the Mideast, unless it
went on dangerous routes over land, went through Venice. The Venetian State
controlled all commerce, i.e., it was hardly an example of free enterprise.
Clement writes:
``Private owners of vessels were not allowed to send cargoes to ports where
Venice sent fleets. Vessels were built and fitted out by the State, and put
up at auction to be bidden for by the merchants, the voyages all being made
according to regulations, and a good share of the profits paid to the State.
Private owners were licensed before freightening a ship, and no ship not
commanded by a Venetian was permitted to sail from the lagoons. Ships of war
guarded the mouths of the rivers, and all foreign vessels were liable to
inspection. All kinds of goods carried in Venetian ships were obliged to be
taken to Venice before they could be sent to any other port.''
...
Venice used every trick and deceit to try to play off one nation against the
other to regain her empire. Her main weapon was her diplomats. At the
beginning, Venice formulated one strategy to ally with France against the
Holy Roman Emperor, Maximillian. In return, France would aid her in
reconquering her lost cities. Part of her strategy, which we will focus on,
was to keep England, a growing power, neutral.
In 1515, the Serenissima sent one of her most capable diplomats, Sebastian
Giustinian, to London. Giustinian's diplomatic dispatches provide an insight
into the ``principle of evil'' at work. The ambassador's task was to profile
England's new King, Henry VIII, and his court, gain Henry's confidence and
manipulate him to Venice's ends. In one of his first dispatches from London,
he acknowledges his instructions to act with deceit to accomplish his
mission. He writes:
``I shall keep well on the watch to learn everything, and will endeavour to
ingratiate myself well with these lords, and of the result, my letters shall
inform your sublimity.''
Guistinian's assignment to England came at a transition point in Venice's
strategy for control of Europe. With the opening of the route around
southern Africa in 1498, the center of world trade had shifted north from
Vnice, to England and the Netherlands. We have already discussed the effects
of the League of Cambrai on the Serenissima: Now, Venice hatched a plan to
regain her empire, beginning with the Italian cities of Brescia and Verona,
with the help of Francis I of France, who Giustinian visits on the way to
his new post in the court of Henry VIII.
Now in London, Giustinian's ability to ``ingratiate'' himself is immediately
apparent in his masterful dealing with the new Portuguese ambassador who
comes to the court. The new ambassador is young and is easily manipulated.
They meet over dinner. Immediately, the Portuguese ambassador accuses Venice
of siding with the Turks to disrupt the spice trade Portugal has just
established with India.
,,,
Ambassador Giustinian's final report to the Senate analyzing his mission is
an excellent source document to understand how Venice ``represents a
principle of evil.'' At first the reader is surprised that the report
devotes barely one paragraph to the monarch of England, Henry VIII.
Giustinian writes:
``He is affable, gracious, harms no one, does not covet his neighbour's
goods and is satisfied with his own dominions.''
Shortly, however, the reader learns why the ambassador gives such short
shrift to Henry. His target is Cardinal Wolsey, Henry's Lord Chancellor.
Next we see how a master intelligence operative works.
Giustinian writes of Wolsey:
``He is of low origin: He has two brothers, one of whom holds an untitled
benefice, and the other is pushing the fortune.
``This Cardinal is the person who rules both the King and the entire
kingdom. On the ambassador's first arrival in England, he used to say to
him,--`His Majesty will do so and so: subsequently, by degrees, he went
forgetting himself, and commenced saying, `We shall do so and so'; at this
present he has reached such a pitch that he says, `I shall do so and so.'|''
``He is about forty-six years old, very handsome, learned, extremely
eloquent, of vast ability, and indefatigable. He, alone, transacts the same
business as that which occupies all the magistracies, offices, and councils
of Venice, both civil and criminal; and all state affairs, likewise, are
managed by him, let their nature be what it may.''
Having shown that Cardinal Wolsey is the real power in England, Guistinian
continues his report. First we learn of the good side of the Cardinal.
``He is pensive, and has the reputation of being extremely just: He favours
the people exceedingly, and especially the poor; hearing their suits, and
seeking to despatch them instantly; he also makes the lawyers plead gratis
for all paupers.''
What follows next is key, and a perfect example of the Venetian method as
described by Lyndon LaRouche:
``You go to an individual person, and you corrupt them by knowing the
principle of corruption which is imbedded in every person.''
The cardinal has invited Giustinian to his palace for dinner. The ambassador
uses the opportunity to ``case the joint.'' Like a thief planning his
robbery in advance, he commits to memory every item of value in sight, even
the items in the cardinal's bedroom:
``He is in very great repute--seven times more so than if he were Pope. He
has a very fine palace, where one traverses eight rooms before reaching his
audience chamber, and they are all hung with tapestry, which is changed once
a week. He always has a sideboard of plate worth 25,000 ducats, wherever he
may be; and his silver is estimated at 150,000 ducats. In his own chamber
there is always a cupboard with vessels to the amount of 30,000 ducats, this
being customary with the English nobility.
``He is supposed to be very rich indeed, in money, plate, and household
stuff.''
The above is only one side of the equation. Giustinian then reports on the
sources of the cardinal's income:
``The archbishopric of York yields him about 14,000 ducats; the bishopric of
Bath 8,000. One-third of the fees derived from the great seal are his; the
other two are divided between the King and the Chancellor. The Cardinal's
share amounts to about 5,000 ducats. By the new year's gifts, which he
receives in like manner as the King, he makes some 15,000 ducats.''
The reader should now put himself in the seat of a Venetian senator
listening to Giustinian as he gives his report. The senator has quickly
determined that just the value of the items visible in the cardinal's palace
alone are four times his annual income. How is this possible?
The answer is obvious. Perhaps the cardinal will accept a bribe from the
Signory. Like Mephistopheles, Venice seeks to purchase the cardinal's soul.
The ambassador next proposes the deal.
``Cardinal Wolsey is very anxious for the Signory to send him one hundred
Damascene carpets, for which he asked several times, and expected to receive
them by the last galleys. The ambassador urged the Senate to make this
present.... This present might make him pass a decree in our favour, and, at
any rate, it would render the Cardinal friendly to our nation in other
matters; for no one obtains audience from him unless at the third or fourth
attempt.''
Giustinian ended his mission to England successfully. England kept out of
any alliances with continental Europe against Venice. During his mission,
1515 through 1519, his friendship with Henry VIII came close to rupturing.
Once, Henry angrily accused the ambassador of ``perfidy,'' suspecting that
Venice was secretly allying with England's enemies. Giustinian, however,
calmly replied, placating Henry's anger.
The ambassador, retelling the incident later, in a dispatch to Venice,
writes,
``The nature of the time, most serene Prince, requires this, an observance
of an old proverb, which enjoins kissing the hand we are unable to cut
off.''
A few years later, Henry fell under total control of his Venetian advisers.
Later in this series we will report on the consequences: Henry VIII's
divorce from Catherine of Aragon and the shattering of the English-Spanish
alliance, his break with the Catholic Church, and the years of religious
wars which followed.
<snip>
References
Clement, Clara Erkstine, Venice, Queen of the Adriatic. Boston: C.H. Simonds
& Co., 1893.
Brown, Rawdon, Four Years in the Court of Henry VIII, (2 volumes). London:
Smith, Elder & Co., 1854.
http://members.tripod.com/~american_almanac/contents.htm#venice
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