Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
They say that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. But maybe there's another way to look at it. Maybe it's the first time as ideology, the second time as a criminal enterprise.
That's certainly the way it looks to a lot of journalists I spoke to, at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague.
During the bad old Soviet days, part of what we did was talk about our system vs. their system. (To refresh your memory: ours was better.) Then when the Soviet Union broke up, their system was completely repudiated, the republics all drifted away, and we faced a uni-polar world.
Now, the old Soviet Union seems to be drawing closer. Under Vladimir Putin, a lot of the old territories are coming back into the fold -- not, this time, as formal republics, but as territories.
As in: mob territories. Joined not really by ideology or even national self-interest, but out of fear. The way neighborhoods become aligned with a street gang. The only template, really, that fits the New Russia under Putin is that he's a kind of Sopranos Soviet. He engineers discord among his underlings; he bullies his neighbors; he keeps a troubled peace at home.
So the notion that we live in a uni-polar world is silly. Russia is a capitalist country, I guess, in the way that Al Capone and John Gotti were capitalists -- we're all capitalists, really. It's just that some of us are the gangster kind.
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Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
Hey Rob, are you going to speak to those journalists again? If so, put a question to them from me. Given that Russia sure likes to throw its weight around the region, and given that it likes to throw its nuclear weight around in particular, why has it been so seemingly sanguine about the Iranian nuclear program? Does Putin genuinely fail to grasp that if he's Tony Soprano, Iran is Phil Leotardo?
Jun '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
When in her history has Russia not been ruled by thugs? When have the Russian people ever enjoyed the fruits of classic western liberalism? Are Russians even European by any measure other than geography?
The enigma wrapped in a riddle seems to be some sort of bridge in time and space between humanity's dark past and modernity. Seems to me that Russia is just reverting to form. How many Russians does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Just one, but they're still in the Dark Ages.
Aug '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
Well said, Rob. It's very sad that Russians are constitutionally unable to have a genuine republic, and must always be ruled by a dictator - in whatever guise that dictator comes.
There's something about the Asian mindset. It's like the dark side of the moon over there. Eastern Europe is the twilight boundary.
Jul '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
It only took one post to get to a Sopranos reference. No reference to the Godfather yet.
(As if everyone has seen the Sopranos.)
May '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
When the Soviet Union collapsed, I wondered if the Russians tried too much too fast.
What are the odds that any people could go straight from communism to capitalism? from going through the motions and obeying orders so that the government will give you your needs to having to actually perform well and direct your own life to purchase necessities at fluctuating market prices?
I'm no scholar on the Russians or their post-Soviet government. But from my armchair view, of course they turned into a gangster republic. Human beings might be made for freedom, but we can be trained against it. The Russians were. Besides, there's a reason parents don't give teenagers every adult freedom at once. Freedom must be learned.
I'm not sure what America or anybody else could have done to help, but I'd say the Russians needed some sort of stepping stone toward freedom when the Soviet Union broke.
Jun '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
Thank you, Aaron, for posing the Communist Chinese argument so well. When did freedom become an argument against freedom? I hate to ask this, but did you actually consider what you wrote before posting it? Oh, and nations are not teenagers, nor are old Communists even remotely akin to parents.
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
I hesitate to chalk up Russia's despotic tradition to something in the water (or blood). But I do want to pose a pregnant question: gangsterism aside, is there any other way that Putin (or any other Russian statesman) could have prevented Russia and its former republics from spiraling into irrecoverable ruin?
Jun '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
I have a friend who is prone to saying that there is a reason the Jews wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and that was to allow the generation that was raised under slavery to die off so that the generation blessed with freedom could assume its mantle.
Jul '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
Imagine that every 100 years or so, hordes of barbarians had swept down from Canada or up from Mexico, wreaking unimaginable death and destruction across the United States and hauling a large part of the surviving population away in chains.
And imagine that for the past 1,000 years, while Europe was steadily developing a body of common law and stable social arrangements, all Americans - not just blacks - were held in serfdom by a fierce tribe that had invaded from Toronto and established themselves as the ruling class.
And then imagine that, after that ruling class was swept away in 1918, we all lived under the heel of a nighmarish police state that selectively starved and murdered anyone who expressed the slightest glimmer of independent thought.
And then imagine that, overnight, our entire social system collapsed, just 20 years ago.
Well, that's Russian history.
So it's some big surprise that in 20 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, they haven't devised a free, fair and transparent political system like, um, Chicago's?
At least give them credit for the progress they have made: they have nude weathergirls on TV.
May '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
Cas, as I said, I'm not sure what alternatives were possible (or acceptable).
But is there a historical precedent for a nation going from generations of despotic micromanagement to freedom quickly? I was rejecting the claim that any people is incapable of freedom by proposing that self-reliance doesn't miraculously emerge the moment it becomes necessary. Freedom requires a sense of personal responsibility and a moral foundation, both of which were discouraged in Soviet society.
Capitalism as we know it cannot exist without rule of law. Russian contracts are unreliable.
Jun '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
Aaron, the problem is that personal freedom and societal freeedom are based on contradictroy sets of legal ambitions. Personal freedom depends heavily on a lack of constraint, whereas social freedom requires that persons cede freedoms to society or more precisely their acceptance of voluntary constraints on personal freedoms. Hence your example of Russian contracts not being worth the paper is apt only as it applies to society, and does not address individual capacity, an underlying and critical fundamental i.e. should institutions allow individual contracts? It would not be hyperbole to write that social freedoms are dependent on efficient well-functioning institutions and personal freedoms are based on a lack of institutional control. The question is obviously one of balance.
Edited on Oct 3, 2010 at 12:15pmJun '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
The greatest problem with personal freedom is that some in a free society choose to spend their freedom in ways that are inimical to self or society or both. We as a society in turn try to circumscribe this perceived waste of freedom and justify our efforts based on an overall reduction of harm to society. In general this is good, but the line between the good and the harm we do blurs based on the burdens we place on citizens. The Chinese have chosen to restrict harmless personal freedoms in favour of the overarching social good all the while forgetting that individuals make up the society they squash. Given the alternatives, I think I would rather gangster freedom than Chinese Communist freedom.
Edited on Oct 3, 2010 at 12:17pmMay '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
Government is inherently an exchange of freedoms, I agree.
Without government, one can individually produce goods and sell them. But one cannot enter into collective action (manufacturing, corporations, etc) without something binding the various individuals involved to their agreements.
Gangster government is a natural placeholder for a legal system. In the absence of collective agreements regarding rules and punishment as well as an effective enforcement agency, individuals must enforce their own sanctions... and the strongest enforcer wins. The "Wild West" ended here upon entry of an enforcement agency (the U.S. government) strong enough to impose its rules and/or fair enough not to inspire too much rebellion.
Personal freedom can be learned much quicker than societal freedom, but environment affects the outcome. Abandon a person alone in wilderness, and that person will creatively try to survive regardless of his or her history. In a city, people naturally look to social solutions for survival. Those dependencies can be both just and unjust (seizing resources from others, creating servant-like labor relationships, etc).
At this point, I'm just thinking out loud, so don't take all of this as a direct response.
May '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
Agreed.
May '10
Re: Vladimir Putin, Mob Boss
For freedom and democracy to work effectively, the default setting of the culture must be trust. In both Russia and China the default setting is lies and cheating. I'm not saying that all Russians and Chinese are liars, but that in those societies you have to start from that assumption and work up. It doesn't make for healthy politics.