Czar Vladimir: How Putin Wasted Russia's Best Chance for a Liberal Democracy 2 / 3

by Nomad

In Part One of this three-part series, we examined how the fall of the Soviet Union should have provided Russia with its best hope for liberal democracy.

In this part, we will look at how Vladimir Putin's autocratic tendencies and hi use of Russian nationalism was a wrong turn for the nation.

Stability, Nostalgia and Nationalism

In some sense, it was inevitable that Putin would make use of Russian nationalism to unify Russia. In the end, there are only two responses when you lose your empire: Acceptance or something else. 

The "something else" in the Russian case was not gradual acquiescence and recognition that a new way of thinking had to emerge. What happened was a defensive surge in Russian nationalism, a return to stabilizing traditions and conservative values.  After years that threatened to tear the nation apart, Russian citizens yearned for stability and something in return for lost prestige. 

This reaction coincided with the rise of Vladimir Putin who promised security and stability. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev credited Putin with having "pulled Russia out of chaos." 

That's probably not inaccurate. It was, however, a stability required some sacrfices when it came to civil liberties, transparency and human rights.

Czar Vladimir: How Putin Wasted Russia's Best Chance for a Liberal Democracy 1 / 3

by Nomad

The collapse of the Soviet Union offered the Russian people an unprecedented chance at liberal democracy. Unfortunately, what has taken root in Russia was a strange mashup of its autocratic past.

In his book, Putin’s Wars : The Rise of Russia’s New Imperialism, Marcel H. Van Herpen  examines the tragedy of Post-Soviet Russia. in particular its failure to seize the opportunity that destiny unexpectedly offered.

As a Dutch security expert and director of an independent European think tank, the Cicero Foundation, Van Herpen has spent a lot of time studying and analysing the Russian state and the men who run it.

One chapter entitled "Putin and the End of Russian “Empire Fatigue” offers a good jumping-off point for a little more scrutiny.

The Trauma and Promise of Christmas 1991

For a man like President Vladimir Putin, the fall of the Soviet Empire in 1991 was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. His entire career- indeed all of his hopes- had depended on the continuation of the Soviet Union's rule. Putin had served 15 years as a foreign intelligence officer for the KGB with the rank of lieutenant colonel. 

The shock was understandable. He wasn't alone. The entire world, after all, watched in profound amazement when, on Christmas Day 1991, the Soviet flag flew over the Kremlin in Moscow for the last time.

Until that time, the existence of the Empire had been one of the Cold War's immutable facts. We in the West had grown up believing that the Soviet Union was incapable of change and reform. 

Its economy might be a wreck but it was not going anywhere. We were told for years- right up to the minute things turned to dust- to accept that a long and slow evolution and gradual enlightenment was the best that could be expected in the East bloc.
It was an evil empire that we had to live with.

Problems and Solutions

by Nomad

Handwriting on the Wall: What's the Surprisingly Good News about the Decline of Religion in the US?

by Nomad

A interesting podcast about one man's call for an open discussion at a Christian website and the surprising results.
News about the overall decline of religion in American actually may be good news for a Church that has disconnected from the real world. 

The Impossibility of Dialogue

If you've never heard of On the Media,(OTM) you might need a small introduction. It's one of NPR fastest growing programs and is now heard on 300 public radio stations. These weekly one-hour shows cover a range of topics focused primarily on how the media shapes our lives and our opinions.

In the featured podcast, we meet a young man named Will Rogers from Texas. After discovering a website named GodTube- a kind of YouTube for Christians, The site is sponsored by Liberty University, the old stomping ground of Jerry Falwell.

After exploring the site, Rogers was disappointed at seeing how the people he met there seemed so  cut off from the larger world. Quite literally, they were preaching to the choir.
Where was the dialogue in that?

To rectify what he saw as a stumbling block of his faith, he set out to start a dialogue of different perspectives. What happened next, Meredith Haggerty reports, was not exactly what Rogers had anticipated.

Epicurus and the Prayers of Men: How Materialism Perverted the Quest for Happiness

by Nomad

The lost philosophy of one ancient Greek offers an answer to what's gone wrong with modern society. 

Quest for a Happy Life

The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus lived about 300 years before Christ. His writings survive in mostly in notes collected by later biographers. It's enough to understand, in a general way, the philosophy he taught back then and why the ancients thought so much of the man and his ideas.

According to Epicurus, the study of philosophy was actually a quest of a happy tranquil life, which he defined as a life free of pain, filled with tranquility and free from fear of things that could not be controlled. A happy life, he taught, could only be attained "by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends." 

Friendship, indeed, was key to happiness. 

Epicurus held that a wise man would feel the torture of a friend no less than his own, and would die for a friend rather than betray him, for otherwise his own life would be confounded.

Later his teaching would be criticized as being hedonistic since he taught that pleasure and pain were measures of good and evil.
Other philosophers would push the envelope even further with the idea of "eat, drink and be merry." An insouciant and indifferent life filled with luxury and no thought of tomorrow. 

The Romans later seized upon this Epicurean philosophy as a license to ostentatious excess and greed on a scale never seen before.

Wealth was flowing into the Roman capital and on an "unprecedented scale in the form of tribute, taxes, and profits from commerce and banking." It wasn't just gold and silver, but luxuries items too. All meant for the ruling class with none at all for the lower classes. (The trickle down had yet to be discovered, I imagine.)