Mark Steyn: The death of Mother Russia

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 10/22/05 | Mark Steyn

[Pokey78]

Steyn ping!

[SquirrelKing]

Ahhh...

Cofee + Steyn = Great morning.

[redgolum]

We are witnessing a remarkable event: the death of a great nation not through war or devastation but through its inability to rouse itself from its own suicidal tendencies. The ‘ideological vacuum’ was mostly filled with a nihilist fatalism. Churchill got it wrong: Russia is a vacuum wrapped in a nullity inside an abyss

Russia is mearly leading the charge off the cliff. The EU, and then the rest of the West, will be following along shortly.

[Shalom Israel]

Wow--this is high-octane stuff. Love it!

[King Prout]

ping

[tom paine 2]

Leo Tolstoy wrote about the Chechnian problems in the 1800's

[wideawake]

There used to be a significant number of FReepers who were aggressive Russian nationalists. They would always make claims about how Russia was growing again, getting stronger and more populous, etc.

It's pathetic that a country with such vast natural wealth and such an enormous reserve of brainpower is a complete and total basketcase.

From the Treaty of Vienna until today Russia has had every opportunity imaginable to become a fabulously wealthy, vibrantly successful nation.

It has squandered each and every opportunity.

[Jalapeno]

bflr

[claudiustg]

A Latvian friend of mine that served in the Soviet Army once told me that all the peoples the Russians had sucked into their empire hated them and were waiting for a chance at payback.

[LizardQueen]

It's pathetic that a country with such vast natural wealth and such an enormous reserve of brainpower is a complete and total basketcase.

I agree.

I wonder if most of their best and brightest are all over here now. I've worked with a lot of Russians and to a person they've been smart, hard working, and tough. Stubborn as rocks, too, which can cause some problems at work sometimes but their tenacity is more often an asset.

I don't know why their former country is such a mess unless all the sharp and innovative ones have left, or if the system is just so completely hosed up that they can't make a dent if they stay.

LQ

[MEG33]

Now I am depressed..Steyn gives a somber take on Russia.

[NeoCaveman]

True, there are regions that are exceptions to these malign trends, parts of Russia that have healthy fertility rates and low HIV infection. Can you guess which regions they are? They start with a ‘Mu-’ and end with a ‘-slim’.

Sad but true.

[AdmSmith]

Are you sure about the mother-thing?

http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOP_6GMGX5_Eng

Russia as a bride

7 October 2005
Not mother Russia but 'bride Russia' is a central theme in the work of many twentieth-century Russian writers and thinkers. The political developments that occurred in twentieth-century Russia, gave rise to a tendency to view the home country as an inaccessible bride held captive by the Russian state. This is what Dutch researcher Ellen Rutten contends in her Ph.D. thesis.

From the last Romanov tsar to Putin - all Russian leaders since 1900 have at some time or other been portrayed in the literature as an angry husband who tyrannises poor female Russia. In the majority of cases these images mainly revolve around the role of the Russian intellectual elite, the intelligentsia, who consider themselves to be the bridegroom of that same female Russia. That is what Rutten discovered during her research into the image of Russia in literary, philosophical, publicist and esoteric texts.

Various early twentieth-century writers and thinkers compared the elite's role with respect to Russia and the Russian people to that of a lover who fails to develop a relationship with his female beloved. This was the outcome of an identity crisis that arose in the nineteenth century and which became increasingly more serious during the course of the twentieth century. Rutten reveals how this gender metaphor continued to persist throughout the twentieth century.

Putin as a tyrannical husband

Meanwhile the image of Russia as a bride is a favourite subject for ridicule and parody in modern Russian novels and poems, but also, for example, in recent films and song lyrics. The role of the tyrannical husband is assigned to Russian rulers from Lenin to Putin; and that of the failing lover to the artistic elite from before the revolution or the dissidents of the 1970s.

Rutten's research demonstrates that the sexual dimension of the metaphor in question has become increasingly important during the course of the twentieth century. Popular modern writers introduce Russia as a young woman of flesh and blood. For them confrontations with the state or the intellectual elite are a purely sensual encounter, in which everything revolves around whether or not an orgasm is achieved. Whereas in the case of an early twentieth-century poet, such as Aleksandr Blok, Russia was still mainly portrayed as a silent, exalted female form, Vladimir Sorokin characterises Russia as a heroine whose physical attractiveness and sexual exploits take centre stage.

Ellen Rutten's research was funded by NWO.

[claudiustg]

Back in the seventies population reduction was the holy grail. Nobody said anthing about a bunch of third worlders coming to eat our lunch. Funny how we missed that part.

[NCSteve]

Thanks, a Steyn top ten. One of his best, ever.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

“‘I looked the man in the eye and found him very straightforward and trustworthy,’ George W. Bush said after two hours with Vladimir Putin. ‘I was able to get a sense of his soul.’”

When I first heard this, I nearly fell out of my chair.

Bush should have followed it up with his famous “Trust me.”

Gads.

[twntaipan]

It will become a nation of babushkas, unable to muster enough young soldiers to secure its borders, enough young businessmen to secure its economy or enough young families to secure its future.

This, dear FRiends, is what China is building up it's army to defeat--lots of land and resources for the masses--no navy needed to transport the troops to, just march across the tundra.

[Rummyfan]

Thanks Pokey! A sobering Steyn....... As my old history teacerh used to say, 'time and biology' are on the Islamists side.

[Rummyfan]

Thanks Pokey! A sobering Steyn....... As my old history teacher used to say, 'time and biology' are on the Islamists side.