By Matthew Ehret After taking an assessment of American foreign policy failures over the past four decades, it is easy to understand why one might become depressed or disenchanted with the prospects of cooperation and peace amongst these two historic allies. However, as Martin Luther King Jr said, it is “Only in the darkness that…
African Infrastructure Renaissance along The Belt and Road – Case Study: Egypt
By Hussein Askary Overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its undeniable devastating effects on almost every nations’ economic and social wellbeing, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) remained alive and kicking. And, in contrast to some bizarrely gleeful reports in Western and Swedish media about the potential collapse of the BRI due to the pandemic, the train of the…
Save Lake Chad with Transaqua: Nkrumah and FDR Would Concur
By Lawrence Freeman In 1943, after having flown over the Sahara Desert on his way to a Casablanca conference with Winston Churchill, President Franklin Roosevelt remarked to his son Elliott, that with the recreation of a lake in the depressed flats in North Africa, “The Sahara would bloom for hundreds of miles.” He also reminded…
A Mission for Africa: Past, Present and Future
By Nicholas Jones This article was written in conjunction with a lecture which is available here. Africa is a continent of enormous potential, cultural wealth and with the worlds youngest population, it is simply bursting at the seams for much needed development in all sectors of society. Take Ghana as a shining example: Since the…
The Poetic Principle in the World of the I Ching: Mankind’s Long Journey to Reason and Beauty
In this lecture Dr. Quan Le focuses on the I Ching, the first Confucian Classic (of five: Yi Jing, Shu Jing, Shi Jing, Chun Qiu and Zhou Li) which magnificently embodies the poetic principle famously outlined by Shelley, centuries later, in his Defense of Poetry which re-asserted that Poets are the true legislators of the world….
The Spirit of Win-Win Cooperation: 15-19th Century Diplomatic Success of China
Although it is well known that China has become the world’s largest and fastest growing economy in the world- outpacing the USA since the unveiling of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, it is too often forgotten that this dominant position is not new, but merely a return to the “normal” state of world…
Paul Robeson: His Life as an Unfinished Symphony
Many know of the name Paul Robeson as a great baritone singer and actor of the early 20th century… but few know of Paul Robeson as the cultural warrior, renaissance man and world citizen who created the foundations for the civil rights movement, played a leading role in the international anti-colonial freedom struggle, or anti-fascist…
Remembering John F. Kennedy’s Vision for the Future that Should Have Been
By Matthew Ehret “Man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe….” President Kennedy, 1961 Inaugural Address Where China and Russia are currently leading a…
V.I. Vernadsky and the American System in Russia
As the dust settled on the American Civil war in 1865, Russia took pride in the fact that this Eurasian nation turned the tide in favor of Lincoln’s cause of preserving the union and abolishing the institution of slavery. Czar Alexander II was also known as “The Great Liberator” for liberating the serfs in 1861…
A Look Into Halton Arp’s “Peculiar Galaxies” and its Implications for the World We Live In
By Matthew Ehret National Geographic Magazine recently covered a widely publicized scientific study which supposedly proved how and when our universe would die. National Geographic stated: “Physicists believe that countless billions of years from now, after all the stars have burned out, the universe will be a cold, dark expanse where nothing of interest happens,…
The Curse of Game Theory: Why It’s in Your Self-Interest to Exit the Rules of the Game
By Cynthia Chung Game theory, the mathematical theory of games of strategy, was developed by John von Neumann in several successive stages in 1928 and 1940-41, according to his book “Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour” which he co-authored with Oskar Morgenstern. The crux of the theory is that an individuals’ behaviour will always be…
The Art of War in the 21st Century
By Cynthia Chung Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is one of the most influential books written on military strategy and philosophy. This is not confined to just Asians but Europeans and Americans alike have attempted to study The Art of War hoping its wisdom would be revealed to them. However, it is clear with…
Why the Revival of Classical Painting is Imperative Today (Rising Tide Interview with Patrick Cyr)
In this interview, Quebec-based classical painter and art instructor Patrick Cyr talks with Rising Tide Foundation Director Matthew Ehret about the importance of classical thinking the need to revive the lost techniques of classical painting in order to bridge the artificial gulf separating the arts and sciences in today’s age. Patrick’s website can be found…
Why Must Aesthetics Govern A Society Worthy Of Political Freedom? Ask the CIA
By Matthew Ehret In the mid-1990s, a series of exposés featured on the London Independent and elsewhere brought a dark secret to light. Many were startled by the revelation that the entire evolution of 20th century modern art was directed in large measure by the CIA! This not only included the direct financing of abstract painters like Jackson Pollock…
A Harmony of Interests: Inquiries into the True Nature of the American System
What ideas will shape the next centuries of human civilization as our species begins to confront the reality of our collective self-interest living on the earth? The use of the atomic for either peaceful or warlike purposes has given our species for the first time in history the dual potential to destroy all life as…
Symposium: Renaissance Across the Ages
While all living beings are mortal, only human kind has access to the self-awareness of its own mortality. With this knowledge of our own finiteness, we may become cynical and fearful pessimists wallowing in despair and nihilism or we may choose to embrace a higher set of goals and principles for the identity we shape…
Why the Poetic Principle is Imperative for Statecraft
Cynthia Chung Today, perhaps more so than at any time in history, we are experiencing a divide between what is considered to be the “domain” or “confinement” of art as wholly separate from the domain of “politics.” The irony of such a perception is its failure to recognise that the root of our political system…
How to Conquer Tyranny: A Lesson from Plato
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Plato’s Letter VII Plato to Dion’s associates and friends wishes well-doing. You write to me that I must consider your views the same as those of Dion, and you urge me to aid your cause so far as I can…
The Historic Clash of Two Opposing Paradigms: Gilpin’s Landbridge vs. Mahan’s World Maritime Empire
By Matthew Ehret Compared the great initiatives taken on behalf of freedom and anti colonialism throughout the past 260 years, today’s America appears to be a strange and foolish creature running roughshod over the dignity of people and nations in a race for mass nuclear extermination. Such is the image projected by Mike Pompeo’s anti-China…
Kennedy’s U.S.-Russia Joint Space Vision Must Be Revived
By Matthew Ehret September 20th marks the anniversary of the last speech John F Kennedy delivered to the United Nations’ General Assembly. This event bears more relevance upon our present crisis than most people could possibly imagine. This is true not only because it is wise to pay homage to great ideas of the past which lesser souls…
The Day the World Stood Still: A Story of the First Atomic Bomb and Our Perpetual Cold War
By Cynthia Chung Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;And thus the native hue of resolutionIs sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,And enterprises of great pith and momentWith this regard their currents turn awry,And lose the name of action. – Shakespeare’s Hamlet Act III, scene I [This paper works as a follow-up…
On Roosevelt and Stalin: What Revisionist Historians Want Us to Forget
By Cynthia Chung “Madman, thou errest. I say, there is no darkness but ignorance” – William Shakespeare (Twelfth Night) There is a very real attempt to rewrite history as we speak. A history that is at the root of what organises our world today, for it is understood that who controls the past, will have control…
To What Purpose do We Seek the Beautiful?
Class by Cynthia Chung. We all have something that comes to mind when we are speaking of beauty. It is certain that almost everyone right now is thinking of something different from the person next to them about what is beautiful. Everyone seeks out beauty, But if we cannot explain why we think something is…
Norman Rockwell & the Rediscovery of America’s Moral Compass
By Matthew Ehret A great poet once said that you can judge a nation by how it honors (or fails to honor) its artists. In many ways, the soul of a nation is entirely shaped by the artists which that society has produced. This makes perfectly good sense, as an artist is able to portray…
How to Save a Republic Part One: Hamilton’s Genius
By Matthew Ehret Today’s world calls out desperately for a systemic change. This means not only a change in thinking about diplomacy, the superiority of win-win cooperation over “might makes right”, but it also means a change in thinking about value itself. Everyone agrees that money is useful and few people would say that they…
How to Save a Republic Part Two: Lincoln and the Greenbacks
By Matthew Ehret In my last paper I introduced the figure of Alexander Hamilton (first Treasury Secretary and founder of the American System of political economy). I reviewed how America was saved from an early dismemberment in the early years of chaos after 1783’s Peace of Paris which finally ended the war with Britain but left…
How to Save a Republic Part Three: In Defense of Patriotism
By Matthew Ehret “Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend, will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof shuts out the sky.” – Marquis St. Evrémonde (from Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities) A major cultural fight has broken out in the USA…
The Silk Road Roots of America and the American Roots of the New Silk Road
Upon reading this title, I can only imagine a reader asking: How could a young nation that only existed since 1776 be responsible for an idea which has its roots in a program that dates back over two millenia? Of course I am not implying that that America created the ancient Silk Road, but what…
Life at the End of an Empire: St. Augustine’s Fight to Save Platonic Christianity
As part of the RTF Lecture Series “The Renaissance Principle Across the Ages“, Aaron Kalfon discusses St. Augustine’s role to save Platonic Christianity during the Roman Empire. During the course of the 76 years that Augustine of Hippo lived (354-430 AD), the world experienced a process of unprecedented turbulence, as the Roman Empire which had…
Augustine, the Nature of Infinity and Humanity’s Quest Into Space
By Bob Arnold The theologian and philosopher Saint Augustine (354-430 AD) was one of those rare historical personages who successfully grappled with the issues of the nature of infinity: the so-called ontological paradox. What has this to do with humanity’s current quest to colonize space? I hope to convince you that the life and writings…
Will Entropy Define the New World Paradigm?
By Matthew Ehret It has come to my attention in recent years, that the world financial system is one giant bubble sitting atop a hyperbolically growing aggregate of unpayable debts that can do nothing but default at a given moment. Looking at the world from the point of view of the inevitable collapse of the…
How To Conquer Tyranny and Avoid Tragedy: A Lesson on Defeating Systems of Empire
By Cynthia Chung This is a transcription of a lecture, which can be found here, given as part of the RTF series “Art, Science and Civilization: The Renaissance Principles Across the Ages.“ It is common today to be confronted with the belief that any country, any civilization that gains a certain degree of power, will…
How Classical Painting Liberates us from the Shackles of the Senses
An exploration of Schiller’s Aesthetics as it pertains to political revolutions past and future By Matthew Ehret This article is based on a lecture given on Feb. 11, 2019 in Montreal Canada. German poet Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) wrote his twenty six Letters on the Aesthetical Education of Man in 1794 in order to address this…
Brunelleschi, Cusa and Kepler: The Makings of the Italian Renaissance
In this symposium, we look into how Brunelleschi, Cusa and Kepler played primary roles in shaping the Italian Renaissance. In the first class, given by Cynthia Chung, we investigate why the dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore is so special. How did a dome spark a Renaissance? Why did the Florentines work on such…
Goethe, Newton and the physics of colour
By Dr. Pehr Sällström Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the well-known German author and poet was born in 1749 and died in 1832, which is the same as to say that he lived during a period of intense development of the foundations of chemistry and electricity. Two relatively young sciences that have since had thoroughgoing influence…
RTF Book of the Month: Beethoven’s Letters
It is indeed very hard to come by anyone who has never heard of Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the greatest composers of all time. However, despite this level of fame which has followed him, nearly 200 years after his death, there is little that is truly known about the man himself. For certain, there…
Lessons from a Grecian Urn Part One: Truth and Beauty in Art
By David Gosselin An object is perfect, when everything manifold in it accords with the unity of its concept; it is beautiful, when its perfection appears as nature. The beauty increases, when the perfection becomes more complex and the nature suffers nothing thereby; for the task of freedom becomes more difficult with the increasing number…
Lessons from a Grecian Urn Part Two: The Paradox of the “One” and the “Many”
By David Gosselin This is Part 2 to the series on Keats’ “Ode to a Grecian Urn”. Part 1 can be found here. Chapter II: What is Poetry? The yearning for harmony and perfection is an innately human desire. What else can satisfy this thirst for perfection, if not art? Even nature, in its infinite…
RTF Lecture: Frederick Douglass, Lincoln and the Fight to Save the Soul of America
To quote Martin Luther King: “Is anything more obvious than the presence of evil in the universe? Its nagging, prehensile tentacles projects into every level of human existence. We may debate the origin of evil, but only a victim of superficial optimism would debate its reality. Evil is stark, grim, and colossally real. … Within…
Toussaint Louverture, the Haitian Revolution and the Evolution of the American Republic
In this lecture, historian and author Gerald Therrien introduces the turbulent world of 1787-1804 which shaped (and was in turn shaped by) the Haitian Revolution establishing the world’s second republic. This was a world shaped by battles within America itself between opposing factions of Americans who read the newly established Constitution from diametrically opposing worldviews….
WHY Russia Saved the United States: The Forgotten History of a Brotherhood
Why did Russia’s Czar Alexander II deploy the Russian navy to the coasts of the USA during the height of the Civil War in 1863? What dynamic shaped the rise of the great rail building traditions across Russia, the USA, Germany, Japan and France in the 19th century and how did this process shape the…
The First NATO: Re-assessing the Anglo-French Alliance of the 19th Century
During this lecture, Martin Sieff (award winning journalist with Sputnik News and Strategic Culture) delivers an explosive re-assessment of world history during the mid-late 19th century. Since many disturbing elements of history have begun to repeat in our modern age, it is vital to come to a greater awareness of this forgotten past now while…
How to Overcome Today’s Crisis: A Lesson from 1933
As the world is swept up by a two fold crisis led by a global coronavirus pandemic and financial collapse, it is no wonder that America’s great president Franklin Roosevelt is on everyones’ mind. Faced with the collapse of the cultural, economic and social fabric of society after 4 years of depression, President Roosevelt launched…
The Wallace/FDR Vision for the Post War Era
Amidst the renewed Cold War logic of confrontation between east and west, it is easy to forget that patriotic forces with Russia, China and the USA were once united in a close bond of friendship which changed the course of history. In this lecture delivered by Canadian Patriot Review founder Matthew Ehret during the 2nd…
The Spirit of Apollo-Soyuz Is Alive… With the Russia/China Space Alliance
By Matthew Ehret Forty five years ago, Cold Warriors in the Pentagon and CIA shook their fists angrily at the stars- and for good reason. On July 17, 1975 the first international handshake was occurring in space between Russian Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov and American astronaut Thomas Stafford as the first official act kicking off the…
Open System Pathways for a Multi-Polar Future
By Matthew Ehret During the course of President Putin’s June 24 opening speech during the Moscow Parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of WWII, the following call to action was made: “We understand how important it is to strengthen friendship and trust between nations, and are open to dialogue and cooperation on the most pressing issues on the international…
China’s Sputnik Moment Kindles a New Spark of Hope for the World
By Matthew Ehret It was once believed in the west that the future would be beautiful, just, and as plentiful as it was peaceful. Under John F. Kennedy’s bold leadership the idea of space exploration was more than a simple “space race” or plopping a human being on the moon “within the decade and returning…
Study of the Heavens: a History of Chinese Astronomy
Transcript of a lecture given by Cynthia Chung at ‘The Universe, Creativity and You‘ Symposium. We live in a strange time. Many have forgotten the power of imagination and are instead bogged down with the reality of ‘practicality’. The reality of ‘the budget’, and the reality of ‘what is deemed useful and what is deemed…
The Mind, Life and Insights of Confucius
While all living beings are mortal, only human kind has access to the self-awareness of its own mortality. With this knowledge of our own finiteness, we may become cynical and fearful pessimists wallowing in despair and nihilism or we may choose to embrace a higher set of goals and principles for the identity we shape…
A Pax Americana or A Republic If You Can Keep It?
By Cynthia Chung “Fortune thus blinds the minds of men when she does not wish them to resist her power.” – Livy It seems quite evident to many that the United States has been consumed by the same ambition and thus fate with that of the Roman Empire. That one of the most notorious periods…
