Russian contemporary politics, and are we all becoming russians now?

[innonimatu]

ok, we have a few russian members, so I figure this may be a good place to ask: what do you think of Adam Curtis' newest blog entry:

THE YEARS OF STAGNATION AND THE POODLES OF POWER

I know, it's long. And it has videos, making it longer. But it's also interesting. How well do you he is interpreting russian politics here, past and present?

Also, all those videos indirectly pass another Idea I've also held for a long time now: that Russia is, and has been for centuries now, very similar to the other big (well, not comparatively, but you get my meaning) countries of Western Europe, and to the USA during the Cold War. And now, again, we're seeing similarities in that disillusionment with politics not only remains there but has also grown very present in the "west".

The old soviet regime fell not due to any outside attack but because no one moved to defend it when finally some of its top people moved to replace it. I wonder if that's not in the cards already for western ones.

 

[Veles]

Too long; did read; didn't like.

While the attempt to look deeper than the usual superficial cliche analysis is commendable, he clearly overestimates the importance of all those obscure punk-like slackers' movements. All that was left of them in early 90-ties is summed up in this song of those times:


Link to video.


And it wasn't the majority that lost faith in the ideals of equialy and fair society, those were very stong till the collapse. Here's a good metaphor:


Link to video.


As for the modern situation, I'm not sure how can all this relate to it. Modern crisis is the crisis of ridiculouse monetary system, overconsuption, environoment and yes maybe of the lack of new ideas.

In Russia going back to roots (with ecoligical farming, sustainable living, clean energy) is rather popular idea nowadays.


Link to video.

 

[innonimatu]

Well, Curtis has always been worried about people's lack of engagement with politics, all his work is really about that. And I do believe that the reason the USSR collapsed so (to most people at least) surprisingly was because no one cared to defend its system anymore. Maybe many people still held ideals of equality and fair society, but after several years of turmoil they (not all, granted, but near enough) stood by and let Yeltsin get away with his coup. People were tired by then, I guess.
But I think it was a consequence of an older divorce between most people and politics. And I also see it happening in many other countries now: "technocracy" is everywhere, and people are expected to believe that there are no political options left but the occasional scheduled choice of the public faces of the system in elections. The elected then go on to claim that they are actually powerless to fulfill their election promises...

Those marginal cultural movements back then were a symptom, not a driving force. And what is this new faith in ecological farming, sustainable living, or clean energy but new apolitical movements of the same kind? People talk about it, but it's not happening. We have the same thing here, and it's also an illusion: these areas are marginal to the way modern societies work, just as music (for example) was marginal. Most people don't, cannot, live from it, and its popularity won't change a thing in the real power structures, won't fix any of the political problems.

 

[Cutlass]

I think you over simplify when you say "no one cared to defend the USSR". If no one cared to defend it, it is because it had long since ceased to work. And that fact couldn't be hidden any longer. So, in essence, there was nothing left to defend.

 

[Godwynn]

are we all becoming russians now?

I hope not. Russia sucks.

 

[red_elk]

Link to video.

Never heard about this band before.
The song is really beautiful, thank's for sharing.

 

[Traitorfish]

Interesting stuff, particularly the bit about Limonov and the NatBols. I'd always been under the impression that they were your typical Strasserite nonsense, just with a base in liberal arts students rather than shopkeepers' sons, but they seem to be something rather more complicated. (Which isn't to say admirable, mind. Post-modernists playing at neo-Nazism is still basically stupid, especially in a country with as many honest-to-god neo-Nazis as Russia.)