Reflections on Russia

The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison. —Fyodor Dostoevsky

A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and, in order to divert himself, having no love in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest forms of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal. And it all comes from lying - lying to others and to yourself. —again Dostoevsky

     I started writing this essay way back in 2017, shortly after this here blog was born. Back then Mr. Putin of Russia had his troops invading the Crimean peninsula. halfway through the rough draft of the essay, still very rough and incomplete, I ran out of momentum, stored the draft in the guts of my computer, and started writing about something else. But now that Russian tanks are rolling through Ukrainian territory again, and since what I wrote before is still more or less valid, and since I have more to say about Russia and the Russian people, and because of other reasons also, I have dusted off the semi-essay and have completed it, more or less. So…

     Consider this scenario: Let’s say the state of California becomes so hysterical in its hatred of traditional American ideals, and those of the average American, that it actually secedes from the United States. There has been a lot of raving among Californians on this very subject since the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Let’s also say that China immediately allies itself with California; and although previously assuring the USA that it would never move in troops or establish military bases there, before long it does so anyway, as soon as it’s convenient to break the promise. There’s also talk of California joining a military defense pact against the USA.

     Well, how do you think the American government would feel about that? You think they’d just sit there and suck their collective thumb over Chinese missiles in California aimed at US cities? Hardly bloody likely! In all likelihood the USA would start getting aggressive, and probably would even invade the Socialist Democratic People’s Republic of California, and ensure it had subservient friends or lackeys running the show there, for the sake of American national security. If we allowed California to secede, by God it would have to remain within our sphere of influence, and not with the Chinese! Right?

     Well then, consider this: Ukraine was part of Russia for much longer than California has been part of the United States. Also, the language and culture of the two countries, Ukrainian and Russian, come much closer than do the language and culture of California and most of the USA, Mexican Spanish and English (←a joke, sort of, although I have read that there are now more Hispanics than “whites” in California). Furthermore, although I’ve read that the USA assured Russia that it/we wouldn’t establish a military presence in the Ukraine, we went ahead and did so anyway, and now Ukraine appears eager to join NATO, a military organization founded to resist Russia. So how is the Russian government supposed to feel about that? They did what we would have done. They invaded, and our side has screamed bloody murder.

     “Oh, but Putin is an evil dictator!” You may say. Since when has America been opposed to evil dictators? Look at Saudi Arabia. They have long been our “allies,” yet I doubt that Putin is any worse than the Islamism-supporting King there. Saudi Arabia is just the Sunni version of Iran, except without a semblance of democracy. And although Mr. Putin may do some rather crazy stuff sometimes, I don’t think he’s anywhere near as crazy as half the Democrats in the US government nowadays. Or some of the Republicans either. And Mr. Obama probably had more bombs dropped on more nations than Mr. Putin has over the past eight years.

     “Oh, but the Russians tried to tamper with our presidential elections!” Yeah, and you think we don’t do exactly the same with them? (Not to mention the American elite establishment tampering in our own elections.) You think America doesn’t try to influence foreign elections? Ha! Even an assistant producer of CNN who was caught on video admitting to the bullshit propagandism of CNN admitted to this. It’s a big deal only because of propagandist hype. Besides, they apparently failed to influence the election anyway. The Russian election-tampering story is just a convenient seed crystal for leftist hysteria, as was the years-long Russian collusion hoax aimed at non-globalist Donald Trump. For American politicians to yowl over this is patent hypocrisy, since they must know that we do essentially the same.

     “Oh, but Putin is an ally of Iran and the dictator of Syria!” Yeah, and we’ve been allies with Saudi Arabia, more or less, which supports Islamism and terrorism throughout the world. It’s really not so different; but few people in America want to scrutinize the regimes we support, unless maybe it’s anti-Islamist Israel. They also don’t want to scrutinize the countries we bomb, or the governments we overthrow.

     You know, not long ago I was happy to think that the US and Russia could become friends and allies; that’s one of the many reasons why I supported Donald Trump in the first place—Hillary Clinton obviously wanted to revive the Cold War. I’ve read lots of old Russian literature, and Dostoevsky is probably my favorite novelist. The Russians are no worse than we are. They are a soulful and intelligent people, regardless of how often they bathe, or how behind they are in following western fashions, or what their leaders act like, or what most of their women look like. (Russian women are probably more moral and modest than ours anyhow, which, however, isn’t saying much.) I like Russia, and I’m very glad, mainly for their sake, that they aren’t Communists anymore. Now we are more leftist than they are, so shame on us. I still think we should be friends with them if at all possible. If we have to be friends with either Merkelesque Germany or Putinesque Russia, I say go Russia. At least the Russians are not wrecking Europe in the name of feminist compassion.

     But the American political Establishment—the elite on both sides of it—is vehement in its insistence upon reviving the bad old days. Russia is worse than China somehow. I’ve read that the economy of this world threat is approximately the same size as Italy’s. What the fuck? A few years ago Russia suddenly became the bogeyman.

     Anyway, lately the diagnostic feature of indoctrinated leftists is little Ukrainian flags. (Before that, apparently, it was paper masks.) Ukraine is heralded by the yellow journalists/propagandists in the corporate media as the good guys. There have been many articles and “news” pieces about the stunning and brave gay soldiers fighting for Ukraine, and how Ukraine is a model of democracy standing up to the evil empire of Putin’s Russia. But how did Ukraine become so different from Russia, considering, as I’ve said, that they were part of the Russian Empire for hundreds of years? The Ukrainians resemble the Russians much more than they resemble us.

     I saw an infographic recently that stated that homophobic sentiment in the populace is greatest of all the world in Russia; second place of all the world was Ukraine. Anti-feminist sentiment also runs high in both nations. (I also recently saw a different infographic showing the peculiar fact that the one foreign nation that contributed the most to the Clinton Foundation was none other than Ukraine. It has been corrupt as hell and a seedbed for international bribery and money laundering operations for quite some time.) The Ukrainians even have at least one openly neo-Nazi battalion in their military—which of course is ignored by the corporate propagandists trying to sell the American people on the idea that the Ukrainians are the good guys and that Vladimir Putin is the new Hitler. After Trump was the new Hitler. “Literally Adolf Hitler.”

     With regard to this whole Ukraine situation, or crisis, or whatever it is, I can agree with many that Russia’s invasion, not just to liberate two tiny breakaway republics but to conquer the entire nation, presumably to install a government friendly to Russia, was a bad thing. No doubt many thousands of people, including non-combatant civilians, have died and/or endured profound misery because of this. Putin’s declaration that he is opposing the Nazis in Ukraine is patent bullshit. He really ought to be more honest, since his honest reasons are probably more sensible.

     So why is Russia invading Ukraine? Evidently not just to liberate Donetsk and Luhansk. Certainly not to protect ethnic Russians from Ukrainian neo-Nazis. Well, the reason given above with the Californian example is probably a major factor. Neither Russia nor the USA wants missiles aimed against them right on their borders, or for a seceded state to join into a military alliance against them. But I think there are other reasons.

     I recently watched a video by Dr. Steve Turley, a rather cringeworthy conservative Christian YouTube commentator who nevertheless occasionally comes up with some really thought-provoking ideas, and he said, and maybe I even quote, that “Putin is not at war with Ukraine. He is at war with the New World Order.” Postmodernism, formerly a leftist phenomenon in western politics (and before that a leftist phenomenon in art criticism, architecture, and academic liberal studies in general), with its idea that objective truth does not exist, has done much to fracture the political and sociological world, and to fracture the globalism that embraced it. With everyone having the option of choosing their own version of reality and truth, different cultures will choose realities and truths aligned with their own traditions and cultural conditioning. This has resulted in “civilization states” arising in the 21st century, with Russia being one of the really big ones.

     Many decades ago the psychic Edgar Cayce prophesied that Russia would become the final bastion of Christianity in the world, and this is appearing much more likely now than it did when Cayce and the USSR were still alive. Russians have long felt a kind of exceptionalism, including the idea that they were destined to become a guiding light to the world. Way back in the 19th century Dostoevsky believed that, and many Russians today also believe it. The west is too degenerate and morally weak, and the Russians are increasingly devout in their Orthodox Christianity. 

     But the degenerate west still has lots of money (though of decreasing value), and thus also power, and the rulers of the west have been pushing hard for a one size fits all form of socialized liberal globalism, the Brave New World Order. This of course is abomination to traditionalists, let alone people with an ounce of sense, and not only have the conservative and libertarian Right rejected the degenerate globalist vision with contempt if not outright horror, increasingly nations of the east, including Russia, are doing the same en masse. Putin, I suspect, not only does not want an anti-Russian NATO Ukraine on its border, but he doesn’t want Russia to be coerced politically and economically to join the degenerates wanting to rule a castrated new world with gay pride flags flying over military bases, embassies, and churches. Maybe Russia will become Christianity’s last stand, and possibly even one of the last bastions of traditional western values—not American values, but traditional ones in which men are still men and women are still women.

     In the current military conflict I have no real skin in the game with regards to who wins. I’ll get by either way, so long as a certain senile, corrupt, installed puppet doesn’t get us into World War 3 with his demented off-the-prompter public outbursts. Even so, I do have a slight inclination to favor Russia, not because I favor military invasions but because I favor a blow against the aforementioned Brave New World Order. Putin may be an unlikely ally, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the billionaire globalists wanting us to become powerless serfs dependent on a dole and eating bugs in a pod are not my friend, or yours either. 

     

     

for the benefit of Americans ignorant of geography
(well, some of the blue part IS Russia now)

Now for some Russian music, for your listening pleasure: