“All the NewsrnUnfit to Print” igns; of tlje tKimesirnVol.1 No. 10 October 1999rnTwenty years after being exiled fromrnthe Soviet Union, Alexander Zinovyev—rnone of the most prominent living Europeanrnauthors—has decided to leave hisrnadopted homeland, France, and to returnrnto Russia. His reasons are summarized inrnthe title of a long interview in Le FigarornMagazine: “The West has become totalitarian”rn(July 24). While he was thunderingrndissent in Brezhnev’s Russia, Zinovyevrnwas lionized by the Americanrnestablishment. His novels were translated,rnpublished, and prominently reviewed.rnHis views on the contemporary West,rnhowever, are unfit to print on this side ofrnthe Atlantic:rnToday we know that the Cold Warrnwas the climax of Western h i s ­tory.rnMaterial abundance,rnmeaningful freedoms, socialrnprogress, huge technical andrns c i e n t i f i c achievements. Butrnthe West was changing, almostrnimperceptibly. Early integrationrnof the developed countrnr i e s was the harbinger ofrnglobalization of the economyrnand p o l i t i c s that we are witnessingrntoday, based on v e r t i ­calrnstructures dominated byrnsupranational power. . . . Thernend of communism was the end ofrndemocracy. We are living notrnonly in post-communism but a l ­sornin post-democracy. We arernwitnessing the establishmentrnof democratic totalitarianism,rnor, better s t i l l , t o t a l i t a r i anrndemocracy.rnAccording to Zinovyev, “democraticrntotalitarianism” exercises ideological controlrnover its citizens far more effectivelyrnthan communism or fascism ever did.rnIdeas are less important than the mechanismrnof their dissemination. Today’srnWestern media, Zinovyev argues, arernmore powerful shapers of human mindsrnthan the Vatican at the peak of its influence,rnand he warns that there is now butrnone ideology, which serves as the ultimaternsource of political power:rnWestern ideology combines andrnd i r e c t s ideas as required, onrnthe assumption that Westernrnvalues and way of l i f e are superiorrnto a l l others. And yet,rnfor most people of t h i s planet,rnthose values are f a t a l . Try tornt e l l an American that Russia isrndying from them! By maintainingrnthat Western values arernuniversal, the media and Westernrnp o l i t i c i a n s become steepedrnin ideological dogmatism whichrnmakes i t possible for them tornimpose i t on the rest of thernworld. . . . It is enough tornswitch on the TV s e t , to go tornthe movies, to open a bestsrne l l e r , to l i s t e n to the ubiquitousrnmusic, and y o u ‘ l l findrnthem propagating the cult ofrnsex, violence and money. Noblernslogans about tolerance andrnrespect for others are concealingrnthose three p i l l a r s ofrnt o t a l i t a r i a n democracy.rnLiberalism is dead, according to Zinovyev:rnThere is no real personal initiativernand no personal risk left in the world ofrnhuge financial conglomerates. The importancernof the individual, once the cornerstonernof liberalism, has diminished. Itrndoesn’t matter who is at the helm of onerncountry or another—Bush or Clinton,rnKohl or Schroeder, Chirac or Jospin. Theyrnconduct the same policy. They all joinedrnin the war against Yugoslavia, he says, butrnin doing sornWestern European countriesrnwere waging war against Europe.rnSerbia was chosen becauserni t r e s i s t s the globalistrnsteamroller. Russia may be thernnext, before China. The nextrncentury will exceed in horrorsrneverything we’ve seen in history.rn. . . The nations thatrnhave created our c i v i l i z a t i o n -rnI mean the Latin nations f i r s trnand foremost-will graduallyrndisappear. Western Europe isrndeluged by foreigners. This isrnneither accidental, nor . . .rnspontaneous. The objective isrnto create in Europe [a] situationrnsimilar to that in thernUnited States. The r e a l i z a ­tionrnthat Humanity will be happy,rnbut without any Frenchmenrnl e f t alive, should not be arnsource of joy to today’srnFrench.rnAn unheralded step in the direction ofrnthis particular variety of the end of historyrnis the creation of a new U.S. governmentrnagency—the International Public InformationrnGroup—which is designed to “influencernforeign audiences” in support ofrnU.S. foreign policy and to counteract propagandarnby enemies of the United States.rnAccording to a report in the WashingtonrnTimes (July 28),rnThe aim is “to enhance U.S. security,rnbolster America’s economicrnprosperity and to promoterndemocracy abroad,”rnaccording to the IPI Core GrouprnCharter . . . the charter alsornsays that IPI control over “internationalrnmilitary information”rnis intended to “influencernthe emotions, motives,rnobjective reasoning and u l t i ­matelyrnthe behavior of foreignrngovernments, organizations,rngroups and individuals.”rnAccording to the Charter, the Clintonrnadministration hopes to encourage thernUnited Nations and other international organizationsrnto make “effective use of IPIrn. . . in support of multilateral peacekeeping.”rnOn April 30, at the height of the warrnagainst Serbia, President Clinton issued arnsecret Presidential Decision Direction—rnPDD 68—ordering the creation of the IPI.rnThe Washington Times points out thatrnNumerous clauses in the documentrnhave an Orwellian ringrnthat gives the impression of arnvast, coordinated propagandarn22/CHRONICLESrnrnrn