Professor Jiang

How did a young Corsican become Emperor of France in 1804?In this talk to his Chinese high school students, Jiang Xueqin argues that it was Napoleon's myth-making genius that seduced the French people, and killed the fledging French Republic. In this way, Napoleon was like Caesar and Hitler. Will Trump take America down the same path?

Professor explains how the Dutch Golden Age gave birth to the Middle Class. With the transition from feudalism to market economics and from Catholicism to Calvinism, people changed their focus from accumulating status to accumulating wealth. This created the concept of "class." This concept brought with it certain pathologies (fears of disorder, failure, and germs) that expressed themsel...

How did England -- a poor and divided island -- become the world's greatest empire? In this talk to his Chinese high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains that England succeeded because it was a poor and divided island. Throughout most of its history, the different peoples of Britain were engaged in open co-operative competition. Their division meant that foreign invaders could come and conqu...

How did Shakespeare father the British empire? In this talk to his Beijing high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains that it was Shakespeare's innovations in syntax and diction that transformed English into the linguistic Internet. Cultures, ideologies, and peoples could now meet on this Internet, and have their ideas and values pollinate and cross-breed within the framework of British civil...

Oscar Wilde once quipped: "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilisation in between."What did he mean by this? In this talk to his Beijing high school students, Jiang Xueqin argues that America in its attempt to become an "enlightened" civilization ultimately became an anti-civilization. Civilizations have history, culture, and values, a...

Why did Putin invade Ukraine? In this lecture to his Beijing high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains that the war in Ukraine is a clash of civilizations. In his novels "Crime and Punishment" and "Brothers Karamazov" Fyodor Dostoevsky captures and expresses the Russian soul. As a Christian Orthodox people, the Russians believe the meaning of life is to accept the mystery, mi...

What explains the rise of Adolf Hitler? In this talk to his Beijing high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains that Hitler was a manifestation of the German obsession with the unity of will. After the humiliating defeat of World War I and amidst the economic turmoil of the Weimar Republic, Germans sought salvation and redemption in their civilization, especially the music of Richard Wagner and th...

What is the legacy of Immanuel Kant, considered our greatest philosopher? In this talk to his Beijing high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains that Kant's insights had a tremendous impact on the development of neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and quantum mechanics. Kant's philosophical revolution was equivalent to that of the Copernican revolution in astronomy. With his precise lo...

Why was Karl Marx -- who believed that industrial capitalism would evolve into a worker's paradise -- wrong? In this talk to his Beijing high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains that while Marx understood the ills of capitalism he failed to appreciate the psychology of people. People strive for religious community, not economic equality. We want to connect with God, and we seek status. That...

Freud proposed the theory of the Oedipal Complex. Where did he get the idea? Why did it become so popular? In this talk to his Beijing high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains that Freud developed his psychological theories in order to protect the interests of the powerful. His protege Carl Jung would take Freud's theory of the unconscious, and turn it into a systemic model of human psychol...

Nationalism is the main cause of World War One. How and why did it originate? In this talk to his Beijing high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains that nationalism was a response to religious, economic, and cultural challenges in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Protestant Reformation produced a crisis of faith in people, and many made the nation-state into their new religion. The Ind...

How did a poor Georgian high school drop-out help lead a fringe and fanatical political party (the Bolsheviks) into absolute power in Russia? How was Stalin able to eliminate his competitors? How did he defeat Hitler in World War II? In this talk to his Beijing high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains that Stalin was the "ubermensch," the man of steel who willed a new reality into bei...

In this final talk of the "Civilization" course, Jiang Xueqin explains the rise and fall of the American empire. At the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, America proposed that the dollar should be the world's reserve currency. In return for this "exorbitant privilege," America pledged that its currency could be exchanged for gold. But with America spending exorbitantly to fund...

Americans bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities. The US-Iran War has begun. How will this war play out? In this video, Professor Jiang uses game theory to examine the motivations, interests, and strategies of the three main players: Iran, Israel, and the United States. He argues that according to game theory the United States will commit to a ground invasion of Iran.

What motivates Trump, Netanyahu, and Khamenei? In this talk, Professor Jiang explains that all three have a messianic calling.

Professor Jiang explains how and why Isaac Newton founded Christian Zionism, which is driving the conflict in the Middle East today.

Professor Jiang explains how and why Christian Zionism dominates American Middle East policy. He introduces the universal law of game theory, which helps reveal how the world works. He also discusses how Mohammad became the Jewish Messiah.

Why did Putin invade Ukraine? What is his endgame? How did he come from nowhere to become the most powerful man in Russia? In this talk, Professor Jiang offers a hypothesis and three predictions. He believes that there is a secret nexus of power within Russia that sees Putin as the Second Coming of Stalin who will unite the Orthodox world and restore the Byzantine empire. From this hypothesis, we...

Professor Jiang offers his geo-political predictions for the next twenty years. He first analyzes the major eschatological traditions (Zoroastrian, Judaic, Christian Zionist, Islamic, Orthodox, and Catholic) to estimate their convergence points. This allows him to imagine a framework for predicting geo-politics. His major predictions:1. The United States will lose a ground war against Iran.2. NATO...

Professor Jiang argues that these are symptoms. The real disease is the selfishness and hubris of the Baby Boomers, who are the most powerful demographic in the West. They want to maintain their pension, their free healthcare, and their property values -- even if that means burning the world down.

Professor Jiang proposes that by studying geo-politics we can develop analytical frameworks that permit us to predict the future. If our predictions turn out to be accurate, we can use these validated frameworks to reveal the secret history of humanity. How does power work? Professor Jiang proposes that power is alchemy, and allows those in power to transform lead into gold. We are taught in scien...

Professor Jiang explains the three theories as to why and how societies rise and fall: the financialization of society, elite over-production, and the civilization life cycle.

Professor Jiang explains that these trends are caused by the aging crisis, in which rich pensioners are dictating policy to the detriment of everyone else.

Professor Jiang explains how secret societies operate, and why they're the true centers of power in the world.

Professor Jiang lectured on the development of the religious tradition in the West.