News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 27 [882]


Protection is important...

True enough - these guys in the past were always the biggest, scariest, most ruthless "motherf*ckers".

-//-

Happiness is much different. Sometimes it overlaps, but many times it suffers at the expense of "security".

-//-

The main reason we have "chiefs" is that they channel the popular will.

They manage to take into account the interests and views of "Bob the Loser and Introvert", "Mike the Beast", "Susan the Caretaker", and "Jimmy the Kid" - and synthesize all this into a coherent plan, that leaves the everyone unhappy, but satisfied.


My Christ, is the God that was nailed to a cross

News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 27 [882]

@Torq

My "Christianity" died 1700 years ago. I don't like this Christianity now.

News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 27 [882]


They are contemptible "worms"... but we must pay them respect and pray at their altar, because... "they are the source of all power".

Others will tell you, "there is no truth, deeper than the folk truth".

So we have to play this kabuki theater, where we all dance around and kowtow to the "people" and their "infinite wisdom".

It has always been this way. Except for in Singapore, maybe.

News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 27 [882]


Dialectic materialism is a useful framework for understanding the world, and its history.

Without Hegel and Marx, we'd still be swimming in romantic "Great Man" interpretations of history....

Marx is a genius, and Lenin - his follower - twice the genius - because he dealt in practical reality.

Just because I don't like the end result - does not mean they were not great men.

-//-

But I have an American education, which also emphasized texts of "Western Civilization". Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Aquinas, Maimonides, etc.

So I'm not happy when Marxists treat the Bible and classical philosophy as "feudal ideology", "primitive historiography", or as "false consciousness".

-//-

I can interpret the Bible and the Patristic Texts on their own terms, without putting on my "scientist" hat and savagely critiquing them. As my father would do.

-//-

I belong to two worlds :)

News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 27 [882]

@Torq

Are you saying I claim righteousness?

News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 27 [882]

@Bratwurst Boy

Spoken like a true German.

Indeed, direction is important. The spirits and energies of the "people" must be guided, unless you want results that will remind you of living in a horror film.

When the "people" are given free rein, it inevitably ends in a pogrom (read: bloodbath).

The "people" are stupid and not to be trusted in any circumstance.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]

@Torq

I like how Grunnie thinks... always surprising to read his posts.

What did they do to him in Norway, to make him this way?

News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 27 [882]


Even then, the blade of the axe is guided by other members of the minority.

Look the French Revolution, or Russian Revolution to see the truth of my words.

Even in Rwanda, amidst a chaos where Tutsis and Hutus were butchering each other with machetes... there was a hand behind the curtain guiding this.

The "human mass" - is simply incapable of organizing itself - by definition.

News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 27 [882]

@Torq

10,000 Bolsheviks conquered a 150 million strong Russia.

2 million Mongols put the Eurasian continent on its knees.

Financial elites steer flows of trillions of dollars - but they can all fit inside one tall building in Manhattan.

-//-

The majority has one problem - they are extremely heterogenous. They are divided by class, by regional identity, by religion, by personal priority, and individual temperament.

The minority, on the other hand, are unified by one core goal - maintain or even augment their position.

The minority:

1) Organizes faster

2) Shares interests more tightly

3) Communicates more effectively

4) And most importantly... is capable of acting decisevly.

The lumpenproletariat lacks all these abilities.

News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 27 [882]


85% of Grabbers do what Bobko and Velund tell them to do :)

Noisy, but simultaneously docile.

They only behave so loudly, because they understand in their heart that everything they say is ultimately without consequence.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


Damn... Grunnie - whatchu been smoking?

It's about 500 years too late to be building great walls!


Now this is a great idea. If Russians saw Eastern Europeans investing massive amounts of money to upgrade Russian infrastructure (of course not for free, but in exchange for ownership), then this would do more than practically anything else to bring our people closer together.

Before the war our main investors were Germans and Scandinavians. They built massive power plants, and other nice things. It would be nice to see other Easterners do it instead.


Sounds like some mumbo jumbo the prince of Saudi Arabia or the Sultan of Brunei would do.

All these "future city" projects are money grabs by unscrupulous people.

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News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 27 [882]


Your important contribution to the debate has been noted and recorded.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


This is his role.

But he favors the "hard men". Because he has affinity to them, being a KGB colonel himself.

To him we are civilians - naive, idealistic, childish.

Earlier he had the wisdom to allow us oxygen, now he thinks we "get in the way".

Maybe we are not famous fighters, and not good Christians - but we have the interests of Russia at heart as any other man.

To paint us as traitors and "bourgeois" is to reject a huge part of your strength.

We are willing and obedient and we don't need much. Just don't treat us like the relatives visiting from another region.

News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 27 [882]

@amiga600

You still get excited about this nonsense? You are a smart guy, why do you post this?

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


It would be my great honor to be an Oprichnik for the "Sun-Like One". But he must trust us for this....

We are better executors of his heavenly will, than his current posse.

No one is questioning he has the mandate, and the power. But... he has to widen the tent and allow others in, to help him achieve his plans.

He cannot afford to be isolated, and cut off from such people.

We accept him, but he has to accept us.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


Putinists are improvisers and men with low horizons.

They don't help the man, with their advice.

I feel I know what Putin wants - and that my plan would get him there sooner - if he just trusted us again.

By "us" - I mean the liberalizers. People who grew up in the shadow of Kudrin, Gref, Nabiullina. I might add Belousov as a potential ally.

In opposition to the "hard men", like Patrushev, Ivanov, Chemezov, etc.

The people that delivered Putin (in record time, and at record low cost) the machine that can fight Europe and America simultaneously - are us.

If he listened only to people he is ideologically close to, he wouldn't be able to do half the things he has done.

If he wants a strong and unstoppable Russia - he should listen to people like me.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]

I am so positively surprised at the amount of ideas for how to make Russia a better country.

You are all Russian patriots, and good sons of Russia - wherever the world has placed you currently.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


This takes time.

Before the war we borrowed hundreds of billions from the West (while still keeping our debt load manageable at under 30% ratio to GDP).

This built electrical plants, high speed rail, and national highway network.

We need trillions more of Western money if we are to become truly strong.

Once we become fully strong - I'm "down" for all kinds of adventure. You want to declare war on the whole world - be my guest - so long as you first ensured we are standing firmly on our feet.

But this business of challenging the whole world, while we are rebuilding, seems insane to me.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]

@Bratwurst Boy

This is a compliment to you Germans, and an indictment against us slavish Russians :)

We worship the Throne.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


I don't know enough about Germany... but the Kremlin is unlike any other place. I don't think it's like the Reichstag...

The Kremlin.... is a powerful thing. It warps time and space around it. It causes chemical changes in your neurochemistry. It bends your heart. It's - for all intents and purposes - like some supermassive black hole or a magnetar - to put it in astronomic terms.

It's the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

It sends hundreds of thousands to their death, and promises millions of others all earthly riches.

No Champs Elysee or White House or Downing Street has the Earthly power of the Kremlin.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


I hope it is as you say.

A strong, conservative, traditional German East is welcome in Russia - even if we do not measure up to our own standards for others.

What irritates me about modern Russia, is all this energy that goes into playing this Kabuki theater for foreign audiences.

Self defeating hypocrisy. Pretending all is well, and reading lectures to others - even as we are completely lost ourselves.

The Kremlin - the beating heart of Russia - has to be open to admitting mistakes.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]

@Bratwurst Boy

What I want to say to you, is that Europe is not impervious to those American exports.

Otherwise, why do you have so many Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostalists, Seventh Day Adventists, and all the flavors of Baptists present in big numbers in Europe?

All these are American imports.

Seems your experience of religious wars has not insulated you from these dangerous American innovations...

If these insidious cult ideologies can penetrate your continent, how is Orthodoxy different? Orthodoxy is spreading roots in America, and is one of the fastest growing denominations.

The path of these lost souls to Orthodoxy is often guided by messaging coming from Moscow.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]

@Torq

I don't know who to respond to! BB also asked an important question... I will get back to it soon - I promise BB.

-//-

I shouldn't have pretended to having a fully fleshed out Russian Great Idea sitting in my backpack, but what I could do is enumerate certain conditions I believe are necessary... before we can attempt to bamboozle the world again with some new Russian philosophy.

1) We should fix relations with the West and our own neighborhood, and abstain from wars for at least 20-30 years more. We are in desperate need of technology transfers, and access to capital - if we hope to be competitive in the second half of this century.

2) We need to invest more in our people, and less in metal. Russia's greatest wealth is our wonderful people, who I firmly believe are some of the smartest and most talented people in the world. No "Poseidon" or "Satan" can replace a world-changing idea that some boy in Siberia might be carrying, but cannot realize in Russia.

3) We need to move the country's administrative center away from Moscow, and towards the center of the country. Siberia and the East are dying - and Moscow is like a black hole that sucks all matter towards it. A new capital, perhaps in Novosibirsk, could recenter the country.

4) Children must become the center of all attention. We moan and complain about abortions and low birth rates, and at the same time we have 500K orphans living in the country that nobody seems to care about except for warm-hearted foreigners (for whom Putin made it illegal to adopt our children). This is a f*cking crime. A country that doesn't care about its weakest and most vulnerable is no country at all.

5) We need to liberalize politically. An active opposition and a free press - were important components of the 1990s, and set the stage for the surge in growth in the early 2000s. Without these two, the folks in power start believing too much of their own "hopium". It must be in the interests of the Kremlin to have some smart people that are able to criticize them. Sniffing your own ass all day is a path to nowhere.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


It's absolutely true.

Western conservatives want a "strong, traditional" Russia to admire.

They consume it as a fantasy of order and community.

They do not care if it's true - they want a symbol, not a reality.

-//-

Russia responds in kind, through:

1) RT's messaging to Western audiences

2) Alignment with far-right European parties (often helping them with a little bit of money, to get things off the ground)

3) Embracing the "defender of Christianity" narrative

4) Producing metric tons of brain rotting slop about "traditional family values" for Twitter and Instagram.

So you see... Russia doesn't actually have to live these values, but merely has to project them. The "ideology" is the packaging, and the product is geopolitical leverage. At least that's how I understand it, and how Mr. Surkov explained his approach several times.

-//-

Regarding my own idea... it would take me to long to flesh it out here.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


After critiquing your suggestion, I would like to respond to your criticism of the current product Russia is marketing to the world.

First things first - of course all of it is total bullsh*t - but it doesn't matter.

We need to first agree - "what is the goal?". It seems to me, that the goal of all Russian "Great Ideas" is - "how do we maximally grow Russian power, while also offering something in return".

Some smart Americans, like George Kennan, understood this at the beginning of the Cold War - when they were trying to understand "what does Russia want?". Kennan saw through the charade of Communism, and saw the Great Russian chauvinism beneath. So...

Pan-Slavism promised us leadership of a large part of humanity. To the Slavs it was marketed it to - protection from various Turks, autonomy from the Decadent West, and a healthy dosing of fascistic niceties.

Communism also spread our influence widely, with power dividends accruing back to Moscow with every government that fell into the fold. So this idea was very nice too, because it made us much more powerful (the main criteria - as I see it).

-//-

The current idea of exporting "machismo" and "conservative values" is therefore also not so retarded.

It is of course a total lie, but a good and useful lie.

Why?

Because there are buyers in the market for this sh*t, and so long as there are buyers - we should be peddling it to whomever is willing to buy it.

The West and the Far East have a crisis in gender relations. Men hate women, women hate men. No one's getting married, and no one's having babies. We're not doing it either, but we can use the moment to play on their insecurities and turn their gaze (fraudulently) towards the Kremlin.

The electoral leverage it provides us within those democracies, is worth all the shame and self-disgust evoked by pumping out nonsense.

Maybe 3 out of 10 people see through the charade of "Russian Conservatism", but 7 out of 10 do not - and to them we are heroes. These Russia lovers have votes, and they have money, and hopefully they have children. So... then they are ASSETS.

In the absence of a genuine RGI, this Frankenstein creation will have to do for the time being, because:

1) There is demand for it.

2) It works.

3) It pays dividends.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


Yet, I will thank you anyway. This was very interesting to read.

However, I have many issues with your attempt to turn Russia into a Scandinavian Christian Social Democracy...

Without further ado - my feedback:


My concern with this, is that it seems like a "growth destroying" idea. We'll have to stop tracking GDP, and use instead some Happiness Index like Bhutan.

Historically - non-Darwinian societies decay.

The wild jungle conditions in America, where the strong eat the weak, explains a lot of the difference in the dynamism of the two economies (vis a vis Europe).

Xi Jingping is trying to do it in China (rejecting the various ugly aspects of capitalism). Billionaires are regularly jailed, or admonished for living "too lavishly" or with concern only for themselves. The people cheer... but it doesn't do any wonders for the place's investment attractiveness.

So... this is my first reaction to this point. There's much nuance, of course, which I'm glazing over. AI and robotics could change much of this model which at the moment seems flawed.


Here you are channeling straight Dugin.

Question for Duginists - where did this place ever exist historically?

Among Russian "muzhiks" working for the "gospoda", while they gambled away the fruits of their labor in St. Petersburg salons?

Among Chinese rice paddy farmers hiding from the tax collector?

In an Israeli kibbutz?

On a Mennonite farm?

Show a good, working example from the past, and then we can discuss it. Because Dugin's imagined ideal - I fear - never actually existed in the way he seems to think about it.

Communalism has more often been a survival technique than a "value". Once enough capital is accumulated, and life becomes a little more interesting, these communes always tear themselves apart.

I may be wrong, and am prepared to debate this further:)


We are a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional country. We have many Muslims, and Buddhists, and Jews, and other folks.

Have to be careful in embracing Christianity too closely, lest it blow up in our face.

Putin and various Dugins are trying this, and playing it very carefully, but still not carefully enough for my tastes.

-//-

All in all, 2 out of your 3 points are straight Dugin eschatology concerning salvation and civilizational redemption. The difference is that Dugin thinks all these things will come about only after some apocalyptic battle, and you are instead trying to avoid a fight (a noble goal).

News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 26 [1183]


About what?

Personally I like the Irish.

God bless that island. Especially their former president Higgins. That little guy was "alright" with us - his heart in the right place. This new Connelly lady, we have to see...

Eamon de Valera is someone any educated Russian knows about. These Irishmen, they've been clever in their relationship to us from the beginning - and we appreciate this.