History /
History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [48]
Don't thank me. Always happy to help. :)
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:
Total rejection of Social Darwinism
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.
Russia should accentuate positive Eastern values like: communality, rootedness in a multi-generational community, and ethic of work for common good instead of venal mercantile calculation
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:)
Christianity and joy of life, as well as to freedom
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.
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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).
