Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Glasnost? Perestroika?


Remember "Glasnost" and "Perestroika?" Why has the irredentist impulse, the desire to repatriate the Ukrainians become Vladimir Putin's goal? Why the nostalgia for the U.S.S.R and the earlier dream of Imperial Russia trumpeted by Peter the Great? Why the crack down on the Uighurs under Xi Jinping? The answer may lie in the old saw that you don’t have to be paranoid to think someone’s following you? Autocracies thrive under a juggernaut of aspiration, but also fear (of losing the things they have and not getting what they want). They're businesses which need to expand to survive. "Conquer" rather than "divide and conquer" is the idea. Thus, you have the 1000 years of Rome and the Ottoman Empire. The democratic impulse is as much anathema to autocrats as unions to  robber barons. Of course, the cultish devotion of tyranny belies the entropic impulse which is the downfall of all grand designs. At diminutive as Putin is (and significantly both Stalin and Hitler were also “short people”), he's swaggering like a drunk. What does he care if the world is thrown into a massive depression or even if he’s credited with reigniting the Cold War? Putin’s 270 foot yacht replete with a helipad and pool that transforms into a dance floor was spotted pulling out of German waters as war clouds loomed on the horizon. 

watch the animation of Erotomania

and listen to "Short People" by Randy Newman

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