All the young Russians get the hell out of the villages as soon as they can.
Posted on 02/05/2019 8:05:22 AM PST by NRx
Hal Freeman is an American who relocated to Russia with his Russian-born wife, and their children — this, in part to take a Benedict Option of their own. He writes a blog about his experiences there. Recently, he wrote about a post I’d made here, about people who have decided to leave America to live abroad. In his response, Freeman talked about his experience, and about a new book by University of Chicago political theorist John Mearsheimer. Excerpts:
Others, not writing from a Christian perspective, have also noted major changes in American culture and the inability of much of “the public” to change those trends. In his recent book, “The Great Delusion,” noted political scientist John Mearsheimer discusses how difficult, nay impossible, it is for people in a liberal culture to agree on what “the good life” is. Mearsheimer is not using the word “liberal” in the way we often do to describe someone who holds to a certain set of political perspectives, e.g., women rights, gay rights, pro-choice, etc. He is using “liberal” to refer to belief in the importance of the individual and individual rights as opposed to, say, a monarchy or some other system that devalues the place of the individual in the political and economic destiny of a nation.
Despite the emphasis on individual rights, Mearsheimer contends we are profoundly communal in nature. We are born and raised “in community.” Society and culture are essential factors in our self-definition. He defines a major dilemma the liberal state faces: “For a society to hold together, there must be substantial overlap in how its members think about the good life, and they must respect each other when, inevitably, serious disagreements arise.” I doubt anyone reading or watching the debates about our cultural values in America would conclude there is a whole lot of respectful debate going on over our deep divisions in defining “the good life.”
In the sense that Mearsheimer defines “liberal,” the Constitution of the United States outlines a liberal nation. America was founded on individual rights, e.g., freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to engage in business without governmental controls. That would be what Mearsheimer calls “modus vivendi” freedom. That is the kind of “liberal” thinking that characterizes the views of more traditional, usually Republican, Americans.
[Read the rest at the linked website.]
I don’t understand. Neo-conservatism has to do with setting up democratic governments at gunpoint in another country, not obliterating its boundaries. How is it incompatible with nationalism?
SOME Positives in Russia...
> No illegal immigrants
> No BLM crowds
> No mobs looting stores
> No danger of getting shot during robberies
> Plenty of Vodka available
Emigrating
Heard a saying that went IIRC, “give a Russian a quarter hectare for a garden and he’ll survive”.
Since this written from the American perspective, shouldn’t it be “emigrating”?
While there are some crazy drivers, it’s not any worse than places like NYC, DC or NJ in most places. I think the main bias factor is that many, many people have dashcams because of the way insurance laws work, so whenever some crazy stuff happens, people upload their videos to the Internet.
Dosen’t have to be in the countryside, even in the cities people with a decent-sized backyard garden, raise chickens (sometimes a lamb or two), and generally do whatever they want to do. Right now, life in Russia “feels” a lot “free-er” than many places in the USA.
When I saw this article I immediately thought of the Freeman of Arrakis (from the SciFi novel Dune!). Shall we say did not immediately compute - Freeman & Russia!
Then I read the article and thought Freeman of Arrakis in Russia would have been more interesting!
Who knows? Doesn’t change the fact that young people are leaving Russia in large numbers. But wish them well.
If the book was called “The Forsaken” by Tim Tzouliadis then they were the lucky ones. The book was about a bunch of Americans who went to Stalin’s Soviet Union to work. Most of them were murdered by the NKVD.
You immigrate into a country, you emigrate out of one.‘Course you can’t have one without the other . . .
We don’t have a lot of experience of emigration from America, but we suspect that a billion people would immigrate into America if given the chance.
Russia has always been a nation of slaves
Then go try it. Or move to a state that doesn’t tax water
The US isn’t crowded. There’s plenty of open space
All the young Russians get the hell out of the villages as soon as they can.
Don’t bet on “Russia” not punishing you for doing something you think of as harmless. They still have an “enemy of the state” mentality. This is a”The grass is always greener,” scenario, for sure. There is more to the story. Bet on that.
My cousin and his wife planned to buy a property in Southern France but were told, in no uncertain terms, that the property would be renovated with town approval only. He, being a frustrated architect, was quick to cancel the purchase.
Russia? No way.
A good hardy individual could live quite well in the Russian countryside.
or Alaska ...
On the other hand, they (Russians) appear to have some relief from our constant bickering of race and sexual orientation etc.
Not to mention that the white christian Russian population is quickly dying out and being replaced with muslims
SOME Negatives in Russia...
> Decreasing Russian population
> Increasing muslim population
> Major criminal gangs
> Nasty winters
> FSB knock in the middle of the night
> Being shot while at school
> Being blown up while at home
> Plenty of Vodka available
Those four babushkas were once real lookers ...
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