An idea popped into my head. I've been drinking some wine so perhaps vino veritas applies, or perhaps a simple insight...
I really don't know.
I do know this: that I overall believe that the USA, and by default Americans, embodies a basically good and just viewpoint, and that Russia and by default Russians embody a basically cruel and evil viewpoint.
Here is my slightly inebriated logic. For over 200 years Americans have embraced, to a greater and lesser extent over the decades, that every human being has value. That life and living is good. That letting other live, so long as they do not threaten us, is the right thing to do. The very foundation of our country, culture, and social identity is based upon a governing idea that all men are created equal, that no one needs fear their government, that it is right and just for citizens to oppose tyranny either without or within.
Have we fallen short of our ideals? Of course we have. We have slaughter innocents. We have oppressed minorities. We have done wrong to those who do not deserve it. But we also ARE ASHAMED of it when we do. We eventually move toward balancing the scales of injustice with justice. We acknowledge our wrongs and look to correct them.
Russians, on the other hand, nave been raised under Czars and Royals. They have been oppressed to the point that they are culturally a peasant peoples. Their entire culture pre-revolution was one of simple survival and doing whatever you needed to in order to survive.
Post revolution? God have mercy on them all! A Soviet system that placed the group above the individual. That encouraged family to spy on family in order to preserve the State. A generational culture that taught them that anything they did to survive was acceptable. A society living in abject fear for generations of thinking or saying the wrong thing, because "they" could (and WOULD) come for you when caught. To fear everyone and be slippery as an eel to survive.
What has that created in them? Today, they embrace brutality. They are NOT ashamed of the creation of torture chambers, even those created specifically for children. They have no qualms about stealing children from their families. They embrace whatever horror or brutality their people perpetrate on others because they know no better.
Is it their fault? Does it matter? Lenin, Stalin, Malenkov, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko. 1922 - 1985. 63 years before Gorbachev tries to do some minor reforms. 63 years of millions of deaths, deprivation, and oppression. That's three (3) generations of families raised under one of the most brutal and totalitarian systems ever to exist in the 20th century. Three generations taught to backstab and abuse anyone around you so long as you survived.
During the same period Americans embraced the individual carving out their own destiny. That any man could make something of himself and rise to the top. The American way encouraged and encourages individual initiative, creativity, and thinking outside the box.
Is it the Russians fault that they are an evil culture? Does it matter? If there is a rabid dog in your neighborhood does it matter to you how it became rabid, or do you just shoot it and put it down?
1979 - Afghanistan
1991 - Georgia
1992 - Moldova/Transnistria
1992 - Ossetia-Alania
1992 - Tajikistan
1994 - Chechnya
1999 - Dagastan
2008 - Georgia Again
2009 - North Caucasus
2014 - Ukraine
2022 - Ukraine Again
I would submit that Russian culture is evil due to 63 years of Soviet tyranny. I would also submit that it does not matter. No amount of appeasement will stop Russian aggression until a bullet is put through its skull.
Chamberlain taught us what appeasement brings. We must learn from history so as not to repeat its mistakes.
Regards,
Doug
PS - Do try to not type a coherent thought while drinking. The number of spelling errors that needs correcting takes lots of time...
PPS - I'm not the one on the right - yet.
I really don't know.
I do know this: that I overall believe that the USA, and by default Americans, embodies a basically good and just viewpoint, and that Russia and by default Russians embody a basically cruel and evil viewpoint.
Here is my slightly inebriated logic. For over 200 years Americans have embraced, to a greater and lesser extent over the decades, that every human being has value. That life and living is good. That letting other live, so long as they do not threaten us, is the right thing to do. The very foundation of our country, culture, and social identity is based upon a governing idea that all men are created equal, that no one needs fear their government, that it is right and just for citizens to oppose tyranny either without or within.
Have we fallen short of our ideals? Of course we have. We have slaughter innocents. We have oppressed minorities. We have done wrong to those who do not deserve it. But we also ARE ASHAMED of it when we do. We eventually move toward balancing the scales of injustice with justice. We acknowledge our wrongs and look to correct them.
Russians, on the other hand, nave been raised under Czars and Royals. They have been oppressed to the point that they are culturally a peasant peoples. Their entire culture pre-revolution was one of simple survival and doing whatever you needed to in order to survive.
Post revolution? God have mercy on them all! A Soviet system that placed the group above the individual. That encouraged family to spy on family in order to preserve the State. A generational culture that taught them that anything they did to survive was acceptable. A society living in abject fear for generations of thinking or saying the wrong thing, because "they" could (and WOULD) come for you when caught. To fear everyone and be slippery as an eel to survive.
What has that created in them? Today, they embrace brutality. They are NOT ashamed of the creation of torture chambers, even those created specifically for children. They have no qualms about stealing children from their families. They embrace whatever horror or brutality their people perpetrate on others because they know no better.
Is it their fault? Does it matter? Lenin, Stalin, Malenkov, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko. 1922 - 1985. 63 years before Gorbachev tries to do some minor reforms. 63 years of millions of deaths, deprivation, and oppression. That's three (3) generations of families raised under one of the most brutal and totalitarian systems ever to exist in the 20th century. Three generations taught to backstab and abuse anyone around you so long as you survived.
During the same period Americans embraced the individual carving out their own destiny. That any man could make something of himself and rise to the top. The American way encouraged and encourages individual initiative, creativity, and thinking outside the box.
Is it the Russians fault that they are an evil culture? Does it matter? If there is a rabid dog in your neighborhood does it matter to you how it became rabid, or do you just shoot it and put it down?
1979 - Afghanistan
1991 - Georgia
1992 - Moldova/Transnistria
1992 - Ossetia-Alania
1992 - Tajikistan
1994 - Chechnya
1999 - Dagastan
2008 - Georgia Again
2009 - North Caucasus
2014 - Ukraine
2022 - Ukraine Again
I would submit that Russian culture is evil due to 63 years of Soviet tyranny. I would also submit that it does not matter. No amount of appeasement will stop Russian aggression until a bullet is put through its skull.
Chamberlain taught us what appeasement brings. We must learn from history so as not to repeat its mistakes.
Regards,
Doug
PS - Do try to not type a coherent thought while drinking. The number of spelling errors that needs correcting takes lots of time...
PPS - I'm not the one on the right - yet.
