Posted on 10/29/2022 7:09:21 AM PDT by AndyJackson
We have used the Valdai Club platform to discuss, more than once, the major and serious shifts that have already taken place and are taking place around the world, the risks posed by the degradation of global institutions, the erosion of collective security principles and the substitution of “rules” for international law. I was tempted to say “we are clear about who came up with these rules,” but, perhaps, that would not be an accurate statement. We have no idea whatsoever who made these rules up, what these rules are based on, or what is contained inside these rules.
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The so-called West which is, of course, a theoretical construct since it is not united and clearly is a highly complex conglomerate, but I will still say that the West has taken a number of steps in recent years and especially in recent months that are designed to escalate the situation. As a matter of fact, they always seek to aggravate matters, which is nothing new, either. This includes the stoking of war in Ukraine, the provocations around Taiwan, and the destabilisation of the global food and energy markets. To be sure, the latter was, of course, not done on purpose, there is no doubt about it. The destabilisation of the energy market resulted from a number of systemic missteps made by the Western authorities that I mentioned above. As we can see now, the situation was further aggravated by the destruction of the pan-European gas pipelines. This is something otherworldly altogether, but we are nevertheless witnessing these sad developments.
Global power is exactly what the so-called West has at stake in its game. But this game is certainly dangerous, bloody and, I would say, dirty. It denies the sovereignty of countries and peoples, their identity and uniqueness, and tramples upon other states’ interests. In any case, even if denial is the not the word used, they are doing it in real life. No one, except those who create these rules I have mentioned is entitled to retain their identity: everyone else must comply with these rules.
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I would like to quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s famous Harvard Commencement Address delivered in 1978. He said that typical of the West is “a continuous blindness of superiority”– and it continues to this day – which “upholds the belief that vast regions everywhere on our planet should develop and mature to the level of present-day Western systems.” He said this in 1978. Nothing has changed.
Over the nearly 50 years since then, the blindness about which Solzhenitsyn spoke and which is openly racist and neocolonial, has acquired especially distorted forms, in particular, after the emergence of the so-called unipolar world. What am I referring to? Belief in one’s infallibility is very dangerous; it is only one step away from the desire of the infallible to destroy those they do not like, or as they say, to cancel them. Just think about the meaning of this word.
Even at the very peak of the Cold War, the peak of the confrontation of the two systems, ideologies and military rivalry, it did not occur to anyone to deny the very existence of the culture, art, and science of other peoples, their opponents. It did not even occur to anyone. Yes, certain restrictions were imposed on contacts in education, science, culture, and, unfortunately, sports. But nonetheless, both the Soviet and American leaders understood that it was necessary to treat the humanitarian area tactfully, studying and respecting your rival, and sometimes even borrowing from them in order to retain a foundation for sound, productive relations at least for the future.
And what is happening now? At one time, the Nazis reached the point of burning books, and now the Western “guardians of liberalism and progress” have reached the point of banning Dostoyevsky and Tchaikovsky. The so-called “cancel culture” and in reality – as we said many times – the real cancellation of culture is eradicating everything that is alive and creative and stifles free thought in all areas, be it economics, politics or culture.
Today, liberal ideology itself has changed beyond recognition. If initially, classic liberalism was understood to mean the freedom of every person to do and say as they pleased, in the 20th century the liberals started saying that the so-called open society had enemies and that the freedom of these enemies could and should be restricted if not cancelled. It has reached the absurd point where any alternative opinion is declared subversive propaganda and a threat to democracy.
Whatever comes from Russia is all branded as “Kremlin intrigues.” But look at yourselves. Are we really so all-powerful? Any criticism of our opponents – any – is perceived as “Kremlin intrigues,” “the hand of the Kremlin.” This is insane. What have you sunk to? Use your brain, at least, say something more interesting, lay out your viewpoint conceptually. You cannot blame everything on the Kremlin’s scheming.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky prophetically foretold all this back in the 19th century. One of the characters of his novel Demons, the nihilist Shigalev, described the bright future he imagined in the following way: “Emerging from boundless freedom, I conclude with boundless despotism.” This is what our Western opponents have come to. Another character of the novel, Pyotr Verkhovensky echoes him, talking about the need for universal treason, reporting and spying, and claiming that society does not need talents or greater abilities: “Cicero’s tongue is cut out, Copernicus has his eyes gouged out and Shakespeare is stoned.” This is what our Western opponents are arriving at. What is this if not Western cancel culture?
These were great thinkers and, frankly, I am grateful to my aides for finding these quotes.
This doddering old man who can barely stand on a stage, bumbling around, holding himself up on the lectern, face bloated, mumbling his words, seems to be saying a lot of things about the degeneracy of modern "liberal" culture that we have all been saying. But he is a pathetically weak ill-directed war monger whose country is part of what needs cancelling most.
Moderator: Lt. Governor you’re running for a seat that could decide the balance of power in Washington. What qualifies you to be a US Senator? You have 30 seconds.
John Fetterman: “Hi, goodnight everybody.”
Thank you for the link to President Putin’s speech. It’s vital to understand the viewpoint of other nations as we interact on the world stage.
If you choose to not see the danger that Russia represents, that’s your choice
fortunately most people aren’t so self-blinded
Putin said many true things about how the West has degenerated and our hubris and hypocrisy. But even the devil can quote scripture. He complains of the West assuming it is the only way, not respecting other cultures, wanting to cancel anything it does not like. But Putin treats Ukrainian culture like it does not exist, and he treats Ukrainians as targets or at best mal-formed Russians who need to be reeducated from speaking their odd dialect, learn proper Russian and obediently follow Moscow.
And it doesn't make any sense even on its own twisted terms given the alleged annexation of parts of Ukraine. If those areas are truly part of Russia, then Russia still would be sharing its border with with Ukraine, and the exact kinds of degeneracy against which it allegedly wishes to insulate itself.
Doesn't make a lick of sense, and yet some here apparently buy it anyway.
Transcript
Valdai International Discussion Club meeting President Putin took part in the final plenary session of the 19th meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club.
President of Russia ^ | October 27, 2022 | Vladimir Putin
Posted on 10/28/2022, 2:23:26 AM by Cathi
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4104139/posts?page=18
Lol...keep wearing that pink neo-liberal hat with pride, tlozo.
Thank you for that link.
You may not consider Mr. Putin your enemy, but make no mistake, we (those of us who value individual liberty, limited government, etc) are his. Putin’s core philosophy, which he shares with the Iranian mullahs, Chairman Xi, Kim, etc is that political and economic power should be centralized, dissent from the leadership is treason, and the peoples role is to obey.
Western leftists like Soros, Schwab, AOC, Schumer, etc are pikers and useful idiots. They are small dumb children compared to men who wield state power to crush opposition.
He is just as much your enemy as the others that are listed here.
the reason those 4 things don’t make sense is because they’re all Russian lies
Thanks for that. My search did not find it. Still a number of folks seem to have missed it first time around, myself included.
I think most people know that your venomous spittle is not worth paying attention to.
It seems like he is the little kid who pointed out that the emperor has no clothes.
To some what he pointed out seems shocking. If you just merely pay attention he is only saying the obvious:
The rest of the world is not obligated to follow the “woke” values being pushed by Western leaders. (And neither are we.)
It’s more than disingenuous to quote Solzhenitsyn
Excellent
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