‘Cultural Liberalization and Decadence’ Opposed at Rhodes Conference Organised by Putin Confidant
Bartholomew’s notes on religion takes note of a weird annual ‘world’ conference where the reactionary fundamentalist right reaches around to hug the lunatic fringe left. Also notice that fundamentalist Orthodoxy is the preferred flavor of religion for Putin’s Russia.
Noam Chomsky and Helga Zepp-LaRouche among ‘key-note speakers’
Earlier this month saw the 10th ‘World Public Forum: Dialogue of Civilisations’ conference took place on Rhodes. I’ve written about these international events previously: the WPF was initiated by Center of the National Glory of Russia and the Saint Andrew the First-Called Foundation, and co-founded by Vladimir Yakunin, a confidant of Putin who has been variously described as an ‘Orthodox Christian Chekist’ and as ‘the Kremlin’s model Orthodox businessman’.
The yearly Dialogue of Civilisations events have featured a remarkably broad – and in some ways bizarre – range of high-level politicians, academics, and religious figures from around the world. This year, ‘key-note speakers’ at the opening and closing meetings included, among others:
Noam Chomsky (USA) – Institute Professor and Professor (Emeritus) of Linguistics & Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) [apparently via web-link - RB]
Alfred Gusenbauer (Austria) – Co-chairman, World Public Forum ‘Dialogue of civilizations’, Federal Chancellor of Austria (2007-2008)
Walter Schwimmer (Austria) – Chairman, International Coordinating Committee, World Public Forum ‘Dialogue of Civilizations’
Fred Dallmayr (USA) – Co-Chairman, World Public Forum ‘Dialogue of Civilizations’; Packee J. Dee Professor, University of Notre Dame
Helga Zepp-LaRouche (Germany) – President, Schiller Institute
Siarhei Sidorski (Belarus) – Prime Minister of Belarus Republic (2003-2010), Minister of Industry and Agro-Based Industry, Eurasian Economic Commission
Zepp-LaRouche, of course, is the wife of the deeply unpleasant Lyndon LaRouche.