Forgiveness not met by regret implies subjugation.
The practical use of history is its distorted exploitation. This abuse accompanies the following discourse about the present.
Perceived developments that disturb the world order and our holiday peace produce sundry responses. Some are echoes of a fictitious past that nets new soothing errors in fact or logic that cater to self-deceit. If that is so then a purpose can be to avoid the challenges of self-protection. Behind this hides the attempt to skip the effort that self-defense causes. Problem solution by denial ties to a vice of our culture to wallow in the luxury that isolates failures from their unpleasant consequences.
This leads the PC-infected to excuse criminals as the victims of society" while the cornered policeman who confronts him becomes a violent racist. A symptom of this decadence which helps us to avoid our duties we encounter in miss-educated children. Parents are too lazy to educate their kids so they raise them to become brats. The theory is that if it feels good it is right to do it even if the results are wrong. Indulgence in inaction is wrapped in excusing slogans. These pretend that (a) nothing that should not be happening is occurring and (b) that to say no" could warp the childs psyche. Therefore the little tyrants are badly socialized and for that reason their misdeeds grow as they mature.
Such an ailment" is embedded in the response to Russias misbehavior which for the time being victimizes the Ukraine. Apologists that wish to remain bystanders plead their inactions ethics to maintain their moral high ground.
As a result we are confronted with the charge that the West by not respecting Russias sphere of interest has provoked her defensive attack". Two main claims support this anticipatory counter-punch". A provocation has come about by associating the USSRs earlier dependencies with the European Union and NATO. Moscows militancy is blamed for that measure. Thereby the logic of those that want their private peace more than peace for all transforms belligerency into a defense. Second the excusers remind us that Russia had been repeatedly invaded from the West. Therefore her sensitivity to threats which is transmuted into a natural reaction.
The latter explanation rests on genuine events. Russias resentment of Europe has a case to make. One is that during the Mongol Yoke (12th -15th century) when the Russian states were the provinces of an oriental empire these states received no western help. Note that the help would not have been given to Moscow because of her initial insignificance at the eastern rim of the Russian zone". Who could foresee that Moscow would absorb with Mongol help - all other Russian principalities? The doubters of a victim role that demands collective therapy but forbids all resistance will interpret this process as an expansion from east to west.
Hardly had the Russian lands been gathered" and made independent when Moscow began its spread beyond its ethnic boundary and pushed to the Pacific. This indicates that historical victimhood is a flexible tool of the shrewd.
Indeed Russia has been the subject of the ritually cited attacks by Napoleon and by Stalins National Socialist ally Hitler. Therefore and so goes the plea the suspicion of the West is justified. Such claims lose value if their surface is penetrated. For instance prior to their unification in 1871 France had victimized the German states. What rights against todays France result if we apply the logic used in Russias case?
History is not a watertight basis to support future scenarios nor is it a scale for current guilt. Nevertheless since the appeasers like to quote the manicured past their pleas Achilles heel is to be pointed out. It is that the history cited is a selective segment of the record and is therefore not history"; only its out of context misuse. The edifice totters if a few overlooked" matters are cited. That these are often ignored does not diminish their value as correctives.
Let us go backward. When drafted into the Peoples Army we were told that we would paint the White House red. (This forecast failed to anticipate the contribution of later occupants.) Stalins entourage entertained in 1945 the idea of a march to the Channel. How does the enclave of Knigsberg/Kaliningrad or of Karelia fit the tale? What about the defensive" Iron Curtain that protected" conquered land to the west of what the Czars had grabbed? Equally defensive" is that Stalin made WWII possible by aligning himself with Hitler to receive parts of Poland and the Baltic states. Remember the Miracle on the Vistula? In 1920 the Poles defeated before Warsaw the westward rolling Red Army. What about Russian intervention in 1849 in Hungary? Think of the partitions of Poland in the 18th century. Was the conquest of todays Stans" defensive? Well not more than the 17th century eviction of the Swedes from the continent or the annexation of the Ukraine.
The purpose here was not to show Russia as a special threat to her neighbors not all of whom are in the West; The Empire also took a million and a half square kilometers of land from the Chinese. The intended point is that countries that have the means and the inclination will at the cost of physically feeble and politically confused systems move to exploit their opportunities.
Realistically Russia is a normal country. She is neither a born aggressor nor a pacific victim of invaders. Like all others she is an opportunist who reacts when raw meat is presented to the carnivore that hides in all of us.
Expansionism and appeasement rely upon fashionable slogans in an age when the media connects the masses to politics. Distorted history unabashed denial - the little green men" in the Crimea - and fake facts work if consistently asserted and when disbelief is deemed to be an act of war. A composite example: Whoever questions our rendition is not interested in peace and increases tensions as their critique angers us. This makes said critic into a warmonger and responsible for the conflict that could arise once we are provoked. Putins new military doctrine applies this tried recipe.
Weapons systems that guarantee the enemys total destruction are to be set up to support the struggle for peace. Critics at home and abroad abound as hostility is discovered in attempts to set limits to expansionism. The message to these is let us do what we want on our turf that we are free to define. Show esteem or we annihilate you for disrespecting our ways".
The conclusions are unpleasant for someone who has spent serious efforts counseling forgiveness to the victims of Soviet imperialism. That was seen as a precondition to reconciling Russia with becoming a normal nation and not the torchbearer of an idea to conquer the world. Alas now it seems that offense is taken at the mention of forgiveness as it implies a dark past. That kind of forgiving is not forgiven. However forgiveness without atonement amounts to subservience. Instead of breaking with past patterns Putin seeks chauvinistic support by enlisting a spotless pasts glory to carry the tradition of victories into the future. Resisting that is taken to signify hostility to a Top Nation" that as he reminds us has always crushed its enemies.
Regardless of how the observer views daily politics Moscows threat of temper tantrums during which it warns it might lose control contains a warning. A large state relying on a world-class military and that coercively threatens to lose said temper is as dangerous as it threatens to become. Additionally the rejection of the agreed upon procedures by which the worlds order can be changed is a threat. This menace grows because defensive reactions to encroachments are depicted as the expression of visceral anti-Russianism as manifestations of a hostile world that conspires to deprive Russia of her destiny.
Forgiveness not met by regret implies subjugation.
The practical use of history is its distorted exploitation. This abuse accompanies the following discourse about the present.
Perceived developments that disturb the world order and our holiday peace produce sundry responses. Some are echoes of a fictitious past that nets new soothing errors in fact or logic that cater to self-deceit. If that is so then a purpose can be to avoid the challenges of self-protection. Behind this hides the attempt to skip the effort that self-defense causes. Problem solution by denial ties to a vice of our culture to wallow in the luxury that isolates failures from their unpleasant consequences.
This leads the PC-infected to excuse criminals as the victims of society" while the cornered policeman who confronts him becomes a violent racist. A symptom of this decadence which helps us to avoid our duties we encounter in miss-educated children. Parents are too lazy to educate their kids so they raise them to become brats. The theory is that if it feels good it is right to do it even if the results are wrong. Indulgence in inaction is wrapped in excusing slogans. These pretend that (a) nothing that should not be happening is occurring and (b) that to say no" could warp the childs psyche. Therefore the little tyrants are badly socialized and for that reason their misdeeds grow as they mature.
Such an ailment" is embedded in the response to Russias misbehavior which for the time being victimizes the Ukraine. Apologists that wish to remain bystanders plead their inactions ethics to maintain their moral high ground.
As a result we are confronted with the charge that the West by not respecting Russias sphere of interest has provoked her defensive attack". Two main claims support this anticipatory counter-punch". A provocation has come about by associating the USSRs earlier dependencies with the European Union and NATO. Moscows militancy is blamed for that measure. Thereby the logic of those that want their private peace more than peace for all transforms belligerency into a defense. Second the excusers remind us that Russia had been repeatedly invaded from the West. Therefore her sensitivity to threats which is transmuted into a natural reaction.
The latter explanation rests on genuine events. Russias resentment of Europe has a case to make. One is that during the Mongol Yoke (12th -15th century) when the Russian states were the provinces of an oriental empire these states received no western help. Note that the help would not have been given to Moscow because of her initial insignificance at the eastern rim of the Russian zone". Who could foresee that Moscow would absorb with Mongol help - all other Russian principalities? The doubters of a victim role that demands collective therapy but forbids all resistance will interpret this process as an expansion from east to west.
Hardly had the Russian lands been gathered" and made independent when Moscow began its spread beyond its ethnic boundary and pushed to the Pacific. This indicates that historical victimhood is a flexible tool of the shrewd.
Indeed Russia has been the subject of the ritually cited attacks by Napoleon and by Stalins National Socialist ally Hitler. Therefore and so goes the plea the suspicion of the West is justified. Such claims lose value if their surface is penetrated. For instance prior to their unification in 1871 France had victimized the German states. What rights against todays France result if we apply the logic used in Russias case?
History is not a watertight basis to support future scenarios nor is it a scale for current guilt. Nevertheless since the appeasers like to quote the manicured past their pleas Achilles heel is to be pointed out. It is that the history cited is a selective segment of the record and is therefore not history"; only its out of context misuse. The edifice totters if a few overlooked" matters are cited. That these are often ignored does not diminish their value as correctives.
Let us go backward. When drafted into the Peoples Army we were told that we would paint the White House red. (This forecast failed to anticipate the contribution of later occupants.) Stalins entourage entertained in 1945 the idea of a march to the Channel. How does the enclave of Knigsberg/Kaliningrad or of Karelia fit the tale? What about the defensive" Iron Curtain that protected" conquered land to the west of what the Czars had grabbed? Equally defensive" is that Stalin made WWII possible by aligning himself with Hitler to receive parts of Poland and the Baltic states. Remember the Miracle on the Vistula? In 1920 the Poles defeated before Warsaw the westward rolling Red Army. What about Russian intervention in 1849 in Hungary? Think of the partitions of Poland in the 18th century. Was the conquest of todays Stans" defensive? Well not more than the 17th century eviction of the Swedes from the continent or the annexation of the Ukraine.
The purpose here was not to show Russia as a special threat to her neighbors not all of whom are in the West; The Empire also took a million and a half square kilometers of land from the Chinese. The intended point is that countries that have the means and the inclination will at the cost of physically feeble and politically confused systems move to exploit their opportunities.
Realistically Russia is a normal country. She is neither a born aggressor nor a pacific victim of invaders. Like all others she is an opportunist who reacts when raw meat is presented to the carnivore that hides in all of us.
Expansionism and appeasement rely upon fashionable slogans in an age when the media connects the masses to politics. Distorted history unabashed denial - the little green men" in the Crimea - and fake facts work if consistently asserted and when disbelief is deemed to be an act of war. A composite example: Whoever questions our rendition is not interested in peace and increases tensions as their critique angers us. This makes said critic into a warmonger and responsible for the conflict that could arise once we are provoked. Putins new military doctrine applies this tried recipe.
Weapons systems that guarantee the enemys total destruction are to be set up to support the struggle for peace. Critics at home and abroad abound as hostility is discovered in attempts to set limits to expansionism. The message to these is let us do what we want on our turf that we are free to define. Show esteem or we annihilate you for disrespecting our ways".
The conclusions are unpleasant for someone who has spent serious efforts counseling forgiveness to the victims of Soviet imperialism. That was seen as a precondition to reconciling Russia with becoming a normal nation and not the torchbearer of an idea to conquer the world. Alas now it seems that offense is taken at the mention of forgiveness as it implies a dark past. That kind of forgiving is not forgiven. However forgiveness without atonement amounts to subservience. Instead of breaking with past patterns Putin seeks chauvinistic support by enlisting a spotless pasts glory to carry the tradition of victories into the future. Resisting that is taken to signify hostility to a Top Nation" that as he reminds us has always crushed its enemies.
Regardless of how the observer views daily politics Moscows threat of temper tantrums during which it warns it might lose control contains a warning. A large state relying on a world-class military and that coercively threatens to lose said temper is as dangerous as it threatens to become. Additionally the rejection of the agreed upon procedures by which the worlds order can be changed is a threat. This menace grows because defensive reactions to encroachments are depicted as the expression of visceral anti-Russianism as manifestations of a hostile world that conspires to deprive Russia of her destiny.