Regardless of how they earned their great wealth, the Watchdog holds in highest esteem the philanthropic efforts of three great role models: Andrew Carnegies who funded libraries across the country as well as Carnegie Hall; John D. Rockefeller who is largely responsible for modern medicine; and George Soros who has championed democracy and justice and, at a critical juncture upon the fall of the Soviet Union, protected the world from nuclear proliferation.
According to Wikipedia, “In 2003, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker wrote in the foreword of Soros’ book The Alchemy of Finance: ‘George Soros has made his mark as an enormously successful speculator, wise enough to largely withdraw when still way ahead of the game. The bulk of his enormous winnings is now devoted to encouraging transitional and emerging nations to become ‘open societies,’ open not only in the sense of freedom of commerce but – more important – tolerant of new ideas and different modes of thinking and behavior.’”
Soros has provided The New York Review of Books with a personally revealing and forward looking article entitled “My Philanthropy” in their June 23, 2011 edition. Like other successful leaders who anticipate soon leaving us, Soros seeks to both justifies his own life (perhaps to himself more than others), provides guidance concerning the future operations his Open Society Institute, and forthrightly states what he considers to be current abuse of the democratic process.
Soros writes:
“I have made it a principle to pursue my self-interest in my business, subject to legal and ethical limitations, and to be guided by the public interest as a public intellectual and philanthropist. If the two are in conflict, the public interest ought to prevail. I do not hesitate to advocate policies that are in conflict with my business interests. I firmly believe that our democracy would function better if more people adopted this principle. And if they care about a well-functioning democracy, they ought to abide by this principle even if others do not. Just a small number of public-spirited figures could make a big difference…
“Deliberately misleading propaganda techniques can destroy an open society. Nazi propaganda methods were powerful enough to destroy the Weimar Republic. Different but in some ways similar methods have been used in the United States and further refined. Although democracy has much deeper roots in America than in Germany, it is not immune to deliberate deception, as the Bush administration demonstrated. You cannot wage war against an abstraction; yet the war on terror remains a widely accepted metaphor even today…
“… Newspeak is extremely difficult to contradict because it incorporates and thereby preempts its own contradiction, as when Fox News calls itself fair and balanced. Another trick is to accuse your opponent of the behavior of which you are guilty, like Fox News accusing me of being the puppet master of a media empire. Skillful practitioners always attack the strongest point of their opponent, like the Swiftboat ads attacking John Kerry’s Vietnam War record. Facts do not provide any protection, and rejecting an accusation may serve to have it repeated; but ignoring it can be very costly, as John Kerry discovered in the 2004 election.”
The Watchdog has had the privilege of working with Soros’ Open Society Institute in the international realms of drug policy reform and harm reduction and also in addressing and mitigating the plight of Hungarian Romas (Gypsies). He joked with Aryeh Neier, president of the Open Society Institute, that the Watchdog is one of George Soros’s vice presidents, except Soros doesn’t know it.
Soros is not alone among leaders who late in life seek to explain his political activism and philanthropy and to continue their good works. It is just that his accomplishments are on a scale a hundred times greater.
How naive. John D. Rockefeller indeed brought us modern medicine, which is the third leading cause of death in the country (AMA Journal, July, 2000). He did this by selectively funding future doctors and med schools willing to embrace synthetic drugs. The Rockefellers had invested heavily in the emerging chemical industry.
Soros followed the same pattern. Toss away a few hundred million for “charity” and reap trillions from this “philanthropy” later on.
Two things define Soros. First, his Hungarian Jewish family changed its surname for political purposes to something vaguely Greek. Young George made his mark early, by assisting Nazis in appropriating valuables from other Jews.
Second, Soros controls the company that makes those portable x-ray machines that are now standard features in airports. If Soros could have patented the “groping” by TSA goons so brainwashed in anti-terrorism they now terrorize millions of innocent citizens. Look at the man’s face and tell me you find benevolence, or even humanity.
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