Amusing it is to read of naifs who find it shocking—simply shocking!—that dictatorships act like, well, dictatorships.
China cheated and lied in the Olympics because dictatorships cheat and lie. Russia brutally invaded another nation because dictatorships brutally invade other nations.
Really, the surprise at all of this is embarrassing.
Hat tip: Gateway Pundit
9 Comments;
I read the article Walid Phares has up at American Thinker drawing an analogy between Kosovo and Georgia. It got me wondering if breaking these countries up into ethnic groups is taking Eastern Europe back to medieval times.The time when there were no countries only ethnic groups of people ruled by a lord and protected by the lord in a castle.The lords today are the EU, Russia, US, and NATO.What scares me is if the European loving socialists alive and well in the US latch onto this the US may one day look like a carved up Eastern Europe made up of regions of ethnic groups.
Dear Mike:
I read the Phares essay as well. It cleared up for me some questions about Kosovo in particular and the Balkans in general. I was reminded of Bismarck: “The whole of the Balkans is not worth the bones of one Pomeranian grenadier.”
Eastern Europe, and the Balkans especially, have had a bit of a rough-go from History. They served as break points between Western Europe and all that it entailed—Catholic Christianity, classical influences, the Renaissance and so on—and the Czarist and Moslem worlds. Neither of those last two experienced much of Western Civilization. They long have been crude and barbarous. Both of them trampled over the Balkans and Eastern Europe whenever they could.
Eastern Europe and the Balkans were better governed, relatively peaceful and more or less stable during the Austro-Hungarian Empire than they are today. But all that ended at Sarajevo. The place really is a mess, not as bad as Africa—what could possibly be that?—but far lower than even the Western European standard of normalcy, wealth and stability. Imagine if every one of the petty peoples and nations that fantasize over sovereignty in the Balkans actually achieved it. There would be endless and absurd wars and entire regions given over to ‘ethnic cleansing.’
I doubt such a fate awaits us here. True, the socialists among us would Balkanize us into groups based upon race, gender and wealth, but such a huge feat of social engineering would fail in most of the US. It achieves its goals—that is, is rips asunder those things that hold us together as one people and nation, which is the point—mainly in the large Democratic cities like Chicago, LA, Boston and New York.
There might be civil war—there is precedent, after all—but I doubt one result of that war would be separation. The losers—the coasts in the main—would be occupied and gradually brought back into the Union once they were cured of their European socialist maladies.
Can’t say I’m surprised.
What do you think of the Russians invading Georgia? Email me please.
Dear Claire:
Russia has brutalized her neighbors since her beginnings in the 9th century. She was formed by Vikings and immediately made slaves of the locals—thus the word ‘slav.’ After a long period of domination by the Mongols of ‘The Golden Horde’ she began to make war upon all the loose confederations of peoples around her—Kazaks, Tartars, and Mongols—and also encroached upon Poland, Lithuania and Sweden. The Czars since Ivan the Terrible (1547) have seen Russia’s destiny as controlling all the lands West to Europe and East to the Pacific.
This mandate continued under the communists. As the USSR she engaged upon world-wide revolution. Before she fell she had an empire of dozens of nationalities, all of which were tightly controlled from Moscow. The USSR was responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000,000 human beings in the years of her existence. She never knew a moment of liberty or peace or freedom.
Since then all Russia has mourned the loss of empire. Under Putin she is attempting with brute force and oil wealth to reconstitute her empire. She was and is a mortal enemy of free people everywhere and especially of the United States. Wherever we have a foreign policy problem—Iran, Islamic terror, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba—Russia is behind it.
Her invasion of Georgia is just normal behavior for Russia. There is nothing new here at all. She will enslave whom she can enslave. She has, after all, been in the business of slavery for 1000 years.
Russian fantasies of empire, however, rest upon sand.
I think that parts of Eastern Europe are struggling to make progress and succeeding to some degree. I have lived in Hungary and I am just back from a visit to relatives in the Ukraine.
Hungary is a bit of an economic disaster, with low wages and astronomical taxes. There is a big black economy (the de facto tax rate is about 65% so there’s a big incentive to avoid taxes). It is basically a poorer version of western Europe, with similar problems – bad demographics and a falling population with excessive bureacracy. The economy is growing to some extent and the gap between Hungary and western Europe economically is closing. One refreshing difference from western Europe is the fact that political correctness is very much a fringe issue. There is little of the British or Scandinavian style obsession with gay rights and global warming. Religiously speaking, however, the place is as secular as western Europe, so not so good on that score.
The Ukraine is quite different. It is a very poor country. This is noticeable on crossing the border from Hungary, the feeling is like going from the first world to almost the third world. The horse and cart is still a major method of transport. The locals drink a lot, often home brewed hooch. The police and officialdom is quite corrupt. I was told by locals to always stop before driving across a particular railway crossing. Although the railway has been out of use for years the police wait there to catch people who do not stop, so that they can extort bribes out of them to avoid being fined. Despite all of this the country is becoming economically more prosperous. There are impressive new roads and some signs of development, but is is very uneven.
Dear David:
Thank you for the insight into Eastern Europe. Actually living overseas allows you gather impressions and experience unavailable to those of us who are confined to books and travelers’ tales. I lived and worked in Latin America for 14 years, and can understand.
Poor Hungary! I remember studying it in college, and then later reading about the Roman settlements on the Danube, the invasions of the Huns, the battles of Mohacs and the 1956 rebellion against Soviet rule. Other than those things, my knowledge of Hungary is a bit sparse. I considered teaching at an American school in Budapest some years back, but opted to remain in Argentina.
A 65 percent tax rate? Not quite supply-side economics. The absence of multicultural pap is refreshing, though the absence of religion is not.
Ukraine sounds a bit like the American West around 1850.
Being part of the Soviet Empire has done no favors for either Hungary or Ukraine. Contrast that with those nations who were part of the British Empire.
All things considered, nothing in Europe Eastern or Western attracts me. I did the usual European tour after graduation from college in 1980, and returned only once—to France, where I finished my teaching certification.
Since then it has been all Latin America and Oklahoma, though I am planning on moving to Texas as soon as I can arrange it. Lots of guns, trucks, God and Tex-Mex—and no state income tax. My kind of place.
I agree that the Soviet era has drastically set back eastern Europe. Hungary was the other half of Austria-Hungary 100 years ago. Today Austria is one of Europe’s richest countries. Had Hungary remained capitalist it would probably be something similar.
I suppose I am a fan of eastern Europe, mainly because it gets such a bad reputation. In the UK people think that every building is concrete there and that the countryside is blighted by environmental pollution. Neither of these is true.
I have never been to the US. I’m not sure what I would make of the place. Your Texas/Oregon issues are interesting. I am fairly conservative in my views and I am therefore used to holding a minority opinion. I find it difficult to imagine living somewhere where most people would have similar views.
Is Texas all pretty flat? Oregon does seem to have nice scenery from what I’ve seen on the internet.
Dear David:
The Soviet Empire was purely extractive. Her subject nations functioned solely as suppliers of resources, their own internal development not mattering at all. When the thing collapsed those nations had little experience—none, actually—in governance or wealth creation. To imagine them somehow ‘catching up’ to the West is to engage in fantasy economics and impossible politics. History is a cruel mistress.
I read horror stories of Britain all the time, stories about Political Correctness, multiculturalism, health care and cowardice in the face of Islam. I cannot imagine living there. I am too old—I am 55—to tolerate the intolerable.
Britain was once the most civilized, powerful and enlightened empire on earth. It was America’s great fortune to have been birthed by her.
I lived in Oregon off and on for 26 years. I saw the place becoming more and more lawless and liberal—those two things go hand-in-hand—and grew to hate the state. I still do.
I also lived in Texas for 4 years. It is not a geographically attractive place, but Texans like to think so. Texas appeals to me because it is manifestly more free than any other state. Freedom is cool.
For a short but accurate look at Texas, go to YouTube and type in ‘shopping in Texas.’ And see this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd7DGqVSIc&feature=related
It is difficult to explain to non-Texans—and near impossible to explain to foreigners—the in-your-face patriotism Texans show all the time. New Yorkers despise Texans and Texans return the favor with interest.
Here in Oklahoma I am as well free. Most of the state thinks and votes as I do. Those denizens of Oregon and California that parade their perversions in public and burn American flags would have a very painful time here—and a short one.