Happy May 9th. If there is one key takeaway that I want people to accept into their heart and souls from my writing and podcasting in both Russian and English, it is the need to move past ideology. For Russian patriots, I have done everything in my power to convince them to move past endless debates about Communism, Liberalism, Fascism and so on. Instead of endlessly debating World War II, the nation ought to instead hone in and focus on one key principle:
>"Our key takeaway from World War II should not be that one ideological system is better than another, but that the Russian nation is indomitable and good at war. That’s it."
Well, sort of. As in sports, some teams are excellent on offense, and others are excellent on defense, but it's a very rare team that's truly great at both. Russia has never been particularly strong on offense (or, as we call it now, force projection), but is historically virtually unbeatable on defense. This plays out in history: Hitler assumed that Russia's very poor performance in the (offensive) Winter War against Finland meant that Russian defenses would crumble in the face of Operation Barbarossa. Of course, this was not the case.
The big question now is whether the Ukraine war is an offensive operation or a defensive operation. A case could be made either way.
Ideological thought is truly tiresome and not even primarily on the right.
I've had covidians tell me my opposition to getting the jibjab is based in ideology (pay no attention to those horrifying statistics behind the curtain).
Another example is the systematic discrimination against white males in education and employment. When pressed, leftists justify this on ideological grounds (it's because people who look like you were mean a hundred years ago!) Yet they've no answer when the entirely practical objection is posed that: what do you think will happen if a large fraction of young, energetic, ambitious, and competent males are excluded from their rightful positions? Do you think they'll just go away? Or do you think that this might have a destabilizing influence?
>"Our key takeaway from World War II should not be that one ideological system is better than another, but that the Russian nation is indomitable and good at war. That’s it."
Well, sort of. As in sports, some teams are excellent on offense, and others are excellent on defense, but it's a very rare team that's truly great at both. Russia has never been particularly strong on offense (or, as we call it now, force projection), but is historically virtually unbeatable on defense. This plays out in history: Hitler assumed that Russia's very poor performance in the (offensive) Winter War against Finland meant that Russian defenses would crumble in the face of Operation Barbarossa. Of course, this was not the case.
The big question now is whether the Ukraine war is an offensive operation or a defensive operation. A case could be made either way.
Ideological thought is truly tiresome and not even primarily on the right.
I've had covidians tell me my opposition to getting the jibjab is based in ideology (pay no attention to those horrifying statistics behind the curtain).
Another example is the systematic discrimination against white males in education and employment. When pressed, leftists justify this on ideological grounds (it's because people who look like you were mean a hundred years ago!) Yet they've no answer when the entirely practical objection is posed that: what do you think will happen if a large fraction of young, energetic, ambitious, and competent males are excluded from their rightful positions? Do you think they'll just go away? Or do you think that this might have a destabilizing influence?
An old saying but true: 'The winners write the History'.