Why the Cold War Still Matters
Peter Robinson ·
Jul 16, 2011 at 12:07pm
As he posts below, Ricochet member Louie Rhett considers my most recent guest on Uncommon Knowledge, former Soviet dissident Yuri Yarim-Agaev, "absolutely...awesome."
Why? Because--and Louie gets this just exactly right--as an eyewitness Yuri possesses moral authority no one else can match. As Louie puts it, "He knows. He's been there."
In this clip of just eight minutes, the final segment of the interview, Yuri explains why it all still matters.
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Mar '11
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
Relating to a recent thread, maybe if instead of gay history we had cold war history, or indeed any history, in US universities we wouldn't need to explain to Anita Dunn, Tom Friedman and Mr Obama why Big Government is not fundamental change that we can believe in.
Edited on Jul 16, 2011 at 1:02pmMay '10
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
Thanks, Peter. Chapter 4 of your interview finally explained to me how Gorbachev fits into the story of the Soviet Union's collapse. I had never understood that.
One of the reasons you're the best interviewer in the business is because you're willing to listen. You allow guests the time to truly develop their thoughts.
By the way, how's that book on the Cold War coming?
Aug '10
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
To steal Andy Levy's line from last night... it wasn't that communism was "good in theory" but failed in execution; the theory itself was fundamentally flawed.
Frank Chodorov made the more serious critique (without using Mila Kunis as a discussion jump point) in 1962:
"The fact of the matter is that the condition of the workers has so improved under a free economy that they do not relish any change, and the theoretical socialists, anxious for votes, have had to change their theory to suit their following."
The economic theory was dead, and Chodorov already noted the death of Marxist political theory in 1938.
So you have to wonder: decades later, how could the Soviets expect their intellectuals to buy in to the system by the time Yuri Yarim-Agaev came up? What exactly did Gorbachev or the KGB agent in Yuri's story think they were trying to save?
...And does anyone else see the same levels of denial echoing in our own political class, as they bloat the government into every aspect of our lives, desperately trying to keep the system afloat?
Jan '11
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
Communists are now cartoon villains, like Voldemort. They're authoritarians with henchmen ... not like our own government.
Really?
When government considers itself to have an interest that's distinct from the citizens, everything goes bad from there. Government cannot have its own interest. Evidence: when they pass laws to cover the liability of government officers, regardless of how it limits the freedom of citizens, that's evidence that the government intends to protect itself before it protects citizens.
An essential argument of the American Revolution was that government has no self-interest. It's purely a device to serve the interests of citizens. When government pursues its own interest first, it's the first step to hell.
May '10
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
Yuri's point about the natural tension between security and freedom immediately called to mind the TSA.
It's disturbing that the people who believe the TSA is more than pretense cannot see that their fear of being at the mercy of terrorists has put them at the mercy of government officials.
The exemption of TSA searches and inspections from the demand of probable cause is not an outlier but a precedent.
Jan '11
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
Aaron Miller: One of the reasons you're the best interviewer in the business is because you're willing to listen. You allow guests the time to truly develop their thoughts.
Jul 16 at 1:04pm
Perhaps, Peter, you could interview Terry Gross and she you?
Jun '11
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
One thing about Peter Robinson........he puts Charlie Rose and Oprah to shame.
Jun '10
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
Aaron, have you read Perestroika by Gorbachev? It really helped me understand how Gorbachev fit into the story, i.e. he had no chance in hell and his ideas to fix it revealed a complete cognitive dissonance. An objective scholar didn't need to write about it; rather, Gorbachev, in all his sincerity, revealed on his own how the Soviet Union was going to collapse. Of course, he didn't intend this, but as I read it, I winced at his ideas and even felt sorry for him. You knew it wasn't going to work (despite hindsight) and that the country he inherited was so dysfunctional, that trying to fix it would be even more harmful than just letting it die on its own slow momentum. The book was a fascinating example of how the author's intent and the situation's reality could be so far apart.
Jul '10
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
"Was it an 'evil empire?'"
"Absolutely!"
Chills.
Simply excellent, Peter.
Nov '10
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
I know many Russians. Many, or most, look back with nostalgia, because they lost their security but never got freedom.
May '10
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
I love communist jokes. I probably got a taste for them by watching Ronald Reagan clips on youtube.
Hilarious combination of paranoia, arbitrary power, and incompetence. I sent a bunch of these kind of jokes to my friend the other day, who is the same age as me. She didn't think they were funny. She didn't even understand why they were funny. She is a PhD student at Stanford. It made me worry about the future of a country whose citizens don't know anything about history of 20 years ago.
On the other hand, my youngest brother was born in 1989 and he thinks communist jokes are a riot. So there is hope.
Edited on Jul 16, 2011 at 9:00pmMay '10
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
That is a discussion I would love to hear! I strongly doubt a people so severely oppressed and raised like sheep for generations can quickly relearn to be a free society. All human beings yearn to be free, but that does not mean they know how or believe it is possible.
For example, totalitarian government destroys trust. People learn not only to distrust government promises but also to distrust each other. Communist states are ever spying on their own people and encouraging them to rat on each other.
Peter, I hope your book touches on the challenges for modern Russia and other former Soviet states.
Aug '10
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
To put Yuri's point slightly differently, even as specific species of totalitarianisms appear dead (or nearly so), the totalitarian temptation is still very much with us.
Apr '11
Re: Why the Cold War Still Matters
Aaron Miller
That is a discussion I would love to hear! I strongly doubt a people so severely oppressed and raised like sheep for generations can quickly relearn to be a free society. All human beings yearn to be free, but that does not mean they know how or believe it is possible.
For example, totalitarian government destroys trust. People learn not only to distrust government promises but also to distrust each other. Communist states are ever spying on their own people and encouraging them to rat on each other.
Peter, I hope your book touches on the challenges for modern Russia and other former Soviet states. · Jul 16 at 8:52pm
Or maybe you can take the Mark Steyn position that communism so poisoned Russian society that they have lost all will to continue as a people as their current disastrous and tragic demographic position seems to prove.