occasional reflections on culture & politics
Monument to Giordano Bruno in Rome:A BRUNO - IL SECOLO DA LUI DIVINATO - QUI DOVE IL ROGO ARSE(To Bruno - From the Age he Predicted - Here Where the Fire Burned) We are seeing continuing criticism of current democratic countries become more and more prevalent. This is, of course, legitimate. Criticism is necessary, it… Continue reading #152: Democracy vs. Tyranny, or: How Does It Feel to Live in a Dictatorship?
President Putin portrays himself as a fighter against Nazis and Nationalists. At the same time, today, he just bombed the Babyn Yar memorial to the victims of National Socialist genocide of Jews in Kiev, while he is fighting a young democracy led by a Jewish Russian-Ukrainian president. Somehow, Putin has his definitions wrong. Fascism is… Continue reading #151: Putin Is a Fascist per Definition
If you care about your country, you care about its people. That’s all it is. A country is not about territory, it is not about history, it is not about fame or glory or whatever egomaniacal thing it is Putin thinks it is about. Certainly, all these matter to some extent – but they are… Continue reading #148: Putin Does Not Care About Russia. It’s a Russian Leader’s Tradition
You may say that the United States has enough problems of its own. In recent decades, we have intervened in a variety of conflicts around the world, not all of them successfully resolved, not all of them widely deemed legitimate causes. We are facing plenty of challenges at home and on the global scale. Why… Continue reading #147: Why Should We Care About Ukraine? A Pragmatic Answer
President Putin has famously said that the “breakup of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.” Only a former KGB agent could come up with this idiotic statement. Such an ignorant analysis can only come from a position that is deeply imperialistic, totalitarian and ignorant of history. Lenin was right… Continue reading #146: The Fall of the Soviet Union Was the Greatest Event of the Late 20th Century
We have been hearing in the past weeks and months from President Putin that he felt that Russia was threatened by NATO. This is nonsense, and he knows it. We have also heard that NATO promised to never expand to the East. This is also nonsense, and he knows it. Rule Number One: Putin lies.… Continue reading #145: Putin Has Never Been Threatened By NATO
After watching Putin’s one-hour speech on February 21, the day he declared to support the “independence” of his proxy states in Luhansk and Donetsk, I have understood why Trump and Putin seemed to get along. This was not a speech. It was an hour ramble that would have made Kanye West seem coherent. It was… Continue reading #143: The Madness of the Czar: Putin’s Incoherent Speech
Is Putin the Aggressor? Yes. He has already stolen Crimea, and forces probably aligned with him have occupied Luhansk, Donetsk, and Transnistria. It does not take the additional troops surrounding Ukraine to understand that there is already a war going on. Any action by Ukraine to retake its territory would be justified – though at… Continue reading #136: Is Putin the Aggressor?
Recently, I conducted a little teaching experiment in several of my classes. I simply pulled up a map of the world and asked my students which countries were part of the West. In almost all cases, we found out that many more countries are actually culturally “Western” – whatever that means – than typically thought.… Continue reading #128: Russia Is Part of the West
Erratic Attempts 