Horrifying article from Financial Times of 30/31 July on absurd uses of wireless technology to “help” bees and other insects. Are these people actually trying deliberately to destroy the bee population, upon which “about a third of the food we eat every day” apparently depends? Insect devastation is blamed on “us”, “we”, “our” gardening habits and “tastes”(!), use of pesticides, and of course on climate change and elusive pathogens. If you change your behaviour and use an app to design your garden then the bees will magically come back.

Very Interesting account of “colony collapse disorder”/”Isle of Wight disease”, with obvious but important implications, from The Invisible Rainbow, pp. 141–150. “Beekeepers the world over are still poisoning their bees against parasites that are not killing them”. Almost everyone assumed Isle of Wight disease was infectious, and when Graham Smith found a parasite called Nosema apis in the stomachs of some diseased bees, most people thought the mystery had been solved. However, this theory was soon disproven.

Interesting talk about ecofascism by Dave Emory: It is tempting to draw the conclusion that even the most reprehensible political undertakings sometimes produce laudable results. But the real lesson here is the opposite: Even the most laudable of causes can be perverted and instrumentalised in the service of criminal savagery.

I’ve been looking through some RAND Corporation papers recently, not especially thoroughly, just trying to catch up a little bit. I regret not reading these kinds of things more often and thinking about their contents (and organising documents properly so that I can find things). RAND conducts research on behalf of US government, military and intelligence, so one has to read between the lines a little bit (when they say that a pandemic is an existential threat, it is not out of concern for your wellbeing).

Notes on the “theory” of Fascism.
“Behind the ranting megalomaniacs, bullies, drug-fiends and broken-down bohemians who constitute the outer façade of Fascism, the business heads of finance-capital who pay the costs and pull the strings are perfectly cool, clear and intelligent.” The innocent may solemnly and painstakingly discuss at face value these miscellaneous “theories” provided to suit all tastes, but they are simply decoration and stage-play to cover and make presentable or attractive the reactionary aims of Fascism, which cannot be openly stated.

The view of modern finance-capital on the roles of Social Democracy and Fascism: “both perform similar functions in that they both…instead of leading the masses to the revolution proclaimed by them, led them to the new formation of bourgeois rule.” “National Socialism has taken over from Social Democracy the task of providing the mass support for the rule of the bourgeoisie in Germany.” Such is the exposition of the private thought of the finance-capitalist oligarchy on the role of its two instruments.

Below is some very interesting material put together by Dutt concerning the development of US imperialism and the way in which the current American Empire differs from the old British Empire (excerpted from The Crisis of Britain and the British Empire, pp. 147–184). America has embarked on a career of imperialism in world affairs and in every other aspect of her life. England will become a junior partner in a new Anglo-Saxon imperialism in which the United States will be the centre of gravity.

Leontiev: “Tremendous masses of workers starving while the warehouses are full—this is the picture of capitalist crisis.” proletarianonline.org/product-page/p… Gigantic crashes have become inevitable because powerful social productive forces have become subordinated to a gang of rich men whose only concern is to make profits.

Some important writing on Labour Imperialism/Fabian Imperialism from R. Palme Dutt’s “The Crisis of Britain and the British Empire” (1953). The manifesto of Fabian Imperialism favoured the interests of what was euphemistically termed “international civilisation.”