Mark Hackard is an independent foreign policy analyst. He earned a BA in Russian Language from Georgetown University and an MA in Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies from Stanford University. Mark’s online project The Soul of the East is to ensure the valuable aspects of Russian political and religious thought are made available to English speakers. We’ll discuss the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky and his encounters with liberalism, socialism and revolution. Mark tells about Dostoevsky’s time in Petrashevsky Circle, followed by his experience in a Siberian prison camp, and then his stance after his release from exile. We switch focus to discuss the novel Demons, which Mark calls Dostoevsky's great counter-revolutionary novel where he portrays ideas and ideological foundations as demonic. Further, we discuss dialectics and the strategy of tension. We’ll discuss how the dialectic is used by revolutionaries to drive society in a specific direction. Mark points out that Dostoevsky’s novels were prophetic. Mark describes how liberalism leads to tyranny, pondering the thoughts of Plato who described how democracy leads to tyranny. Later, we’ll contemplate Dostoevsky and Nietzsche’s concepts of a Superman or Übermensch. Moving on, we’ll discuss how the west has embraced disembodied distractions and as Dostoevsky would say, the plan is to turn us into an obedient herd of sub-humans. We end on the American experiment and weaponized ideologies currently in action, invented by the elite for control purposes.
Lana was born of Russian American ancestry. She is the host of Radio 3Fourteen and contributes political/social commentary in the form of articles and videos. Additionally, she offers her view on current news & entertainment in Red Ice TV's livestream show on Saturdays. Lana also owns her own organic clothing line called Lana's Llama. She is passionate about European identity politics, ancestral traditions and health. She lives with her husband in Sweden and part time in America. @LanaLokteff
