Will the Moscow Art Theatre Play Pyongyang?

stamp showing The Government Inspector by Gogol at MAT

In the light of sanctions leveled against Russia,will the Moscow Art Theatre perform The Seagull in Pyongyang? Will the Bolshoi be performing for the generals in Myanmar? There has been much talk about Putin catalyzing the unification of the West, with Finland and Sweden joining NATO. But the Hegelian dialectic is not only applicable to the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Milk softens black coffee; new ideas often attract strange bedfellows. Culture like the viscous accumulation in a pipe has to find somewhere to go. Perhaps the net result is pushback from fundamentalists who fear the dilution of their values? It’s unlikely there will be a North Korean version of “Pussy Riot.” Putin brought about everything he was afraid of. However, historical and cultural forces can act in unpredictable ways. In America militant feminists aligned against pornography with right wing Christians. Germany turned out be the beneficiary of liberal democracy—through the Marshall Plan—in a way that radically changed the predominant ethos of its population.

Read "Kim Jong-un's Social Anxiety Disorder" by Francis Levy, HuffPost

and watch the animation of Erotomania