Konstantin Kisin, a Russian–British comedian, co-host of the TRIGGERnometry podcast, and author of "An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West," in New York City on July 19, 2022. Jack Wang/The Epoch Times
Konstantin Kisin, a Russian–British comedian and political commentator who was born in Moscow during the final years of the Soviet Union, has warned that one of the greatest threats to Western civilization is coming from within.
In a recent interview for EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders“ program, Kisin discussed his new book, ”An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West,” in which he outlines the importance of Western culture and the threat of its destruction, both internal and external.
Unlike what many progressives think, there is such a thing as objective truth—especially in the hard sciences of physics, chemistry, and biology—and adhering to that principle, with the freedom to innovate and explore possibilities, led to the success of the West, Kisin said.
“If we want to continue in these technologically advanced, scientifically expanding, progressing societies, freedom is the thing that makes it all happen,” he said. “And if you don’t want that, there are lots of societies you can go and live in. Just don’t bring that crap over here.”
In the former Soviet Union, and presently under the Chinese Communist Party, there was and is no freedom to experiment and try something new to see if it works, Kisin said.
Innovation cannot happen without freedom and competition, he said.
Invited guests and NASA employees take photos of a NASA rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 17, 2022. Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via AP
Progressives Invent Problems
The younger generations in the West don’t appreciate their good fortune because they don’t have anything to compare it to, said Kisin.
“They don’t even know that a different world either existed somewhere in the past or exists in a different geographical location,” he said.
Kisin said totalitarian governments like Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea don’t have these freedoms, and yet progressives compare the United States to socialist or communist utopias that don’t exist, said Kisin.
Some people in society are willing to use authoritarianism in the pursuit of an imaginary utopia, and they will censor comedy, shut down discussions, and destroy political figures who attempt to challenge those ideas, he said.
“We talk about eliminating things from our society, like racism, sexism, or whatever,“ he said. ”We can’t even eliminate murder from society. We can’t eliminate rape from society. We can’t eliminate so many problems, because we’re not perfect.”
Cuban refugees float in the sea about 60 miles south of Key West, Fla., in this photo taken on Aug. 26, 1994. Dave Martin/AP Photo
Humans Thrive With Competition
Any government pushing equity will have to use force to achieve that level of “fairness,” said Kisin.
Kisin said when he was still living in the Soviet Union, the regime used the same leftist tactics being used in the United States currently, and convinced people that everybody should be equal and life should be fair. It’s this pursuit of equity—equal outcomes for all people—that requires the use of force, he said.
The Biden administration has been pushing “diversity, equity, and inclusion” doctrines across all federal departments in the form of policy changes and training sessions.
But this goes against fundamental human nature, Kisin said.
“We don’t want to be equal,” he said. “We want to be rewarded on the basis of our merits and talents. That’s what everybody wants.”
Kisin said that in the Soviet Union, everyone appeared to be equal on the surface. The government provided free health care, free child care, free education, and guaranteed jobs, and the majority of people had equal wealth and received equal pay.
But it was far from the utopia promised by the authoritarian leaders because it robbed people of the motivation to strive ahead and innovate, he said.
“You make everyone equal by making everybody equally poor,“ Kisin said. ”And that’s why you need the tyranny, because people don’t want to be equally poor. People who work hard and who are talented and who contribute more want to feel rewarded for that.”
He said in Russia, people have lost their motivation to do more. They’ve become complacent because they are not rewarded by the state for putting in more effort.
Multiethnic, Not Multicultural
Kisin argues that when people in the West say they want to live in a multicultural society, what they really want is a multiethnic society.
Having people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds living in one country can be very positive and productive for prosperity, he said, but they must have the same cultural and national identity, which creates cohesion.
“You can’t bring your religious legal system into a society and demand that that is parallel with the legal system of the state in which you operate,” Kisin said.
People do not have to abandon the uniqueness of their home countries, but they do have to embrace their new national identity and make themselves contributing members of that society.
Kisin said immigrants must learn the language, integrate into the culture, and embrace the values of their new country to help the society prosper.
“We cannot live in a society where we have parallel structures. Multiethnic society: very, very important, very desirable. I think hugely beneficial,“ he said. ”Multicultural society is a recipe for disaster.”
Protesters gather at Lincoln Park in Washington to demand the Emancipation Memorial be taken down on June 23, 2020. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Tens Ways to Destroy The West
In his book, Kisin included a list titled “Ten Ways to Destroy the West.”
The list touches on critical race theory, demoralization, and the promotion of socialism via “bad capitalism.” But Kisin said the greatest threat on the list is probably the last one: “Be a useful idiot.”
Screenshot from EpochTV's "American Thought Leaders" interview with Konstantin Kisin. EpochTV
Kisin said Western scientists who developed the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project gave nuclear technology to former communist dictator Joseph Stalin because the scientists believed in communism.
“They gave it to him because communism was this beautiful ideology that they believed,“ said Kisin. “This is the power of bad ideas, and it can make people do terrible things and feel good about it.”
Kisin said he’s been so focused on identifying and explaining the problem that he hasn’t focused yet on how to get through to people who have been indoctrinated by hateful ideology.
In the UK, Kisin said part of the problem is that people believe in the government, above all else, even to save them from the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the government cannot solve all problems. There are many things they can’t control, and sometimes, unfortunately, people will die, he said.
“We believe that if there’s a problem, that means the government messed up, and we need more government to come in and deal with the problem,“ Kisin said. ”If we continue to believe that, then whatever the problem is, the answer will be more government.”
Demoralization, the Enemy From Within
Kisin said he believes that while there are outside forces trying to destabilize the United States on social, cultural, and economic levels, it is the internal forces Americans should be most concerned with, because if left unchallenged, society will implode.
“The problem isn’t evil, malicious people running around who want to make things worse,“ he said. ”The problem is people who buy into the ideology that gives [evil people] permission to do terrible things in the name of the greater good.”
One of the most dangerous internal threats in the United States is demoralization, Kisin said.
Many people in the West lack confidence in the merits of their own societies, instead using an imagined utopia as a comparison to a real society, in which it’s impossible to eliminate all moral or social failures because human nature is imperfect.
Kisin said he thinks most people have no idea they’ve been demoralized, or that the lack of confidence they feel in their society and culture is not normal.
“This endless self-flagellation is sort of seen as par for ’this is what we do now,' but it’s not normal,” he said. “We’re in a very abnormal society now, a society that endlessly questions itself.”
But Kisin said that as long as the United States holds firmly to its founding principles and values, outside forces can’t do any harm.
“As long as we have confidence in ourselves and we’re willing to defend ourselves and stand up for what we believe, then we have nothing to fear,” he said.
Masooma Haq began reporting for The Epoch Times from Pakistan in 2008. She currently covers a variety of topics including U.S. government, culture, and entertainment.
‘We Don’t Want to Be Equal’: British Comedian Says Humans Thrive in Competition, Not Forced Equality
Konstantin Kisin, a Russian–British comedian and political commentator who was born in Moscow during the final years of the Soviet Union, has warned that one of the greatest threats to Western civilization is coming from within.
Unlike what many progressives think, there is such a thing as objective truth—especially in the hard sciences of physics, chemistry, and biology—and adhering to that principle, with the freedom to innovate and explore possibilities, led to the success of the West, Kisin said.
“If we want to continue in these technologically advanced, scientifically expanding, progressing societies, freedom is the thing that makes it all happen,” he said. “And if you don’t want that, there are lots of societies you can go and live in. Just don’t bring that crap over here.”
In the former Soviet Union, and presently under the Chinese Communist Party, there was and is no freedom to experiment and try something new to see if it works, Kisin said.
Innovation cannot happen without freedom and competition, he said.
Progressives Invent Problems
The younger generations in the West don’t appreciate their good fortune because they don’t have anything to compare it to, said Kisin.“They don’t even know that a different world either existed somewhere in the past or exists in a different geographical location,” he said.
Kisin said totalitarian governments like Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea don’t have these freedoms, and yet progressives compare the United States to socialist or communist utopias that don’t exist, said Kisin.
Some people in society are willing to use authoritarianism in the pursuit of an imaginary utopia, and they will censor comedy, shut down discussions, and destroy political figures who attempt to challenge those ideas, he said.
“We talk about eliminating things from our society, like racism, sexism, or whatever,“ he said. ”We can’t even eliminate murder from society. We can’t eliminate rape from society. We can’t eliminate so many problems, because we’re not perfect.”
Humans Thrive With Competition
Any government pushing equity will have to use force to achieve that level of “fairness,” said Kisin.Kisin said when he was still living in the Soviet Union, the regime used the same leftist tactics being used in the United States currently, and convinced people that everybody should be equal and life should be fair. It’s this pursuit of equity—equal outcomes for all people—that requires the use of force, he said.
But this goes against fundamental human nature, Kisin said.
“We don’t want to be equal,” he said. “We want to be rewarded on the basis of our merits and talents. That’s what everybody wants.”
Kisin said that in the Soviet Union, everyone appeared to be equal on the surface. The government provided free health care, free child care, free education, and guaranteed jobs, and the majority of people had equal wealth and received equal pay.
But it was far from the utopia promised by the authoritarian leaders because it robbed people of the motivation to strive ahead and innovate, he said.
“You make everyone equal by making everybody equally poor,“ Kisin said. ”And that’s why you need the tyranny, because people don’t want to be equally poor. People who work hard and who are talented and who contribute more want to feel rewarded for that.”
Multiethnic, Not Multicultural
Kisin argues that when people in the West say they want to live in a multicultural society, what they really want is a multiethnic society.Having people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds living in one country can be very positive and productive for prosperity, he said, but they must have the same cultural and national identity, which creates cohesion.
“You can’t bring your religious legal system into a society and demand that that is parallel with the legal system of the state in which you operate,” Kisin said.
People do not have to abandon the uniqueness of their home countries, but they do have to embrace their new national identity and make themselves contributing members of that society.
Kisin said immigrants must learn the language, integrate into the culture, and embrace the values of their new country to help the society prosper.
“We cannot live in a society where we have parallel structures. Multiethnic society: very, very important, very desirable. I think hugely beneficial,“ he said. ”Multicultural society is a recipe for disaster.”
Tens Ways to Destroy The West
In his book, Kisin included a list titled “Ten Ways to Destroy the West.”The list touches on critical race theory, demoralization, and the promotion of socialism via “bad capitalism.” But Kisin said the greatest threat on the list is probably the last one: “Be a useful idiot.”
Kisin said Western scientists who developed the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project gave nuclear technology to former communist dictator Joseph Stalin because the scientists believed in communism.
“They gave it to him because communism was this beautiful ideology that they believed,“ said Kisin. “This is the power of bad ideas, and it can make people do terrible things and feel good about it.”
Kisin said he’s been so focused on identifying and explaining the problem that he hasn’t focused yet on how to get through to people who have been indoctrinated by hateful ideology.
In the UK, Kisin said part of the problem is that people believe in the government, above all else, even to save them from the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the government cannot solve all problems. There are many things they can’t control, and sometimes, unfortunately, people will die, he said.
Demoralization, the Enemy From Within
Kisin said he believes that while there are outside forces trying to destabilize the United States on social, cultural, and economic levels, it is the internal forces Americans should be most concerned with, because if left unchallenged, society will implode.“The problem isn’t evil, malicious people running around who want to make things worse,“ he said. ”The problem is people who buy into the ideology that gives [evil people] permission to do terrible things in the name of the greater good.”
One of the most dangerous internal threats in the United States is demoralization, Kisin said.
Many people in the West lack confidence in the merits of their own societies, instead using an imagined utopia as a comparison to a real society, in which it’s impossible to eliminate all moral or social failures because human nature is imperfect.
Kisin said he thinks most people have no idea they’ve been demoralized, or that the lack of confidence they feel in their society and culture is not normal.
“This endless self-flagellation is sort of seen as par for ’this is what we do now,' but it’s not normal,” he said. “We’re in a very abnormal society now, a society that endlessly questions itself.”
But Kisin said that as long as the United States holds firmly to its founding principles and values, outside forces can’t do any harm.
“As long as we have confidence in ourselves and we’re willing to defend ourselves and stand up for what we believe, then we have nothing to fear,” he said.
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