USA

KENNEDY: He said in his speech in 1963: "Where ignorance too often abounds and truth too seldom prevails, the most important subject we have is: world peace." Was it possible, as he said, "to create conditions so that weapons can finally be abolished"? According to Kennedy, the struggle for disarmament had been a matter for US governments since the 1920s. This has not been the case for very many of his successors.

UNITED NATIONS: MODERN TIMES prints here Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's speech to the UN Security Council in New York on 20 September 2023. He emphasizes that the UN Charter is the cornerstone of today's international legislation – which has not been followed in terms of peace and security in Ukraine. Lavrov also points out that the Ukrainian constitution states that the state is obliged to respect the Russians and other ethnic minorities. In Lavrov's view, it is the Western countries that do not want to overcome the deep crisis that has arisen in international relations. Here you have the opportunity to (and with ORIENTERINGs several articles) to read and evaluate yourself.

USA: Hanford is classified as one of America's most toxic sites. The author calls it a ticking bomb à la Chernobyl. This is the most expensive environmental remediation project the world has ever seen, and the most polluted place on the entire planet.

EQUIPMENT: That the rest of the world, apart from the West, does not stand on the side of Norway, the USA and NATO when it comes to Ukraine today, is not surprising when we know the centuries of looting and colonial times, followed by imperialist wars and Western-backed coups. It is still "war and weapons that create peace" that is the narrative. Stop the race to a possible world war!

PROPAGANDA: Leaked classified intelligence documents from the White House revealed in April that Ukraine was soon facing a dramatic defeat – quite different from the propaganda we had all long heard. In this essay, our regular writer, John Y. Jones, looks at the many sides of propaganda – as we are today increasingly surrounded by fake news, unsubstantiated claims and politically biased information.

PUBLIC: What we could previously describe as realpolitik possible is today not even possible to write about. Propaganda dominates the Norwegian public perhaps more than in any other country. The Norwegian authorities have been fooled around. The speech space has frozen.

iDEOLOGY: By agreeing on a suitable 'enemy', a disintegrated society finds coherence, energy and meaning. A totalitarian propaganda has led to the conclusion that Ukraine will now be allowed to use F-16 jets against the nuclear power Russia – with the major consequences this may entail.

ORIENTERING: Here we present a unique role model in Norwegian press history.

UKRAINE: There are many indications that the war in Ukraine has been provoked and desired by the USA and NATO. The mass media have turned into effective ideological institutions that perform a system-supporting propaganda function.

WEAPON SUPPORT: If the West gives more weapons to Ukraine, it only means that Russia's will continue to escalate the war. The consequence of the arms support is clear: It will not lead to Ukrainian victory, but to the destruction of Ukraine with hundreds of thousands of young Russians and Ukrainians killed.

AUTHORITARIAN: What happened after the height of freedom ideals, the fall of the Iron Curtain and Bill Clinton's fusion of liberal politics with market forces? Today, the Chinese's mastery of original Western technology and surveillance seems limitless.

USA / CHINA: Is the current systemic divide between the US and China insurmountable? According to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken: "Our relationship with China will be competitive when it should, cooperative when it can, and hostile when it has to." On the other hand, China is now led by a man who, according to book author Kevin Rudd, has considerable intellectual resources . Under his leadership, China has grown into a superpower.

Speaking of heads of state: Here are some of the darkest chapters in Norwegian press history in the intimate flirtation with fascism in the thirties – where Adolf Hitler's rise to power was welcomed. Moreover, later, a Norwegian prime minister paid tribute to Nixon, while the United States was behind abuse after abuse.

iDEOLOGY: MODERN TIMES brings, due to today's attention to Russia, a look at the Soviet Union 50 years ago. In the book from 1972, Herbert Marcuse describes and assesses the conditions, condition and possibilities of the Soviet Union – and Soviet Marxism as an ideology.

PHILOSOPHY: The immune democracy. According to the Italian philosopher Donatella Di Cwesare, there exists today a political culture ruled by the fear of the foreigner and the future, a sham democracy in favor of security, control and short-term competitive considerations. And those who consider themselves "liberal" today have suffered greatly in standing up to the irrational impulses and decisions that govern the market and the pursuit of short-term profit.

Military industry: NATO's new strategy document is a continuation of the neoconservative line after Anders Fogh Rasmussen's politicization of a group-run NATO 2009–2014. The new document reveals an ideological chasm between the old and the new NATO.